CB Droege is a fantasy author and poet living in Munich. Recently his fiction was collected in RapUnsEl and Other Stories, and a selection of his poetry appeared in the Drawn to Marvel anthology. His first novel, Zeta Disconnect was released in 2013. He recently edited Dangerous to Go Alone! An Anthology of Gamer Poetry.
Learn more at manawaker.com

 
                                       The Truth Is
 
 
 
           I can’t believe you’re willing to listen to that complete bullshit. You’re a damn straight-line fool if you believe this wholop. I think your friend here’s got a bit of a thing for Cap’n Elly, he does. The Truth is that Miss Ellynore, as the news keeps calling her, knew exactly what she was doing when she took out Clyde. Now, I’m not gonna defend Clyde Harbone. He was a right turd, if you ask me, and I was his best mate, but Elly did her share, and her actions are a dishonor to her former station. We’re lucky any of us survived her wrath.

             Elly and Philly were both just as stuck up as any other spoiled rich brats, and they was close as any two sisters anywhere. Dagger Jones says she didn’t flinch when she saw that video of her sister’s trial; I believe it, she could put on quite the show when she needed to, but I think there was more. I think she done already seen that video, long before her men found it on our ship.

             First off, there ain’t no way she tagged us outa’ quantum space by accident, like she says. We was in a dark tunnel, believe it or not. I was at the damn controls, so I don’t care much what you believe. When a ship is in a dark quantum tunnel, even along a popular trade route, the chance of accidentally interfering with the field and bringing it out is so close to zero, it might as well be zero. You can look it up in one of your fancy physics books, if you want, but I know it’s true from running the damn things.

           Elly was either tracking our engine sigs, or she had someone on our ship who was reporting to her, neither of which is honorable, and neither of which is worthwhile if all you’re looking for is some incidental booty, like she claims.

           Then, she came bursting through that drill-lock, like a woman on fire, and she tore through everyone she found with a fury like she was on a holy mission until she found Clyde, then when she tore him apart, she stopped murdering and started taking prisoners, which I was grateful for because I was right there with Clyde when it happened, and I thought I was next. Elly fought like a tigress. She was a whirlwind of blades and fury. If you had seen her eyes the moment when she killed Clyde:  The anger, the rapture of that moment, you would never believe she was just “clearing the deck of threats”. She was hunting that man. Then all the air went out of her, and she calmly started picking up the pieces of her cruel assault. Half of our crew was dead, mostly at the end of her swords. I’ve been on one side or the other of at least two dozen ship-to-ship attacks, and I ain’t never seen so much blood on the deck before that day.

​             Now, I ain’t saying that what Clyde did to Elly’s sister was right, or even defensible, and I ain’t saying that Elly’s anger was not righteous nor undeserved, but she took her vengeance too far, and she was in the wrong when she killed all my mates for what their captain did.
You’ll all see through. Tomorrow, when Mayor Binner holds his trial, we’ll get the truth of it out in the open, and everyone will see the wrongs she done. Binner has always been a fair and just man, even with us privateers, and he’ll get at the truth, I know it.
 

 
                              Let Me Tell You Something
 

          While the judge considers his verdict, let me tell you something. 
           It was while I was in the personal guard of the governor of SpinCity Elizabeth, that Miss Elynore and her sister showed up there in response to a job offer. Strike me down if I'm lying. I was there. I was in the room when they made the plans.
         You probably heard that Governor Cecil was looking for some official operatives, and that the Francis sisters showed up for an interview. And you probably heard that they threw the governor's hoity-toity bergamot tea in his face and stormed out. Well, that's not really what happened.
          First of all, the sisters were raised well, and love their tea. They would never waste it on such a pointless gesture. His governorship left that meeting spotlessly dry, I assure you. More importantly: and this is the good bit: They took the job.
          Yes, they stormed out. 
          Yes, they decried Governor Cecil as a hater of freedom and an enemy to non-toppers.
Yes, they went on a spree of piracy in the wake of the meeting, rousing the ire of the Orbit guard of every major SpinCity and Station.
          It was all part of the plan.
          "What I need," Cecil told Miss Elynore and Miss Philydae, "Is a skilled crew to investigate the quantum shipping lanes being used by SpinCity Salvador."
         "Don't you hate those guys?" Philadae asked.
         "They have long heaped insult and debt upon us!" Cecil said, pounding a fist on the table, rattling the teacups. "We need to know what their major operations are, so that we may hurt them back."
         "Why settle for just intel?" Elynore asked after a few moments of stillness into which the governor's outburst could be absorbed, "Just have me and my crew take what you want from their tradeships"
         Elynore explained to an increasingly furious Governor Cecil that the financial success of SpinCity Salvador was mostly due to smuggling, which they employ to keep the Sol Council from knowing that they are vastly exceeding their trade caps, which Miss Elynore knew because she'd been working for them for several years. The governor's head nearly exploded, I think, but Philydae stepped in and calmed him down.
         "We know how to find everything valuable already," She said, voice even, posture unnaturally relaxed. "We can just take it all for you."
         When the words sank in, the governor smiled, and the planning began. Everyone always forgets that the beefy guy with the laser pistol by the door has ears, and I heard them lay it all out. The Francis sisters would track where the major operations were going down for Salvador, and target those ships, splitting the take with Cecil and his cronies in Elizabeth. In exchange, Cecil would protect the sisters' actions, including the minor piracy they'd have to commit against other cities and shipping lanes to cover the pattern. The storming out, the outcry against Cecil, it was all invented to make his governorship less nervous about them being connected back to him directly.
           I don't know much about Captain Clyde, but mark my words: If you could look closely into the manifests and patrons of the Damned Engine, you'd find a lot of ties to SpinCity Salvador, and with Gamma-Ovantia Station such a close ally with SpinCity Elizabeth, this ruling will be in Miss Elynore's favor. And if you could follow whatever interesting things are in the hold of the Damned Engine, I think you'd discover them on their way to Elizabeth, minus a hefty commission, of course.

