Betrayal and honour | A Tale from the Borderlands

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Jason St-Cyr

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Watching from the sidelines

As I start this log, I’m not even sure what to say. The last few hours have been crazier than two starved skags fighting over rakk scraps. The slug… is gone! It’s hard to even wrap my head around it, it happened so fast. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

We lifted off Hephaestus a few hours ago and had barely broken atmosphere when Min came onto the comms to let us know that two little black droids seemed to be scanning the ship. Apparently one got up close and personal and then took off. We were still waiting on the hyperspace engine to kick in when a huge Hyperion ship showed up, demanding somebody by the name of Cicero.

The other captain, Lyra I think it was, wasn’t taking “no” for an answer. We hadn’t heard of anybody by that name, and there was nobody on board we knew of that might have stowed away again. I was locked in with Penny in our quarters, so I couldn’t help out much, but I heard over the comms the Great Gibson doing his thing, trying to bluff his way out of the situation. Used a whole different voice and name, and then suddenly he was gone. I was a wee bit frustrated by not being able to get out, there wasn’t much I could do to help from in here. Min called for Zoe to pitch in with a shipwide search while I stayed stuck in my box, trying to find what I could on that crushed velvet traitor.

It wasn’t long before I heard the cannons opening fire, as Fin took up a spot at one of the turrets. Min was doing whatever she could to put some distance between the Gamera and these Hyperion hunters. Based on comms chatter, seemed like there were two ships coming after us. They were fast, but they hadn’t dealt with the Terror of the Skies before! It got a little tippy in the quarters as the Gamera  barrel-rolled around the system, trying to buy time until we could jump.  It did help, though, as the pursuing ships couldn’t get a lock on us and missed a lot.

During all this, I had turned up quite the story for our little stowaway. Records of at least half-a-dozen fully built identities, with a bunch of other aliases and stage names along the way. Our little actor friend had been busy with taking roles!

Meanwhile, Zoe had been spending quite some time searching the entire ship, but Gibson was nowhere to be found. He just vanished! Even Fin stopped firing the turret to try to help track him down, but no dice. It wasn’t until Deathtrap activated a little-known heat-signature detection ability that the crew found our fugitive. Right there in the cockpit, invisible. Gibson protested that it could be easily explained and that it was all a misunderstanding, but Deathtrap brought him to the vault all the same.

Min bought us enough time to punch out, and once we hit hyperspace I was able to be let out and join the crew in some interrogation. We were going to find out what was going on, one way or another!

A likely story

Unfortunately, Min wasn’t up for any proper interrogation techniques. Not even a little light waterboarding or a few thumb removals! Min led the questioning, asking all the things that needed answering and I did my best impression of a threat while looking from the sidelines. Gibson readily told a good story about being forced into a bad contract with Hyperion that would last something like 150 years or death, whichever came first. Apparently he also wasn’t allowed to leave Promethea, which matches with what those Hyperion hunters had said.  I’ve heard that one before. Hell, half this crew is running from something or someone. Gibson was willing to do anything, take any role, just wanted to be on the ship and help. And get away from Hyperion, I gather. There’s just enough truth in those words that match up with facts to make it seem possible, but it’s hard to trust this man.

Then Fin had a marvelous idea. Why not do a brain slug transfer? Clearly, Gibson would be up for anything, right? There was no way I was arguing this plan. Worst case, a traitor is dead. Best case, Penny’s safe. I saw no down sides!

It probably should have concerned me how readily Gibson signed up for the plan. We should have had to drag him kicking and screaming across the steel floor down to our quarters. Instead, he was almost eager to join in on this. As we walked him back to the quarters at the front of the Gamera, I leaned in to Gibson for a growling whisper. All I told him was that for a man with such a nice suit, I had expected more. Turns out I was right.

When we got to the quarters, I unlocked the door and escorted Gibson in, much to Penny’s surprise. Other than Zoe, we’d been keeping the crew clear, just in case. Penny had no idea what was about to happen. I explained to her that Fin had suggested a transfer, to bring her slug friend over into Gibson. I wasn’t even sure that was possible. And neither was Penny. Gibson seemed sure he could make this work, so long as I removed the binders and left him alone with Penny in the room.

That should have been a huge red flag for me. I would never have gone along with that. But somehow I found myself unbinding this Gibson character and leaving the room, locking the door on my way out. It was like I couldn’t NOT do it. I later found out that this was just more fancy trickery.

Redemption

From the cockpit, I couldn’t tell what was happening and strangely had no urge to find out. It wasn’t until I spoke with Penny later that I learned that Gibson tried to sell me out. Apparently Gibson tried convincing the slug that I would never hold up my end of the bargain and that the only way to get it done was to swap over into him. An interesting ploy, certainly what I would expect from such a snake’s tongue as his. However, we finally learned what was going on. That cybernetic implant of hers was keeping El Sluggo in. The right eye was the only way out, and there was no way it was able to leave.

It was then that we started hearing the screaming.

Cicero tried to cover it up, but there was too much noise happening. I finally pushed aside his freaky mind trick and rushed down to stop him, but I couldn’t get the door open. Penny told me later that Cicero had started attacking the slug somehow, causing an immense amount of pain to it. Penny’s body had tried to fight back, brawling with the older man in the room, doing whatever it could to survive. While I banged on the door, trying to knock it down, the slug suddenly stopped, releasing its hold on Penny. With the last bit of his energy, the actor flung open the door, almost knocking me over with the door that I was banging on.

When that door was open, Gibson said that the slug was dead. I just pushed my way past the old man, who collapsed to the ground, exhausted, and threw my arms around Penny. She confirmed, it was finally quiet.

I may not be able to trust this silver-tongued snake, but I owe him a debt of honour. He did what we couldn’t do and is clearly willing to do whatever it takes to earn a place on this ship. I don’t know if I can believe a word out of his mouth, but if he needs help hiding from Hyperion, then I will do what it takes until my debt is repaid.

God damn I hate the code right now.   

But how did those Hyperion hunters get here so fast? How did the droids know to look on this ship? They weren’t even looking for the rest of us, so it wasn’t about what happened on Promethea. Somebody tipped them off about Gibson, specifically. And they might be on this ship!  

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