My Father is a Capsuleer

Author: hmnomad / Patrick Lee

Original post: https://hmnomad.blogspot.com/2014/11/contest-entry-my-father-is-capsuleer.html

Entry for the YC116 Pod and Planet Fiction Contest in the Eight Thousand Suns in New Eden category.

Early morning
Near a quiet system on the edge of Minmatar and Galante space
In a dead space pocket within a nebula
There is a colony
To outsiders and tourists it looks just like any other mining colony near Minmatar space. Miners hollow out asteroids, harvesting ore. Manufacturing facilities produce ships and rigs and modules and ship them to market. Traders, gamblers, and two bit hustlers all come and go, making the most of the facilities on offer. The strip clubs and bars turning a brisk trade amongst space farers of every ilk. In fact, nothing visible to the casual observer gives away the true reason the colony exists.

The morning begins as normal. Mothers meet in the coffee shops while the children are in school. Teenagers ditch lessons to hang out in the shopping quarter.
First shift maintenance crews plod through the corridors on their way to their next job while third shift personnel make their way to bars for a drink or home to sleep.
Security staff expel hung over drunks from holding cells while ships crews load and unload cargo, selling ore and buying ammunition. Life followed the same cycle, the same pattern of events as it does in colonies throughout known space. That is until the worm hole formed.

Those visitors lucky enough to be near their ships drop what they are doing and immediately flee when the klaxon sounds. Some of them choose to take up arms and aid the defence fleet. Mobilized in record time, the defence fleet and colony security gunners reduce the first ships through the worm hole to wreckage in a matter of moments. Unfortunately for the defenders the ships keep coming and the tide begins to shift. The arrival of reinforcements from the entrance corridor and patrol fleet swing the odds back in favor of the defenders but that is short lived. The ex-Sansha carrier’s arrival destroys any hope of repelling the invaders. With the carrier’s ECM rendering long range weapons useless and its waves of logistics ships and drones insuring their survivability, the invading fleet quickly reclaims the upper hand.

While the space around the colony structures is a silent light show of fire and destruction and death, inside was a cacophonous hive of activity. Security teams and auxiliaries are deployed to established defence locations, prepared to repel boarders and fight to the last man. For everyone it is action stations and they all have a part to play. Teachers and school administrators hurry the children to shelters. A security detail of elite mercenaries is deployed to protect them, defence of the children being top priority. Essential personnel rush to their duty stations while non essential personnel and family members seek refuge in shelter locations. Station gravity randomized and interior defence drones deployed the defenders settle in to await their unwanted guests.

Their wait is not a long one. Wave after wave of assault craft and breaching pods launch from the carrier and nimbly thread the carnage between the carrier and the colony. Manually controlled point defences and drones thin the numbers but not enough, significant numbers still get through. The initial fighting is intense, but all too soon the invaders gain first a foothold and then the upper hand. Their stun grenades and slave catcher drones making quick work of the defenders.

By lunch time it is all over bar the salvage. The colony is in flames and the last of the children are being loaded into cargo containers in preparation for transport. With the efficiency of army ants the salvage crews strip almost everything of value. People, supplies, equipment, not even the corpses are left behind. Everything has value to someone.

The defence fleet made the pirate victory a costly one but it was a victory none the less. The stolen Sansha technology insured none of the invading force was destroyed by the outer defences and no early warning systems were tripped. Surprise was total and the speed and efficiency of the clean up was awe inspiring. Concord responded but as is often the case they arrived just in time to search for non-existent survivors and add the details of another wiped out colony to their logs.

Unseen by concord, a flight of 3 cloaked ships enters the pocket. Each ship with a task. The Buzzard hacks the Concord ships and downloads the logs. The Cheetah scans the remaining wreckage to identify the ships and their owners. And the Helios downloads the logs from the colony’s tertiary data core and any live drones and sensor stations. Once the job is done they depart as unseen as they arrived.

