Dark Shadow
Chapter 1
Frank sat in the darkest corner of a dimly lit, damp bar on the trade port of Barden. He sat hunched over the table with his back to the wall, the years had been kind to Frank, his face had barely changed since his military days, the only thing that indicated Franks age was his hair, which despite his relatively young age, had turned almost completely grey, the top of his long grey hair was tied up in a pony tail with a black rubbery twine that was wrapped around about an inch of the hair holding it firmly away from his eyes, but the rest of his hair lay loose and sat partly on his shoulders and partly on his back. He was dressed in loose black trousers and a dirty white t-shirt, his long black coat lay over the back of his seat. The place was filled with people as usual and the sound of inane chatter was like one long drone of changing pitches and tones, Frank however, sat alone his in his corner nursing his large glass of green Uloko whiskey, or at least, that’s what the staff called it, the ‘Whiskey’ tasted more like toilet water and had the texture of raw sewage, but it was cheap, and that’s all that mattered to Frank!
It was a hot night, although how anyone could tell it was night was a mystery to Frank, with out looking at your watch their was very little evidence to prove it was night, this was due to the fact the bar was on the third moon of the fifth planet of a binary system at the far reach of the New Earth territory, a 36 Hour day was bad enough but after the warm Yellow star had sunk bellow the horizon and the planet went dark (For all of 10 seconds) before a small, hot white star came creeping over and so began an 8 hour night. It was a small colony, protected from the inhospitable conditions out side by a specially built station, this place was meant to allow independent crews to find cargo to carry, but Frank would have happily seen the place blown to hell if he could. He had been there, on and off, for the past five or six years, hopping from ship to ship, going where the pay was best, he was a born leader and an excellent pilot but he also liked to drink and gamble, so after being kicked out of the New Earth space patrol for being drunk and disorderly, which Frank always felt was unfair (As the incident he was court marshalled for) wasn’t his fault and he had been framed by his superior officer (Who didn’t like him as Frank had knocked him unconscious a couple of weeks earlier) but Frank wasn’t naive, he knew it was only a matter of time before he was kicked out any way, in many ways his superior had done him a bit of a favour, in a weird kind of way. Frank, then retreated to Barden, where he’d been working as a freelance pilot ever since, it wasn’t much of a life but Frank could tolerate it, after all the pay was good and he got to explore space, what more does a guy need? The bright white light from the star streamed through the small polarised windows above the bar, lighting up the pillars of smoke rising from the customers, who were an even mix of both humans and aliens, standing at the bar talking and laughing. Out side black scorched dust swirled up high in the air, blown by the two hundred and fifty mile an hour winds, which attacked the surface of the moon day and night. Every now and then someone would walk past Frank and nod their head in acknowledgment of him, Frank however was in no real mood for socialising, not that he ever really was, except when he was in a gambling mood that is, so he just sat staring at his glass and occasionally glaring the passers by.
As Frank was finishing his drink a strange creature sat down in the seat in front of him, Frank looked up and scowled quite menacingly at the ‘Thing’ that had just sat down in front of him, Frank had a bit of a problem with aliens which was kind of strange considering his profession, this particular Alien was a Surt, the Surt’s were a nomadic race who were few in numbers but what they lacked in numbers (And intelligence it must be said) they made up for in shear physical presence, they were an odd shade of dark red in colour, you knew when you were annoying a Surt because if you annoyed them their faces became swollen and turned the most amusing shade of pink, Frank enjoyed winding them up just to see this bright pink shade, the Surt was covered in a long ragged poncho, Frank could tell that he was of some importance because of the fine black suit he was wearing underneath,
“Blig-och, Al getrie met fingoth el.” The Surt said calmly,
Frank shook his head, he rolled his eyes into the top of his head and sighed, “Hold on you fat red freak while I turn on the translator!” He said in an artificially pleasant but gruff voice, as he removed the small device from his pocket,
“Eblo, metrach i…..” The Surt started to say,
“Shut up!” Frank said angrily as he pushed a couple of buttons, “Right can you understand me?” He asked as he put the device back in his pocket,
“Of course I can!” The Surt said calmly in a deep voice, “My translators turned on!” He snapped angrily as he took a quick sip of his drink, “I apologise for that, I assumed you would have your translator on.”
“Yeah well,” Frank said as he finished of his drink, “That’s the problem with your species.” Frank said snidely as he put his empty glass down,
“What do you mean?” The Surt said curiously,
“Well you people assume to much, you expect every one else to do your work for you.” Frank smirked at his guest (who had changed colour slightly) and lit a short cigar,
The Surt took a deep breath and slowly he returned to his normal colour, “I suggest you watch your tongue when your speaking to me.” He snapped calmly,
Frank chuckled slightly, “Why? What’s my tongue going to do?” Frank laughed and sat back in his chair,
The Surt’s brow lowered menacingly and he slammed a large glass of pink liquid down in front of Frank, “Here!” He snapped
Frank cocked his eyebrow and smiled coyly as he lifted the drink, “Hmmmm, Surt brandy!” Frank exclaimed happily as he spelt the drink, “Now,” Frank said as he sat the drink down after taking a sip, “I’m assuming being as you sat down in front of me and gave me this fine drink you know who I am….” Frank paused and took another sip, “But what am I to call you? Mr Surt? Red head? Pink boy?” Frank sniggered at his guest as he took another drink,
The Surt snarled angrily showing his sharp fang like teeth, “You may call me Artok!”
