Starborn: Origin of the Stars

“Why did you take the job? They are obviously planning something!” Patience immediately began to scold him after they left the workshop behind, “Do you really have to take such risks?”

“Patience, did you seriously read the situation as one where we could have declined their request?” Robin shook his head, “They had three armed people and we were in their workshop which was closed tightly. There was no way to win if a fight broke out and fleeing wasn’t an option either!”

“Argh, burn in plasma… I know, but still - what if there is something in that crate that will cost us our head and they set us up? That was way too careless, let's get rid of that package as soon as possible!”

“Hmhm, it definitely would cost us our head… literally” Robin mumbled quietly. However, Patience still heard him and her temper got the upper hand.

“What? Rob! What the fuck? You know what is in that box? What is it? Some illegal military tech? What if we get caught?”

Robin stayed silent for a moment, trying to suppress the bad thoughts that tried to claw their way into his mind.

“Robin, hey! Talk to me, I wanna know what we are dealing with. You even made me drag that guy into a fight, what if that idiot had pulled out his gun? Didn’t you just explain that we would have lo…” Patience erupted on her seat until he cut her short.

“It’s a bomb.”

“...lost in a fight… WHAT? Are you kidding me?”

“Damn! Can you please shut up and calm down? Do you really think I would sit here relaxed with a bomb in my ship?” Robin snapped, but at least his anger pushed all the dark thoughts about what may happen at the workshop away.

Patience huffed a few times but stopped the yelling.

“It’s not an explosive, it’s some kind of electronic bomb and we don’t have it aboard anymore. While you had your fight with Lope, I used the commotion to get it out of our cargo hold and dump it in one of the trash containers on the other side of the ship. It’s still with them in the workshop right now…” He explained with a low voice, shivers running over his arms.

“Huh? That’s good for us, isn’t it? Why didn’t you just say so? An electronic bomb, what’s that? Something that kills Melody’s systems to make us crash?” Patience wondered, clearly without any remorse about its current location - it was their bomb, if they get themselves killed, so what?

When Robin heard her grumble, he finally found the missing piece in this puzzle.

“That’s it!”, He exclaimed and the crawling under his skin intensified tenfold, “Fuck, it should be an EMP blast. Oh no, we have to inform Beakrath Security!”

“What? Did you hit your head? It’s not even something that blows up the building or anything, there should just be a short blackout and as they are not flying in a ship, so what?” Patience didn’t come to the same conclusion as Robin. She hadn’t recognized the danger to the workshop, the neighborhood and even the whole district.

“You saw the big machine running some tests?” he asked, already trying to get a connection to Flight Control.

“Yeah, some kind of big ass generator, what’s with that?”

“That was an active, unshielded nuclear electric generator. Not that it would make any difference if there were shields when an EMP pulse goes off at such close proximity… fuck, come on, just make the damn call!” he hurried Melody to open the right comms channel.

“You mean, like one of those old unstable power sources?” finally Patience had it sunk in, “Holy shit! You are right, we should really make that c…”

*rumble*

Before she could finish her sentence, the whole ship shook. The metal creaked and Robin had to fight with the controls to keep them in the air and avoid pummeling to the ground.

Seconds later the shaking stopped and they could hear a deep, muffled explosion behind them.

*boom*

Robin turned the ship to allow them a view toward the direction they came from. It was dark already, but they could see an orange glow in the distance far away. They just hovered there in the sky, unable to talk or look away. Half a minute passed, before the fireglow subsided and a green-blue hue took over.

“That is a containment shield, right? Did the city have automated security measures which activated in time?” Patience was the first to tear her eyes away from the unreal scene.

Robin also collected himself and shook his head. He flew a curve and brought them back on track towards their inn for the night.

“It seems so or else there should have been a bigger explosion. But even if they were in time, how tight would a grid with such shield generators be? One block? One District? How many buildings just blew up? How many people just died?” He took a deep breath and Patience didn’t give him an answer.

‘You're asking me, but who am I supposed to ask?’ She thought but stayed quiet.

“We will be questioned by city security… again. We need to inform Slice and Jim and smooth our story. We just took some parts from one workshop to another and left. We have no idea what had happened there. If someone asks, there was a big machine running, low humming, green glow. No idea what it was. Even a technocrafter rarely stumbles over such a tech and would be able to recognize it.”

Shortly afterward Robin and Patience, still in the ship and on their way to the inn, were on a secure comms channel with Jim and Slice. They just finished their summary of the events.

“Just what fucking bad luck do you guys have when leaving the city?” Jim groaned.

While he was somewhat right, Robin ignored him and addressed the stitch.

“Slice, they will invite us for an interview and question what we did there. They will also see the transaction from you. Is that a problem?”

The Mohait didn’t immediately answer, but they could hear him sigh on the other end.

“I’m honestly sorry. When I told you that this wasn’t some big deal, I really meant it. I have no idea what had gotten over Gumvar that he would go to these lengths.”

“Huh…” Robin was gobsmacked, that came unexpectedly. He had already realized that the stitch wasn’t too much of an asshole or else he wouldn’t have taken his job. But it looks like the Mohait was really quite likable.

“I have a clean vest, in the box I gave you were Interfaces for pilots, not unlike the one you’ve bought from me. As you were doing that trip anyways, I sent them with you and wired you a shitton of credits. I expected you to get me a few parts for my sensors on your way back, therefore the high payment.” Slice recounted his version of the story, that very well could be the truth.

They talked about this until the two travelers reached the inn. At that time they both more or less believed this story themselves.

After they landed, they checked in and didn’t linger around in the common room for long before they hit the bed.

Robin lay there, eyes closed. He wasn’t sleeping, instead his Interface was running and showed him the latest news.

[*** NEWS ***]

Massive explosion in Beakrath

Just a few hours ago, a massive explosion erupted in the industrial district of Beakrath. Four blocks were completely wiped out before the city's containment shields blocked the raging fires. So far, the authorities have not made the number of victims public. Near the center that was identified as ground zero, increased radiation levels were measured. A special hazard unit was already dispatched to clean the area so the shields can be turned off and let the rescue forces take action.

[*** NEWS ***]

“Holy shit…” he mumbled, “What a disaster!”

It was a tragedy, but not one to weigh on his conscience. He had really just delivered a box with some random items. Those crazy guys were the ones to fire an EMP pulse near their own unstable generator. He honestly was just lucky to have left the district fast enough…

“Tomorrow will be a long day, time to wrap things up.”

With that, he closed the news, turned the Interface off and fell asleep.

***

Landom Walzor, team leader of Seka Security, sat in his office and watched the news reports about the explosion in Beakrath with horror. How could an accident like that happen? Was it even an accident?

He switched to Security’s database and looked up the case. Did his colleagues in Beakrath already have some idea of what caused the explosion? He read some reports and felt some relief - while the destroyed area was huge the timing wasn’t too bad. It happened at a late hour on the weekend, not many people were in the industrial district. They had calculated only about 15 casualties. Still a terrible disaster, but if it had happened during working hours, the number would have been in the hundreds.

“They still have no idea how this could have happened.” Landom sighed, “I hope they find the cause to be able to prepare in the future and prevent something like that from ever happening again.”

Just when he wanted to close the file, a new entry popped up. It was a subpoena for an assumed witness.

Robin Tulward, Seka: Has been at ground zero minutes before the explosion

“You are kidding me!?”