Nanofiction - Chronicles From the Frontier
- Those Who Hunt Shadows
- The Rule of the Lawless
- Fish
- Out There
- Uncle Henry's Home Brewed Hydrogen Fuel
- Alone in the Night
Chronicles From The Frontier
"Hy there. Name's Gabriel.
No, no; No need to tell me your name. I've found out long ago that, sometimes, the less you know, the safer you are. You know; I sit here in this bar at the edge of the Frontier, and, quite frankly, I am contempt to just tell my tales to those who long to hear 'em - no questions asked.
And it seems to me you're one of them, eh?
Heh.
So. Which story you wanna hear?"
***
No, no; No need to tell me your name. I've found out long ago that, sometimes, the less you know, the safer you are. You know; I sit here in this bar at the edge of the Frontier, and, quite frankly, I am contempt to just tell my tales to those who long to hear 'em - no questions asked.
And it seems to me you're one of them, eh?
Heh.
So. Which story you wanna hear?"
***
- Those Who Hunt Shadows
As the Vulture dropped out of Supercruise, the Commander thought: “This is my big day!” Deploying her hardpoints, she selected one of the two Anacondas escorting the Type 9 and started blasting away with her pulse laser.
“[LOCAL] Secure the cargo!” “[LOCAL] Don’t let her get to the Leviathan!”
She ignored the exchange happening in her chat window and proceeded with the assault. This Strong Signal Source certainly held something of extreme value… And she was going to have that, many thanks!
“Frameshift Charge Detected.”
“Oh, no you won’t!” She thought, as the Type 9 jumped away, leaving a High Energy Wake behind.
Spinning around and popping out her Wake Scanner, she aligned herself with the destination, dodging the Anacondas' combined firepower, jumping away into Witchspace.
Arriving at the destination star, she searched her console for the Lakon. “There you are!”, she thought, jumping in into the lone ship.
“[LOCAL] You again!?”
She readied her lasers, with the Type 9 in her crosshairs, when she noticed something else on her scanner. There was a canister just ejected from the targeted ship.
She maneuvered closer, and saw it.
Something like she had never seen before; It looked like some sort of… spore or fungus of some sort. It had a bulbous head, and a spike coming out of it, with many little cylinders arranged around it.
She kept staring at the... thing, mesmerized by it sheer weirdness, by how... Alien it looked... And then she heard the distinct sound of ships jumping in.
“[LOCAL] The Artifact corroded my hatch! Don’t let her get it!”
“[LOCAL] Understood, Leviathan”
And her ship shook with the power of the Plasma Accelerator blasts, and alarms and warnings and flashing lights were all around her, secondary explosions could be heard coming from behind the cockpit, and in the middle of all of this chaos, she typed in a final act of desperation:
“[LOCAL] What is that thing!?”
And the last thing she remembered seeing, was a single sentence on her comms:
“[DIRECT] This... is the beginning of the end.”
And darkness surrounded her.
“[LOCAL] Secure the cargo!” “[LOCAL] Don’t let her get to the Leviathan!”
She ignored the exchange happening in her chat window and proceeded with the assault. This Strong Signal Source certainly held something of extreme value… And she was going to have that, many thanks!
“Frameshift Charge Detected.”
“Oh, no you won’t!” She thought, as the Type 9 jumped away, leaving a High Energy Wake behind.
Spinning around and popping out her Wake Scanner, she aligned herself with the destination, dodging the Anacondas' combined firepower, jumping away into Witchspace.
Arriving at the destination star, she searched her console for the Lakon. “There you are!”, she thought, jumping in into the lone ship.
“[LOCAL] You again!?”
She readied her lasers, with the Type 9 in her crosshairs, when she noticed something else on her scanner. There was a canister just ejected from the targeted ship.
She maneuvered closer, and saw it.
Something like she had never seen before; It looked like some sort of… spore or fungus of some sort. It had a bulbous head, and a spike coming out of it, with many little cylinders arranged around it.
