The Diary of Kain - Chapter Seven
After a grueling day in the desert, I'd returned to Redhaven dehydrated, sunburned and suffering from heat exhaustion. After a shower, a cold beer, a good meal and a long nap, and with the help of my MedKit, I was feeling much better.
[Hearten: +Heart, 6+3 vs 4 and 8. +1 Spirit (+5)]
[Heal: +Wits, 4+2 vs 1 and 3. +1 Health (+5)]
Breaker came back in the morning, his face serious. He had some shocking news for me. My situation was worse than I ever could have expected.
[Gather Information: +Wits. 4+2 vs 3 and 3. Strong Hit with a Match! +2 Momentum (+7)]
[Sector Trouble: (6) Bounty Hunters search for an infamous fugitive.]
The "Interstellar Institute for Social Sciences" had marked me as an 'Extremely Dangerous' target, 'Dead or Alive'. The individual in the bar was a bounty hunter, and apparently not the only one after me. Naturally, the Institute wouldn't want to get the Keepers involved. Bounty Hunters didn't care who I was or why I was marked. They didn't care why an allegedly academic organization would put a DOA bounty on a fugitive.
When I first met Breaker, it was merely a mutual business relationship. But we had worked together, fought together. Now, he was the only friend I had, and the only person I could trust. I owed him the truth.
I told him that the Institute was a clandestine bio-weapons research facility, and that their focus was the study of latent Paragons, in the hope of replicating their talents. I told him about the file I had found, how I had manifested these talents to aid my escape from them. I mentioned how one was my 'fight' response and the other was my 'flight' response. Half-jokingly, he suggested I work on anger management.
Then I mentioned the physical symptoms I feel when I'm trying to restrain my talents, and how I had felt when we were on Arrakoth. I had thought it was just from the heat and the dust, but it really felt like something in the air.
Breaker struggled for a moment. "That's a lot to take in," he said. Then he told me what had been in the crate we brought back from Arrakoth. It was a naturally-occurring psychoactive mineral. Users called it 'Trip', and reported feeling some kind of 'connection to the Higher Mind.' It has only been found on Arrakoth, and illegal to possess or transport. It's why Arrakoth is a Restricted Zone and why the miners were there covertly. It was why Customs had shaken Spanner down for a cut yesterday.
Which led into the other thing he wanted to talk about. To stay safe and carry out my quest for vengeance, I would need more than a hacked transponder and a bank account under an alias. I would need a whole new identity.
Breaker didn't have those kind of connections in Redhaven, but he knew of someone who might be able to help. "She is a client of mine," he said, "and she goes by the name of 'Whiz'. She's the one I'm supposed to ship the Trip to. She operates out of a hidden station called Nyx, in uncharted space." Whiz would be more inclined to help if she felt I was trustworthy, and completing this delivery would help considerably in that regard.
I toyed with my pendant. I didn't really want to be a smuggler, but Breaker had gotten me this far. If I didn't do this, he'd have to hire someone else to do the run anyway. I could help him and myself at the same time. If Whiz could help me become Ashton Frost and get these bounty hunters off my trail, I'd do what I had to do.
I clenched the medallion in my palm. "Breaker, I swear on Iron that I will do everything in my power to deliver this Trip to Whiz on Nyx."
[Swear an Iron Vow: Deliver Trip to Whiz on Nyx. Dangerous. + Heart, +1 for connection. 2+4 vs 3 and 4. Strong Hit. +2 Momentum (+9)]
"Thank you, Hellion. I know I can trust you to see this through. You've put your life on the line for me and never let me down. There's something else I want to show you." He led me back to the cargo bay and dragged a heavy crate of parts out of the way. He unscrewed the deck plate to reveal a small hidden compartment, large enough to hide a standard size cargo crate. This had been one of the modifications they had made when he and Spanner had worked on the ship.
That night, they returned quietly, loaded the crate of Trip into the secret cubby, and then stacked the heaviest crates around and atop it. Then, Breaker handed me a small disc. "Give Whiz this message when you find her. Your ship's computer has all the data I've got on how to find Nyx. I wish I could join you on this. You could use the help. If you make it through all of this, I hope you'll come back to Redhaven some time. This place can be your home. Stay safe, my friend, and Luck be with you." He grasped my hand, and then turned away and left me alone once more.
I didn't feel ready for this task - but if I was going to take down the Institute, I needed to catch them unawares. I also needed get these bounty hunters off my trail. Until I destroyed the Institute once and for all, Azriel Kain would have to die and Ashton Frost would need to be born.
[Ending Stats: Momentum +9 Health +5 Spirit +5 Supply +5]