Meanwhile, in medical stations throughout New Eden, dozens of angry pilots crawl from clone tanks demanding Neocom access. The markets see a corresponding surge in the sales of ships, modules and ammunition. Soon intelligence networks across all of lawless space have worked their dark magic and that which has been taken is located.

On a fortified moon in TU-00T, the leader if the band of pirates responsible for the raid inspects his livestock and contemplates which markets will bring him the best prices. This pleases him. He is proud of his accomplishment; proud of his rise to power. From a penniless thug on a backwater Caldari world to owner of 4 systems and dozens of outposts took him just 9 years. He feels on top of the world and loves the rush of ‘getting his hands dirty’.
He says to his guards “the livestock alone will net us over 20 maybe 30 bil easy. The children are the key, the Amarr like to get them young.”

His livestock is separated into 3 groups; men, women, and children. The fittest and most attractive will find their way into his brothels; he always needs ‘fresh meat’. A few, the ones who ‘suit his fancy’, will be added to his personal supply of ‘bed warmers’. He wants the fiery ones. He likes it when they resist, especially the men, but it means he gets through a lot of them. The rest of the men and women go to the Sansha, he must keep up his end of the deal that allowed him and his people to remain free of Sansha ‘wet wear’ and keep the acquired tech. Then comes the children. Those go to the Amarr, except the handful he keeps for his ‘special’ customers. He doesn’t understand them but as long as they pay well he doesn’t care. Happy with what he sees, he selects his new playthings and leaves his lieutenants to sort the rest of the men and women and moves on to inspect the children.

He makes his way to the cans containing children, five cans in total. He jokes with his men about the high number and what they really got up to in that colony. As they open the first can of children he is surprised to find that they are all calm and quiet. No tears, no escape attempts or heroics, all quiet, relaxed, calm. Many are playing with bits of jewellery. Several of the men and women had to be killed as they attacked his men when they opened the cans. He hates the waste; corpses do not bring in as much as living bodies. But there is none of that foolishness from the children. He makes a mental note to have all the children searched for valuables. As he enters the second container, a small boy, no more than 5 maybe 6 years old, steps boldly forward and, in a voice unexpectedly powerful for such a young child, addresses him.

“Hey! Dickhead!”
Stunned silence falls across the guard detail accompanying him.
“Yes, I’m talking to you, Boss Dickhead.” The child continues, bold and taunting. Pointing to insure there is no confusion.

He lifts his hand and moves to strike the insolent child who lifts a finger, giving him pause. Fury threatens to overwhelm him as he draws his knife with intention of turning this upstart into a loin cloth and a pair of shoes. The thought of lost profit quells his anger as the child continues.

“That would be very unwise on your part.” The child says, making a clear effort to stay brave and defiant.
“I have a message for you” he continues with growing confidence. “A story I was asked to tell. My parents know you, and they look forward to seeing you again.
“You see, my father is a capsuleer, my mother was a whore; a slave in one of your pleasure hubs. He liberated her when he rescued someone you abducted. He gave her a job as crew on his ship, gave her a new life. And when I was old enough to go away to school she became a capsuleer too.”
Tapping his chest for emphasis
“My parents are capsuleers”
And pointing to other children who step forward,
“And hers, and his, and hers too.”
“All of our parents are capsuleers!!”
He shouts, lifting his arms to indicate all of the children. Then in a voice more expectant of a young child
“And they have come to take us home.”

As the pirate leader draws breath to explain the depth of the child’s delusions a stone on the boy’s bracelet begins to blink, then on another child’s ring, and another’s pendant. And as the klaxon sounds, announcing the arrival of the capsuleer fleet, the children who had stepped forward rush the guards at the door, shoving them out, and secure the container door. Several other children including our young speaker rush the pirate leader, subduing him with unexpected ease.

And from a darkness broken only by the flashing jewellery a young girl’s voice says
“Our parents will be very happy to meet you.”