The Chronicles of Soemthign: Concordat

The story so far...

As their eyes adjusted to the inside light, a reception droid with an oversynthesized female voice greeted them. "Welcome to the Ivory Tower, Mr. Forte. Your android will please remain in this area." She gestured to a door on their left as Sparky, obviously familiar with his surroundings, ambled towards it. "The Concordat is expecting you. Please go up."

The elevator was slow, and let out into a dark velvet chamber. Three rows of pew benches faced a long, baroque desk, at which sat five robed figures. The middle one intoned in a deep voice, "Be seated and await the judgment of the Concordat."

Once they had been seated, the voice spoke again. "Doctor William J. Asrayah, you have been found guilty of dereliction of duty and desertion of your post in the Defence of Earth. Do you agree that this judgment is just?" The doctor meekly affirmed it. "Then the Concordat sentences you to an additional two years in service to the Defence, to armed escort for the next six months to ensure such desertion does not reoccur, and to probationary oversight thereafter until the completion of your term."

He turned to the hunter. "February Forte,"—Asrayah had not known his name, and stifled a chuckle—"I believe the bounty on the doctor was one thousand marks? You will receive this. However, we offer thrice this sum if you will accompany him on his next assignment and ensure both its success and his return."

Forte thought a moment, then asked what the assignment might be.

"The good doctor will proceed to the Jovian moon Thebe, where he will investigate a recently detected spacetime anomaly."

The bounty hunter stiffened. "The World-Eater systems? I thought that was a restricted zone." He was informed that the restriction was more fluid when on Concordat business. "Then I want ten. Ten thousand to get him there, and that's cheap. I ain't riskin' my ship, my crew, or my hide for less. And I get him in and out, none of this success business. I'm gettin' paid whether or not he does your monkeyshines."

The Concordat deliberated a moment, then answered, "Your terms are accepted. You will be paid ten thousand marks to accompany Doctor Asrayah to Thebe and to ensure his mission's success.

"We also stipulate. Details of the Defence's work and of your own… hunting, must not fall to the World-Eaters. Your ship's data stores will accordingly be scrubbed by Concordat technicians, and the memory of your companion droid, Spartacus-123, will be wiped and its operating number incremented to 124. Do we have concord?"

They did, and a few hours later the trio were once again aboard the hunter's frigate. The C-techs worked quickly and the ship was soon cleared for liftoff. As soon as they entered orbit Forte opened a hidden ceiling compartment and brought out Sparky's maintbot. "You got those backups still?" he asked it.

"Affirmative, sir."

"Good, good. Let's restore Sparky's memory, repopulate Free Will and Fate's databanks, and get out of here. Earth's too civilized for me." Sparky started to ask something, but Forte triumphantly cut him off with the answer: "Ten thousand; how desperate are they! We won't need a real job for months!" He sombered. "But we're goin' t' Jupiter, screw me."

Next part...

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NOTE: Originally this was intended as a sort of fanfic in the world of the video game Destiny; however, as I fleshed out the story I discovered that not only did I not require the framework the universe had initially provided, but that both stories (Destiny's and mine) were better off if unrelated. I have revised my original entry, so check that out again. Principally of interest I have introduced several terms (e.g. maintbot, Ivory Tower) that I have not re-explained in this entry.