Chapter 1: Nebula Rising

Prologue: In the vast depths of space there are many phenomena that are quite impressive, one of the most impressive are the Nebula’s which are massive star machines crafting stars on regular basis which can be seen for light years away. Many forms of life have blossomed from this activity and over thousands of years generations of beings working with high technological levels created the Star Stations. These behemoths span the size of major planets to almost the size of some small red dwarfs, they are powered by a technology that was designed to utilize the star energy formed in the nebula’s and convert it to energy used to fuel these massive star stations. The stories presented here will focus on the many goings on within the vast incredible stations, many factors drive the inhabitants, power, greed, politics, war, you name it there is something happening all over in these constructed worlds.

We see an array of lights, flickering and blinking to their own rhythms but all seemingly alive as one, welcome to Prophecy Alpha 88, nebula star station created over hundreds of years spanning over various races including migrated humans who found a home after many of the space anomalies had blighted their homelands. We zoom in closer to an area with many figures walking along or using many vehicles of various types to travel along this huge station. A younger woman human looking with blue streaks in her hair is moving about one of the walkways, she approaches a vizacred machine, used as currency on the station. Her name is Kaylee Kasira, born on this station about 28 years ago she contemplates the screen in front of her as she enters in some digits to this viza machine. She looks at the screen and sighs, “Man, time to get more work done and earn some vizacreds”, she walks away from the machine and glances down to her scan pad which she asks to contact Xiu, the scan pad blips a little and the screen pops up with a young man who seems very exhausted answering with a faint hello… “Xiu, man wake up would you it’s not that early”, the young man pauses and rubs his eyes. “Kaylee? Oh man, I had quite the night sorry about that”. Kaylee quickly speaks over him, “Xiu time to get to work, I checked the NDS board, we have some places to check out”. NDS stands for Nova Domain Society, an organization who operates in secret all over the station that specialize in acquisitions of rare space tech or materials to use as leverage either politically or in general to fund their causes, Kaylee and Xiu are members of this group who are called Retrievers out in the field, constantly checking the post boards to see what jobs are available so they can earn some vizacreds. Kaylee looks at the pad and sees a contact she had named Shiro who might have a connection or possibly some supply of DNA engineered protoplasm the NDS is looking to find, she hopes to meet him to negotiate a deal. She finds a code to enter to the system which sets up a meet, “Time to get up Xiu, meet me at the central hub in 15”. Xiu nods and salutes then shuffles up and shuts off the call.

At the central hub in her section of the station many places of business reside, mostly the usual vendors with food or many supplies you can gather, she patiently waits for Xiu to get here. Of course, he is late, so she fiddles around next to a food generator to grab a couple bars of protein, the machine works flawlessly however she hears a shuffle close by and her sense is that something is close to her. A large man with a long jacket, greasy hands, some facial scars breaths a little heavy as he approaches her, “So lady, care to have a partner to chow with?” His accent is broken and heavy, likely a dock worker or mechanic who is up to no good, she reels slightly back. “Umm. “No, I am good, you should leave me alone” she exclaims, “Come on! You are cute and we could hang out, I know a good place”. Kaylee realizes he will not stop so she brings up her awareness of her surroundings, many people all around but not too focused on them. The man reaches out to grab Kaylee but just misses her shoulder and hair, she moves to confront him, she swings at his big nose but lands over a bit to his shoulder to no effect. The man swings at her head but truly misses her by a long shot, he’s not stable on his feet here it seems, Kaylee takes the opportunity to act fast. Fumbling to get a small capsule located inside her sleeve it fails to detach, she thinks to herself, “If I could get the paralytic capsule to release, I could stop this dude”. He tries grabbing her again to no avail, now getting flustered Kaylee looks for this opening, her eyes shift to a pale purple just briefly and the space near her seems to shift somehow slowing everything around her. She takes her time as the man seems in slow motion but moving back as if in reverse in the actions he has already taken, she manages to get the capsule and break it on the wrist of this man who promptly seems to stop moving all together. As a young child Kaylee possessed an inner power that channels temporal energy out around her immediate space, as if warping or playing with time, she is careful not to always use it but felt this was the time to utilize her skill. At this point she moves away from him and heads down the walkway further towards where Xiu is supposed to come from, then she sees him and waves slightly frantic but calms down quickly. Xiu is an Asian decent young man with a half shaved head and long hair that is sometimes braided on the left side of his skull, dressed in leather garments and a three quarter coat he comes to Kaylee and hugs her. “Good to see you in person today, Kay, hope all is good with this deal you found?”. Kaylee pauses for a moment and glances back, Xiu looks over at the man who’s not moving much, “oh boy, another creeper, you need to stay away from them”. Kaylee nods, “well he won’t bug anyone for a while or remember me either” she says with a slight grin on her face. “Ah. I see now” Xiu grins back, “let’s set a meet shall we with this Shiro dude”.

