The Respite, A Dive Bar In Boomtown, Emape
Date: 1088-200
The bar is empty. It has not been opened for days. Dust has gathered on every horizontal surface. There are bullet holes on surfaces, tables overturned, wreckage of furniture on the floor. The wall mirror behind the bar has been smashed. There are no intact optics on the rack in front of the wall mirror.
Jerdehl seems to step into the room from out of nowhere. She looks for Nostrum, but there is no sign of the barkeep.
Jerdehl: "Nostrum? Birien?" She looks around. "Kem? Anybody?" For a moment, she scans the room telepathically. She breathes out. "No life signs. Nobody scanning the place."
She turns over an upturned table. There is a blood stain underneath. It looks smeared, as if a body had been dragged.
Jerdehl keeps looking, until she turns over a chair and finds a piece of paper, wrapped around a data wafer. She inserts it into her comm and plays back the voice of Birien Lenka.
Lenka: "Jerdehl, if you're listening to this ... it's over. I just got word in from one of my contacts from out of town. The Marines are going insane. It was the bombing of the Darrian Embassy. They've just gone nuts. They're cracking down on every Ine Givar cell and sympathiser they have a record on."
Lenka: (pauses) "Jerdehl, I am so so sorry for Enos."
Jerdehl: (lets out a sob)
Lenka: (pauses) "Jerdehl, we are pretty much done here. As far as we're concerned, there are no records of you. So the Impies aren't going to be chasing you. But there is something I think you need to know. It was about Kem Fuller." (Lenka pauses, glancing left and right) "Go to the Starport passenger terminal for Platform Seven. Repeat, Platform Seven. There is a locker there. The combo is on the slip of paper wrapped about this data wafer. Open it. You'll find another data wafer ... and other evidence."
Lenka: "I think Fuller set us up. I think he sold us out. Crow's dead. She planted the bomb, and I think it was under Kem's orders. Watch out for him. He's not the leader we all thought he was. I think he was an Innie plant. An agent. One of those agents provocateurs. And if he is, that means he knows who you are, and he'll have his men sent after you too."
A sound interrupts the playback. Jerdehl scans the back of the bar. Tenses.
A man enters the room, dressed in matt black leather, brandishing a pistol.
Hired Killer: "You Jerdehl Nishka?"
Jerdehl: "Yeah, I am." (concentrates)
Hired Killer: (begins to choke) (blood begins to emerge from his eyes, nose, mouth) (sinks to his knees, then topples over) (body begins to shiver)
Jerdehl: (reaches for the man) (touches his head)
The hired killer stops shaking; goes still. His body begins to wither. In seconds, it is a pile of dust in leather.
Jerdehl: "Never piss off a chekotlinad, you piece of shit." (steps over the dust) (resumes play)
Lenka: "Remember what I said. Go and find that evidence. You'll need it to protect yourself. As long as Kem fears you, you're his. The moment he ceases to fear you, you'll be dead. Run, honey. Run as far as you can." (indistinct noises in the background; sound like lots of people from the outside approaching at a dead run) "I'll hold them off as long as -"
(the recording cuts off)
Jerdehl: "Enos gone. Dad gone. Mum disappeared." (she looks at her comm) "Everyone I've come to know and love has gone." (she sighs) (she takes a step forward, and her body seems to vanish)
Emape Starport
Date: 1088-200
Security footage, Platform Seven Terminal locker room
The locker room bears the logo of the Travellers' Aid Society, indicating this facility is a TAS facility.
Jerdehl Nishka approaches a locker, taps in a combination, and withdraws a large black holdall. She checks to see that the locker is empty, then leaves.
Security footage, concourse immediately exterior to entrance to Platform Seven Terminal locker room
(bumps into Jerdehl) "Oh, sorry, Miss, I didn't see you." (pauses) "Jerdehl?"
Jerdehl: "Uncle Gustav?" She embraces the grizzled old Scout.
Scout Wornerin: "Jerdehl! How are you?"
Jerdehl: "Okay so far. It's been so long!"
Scout Wornerin: "Last time I saw you, you were, what? Eight?"
Jerdehl: "I know, right? How are you?"
Scout Wornerin: "I'm just great, but you just made me feel really old all of a sudden." (pauses) "Jerdehl, I heard the news. I am so so sorry for your losses."
Jerdehl nods, her eyes brimming with tears again.
Scout Wornerin: "Listen, I know you have Travellers' Aid membership. Your parents pulled some strings. But are you here for a reason?"
Jerdehl: "Yes. I'm heading out." She glances around. "There's nothing here for me any more."
Scout Wornerin: "I've got a room in my Scout ship. I'm heading out Rimward. I can drop you off at Strend."
Jerdehl: "That's outside the Imperium, isn't it?"
Scout Wornerin: "It is. It's only a month or two from here. Want to come with?"
Jerdehl: (opens the holdall, and finds that it is stuffed with cash) "Sure. Thanks, Uncle Gustav."
Scout Wornerin: "My pleasure. I owed your Dad an unerasable debt. Least I could do is help out his kid. Wheels up in thirty minutes."
