Into The Black - Part 7 - The Capsuleers

FFF! Escape pod is here if Eve fiction is not your thing. I'm sick and tired of cloaky, stabbed Caldari militia getting away. Nice to see I'm not the only one who is fed up with WCS!

Into The Black - Part 7 - The Capsuleers

The lift was accelerating quickly now. In terms of decks neither Kara or Capitan Jorn had been this far up in any space station.

"Now listen carefully. We are going to get stopped at the security section. Do not panic. This is expected. I will talk us through. Be calm, follow my lead and did I mention before.... don't....... panic!" Dorn said without turning.

Kara adjusted her collar whilst nodding. The tailored suit she was wearing fitted well but she was unused to a business dress-suit like this. She looked at herself in the mirrored wall of the elevator  A week ago she had been a fun-loving secretary at a successful corporate research centre on a quiet planet. She worked during the week with no real pressure with relaxed management and partied at the weekends with her girlfriends. Life was fun. Now she was dressed like her bosses, deep into low-security space with a highly trained assassin on her trial looking to kill her. Her whole life was a lie. Her job was easy as it was a front she now knew. If she performed excellently or poorly never really mattered. She was hired simply as camouflage.

She looked at Dorn, the privateer who had saved her from the disaster that befell her home city. He had changed out of his usual clothes and was wearing a smart business suit. He had even had a close shave. From privateer to respectable business man. They were indistinguishable from the hundreds of Caldari executives that roamed space stations like this one.

The lift stopped and they were confronted with a security station, neither of which had seen the like of before. They stepped out of a lift and a green laser passed over them. Within two seconds two heavily armoured guards stepped out from concealed locations.

"Halt. You are not capsuleers. State you business here."

"We have a personal invite from a capsuleer. I have the documentation right here." Captain Jorn passed the card to the guard who looked at it and stepped back to a terminal. He inserted the card into a reader. A green light flashed.

"Do either of you have any weapons, poisons, bio-agents, nanite technology or any other device that could be used to inflict harm?" the guard asked.

"No." they both repeated.

"You'd better not, the scanner will detect them and that will be entered as evidence of guilt." the guard indicated to a door.

Captain Jorn went in first. The small booth was barely a metre and a half square. The door shut behind him and he was bathed in a green light. After 10 seconds the opposing wall facing him slid open and he stepped out to the far side of the security station. Kara repeated the process.

As they entered another lift at the opposite side of the security station and the doors closed Kara whispered.

"Where are we?"

Captain Dorn smiled. "Enjoy it, you are now somewhere very, very few mortals have been. You are on the capsuleer decks of the station."

-o0o-

The blonde was squatted down and was wiping clean the bloodied blade of her knife on the jacket of the man laying dead at her feet. Another false lead. She was sure he was telling the truth before he died in that he did not know where the two fugitives were. In fact she was convinced he didn't know who she was talking about. Any man would have happily given them up to stop her doing what she had done to him. So the lead that Lola had given her was indeed a ruse. The agent knew she was running out of leads and the trail was now cold.

Just as she slipped the now clean blade back into its sheath in her belt, her datapad beeped. A hit! The fugitives could change their names, their dates of birth and their backgrounds. But they couldn't change their DNA. The Agent had placed a watcher-worm virus into the DNA database of the Caldari State. A DNA bio-scanner had just picked them up. These expensive bio-scanners were used throughout the cluster in the most high-security areas of stations and installations and also in hospitals. In a universe where one could change any aspect of their appearance, DNA scanners were the last line of defence  However with cloning technology they were by no means infallible. She had assumed the fugitives would avoid the high-security areas like station command centres but there was always the chance one of them may get injured and need medical treatment. She looked quizzically at the datapad wondering if a mistake had been made. She decided it was unlikely to be an error or bug, and that they had some how managed to cross onto the capsuleer deck of a low-sec station. She smiled to herself. She had been giving these two less credit then they deserved. A smuggler and a secretary gaining access to the capsuleer decks. She mused how they could have achieved that.

The agent turned to leave as the door to the man's quarters opened. A woman stepped through carring some shopping bags, almost bumping head-long into the assassin. Her eyes went wide in shock, not expecting to see someone there. Her reaction was that of any woman returning home and finding a beautiful woman just leaving her family home. But before she could speak, she saw her husbands lifeless, bloodied body on the floor behind the agent. The assassin didn't flinch. The blade moved at lightning speed and stabbed the man's wife through the front of her neck. The strike silenced the scream before it could leave her wide-open mouth.

