Start the Game (Galactogon: Book #1) (14 page)

“As you see from the video, my PDA contains 77% of the data I tried to download from the Qualians. And, I should mention, parts of this data are classified ‘Top Secret.’ If I’m not mistaken, this is exactly what you are looking for and the main reason for why the Qualian Emperor declared us enemies of the empire.”

“Are the shadow guilds interested in you?” Marina spoke up for the first time. Once again—her voice was as normal as that of millions of women…The more I learned about
Alexandria
’s captain, the more curious I was becoming about how she got where she was.

“Sure, ‘interested’ is a fair way to put it. I am supposed to meet some guy named Hilvar on the planet Qirlats.”

“Oh really…” Marina hummed pensively—and signed out of the game. Lisp and Anton (her executive officer) followed suit. We were left alone with several normal players—perhaps just to make sure that we didn’t start pressing random buttons. Although, what buttons are there to press in the guest quarters anyway?

“What do you want in exchange for your information?” The officer corps of
Alexandria
took about thirty minutes to discuss the current situation. During that time, I managed to sign out myself, have a cup of tea and wash up. I also gave Stan a good talking to for providing with me such a crappy emulator, which had featured not a single scenario involving that force field trap thingy.

“Not much,” I instantly replied. “You give me my ship back, prototype engines and all. As well as all the Raq in its cargo holds. I’ll find a way to dispose of that myself. Next, you help us meet Hilvar, and you introduce us to the Corsican. Lestran and I wish to become members of the Jolly Roger Brotherhood. Oh and also, I’d like to my frigate leveled up from D-78 to C-99.”

“Why not just take
Alexandria
while you’re at it?” Anton grumbled, but I ignored his outburst. It was clear that in this company, Marina was the one making the decisions and she had listened to my demands without batting an eyelid. And if she was so impassive, then I could afford to be a bit more brazen.

“
Alexandria
would be too much for me, but I wouldn’t say no to four decent players from your database. I’d like to fill my crew and, anyway, you need to develop your potential crew members. But that’s just a preference I have—I’ll leave it entirely up to you. Coming back to my demands, I have one more. Among the data that I stole from the Training Sector, there’s something about a project codenamed KRIEG. I need to relay this information to a certain Precian named Rrgord. I’d like your help finding him and reaching him. As perhaps you understand, my Rapport with the Altan Alliance aren’t great at the moment…”

“There aren’t any off-planet missions in the Training Sector,” Marina interrupted me, finally showing some kind of response to my demands.

“There’s no Raq there either, or a frigate filled with it, or the possibility of dumping a bunch of data and getting off the planet with it. I agree with you—none of this exists or is possible, and yet here I am sitting in front of you. I guess I’m just a phantom…”

“What else?”

“I’d like us to make an alliance…”

“An alliance?” Marina interrupted, surprised. “Pirates don’t have allies.”

“That’s the problem. I have no assurances (and you can’t give me any ones I’ll accept) that as soon as we get back into our frigate you won’t blast us to spacedust. I don’t want to fight you. I want to fight with you.”

“You have engines that I need for my ship,” Marina shrugged. “Once they’ve been leveled to class-A, they’ll provide 35% more power than we have at the moment. Giving them up is off the table. It’s too much.”

“If it’s off the table, what can you give me instead?” I backpedaled, perfectly understanding the captain of
Alexandria
. “How about engines that aren’t quite as powerful but still better than the cheap crap that was there by default.”

“If we level your frigate to C-class, we’ll be able to give you the engines that are currently on
Alexandria
. They’re advanced modifications of A-class proton thrusters. They’ll let you jump to hyperspace in forty seconds. They’re a little weaker than the prototypes on your
The Space Cucumber
, as you call it. Will you be happy with that exchange?”

“Completely,” I agreed with the girl.

“Then we move on to the Raq. I can’t let you go with fifty tons of Raq—I’ll be laughed out of the game if people find out. I will take 60% of the Raq and in exchange provide you with A-class marine armors. And you can consider me onboard with your crew request—you’re right, we do need to train our reserves and there’s no room on
Alexandria
. We can see how they handle themselves.”

Commerce really is my game. Very much so. But for Marina, it was more than a game—commerce was just that, commerce. The more I learned about this girl, the more I realized that in
Runlustia
I would have carried her in my arms, marching happily under her banner. Leaders like her were worth their weight in gold.

“I’ll introduce you to Hilvar no problem—he’s an ordinary local-intermediary. But meeting the Corsican will present difficulties. Before he agrees to meet with you, you’ll have to prove your mettle as a pirate. Hilvar will add to your status in that regard. By the way, why are you interested in the Corsican?”

“A personal mission that has nothing to do with piracy at all. I am looking for a certain bit of information, but you’re right: It’s better to have positive Rapport by the time I do discover it. Hilvar will suffice…What about that Precians then?”

“Well, when it comes to project KRIEG, you’ve piqued my interest and I’d like to know how you received that assignment. Specifically, I don’t want you to tell me how it happened—I want to see how it happened. That’s my only condition.”

“What can I say…” I had to make up my mind quickly, so I weighed the pros and cons and finally projected the episode in question onto the screen. I was in
Galactogon
for a specific reason, after all, and this reason had nothing at all to do with the missions I got along the way. I needed to find that planet.

“There’s no solitary in the Training Sector,” Marina said, sounding less sure already. “How did you get there?”

“Forgive me, Marina, but I was hoping to sell that information. We still haven’t decided the issue of allying ourselves—or at least declaring neutrality and non-aggression—and you’re already trying to pry this info from me. Keep in mind that I paid for it myself. Maybe I paid for the wrong guide that made no mention of solitary, but I spent real money all the same and not a small amount of it.”

