Guest submission by Kor Sanyo !

I sat my package on the floor, removed the belt knife from my robes, and dropped it on the tray. I ignored the smile that flitted across the woman's face as she saw the knife. Brutor don't consider any blade less than 25cm long to be a real weapon, and the traditional Intaki belt knife is hardly that. Unbuckling my sidearm, I made a show of pulling the beamer half out of the holster and checking the safety. I holstered it again, then laid the belt and weapon in the tray. The guards upgraded their opinion of me, visibly. A beamer is basically a handheld industrial welding laser, heavily modified to throw a very wide, very hot beam of energy. It only holds four shots, and the range is limited to about 5 meters, but it is easy to aim. Just point it in the general direction of where you want a big fire, and squeeze. Anything that can burn, does. It has a nice intimidation factor � nobody rushes a guy holding a flamethrower � which is important in a place like this. I'm not a large fellow, and the beamer makes the more "uninhibited" people pause to think about things. The male printed a receipt out and handed it to me, then stowed my weapons in a small locker below the desk. I picked up the package and stepped through the scanner, which remained silent. Satisfied, the guards politely indicated the door and returned to watching the hallway.

The door opened at my approach and I passed through a short hallway to another door. Nobody wastes space on a station, unless they have a lot of money. A hallway separating his living spaces from the guard station was a luxury, a subtle statement of wealth. As I approached the second door, it opened and Nico stood there smiling in greeting.

"Kor, my friend," he smiled warmly, "It has been too long since we've seen each other. Come in, come in!"

He ushered me to a set of plush chairs and a table. The room was tastefully decorated in the Amarrian style, but it was dominated by a large transparent plastisteel cage along one wall. Inside the cage were hundreds of small, iridescent beetles. They scuttled around, in constant motion. It looked like a small sea of shimmering waves, set to the sound of faint clicking. Nico saw my interest in the cage and shrugged.

"Doom Beetles," he explained. "They come from Morgoth's World. Very dangerous, but very beautiful. I think they go well with the silks, don't you?"

Rumor had it that Nico had fed several competitors and at least one former lover to the beetles, but it would have been impolite to ask, so I just nodded in agreement.

"They offset the blues well," I said, placing my package on the table and sitting down in one of the overstuffed chairs. Nico sat opposite me, and the light from the cage to my left reflected o ff one side of his face. It lent a fiery, almost evil cast to his features. His smile was one of pure warmth and trust, however. Nico was a very good merchant, very charming, and very smart. He crossed his legs and leaned back in the chair.

"I received your message of course," he said with a curious tone, "but I am not sure what it is you want my help with? Something to do with a ceremony of some kind?"

"Yes," I nodded. "I'm sure you've heard about the Captain's death by now. That's what I'm here about."

I saw him tense slightly, then force himself to relax. It was a very subtle reaction, and most people wouldn't have seen it. Nico was very good at controlling his expression and body language, as any Ni-Kunni is, and any good merchant should be. I just happen to be even better at interpreting such things, thanks to a misspent youth and some very expensive cyberware.

"I heard he was ambushed," he said with a sad frown. "Caught in a dead end system, then hunted down by the carebears." He said the last word with a negative emphasis. Carebear isn't a compliment in places like this.

"They trapped him," I explained. "Warp interdictors and ships guarding the only jump gate out, and a serious fleet of ships hunting him. Took six hours to pin him down. He killed eleven of them before they cornered him and blew him away. They made a vid of his pod being vaporized. I've seen it." I had watched it a hundred times, analyzed it and enhanced it, and made myself a little list from the data, too. But that was a different mission than the one I was on at Nico's place. "Someone tipped them off, they were waiting for him."

He leaned forward, uncrossing his legs and looked grim. "You have found out who it was, and you want me to have them killed?"

"No, I have n o idea who it was, but I am trying to find out," I sighed. "I came to you because he needs a Corsair's Wake."

"Ah," he said, relaxing and looking puzzled. "I do not recognize the term?"

"It's a tradition among pirates, but its pretty old," I said. "The Captain was a traditionalist, very hung up on the whole 'honor and tradition' of piracy. He would expect me to take care of it for him."

