17. The Choice
It was late at night, ship time. We had just just finished up a supply run after collecting the bounty on Hopkirk Vanderfine. Most of the crew were taking a well earned rest. I was in the ship’s galley, making a brew when Doc came in. He started chatting but there seemed to be something on his mind. He seemed to be dancing around something so I steered him towards it. All subtle and captainy like.
“So tell me, Doc, what’s on your mind?” see, subtle.
“I’m just wondering what we’ve got planned next?”
“Starburn picked up a line on some salvage that we could chase down. There’s also someone looking to transport some cargo across systems. They say it’s legal. Don’t really care if it is or not to be honest, just that they can pay.
“Why, you have a preference?”
Doc looked thoughtful for a moment then said, “Yeah, I do. Let me ask you this first though. Have you ever wondered why I became a medic and have a cybernetic arm?”
“Not really,” I replied, “a man’s business and reasons are usually his own. If he’s not trying to kill me, I’m happy to leave them. Since you’ve brought it up though, I’m guessing our next job is linked to the answer.”
“Maybe. When I was young, my brother and I just starting on the adventure life, I took an injury to the left forearm. Abel, my brother, took a knife to the guts. Our crew took us to a surgeon on the backwater we were on. None of us knew at the time, but that surgeon was Gimmet Y.”
“Oh shit!”
“Indeed. I woke with a horribly mutilated arm. That psycho droid had grafted some kind of native slug life on in place of my arm. I headed off-world to a better planet to get it repaired. The solution, since the slug life was spreading, was to remove and replace. Hence, cybernetic arm. My brother though,” Doc took a breath and shuddered. “Let’s just say we had to put him out of his misery and leave it there. I can’t talk about the horror Gimmet Y made him.”
We paused for beat, looking at each other. I let Doc settle then said to him, “You know where Gimmet Y is don’t you? You want to go after his bounty.”
“Yes. I’ve been trying to track him down for years. I finally got word of his location early. He never stays in one place very long. Just pops up, butchers people, and disappears again. He turned up on Muscovite 2 yesterday. If he keeps to his usual timeframe, we have three days to get him before he vanishes in the wind. It’ll take us two days to get there. If we leave now, we can take that bastard out. I get revenge, the crew gets a heathy bounty.
“I know that’s not what you’ve got planned-”
“Don’t,” I cut Doc off, “we’re going after Gimmet. This one’s personal, Doc. Fuck with one of us, you fuck with all of us. I’ll lay in the course, you can tell the crew we’re going after Gimmet Y. It’s up to you how much you want to share with them about the reasons. The bounty is reason enough, if you want to share more, that’s up to you.”
“I’m telling them everything. They deserve to know why we’re going into the shit.”
We looked at each other a moment longer. Nodded, then went to our tasks. I laid in a course for Muscovite 2, Doc gathered the crew together and explained everything to them. When he was done they all looked ready to walk into the Underplane for Doc. Time to go mess up a robot.
Stargrave is published by Osprey Games and was created by Joseph A. McCullough