“You could have bought information about the tournament,” Marina instantly replied. “It’s frequently sold to starting players, but solitary…Hang on, we need to talk this over…”

Once again, the three players signed out of the game, leaving us alone with the help.

“Surgeon, why didn’t you mention that mission to me?” Lestran instantly inquired.

“Because you and I never had time to talk at any length,” I responded. “Remember? First we had to flee, then we were resting and after that came the battle. I simply didn’t have time to tell you. It’s not like I asked you to leave the room to keep this secret from you now. You’re my partner and I want you to know everything that…”

“Oh-oh-oh! Thank you!”

My partner’s face flushed with such a sincere smile that I couldn’t keep myself from asking, “Listen, maybe it’s a dumb and rude question, but…how old are you anyway?”

“Fifteen,” blushed Lestran. “I—I graduated three years earlier than my grade. You could say that I’m using you for your recommendation. I still have a year before I go to university. They don’t take squirts like me. So I bought myself a
Galactogon
capsule.”

“Got it. So you decided to become a pirate to prove that you can be as bad as your friends?”

“Well…” It seemed like Lestran couldn’t blush any further, and yet he did, turning almost purple.

“Okay, I agree!” At this point, Marina returned with her officers. “We will introduce you to Hilvar, help you complete some of his assignments and then you’ll earn pirate status. Then we’ll be able to enter into an alliance. But my condition stands—I want to know how you found your way into solitary. And I want to know now.”

Shrugging my shoulders, I went back to the first moments of my time in the game and projected them onto the screen. If they wanted to see, let them.

“When are you guys online?” I asked my new crew. Like we agreed, Marina had provided me with some players who needed extra training, and thereby filled out
The Space Cucumber
: two gunners named Haggis and Tristan, a shieldsman named Wally, a marine named Miloš, Lestran the engineer and me—the captain. The crew of
The Space Cucumber
at your service.

“Twelve hours a day,” the newcomers replied practically in unison. I don’t know what the girl had told them, but they were behaving as if their future pirate careers hinged on my every word. I had no doubts that at least one of the newcomers would report everything that happened aboard
The Space Cucumber
to the necessary parties, but I took a philosophical view of this fact: If I know ahead of time, I’d nothing to lose. I could safely reckon the four to be planted agents, while Lestran was a deserter, regardless of his age. That would be peace of mind enough for me.

“Excellent. Repairs to our ship will be complete in about an hour. Who has any suggestions for upgrades?”

“Is there enough money?” Haggis said offhand. “We can replace two of the beamers with electromagnetic cannons. That’ll let us deal with shields a little better. But luxuries like that don’t come cheap. We can also install a flycatcher…”

“A what?”

“A lockdown generator. A device that’ll let us capture torpedoes and small enemy ships. It’s a nice little gizmo when you’re fighting one-on-one, but it costs as much as…Well, it’s only a matter of money, really. Finding a use for it won’t be a problem.”

“Well then we’ll see how much you flycatcher and the EM cannons cost once we get to Qirlats. Miloš, do you have an armor suit?”

“Class-A, Level 2. There’s an armorer aboard
Alexandria
who can hammer out suits nonstop. Marina gives them out to anyone she deems worthy.”

Making a mental note that the marine on my crew was a special one, I turned to the player who was to manage the shields station.

“What do you say, Wally? What do we need to change to make our game go better?”

“You want me to be honest?” smirked Wally. “Or do you want me to tell you what you want to hear?”

“Let’s do honesty. What’s the point of listening to idle praises? I can sing them myself.”

“Speaking honestly, this isn’t a ship. It’s more of a newb-level tub. The only thing worth anything here were the engines. But those are gone now too. Sure, we’ve got upgraded A-class engines on the frigate now, and that’s more than enough—but all you have to do is recall what it was like flying with the B-class prototypes. I had time to look at the video of how you did, so…The ship’s powercore requires only one thing—we need to take it and scrap it. The outboard sensors need to be modified—any interceptor can knock them out and then we’ll be dead in the water. The ship computers were fatally out of date last year already. They need to be updated as well…I won’t even say anything about the backup feed circuit and the electrical system in general. We need to deal with those first of all. The powercore needs a second shielded circuit, which simply isn’t there at the moment…Damn—there’s an ungodly amount of work here! My estimate is that the cost of the upgrades will come in at around eight hundred grand, no less.”

“Is that including Haggis’s suggested armaments, or just what you need?” I asked discouraged. When I stole the frigate I had no idea that it was so insufficient. I was even surprised that we had managed to knock out those two scouts.

“No, that’s just what I’d need. Don’t know much about cannons, but I’d guess that they’d come in at three hundred as well.”

“Five-twenty,” Haggis butted in, “and that’s without the flycatcher and with Marina putting in a good word for us. The locals want crazy prices for A-class equipment.”

“And so,” I summarized, “in order for you to stop thinking of
The Space Cucumber
as a tub, we need to spend 1.3 million GCs on upgrades?”

“Well…” Lestran spoke up. “Since everyone’s getting presents here, I’d like to add that I need a new repair bay. More precisely, I need one in general. The ship doesn’t have one at the moment. We’re at C-class with 6 free slots for various toys. We can spare one for repairs. Then we’ll be able to survive a direct torpedo hit, for example. How much it costs though, I have no idea.”

“I looked at the torpedoes,” Tristan threw in his word. It looked like the whole crew were out for blood. “We might as well launch them all at the closest star and walk away happy that it has more fuel to stoke its fires. Currently, we’re equipped with low quality, underpowered and easily destroyed dummies. I’m amazed that you managed to kill those scouts with them. If we change the auto-loading system and the torpedoes, we’ll be able to increase our firepower by two or three times and increase our torpedo capacity to forty without having to reconfigure the ship.”