She kept staring at the... thing, mesmerized by it sheer weirdness, by how... Alien it looked... And then she heard the distinct sound of ships jumping in.
“[LOCAL] The Artifact corroded my hatch! Don’t let her get it!”
“[LOCAL] Understood, Leviathan”
And her ship shook with the power of the Plasma Accelerator blasts, and alarms and warnings and flashing lights were all around her, secondary explosions could be heard coming from behind the cockpit, and in the middle of all of this chaos, she typed in a final act of desperation:
“[LOCAL] What is that thing!?”
And the last thing she remembered seeing, was a single sentence on her comms:
“[DIRECT] This... is the beginning of the end.”
And darkness surrounded her.
- The Rule of the Lawless
“You lied”
“What?” The pilot turned around to face the mechanic. “This ship of yours - You said you ended up doing an Icarus Run when fuel scooping.” He pointed to the Sidewinder stored in the hangar. “I’ve seen a many sun-burned ships in my days, Kid. And this ain’t one of them”
“Hey man, I don’t know what you-“ “Those marks are beam laser carvings! Someone tried to pop you good, and you escaped.”
"Well, yeah... I lied, so what?"
"Are you stupid? You come to me, lie to my face, and expect me to help you!? How am I supposed to do business with someone I can't trust!?" The mechanic pointed his plasma torch to the pilot’s face. “I have a simple rule - I don’t care for who you are, where you’re from, or what you did; and I don't ask questions - but if you lie to me; You’re in for a bad time.”
“Hey! Ok! I - I can tell what I’ve been up to! Look, I was being followed by two Fed Eagles that interdicted me, because I scooped up a few gold canisters and-“
A white flash illuminated the cavernous hangar and a loud thump was heard. The smell of toasted and burnt meat filled the air.
“Oh, don’t worry, kid.” He stared the lifeless mass beneath his feet and then looked through a window to the red patched-eye skull hologram slowly spinning outside the outpost’s structure.
“I believe in you."
“What?” The pilot turned around to face the mechanic. “This ship of yours - You said you ended up doing an Icarus Run when fuel scooping.” He pointed to the Sidewinder stored in the hangar. “I’ve seen a many sun-burned ships in my days, Kid. And this ain’t one of them”
“Hey man, I don’t know what you-“ “Those marks are beam laser carvings! Someone tried to pop you good, and you escaped.”
"Well, yeah... I lied, so what?"
"Are you stupid? You come to me, lie to my face, and expect me to help you!? How am I supposed to do business with someone I can't trust!?" The mechanic pointed his plasma torch to the pilot’s face. “I have a simple rule - I don’t care for who you are, where you’re from, or what you did; and I don't ask questions - but if you lie to me; You’re in for a bad time.”
“Hey! Ok! I - I can tell what I’ve been up to! Look, I was being followed by two Fed Eagles that interdicted me, because I scooped up a few gold canisters and-“
A white flash illuminated the cavernous hangar and a loud thump was heard. The smell of toasted and burnt meat filled the air.
“Oh, don’t worry, kid.” He stared the lifeless mass beneath his feet and then looked through a window to the red patched-eye skull hologram slowly spinning outside the outpost’s structure.
“I believe in you."
- Fish
She stared incredulous at the report from the cargo scanner. "You are carrying... Over 450 tons... of fish?" The Type 9 in front of her, unarmed and unshielded, just looked a hole less appealing than it was a minute ago when she interdicted it.
"I... You see...", the other Commander spoke through the voice comms, "I was just moving. There is a project to haul a few million tons of machinery to an agri-world near the system I'm heading... I planned to set base there and... you know... help the co-"
"No, I get this part. But fish!? Why fish, of all things!?"
"Well, they are an industrial world, so I thought that they'd may need food and..."
