The Importance of Credits
Jern took the wheel as we rocketed toward the main city of Erimia and the council's headquarters. I walked out of the cockpit to compile my notes. I looked at my evidence and put everything in order. I had video evidence of the ECC destroying coral. Video of Jaleel on board the ECC ship. I shook my head - I had nothing on the pirates.
Well, I'll just have to convince them they know that we are here to protect the colony. They'll understand.
Then there was a boom and the power surged.
“What's happening?” I called, but there was no answer. I ran out into the hallway to find Arron frantically spraying the fire extinguisher. I continued to the cockpit to see lightning dancing across the sky.
I looked on nervously, somehow Jern pulled enough skill to land this fragile tin can. I'll need to talk to Jern about getting some more armour on this thing.
I rushed through the driving rain to the council building but was stopped by some guard. He stated that there was a meeting in progress and that I should make an appointment. Why doesn't he know who I am? I wondered to myself before saying, “I am Varad and I am here as a representative of Ojib, the council member from SoFa. He is very sick lately and would like me to fill his seat. I've got very important news as well.”
The guard looked like he didn't understand me but said “Hmm, that's true. Ojib's been getting pretty bad lately. If you've got important business then go right on in.”
I burst though the council's door, confident that this meeting would put a stop to the ECC's fuel rivalry. Unfortunately the moment I burst though that door Colonist Advisor Tirano said, “All SoFA members have a warrant of arrest”. I stood there shocked and so did everyone else. I looked at Tirano and we locked eyes.
What evidence could there possibly be? “I have some news that I would like to discuss and…”
“If you would kindly give the guards your weapons,” Tirano interrupted me. Again we locked eyes. I thought I saw a bit of doubt in his eyes. Good, he's not going to arrest us immediately.
I gave my blaster to the guard and motioned for the others to do the same.
“What have you come to say?” Tirano asked,
“My good friend Vreck, here, was asked by the A’ckltch to investigate some destroyed coral reefs. So together with the A’ckltch named Sqltch, Vreck found huge chunks of coral missing. Around that time they were attacked by aquatic mouse droids, which may seem crazy but with the record of mouse droid related incidents, this shouldn't surprise you. After they defeated the mouse droids a black submarine approached them but I arrived just in time to save them.”
“Do you have any evidence?” asked Tirano
I winced with the arrest warrant. I didn't think I could convince the council without evidence so I made the tough choice to reveal my evidence on the ECC.
“Well, I don't have any evidence for the pirates, as we were shot at without warning. But I do have this.” I holoprojected my video of the ECC destroying coral. “I would look into this if I were you.”
“To get back on topic of this meeting,” Tirano interrupted. “Mirax has evidence against you.” She had a rebel seal on her vest which troubled me. I knew that the rebels had stakes in the colony but she must have flown in, because I didn’t recognise her.
Then she spoke. “Are you familiar with a certain Vu Rondeln?”
“Yes,“ I responded. “He was the captain of the Averon II”.
“Then you might know that he’s been arrested by the galactic empire for human trafficking.”
“No,” I responded.
“Well, when we interrogated the Rodian kidnapped by captain Vu, he revealed that a certain Kel dor from an organisation known as SoFA had handed him over to Vu.”
I looked at her confused. “I don't know how to respond to that,'' I said.
“Also Captain Vu himself said that it was a SoFA member that gave him the Rodian.” She said.
Now I was worried this was hard evidence and Tirano had ties to the alliance. This was going to be tricky to get out of. Jern was in it deep and I knew he wasn’t going to be happy with me. But as long as I could talk to everyone I thought it was possible for me to talk our way out of this.
“I’m sure that this could all be a misunderstanding,” Tirano cut in. “Would you like to have a trial now or wait for tomorrow and have time to find some representation?”
“We would like some time,” I replied. “Also, I would like some assurances that this council will look into the ECC matter that I brought up.”
Tirano nodded his head. I didn’t expect much but I couldn’t really argue the point much farther.
Turns out the time I thought I had gained for us wasn’t as useful as I thought. They separated us and the head of security Ja’taa was going to interrogate us for our stories.
When I found out that, I panicked. I knew that the others couldn’t be trusted with the nuances of such a difficult case. They would all have different stories or worse, just blame it all on me to get out of their problems.
A guard escorted me to my locked room, and told me I could make one call before he took my comm.
There was one person I knew in the galaxy that could get me out of this one. My lawyer.
I talked with Zercon for a while, discussing that the best way to get out of this was to plead guilty of theft, as well as self defence. I asked him what was up with the rebels and what their stake was with the planet.
Zercon reminded me that through a tangle of deception the rebels were essentially running this “Corellian colony.” So the Alliance didn’t want ANY Information coming out that Erimia even exists. They probably were also harbouring fugitive rebels on the planet. We figured that if the bounty hunters list included any rebel names, we could claim that we were protecting them. So I decided to unencrypt the names.
I asked if he could pull a few strings on his end, maybe destroy the rodian's reputability? He said he could for the standard fee - and we went into negotiations
I don’t know what Zercon did and I don’t want to know. What I do know is that he found a way to clear my name from all charges as well as Jern’s. Of course it cost thousands of credits, but that's how freedom is gained.
The next morning we had no trial to the surprise of my companions. I knew that Zercon would come through - he always does, one way or another. All Advisor Tirano wanted was information on the Eco terrorists. Which I gave gladly.
Unfortunately nothing seemed to happen with the ECC evidence, which doesn’t really surprise me. I really need Ojib and Djinn back in action.
Time to smooth this over with my comrades and take down the ECC a notch…
