Outsider

[Laowai]

continued from above....



He could feel his sisters resentment, but even as part of him sympathized with her he had learned to put it behind him. He was unsure that he could ask that she do the same however.
"We need you" he said simply. Again her eyebrow rose, "We? You mean the Corsairs?"

Ben sighed, "Yes, the Corsairs, but more than that, I need you"

Isabel's demeanor didn't change; "You?" she said, "You need me for what?"
Laowai didn't know how to approach it, so he said it simply, "I need you to work for us."

Her glass dropped down on the coffee table with a bang and she stood up; "Work? You dragged me all the way down here on some kind of recruitment drive? Sent with an Elder seal and like the good little Corsair I'm supposed to answer the call?!"

She turned to storm out, and Matthius Ren made to rise as well, still not having said a word he took his wife's lead.

Quickly Ben jumped to his feet "Wait!" he said, "Its important, more important than you know, its not just about the Corsairs, its about everyone!" Isabel scoffed and opened the door to leave but Ben went on "Its about the Nomads!....... they are working with the Outcasts!!"

Framed in the doorway she stopped and turned, a look of disbelief on her face.

"The what?"

Ben's shoulders slumped and he sighed, "Its complicated, but please my sister, I would not ask this of you if I did not believe it urgent, you are the only one who can do it."

"Nomads..." she said again. "Those alien things that shoot at you in the Malvada cloud, the ones that the systems fought a war against, those Nomads?"

"Yes, those Nomads", Laowai said, sitting back down and inviting his sister to do the same.

She did and he went on; "Circumstantial evidence has been mounting for some time, it was clinched a few weeks ago when the Outcasts were accompanied on a raid on Tripoli by a Nomad vessel, it seemed to be overseeing what was happening."

Isabel still couldn't believe what she was hearing; her knowledge of Nomads was little more than whispered rumour and stories. She had experienced them only once in her life, many many years before when she had undertaken her trial in the Malvada cloud, when like all Corsairs when they came of age, she flew a woefully inadequate and under gunned fighter into the Malvada cloud to retrieve an artifact. They came; swift and deadly, their ships impossibly maneuverable, their weapons cut her ships shields and hull apart like butter and she saw them up close only briefly; semi transparent glowing blue spirits of death.

She had survived, by nothing more than luck and fast flying.

"Cardamine."

She said quietly.

"You knew... You knew I'd know, I'd know because of Mum, because of the things she said when she was.... out of it..."

Ben nodded, "We dont know how, but we think that their cooperation has its roots in that, yes."


Isabel shook her head and looked at the floor: "Mum always said, she tried to..." Ben interjected, "Yes I know" he said, "but this is a lot more than that; if they are cooperating on some level, and we have reason to believe they are, then this is a new threat for us, but also for everyone, everywhere."


Isabel looked at her husband, the Libertonian was clearly out of his depth, he looked from his wife to her brother and said "Well, I think Ill be needin' to leave y'alls alone for a bit, I'm sure a trader like me dont need to be hearin' this kinda official Corsair business and all..."

Ben nodded and Matthius stood, Isabel squeezed his hand and he smiled at her, "Whatever it is baby I know you will sort it out, Ill head on up to the Shifu, Ill send one of the boys down with the shuttle when you need it."

Matthius left and Isabel turned back to her brother:

"Can you prove this?"

Ben leaned forward; "that is what we need you to do..."


(This story arc continues here.)

---

http://img686.imageshack.us/img686/3289/...047770.png