A black being walked into a bar, he was bipedal, male and seemed to belong a Tellusian species but it was anything but certain as it seem that many species have developed similar traits for unknown reasons. He went to the bar and ordered a drink, the bartender raises an eye brow as the order was rather unusual but he poured up the black liquid the mysterious black being had ordered. He took his cup and started drinking thinking on his problems with an emotionless expression on his face as he always kept it. He needed money to pay some of his debts that he had acquired.

Unlike most living Tellusian’s he had been around long before the empire had been formed and in the time before it he had managed to acquire quite a large amount of money. But when Earth fell and became a part of the new empire all the economies of the world was removed and replace with the new one based on mere units of credit. All money everyone had own was lost and a lot of people couldn’t recover from it. Shade as this black hedgehog was known as by name had managed to get thru this time. But in the process of adapting the services he could provide to the new era where earth had to quickly transform itself to fit a civilization that travels between the stars he had been forced to put himself into a massive debt as his previous money were no longer of any value.

He had provided the kind of service government normally wouldn’t allow, assassinating others. But the new state had little concern if people died here and there; it thought there are enough of them anyway. So now he had little worries to get interfered by the state even though before they had never succeeded capturing him. But now as he would need to travel between star systems he would have needed a space craft. Big ones cost a fortune, but he had found a small one for one to three people to use for a rather reasonable price. How reasonable it was could be debated as it was still a smaller fortune. But after acquiring it and reading on how space craft’s worked Shade worked it up to perform a lot better than anyone would have thought possible.

Having had a reputation and abilities on the ground he had desired to have similar feature between the stars, and as luck had for him he would manage to also acquire a Cloaking Device that most sensors can’t detect. It had been rather expensive but was worth it to be left alone while flying, he knew though that possessing such technology would make the state react forcefully if he didn’t get permission. After hard work and yet more Units loaned that was also fixed. When all adaptations were done he had started taking some minor jobs to get a reputation starting to go around as he figured if people heard about him he would get more jobs suitable.

Another man walked into the bar, having rather pricey clothing and style. This one was a triped but did have a facial structure similar to that of others and two arms. It walked inside seemingly looking for someone. “I am looking for the one known as Shade” he said out loud to make himself heard. Without turning around Shade answered coldly “That would be me”. The newly arrived man walked to Shade and sat down right next to him. He told shade he had a job that would fit him; shade didn’t react and just kept on sipping on his coffee. The man continued to tell there had been thief’s and rogues along certain trade lines and that shades assistance was desired in order to finally put a stop to this. Shade asked without turning around why they didn’t just bring escorts, the answer shade got was that the thief’s came out of nowhere, not using cloaks or anything and appeared out of nowhere. Shade heard a name of the system that had been close to one of the attacks and knew exactly where they came from.

The sub-space corridors, corridors of highly concentrated gravitons that made traveling thru them tricky but faster, if one knew how to use them they could easily go faster than most engines. Node drive that is otherwise the faster drive can just barely match them. One could drop out from a sub-space corridor at any time, but to enter them you need to go at the opening point inside a system. The state control all the systems inside that have these openings heavily and no one can enter without authorization, as little as the state cared about others it didn’t allow thief’s and rogues to use them freely so how could they enter them?.

The man told shade that a trading convoy would departure later if he agreed to this mission as bait. “How much?” Shade asked. The man answered that if he stopped them permanently he would be rewarded with over 9 Giga Units of credits. Shade thought for a moment and put down his cup when he was finished and agreed. About 4 hours later in high orbit around earth the convoy and shade meet side by side and exchanged information. They both were equipped with Warp Drives so matching speed wouldn’t be a problem. The convoy set course and engaged the warp drive, Shade followed shortly after having turned on his cloaking so no one would detect him. Not even the convoy was sure he followed them. As the hours passed and the stars continued flying by he sat reading a book waiting for his sensors to pick something up.

