Whitefall

I seem to have slept thru the landing on Whitefall. That isn't all I slept thru.

I woke up to find this note on the console of the ASREV. I can't believe it, actually. It doesn't seem real. Yet, I know it is. I just...I just don't really understand.

'Dear X0,

I'm sorry that I don't have the guts to tell you in person, but, well, at least I'm tellin you before it all happens. By the time you read this, I'll be hours away, on my way to pick up the platinum. Thing is, x0, the platinum isn't for those papers. Those papers are going to end up back where they came from. No harm done 'ceptin for gettin everyone all in an uproar to the point they don't notice ...well...never mind that.

The platinum is ...well, its for something else I brought to Whitefall. I don't know how else to say it so I'll just say it straight out. The job was not to bring papers to fence, it was to get you here.

We both know you'd have never come on your own if you knew you were going to be meetin' up with some of your former associates for that long-overdue questioning. And, ain't no way they could get you out of Blackburne without raising more ruckus than they would like to raise. So, they came up with a plan to get you far away from the Annex and from Blackburne, and that plan was...well, it was me. They knew you'd come with me, willingly. They approached me, and offered me more than I could turn down.

I need the money, x0. I need it bad. I went and picked up an expensive habit and, well, its like a demon won't let go of me. I just need the money. I'll die if I don't get it, or at least I'll wish I was dead. But they promised me they wouldn't hurt you, x0, else I wouldn't have done it. Not for no amount of money. They said they just want to talk to you about why you left, something about the agreement, and gettin' it sorted out. I wouldn't do nothing to hurt you, X0. You're special to me, you know that.

Well there's something else. I drugged you. After we left Paradiso, I had to stop off to get some kind of paperwork that showed you really are 'you'. The only way I could do it was to knock you out. I'm sorry about that. I had to do it again when we landed because, well, hell, x0, I don't want to be around when your examiners get here. I don't want to see the look on your face.

I can't stand it even now, just thinkin' about it...I'm sittin here next to you all passed out on the bed, lookin' at you, and you look so innocent and frail. Oh, I know you ain't frail, and its probably just the way your hair falls around your face. I could really love you, x0, I mean, the kind of love that could make an honest man out of me, but...well...a woman like you..I just ain't sure I could survive livin' the way you do now. You're a long way from Zhangsun Province and that walled world you grew up in. You coulda been anything x0, anything. I don't know why you had to go and bail on us. You only had a month left, what could he have wanted you to do that was worth all this?

Anyway, by the time you come 'round, and read this, I figure you'll have about a two hour head start if'n you should want to run. I ain't sayin you should, or you shouldn't but if you do decide, two hours ain't a bad head start. I'll have picked up my platinum, so what you do is really no concern of mine. I did my part of the job. I delivered you, in this ship, and I ain't going to no special hell cause I didn't touch you even when you was all unconscious-like and I could have gotten away with it.

Wish I could tell you how to get off the planet. I'd offer to take you with me, but, well, that don't seem like such a good idea for either of us. Ain't no use in you tryin to start up this ship, cause I pulled the catalyzer and buried it, and don't bother to try to find it, cause its busted up.

I guess that's about it x0. I'd appreciate if you would burn this letter up so that when they get there, they don't see I let you in in the plan. That would be very bad for me. You know, x0x0, I was always figuring I'd find a way to get you out of it, and still get my money. But, well, I guess I didn't plan it very well cause ..well, you're here, I'm pickin' up the money. I guess this is my way of tryin' to do the right thing by you.

I hope you ain't too mad at me, although you have every right to be.

Shava

p.s. Go South. There's a settlement there and you might find some way out of here. Heres all the credits I got for the bio-stuff cannisters in Paradiso, more than enough I think, and all the paper ...never mind where it came from. '



And that was that. Like that he was gone, leaving me here to get picked up by the gorram purplebellies.......or to try to make my way to some settlement ....if it even exists...

He drugged me. That gorram gou shi drugged me.

And now I have to try to get off this forsaken place. Well at least he left me the credits and some paper. Some paper. THATS MY PAPER. How nice of him to give it back minus the bits he used to front himself some of whatever it is he's hooked on.

Well. What's done is done. I don't think I want to stick around here. Two hours head start..hmm...I can do that. Ok, so I feel a bit strange from whatever it is he's been dosin' me up with, but that should pass.

Let's see, what do I need. Foodbars, water, and guns. Lots of guns. Yeah, I can do this.