“I accept your price, agent. I will deal with this situation immediately.”

My Rifter class frigate, the Ripsack, was still warm from just having docked moments earlier; the agent hadn’t taken any time in contacting me. I’m sure I just happened to be the next reputable capsuleer in line, but still, sometimes it felt good to think that agents offered me the more lucrative jobs based on my reputation and employment history.

Within moments I had cleared the station, my small and nimble ship aligning quickly for the Abudban system. I was in pursuit of hijacked fuel for the station; such a simple commodity, but so essential to the well being of all the lives onboard.

Aura flagged an item on my HUD; one of her programmed alerts was to notify me when my name was mentioned in local comm chatter. I took a quick look.

“Well there’s a blast from the past, Colonel Wieler…”  Niko Succorso said.

I hadn’t seen Niko in years. He had been the PVP Director for Freeform Industries, back when I flew under their employment before the war. Niko was a fierce, but fair man, and I had always held him in high regard.

Last I had heard, he had dropped off the grid completely to enjoy civilian life. It was good to see that rumour was unsubstantiated.

“What do you mean blast from the past?” I started in a private comm, “I haven’t gone anywhere. Good to see you again, old friend.”

I still had a few minutes before I would pass through the Abudban gate in Rens, then warp to the last known location of the kidnappers. I could squeeze a quick conversation in with an old corpmate.

“Was getting the itch planetside.” Niko began. “Wanted to see if I could still feel exhilaration up here in the stars.”

“There really is nothing quite like it.” I offered, just happy to see a retired pilot back in action.

We talked about his “retirement”, him settling down, working a regular job, etc, etc. We talked about old corp members, and how I hadn’t really run into anyone since those days. We spoke on Ushra’Khan, and the enfolding drama that led to Damu’Khonde, then Ushra’Khan once again, as well as how Masua’at Matari was treating me.

“Surprised to see you retired from the military yourself, Roc. I enjoyed watching you on the vids. Always made me shake my head. Your ego really knows no bounds.” He chuckled.

I often wondered why some found me egotistical. I had never claimed to be better than anyone else. I had never ridden on the coat tails of someone else’s success to get where I was. Everything I had done, everything I said was of personal confidence and accomplishment.

Then it dawned on me. It was meant as an affectionate joke.

“Yeah, well, I ran out of women in the militia to enjoy so it was time for me to leave.”

“Speaking of women, Rha’de says hi.”

Rha’de. I hadn’t heard that name in a long while. She was Niko’s girl, a fellow corpmate, but man did I ever have a thing for her at one point. Granted, I seem to feel that way about every attractive woman I meet, but really there’s nothing wrong with that. I love women, what could be said?

“You’re still taking good care of my girl I hope?” I asked.

“Aye. Even engaged her.” Niko replied.

“Well I’ll be. None of us ever saw that coming.” I said sarcastically, laughter trailing my words. It had been common corp knowledge that Niko and Rha’de would be spoken of in the eternal songs of the bards. Theirs was an immortal love story, literally, and if it wasn’t so sickeningly romantic, I would retell that story here.

“Congrats, Niko. You both truly deserve that happiness.”

By now, our conversation had gone well beyond my travel time. I had actually tracked down, engaged and destroyed the Guristas kidnappers, as well as brought the victims onboard the Ripsack, and was already returning to the agent in Rens.

Traumatic as it was, I had no choice but to keep the victims in my cargo hold; there just wasn’t enough room anywhere else.

It had been a good conversation with Niko, but I had to figure out a polite way of cutting it short. Business was business after all.

Niko spoke. “Listen, Rha’de’s comming me now. Needs me to pop over insystem. I’d love to chitchat, but she wants the same, and frankly Roc, she has a nicer rack than you.”

“I remember.” I replied quickly. We both laughed and said our goodbyes.

As I docked in Rens, I watched as the victims exited my cargohold and were quickly reunited with their waiting loved ones. A quick glance at my account confirmed the agent was good on his end of our arrangement.

I hoped to run into Niko again.