{"data":{"id":12773,"title":"Tales of Kid Crimson: Issue #4","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/comm-link\/serialized-fiction\/12773-Tales-Of-Kid-Crimson-Issue-4","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-links\/12773","api_public_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/comm-links\/12773","channel":"Undefined","category":"Undefined","series":"Tales of Kid Crimson","images":[{"id":113,"name":"MysterySerial_FI_3Crop.jpg","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/media\/zcrgqkm79nm2fr\/source\/MysterySerial_FI_3Crop.jpg","alt":"","size":1246218,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","last_modified":"2013-07-19T05:28:35+00:00","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/113","similar_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/113\/similar"}],"images_count":1,"translations":{"en_EN":"Three systems away from where I ditched the Advocacy Agent. If I kept going I would start hitting more populated systems. The Arshop Mining Installation drifted among the titanic rocks of the Magnus System. What was an entirely automated operation near fifty years ago was now a run-down shell of its former technological glory, operated by a skeleton crew of excavators and deep-space miners.\n\nI knew Klay from way back in my days as a debt collector (i.e. thug) for a wretched little piece of work on Armitage. Klay had been a Citizen but after some bad decisions and a mean heartbreak, he started doing laps down the drain. By the time I came calling, his Citizenship had been stripped, his family and life were gone. When I kicked in the door to his hotel, he told me flat out to hurt him. See he\u2019d hit that wall, not the bottom, but an even more dangerous checkpoint. That point where you know the bottom is coming and you\u2019d rather check out then be there when it hits. Well, I didn\u2019t end up collecting and, over the years, did what I could to help him out. Now he was working as a (untrained) geologist on this little island paradise where he managed to clear me a docking bay.\n\n\u201cYou\u2019re not gonna stay long, right? I\u2019m not sure how long I can keep this bay offline.\u201d Klay said. He glanced around nervously.\n\n\u201cEasy, Klay. Only long enough to get my head straight and I\u2019ll be out of your hair.\u201d\n\n\u201cThanks. Chief has been on me all week.\u201d Klay relaxed a little.\n\n\u201cDon\u2019t worry, buddy. It\u2019ll be fine.\u201d I said as I opened the cargo hold, revealing the stacks of comatose slaves. Klay nearly had a heart attack.\n\n\u201cWhat the\u2026 are you crazy?\u201d He rushed forward and tried to shut the doors.\n\n\u201cKlay! Ease up.\u201d I stared at him until he finally released the door. I went inside and started defrosting a human one. It took about twenty minutes for him to wake up, another ten of bodyshock adjustment, then fifteen where he passed out again. By the time he was conscious and moving, Klay was more than a little antsy.\n\nThe human was probably in his late teens. The local tattoos and processing code from a youth detention center placed him near Terra. I could see the tagging stud had already been implanted in his wrist. Used mostly as a locator it was also a universal sign to mark someone as property. He was shivering when I gave him the broad strokes of what happened. He was taking the news pretty well.\n\n\u201cWell, I did want to see the systems some day.\u201d He said finally. Klay and I looked at each other. Joking. This kid narrowly dodged a life cracking rock on some distant moon or worse and he was joking.\n\n\u201cWhat was the last thing you remember?\u201d\n\n\u201cUh\u2026 a club on Prime. I was talking to this incredible piece of fine. Man, she had-\u201c\n\n\u201cPlease stay on topic.\u201d Klay blurted out.\n\n\u201cWe was dancing and suddenly she started talking about trying to find some Neon. Did I have some? Did I know anyone who had any? You know, the standard score.