"Captain, get the ship ready to depart. We're heading to Nisuwa. Be ready to undock as soon as I get on board." the assassin said into her come unit.

With that she casually left the quarters, stepping over the body of the wife who was writhing on the floor clutching her throat, making sickening gurgling noises, drowning in her own blood.

-o0o-

Kara's head was turning in every direction, marvelling at the spectacular bar. She'd never been in anything like it before. There was wood everywhere. Real wood from trees, polished to a magnificent shine and not the faux plastic imitation that was the norm on stations. Vast floor to ceiling windows overlooked the planet below and into space. Exotic metals glistened in the light, plush velvet sofa's lined the booths. The undock was also visible and vast battleships could be seen undocking.

All around her were capsuleers, immortal spaceship commanders who held the lives of thousands of people in their hands every day. Mixed in with capsuleers were the bars entertainers. At least that was a polite name for them, beautiful men and women here to keep the eggers entertained. Some were dancing on special podiums around the bar, others were giving more private dancers to capsuleers in bars. The excesses were everywhere, it was like something out of a holovid to Kara. Captain Dorn led her up to the bar. The barman came over with a smile.

"What can I get you?" he asked cheerfully.

"Two double Gallente vodka's. Orange flavour. Over ice with a slice of orange."

"That is a very specific order. You must have a thirst that cannot be quenched." the barman asked carefully as he started to prepare the drinks.

"Almost as bad as the one the woman who sent us here has." the Captain replied in a measured tone.

The barman gave a subtle, almost undetectable nod. Kara suddenly realised they were speaking code. A verbal handshake. The drinks order, the question, the reply. It was all so the barman knew Lola sent them.

"I need to know where you are heading." the barman said in a low voice as he continued to prepare the drinks. "Our mutual friend didn't want to risk communicating that even on a secure channel."

"Villore. Federation hi-security space."

"Right." replied the barman as he sliced a fresh orange with a sharp knife. Kara was watching him carefully. Fresh oranges were a luxury and she'd rarely seen them.

"Any one you need to avoid?"

"Well. We'd hate to trouble the State. I know there is absolutely nothing they won't do for us, but we'd really like not to bother them. At all. Ever." Captain Dorn put emphasis on the last words.

"That won't be an issue here. No love of the State on this station since the Gallente Militia captured it. We've got a few eggers I think could help."

The barman nodded over to a booth. Captain Dorn and Kara turned to look. Inside the booth a female capsuleer was seated on a bench. She was Gallente with short red hair. Her legs were wide which allowed one of the female dancers, who was sensually swaying in time to the music, to be in close. The dancer was skimpily dressed, wearing just lingerie and high heels. Both Captain Dorn and Kara were transfixed by the scene. They'd heard the stories about the excess of capsuleers, but had never imagined a place like this.

The capsuleer went to reach for her drink, but the dancer grabbed it first and pulled away. The capsuleer leaned back with a quizzical look on her face. The dancer lifted the glass and took a large drink. She moved forward and kneeled on the edge of the sofa so she was towering over the capsuleer. The dancer took the capsuleers head in her hands and tilted her head back, bringing her lips close to hers. The capsuleer opened her mouth slightly as she realised what the dancer was doing and the dancer let the drink she was holding in her mouth slowly flow to the capsuleers. After the drink was gone she lowered her head the final few centimetres and they kissed. The dancer drew back and continued her dancing.

"You know" said Captain Dorn "I've always wanted to be a capsuleer!"

Kara laughed. Yes, I can see why you would be attracted to the lifestyle.

A minute later the capsuleer stood and hooked a finger in the dancers minimal clothing pulling her towards a lift at the rear of the bar.

"Hey, Lexx! Work!" the barman called indicating to the Captain and Kara.

"Hey, bar steward! Play" the capsuleer turned to the barman and thumbed over her shoulder at the dancer. She eye'd the two by the bar carefully and stopped.

"Give me two hours, if they are still here when I'm finished then we can talk."

