Region: Etherium Reach
Location: Stratios-class cruiser ‘Raza’
Date: 23.10.117
Time: 02:14
The camera drones rotated, fixating on
the vast red and orange nebula of the Kalevala Expanse. The enormous clouds of interstellar dust and
ionized gases had been twisted, by so many unseen forces, into a breathtaking
display, hanging like a painting in the sky.
Despite seeing it almost every day now, Sahriah still found it
mesmerizing. It said something to her, that
even the most chaotic of things could form one of the most brilliant and awe
inspiring scenes known to humanity, and she wondered how many an artist had
looked into those stars and tried to recreate its beauty, only to have failed
at every attempt.
Sahriah’s mind
wandered as she performed another routine system scan. She was
vaguely aware of the others on her ship, scurrying around performing
diagnostics or maintenance that was barely worthy of her attention. Despite the periodic reports from her crew,
it was largely easy to forget that she wasn’t alone out here. In fact it was much easier to pretend she
was. She had been in Triumvirate for almost two months
now, running various recon and combat operations, once again under the command
of Garst Tyrell, a ruthlessly efficient Amarrian she had met during her time in
the Amarr militia. The move to null-security space had been jarring. Even though she had joined an alliance five
times the size of her previous one, Sahriah had gone from managing hundreds of pilots
and clients a day, to barely needing to speak to a few dozen. Ironically, even amidst the war raging in
this region, life was simpler and more peaceful here than it had ever been in
high-sec.
Most of her
acquaintances happened to reside under Garst’s command now too, a reality that
she disliked, but could do little about.
She had always done her best to keep business separate from personal
life, which helped when one forwent any normal semblance of a personal life to
begin with, but it was becoming apparent that the universe disagreed with this
course of action, and was attempting to correct it for her. As always, she did her best to thwart its
plans and rarely left the confines of her quarters while docked in station, but
she sensed conflict was likely inevitable.
Nevertheless, if anyone noticed that she had joined TRI, they weren’t
saying anything, and at least that made it easier for now.
Her
executive officer managed to break her reverie as his voice flooded into her
head via the ships communication link.
“Captain,
we’ve received new orders. Tyrell wants several constellations of moons in the Insmother
region scouted.”
Sahriah
smiled inside her pod. It hadn’t taken
very long to clear out the first five constellations of Red Alliance moons and
even though it was a tedious job, the progress it represented lifted her
spirits. “Very well Tyler, I’ll see to
it, thank you.”
There was a
brief silence while the comm link remained open.
“Was there
something else?”
His voice seemed
unusually hesitant. “Captain, I know you
asked not to be reminded, but the Minmatar has been in the isolation cell for
over a month now…”
“I am aware.” Sahriah felt her mood instantly
sour.
“Have you
decided on a course of action?” he continued.
What the hell are we still doing with him is what he really meant. Tyler was a very competent XO and someone whom
Sahriah had personally hand-picked for his attention to detail. While he understood that he would not always privy
to all her plans, he had also noted that keeping a prisoner in complete isolation
for over a month, with strict no-contact orders, was abnormal, especially for
Sahriah who was generally decisive in her actions. It was obvious he was becoming concerned with
the situation and the pause before her reply did not help to instill
confidence.
“Have him
brought to my quarters at 02:00.”
“Your
quarter’s captain?”
“I don’t
normally need to ask twice with you Tyler.”
“02:00, yes
sir.” She sighed as she felt the comm link go dead, realizing her muscles had
tightened, and consciously forcing herself to relax.
The Sebiestor
Ludik had been a constant affliction on her mind from the moment she had
‘liberated’ him from his holding cell at Cerra manor and relocated him into the
holding cell of her ship. His disappearance from Shalee’s property had
gone relatively unnoticed despite Sahriah’s certainty that Lord Sakakibara
suspected her involvement. Luckily the
assassination of Empress Jamyl, and the recent Blood Raider incursions into the
warzone had the Amarr fairly preoccupied. That or Reginald may have just assumed Sahriah
had him dealt with him her way by now.
In truth she was struggling with the
fact that she hadn’t just executed him already.
It wasn’t necessarily because he had killed a lot of people; she was
guilty of that crime every day she undocked.
Rather it was how he had done it. They were not quick deaths, and she still
retained vivid images of children, slaughtered and carved up, left to starve,
rot or worse inside of their own homes. She had seen death and gore before, but
out of all the memories, these were the ones that returned to her while she
slept. He surely deserved something much
more painful than a quick death, but at the very least, death was what she
should have given him without a second thought.
What bothered her more, wasn’t the memories,
it was the question of what should be done with him. An internal dilemma had plagued her with
inaction. Despite his crimes, Sahriah
couldn’t help but recognize the man’s talent, not just for violence, but for manipulation. Her need for justice, or more accurately vengeance,
was being overshadowed by the fact that she realized his potential. Ludik’s talent was one she could utilize, but
at what cost? Slaughtering children used
to be an unforgivable transgression in her eyes and the fact that she was even
considering not killing him both angered and disgusted her.
Sahriah frowned
as she willed her ship to life again, aligning it towards the next stargate and
accelerating the Stratios to warp speed as she refocused her camera drones back
towards the nebula in hopes of a distraction from her thoughts.
The Kalevala
Expanse was home to The Ginnungagap, a black hole that was rumored to be the closest of its kind to
civilized space. She searched its center
for some sign of the anomaly, as the drones magnified the images, but all she
saw was the clouds of dust being slowly sucked into its center. As she watched this snapshot of the past, she
realized that it suddenly appeared differently to her. It was no longer a declaration of the beauty
or complexity of the universe, but rather a desperate thing, slowly being
sucked into an invisible vacuum from which there was no escape. The inevitable fate of this beautiful phenomenon
sparked a certain familiarity within her and the notion of it chilled her to
the bone.
Her clone recoiled in the amber liquid of
the capsule as the Raza landed on the Q7-FZ8 stargate, forcing herself to refocus.
She had a job to perform, and the
questioning of morals would have to come at another time.