"Oh. My. Cobra. How in the name of Braben did you manage to pile money to buy a Type 9? You have the trading skills of a goldfish!" She breathed deeply and exhaled a sigh. "Look; Here's the thing - Before entering my current and slightly more... shadow-y business, I was a trader too." She maneuvered her MKIII and stopped in front of the Lakon's cockpit. "You need to learn to take into account not only the economy of your destination - you need to figure out what the worlds around it do too. If they have mining systems nearby an industry world, ores and minerals won't be as valuable as it'd first appear. Checking on my map, it seems the place you're heading is surrounded by agri-worlds." She stared the man through the canopies, "Your fish won't be worth nearly as much as you though it would."
The other Commander stayed silent for a bit. "Wha... Why are you..."
"Shush you."
A small pause.
"Listen; you need to learn to evaluate things better before you start buying tons of nearly worthless cargo and jumpin' around in a sitting..." She looked at the metal hulk floating in front of her, thinking 'duck' wasn't the best term to describe it. "... Cow. Anyhow - a safe bet for you would be consumer technology. You'd surely have made a healthy amount of money trading that in a one-way trip. Industrial worlds always need some."
The two kept staring at each other for a few moments.
"Well.", she said, "Seems there is no profit for me here." She spun her Cobra around and started to accelerate away to engage super cruise.
"Wait!" he asked. She stared at the little hologram of the Lakon on her dashboard, considering for a second. Fine..., she thought, and decelerated to a stop, pitching in place to face the Type 9 again. "Yes?"
"Just... Why?" his voice had a confused tone to it. "I mean; why would you go through the trouble of explaining all this to me? What benefit do you get by doing this?"
She grinned, spun around and engaged the super cruise countdown. "You see - I'm a pirate. I make money off of other's cargo." Her smile widened. "If the traders I steal from are doing runs that yeld bad profits... I'll have bad profits too."
"5, 4, 3..."
"Bye, sweetie." She said with a giggle.
And just like that, the Cobra was gone, leaving a mildly confused trader to think of what just happened.
"Huh."
"I... You see...", the other Commander spoke through the voice comms, "I was just moving. There is a project to haul a few million tons of machinery to an agri-world near the system I'm heading... I planned to set base there and... you know... help the co-"
"No, I get this part. But fish!? Why fish, of all things!?"
"Well, they are an industrial world, so I thought that they'd may need food and..."
"Oh. My. Cobra. How in the name of Braben did you manage to pile money to buy a Type 9? You have the trading skills of a goldfish!" She breathed deeply and exhaled a sigh. "Look; Here's the thing - Before entering my current and slightly more... shadow-y business, I was a trader too." She maneuvered her MKIII and stopped in front of the Lakon's cockpit. "You need to learn to take into account not only the economy of your destination - you need to figure out what the worlds around it do too. If they have mining systems nearby an industry world, ores and minerals won't be as valuable as it'd first appear. Checking on my map, it seems the place you're heading is surrounded by agri-worlds." She stared the man through the canopies, "Your fish won't be worth nearly as much as you though it would."
The other Commander stayed silent for a bit. "Wha... Why are you..."
"Shush you."
A small pause.
"Listen; you need to learn to evaluate things better before you start buying tons of nearly worthless cargo and jumpin' around in a sitting..." She looked at the metal hulk floating in front of her, thinking 'duck' wasn't the best term to describe it. "... Cow. Anyhow - a safe bet for you would be consumer technology. You'd surely have made a healthy amount of money trading that in a one-way trip. Industrial worlds always need some."
The two kept staring at each other for a few moments.
"Well.", she said, "Seems there is no profit for me here." She spun her Cobra around and started to accelerate away to engage super cruise.
"Wait!" he asked. She stared at the little hologram of the Lakon on her dashboard, considering for a second. Fine..., she thought, and decelerated to a stop, pitching in place to face the Type 9 again. "Yes?"
"Just... Why?" his voice had a confused tone to it. "I mean; why would you go through the trouble of explaining all this to me? What benefit do you get by doing this?"
She grinned, spun around and engaged the super cruise countdown. "You see - I'm a pirate. I make money off of other's cargo." Her smile widened. "If the traders I steal from are doing runs that yeld bad profits... I'll have bad profits too."
