“Try again.”
He could barely hear Perera’s imperceptible sigh as his holocom was patched into the other Caldari’s broadcast.
“Harokas, this is Perera, do you copy?” Static.
“I repeat, Harokas, please come in, roger?” Warbled distortion. Here was a brief pause from Perera before his weary tone voiced, “I’m gonna try and triangulate his departure vector, gimme a few moments.”
“Hmm.” Tzadkiel was becoming distracted by his thoughts again. “Oh, and set the broadcast on repeat.”
“Already have.”
Tzadkiel gave in to his concerns and shook his head in bemusement. Harokas was too experienced a pilot to make such an obvious error of judgment and his inability to bring down even one of the pirates (although he had severely damaged the ace) smacked of a half-hearted effort. The two had known each other for years of course, both being veterans of the Caldari/Gallente war. Harokas was a highly respected bridge officer on board the now infamous Raven class battleship; the Scimitar and it had picked both Tzadkiel and Perera up after their Luminaire incident. Apparently, Harokas had known of Tzadkiel and his endeavours for some time and it always seemed as if he was one step ahead of anyone’s game. He had repeatedly turned down promotions to captaincy and in one controversial decision also rejected an admiralty position. No, his position was as a number one. His reasons were his own. Eventually, it was no surprise to ‘those concerned’ when Tzadkiel, and through him, Perera were seconded to the Scimitar.
After the war, the three had remained close in contact, if not for Harokas’s part, in friendship. They decided to form a company as Tzadkiel uncovered some of his old contacts in the arms smuggling trade. Harokas had already registered the name and so N.A.G.A Corporation was born.
The early days were hard, because as Caldari war veterans, no matter how decorated you were, you rarely left the navy with financial security under your belt. Perera’s mistrust and occasional open hostility toward his rich family had closed that avenue and although the other company members respected his decision it nonetheless had proven to be hindrance.
But Tzadkiel had also felt that Harokas’s leadership to be a little listless – almost as if his real intentions lay elsewhere, elusive and hidden. Perhaps this was the first glimpse of whatever truth lay previously undisturbed. He just couldn’t be sure.
“Right, I got it!” Perera’s purposeful comment broke Tzadkiel’s reverie.
“Yeh? Good. Isikano IV, right?”
“Ha! Your eyes are failing you old man. You’re close though, it’s IX, only seven degrees difference. Erm, hmm, twenty-four moons however.”
“We’ll start with the planet, and work outwards. Let’s hope we find him.” Tzadkiel wasn’t holding out for much hope, if he was being strictly honest with himself.
“Roger fucking that.” Came Perera’s measured reply.

* * * *

Harokas’s Merlin left the safety of warp space to a cacophony of alarms and an array of agitated looking warning readouts. Engines: offline. Weapons: offline. Communications: offline. Medium and Low slot modules: offline. And then the lights went out and his cooler fridge popped open spilling half a dozen Quafe Lights, their carbonated contents frothing across the cockpit floor. Harokas actually giggled. The dull red emergency lighting illuminated the proceedings and the