Tales of a Former Admin

[Omi]

Of course, the Chrysanthemum in question hadn't heard any of the previous exchange. All she'd noticed was the sudden appearance of a Startracker flashing a Freelancer IFF, out here in the middle of Hokkaido halfway between the clouds. As to why it was there - that was a different question altogether. She couldn't quite put her finger on why, but as the tiny shuttle turned towards her, its weak sensors finally able to lock onto her Blossom's signature, she felt a strange compulsion to investigate.

"Hi!" began Komachi, pulling her fighter to a halt just in front of the other shuttle. The Blossom wasn't a large ship by anyone's standards - even among its own class, it was one of the smallest - but compared to the shuttle, her fighter was almost twice its length and just as tall. For a moment, she wondered if she was intimidating the other pilot - but even as that thought crossed her mind, her speakers sparked into action.

"Hello?" came the expected reply, although whoever was speaking sounded a little more disinterested than she'd been anticipating. Space travel was meant to be exciting at the best of times - and in the radioactive, gamma-ray filled Kyofu between Hokkaido's protective gas clouds, it could be positively terrifying; doubly so if one was in a small, unarmoured shuttle. Even her Blossom would slowly degrade in the fiery glow of the dying star here, but the pilot opposite her appeared totally unfazed by the holes slowly drilling their way through his hull plating.

"Hey," she repeated, an eyebrow raised in confusion. "Are you okay? You're- I think your ship's melting."

"Is it?" Again, the lack of concern in the pilot's voice was staggering. If anything, he just sounded more annoyed than worried. "Should we move?"

"Probably. I mean, unless you wanna end up deep-fried and dead from rad poisoning. That's no bueno, as the Maltese say. C'mon, follow me."

Gingerly, she nudged her ship into motion, checking behind her to make sure the freelancer was moving before she activated her cruise engines. Thankfully, their trip took them only a couple of minutes, and it wasn't long before the pair were ensconced in the outskirts of Hokkaido's southern nebula. Visibility was way down here, of course, but at least their ships weren't slowly cooking them any more.

Now that they were safe, Komachi cut her cruise engines, watching with a wry smile as the shuttle mimicked her actions. Again, she pulled up alongside it.

"So - what's your biz, pilot? Not a lot of Startracker pilots out in the Kyofu, that's for sure."

"I'm experiencing the world as mortals do," explained her new companion, matter-of-factly. This, however, raised more questions than it answered.

"You're what?"

A slow sigh came across the speakers, slightly fuzzed by the shuttle's out-of-date comm arrays. "I used to be an Administrator. Not any more, though. I wanted to see what life is like without my infinite powers."

Komachi, for her part, didn't reply immediately. Instead, her heart sank. Oh dear. It's one of these pilots. Normally, Sirius' various 'edgy' folk conglomerated around two distinct hotspots: the outer Omicrons, and Coronado's very own Barrier Gate Station. Usually sporting a civilian transponder and ID code - although all sorts of varieties had arisen lately, from the classic Order type to the more recent 'good guy in a bad guy's job' spinoff - these mysterious and unpersonable folk would cluster around the nearest station like a set of angsty, silent limpets - each one just itching to be asked about their deep, complex, and ultimately tragic pasts. Kusari had mostly remained free of them, but she'd always wondered when the herds might migrate. Perhaps this was the beginning of something terrifying.

"I see," she said tentatively, by way of breaking the awkward silence. "I don't, uh- I don't quite know what you mean."

It was going to be a long day.

---

"Okay, so I'll hold him up and you can tell me what you wanna see from him, okay?"

The Hokkaido-Yokohama jumpgate wasn't exactly the most busy trade artery in the sector - in fact, it was almost strictly inferior to perching on top of the Honshu gate. Still, the relative quietness was what Komachi was banking on, as well as the close proximity to Ainu and the Shiden Cloud. If anything went wrong - something that was very likely with a first-timer on her wing - then the nebula would (or should) offer them a decent chance of shaking a tail. Despite her misgivings, she'd eventually agreed

Fortunately, as a lone Ryuujin had just fallen out of the lane and ground to a resigned-looking halt in front of them, it looked like her and her new partner were in business.

