It turns out that Nychame is actually the name of the star, or the system as a whole. I think Merratol's grandfather once went here. It's a colossal star system with at least 22 planets of all types and sizes. People have emigrated to Nychame from every known cluster of the galaxy, because the planets and asteroids are so crammed with resources. And there's the cause of much suffering and grief. Some get greedy, it seems. Only the smart people of the Nychame Gathering keep the peace, through keeping to the centuries-old Contract. Their Contract sets out how to divide up resources fairly, how to settle disputes peacefully and things like that.
The population has not been properly counted for centuries because people are so spread out and many of its cities are crammed with illegal immigrants, smugglers, and the desperately poor who have no i.d. So said the pilot of a seven-space freighter named Girkame Mer I talked to. Two years ago he was caught up in a huge crisis on a planet known as Maltikame, or Cor, or Isfischia, depending on which language you speak. Maltikame has some of the largest deposits of certain important minerals and elements in this province of local space.
It also looks to me like one of the most beautiful planets anywhere. I found this photo in a magazine. I suppose that technically it's a moon of that colossal gas-giant planet.
But the people there have rules to limit the amount that can be taken off-planet or sold to off-worlders. They've had enough of huge mines and pollution.
This pilot, Girkame Mer, had been busy in one of the planet's minor starports one day, applying for a licence at the Nychame Bureau, when a bright-eyed, middle-aged woman dressed in tattered clothes and a young, tattooed, slab-muscled man began arguing with one of the clerks at another counter. Seems like they wanted to see someone urgently. Then another man burst into the office with a gun and threatened them. Girkame seemed like he was used to action and bar fights. He had surrendered his stunner at the door as requested, on the way in, but now managed to jump the gunman from behind, allowing the woman and young man to climb over the counter and hide inside. The Nychame Bureau is more or less an embassy for the Nychame Gathering.
Girkame managed to get inside, too, and found out what it was all about. This unlikely couple were aunt and nephew, living in the slums of the city. The woman had been hired at some huge villa to clean and do some housework. Although she'd been educated to a reasonable level, her parents had died and she'd been forced to take whatever work she could find to support her younger brothers and sisters.
One day she'd read some papers that were being thrown out. She didn't mean to snoop, but she missed having books to read. The papers were draft plans for some kind of operation that had to be kept top secret, and that involved interfering with the upcoming elections on Maltikame. She was pretty frightened. The villa's owners were a large, wealthy family of lawyers and investors, and she felt like a flea on their carpet.
But she smuggled the papers out of the villa under her blouse and took them to her nephew. He was a gang member in the slum, and had no time for politics. But she kept at him, day and night, until he finally gave in and took the matter to the head of his gang, a group calling themselves the Red Watch.
That gang was not known for mindless violence, but for protecting its own territory from other gangs and sometimes forcing businesses to contribute to their protection. The gang leader had grown too old for big fights with the police. So they made some investigations into this rich family and discovered that they were in touch with some powerful factions and corporations off-planet. Nychame's full of plots and intrigues like this, it seems.
But only a few days later things got ugly in the slums. There was a wave of suspicious fires, a few break-ins and murders that the Red Watch wasn't responsible for, and two neighbouring gangs began starting fights. So the aunt and her nephew were quickly moved out of town to a safe house while the fighting got worse. The villa family were conducting a campaign to scare the Red Watch, but it wasn't working. The gang joined forces with a few others who weren't such deadly enemies with them, and attacked the villa itself. They used their airboards to drop in over the walls, after they'd mounted a cyber attack to take out the villa's electronic defences. Many people were killed and injured on both sides, and the rich family fled, after burning any more evidence that might have proved what they were planning.
Anyway, the aunt and nephew finally plucked up the courage to go in to the Nychame Bureau and tell all. The elections were only a few days away. That's when Girkame met them and saved their necks.
For his troubles, Girkame found himself dragged deeper into the conflict. He was enlisted by the Nychame Bureau to help trace the roots of the plot to overthrow the government of Maltikame. For it seemed to everyone there that some powerful off-world interests were attempting to take over the planet's government in order to lay hold of its precious resources, minerals and huge ancient forests that are still fiercely protected by the locals there.
Girkame tried to withdraw, claiming quite honestly that he was a pilot and had to do his job, flying a seven-space freighter for a merchant company who employed him.
The Nychame Bureau promptly bought his contract from the merchants and gave him his orders: take a Vortex-class courier ship and crew of Nychame special forces to a certain planet to 'investigate' one strand of the plot. So he did.