“Okay Artok, what may I do for you?” Frank said in a slightly more friendly voice,
Artok coughed and leaned forward towards Frank, “Well Mr Hall….”
Frank laughed, “Don’t call me ‘Mr Hall’ the last person who called me that was my commanding officer in the Pats.” Frank paused, “And… Well I knocked him on his ass for it!” Frank laughed as if some one had told an old joke that he had long since forgotten, but was just as funny as the first time he had heard it, “Call me Frank, Okay!” He said leaning forward towards Artok,
Artok forced a frustrated smile, “Well… Frank…” He said with a sneer, “I represent a small firm looking to have some ‘Goods’ transported.” Artok paused as he took a sip of his own drink,
Frank laughed, “Who isn’t?” He asked,
Artok looked up from his drink a rye smiled came across his face, “Quite!” He said in agreement,
“So what makes your offer so special?” Frank asked curiously after a brief pause,
Artok chuckled, “Let’s just say we’re looking to avoid the Pats. So we’ll be expecting you to travel the Baron fields.”
Frank took a large mouth full of his drink and swallowed it loudly, Frank had travelled the fields several times, and each time he had encountered pirates, only his skills had saved him and the rest of the crew he was travelling with, “What’s the cargo?” Frank asked curiously as he leaned over the table, He didn’t expect Artok to tell him the truth but he depending on the response he would be able to tell how dangerous (or valuable) the cargo would be,
Artok shook his head, “Ah….” He said thoughtfully, “Some-thing, that if you loose, you better hope the pirates kill you because what my boss’s will do to you will be a million times worse than any thing you can think off, Okay!” Artok smiled calmly at Frank,
“What?” Frank said seriously as he leaned over the table, “They’ll make me listen to you sing!” Frank said in a sarcastically scared voice,
Artok stood up quickly and thumped the table angrily, the bar fell silent as every one looked over towards Artok who was almost glowing pink by this point, Artok snarled at the onlookers and slowly sat down, as the crowd got back to their own business Artok snarled at Frank (Who had a large smirk across his face) “Enough of your crap, I neither have the time, nor the temperament to deal with your remarks!” Artok said through his gritted teeth,
Frank laughed, “Okay fair enough!” He said seriously, “What kind of ship are you using?”
Artok looked around cautiously, “A heavily modified type three!”
Frank laughed, “To make it through the field you need at least a type four! With reinforced shielding.”
“Let me finish!” Artok said calmly, “We’ve used the shell of a type three to avoid suspicion, but we’ve upgraded it completely, it’s the equivalent of a class six, we’ve installed the new third generation of recharging shielding, and…”
“The new third generation is notorious for burning out the power grid if they loose cohesion more than twice.” Frank butted in,
Artok looked quite surprised, “That’s right!” He replied quickly, “The corporation that I represent have been doing research into the problem and we’ve found a way to reduce the risk of burn out, the trials have had…” Artok paused while he tried to think of a suitable word, “Ah… Positive results” He said smugly,
Frank laughed, “Positive!” he said sarcastically, this was one of the corporation ‘buzz words’ it was used when they had managed to improved some-thing that was already flawed by a couple of percent, Frank had become used to this over the years and had learned to just make the best of the situation.
“Any way,” Artok said, “We’ve upgraded the weapons and the pulse drive, which will increase the normal sub light speed by about eight percent, and we’ve installed class six manoeuvring thrusters.” Artok smirked arrogantly at Frank, who was by all rights quite suppressed by the impressive specs on the ship,
“With all that you must of dramatically increased the size of the Ion core.” Frank replied,
“That’s true.” Artok agreed, “We’ve also increased the size of the cargo bay by ten percent!” Artok finished of his drink,
“ Well…” Frank said thoughtfully, “How many crew members?”
“Including your self.” Artok said thoughtfully, “Seven!” Artok smiled,
“With all the crap you’ve fitted the ship that’s going to leave…” Frank paused as he though back to the over all size left on the ship, “That’ll leave us what… one room for sleeping quarters, one room for medical, one mess hall a toilet and the bridge! Not much privacy! Or room for that matter. Why should I put my self through that for two and a half Months, and that’s only if we can take the most direct route. Not to mention risking my ass flying through pirate infested space?”
Artok laughed, “You space jockeys are all the same, your pockets are larger than your brains!”
Frank smiled, “believe me… My brain is very large!” Frank smiled as he sat back in his seat,
“Your normal fee is what… 5,000 credits?” Artok paused as he pretended to think up a figure, but Frank knew that the figure Artok would say would be at least 5,000 below what he had been authorised to pay, Artok sat forward, “30,000!”