"All right?" she repeated, taking a quick glance at the Startracker.

"Why can't I do it myself?" he asked, already sounding annoyed. "I don't need a demonstration. I know how it works, and I want to experience extorting him firsthand."

"That's not allowed," chastised the Chrysanthemum, as if it were obvious. "You're not a pirate, you're a freelancer. You can't demand anything from him."

"But why-"

"Look, that train's not going to sit there all day. Are you with me or not?"

"Yes, yes," came the terse reply, prompting her to roll her eyes. Oh, this is going to be good, one way or another. Lounging lazily in her chair, she motored the Blossom up close to the train, opening a comms channel right away.

"Okay, buddy," she began, eyeing the larger ship's reflective glass with a raised eyebrow. Some sort of anti-intimidation technique, perhaps? Gone were the days of making direct eye contact with the person you were ripping off, it seemed. "What's the cargo today?" Of course, she'd already scanned the transport, but it was part of her routine. Engaging the captain in dialogue meant he was busy talking with her, not pinging every system authority in range with an emergency hail.

"Pharmaceuticals," interrupted a voice in her ear. "It's pharmaceuticals. Even my shuttle can see that."

"Sssh! I know!" she hissed, directing a glance of distinct irritation at the small ship hovering just beside her. "I'm only asking because-"

"Pharmaceuticals today," came a second, more sullen voice. That, at least, gave her a small measure of relief. Some captains, for reasons that totally escaped her, seemed to operate on a no-dialogue policy with her. One way or another, they'd stay completely silent, either complying with all her orders in mute obedience or simply attempting to motor on while ignoring her. The former was just boring; the latter was a waste of everyone's time. Not to mention how much it must cost to repair those floating hulks once she'd drilled antimatter holes through the entire superstructure. Interspace must have been offering some really, really good premiums to transport captains.

"Okay, okay. Bound for Tomioka then, right? Oh, man, do I know about the Pharm boom up there. Something to do with all those furry animals they hunt having fleas, or something. Rough job, huh?" As usual, she chattered away to put the captain at ease. Reassured yet careful was better than panicked and ready to run. Receiving the cold, hard credits straight from a neural net account was always easier than having to call a transport to scoop spilled cargo out of vacuum - and trains that decided to cut and run rarely ended up paying in cash.

Switching comms channels briefly, she addressed her companion once again.

"So," she said. "What do you think? This is your introduction, so I'll let you decide what we should take."

"Well, I quite like his ship. I want to commandeer his vessel."

Komachi blinked, shaking her head instinctively.

"What? No, no - you can't do that! You can't just take people's ships from them!"

"Why not?" The shuttle's pilot sounded thoroughly bemused, with just a hint of irritation mixed in. "We're robbing him, aren't we? Why wouldn't we take as much as we want?"

"That's not how it works," she explained. "You have to keep things reasonable. Those are the rules."

"Rules?" He sounded even more annoyed now. "I thought this was already illegal. How can there be rules?"

"There just are," she insisted, a pleading note entering her voice. "It's interstellar law. Otherwise, everything would just degenerate into total anarchy. Transports wouldn't meekly pull over for us any more, and we'd have to do actual work for our money. That, and I'd probably get flight grounded again if word got out that I was just, like, performing actual terrorism. Even though we're, uh, technically terrorists. Technically." A bead of sweat ran down her forehead, though of course, he couldn't possibly have seen that. Explaining this was harder than she'd thought. "Look, that's just how it is, okay? I just spent upwards of six months flightless on Ainu, and I really, really don't wanna repeat that whole rigmarole."

"So, what? I have to ask for something middle-of-the-road? I can't just take everything?" The disbelief in his tone was clear. Clearly, this hadn't been something he'd anticipated.