"5, 4, 3..."
"Bye, sweetie." She said with a giggle.
And just like that, the Cobra was gone, leaving a mildly confused trader to think of what just happened.
"Huh."
- Out There
He checked the Galaxy Map to lock on to his next destination, and realized he was now over 25000 Light-Years from civilized space.
"Hoo-Rah" He said to no one, with the same excitement one would expect from an asteroid chunk. "I'm a Marco Polo now" he thought.
He had been awake for the last 20 hours, navigating, scanning and jumping through a region particularly full of brown dwarfs. He was finally leaving these Badlands behind, heading to a gas stop, an unremarkable yellow dwarf. After scooping up a bit, he might even try pushing a bit longer into the Dark before calling it a day. Yawning, he aligned his Adder to his destination and throttled up.
"Frameshift Drive Charging"
He heard the usual rumble of the hyperdrive charging up, the familiar - and somewhat annoying by now - voice announcing the countdown, and finally, the THUMP of being propelled into Hyperspace. Or Witchspace. Or whatever the hell that place was.
He stared blankly and with heavy eyes the tunnel of what seemed like spiraling nebulae and stars swirling around him, engulfing his ship while his instruments tried helplessly to read the unreadable. Whisper sounds could be heard as the lightning-like flashes shone his cockpit with their creepy light, and he wondered, yet again, how the hell there could be whisper sounds if he was in space...
... Until he saw, briefly illuminated by one of the flashes, something above his ship, floating by his side. His eyes widened, as the ghost image of an octagon backlit by lightning was imprinted in his eyes. He helplessly looked at his scanner, to no use. And then he heard it. Coming through his radio system speaker's a deafening shrike echoed in his ears, and looking again through the cockpit, his spine froze. The enormous eight-sided ship hang in front of his puny Adder, charging towards him at great speed. He shut his eyes close and screamed in terror, the shriek still hammering into his ears...
... And when he opened his eyes again, his ship glided slowly in super cruise toward the unremarkable yellow dwarf in front of him.
He blinked many times and wiped his eyes, trying to figure out what he had witnessed, before finally coming to a mind-blowing conclusion: "I desperately need some rest."
Dropping into normal space and shutting down the Adder's non-essential systems, he headed to his bunk - and some well deserved sleep.
"Hoo-Rah" He said to no one, with the same excitement one would expect from an asteroid chunk. "I'm a Marco Polo now" he thought.
He had been awake for the last 20 hours, navigating, scanning and jumping through a region particularly full of brown dwarfs. He was finally leaving these Badlands behind, heading to a gas stop, an unremarkable yellow dwarf. After scooping up a bit, he might even try pushing a bit longer into the Dark before calling it a day. Yawning, he aligned his Adder to his destination and throttled up.
"Frameshift Drive Charging"
He heard the usual rumble of the hyperdrive charging up, the familiar - and somewhat annoying by now - voice announcing the countdown, and finally, the THUMP of being propelled into Hyperspace. Or Witchspace. Or whatever the hell that place was.
He stared blankly and with heavy eyes the tunnel of what seemed like spiraling nebulae and stars swirling around him, engulfing his ship while his instruments tried helplessly to read the unreadable. Whisper sounds could be heard as the lightning-like flashes shone his cockpit with their creepy light, and he wondered, yet again, how the hell there could be whisper sounds if he was in space...
... Until he saw, briefly illuminated by one of the flashes, something above his ship, floating by his side. His eyes widened, as the ghost image of an octagon backlit by lightning was imprinted in his eyes. He helplessly looked at his scanner, to no use. And then he heard it. Coming through his radio system speaker's a deafening shrike echoed in his ears, and looking again through the cockpit, his spine froze. The enormous eight-sided ship hang in front of his puny Adder, charging towards him at great speed. He shut his eyes close and screamed in terror, the shriek still hammering into his ears...