Close to where a sub-space corridor passes indeed several ships came from nowhere and started attacking the convoy, once its shield was down they took everything of value and left. Leaving the craft crippled. Shade watched closely and followed after the pirates as his job was to stop them not help the trader. The pirates dropped out of warp at the Vilin system and set course for one of the gas giants close to the star. As they got closer Shade could see how they would have access to the corridors without permission from the state. As he arrived behind the pirates he saw how other ships entered thru a large gate into the sub-space corridors, apparently the device could temporarily create a connection to it and then close it without anyone knowing.

This was more than just mere pirating. Shade thought for sometime on what to do, he could attempt ruining all their plans and take the technology for himself as it would provide useful but he also knew if the state heard about such a thing it wouldn’t rest until he was under its control. He turned around as the pirates had not discovered him thanks to the cloaking and set course for the capitol planet. Even at warp 14 the 400 parsec travel would take almost 1.8 milli-cycles, or almost 26 hours. He didn’t as always seem to care; he just took up a book and started reading during most of the traveling.

Once he dropped out of warp and arrived at the Zetropolis as the capitol had been named. The entire planet had been artificially constructed from scratch and finished in incredible short time. It orbited a greenish yellow star and finished an orbit in exactly one cycle’s time and was located about 150 parsecs from earth toward the center of the empire.  All around the planet existed there hyper-gates that took certain ships to other planets within the empire but also massive military crafts was presents so no one would even consider attempting something against it. The moment he got in its space they contacted him; he had to identify himself as a citizen. Shortly after it was done he descended in close proximity to the emperor’s castle. As anticipated lasers and weapons pointed at his craft as he walked outside calmly.

He simply stated he had acquired information the emperor would be interested in. At first the machines did not believe him as how would most normal people have information that would interest him?  Shade added it was about pirates abusing the sub-space corridors, the robots looked at him skeptical for a few moments and then let him walk thru, but warned him on trying anything or wasting the emperor’s time. Shade knew all too well what would happen then, but like everything it didn’t scare him, almost nothing could disturb that expressionless face he always carried.

Shade had been granted time to see the emperor, as he walked inside Zelos looked at him with sharp eyes, making it very clear that this had better be something good. Shade’s expression did still not change, he simply told he had information Zelos would want but he wanted something in return. “What is it you want?” Zelos answered sharpening his vision even more to intimidate, but it had no effect on Shade. Shade said he wanted 5 Giga-Units of credits and free access to the sub-space corridors. Zelos granted it but made it clear that he would come after Shade if he tried any tricks.

Shade told what he had found out in the Vilin system, Zelos thought for a moment before both of them were teleported onboard on a massive craft that was in high orbit around the metallic artificial planet. It departure and headed toward where the sub-space corridor to this system were located. Hyper-gates were too small to handle a craft of this magnitude. It entered the corridors and set course toward the Vilin system, in less than 35 micro-cycles’s the craft forcefully dropped out of the corridor and continued toward the system as it was naturally not connected to it. Upon arrival before the pirates even knew something had arrived the War-ship fired its mighty lasers disintegrating the gate they had been using.

The pirates that were inside the corridors suddenly realized that more war ships were traveling thru them but were also looking for the pirates to make sure no one survived. As the pirates crafts tried to escape from the base inside the gas giant they were either destroyed or dragged inside the war-ship that was now attacking them. Zelos and shade stood in a room merely observing what was going on. The pirates had little chance as the shields were to powerful for their weapons to penetrate; Zelos had always ensured his crafts were equipped with technologies the others didn’t have access or knowledge about.

“You were indeed correct about their little stronghold here” Zelos said not facing Shade, but he hold out his as he wanted something from Shade. Shade knew what it was and handed over the ID card which people used, it served many purposes as it was a miniature computer. ID, money storing and showing, what rightfully belong to him and a lot more could it do, Zelos held it in his mechanical arm and connected to it, performing some actions on it with his mind. Once done handed it back to Shade saying that he had received his payment, but that Shade would lose his permission if he was found abusing it.

Shade had little plans of doing such and simply thanked Zelos. Once back at the capitol Shade was released to move freely, he went into his personal spacecraft and took off to go back to Tellus and receive the other payment, now having more than enough money to pay of his debts.