“I’ll need a schematic of the Moonshadow Hotel.” An Kohli stated flatly as she entered the cramped command deck of her ship, the Adastra.
“And hello to you.” Gala muttered under her breath. She shrugged mentally; that was An Kohli, she was on a mission and would stop for nothing, least of all to exchange life’s minor pleasantries. “Coming right up.” She said out loud. “Oh, by the way, the newsfeeds are buzzing. I think you should take a look.”
An Kohli dropped into her Captain’s chair and passed her hands over the computer controls. She could have used voice commands, but the ship’s computer had a fault which meant that it kept defaulting to a male personality, so she refused to conduct any verbal communication with it, even if it was only a simulated voice. She had nothing against males as such, she was a purple blooded female after all and she’d had a lot of fun with suitable, and unsuitable, males but she was just not going to let them have anything to do with the running of her ship, simulated personality or not.
She read her way through a few of the major feeds. “The Fell!” She exclaimed at last. “Who the freak are ‘The Fell’?”
“That seems to be what everyone wants to know. They’ve come from nowhere with every psychopathic space pirate and mercenary at their command. The Magi have fled for safety.”
“I always said that there was a need for a proper military force.” An Kohli said, half to herself. “How could this have happened so quickly?”
“It must have been while we were on the way here. We were in our wormhole for nearly three weeks. A lot can happen in that amount of time. Anyway, there’s nothing between these Fell beings and control of the galaxy, as far as I can see. No one knows who they are or where they’ve come from. There are rumours, of course, the chat rooms and conspiracy theory galacticnet sites are full of it, but no one seems to know anything more than anyone else. The rest is just speculation.”
“So if the Magi have gone into hiding, who is actually running the galaxy at the moment?”
“Your guess is as good as mine. Until this sorts itself out I guess each planet or star system will look after its own affairs, like they did centuries ago, before the Magi were elected.”
“And we all know where that led, don’t we? War after war as each star system tried to dominate its neighbours. Wars over resources, wars over politics, even wars over wars. Millions of beings killed every year. We can’t go back to that.”
“Well, that seems to be the aim of this Fell mob. Their pirates and mercenaries are intimidating the weaker systems into compliance. The main aim seems to be pretty basic, at present. They demand money and in return the pirates don’t start killing people and they leave the system’s ships alone so trade can continue. It’s early days, of course, but it seems to be working for them, whoever they are.”
“Well, I’ve got more urgent matters to attend to. I’ve invested a lot of time and money in tracking down Biggar Fro, so I want that bounty.”
“I’ll sing that song, sister.” Gala echoed. As An Kohli’s co-pilot she received a twenty five percent share of any bounty that was paid. Another twenty five percent went to funding their operations, including the fuel, running costs and maintenance for the Adastra, while An Kohli, who was the one actually risking her life most of the time, took the rest.
“Have you got that schematic?” An Kohli asked, focusing on the task in hand.