"Yes, he was different from the new breed," he agreed. "The young ones have no honor, no respect for the business end of things. I would like to help you, I think. What does this Corsair's Wake consist of?"

I leaned over and opened the package, removing the opalescent bottle within it. Nico's eyebrow twitched upward in surprise. I held up the bottle and shrugged.

"Basically, a lot of drinking and talking about the deceased."

Nico stood up and fetched two cobalt blue glasses from a cabinet, returned and sat them next to the bottle. He gently touched the holographic label and the Imperial seal on the neck of the bottle.

"Kor, this is Amarr White," he said with a note of respect. "To take it out of Amarr space carries a death penalty, my friend. It is very, very rare and expensive. You took a great risk, doing this."

"I asked the experts to name the best, they named this. It was very expensive, but for the Corsair's Wake, expense is never an issue. I called in some favors, took a little gamble." Actually, I had spent enough money to buy a fleet of battleships, and murdered two people to get the bottle. It was that important.

"For the Captain," he said, shaking his head in wonder.

"He was my friend," I said.

"Kor," he chided gently, "I have many friends, but � "

"I don't," I said, interrupting him. I held the bottle out to him, and he took it carefully. Even as rich as he was, I had to assume that he didn't have much regular access to the stuff, and he handled the bottle with an almost reverent air of respect and anticipation. I watched him break the seal, and smiled as he was startled by the little holographic message that appeared above the cap.

Embrace the peace and purity that is the Pax Amarria. Savor the flavor of Amarr White.

He chuckled as the little message faded away, and then poured the liquor into the glasses. It was milky white, and it glowed softly. There was a faint smell of honey and something else, something almost like a spice. He offered me the first glass and I took it. Taking up his glass, he smiled.

"Moments like these, my friend," he said, " require a toast."

I held up my glass and said, "To absent companions."

"To absent companions," he repeated, and we drank.

If you've never had Amarr White, I can't explain the taste to you. It's like a sweet syrup that changes to a more liquid fluid as it heats up, and the flavor changes too. From sweet to spicy to shocking strength and then a slow spread of alternating chills and hot flashes through your body. Nico gasped with delight, and for an unguarded moment I could see that he was truly impressed with the drink.

"It is...an amazing beverage," he shuddered, "Truly, I see why they do not want to share it."

I refilled the small glasses and we made another toast.

"To traditions," he said with a smile. Ni-Kunni are very big on tradition, they get it from the Amarr.

"To tradition," I intoned, also smiling. I was big on tradition, too, though not everyone in the room was going to like it.

We sat and drank, swapping lies we had heard about the Captain. I told him the truth about the exotic dancer in the Captain's pod, and he roared with laughter. The truth behind his adventures was as interesting as the lies, and we dredged up memories freely. After about a half hour, things quieted down and we sat and drank in silence. I checked my chrono, and it had been almost an hour. I could feel a tingling in my fingertips and a growing pain in my head where the implants interfaced. It was time to finish the charade, I decided, before the poison in the drink killed us both.

"There was one thing about the Captain's death," I said quietly, "that really bothered me."

"What was....was...that?" he said, his voice slurring noticeably.

"I n the vid they made, I saw his ship explode, and the cargo cans come tumbling out. They were high security ones, medium sized. They were empty when they blew."

"Yes?" he said, blinking several times.

"Before he left on his run, he messaged me privately," I said. I massaged my left forearm and felt the injector implants trigger, and a burning sensation started to spread up my arm. "He said he was carrying some real high dollar items for a mutual friend. something that paid serious money, enough that he was willing to risk a delivery alone, in that system."

"Did he..." Nico paused, a look of concern flashed across his face and he strained to sit up straight.

"He didn't say who," I said. The burning in my arm was spreading across my body, and it hurt like hell.

"But I knew what system he picked up from, so I went there and did some checking. He originally had some high security cans loaded, but they were removed later, just before he jumped."