Frank started to cough as he choked on the last of his drink, Frank spluttered a bit before sitting forward himself, the two sat almost nose to nose, “40,000” Frank said calmly,
Artok laughed,”32,500”
“Who else is on the team…” Frank asked quickly,
“I’ll be along at tactical.” Artok said calmly, still nose to nose with Frank, “Anna Jeffery’s will be captain. Navigation, Alan Wilson. Engineering, Altock Malktik and his assistant Yi Pon Mi and Medical Susan Gale. Why?”
Frank shook his head, “Don’t like Wilson, don’t know Malktik, and Anna….” Frank smirked thoughtfully, “Well, Anna wants to flush my balls out an air lock… But times are tough, make it 35,000 and you got your self a pilot!”
“Fine! 35,000! We leave in an hour, dock 6…” Artok reached into his pocket and removed a card, “Here’s a clearance card.” Artok stood up,
Frank smiled, “Okay, can’t you stay for one more?” he asked rhetorically,
Artok threw the card on to the table, “One hour, don’t be early…” Artok moved slowly away from the table, as he was clearing his seat he turned “Don’t be late either!” Artok threw some credits down on to the table along with a hand held watch, “Have a drink, go pack, but don’t be too drunk!” Artok turned to the bar, his large frame towering over the customers in the bar, he whistled loudly and as the bar tender looked over he pointed at Frank and held up one of his fingers, “See you in an hour!” He snapped as he walked away.
Frank sat still and quietly, he was still a little shocked at the money he was just about to earn, as he saw one of the waitresses approaching he reached out and picked up the security card and placed it in his pocket along with the small watch,
The waitress sat a drink down in front of Frank, “That’ll be 15 Credits!” She said, the waitress was a fairly uninteresting looking humanoid, she did however have a rather interesting looking raised bony ridge at either side of her temple, this (other than her slender figure that had been squeezed into a revealing bra and skin tight trousers to please the punters) was the only thing that made her remarkable in appearance, although Frank was kind of curious about her two belly buttons (But was too polite to ask).
“Sure.” Frank said as he counted out the credits Artok had left, “Here you go.” He said as he placed the money in her hand,
“Your friend seemed kind of angry with you!” She said as he took the money, “You know he’s been after you for the last week.”
“Really?” frank asked curiously,
“Yeah, you and five other people.” Her voice had a strange accent because she was actually speaking English and not through a translator,
“Tell me..” Frank said as he stood up and pushed out a seat and invited her to sit down, “Have you heard anything about this Surt?” Frank smiled, in a vague attempt to be charming,
“Maybe!” The waitress replied, she sat down and held out her hand,
Frank smiled and threw five credits into her hand, The waitress looked at the money and looked at Frank with an insulted look on her face. Frank shook his head and threw an extra twenty into her hand,
“That’s more like it.” She said, “I haven’t heard much.”
“Just tell me what you’ve heard, that’ll be fine.” Frank said quietly,
“Okay, I heard he’s after a crew to fly an illegal cargo through the field.” The waitresses paused,
“I knew that!” Frank said frustrated,
“Okay, let me finish!” She snapped, “I heard he works for syn-tek.”
Frank looked puzzled, “syn-tek” he said quietly, “What would a synthetic food company what to smuggle so badly?”
“That’s not all!” The waitress added,
“Really?” Frank asked curiously,
The waitress laughed coyly as she opened her palm again,
“I ought to get the pats to take you in for extortion!” Frank said as he counted out some credits,
“Yeah?” The waitress said as she took the remainder of the credits Artok had thrown to Frank, “I ought to get the pats to arrest you for smuggling…” She smiled “But I won’t tell if you don’t!”
“Okay, tell me what you know!”
“Apparently… syn-tek have a secret lab, the synthetic food is just a cover, they apparently do synthetic weapon research and development for the Kilbarie government.”
“What do you mean Synthetic weapons?” Frank asked curiously,
The waitress was about to speak when the bar tender yelled at the top of his voice at her, “Okay I’m coming!” She yelled back, “Look,” She said looking back at Frank, “I don’t know what they mean by ‘Synthetic Weapons’! I’m just telling you what I’ve heard because I think your cute! But this is dangerous crap you’re getting into, and if I were you I’d stay well clear!” The waitress smiled at Frank and stood up,
“What’s you name?” Frank asked,
“Alandria!” She replied,
“Well thank you for your help Alandria, but I can’t turn down a contract this big!” Frank said before finishing of the drink he had been sipping while Alandria had been talking, Frank stood up and stepped out from the booth,
“Frank!” Alandria said, “If you get back come in and see me, maybe we could go some where… nicer!” Alandria smiled,
“Sure, that would be… great!” Frank said awkwardly as he turned away and started to walk towards the door,
“Frank.” Alandria said quickly,
“What?” Frank asked loudly as he turned round,
“Don’t tell any one what I said, and… Be careful!” Alandria winked and blew a kiss before turning round and skipping past a dozen or so people who were in her way, Frank smiled, turned and left the bar.