Seara Burke's Story

The woman sat at the bar, twisting the whiskey glass in between her fingertips. Her grey eyes seemed somewhat distant, as if her thoughts were in a system far from this place. In a way, they were. "You!" A man called, snapping her back to reality. "Welp.. Thar goes th' peace.." She said, standing up from her stool. It was obvious she had more than that one glass of whiskey. She faced the DED agent, wobbling as she pulled up her fists and swung.

Half an hour later, the door to the room with Jade and Church were in would be kicked open by the same DED agent, who now had a black eye, dragging a kicking and screaming woman who was crying bloody murder over being dragged in the first place. "LET. ME. GO---Oof!" Seara was tossed into the room, flat on her back. "Thanks for nearly draggin' me 'alf the bloody station on my 'ead." She growled, flicking him the bird when the agent had turned his back to her and left.

She then turned to her audience, straightening her jacket and wiping the blood from her split lip off her chin. "Well then." She grumbled. "Looks like I've been brought to the place and the thing I was so carefully avoidin' so we could just skip to the point where I fly off to the sunset, eh.. No good at introductions. I'm the one they 'ired to fly ya around... Name's Seara."

The DED agents turned to Seara as she was tossed into the room. The man dragging her bled heavily from his nose and he gave her a few choice words. "Fekkik! Shliznat! Tá tú a bheith íoctha cheana féin! You have already been paid!", he stated before he left the room and the door slid closed behind him.

Lynch spoke up. "This is Seara Burke she is a...", she said and paused long as she looked for the word. ".. a taistealaí, a traveler..." Daly, the male agent spoke next. "She can navigate unstable wormholes. She is not with CONCORD and she knows Ayenee and Eden as well as any of us." Seara had been paid a hefty sum, thee-hundred million interstellar credits at the start and promised three-hundred million more if she insured they did not perish during their stay in Onyx.

Lynch motioned for Church and Seara to follow and lead them into another room with a recessed cell. A man lay on a bunk in a holding cell separated from the rest of the room by a shimmering field of force. "We will leave you to your work. Please remember that 'we' do not practice or condone the use torture or mental invasion when 'we' question criminals here Ayenee. It is considered as invasive as rape." Lynch nodded and left the room.

Letch sat up in his bunk and looked at them through the force field. "What do you want harpooda?", he said as he stared hard at Church.

Fekkik - (slang) stupid waif; naive fool; dipshit, arse.

Shliznat - Supposed combination that means shit head or stupid fuck.

Harpooda - extremely offensive curse word, making other curse words pale in comparison. The exact meaning is intentionally vague, as a joke. In context, it seems to be a noun for someone who performs an utterly disgusting sex act.

Taistealaí - Ayen (Irish) - Traveler - A human gifted with the ability to navigate unstable wormholes. They are also called Iarrthóir. The ability is extremely rare and only found among the human population of Ayenee and Eden.

"I've got questions for you." Agent Church said to Letch, "Were you acting on the behalf of any groups in your terrorist efforts? He asked, "I'm a freelancer, I'm not going after that. It just seems that some things you were connected to found their way to other areas. Areas my employers care about in their own way." Church told the man.

"Alec Egivand. Do you know him?" Church asked, stepping closer and closer to Letch. "He's a person of interest for some people, my boss included. Oh! Do you know a Grace Rosenthal?" The Scatteran asked.

"I need some answers. It'll help me out."

He stood up and spat in the toilet on one side of the cell. "No. I don't know anyone named Alec Egivand and I don't know Grace Rosenthal but everyone knows the last name." Seara would be able to confirm that everyone in Ayenee knew the Rosenthal name.

This Letch Gordon had been cut off from news media since he was captured the same day he died and was revived by the Taiyou in SOL, the same day of the bombing. "You Terran? Scatteran? Who are you?" He sighed. "It doesn't matter. I was a smuggler. I am no terrorist."

