Weakness in the Government

"Tell me one good reason I shouldn't blow your brains out!" The Captain growled. His grip tightened on the grip of his new laser pistol while his eyes scanned the interior of the fallen guard bot for any potential dangers.

The receptionist was shaking nervously while keeping her hands up.

"Get up" The Captain then calmly orders while backing off, giving room for the receptionist to heave herself up from the wrecked guard bot.

"Explain" The Captain hissed.

The receptionist gulped before attempting to explain herself.

"Some scavenger outfits reached out to me a while ago over some information of a lone traveler. In exchange for a lot of credits, I would turn a blind eye to their robbery. Whoever their robbed had a decent cargo and I made a lot, so it started to escalate and I would help them rob people a couple of times before you came. When you killed them I was afraid you would report me so I tried to kill you but that didn't turn out too well. But please don't kill me I won't tell anyone!"

"Who got you information about me?" The Captain glowered back. He remembered her telling him information he hadn't told anyone, he was afraid of where the leak could be.

The receptionist's lip quivered as she tried to get the words out.

"The gang that tried to rob you are part of the Black Dragon gang. One important member would jump into the jump port once in a while and hail me the information on the targets. That's how I knew you were investigating Grav fluctuations on Nuemenos 4."

'Hmmmmm, it seems the information society has leaks' The Captain sighed.

Information Societies often functioned like market places for information trading. Information on almost anything from bounty targets to political figures could be found there, and they heavily rely on their reputable privacy of customers to keep business. Considering that only the local Information Society knew about him buying the information, it seems either the seller or someone else involved leaked his information.

Despite this, he half expected it. The state he was currently in is only a minor-state located at the rim. Local information Societies are not nearly as advanced or secure as greater states, and leaks like these aren't out of the realm of possibility. Still, even a minor-state shouldn't have such corrupt officials, even at remote locations like these.

"Aren't you afraid of your superiors finding out?" Dae asked. Even he could tell something was wrong.

"You haven't heard?" The receptionist puzzled. "The Divera government is in disarray! A civil war is occurring in the capital system and it's disrupting the entire logistics and supply chains. The value of Divera credits is dropping fast and low-level government officials like me are now making peanuts! Not only that, but some outrageous outfits are starting to break the law because the government is too busy trying to quell the rebels to worry about them. That's one of the reasons I was able to last so long without being known."

"Hmmm, this isn't good" The Captain muttered.

"Why not?" Dae asked.

"The State we are in, the Divera Minor-State, is in a civil war, and civil war is terrible for wanderers like us. It isn't uncommon for either party to attack any small third party ships like ours in fears of smuggling, and not only that, but the plummeting value of the Divera credits means we're losing a lot of money. We need to leave to a more stable state but that has its problems as well"

The destination they go from now on will have to be carefully thought of as carelessly wandering into the middle of a civil war would likely not result in pleasantries.

"Alright unlock our JCM right now" The Captain ordered, forcing her up by her arm and placing the muzzle of the laser pistol on her back.

"Alright! Alright! Please don't shoot, I'll do it right away!" She whimpered as she started walking toward the reception. They walked past the partially obliterated counter and a smoking tattered console behind it. She continued on to a door at the back and unlocked it with its secpad, revealing a room with another console with many many more switches and buttons.

"This is the main console, where most of the more important options are held"

She turned to a grid of buttons with a label on the top reading 'JCM Port Activation' and pressed the button with the number 5 on it, turning it from red to green.

"It's done" She assured the Captain. "Your ship should be ready to jump now. Can I go?, I promise I won't tell anyone about what happened today! If I did I would be implicating myself as well so you can trust me!"

"Show me the data storage" The Captain unemotionally asserted.

"Ok" The receptionist meekly responded.

She shifted a few steps over to another console. "This is it"

"Hmph" the Captain grunted before blasting a laser through her brain. Her body wavered standing up for a few seconds before crumpling onto the floor.

Dae saw the body fall, and could almost feel the thud as it collided with the ground.

"It was necessary" The Captain stated. "She was a loose end that could come back to bite us anytime. It's better to clean up the mess to ensure we don't meet more troubles later on. Not to mention, if we didn't kill her, there would be nothing stopping her from targeting others."

Dae didn't respond. In Reggie's case, he couldn't identify Reggie among the rest of the bloody mess, and in the gang members' case, it happened so fast he couldn't even see their bodies. But witness the death of a person right in front of him had a deep effect on him. His mind could understand the rationale and reason behind why she could not be left alive, but he still couldn't stomach the sight of her instant death.

It only took a few seconds before he doubled over and started vomiting. The sight of a hole in her head, even exposing the charred sections of her brain, was too much to handle.

In truth, the Captain had done it on purpose. While he could have killed her away from Dae, he thought it would be an important lesson in maturing Dae. He knew the horrors and unfairness of the galaxy, and it was better for Dae to get used to it now than to be killed because of it later.