... And when he opened his eyes again, his ship glided slowly in super cruise toward the unremarkable yellow dwarf in front of him.
He blinked many times and wiped his eyes, trying to figure out what he had witnessed, before finally coming to a mind-blowing conclusion: "I desperately need some rest."
Dropping into normal space and shutting down the Adder's non-essential systems, he headed to his bunk - and some well deserved sleep.
- Uncle Henry's Home Brewed Hydrogen Fuel
He kept staring at the ridiculous name etched in neon tubes at the other side of the landing pad, sitting in the observation platform's couch as he waited for the eponymous "Uncle Henry" to show up. His somewhat battered up Cobra sat on the pad, coming victorious from a surprisingly tense confrontation with a rather annoyingly capable Sidewinder. He was quite sure that the puck-y little ship must have been piloted by a wild beast, because he had never seen any human being, in such unfavorable odds, be so determined to kill it's prey... And because of that stupid he was forced to dock in this back-water outpost in the middle of nowhere, screwing up his precisely laid schedule, and forced to stare at that hideous blinking plaque for the last seven and half minutes.
The door behind him finally opened and a short, sturdy man came walking from it with a large, irritatingly friendly smile spread out through his grey-bearded face.
"Hello there, mate! I'm Uncle Henry, owner of this wonderful outpost you sitting' on!", he said, smiling. "You here to fill up you tanks, ain't Uncle Henry right?" He chuckled. "You heard word of our famous Uncle Henry's Home Brewed Hydrogen Fuel! Scooped by Uncle Henry himself - yours truly - and stored in our specially made cryogenic tanks to keep 'em fresh and good for your needs; The best fuel this side of the Frontier!" Somehow, his smile seemed to have grown even wider - and even more irritating - as he spoke.
He stared down at the short man in front of him, his left eyebrow twitching slightly at the combined sight and sound he was being presented to. "With all due respect, sir" - he said in rather fake friendly tone, so unfriendly it could freeze someone's spine colder than the aforementioned hydrogen - "It is Hydrogen Fuel. It is literally liquid hydrogen. It makes absolutely no difference if it was electrolyzed, scooped here, scooped at Sol, Achenar, the other side of the dammed galaxy or from anywhere else." He learned closer menacingly. "It's still just a proton and an electron." He leaned ever slightly closer, but to a disproportionately menacing effect.
"So what. Is. The blasted. Difference?" He said between clenched teeth.
Uncle Henry stared at the man in front of him, unperturbed, and instead of taking offense, he just raised his stuffy eyebrows. "Well. One would think it was quite obvious. Don't you know what the difference is?" He asked with a playful tone in his voice.
"There's no difference! That's the hole point!" The pilot said, loosing his demeanor. "If you think you're so smart, tell me then; Whats the - oh so mighty- bloody difference, huh!? HUH!?!"
Uncle Henry, his widest grim spread fully on his chubby face, chuckled with immense pleasure, and then said a single word.
"Marketing".
The door behind him finally opened and a short, sturdy man came walking from it with a large, irritatingly friendly smile spread out through his grey-bearded face.
"Hello there, mate! I'm Uncle Henry, owner of this wonderful outpost you sitting' on!", he said, smiling. "You here to fill up you tanks, ain't Uncle Henry right?" He chuckled. "You heard word of our famous Uncle Henry's Home Brewed Hydrogen Fuel! Scooped by Uncle Henry himself - yours truly - and stored in our specially made cryogenic tanks to keep 'em fresh and good for your needs; The best fuel this side of the Frontier!" Somehow, his smile seemed to have grown even wider - and even more irritating - as he spoke.
He stared down at the short man in front of him, his left eyebrow twitching slightly at the combined sight and sound he was being presented to. "With all due respect, sir" - he said in rather fake friendly tone, so unfriendly it could freeze someone's spine colder than the aforementioned hydrogen - "It is Hydrogen Fuel. It is literally liquid hydrogen. It makes absolutely no difference if it was electrolyzed, scooped here, scooped at Sol, Achenar, the other side of the dammed galaxy or from anywhere else." He learned closer menacingly. "It's still just a proton and an electron." He leaned ever slightly closer, but to a disproportionately menacing effect.
