Debts, Public and Private

The Dutchman makes a routine port stop and finds someone waiting for them that was not on the manifest. A face from Zedd's past, calm and unhurried and carrying a message from the Crimson Corsairs that has been a long time coming. The debt Zedd walked away from years ago has not been forgotten and the Corsairs have decided that enough time has passed. They want it settled and they have sent someone who knows Zedd well enough to find him to make sure the message lands the way it was intended.

The crew now has to reckon with a version of their captain they are only beginning to understand, the factions he ran with, the dataport and what it cost him, the lengths he went to in order to disappear and start something of his own. The Corsairs are not an abstract threat anymore. They are at the door and they did not come empty handed. Along with the deadline they brought an offer, not for Zedd, but for anyone on the Dutchman willing to listen. Hand him over and walk away clean, debts cleared, no further interest in the ship or her crew.

The options are not clean and not everyone is going to weigh them the same way. Settle the debt and find something the Corsairs will actually accept as payment, which is a harder negotiation than it sounds given what walking away cost them in time and loyalty and the interest that has been building ever since. Go to war with a faction that has more reach and more resources than the Dutchman can match and bet everything on coming out the other side. Find a third way, something that uses what Zedd knows about the Corsairs and the Black Nebula against both of them in a way that closes the door for good without requiring a fight the Dutchman is not guaranteed to win. Or take the offer and let the Corsairs have what they came for.

The messenger is a complication of their own. Whether they came because the Corsairs sent them or because they wanted to give Zedd a warning before things got worse is not a question that gets answered easily and figuring out which one it is matters more than it might seem.

Not every crew member has been with the Dutchman long enough to have decided where their loyalty actually sits when the cost of keeping it gets real. The Corsairs know that and they came prepared to use it.