\u201d He looked at us, not finding the validation he was looking for, continued.\n\n\u201cSo I went to see this guy Kendrick I bought from in the past. He said he was out but said he might know a guy.\u201d Klay\u2019s foot tapped faster and faster. He was losing patience by the nanosecond. I wanted to let the kid ramble. Sometimes the best details are found in seemingly off-topic facts. But Klay did have a point, things could get real ugly should the wrong person come through that door.\n\n\u201cSo we went to the landing yard. There\u2026\u201d\n\n\u201cWhere was it?\u201d I needed the kid to start dropping specifics.\n\n\u201cEast side, I think. By a bridge.\u201d I think I knew the one. \u201cSo we get there and the girl starts\u2026 wait, is she here? Did you wake her up too?\u201d\n\nThe kid starts to get up to look in the cargo. I didn\u2019t see a human female in the list. They must have sold her to someone else. I motioned for him to continue. He got the idea and slowly sat down.\n\n\u201cYeah, well that\u2019s when it gets creepy because there are already like six guys waiting. One of them grabs her. I start to move and then\u2026 then things went black. Next thing I know I\u2019m here.\u201d\n\n\u201cWas there anything about the guys who jumped you, anything specific?\u201d\n\n\u201cI don\u2019t know, alright?\u201d He started getting flustered. His body started heaving again, his system\u2019s still fighting off the effects of the drugs. Klay ran a bucket over to him. I gave him a second. Klay wandered over to me.\n\n\u201cWhat are you gonna do with him?\u201d He whispered.\n\n\u201cHim? I got fourteen more in there.\u201d I thought for a few seconds. If he doesn\u2019t remember anything, I have nothing. Something resembling an idea waved down my attention. \u201cHey Klay.\u201d\n\n\u201cYeah?\u201d\n\n\u201cYou guys wouldn\u2019t be hiring, would you?\u201d Klay glared at me.\n\nThe rest of the slaves came out of sleep much like the kid. Confused, terrified. Klay spoke to the foreman and they figured out a way for the slaves to work off passage back home. I didn\u2019t trust the foreman as far as I could throw him but I was pretty sure Klay would be on the level. If he said they could make it work, I\u2019d trust that\u2026 because he knows I\u2019d crash this station into the nearest star.\n\nI climbed back into the pilot seat, ready to call this whole thing a wash when the kid jogged up, a bowl of soup in his hand.\n\n\u201cHey, mister. I wanted to thank you for what you done and all.\u201d\n\n\u201cSure kid.\u201d\n\n\u201cI\u2019m sorry for losing my cool but I think there was something else. Before I went under, someone else showed up. Someone all the guys seemed to know.\u201d\n\n\u201cOh yeah? They drop a name?\u201d\n\n\u201cYeah. They called him Kid Crimson.\u201d \u2026to be continued","de_DE":"Drei Systeme von der Stelle entfernt, an der ich den Advocacy-Agenten losgeworden bin. Wenn ich weitermachen w\u00fcrde, w\u00fcrde ich anfangen, auf st\u00e4rker besiedelte Systeme zu treffen. Die Arshop Mining Installation driftete zwischen den titanischen Gesteinen des Magnus-Systems hindurch. Was vor fast f\u00fcnfzig Jahren noch ein vollautomatischer Betrieb war, war heute eine heruntergekommene H\u00fclle seines einstigen technologischen Glanzes, die von einer Skelettbesatzung von Baggern und Tiefraumbergleuten bedient wurde.\n\nIch kannte Klay schon aus meiner Zeit als Schuldeneintreiber (d.h. Schl\u00e4ger) f\u00fcr ein erb\u00e4rmliches kleines St\u00fcck Arbeit an Armitage. Klay war ein B\u00fcrger gewesen, aber nach einigen schlechten Entscheidungen und einem b\u00f6sen Herzschmerz fing er an, Runden den Bach hinunter zu laufen. Als ich anrief, war seine Staatsb\u00fcrgerschaft ausgezogen, seine Familie und sein Leben waren weg. Als ich die T\u00fcr zu seinem Hotel eintrat, sagte er mir, ich solle ihn verletzen. Sehen Sie, er w\u00fcrde diese Wand treffen, nicht den Boden, sondern einen noch gef\u00e4hrlicheren Kontrollpunkt. Der Punkt, an dem du wei\u00dft, dass der Boden kommt und du lieber nachschaust, dann bist du da, wenn er trifft. Nun, ich sammelte nicht und tat im Laufe der Jahre, was ich konnte, um ihm zu helfen. Jetzt arbeitete er als (ungeschulter) Geologe auf diesem kleinen Inselparadies, wo er es schaffte, mich in eine Dockbucht zu bef\u00f6rdern.