As the capsuleer was saying that the dancer came up behind her and placed her hands on the capsuleers hips. She ran her tongue up the side of the capsuleers neck and then took her ear lobe in her mouth and sucked.

"Actually, better make it three hours." she said with a shudder and with that they left together.

The barman looked thoughtful and scanned around the bar.

"Oh well. Who else is there?"

-o0o-

The agent's Strategic Cruiser was cloaked off the station. She was seated at her desk talking to the admiral.

"What is the delay?" he asked.

"They are in the system of Nisuwa in the station. As you will be well aware the Gallente Federation have captured this system and that station. My credentials are useless. In fact they are worse than useless, they mark me as the enemy." she replied.

"When has bad ID stopped you before?"

"It hasn't. I've already uploaded a new ID into the Federation Navy database. Luckily we still have assets in side the Federation. The problem is that given this station is only two jumps from the State's borders, they have not hard-wired the mainframe systems of the station into the Federation network. Just in case we recapture the station at some point. They use a burst transmission twice a day to synchronise critical data. Whilst my new ID now works fine anywhere else in the Federation, I have to wait until 1200 hours for the database here to refresh."

"Understood. And the targets?"

"Still on the capsuleer decks. They haven't logged out at the security station on exit so they are still in there. We can assume they are looking for a ride. Don't worry sir. We almost have them."

The Admiral leaned back in his chair.

"Any chance we could have a cleaner visit than Nourv?"

The assassin cocked an eyebrow quizzically. The Admiral held up his datapad and read from it.

"11 dead. Two apparently tortured. We are lucky that they all belonged to competing crime syndicates. The authorities are going with a turf war/revenge attack between the two gangs. If you had been caught....."

"Sir, all the deceased are criminals and are no loss to the State."

"How about the wife of the man you pretty much turned into a woman? As far as the investigation reveals she was innocent."

"Collateral damage sir."

The Admiral narrowed his eyes, nodded slightly and disconnected the comm link.

-o0o-

Captain Dorn and Kara were seated opposite another female capsuleer. Again Gallente and again with red hair. Kara observed the Intaki woman and wondered if she really would live for ever like they said capsuleers would.

"So. What can I do for you? I must say it is most unusual to meet in this fashion. People looking to secure capsuleer services usually see one of our agents who sets up the contract."

"We need to get to Federation space as fast as possible. Avoiding all Caldari State forces and assets." Captain Dorn said.

"But you are in Federation space!" the capsuleer smirked.

"I mean hi-security Federation space. Not a conquered no-mans land."

The capsuleer smiled and nodded. Kara wondered if everything was a game to them. Immortal, ever living. How would she behave if she was one of them. Rich, powerful and with no fear of death.

"Well I suppose we could pop down to Villore for fifty million ISK."

Kara gasped loudly. That was more money than she could imagine.

"We have a few thousand local credits and no ISK" Captain Dorn replied calmly.

"Well then I guess our conversation is over. If you'll excuse me I have some serious partying to do." the capsuleer started to rise.

"The State is desperate. They are chasing us. We have knowledge of the weapon they are planning to use to change the course of this war." Dorn said matter-of-factly.

The capsuleer paused for a second and then sat back down.

"You're both wanted fugitives from the State?" the capsuleer smirked.

"Yes. And don't get any ideas about some reward egger. If the State knows you've spoken to us and may know about the weapon you'll be marked as well. As I understand it, all that metal in your head will be no use to you when a State assassin sticks a blade in your heart."

The capsuleer paused again. We was clearly thinking about what Dorn had said.

"Interesting. Any idea of the heat that is after you?"

"We don't know for sure. We know there is at least one assassin who has left a trail of bodies in our wake. I think you can assume they have mobilised more to stop us from reaching the Federation." Dorn suddenly stopped. He realised he was making it sound worse with a Caldari fleet possibly on their tail.

"Sounds like fun. Meet me in an hour at docking port C386. Don't be late." with that the capsuleer rose and left.

"What? Are they serious? They wanted 50 million ISK but in the end they settled for a possible fight?" Kara asked in amazement.

"When you are an Empyrean" Dorn replied "A fight to the death can be fun apparently."

-o0o-

At 1201 hours station time, a Strategic Cruiser was given permission to dock in the station. A high ranking Federation Naval Intelligence Officer was visiting the station according to the logs.