515 – Starhunter Redux – Goodbye, So Long

Family and an old friend bring trouble for Dante Montana.  Could this be our farewell to Starhunter Redux?  Kenneth and Eugene discuss Goodbye, So Long. Synopsis: There’s a saboteur aboard the Trans-Utopian and her name is Percy. She’s sabotaged Dante’s air handler in his cabin to force him to take her shopping.  With little choice, they go to Hino station, a bustling market.  There Dante meets Ike, an old friend, and Ike’s “friend,” Marco. [expand title=”More…” swaptitle=”Less” tag=”strong”] Ike still bears a bit fo grudge against Dante for stealing Penny from him, but… that’s all forgiven and they talk about old times over drinks while Marco keeps Penny occupied. Ike has a secret, some people are after something he has and, although he hasn’t told Dante anything about that, he needs to get off the station before they kill him.  He asks Dante to take him to Dione, but Dante won’t help him. As Dante and Percy make to leave, Ike is killed when his ship explodes.  Marco panics.  They’ll be after him.  Reluctantly, Dante takes him aboard the Trans-Utopian.  On board the ship, Marco is both more and less forthcoming.  He becomes very critical of Ike, pointing out what a loser he was, but he will not tell Dante what this is about. Completely forgetting about their standing orders that all passengers must be kept in the cells, Marco is free to roam the ship.  He finds Percy, and, after sabotaging Caravaggio, kills Percy stone dead with a spanner to the back of her head.  Then he subdues Lucretia, and then takes Dante prisoner at gunpoint, locking him in the cells below, where we discover Marco can’t do anything right because Lucretia and Percy are locked in one of the cells and Percy isn’t stone dead. Raiders rendezvous with the ship and, with Marco’ assurances that Ike told Dante where the McGuffin is hidden before he died, they torture Dante for information he doesn’t have.  When Dante won’t crack the Raiders decide to torture Percy instead.  At this point, Marco switches sides (maybe) and kills the Raiders and surrenders to Dante. Irrelevantly, Percy and Lucretia escape from their cell and make their way to the bridge, so we don’t have make a return trip to the cells to get them out. Marco is escorted to the cells.  Dante roughs him up until he reveals that the McGuffin is some special terraforming seeds and the Raiders really want them. Percy is good enough to reactivate Caravaggio and free him of the virus, but not good enough to stop the ship’s pre-programmed course to Dione. The Raiders want these things really badly, therefore Dante sees it as nothing but an opportunity to bargain for Travis.  Lucretia uses her Orchard resources to find the contact on Dione.  Pursuing Raiders ships are just a short time behind them, they won’t have much time. Dante goes to meet the contact, but he won’t talk till Marco is there, luckily, Lucretia is bringing Marco.  Ike shows up, who, like Percy, is not dead either.  Not yet anyway. Guns are drawn, shots fired, and when the smokes clears everyone except Lucretia and Dante are dead. They pop back to the ship and leave – apparently the pursuing Raiders weren’t really a concern. The story ends on the question:  Where are those seeds?  As Percy stares at them inside Marco’s Kaleidoscope. [/expand]