"Scatterran UCON national. But, like I said, I'm freelance these days. More money in mercenary work. I'm a lot like you. Not a criminal, but then again that depends on who you ask." Church said to Letch, "Some people don't make the distinction these days. You've helped out terrorist groups, right? Smuggled for them?"

"For many people that's you being complicit with terrorists, with criminals, with killers, even if only for money." The Scatteran agent told Letch, "Any idea who hired you for your last few jobs?" Church asked, "Or do you use a middleman?" He continued, "You from Ayenee originally?" He asked.

"Terrorist? Just like you said, it depends who you ask. CONCORD counts many of the people I have dealt with in the past as terrorists. I would wager some of the damned empires fund CAID or others like them for their nobel causes. I work for anyone that pays well enough but my shipment was for SOCO. They hired me. I picked up the job in Wicked Creek and took on a few crew members, inlcuding that bitch of a first mate who shot me in the back and put me out the airlock."

He sat back down on his bunk. "My cargo was Terran spirits, cigaretts, and chocolate.", he said, chuckled, and put his head in his hands. "My cargo was hardly illegal and the pay was excellent. I wasn't carrying anything like the bomb I have been told hit the bridge on Terra.

He looked up to Church. "I was born in Ayenee. Why?"

"I'm just asking because there's more than a few warmongers who might use you to start a war. Some minds can create elaborate lies." Church told the prisoner, "State-sponsored terrorism isn't far out there sometimes." He continued, starting to pace back and forth across the room.

"You were in the military before?" Agent Church asked, "You called yourself 'captain' during that encounter with the SEC." He said, "Or is that a pirate thing?" The Invictus agent asked, eyes finding the floor as he moved.

"Who do you think was behind the bombing? The one on Terra?"

He laughed. "They didn't tell you did they?", he smiled, stood, walked over to the barrier of force, and cross his arms across his chest. "I was a warden of CONCORD. I was a commander and being that I wanted a promotion I gave myself one when I took that ship. I am not into murder unless I have no other choice. I am especially not into genocide. Not in a million frelling cycles would I have done any job like dropping that bomb on Terra."

He turned back to his bunk and in a few short steps he had sat back down. "You stepped into a big pile of dren coming to Ayenee. Any one of the empires could have organized that attack rather easily. Any null security organization could have done it just as easy as any large corporation in high security space." He shrugged. "Espionage and back room dealing is the way of Ayenee. The fear of the unknown keeps the peace more so than CONCORD does. You want my advise? Go to Wicked Creek. Talk to 'M'. She is the leader of SOCO. If you find Saoirse Flynn shoot her in the back and push her out the airlock.", he said with some degree of anger.

dren: Equivalent to "shit", or an unwanted substance or act.

frell: Used as a replacement for the coarse Anglo-Saxon monosyllable indicating sexual intercourse, both directly and idiomatically.

"You think it's a conspiracy?" Church asked, "I mean, it could be. Like I said, state terrorism isn't that far out there." The agent told Letch, ending his pacing in favor of approaching the barrier. "I'll go see this... uh, 'M' person. I'll see what they have to say." He said.

"See if they can confirm that Ayenee is as bad as you make it sound." The Scatteran man said, "Anyone else you think I should talk to? Anything you've heard or seen before you got locked up?

"Everything in Ayenee is a conspiracy! It is super-capitalism at its finest.", replied Letch as he threw up his arms. "Go see her." Letch sighed. "It is funny you mentioned the Rosenthal name. I knew he had a daughter and I would have told you to talk to John Rosenthal if he were still alive. He was known to have a soft spot for Terra for some reason but I never met his daughter. John has a brother though. He works for 'M'. His name is Alric."

Letch eventually shook his head. "I died, woke up, and then I was in custody."

"Thank you for your time, Mr. Gordon." Agent Church told Letch, "If anything of importance comes to mind, just ask for me. Anything you can give, or remember, will help." He continued, "For now, I'm going to follow up on these leads." He told Letch before he turned to walk away.

"If Flynn gives me a reason, I'll shoot her for you." He said.