Outsider

[Laowai]

The Cargo bay doors opened with a clang as Ben piloted the small escape pod from Valentine’s ship “There you go Elder” he heard Valentine’s voice in his comm. System, “home at last eh!”
Piloting the tiny pod through the docking rings he answered gratefully “Indeed my friend, and thankyou for the ride”.
The skirmish with the Bounty Hunters had gone well for the Corsairs, not so well for the Bounty Hunters, a small raiding party had been spotted out near the ’41 Jumphole and a force of Corsairs had moved to intercept.
All had been well until Laowai failed to dodge a nuclear mine; one of dozens that had been cast off by one of the bounty hunters as he frantically tried to avoid the swarms of Corsairs on his tail.

“Blast! So many of the things in space I could get out and walk back to Crete!” Ben had cursed as his pod ejected swiftly from his disintegrating Titan. He had been flying her more on his own lately, the Venganza’s crew on leave after several trips out to Omega 47 and the Xibanya Nuren having her weapons refit. Never much of a fighter pilot, he did however enjoy the solitude the Titans small enclosure gave him.
Which was nothing compared to the escape pod he now touched down on the landing in front of his hangar. As it came to rest one of his techinicians made his way out “Titan get lost Elder?” the man said cheekily. Laowai shot him a look and then chuckled, “yes, don’t know where I parked the thing… get me another one will you?”
The man chuckled as well and nodded in affirmative. He would have a new Titan ready to do within an hour or so, so many were turned out by the foundries on Crete, so many were lost.
Laowai made his way inside and up into his mezzanine living quarters, it was neat; a sure sign that his sister had been here again. Sure enough, the message was waiting for him on his comm system. Kicking off his flight boots he dropped into the couch, poured a drink of Baijiu and called out “Computer, play message”.

His sisters’ voice chimed over the comm system “Ben, are you ever here?” sipping his drink he chuckled and answered to no-one “at the moment not really”. Her message continued, “I got your message while I was in Freeport 9 and came back as soon as I could, I missed you by hours apparently, faced the usual pleasant conversation from your goons in orbit. I use the name in my comm. Signature now, don’t your people know how to read?”

Laughing quietly to himself he pictured his sister’s irritation at being grilled by a Corsair squad on approach to the Crete. She knew how to handle herself, and even though she flew under the family name, she didn’t fly under a Corsair flag and would usually be asked to explain her presence here. She went on: “Anyway, I found your… machine or whatever it was, and dropped it off with the person you asked me to at the Cambridge research station, nervous fellow, but there were no troubles there, I’ll be back down in a few weeks prepping the payment for Matthuis’s next shipment of food, might be nice to actually see you for once, Isabel out”.
The comm. System clicked off and the computer’s voice chimed in “Incoming transmission”
Ben downed his Baijiu and poured another, getting up he sat himself in front of the view screen and said “Open the channel”.

The nervous visage of Dr Remington of the Cambridge research institute appeared on the screen. “Dr!” Ben said with a dry tone “What wonderful timing! I hope you have information for me I might like.”
The Dr looked around him, and nodded “ I… I do indeed Senor Laowai, I do indeed”. His nervous stutter less pronounced than it usually was, a clear sign that the man was excited about what he was going to say.
“Well, you got the item I sent you then I presume?” Ben asked him. Remington nodded quickly, “I did indeed and I have to tell you, the initial results….”
Ben sipped some Baijiu and sat back “Go on Dr…”

The Dr nodded quickly, “The results were extremely promising, I cross referenced it with other research that we have done on the N..Nomads control of their own technology, interfaces, control systems, that k..kind of thing, all highly c…classified I might add, but the ..c…code tool you gave me worked wonders!”
Smiling his sharks tooth smile Ben nodded slightly; “I’m sure it did, and so… you were able to expand on the research?”

“Expand is an… an understatement!” The Dr stammered “This stuff goes way beyond Xenotechnology, you’re looking at military research here, and some of this stuff is way out there, I mean the applications of what you have found crossed with what’s known its… its”

“Not for general consumption Dr” Laowai interjected, “Don’t forget that…. Now, will any of this help the interface?”

The Dr gathered himself and continued “M..most certainly, much of the research that has been done here is on how they interface with their technology, spe…specifically how one lifeform controls its ship, or links with the others, or in the case of larger ones, how they control multiple ships. Your design is basically sound but with some work from what we know here it will work m… much better, and on much more c… complicated designs”
Pausing and looking a little more sheepish than usual, the Dr asked “W..where did you get the basis for this interface design?”

Laowai smiled “Oh I have my sources Dr”. He put down the now empty glass and sat forward “Amend the blueprints and the prototype to include your new data, let me know when its done and I’ll have someone come and retrieve it” Smiling again he added “I must say Dr, im quite pleased with your cooperation on this matter, should things continue how they are… we might look at removing that nasty device from your body eh?”

The Dr Smiled and nodded “Oh that would b… be SO good Senor Laow…wai… I’ll get on this right away.”

“See that you do, Laowai out”. He switched off the comm. System.

This was good news and what he had hoped for. His crystal interface design had worked but it was limited in the functions he could open it up to. He knew that Nomads themselves were capable of controlling much more complicated items such as their ships, or their basic technology, and that there had to be a way he could duplicate that. It turns out, there was.
He sat back and thought on Zarita’s situation, What If he could get her out? He needed to give her some form of autonomy. He had been trolling the information nets of the various houses and militaries for information on cybernetic research but so far, apart from a few tantalizing hints, he had drawn blanks… he had to figure something out, it would be intolerable to get her out only to have her in a computer somewhere, even less lifelike than she was now where at least he could still touch her every 6 months.

Sighing he stood up and stretched, tossing off his flight jacket he layed down on his cot…. Pondering where to take this next inquiry.
He punched up a map on his data pad, scrolling the layers of systems with his fingers until he came to one in Particular: "Omicron Major". He knew what was reported to be there, though the place was crawling with Nomads and considered extremely dangerous. Added to that, no one had decent scans of the surface interior of the thing, how do you get decent scans of a system sized Dyson Sphere?.

He pressed at link on his screen and a voice chimed "Yes Elder?"

"Have the Venganza prepped and ready, equip her with several weeks rations and extra arms and ammunition to be loaded onboard" He paused, "In fact, i'll send you a manifest of what she will need but once you have it all i want to be ready to leave in the next 24 hours."

"Yes Elder" the man said and the screen clicked off.

This was going to be an interesting voyage.

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