Mysterium

[SothaSil]

| Location: Somewhere on Planet Manhatten (probably) | Origin: ~no transponder signal found~ | Date: 9th, First Seed, 819 A.S. |

The first thing he felt was the warm air touching his skin. He awoke and opened his eyes. The bright sunlight in addition to his hangover made his head terribly hurt.
He was at a sandy beach, it should be around midday, the sun was high and small waves arrived at the coast, vanishing into the sand.
He got up and saw an empty booze bottle next to time. He shruged and looked around, trying to find where he was.
There were wreckparts, scattered all over the place ... he realized that he must have crashed onto the planet.
"What the hell happened...?", he thought, and went through the debris, searching for something that is still working; maybe a data chip or the black box.
After a few moments he stopped his search, and sat down on a rock near the water, lighted a cigarette and tried ignore his hangover.

Then pictures flashed through his head.

"An order ship...", he said to himself, "That is how it started..."
He remembered that he was after an order and a corsair ship from Manhatten to Fort Bush.
Did they maybe shot down his ship? "No", he thought, "I would not be here if they did that..."

Then he remembered a planet, destroyed, completly ruined, a genocide happened there.

"Toledo ... it was Toledo ...", he lighted his cigarette again, "I was there...at least...I must have been there.
Lennox ... he was there too, and there were others..."

Everything seemed to be a big mystery, his memories were pretty patchy.
He went throught the remainings of his ship again, something must be there, something that could give him a hint. He kept searching and finally found a damaged data storage unit.

He put the chip into his PAD, but the files were corrupted. Except one.

He looked at the picture..."Cooper...she joined me at Fort Bush, chased the same people as I did. We went to Alaska ... she gave me the permission to join her ... the order ship was destroyed near the gate, and we chased the corsair till Minor. We destroyed the ship. Yes, yes, we destroyed the Titan.
And then I asked her if we could check something ... Oh lawd, I was drunk enough to fly pretty straight to Toledo with a primary fleet officer!"

He took a deep breath, obviously he got himself into trouble once more.

Sitting down again in his rock, smoking another cigarette, he tried to figure out what happened after they went to Toledo.

He remembered that there were two ships near Toledo... Lennox, he was there, and a Core Mako.
"I hailed them ... we talked about the Toledo incident ... and that captain of that Mako knew me...however; even Lennox started to remember me after a while."

Then he stucked, he completly forget about any details; and he couldn't find the black box.

Another part of his memories came back in this moment. Somehow, the Mako just has vanished and Lennox did some mind control to Cooper. Sil could not remember what exactly happened, but he was sure that Lennox must have some telepathy skills. Telepathy like the nomads.
The next thing he remembered was Cooper and him flying back to Alaska. She was obviously very confused, told him that Lennox put random stuff into her brain. Or so. Something like this. Sil wasn't really sure anymore.

When they were back in New York, Aleesha told him that there will be no official report. Rather they would handle it like it never happened.

Everything was confusing, and Sil was sure that it will take a while to fix that puzzle. And he still had no answer why he crashed into the planet.

In this moment ... he noticed the empty booze bottle. He shaked his head, rolled his eyes, lighted another cigarette and started moving towards the next city...

| Location: Somewhere on Planet Manhatten (probably) | Origin: ~no transponder signal found~ | Date: 10th, First Seed, 819 A.S. |

Almost one day has passed, and now he was onboard Aleesha's ship, enroute to a more civilized placed on Manhatten.

He was thinking about how to retrieve the black box. The information on it were too important to just let them rot at the ground of the sea. And, if anyone else would get it before him, he would get into serious trouble, preconditioned this one would be able to decrypt it.

He had to find a subspace com system, somewhere on this planet must be one, he thought.

| Location: Valetta Shipyard | Origin: Shuttlecraft "Sacajawea" | Date: 14th, First Seed, 819 A.S. |

Rodriguez was staring out of a window; ships were passing by and the Sun was shining at her. The drank a coffee and hold a PAD in her hand, working through some supply lists.
She had the order to wait at Valetta until sevral supplies for Torino arrive, but it seems that actually no one cared about sending these supplies.
She was on this station for over a week now, and it was getting really boring. And Sil was pretty much overdue. She wondered what could have happened. He said that he would be in Liberty for only one or two days.
"Computer, list all people working for the Syndicate currently aboard Valetta", she stood up, put the PAD on a table and stretched.
"At the moment one person beloging to the Syndicate is in this station", the computer answered her with its artificial voice.
"Who is it?" "Security guard fourth class, Stanley Tweedle". She never heard of him, must be some low ranked worker. "Computer, tell him that I want to see him."

