The Star Pirate's Return

Chapter 6: Grubs

"You'll have to be more specific, Darlena."

"Buttercup, the orphan girl from Surface. I've been watching her for months. She's the key to all of this. This one girl ties together so many separate threads across the system. Connections between everyone from the Governor of Overlook to the worst pirates in the system. We start with her."

"Uh, I saw what she did to that pirate. Are you sure we want her?"

"I'll show you my charts. I've been tracking things since before you and I started working together. I never make contact directly, of course."

"Wow, this is really detailed. Your notes go back years. Wait, this is more than just observation. Darlena, these logs... you've been meddling already."

#

Spud shuffled blindly forward as he tried to make his way off the bridge of Deep Fog, but he couldn't see much through all the floating dust. Even turning on the headlamp on his helmet didn't make a difference. "Trying to find you, ship lady, but it's dark. Don't know where to go. Are you there?"

No one could help him. Not yet, anyway-Spud knew something must be wrong with his suit, otherwise the lady would show him where to go. He'd just have to find them on his own. It had been a long time since he'd been away from the whole crew.

Spud didn't like to think about things from before his life aboard Wanderlust, but the thick dust blocking him in reminded him of the time his sister locked him in an airlock and threatened to space him. Being walled in, not having any way out, made him hate tight places ever since then.

Optima was a hard, cold place to grow up. Spud hated the way people treated each other there. Ever since he was a kid, he got made fun of by his brothers and sisters for his size, his ugly face, or how slow his brain worked sometimes.

His parents never stepped in for him, so Spud got good at hitting his siblings, and they stopped insulting him so much. But he never wanted violence. It was just the only thing they would respect. Too bad for him-Spud got so good at it, that's all anyone wanted him to do.

When he got old enough to work, his parents had him guard things for the family-clients, clubs, ice mines, anything someone needed a big, strong body to stand in front of. Spud gained a fierce reputation, but he had no true friends, unlike on Wanderlust where the crew was always so nice to him.

For his whole life, Spud felt weighed down by bad feelings from his horrible memories. The nice lady Myra helped him understand that he tried to take out his anger on the people he hit, but it never left. It just kept burning him up.

When his parents finally died, Spud learned that his brothers and sisters had cut him out of his share of their inheritance. He raged about it, broke some stuff, hurt some of them. But as the new owners, they kicked him out of their home and left him nothing.

Spud didn't have much after that, but people knew him. He worked as a bouncer at a nullo dance club, smacking people around when they misbehaved. Usually, it was enough to just give them a certain look and walk them out. He didn't make much-enough to live on, but he struggled without his family for support.

One night, Spud heard about an open recruiting call for a privateer ship traveling far away from Optima. At first he didn't think much of it, but everyone he knew volunteered when they saw what Wanderlust offered for pay. Spud thought, why not? If they needed soldiers, he always stood out in a crowd. He had nothing to lose.

After days of weeding out the weakest applicants with long interviews, physical trials, and battle simulations aboard Wanderlust, Spud and a few others were handpicked out of hundreds by Captain Anson himself to became part of the crew. Spud met men and women from all across the Luxar System, places he'd never even heard of.