October 2941
Unmarked Idris - Magnus III Orbit
Magnus System
Photeus stumbled out of the busted up 300i and said to his new friends, "I am sure glad to see you guys!" The men on board raised their weapons and trained them on him.
"Ok, maybe not…," he sighed as two men came up to him and put him in handcuffs. He knew for sure he had been tricked. This had to be Drake Security that caught him. Then again, he didn’t see any markings or emblems. All the gear and ships docked looked to be pirate, not police.
A woman quickly made for him and stopped in front of him. She began, "You will be given back the artifacts to safeguard after they are catalogued," his satchel was given to her and she looked inside.
Looking satisfied, she said, "You will be given quarters for the return trip to Cathcart. We will drop you off at Spider and you will return to where you received this mission to confirm payment. You will not ask questions, you will not move about this ship, you will not even speak and you will not step outside my commands. Clear?"
"Yes, cl...," she cut him off, yelling in his face, "CLEAR?"
He nodded back. A bag was then dropped over his head and he was half-dragged, half-carried away.
Several minutes later he was deposited in a room, his cuffs removed, the bag pulled off his head. Before he could turn a kick was delivered to his back and he fell into the room. The door was locked secure behind him. As he got off the floor he looked around.
He was in a simple bedroom. He had a single bed, full sized. The sheets were clean and when he touched it the mattress was reasonable. It looked military standard at least. There was a desk in the room, but no chair. The walls were grey with the metal interior of the Idris, the floor hard and black. He saw the small latrine, shrugged and went for it.
He was at least able to take a shower, and when he emerged he saw a set of clean, military issued clothing in his size folded neatly on the bed and a tray of military rations. All of it was UEE, so it was at least familiar to him. He ate and dressed, then decided to get some sleep.
He woke the next morning, the room looking the same as before. The first hour flew by as he exercised to keep himself busy. The next four were murder. By the time a slot opened and his satchel filled with artifacts returned to him, he had seriously considered hanging himself with his sheets out of boredom.
As soon as the satchel returned he went over to it and removed everything from it. All the artifacts were still there and he glanced over all of them briefly. The ‘trinket’, the one he was originally after, looked like a simple wooden ball. While that particular one did not alleviate his boredom, there was another one that did. The one in the glass case.
He opened the case to examine it, and pulled it out from the box. He ran his fingers over the rough edge that felt broken, and then traced his finger over a single rune etching.
He immediately felt lightheaded and blacked out.