When I arrived on Cambridge, the ship didn't fly to port, but instead set down by a tree in an otherwise empty field. The canopy popped & I crawled out.
What I found was an unmarked grave, and under the painted rock, was a small hole hiding a hemp bag containing a neural-net plug-drive, a spade, some beef jerky and a note that had a password and said when I get thirsty, to eat the fruit off the tree.
Ooo k. Like I said: Weird.
I hopped back up into the cockpit and plugged the drive in. it was encrypted, so I spoke, "Crushed velvet corpsegrinder" and another audio file began to play.
The old voice told me to send a comm and introduce myself to the Gaian Guard and drop his name to them.
Gaians? S***! I've been led by the nose by a goddamn terrorist.
The recording went on to say that my place is with family and to wait for their reply. "In the meantime," the voice continued, "So far, so good. Can you dig it?"
That was pretty much it. before the file deleted itself, it uploaded the coordinates to some station called Torshavn.
I sent the comm message & went to go sit under the tree to gnaw on some of that jerky, staring back & forth between the spade & the grave for a while.
I got the hint. The freak wanted me to start shoveling dirt.
There wasn't a body buried there, but a small pup-tent & sleeping bag instead.
So, that's where I stayed for a few days until Some Gaian named James got back to me.
I packed up & continued to take the ride up to Torshavn, because I figured, what else had I to loose?