\n\n\"Du wirst nicht lange bleiben, oder? Ich bin mir nicht sicher, wie lange ich diese Bucht offline halten kann.\" Sagte Klay. Er blickte nerv\u00f6s umher.\n\n\"Ganz ruhig, Klay. Nur lange genug, um meinen Kopf gerade zu bekommen, und ich bin dir nicht mehr im Weg.\"\n\n\"Danke. Der Chief war die ganze Woche hinter mir her.\" Klay entspannte sich ein wenig.\n\n\"Keine Sorge, Kumpel. Es wird alles gut.\" sagte ich, als ich den Laderaum \u00f6ffnete und die Stapel von komat\u00f6sen Sklaven enth\u00fcllte. Klay hatte fast einen Herzinfarkt.\n\n\"Was zum.... bist du verr\u00fcckt?\" Er eilte nach vorne und versuchte, die T\u00fcren zu schlie\u00dfen.\n\n\"Klay! Immer mit der Ruhe.\" Ich starrte ihn an, bis er schlie\u00dflich die T\u00fcr \u00f6ffnete. Ich ging hinein und fing an, einen menschlichen aufzutauen. Es dauerte etwa zwanzig Minuten, bis er aufwachte, weitere zehn Minuten mit der Anpassung des K\u00f6rperschalls, dann f\u00fcnfzehn Minuten, bis er wieder ohnm\u00e4chtig wurde. Als er bei Bewusstsein und Bewegung war, war Klay mehr als nur ein wenig kribbelig.\n\nDer Mensch war wahrscheinlich in seinen sp\u00e4ten Teenagern. Die lokalen Tattoos und der Verarbeitungscode einer Jugendhaftanstalt brachten ihn in die N\u00e4he von Terra. Ich konnte sehen, dass der Tagging Stud bereits in sein Handgelenk implantiert war. Meistens als Ortungsger\u00e4t verwendet, war es auch ein universelles Zeichen, um jemanden als Eigentum zu kennzeichnen. Er zitterte, als ich ihm die groben Z\u00fcge dessen gab, was passiert war. Er hat die Nachrichten ziemlich gut aufgenommen.\n\n\"Nun, ich wollte die Systeme eines Tages sehen.\" sagte er schlie\u00dflich. Klay und ich sahen uns gegenseitig an. Ein Witz. Dieses Kind wich nur knapp einem lebensgef\u00e4hrlichen, knackenden Stein auf einem fernen Mond oder schlimmer aus und scherzte.\n\n\"Was war das Letzte, woran du dich erinnerst?\"\n\n\"Uh... ein Club auf Prime. Ich habe mit diesem unglaublichen St\u00fcck Geld gesprochen. Mann, sie hatte....\"\n\n\"Bitte bleiben Sie beim Thema.\" Klay platzte heraus.\n\n\"Wir tanzten und pl\u00f6tzlich fing sie an, dar\u00fcber zu reden, wie sie versuchte, etwas Neon zu finden. Hatte ich welche? Kannte ich jemanden, der welche hatte? Du wei\u00dft schon, die Standardpunkte.\" Er sah uns an und fand nicht die Best\u00e4tigung, nach der er suchte, fuhr fort.\n\n\"Also ging ich zu diesem Kerl, von dem ich in der Vergangenheit Kendrick gekauft habe. Er sagte, er sei nicht da, aber er sagte, er k\u00f6nnte einen Kerl kennen.\" Klay's Fu\u00df klopfte immer schneller und schneller. Er verlor die Geduld um die Nanosekunde. Ich wollte das Kind laufen lassen. Manchmal finden sich die besten Details in scheinbar unkonventionellen Fakten. Aber Klay hatte einen Punkt, die Dinge k\u00f6nnten wirklich h\u00e4sslich werden, wenn die falsche Person durch diese T\u00fcr kommt.\n\n\"Also gingen wir zum Landeplatz. Da....\"\n\n\"Wo war es?\" Ich wollte, dass das Kind anf\u00e4ngt, die Details zu verraten.\n\n\"Die Ostseite, glaube ich. Bei einer Br\u00fccke.\" Ich glaube, ich kannte den einen. \"Also kommen wir dorthin und das M\u00e4dchen f\u00e4ngt an.... warte, ist sie hier? Hast du sie auch geweckt?\"\n\nDas Kind f\u00e4ngt an, aufzustehen, um in die Ladung zu schauen. Ich habe keine menschliche Frau auf der Liste gesehen. Sie m\u00fcssen sie an jemand anderen verkauft haben. Ich habe beantragt, dass er weitermacht. Er kam auf die Idee und setzte sich langsam hin.\n\n\"Ja, nun, das ist es, wenn es gruselig wird, denn es warten schon etwa sechs Typen. Einer von ihnen packt sie. Ich fange an, mich zu bewegen, und dann.... dann wurde es schwarz. Das n\u00e4chste, was ich wei\u00df, ist, dass ich hier bin.