CB Droege is a fantasy author and poet living in Munich. Recently his fiction was collected in RapUnsEl and Other Stories, and a selection of his poetry appeared in the Drawn to Marvel anthology. His first novel, Zeta Disconnect was released in 2013. He recently edited Dangerous to Go Alone! An Anthology of Gamer Poetry.
Learn more at manawaker.com

           Transcript of Call Recorded by Gamma-Ovantia
                                   Orbit Guard  Station

 
 
          [begin transcript]
          Mayday Mayday Mayday … This is the Damned Engine requesting assistance from any nearby ship or station. We have been dropped from Quantum Space by apparent collision. We are drifting powerless, location unknown, last heading [static] tunnel en route to City Station Gamma-Ovantia. One other ship involved in collision, visually identified as the Calypso. Remaining fuel unknown. Captain Clyde Harbone requests –

           [crashing sounds]

           [station outbound transmission] Damned Engine, this is the Gamma-Ovantia Orbit Guard. Please state your position and size of your ship.

            Mayday Mayday Mayday … This is the Damned Engine requesting assistance from any nearby ship or station. We have been dropped from Quantum space by collision, and are under attack by a ship [static] as the Calypso. SPS shows our position as within Gamma-Ovantia orbit, [static] megameters forward of station. Captain Clyde Harbone requests immediate assistance from [static] Orbit Guard.

           [station outbound transmission] Damned Engine, please repeat your position, and state the size of your ship.

           [static] Mayday Mayday … This is the Damned [static] assistance from any nearby ship or [static] attack by the Calypso, and have been boarded. Repeat: we are [static] and have been [static] our position is within Gamma-Ovantia’s orbit, 300 [static] of [static] Harbone requests [static] from Gamma-Ovantia Orbit Guard.

            [station outbound transmission] Damned Engine, please repeat your position, and state the size of your ship!

           Mayday Mayday Mayday … This is the [static] any nearby ship or [static]

​           [end transcript]
 

CB Droege is a fantasy author and poet living in Munich. Recently his fiction was collected in RapUnsEl and Other Stories, and a selection of his poetry appeared in the Drawn to Marvel anthology. His first novel, Zeta Disconnect was released in 2013. He recently edited Dangerous to Go Alone! An Anthology of Gamer Poetry.
Learn more at manawaker.com

                      How It Really Went Down
 

  
           Okay, look. I know you’ve heard a lot, but you weren’t there, so you don’t know how it really went down, okay.
           You want to know what really happened? Yeah, Elly killed that ship’s captain, but it wasn’t for revenge or anything like that, and it wasn’t “premeditated”. It was all on the up’n’up, and she did it in the course of her duty to her crew.
          I see you disbelieving me, but it’s the Earth’s honest truth. That video that you keep seeing all over the net, the one that shows Captain Clyde spacing Elly’s little sister? Elly didn’t even see that video until after we’d taken Clyde’s ship, I shit you not. I was there, man. I watched it with her after the poindexters found it on the ship’s computer. I tell you this: She wasn’t even mad. She even laughed a little, which freaked me out a bit.
         I said to her, “Captain, ain’t that your sister?” Everybody there recognized her. I mean: Just like you, we’d all seen the reports on the net after she went missing.
        “Sure is!” Elly said without looking at me.
        Then that idiot Odie said, “At least you know what happened to her now,” and tried to put his hand on her shoulder, like she would need comforting or something. She damn-near broke his wrist. She didn’t say nothing else, though. Just walked out to finish putting claim to the spoils on Clyde’s ship.
          I don’t think she liked her sister all that much, or she may even have felt like Clyde did the right thing. I saw the whole tape, mind you, not just the forty-five second clip you’ve all seen. It was more than ten minutes long and included a short trial, and a sentencing, and everything. It was a by-the-code thing that Captain Clyde did when he spaced that girl. That’s what the news-nets don’t get. There’s a code out here, and we’ve all got to follow it.
          I don’t know why Clyde kept the thing to himself after he done it. Maybe he feared Elly’s revenge, just like everybody thinks, but if he did, he should’ve known better. Elly’s the most honorable captain I’ve ever served, and that’s all I have to say on the matter.