Into the Black

The Princess looked up at me, looking like someone desperately reaching out for something, anything, to hold on to, because their whole life had gone up in flames. Probably for good reason, she’d had a lot of shocks this last week. “A decision?”

I nodded to her. “Yes, you have to decide what you will do from now on. Your sister, it seems, if forming a government in exile. But we have no clue on where she’s gone, or where she’ll set up shop. And if your friend here is any indication, the Fleet will mostly side with the new Emperor. Chasing after her will definitely put us in the path of the fleet, and may lead the fleet to your sister. But that’s a choice, and you’d be able to help build a resistance against your brother.”

“Your second choice is to be a good little pet to this ‘friend’ of yours, and pop out a few kids so that he can try and get more power.” She shuddered at that thought, and I didn’t blame her.

“Third choice, you join my crew, at least until we can make our way out of the Empire. Won’t be the easy life you’re used to, and you’ll be paid a crew wage, and expected to learn and pull your weight, same as the rest of the crew. It will be tough, and it’ll be dangerous, but you’ll be alive and free.”

Sheila considered that, and then sighed. “Captain, I would like to formally join your crew.”

I smiled, and nodded. “We’ll deal with the paperwork when we get back to the ship. For now, I need to persuade the Admiral here not to tell anyone about us.” Turning back to the Admiral, I concentrated on the power I wanted to use. It was the first time I’d used my ‘Alter Memory’ power, and I decided that I’d keep the changes simple. I just changed the last couple of minutes, from just before the Princess started talking, making it so that, as far as he knew, the conversation never happened, and there was just a black-haired woman of moderate attractiveness, along with a hot Asian chick that grabbed most of his attention.

I decided to have a bit of fun, and filled the time he would have missed with the conversation being gone (and the long amount of time needed to alter his memory) with a false memory, where he paid me a good sum of money to bend me over his desk and show me just how manly he was. Naturally, I had him both transfer the funds to my bracer, making me 20K credits richer, but also erase the camera logs. I waited until we were well out of the office before releasing the Charm.

Once we were out of the Admiral’s office, we didn’t talk again until we were back on the civilian side of the station. I checked the ship’s datanet, and saw that the others had already completed their jobs, and the money had already been deposited in the various accounts. We swung by the bank to set up a dummy account for Sheila, and add her to the crew, the Corporation, and the automatic pay splits, as part of the crew.

Boring stuff, but best to get it done now, before we were actually running for our lives and needed it. She had some money, being a princess and all, but after discussing the fact that her brother would probably have someone inside the bank looking for transfers on that account, it would be best to not use them until we got outside Imperial space.

After that boringness was over with, I declared that some retail therapy was in order, both to get Sheila out of the dumps, and to make sure she had all the supplies she’d need if she was going to be a permanent member of the crew. We swung through the marketplace on our way back to the ship, and she picked up some new clothes, as well as the other necessary supplies of daily living. Along the way, I saw a few things that caught my eye. Oh, sure, it wasn’t bunches of new weapons and armor, couldn’t expect them to sell that on a military installation, but there were some things that would be useful.

What could be more useful for a fledgling smuggler and ne’er-do-well than weapons and armor, you ask? A wide range of entertainment options for those long hauls through hyperspace, that’s what. I dropped 5K of my own money on various games and vids (only a few of them were porn, honest), so we would have something to do on board ship. The ship account paid for fresh supplies (including a store of alcohol).

Katch’mall Capture Ball

Type

Tool

Rank

Rare

This red and white orb is about the size of a baseball. Only produced in the Slyph continent of the planet Kanto, the Katch’mall is a novel variant of a slave collar specifically designed for combat slaves. Upon hitting a creature with the Capture Ball, they are sucked into a temporal prison. Creatures with a high Sp. Defense may resist the effects of the Capture Ball, and escape. Each Capture Ball can only be used to capture a creature once, regardless of whether the attempt succeeds or not. Damaging a target or mentally incapacitating it may increase the chance of success.

Once captured, a creature may be released from or reimprisoned within the stasis with a simple press of a button. When released, the creature remains enslaved for up to 24 hours, after which time, it may refuse to obey orders, or even attempt to escape. Returning it to the stasis field resets this counter. All damage and adverse conditions suffered while released remain when returned to the field, though effects like poison damage are suppressed until the captive is released again. Captured creatures requiring extended medical care should be sedated as much as possible until they can be returned to their ball.

Warning: Cannot be used on Nomads.

Anatomical Guide to Slave Species

Type

Tool

Rank

Common

An academic-looking guide to the major nonhuman species one might encounter as slaves of the Terran Empire. Useful for training medical professionals, as well as teaching guards and interrogators about the differences in the various slave species.

Requires: 90 INT

Negates -10% unfamiliarity penalty to all first aid, surgery, healing, subdual, and interrogation efforts made with nonhuman species.

UNIQUE: Because of your unique race, using this guide will allow you to shapeshift into nonhuman forms. At Shapeshift level 25, gain the ability to perform chimeric shifts (knelfi eyes in a human body, for instance).

Profession Training Guide

Type

Tool

Rank

Common

This guide downloads the necessary information for a given profession into your mind, granting the first level of skills associated with that profession (or +1 to a level of a skill you already possess), and possibly a title to go with it.