\"\n\n\"Gab es etwas \u00fcber die Typen, die dich angegriffen haben, etwas Bestimmtes?\"\n\n\"Ich wei\u00df nicht, in Ordnung?\" Er wurde nerv\u00f6s. Sein K\u00f6rper begann wieder zu wuchten, sein System k\u00e4mpft immer noch gegen die Wirkung der Medikamente. Klay fuhr einen Eimer zu ihm r\u00fcber. Ich gab ihm eine Sekunde. Klay wanderte zu mir hin\u00fcber.\n\n\"Was wirst du mit ihm machen?\" fl\u00fcsterte er.\n\n\"Er? Ich habe noch vierzehn weitere da drin.\" dachte ich f\u00fcr ein paar Sekunden. Wenn er sich an nichts erinnert, habe ich nichts. Etwas, das einer Idee \u00e4hnelte, winkte meine Aufmerksamkeit nach unten. \"Hey Klay.\"\n\n\" Ja?\"\n\n\"Ihr w\u00fcrdet doch nicht etwa jemanden einstellen, oder?\" Klay starrte mich an.\n\nDer Rest der Sklaven kam aus dem Schlaf, genau wie das Kind. Verwirrt, ver\u00e4ngstigt. Klay sprach mit dem Polier und sie fanden einen Weg f\u00fcr die Sklaven, um den Weg nach Hause zu finden. Ich vertraute dem Polier nicht so weit, dass ich ihn werfen konnte, aber ich war mir ziemlich sicher, dass Klay auf der H\u00f6he sein w\u00fcrde. Wenn er sagte, dass sie es schaffen k\u00f6nnten, w\u00fcrde ich dem vertrauen.... weil er wei\u00df, dass ich diese Station in den n\u00e4chsten Stern st\u00fcrzen w\u00fcrde.\n\nIch kletterte zur\u00fcck in den Pilotensitz, bereit, das Ganze eine W\u00e4sche zu nennen, als das Kind nach oben joggte, eine Sch\u00fcssel Suppe in der Hand.\n\n\"Hey, Mister. Ich wollte dir f\u00fcr das danken, was du getan hast und so.\"\n\n\" Klar, Junge.\"\n\n\"Es tut mir leid, dass ich die Ruhe verloren habe, aber ich denke, da war noch etwas anderes. Bevor ich unterging, tauchte jemand anderes auf. Jemand, den alle Jungs zu kennen schienen.\"\n\n\"Oh ja? Haben sie einen Namen erw\u00e4hnt?\"\n\n\"Ja. Sie nannten ihn Kid Crimson.\"\n\n\n...wird fortgesetzt","zh_CN":"Three systems away from where I ditched the Advocacy Agent. If I kept going I would start hitting more populated systems. The Arshop Mining Installation drifted among the titanic rocks of the Magnus System. What was an entirely automated operation near fifty years ago was now a run-down shell of its former technological glory, operated by a skeleton crew of excavators and deep-space miners.\n\nI knew Klay from way back in my days as a debt collector (i.e. thug) for a wretched little piece of work on Armitage. Klay had been a Citizen but after some bad decisions and a mean heartbreak, he started doing laps down the drain. By the time I came calling, his Citizenship had been stripped, his family and life were gone. When I kicked in the door to his hotel, he told me flat out to hurt him. See he\u2019d hit that wall, not the bottom, but an even more dangerous checkpoint. That point where you know the bottom is coming and you\u2019d rather check out then be there when it hits. Well, I didn\u2019t end up collecting and, over the years, did what I could to help him out. Now he was working as a (untrained) geologist on this little island paradise where he managed to clear me a docking bay.\n\n\u201cYou\u2019re not gonna stay long, right? I\u2019m not sure how long I can keep this bay offline.\u201d Klay said. He glanced around nervously.\n\n\u201cEasy, Klay. Only long enough to get my head straight and I\u2019ll be out of your hair.\u201d\n\n\u201cThanks. Chief has been on me all week.\u201d Klay relaxed a little.\n\n\u201cDon\u2019t worry, buddy. It\u2019ll be fine.\u201d I said as I opened the cargo hold, revealing the stacks of comatose slaves. Klay nearly had a heart attack.\n\n\u201cWhat the\u2026 are you crazy?\u201d He rushed forward and tried to shut the doors.\n\n\u201cKlay! Ease up.\u201d I stared at him until he finally released the door. I went inside and started defrosting a human one. It took about twenty minutes for him to wake up, another ten of bodyshock adjustment, then fifteen where he passed out again. By the time he was conscious and moving, Klay was more than a little antsy.