First Impressions

He struck me again, and I took the time to gather the blood in my mouth before I spit it out. He cracked his knuckles, and took a step back before questioning me again. Silhouetted against the bright light shining behind him, I couldn’t make out any of his features. Only his gruff voice let me know he was a man.

“Once more, and don’t lie to me, scum,” he ordered me. I sighed heavily. I had told him countless times that I was not scum, but he would not have any of it. I had told him my name several times already, but he wouldn’t listen. I gave him a harsh look, and began my story again.

--

“Raphael, come here!” I heard someone shout as I disembarked from the shuttle at our mining site on Lossa I. I turned to see who it was, and saw my old friend Gabriel Zakros shouting and waving me over excitedly. Seeing the usually morose Gabriel excited about something made me very curious, so I hurried as fast as I could in the bulky heat gear over to where he and a few others were standing.

“Look at what third crew dug up. It’s amazing!” Gabriel said excitedly as I reached the small group of miners. In the crate they were gathered around, a large red crystal glowed softly in the twilight. A dark shape in the middle revealed that something was inside, encased. Gabriel started again “Do you have any idea what it is?” his voice soft now, as if discussing something secret.

“I haven’t the slightest. Was there more?” I replied, not taking my eyes off of the object. I reached towards it, but stopped, as if afraid.

“Yes. Third crew is still excavating the stuff,” another answered.

“Let’s get down there and relive them. It’s been seven and a half hours. We’ll finish the exhuming,” I ordered, pulling my eyes away from the find, almost reluctantly.

We spent the next few hours mining deep within the hot interior of the charred planet. Our headgear could only protect us for a shift of about 8 hours, any longer would be fatal. The mining equipment had to be rotated out as well, and repaired in-between uses to remain in working order. Despite the advanced mining lasers at our disposal, mining in these tunnels was still a very physically demanding labor, and to prolong the life of the heat gear, we kept a temperature of 100 degrees in the suit. Water was administered intravenously to prevent dehydration.

Once we had finished extracting the crystal, we had it transported back to our mining station orbiting Lossa III. However, to make all of the effort worth it, I needed to find a buyer. Having indentified the crystal as a rare mineral, I contacted our usual clients to get bids. One buyer noticed the picture of the original crystal I had sent out, and was willing to pay quite a lot for our find. He gave us a discreet location to go to, and assured us it was for the safety of the involved parties, as a find as rare as this one was likely to attract unwanted attention if not done with caution. I had the crystals loaded into a Bestower, relieved the usual captain of the vessel, deciding that I would oversee this trip myself, as the payoff could catapult my company from a backwater supplier to a major player. My father built this company from the ground up, and I would improve it to ensure his legacy.

Our trip over to Sarum was uneventful, but the excitement of the deal made it of no importance. As we reached our destination and began a slowly descending orbit, I cleared our arrival with customs. When we reached planet side, I arranged for a smaller transport to take it to the desired destination, and a shuttle for me and several other miners who were to help with the unloading.

When we got there, we disembarked and began unloading the transport, it and the shuttle leaving together once we finished. We all now stood about a dark, empty warehouse, the crystal glowing softly around us. I felt uneasy. Where was the buyer? His employees? Anybody?
“Thank you for bringing it here,” a voice echoed softly. I turned towards the direction it came from, and saw several shapes emerging from the shadows. “Please, show me the crystal I saw in that picture.”

Uncomfortable, but unwilling to blow the sale, I motioned for one of my miners to carry it over to me. As I received it, I held it up. The shape in the middle, who I assumed to be the speaker, approached me, his face lighting up in the glow of the crystal. Well dressed and well groomed, he struck the image of a noble.

“It is lovelier than I would have ever imagined,” he cooed, stroking the crystal.

“Do you know what it is?” I inquired, wondering why it was so valuable to him.

“It is an ancient holy artifact. Thought lost to the ages,” he replied, not taking his eyes off of the crystal.

“What?” I did not understand. How could this mass of crystals be a holy artifact? “These crystals are artifacts?”

“No, this,” he said as he held up a light to the back of the crystal, shining it through. What I had thought to be a mere rock encased in the original crystal was now shown to be a small statuette, perfectly preserved. “Now,” he said, quickly turning around while clutching the crystal to his chest, his voice soft but stern, “dispose of them, and the rest of the garbage they brought with them.” The rest of the shapes now lifted their guns, taking aim.

I took a step back, wondering what I had gotten myself into. Suddenly, there was a crash as the windows, once caked with dirt, shattered above us and showered the shapes with glass and dust. Heavily armed soldiers stormed in through behind us, others rappelling through the holes in the roof. I immediately threw myself to the ground, my miners doing the same. The noble’s guards opened fire, the soldiers doing the same. I felt a sharp pressure on my back as I was pinned by the knee of one the soldiers. One of my miners tried to get up and run, but was soon cut down, and fell back to the floor, lifeless. Yelling through the gunfire, I ordered the rest to stay put, and they too were soon pinned.