"Yeah, so that means no stealing the ship, no demanding his entire bank account, no getting him to crash into Kitadake just for the fun of it - oh, and definitely no sawing parts of the ship off for resale." She shuddered at the thought of the last one. Oh, boy, would that get her in trouble. "Look, when I said you could pick what we get him to fork over, what I was implying was that we just apply the standard fee. Four million credits, flat rate."

"Whatever." There was still some interest there, but her companion was clearly quite annoyed. For once, she didn't really blame him. Piracy was either a hassle, or it was boring. Having to run down fleeing transports as they blared distress calls on the systemwide band was just annoying - you got desensitised to it after a while; whereas making money from compliant, malleable captains was far too routine. Still, there was a certain art to the procedure that she found enjoyable. Hopefully, her new protégé could see glimmers of that, too. His innocence and naivete was certainly amusing, even if his irritable personality left something to be desired.

"Look - why don't you finish this off, okay? You may as well do something here." The words left her mouth before she could stop them, and she almost immediately regretted them. While she'd technically started the encounter, she was really meant to see it the whole way through herself. Allowing another pilot to take over - particularly one with a civilian papers and transponder code - was a very, very grey area. Was this allowed? Honestly, she didn't know how well it would hold up - but the Startracker pilot just seemed so... disappointed. Maybe this would help cheer him up a bit.

"I thought I wasn't allowed?" he complained, although she could hear that he was interested even behind his obvious irritation. Well, it was definitely too late to back out now.

"Just- look, just this once, okay? Then you can decide if piracy's really the path you wanna go down, and get your papers sorted out once and for all. Besides, nobody'll care about a one-off." I hope.

Somehow, her companion didn't seem too bothered by the potential consequences of violating interstellar law. Instead, he swooshed quickly up to the Ryuujin's left flank, and she heard a sharp click as his communications array changed frequencies to continue negotiations with the transport captain.

It only took a few seconds, but then the train lurched forwards again, its cruise engines spooling up from a dead stop. Wary as always, Komachi hailed her shuttlebound apprentice to confirm receipt of funds, keeping her cruise disruptor locked just in case the captain was doing a runner.

"Yo, amigo. He clear to go, or...?"

"I have the money here, yes." Though he didn't exactly sound excited, there was a strange quality to his voice that hadn't been there before, and she smiled at it. Everyone's first time ripping off a transport was the same - it was hard to believe so much money could be made by doing so little. A few words and a healthy dose of 'implication' could earn dividends far in excess of the actual effort put in.

"Well done!" she gushed, proud of her success as a teacher. "Hey, now you can afford a new ship. One that can actually power the engines, the guns, and the shields all at once."

The shuttle's pilot didn't reply, apparently still deep in thought. "I have a question."

"Sure, go ahead?" Whatever it was, she was happy to answer. After all, they'd already come this far. Maybe she'd saved this brooding, irritable pilot from a lifetime of delusions and 'edgy' behaviou-

"Do you want to open the curtain?"

The question hung in the air like a Valor in low Leeds orbit, and her heart sank. Oh, well. Things had been progressing so nicely, too. It was amazing how quickly an encounter could go from zero to hero and back again. Really, she shouldn't have been surprised. Everyone always came after the curtain, sooner or later. Perhaps all the chit-chat and shooting was just a form of extended foreplay to them. A means to a raunchy end; an immersive way to approach a distinctly unimmersive topic. Once the curtain was open, no holds were barred - and things could end up going a lot further in any number of ways imagineable. Fortunately, letting those who tried their luck down gently got easier with practise. All it would take was...

"...no," came the eventual reply, the Blossom turning abruptly away on the screen in front of him. "I'm afraid I'm good, but that's- well, that's about all I have time for. Bye." Before he could object, the slim fighter had already completed the lane activation sequence, disappearing into the skies of Kusari without a backwards glance.

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