Torc of Dominion

Type

Neck

Rank

Artifact

An artifact from Heruta II, this collar is made of an unknown metal and is inset with a gem that appears to be a ruby, but has yet to be identified. A relic of the Qyrfulm civilization, the Torc increases the wearer’s mental abilities and their affinity with Mental Psy powers. It also has the ability to mark a creature, allowing the wearer to speak telepathically with that creature as long as they are within 400K km.

Requires: Slaver title

Requires: 80 INT, 80 WIS

+20 INT, +20 WIS

+50% to Mental Affinity

+20 Sp. Defense, +20 Sp. Attack

Mark Minion – 1/day, mark a creature. Costs 1000 PP. Enables two-way telepathic communication with the marked creature until the creature dies or the mark is removed. Minion cannot resist your Mental Psy Powers.

The Torc I found at a shop that was selling antiques and other rare items (we were on a trade station, even if the military was around), and it cost a blistering 200K credits. You could literally buy major starship parts for less. But given my limitations in the field of boosting my affinities and resistances, it was worth it. The guide to slave races was only 500 credits, so I bought two, one for myself, and one for Carissa (she was our medic, after all).

The Profession guides came in a lot of ‘flavors’, from the basic to the rare, and even a few that were pretty crazy. Different professions cost different amounts, no doubt due to the number of skills required. Some had prerequisites you had to meet before you could pick them up. Very interesting. I picked up the ‘Engineer’ profession for Shearah, and the ‘Starship Pilot’ profession for myself, totaling 2500 credits. My other two slaves had a couple professions already. I saw Sheila grab the ‘Navigator’ profession. Glad to see she was thinking about what she could do.

I had to try real hard not to laugh at the Katch’malls. Someone on the Dev team had a twisted sense of humor, and I loved it! So much so that I dropped 20000 credits to buy a hundred of the things. Might not use them, but I’d had several windfalls early in the game, so I might as well give props to the devs and support their joke. And who knows, I might need a disposable minion sometime. I’d have to search for planets with vicious monsters on them!

Nano-med Injector

Type

Tool

Rank

Common

A simple hypospray containing nanobots designed to repair injured flesh. Rated for all known sentient species except X’thari. Specialty designs exist for other lifeforms. May overwhelm the system of low-level sentients, causing further damage.

Requires: Level 15

Heal subject for 600 HP over 30 seconds. (10 minute cooldown)

X’thari only: Deals 600 damage over 30 seconds. Causes extreme agony.

Nano-tailor Spray

Type

Tool

Rank

Common

A simple spray containing nanites designed to repair clothes and armor. Rated for most materials commonly used in clothing and civilian armor. Not rated for military hardsuits. Not rated for spacesuit or diving suit repairs. Not rated for radiation shielding. Specialized sprays for those materials do exist, however.

Repair one garment, retaining specialty functions.

OK, so a bit more retail therapy before we hit the ship. It cost me 50K, but getting a hundred packs of the nano-meds was worth it. Same with the 10K for the hundred nano-tailor sprays. Being able to patch yourself and your gear up away from the ship or dedicated facilities was a real bonus. Bloodstains and tears in your clothes tend to let everyone know you’ve been fighting.

Our bit of therapy done, we returned to the ship, where I was happy to hear that not only had the crap we took from the Yakuza been sold (the funds already distributed), and our other jobs on the station both completed, but Carissa had scored us another job on the way to the surface. The fact that the Princess was still with me, while we both had packages from shopping, raise some eyebrows, but I simply told them that the Prince was now Emperor, and the Navy was falling in line behind him. Turning to Carissa, I changed the subject by asking about the new job.

Protein Pack Delivery

The recent earthquakes on Primo have devastated food production for some of the smaller towns in the colony. Protein packs may be tasteless, but they are well suited to being used as emergency rations until production can be brought back online.

Difficulty

D

Task

Deliver ten crates of protein packs to the Quartermaster at the relief station outside Primo, outside Todea.

Payment

20000 Credits

Not exactly a big ticket item, but we already had a couple jobs going that way. Pulling in multiple jobs for the same destination would definitely be the way we needed to run if we were going to make this work. And I had no intentions of not making this smuggler thing work. I was having the time of my life!

With all the formalities out of the way, I distributed some of the ‘gifts’ I’d brought back from retail therapy. Shearah quickly learned her profession, gaining the Engineer title, and increasing her skill ranks in the repair skills. Carissa got her copy of the species guide, and used it. Naturally, I used mine, as well.

You have gained a new title!

Starship Pilot

You are a qualified pilot for most ship classes. Exotic starships may require additional training to pilot correctly.

Fighter Pilot has increased to 2/100.

+1 DEX

Shuttle Pilot has increased to 2/100.

+1 DEX

Small Ship Pilot has increased to 7/100.

+1 WIS

Medium Ship Pilot has increased to 2/100.

+1 WIS

Large Ship Pilot has increased to 2/100.

+1 WIS

When I sat at the controls of the Raven this time, I was pleased to see a small trickle of XP coming in. Very small. Just piloting the ship wouldn’t get me much in the way of levels, but I couldn’t deny it was nice to see gains for just doing everyday tasks. It was an interesting system they had in DAtS. But I pushed those thoughts out of my mind as we lifted off the station, and headed towards the planet Primo.