Soon, the gunfight was over, the noble lying lifeless on top of the crystal, his guards littering the floor. I looked up, noticing that there were no bodies of the soldiers. They were now securing the building, and checking the bodies for any sign of life. I heard “mercy shots” ring out as they searched.

“Sir, what do we do with the ones that did not resist?” The soldier pinning me asked his commander.

“Execute them. There is no crime on Sarum III.”

I heard the cocking of the gun pointed at the back of my head and my mind raced. Were we just rescued from the noble, only to die at the hands of our supposed rescuers? I quickly tried to say something, but nothing came.

“Hold it, Martyr,” the officer commanded. “There might be more conspirators. Bring them back for questioning.”

--

“You know the rest. You took me here, and despite everything, continue to try and beat your version of the truth out of me, but as God as my witness, I have told nothing but the truth,” I finished, trying to look him in the eye, my own straining against the bright light.

“Customs cleared you for it looked like nothing but pure morphite in your cargo bay, but a small unknown signature caused them to alert us and follow you to your deal. The fact that a noble is involved is disgrace enough, but you expect me to believe you came all the way here to sell it? Who in Tash-Murkon has no need for morphite?” He berated me, his voice loud and commanding. He raised his hand for another punch, but I cut him off.

“We didn’t know what it was at first. This morphite is denser and more pure. We asked our usual clients, but the noble on Sarum III, and as I said before, I didn’t know he was a noble at the time, gave us the highest bid, almost double the next highest. You’ve seen the picture we sent out. He recognized the artifact within. Our eyes were blinded by the morphite,” I replied, trying to keep my cool. I was scared when first brought in, but his rough manner and unwillingness to believe me soon turned it into anger. I was almost furious, but knew that losing it now meant losing my life.

The door opened, and another officer poked his head in. “Sir, we’ve cleared it. All of their stories are exactly the same, and all of their files only support them. We have nothing to indicate they knew of the illegal artifact.”

“That still does not explain why they chose such a suspicious spot,” my interrogator replied his voice filled with angry disbelief.

I glared up at him. “It was the buyer’s request. I agreed, wanting to sell the stuff. I told you his reasons for choosing the location.”

He turned towards me, and I could imagine the cold look he must have had in his eye. It seemed like eternity passed before he spoke again. “Fine, release him, but keep a close watch. Release the others as well.” He then walked out of the room, stopping to take one last look at me, his features still hidden.

After our release, we were all aching to get back to Lossa. However, our ship was impounded, “as evidence” they claimed, along with almost all of our money. My miners and I had to wait for the next shuttle to Lossa, which were few. We decided to try and cool off in a local bar, deciding to patronize one of the ‘lower’ establishments to avoid any of the police. We were each telling our stories of our interrogation; mine filled with hate towards my interrogator, the chief officer of force that ‘busted’ our ‘deal.’

“I wasn’t that bad,” a voice said from behind me with a slight laugh. I instantly recognized it as his, the interrogator’s. I quickly stood up and spun around, the other miners at my table rising as well. “You scum are all alike.”

No longer able to restrain myself, a combination of my newly kindled anger and a bottle of whiskey, I swung my fist and hit him square in the jaw, my punch having power from my life of hard labor. He stumbled a bit backwards, but did not fall. He took a second to spit out a bit of blood, and smiled at me.

“Not many are brave enough to strike an officer right after being found innocent. Especially since you’ve seen what we do with questionable types such as yourself,” he said, his cold eyes softening a bit as he sighs. “Let me buy you a drink, and you can explain to me again why you are innocent.”

I took his offer, for what reason I do not know. We ended up having a few drinks, talking about the events of the day, and past events in our life. Occasionally I’d look back at my table, and see the disapproving look on the faces of crew. I don’t know how it happened, but when my group and I left the bar, there was a certain understanding between us. We had a few things in common, and some similar worldviews. We kept in contact, first out of necessity, a few loose ends from the case, and later as friends, despite our less than friendly introduction.

The artifact was confiscated, but the morphite was eventually returned. We sold it to one of our usual clients, and I used the profits to invest in the company and give bonuses to the miners. I gave the family of the fallen miner twice his share, hoping to alleviate his absence, but I knew it was paltry compensation. All of the miners were close, and everyone pitched in with helping the family. I saved my share, and eventually used it to pay for the process to become a capsuleer. That choice, while a combination of a few factors, did have some influence from my new friend on Sarum III, Garst Tyrell.