But that's another story, he told me, and winked.
BACK TO STAR CATALOG
Image credits: P.Klein; Shimizu Corporation
The population has not been properly counted for centuries because people are so spread out and many of its cities are crammed with illegal immigrants, smugglers, and the desperately poor who have no i.d. So said the pilot of a seven-space freighter named Girkame Mer I talked to. Two years ago he was caught up in a huge crisis on a planet known as Maltikame, or Cor, or Isfischia, depending on which language you speak. Maltikame has some of the largest deposits of certain important minerals and elements in this province of local space.
It also looks to me like one of the most beautiful planets anywhere. I found this photo in a magazine. I suppose that technically it's a moon of that colossal gas-giant planet.
But the people there have rules to limit the amount that can be taken off-planet or sold to off-worlders. They've had enough of huge mines and pollution.
This pilot, Girkame Mer, had been busy in one of the planet's minor starports one day, applying for a licence at the Nychame Bureau, when a bright-eyed, middle-aged woman dressed in tattered clothes and a young, tattooed, slab-muscled man began arguing with one of the clerks at another counter. Seems like they wanted to see someone urgently. Then another man burst into the office with a gun and threatened them. Girkame seemed like he was used to action and bar fights. He had surrendered his stunner at the door as requested, on the way in, but now managed to jump the gunman from behind, allowing the woman and young man to climb over the counter and hide inside. The Nychame Bureau is more or less an embassy for the Nychame Gathering.
Girkame managed to get inside, too, and found out what it was all about. This unlikely couple were aunt and nephew, living in the slums of the city. The woman had been hired at some huge villa to clean and do some housework. Although she'd been educated to a reasonable level, her parents had died and she'd been forced to take whatever work she could find to support her younger brothers and sisters.
One day she'd read some papers that were being thrown out. She didn't mean to snoop, but she missed having books to read. The papers were draft plans for some kind of operation that had to be kept top secret, and that involved interfering with the upcoming elections on Maltikame. She was pretty frightened. The villa's owners were a large, wealthy family of lawyers and investors, and she felt like a flea on their carpet.
But she smuggled the papers out of the villa under her blouse and took them to her nephew. He was a gang member in the slum, and had no time for politics. But she kept at him, day and night, until he finally gave in and took the matter to the head of his gang, a group calling themselves the Red Watch.
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| One of Maltikame's most beautiful cities. Hardly looks like a city, actually. |
That gang was not known for mindless violence, but for protecting its own territory from other gangs and sometimes forcing businesses to contribute to their protection. The gang leader had grown too old for big fights with the police. So they made some investigations into this rich family and discovered that they were in touch with some powerful factions and corporations off-planet. Nychame's full of plots and intrigues like this, it seems.
But only a few days later things got ugly in the slums. There was a wave of suspicious fires, a few break-ins and murders that the Red Watch wasn't responsible for, and two neighbouring gangs began starting fights. So the aunt and her nephew were quickly moved out of town to a safe house while the fighting got worse. The villa family were conducting a campaign to scare the Red Watch, but it wasn't working. The gang joined forces with a few others who weren't such deadly enemies with them, and attacked the villa itself. They used their airboards to drop in over the walls, after they'd mounted a cyber attack to take out the villa's electronic defences. Many people were killed and injured on both sides, and the rich family fled, after burning any more evidence that might have proved what they were planning.
Anyway, the aunt and nephew finally plucked up the courage to go in to the Nychame Bureau and tell all. The elections were only a few days away. That's when Girkame met them and saved their necks.
For his troubles, Girkame found himself dragged deeper into the conflict. He was enlisted by the Nychame Bureau to help trace the roots of the plot to overthrow the government of Maltikame. For it seemed to everyone there that some powerful off-world interests were attempting to take over the planet's government in order to lay hold of its precious resources, minerals and huge ancient forests that are still fiercely protected by the locals there.
Girkame tried to withdraw, claiming quite honestly that he was a pilot and had to do his job, flying a seven-space freighter for a merchant company who employed him.
The Nychame Bureau promptly bought his contract from the merchants and gave him his orders: take a Vortex-class courier ship and crew of Nychame special forces to a certain planet to 'investigate' one strand of the plot. So he did.
But that's another story, he told me, and winked.
BACK TO STAR CATALOG
Image credits: P.Klein; Shimizu Corporation
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