Kaylee looks up the meet location on the board, it states to meet at docking station 54B in the east side, “Well, I know that place a little it’s near that bar Cyber Trespass”. Xiu looks at Kaylee with some recognition, “ok, let’s move”. As they come to the area of the docks it is a very busy and productive spot on the star stations, many star-ships as well as other high tech boarding systems offer a safe parking spot to do your business or casual visits. In these zones there are many businesses catering to all walks of lifeforms, just about anything can be bought with enough vizacreds, sort of a jack of all trades trading post if you will. As they walk by the Cyber Trespass bar a faint scent of metallic sulfurous gas wafts in the air from the nearby magna mounts used to secure ships to the docks, a very distinct sign you are in the docks zone. Kaylee pauses only briefly while inhaling some of this, “Man, I can’t get used to that”, she exclaims. She then moves closer to the area by docking station 54B, she moves casually to the spot marked on the door that has some symbols or markings when she puts the scan pad up to it to translate it as it filters through the NDS database, the sign reads Gengineered, “Yep that’s the spot now we wait over here across the stretch of roadway”. As they wait 4 figures who have been standing approximately 40 feet away start to rustle about, 2 men move to each side of the other men as if to flank and be lookouts. All are young with slim builds, square cut jaws with longer black hair in a few variations of man bun and braids or long stringy strands of black hair. Kaylee notices that a couple of them have mods built in or at least visible which alerts her internal alarm, “stay vigilant Xiu”, he nods. The tallest man walks towards her with a larger burly man behind him, “can I help you find something?”. Kaylee takes her time carefully approaching him, “I am working in the acquisitions dept of the maritime consort and was told I could meet Shiro for some supplies?’, Kaylee states as her eyes avert to the other 2 modified gents now flanking the group of them; a cover statement she read in the coded message on the board to identify her as a legit buyer. Shiro who does not state his name but shows some concern on his face and looks on his scan pad, “I work with Shiro, you have a code to scan?” She holds up her pad, Shiro scans it, a small light PING! Noise follows as the screen is green. “I see, yes you are in the right place, if you can produce the vizacreds we can proceed”. Kaylee nervously but diligently sets her scan pad with the code from the board, the pad seems to be delayed in connecting, waiting a few tense moments the screen then shifts, another small PING! “Excellent”, Shiro says we can get what you need just follow this man behind me to that door. They follow this larger man reluctantly but a little more confident knowing the vizacreds passed through ok, as they get to the door a small keypad is unlocked and the large man moves in and out quickly with a metal case about lunchbox size, with zero verbalizing he hands it over. Kaylee and Xiu make haste to move away from the docks asap, meanwhile in another location somewhere on the station, a monitor lights up, the back of a figured head leans over to look at the photo which popped up. Running a scan, nothing seems to come by the screen that alarms the figure, a button is pushed, and the monitor shuts off. As Kaylee and Xiu make their way away from the docks a familiar voice hails Kaylee, “Hey beautiful, fancy seeing you here.” Kaylee knows that voice, Hunter Cardea, pilot of the star-ship Tama Ku and long-time crush since she was young that she thought was on a several month hiatus but apparently not. “Oh, Hey Hunter” She is slightly nervous but tries to calm down, hoping she does not seem suspicious, he does not know what she really does so the docks are not her typical hang out, she hopes this does not end bad….