"So what. Is. The blasted. Difference?" He said between clenched teeth.
Uncle Henry stared at the man in front of him, unperturbed, and instead of taking offense, he just raised his stuffy eyebrows. "Well. One would think it was quite obvious. Don't you know what the difference is?" He asked with a playful tone in his voice.
"There's no difference! That's the hole point!" The pilot said, loosing his demeanor. "If you think you're so smart, tell me then; Whats the - oh so mighty- bloody difference, huh!? HUH!?!"
Uncle Henry, his widest grim spread fully on his chubby face, chuckled with immense pleasure, and then said a single word.
"Marketing".
- Alone in the Night
The Sidewinder drifted silently above the dead celestial body. A moon, the commander thought - but he wasn't in the mood to check it out; for his ship was out of fuel. He had done everything to try and call for help, but he had gone way too far into the Long Dark. He cursed his silly dreams of exploration and great discovery... Now he was doomed to orbit this moonlet until his death. His very close and quite imminent death. The ship was now almost crossing to the night side of the moon, and the ship's generator was barely handling his life-support system. He was going to freeze to death. He repented pushing onwards even as his fuel dwindled. He repented leaving the safety of know space. But most of all, he repented leaving his family behind... He looked through the cockpit, and saw the sunset from orbit. "I'm going to die alone in the darkness", he thought.
But as the star finally shone it's last rays and set behind the moonlet, the Sky suddenly came alive. Thousands, millions, billions of stars! All together, shining as one big streak of light in the dark. The Commander started to feel the cold. But, strangely, he wasn't sad anymore. He was glad, because he realized he wouldn't die alone - he was going to die in the company of the stars.
But as the star finally shone it's last rays and set behind the moonlet, the Sky suddenly came alive. Thousands, millions, billions of stars! All together, shining as one big streak of light in the dark. The Commander started to feel the cold. But, strangely, he wasn't sad anymore. He was glad, because he realized he wouldn't die alone - he was going to die in the company of the stars.
***
- About the Author
- About the Author
Hello y'all, I'm Gabriel Fonseca, proud owner of a copy of the Elite: Dangerous Mercenary Edition...!
... That I cannot play because my Third-Hand iMac can't handle it.
Discontent with this reality, and keen to be part of the wonderful universe of Elite, I've immersed myself in it's fiction. Also an anchor for the Galnet News Youtube Channel, (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDKH-bM2t-rGBkyjHcMU5Ew/featured) I've now started this thread, collecting all of my Elite-Related Writings & Musings. I've dug through my HD and found "Alone in the Night", a quite old piece I wrote back in 2012. Reading it, I got inspired and wrote "Uncle Henry's Home Brewed Hydrogen Fuel" and "Out There", and posted them all here.
If everything goes well, every time I write something new, you can expect it to be put here for your reading pleasure (or displeasure, dunno
).
I hope you all enjoy this little slice of the Elite 'verse that resides in my mind, and fly safe, Commanders!
... That I cannot play because my Third-Hand iMac can't handle it.
Discontent with this reality, and keen to be part of the wonderful universe of Elite, I've immersed myself in it's fiction. Also an anchor for the Galnet News Youtube Channel, (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDKH-bM2t-rGBkyjHcMU5Ew/featured) I've now started this thread, collecting all of my Elite-Related Writings & Musings. I've dug through my HD and found "Alone in the Night", a quite old piece I wrote back in 2012. Reading it, I got inspired and wrote "Uncle Henry's Home Brewed Hydrogen Fuel" and "Out There", and posted them all here.
If everything goes well, every time I write something new, you can expect it to be put here for your reading pleasure (or displeasure, dunno
).I hope you all enjoy this little slice of the Elite 'verse that resides in my mind, and fly safe, Commanders!
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