A few minutes later the door opened and a man with a red suit and a hed, with the number "4" on it stepped in.
He was a nervous, unsure man: "You wanted to see me, Sir?"
Rodriguez raised an eyebrow: "Congratulations, you're reassigned to the Sacajawea now, mister Tweedle. We have a job to do."

| Location: Manhatten orbit | Origin: Negotii.Furtivum | Date: 28th, First Seed, 819 A.S. |

"Finally...", Rodriguez took a deep breath while the blue planet got into sight. "Tweedle, get us closer and get a landing permission. And make sure we don't get shot, or die otherwise, somehow. It already took long enough to get here."
The man in the red suit turned around from his console, looking at her: "Don't worry, I got this. We're approaching, 10 clicks to the planet."
"I hope so. As far as I remember you said the same thing when we where on the Sacajawea the last time. Do you remember that? That ship is now space dust. I don't know where you learned to fly a ship, but...hey...there is something blinking. What is this?"

Tweedle turned around, looking at the display Rodriguez mentioned. He stood up and entered some commands into the computer.
"It looks a short range distress signal. It's an outcast transponder."
Rodriguez leaned back in her seat: "That must be Sil, this was his last known location. Can you get more information?"

"No, it is just the distress signal, nothing more. I can barely locate the origin of it. It looks like it comes from the nothern hemisphere, between landmass and an ocean. The signal is clear, so it can't be underwater. At least I think so. But that's all I can tell."

"Alright, here is the plan. Tweedle, you will deliver that load of fuel as it was planned. Then you leave this planet, move to Rochester or so. If you don't hear anything from me in the next two days, leave the system and return to Sergio Refugio, got it?", while she spoke the last words, she jumped off her seat, heading down to the cargobay, where also the airlock is, preparing to do some sightseeing on Manhatten...

| Location: Manhatten Bar and Lounge | Date: 30th, First Seed, 819 A.S. |

After two days walking around the endless streets and high-rises of Manhatten, Rodriguez finally tracked his signal and sat now in a bar. Sil was sitting at a table with a woman. She could see her only from behind, young, brown hair, that's it. But that was not the reason why she was there.
She look at Sil, waiting for him to notice her, and after a while he stood up and went out of the bar.

He lightened a cigarette when he heard the sound of someone opening a door.
With folded arms he watched the busy metropolis, starships and other flying things everywhere. Lie a bee's nest.
"Actually, I didn't expect you.", he flipped his cigarette over the balustrade, falling probably hundreds of meters down.
"Your signal was too weak. It never reached the Omicrons. A ship is ready to bring us back. We should leave soon, there were some incidents in the last time and the police is kinda suspicious of us. The ship is at the common place."
"Alright, I'll be there soon. Just have to say goodbye to someone."
"Who is that women?"
Sil turned to her and laughed a bit. "Someone who helped me. Seriously, I just met her, I have no idea 'who' she is. And humans always change, right? Can you ever 'really' know someone?", he shrugged and returned to the bar.

| Location: Arausio Sanctuarium | Date: 9th, Rain's Hand, 819 A.S. |

After days of flying through remote regions of the Sirius sector, I finally got back "home". Enroute I was informed we started to build our own outpost. Somewhere far away from the common places, in unknown space. Trying to establish new hope.

According to the reports I've read in the last days pretty much happened, and we've a lot of work to do. Pretty funny actually. Once I dreamed of a sanctuary in a remote place. And now that is true. Not my personal place though, but this doesn't matter. It is a symbol of new hope.

I just put my first steps onto the Arausio Sanctuarium. It's not impressive like the Corsica outer Sanctum, but it is a start. A step.

We've put much effort into this, worked hard for this. We're only a few, most people even don't know that we exist, but the people of Omicron 81 are trying their best.

They call us smugglers, slavers, criminals, murderers, but morality is a double double-edged sword. Good things, bad things... just a matter of the point of view. Nothing more, nothing less.