Time to cool down, and then Outcasts being less than tolerable. What a day…
Dropped the ships entire logbook off at Pygar, as well as the recording of the Revenant/Alien conversation. Sent an urgent message to Cat and gave her the coordinates encoded in the message to find their location. Told her that… if something happened to me, she would need them, as they contained information. Told her where i was headed too… not intent on keeping the transmission open any longer than needed.
Took the same route that i did before. I didn’t care if they knew i was there or not… i needed to relax… something that seemed easiest when there. In their worlds. Ironic. The most unnerving and dangerous creatures seem to have the most calming place to be. Got into the unknown anomaly, headed to the jumpgate structure, cloaked close. Fully active by the time jump was to happen. Jump successful, then my first malfunction. Cloak. Not what i needed, especially not here…
Attempted cloak reboot, still a failure. Couldn’t risk a full-system reboot… it’d take too long and i was in too much danger. Jumped again and gripped the controls… This was gonna get rough. Engines online, throttle maximum, pull down and burn hard, avoid the defences. Push to attain safety margins, then fly flat. Pull up and aim for the previous location. Safe. Unless the aliens found me. Full system reboot, and Cloak came back online. Well, at least that was fixed…
Spent awhile just, breathing. Peaceful. Until the comms interference. Seems someone was attempting to reach me. I ignored it. They’d soon move on out of comms range, then i’d be alone again. Minutes pass, then another short burst. The only word i caught, albeit distorted and garbled, was “Talk”. Of all the times i didn’t want to talk, this time was right at the top of that list. A sigh, followed by an attempted return signal: “Why?” I guess they were looking for me, whoever it was, because more came through this time. Still couldn't work out what they were trying to say.
Guess ill go find out. Restored engine power, set course for Zeta. On the other side, comms stabilised. It was Revenant. Almost wished i had ignored the attempts now. Almost. Turns out they were intrigued by my reaction to their conversation. Initial distrust, but then it faded behind my curiosity. Maybe a chance to learn some things. Well, it ended up being me mostly talking, but still. Learnt a little, i think.
Got back to Freeport, settled down for the night. Outcasts on sensors. Great. Just what i needed. Others were also present, among them, Cat and Empress. After some liberal use of humour, something Outcasts seem not to understand despite their “higher state of existence” as they call it, they left. Speaking of setting a price on my head. Seems he didn’t like my slightly on the explicit side jokes. Or my distinct lack of respect for any side involved in the current battle under the blue sun.
Not too long later, the Outcast returned, with a friend! Yep, the captain of the capital class Outcast vessel was that offended by me, he went and got another capital friend. Figured he wouldn’t talk about him being upset though, pulling the “potential customer of cardamine” card. Sorry, Don and company. Not interested. I am however interested to watch you break the Freeport No Fire Zone, with a Zoner present. Ahh, i’m too tired to deal with politics. Maybe i should get some sleep.