\n\nThe human was probably in his late teens. The local tattoos and processing code from a youth detention center placed him near Terra. I could see the tagging stud had already been implanted in his wrist. Used mostly as a locator it was also a universal sign to mark someone as property. He was shivering when I gave him the broad strokes of what happened. He was taking the news pretty well.\n\n\u201cWell, I did want to see the systems some day.\u201d He said finally. Klay and I looked at each other. Joking. This kid narrowly dodged a life cracking rock on some distant moon or worse and he was joking.\n\n\u201cWhat was the last thing you remember?\u201d\n\n\u201cUh\u2026 a club on Prime. I was talking to this incredible piece of fine. Man, she had-\u201c\n\n\u201cPlease stay on topic.\u201d Klay blurted out.\n\n\u201cWe was dancing and suddenly she started talking about trying to find some Neon. Did I have some? Did I know anyone who had any? You know, the standard score.\u201d He looked at us, not finding the validation he was looking for, continued.\n\n\u201cSo I went to see this guy Kendrick I bought from in the past. He said he was out but said he might know a guy.\u201d Klay\u2019s foot tapped faster and faster. He was losing patience by the nanosecond. I wanted to let the kid ramble. Sometimes the best details are found in seemingly off-topic facts. But Klay did have a point, things could get real ugly should the wrong person come through that door.\n\n\u201cSo we went to the landing yard. There\u2026\u201d\n\n\u201cWhere was it?\u201d I needed the kid to start dropping specifics.\n\n\u201cEast side, I think. By a bridge.\u201d I think I knew the one. \u201cSo we get there and the girl starts\u2026 wait, is she here? Did you wake her up too?\u201d\n\nThe kid starts to get up to look in the cargo. I didn\u2019t see a human female in the list. They must have sold her to someone else. I motioned for him to continue. He got the idea and slowly sat down.\n\n\u201cYeah, well that\u2019s when it gets creepy because there are already like six guys waiting. One of them grabs her. I start to move and then\u2026 then things went black. Next thing I know I\u2019m here.\u201d\n\n\u201cWas there anything about the guys who jumped you, anything specific?\u201d\n\n\u201cI don\u2019t know, alright?\u201d He started getting flustered. His body started heaving again, his system\u2019s still fighting off the effects of the drugs. Klay ran a bucket over to him. I gave him a second. Klay wandered over to me.\n\n\u201cWhat are you gonna do with him?\u201d He whispered.\n\n\u201cHim? I got fourteen more in there.\u201d I thought for a few seconds. If he doesn\u2019t remember anything, I have nothing. Something resembling an idea waved down my attention. \u201cHey Klay.\u201d\n\n\u201cYeah?\u201d\n\n\u201cYou guys wouldn\u2019t be hiring, would you?\u201d Klay glared at me.\n\nThe rest of the slaves came out of sleep much like the kid. Confused, terrified. Klay spoke to the foreman and they figured out a way for the slaves to work off passage back home. I didn\u2019t trust the foreman as far as I could throw him but I was pretty sure Klay would be on the level. If he said they could make it work, I\u2019d trust that\u2026 because he knows I\u2019d crash this station into the nearest star.\n\nI climbed back into the pilot seat, ready to call this whole thing a wash when the kid jogged up, a bowl of soup in his hand.\n\n\u201cHey, mister. I wanted to thank you for what you done and all.\u201d\n\n\u201cSure kid.\u201d\n\n\u201cI\u2019m sorry for losing my cool but I think there was something else. Before I went under, someone else showed up. Someone all the guys seemed to know.\u201d\n\n\u201cOh yeah? They drop a name?\u201d\n\n\u201cYeah. They called him Kid Crimson.\u201d \u2026to be continued"},"links_count":0,"comment_count":35,"created_at":"2012-11-12T00:00:00+00:00","created_at_human":"13 years ago"},"meta":{"processed_at":"2026-04-28 23:49:09","valid_relations":["images","links","translations"],"prev_id":12772,"next_id":12774}}