01 - Vigilante

Ages - Age of Expansion - The Vigilante Chronicles

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TVC 01/1 Barnabas in Tethra a smaller city on High Tortuga, checking om it’s “feel”. Barnabas believed that a planet’s cities were the bellwethers of its success...or failure., and he wanted to see High Tortuga thrive – so he checked to see what was happening in odd places. He went into a local bar for a drink (no beer, so had fruit juice), and gossiped with the bar owner, an Ubuara named Aebura.

TVC 01/2 So she told him the whole story, from her first days on Devon to the work in the mines to Lan and Gar and the rest of them. She explained how she’d been one of the first employed in Sector XVIII’s Mine 2b—and therefore one of the first to leave—and how she had nearly forgotten the touch of the group mind by the time she was released. Barnabas wanted to see a copy of her contract, so she showed him her copy. He read it, and pointed out the places that were definitely wrong. . “People like this prey on people who don’t know better. You were caught up in something bigger than you.” She told him that others wanted her to smuggle them out, as it was getting worse at the mines - less food to eat and the hours were longer. “Slavery,” she blurted finally. “I think that when the mines shut down Lan didn’t tell them, and he didn’t let them leave. Gar knows that he is being talked about, and when Barnabas looked over at him, he did the worst thing he could ever have done – he ran.

TVC 01/3 Gar had reviewed his prior action in his mind, concerning the mine, and remembered when Lan had told him, two years ago, to make sure all communications to the outside world were completely shut down. He did. The mine changed- curfews, more people in jail, prisoners physically punished. Gar had become angry, and was now angry all of the time. When he walked through the mining camp, it was with his eyes darting this way and that, to see which person would rebel next. Lan just told him to take care of it – don’t bother him. When Gar had come into town, he heard the gossip and whispers, and realized that the mine Lan controlled should have been shut down entirely and the workers let out of their contracts. Lan had lied to him, and he had worried that the man in the bar was here for retribution. He remembered the things he had done and the sick feeling in his stomach grew, and he ran. At one point he shot at Barnabas, then ran again. He came to a company house, ran inside, locked the doors, found Barnabas staring at him. They sit and talk.