I swayed to my feet and staggered towards the door to the restroom, feeling like I was on fire. I went inside and vomited into the toilet, then washed my face and mouth. The burning sensation began to fade, and I returned to the main room to find Nico sitting frozen and staring at the chair where I had been sitting. His eyes moved to watch me as I sat back down, and a small trail of spittle ran down from one corner of his mouth. The nanites and antidote injection were working to cleanse my system, but it wasn't pleasant at all. I felt a lot better than Nico did, and he was going to feel a lot worse, soon.

"At first, it looked like the Captain was planning on a double-cross, and steal the cargo," I said. "But that wasn't the Captain's style, he was a pirate, not a common thief."

I carefully cleaned my glass and replaced it in the cabinet, talking over my shoulder to the paralyzed merchant. "I had to kill a dock worker to get the truth out of him, but the cans were swapped without the Captain knowing about it."

I returned and sat down where I could watch Nico's eyes.

"I asked myself, why would someone remove the valuable cargo before he left, knowing that he would get to the delivery point and find the cans empty. The Captain would come back and slaughter the dock crew, as a matter of honor. So the only reason to remove the cans was if you knew he wasn't going to be able to come back, and didn't want to waste the high value bait."

I could see Nico's eyes change, they showed anger now, not the puzzlement of a few minutes before. He knew that I knew, but tradition required that I spell it out for him.

"I backtracked and check ed the station comm logs, and sure enough someone had messaged the carebears as soon as the Captain undocked," I said. "I called an old friend in Federation Intelligence, and he provided me with the comm log for that shift. I got a voice print and traced it to a broker."

The broker's body was floating in a small container, somewhere near the third moon of that system, no doubt discovered by some curious miner. The label "Garbage" wouldn't have deterred a poor miner much.

"After that, it was just a matter of tracking down the missing cans," I said tiredly. "They were transshipped to two different stations, then to this one. To you, Nico."

I stood up and walked around Nico examining him, his eyes flicking back and forth trying to see me out of the corners.

"You murdered the Captain, claimed the bounty from the carebears, salvaged the bait, and even defrauded the insurance company through the broker. Very smooth, Nico, but that extra bit of greed led me back to you. I would ask you why, but I know you can't answer."

I stood in front of him and looked down at him. If hate could be felt, I would have had two holes burned through me like a laser.

"Amarr White is restricted because it contains a rare and paralytic poison. It comes from the herbs and minerals they use to make it. The priests drink it in small amounts before rituals, and combined with incense and other things, they have visions. Its a neural inhibitor, actually, which is why your cyberware won't respond to your mental commands. That's also why your guards haven't come in and cut me down, Nico. They aren't receiving any transmissions from you, other than the autonomic ones for heart and respiration."

I dragged and shoved his chair around to face the cage as I talked. I was very tir ed and weak from the aftereffects of the poison, and I am not as big and strong as most folks.

"Your scanners didn't detect the poison because I spoofed them. My beamer isn't a beamer anymore. I gutted it and installed a very small, very special jammer. It only blocks the readout from a limited range of toxins, and its right next to the scanner."

I shoved the table over next to Nico and arranged the bottle and glass by his hand. He had a fine view of the cage, now. It was time to say goodbye, and conclude things.

"The poison isn't lethal, obviously, or there would be few priests left in Amarr," I said. "It will be metabolized in your system in another couple of hours."

I unlocked the cage and slid the top back. the clicking and chittering were much louder with it open, and the beetles began to move around much faster. I stepped away from the cage and judged th e angles. There was a sort of rock formation in one corner of the cage, and the beetles were surging up it towards the now open top.

"Of course, you will be long gone by then, Nico."

I backed away and turned for one last look into Nico's eyes. They were filled with despair, and it was changing to fear as I heard little noises behind me. The beetles were dropping to the carpet in increasing numbers, and beginning to explore the room.

"This is a Corsair's Wake, Nico. The trusted final task, expected of a close friend." I evaded a curious beetle and kicked it back to the others. "To avenge a fallen friend, no matter the risk, no matter the cost. It is a matter of honor, the Old Way. As a Ni-Kunni, I hope you appreciate the tradition, and embrace it."

I walked out of the room, as the sound of the scuttling beetles got louder and faster.

I didn't look back, and when I left the guard station with my weapons, I felt the Captain smiling at me from somewhere the carebears would never hassle him again.