Deep Space Epoch

[It's a pleasure to be here, Zenise.]

Ivan was connected to the galactic net in the Kraken and watching a live stream of InterGal Today, a popular galactic wide news station. The host was the same stunning light blue-skinned woman, whose hair floated about like it was flowing in water, that he saw while walking through the rustic metropolis.

[Dr. Seiren, you've seen this footage, what can you tell us about what happened here?]

A video replay of Galactic Fleet battleships launching an attack on the Kraken but being completely effective was displayed.

[Zenise, as you can see, the torpedos passed straight through the ship, but this is only an illusion. I say so because although the ship appears to be in this location, it is not.]

[The warship you can see didn't enter through the atmosphere to arrive at the dock, but warped in. This was done using a type of a yet-to-be-seen wormhole technology. Shorty before arriving at the attack, you can witness the color of the illegal ship darkening.]

[I can, but what does this mean?" The host leaned in as if keen to hear the answer.

[I have a mathematical representation prepared for the phenomena, but for those who can't understand it, what the illegal ship did was move through its wormhole away from the planet. This movement actually has a time dilation effect, similar to an object falling into a wormhole, so while the Galactic Fleet were trying to disable the ship, it had in fact already long left.]

[What about how the earlier attack on the ship did no damage at all, or the crew of such ship. What can you tell us about that?]

[Me and my team are still researching that. The crew of the ship appear to enter and exit through the same wormhole technology as displayed by them arriving and leaving the planet. As for the material structure that the ship is made up of which received no damage from a full SAM array barrage, that is still under heavy investigation.]

The conversation between the host and guest physicist continue for another fifteen minutes before the segment was over.

"They are either trying to cover it up, or simply know nothing," Ivan said as he laughed boisterously but rapidly turned serious, "I want to know why the situation on that planet developed to such a catastrophe. Valeria, investigate with the crew and find out for me."

"Yes," Valeria nodded and immediately left the bridge with several guards.

Ivan remained silent before looking over at the various holographic basic four-dimensional navigation charts displayed on the bridge before stating, "Status report, how far away are we from our first location."

Ivan nodded his head in response and patiently monitored the ship from the captain's chair.

Ten minutes later, the Kraken emerged at a large space station orbiting a giant gas planet in a sector with a shortage of natural resources. A small star hangs against the black curtain of space, lighting up on side of the space station with a dim light. The space station was hidden amongst the asteroid belt naturally orbiting the gas giant, but anyone who knew what to look for would be able to find it.

Mazur had located a large number of space stations and barren planets outside of the Galactic Fleet patrol locations, dark corners of the universe where pirates and other criminals congregated together.

To most people, places like these were full of danger and death, just looking at the wrong person in the wrong way could lead you to becoming a cold corpse in some forgotten corner of the universe. To Ivan however, this was the ideal place for him to start conducting business.

Even the outlaws had seen the news report of the illegal ship, so when it suddenly appeared in one of the Annexus space station docks, many people's attention were immediately attracted to it.

Ivan left the ship with forty guards and two saleswomen. Twenty of the guards were carrying several boxes of equipment along with some steel construction material.

At the exit of the pier where Ivan had docked, a toll booth required to pay before passing was present. Unlike on Lorres III, here they had humans manually manning the payment system.

The short green-skinned man with unnaturally wide eyes and long pointed ears looked at Ivan from behind the booth with surprise. He didn't know anything about the illegal ship that appeared on Lorres III, but seeing a ship appear out of nowhere was without a doubt shocking.

"The fee for parking here is… a ship that large… taking up three ports… 150 credits a day, sir," The small green human spoke nervously.

Ivan and the other Celestials stared at him in silence with their strange '+' shaped eyes, causing the small green human to start perspiring.

"Of course," Ivan suddenly broke into a smile, causing the other Celestials to look away from the small human. "I will only be here for a day, here is my account card."

Ivan handed over his Pleiades bank card which the small human struggled with all his might to stop his hand shaking as he accepted the card and pressed it against the computer screen in front of him.

"T-thank you for your payment sir, please enjoy your visit to Annexus. If you are staying longer than intended, please re-return here within today to pay for any additional stay, otherwise you will be charged at a d-double rate per day."

"Double? Isn't that an illegal rate to charge?" Ivan asked with a cold smile toward the green human who looked like he was about to break down in fear.

The green human had nothing to reply and stood there moving his mouth like a fish. Of course the rate was illegal according to the Galactic Transportation Act, but this space station was run by criminals and in a region of the galaxy where the laws weren't enforced.

"Don't worry, I'll be back soon," Ivan said before departing.

*****

Several large criminal syndicate leaders and pirate captains looked down from a high walkway toward the spaceship dock, or more accurately, toward the Kraken.

"What is that ship doing here?" An old man with a hunch and two bionic eyes asked the others.

"I have no idea, Rubeus," The middle-aged man with long golden hair and a large scar over one eye stared intensely toward the group that departed the ship as if appearing from thin air. "But those two women are some of the most beautiful women I have seen. I must have them for myself."

Rubeus, the old man stared back at him with his bionic eyes in a fashion that couldn't be described as anything but creepy.

A third person, a busty woman covered in scars spoke in a thick accent and broken language, "Adam, I'm vink that vill be last two vomen you lay hands on. You zaw zose videos zecretly taken from the vurveillance camera. From vat vychotic woman to va giant beast, vese people are strange, and extremely dangeruz."

"Shut up, Romilda, I can never understand what you say. Don't underestimate my flirting skills, I will have them in my bed by tonight."

Several other large figures in Annexus watched the Celestials entering into the space station both with curiosity and cautiousness. Seeing the video of Flintlock terrorizing the city like Godzilla however made everyone unwilling to be the first to test the waters.

*****

Ivan led his group along the dirty passageways of Annexus space station. Moving through the residential districts according to a map he accessed on his tablet, he eventually reached a remotely clean market square with a lot of people passing through.

In this large marketplace, there were lines of stalls selling all kinds of items. Many foods were produced from the biomes in the upper floors of the space stations, but pirates brought in a lot of goods from outside and would sell them at these stalls. Along the edge of the marketplace, long time full storefronts lined up one after another.

Perhaps it is due to the crackdown on piracy that started a few years ago, but all the stalls here seemed to be selling their items at prices much higher than they should be.

"Set up the stall here," Ivan said, pointing to a wall beside on of the shops where there was a large vacant space.

"Yes, President," The guards bowed in salute simultaneously, catching the attention of many nearby passers-by.