Personal Journal, 04:42 GMT, 2 Feb 3301
Ship Location: Mackenzie Relay [Cemiess]
Mostly Harmless Merchant Scout
Cmdr Leland Jason Fox
Kel sent me a holofac while I was docked at Delta Phoenicis Trading Post after a commodities run, so I've diverted here to meet her as she comes in. It coincides neatly with some Imperial missions I have been doing for various corporations allied with the Duval dynasty [REF: Intention to purchase Imperial Clipper for future mission contingencies].
I'll be waiting for her on Pad 4 once her ship is due to dock. She's coming in on an Orca, though how she got the credits to book passage on one of those is anyone's guess. Even independent pilots with Vipers couldn't afford a ticket on one of those.
I'll update once I know more. I must say I'm a little nervous though.
Signing off.
Supplemental - 09:15 GMT
Looks like things are a hell of a mess for Kel. She told me what was going on as soon as we reached an out-of-the-way lounge on the station.
She's kept her real name secret, even from me, but she is an agent working for the Alliance in Imperial and Federal space. Her cover had been compromised before she and I had ever met, though she was not aware of it until I had given her the message from Kovacs during my last trip to the Giltine sytem. It seems as though the Federation had been investigating her trips through the core systems sector as part of an undercover sting regarding the transit of Onionhead when it was being cultivated in the Kappa Fornacis system. Her involvement in the transit of the narcotic was, on the surface, a drug runner from there to several Federation systems as a drug mule. In reality, she had been transmitting details of the operation to Alliance Headquarters in Alioth as part of a much larger operation to discover a perpetrator of an organised crime ring responsible for the attacks and murders of several dignitaries among the member worlds of the Alliance.
The Federation seemed not to care that she had an investigation taking place, despite communiques to them from Alliance Intelligence and the Alliance Embassy on Mars. The only thing they seem to care about is that they got those responsible for selling a narcotic that they have declared as illegal, even if it compromises an intelligence operation undertaken by another major galactic power.
Now I'm wondering if the Federation is spoiling for a war with the Alliance, knowing that they cannot win against the Empire. At first, I was skeptical, maybe even scornful, of her story. I explained why this was, how someone in covert ops for any agency would never disclose their mission to outsiders, how no-one in intelligence would ever brag about being an agent for any of the powers.
To say she was outraged would be an understatement. She confirmed that my suspicions that most agents would not compromise their cover identity the way she had, but she had gotten into real trouble now that her cover had been compromised without her even realising it for so many weeks.
Now, I'm inclined to believe Kel's story, especially after she showed me documentation she should not have possessed on the Federation, the command codes she had for access to several classified Federation security systems, and the data she showed to me in several Imperial databases regarding past operations that have not yet been disclosed to the public...
Operations involving the Thargoids going back as far as 60 years.
None of that is what she is directly involved in, but she has access to that information via her clearance codes within the Alliance. The question is, why would she trust me with this information? I'm just an independent pilot flying for myself. I don't even have a respectable combat rating. When I asked her this, she told me she trusted me because I had a trustworthy face.
Whatever that means. I'm sure there's more to it than that, but hell if I know what that is.
Her plan involves getting to Giltine and making contact with Mikhail Kovacs again, and then requesting extraction to a safe zone. If she goes through with that plan, I'll most likely never hear from her again. I don't know exactly why, but it seems to be how these things work in covert ops.
Still, it was good to catch up with her again. Her raven-black hair, her intense gaze, the curve of her mouth when she smiles, although that seldom happens these days. Today was the first time I saw her in a flight suit. It's not something a passenger needs to wear on an Orca given its opulence, but it's also relatively new. Maybe it's part of her cover, but it looks good on her.
She has booked passage on a tramp liner to Vequess tomorrow morning, but has suggested we spend some time together today and tonight. I have no desire to deny her suggestion, even if I have my reservations about everything she's told me so far.
GalNet has little worth noting. Some expansionistic movements in some systems somewhere, Federation president Halsey ordering a revitalisation program in Kappa Fornacis, and that's about it. The cynic in me thinks that Halsey is just trying to save face in this situation, much like the presidents of old Earth before the third world war.
Nothing else news-worthy has come to my attention recently. I'll update once Kel departs for Vequess.
Signing off.
