Missions

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...

A routine supply contract takes the Dutchman to a small independent colony that has stopped responding to scheduled check ins. The organization that hired them wants to know why and is paying well enough that the crew doesn't ask too many questions before they go. When they arrive the colony is intact, the buildings are standing, the equipment is running, and most of the colonists are alive. That is where the good news ends.

The people they find are not right. Not visibly hurt, not obviously sick, but changed in a way that is difficult to pin down at first and impossible to ignore once you see it. They are cooperative and calm and answer questions without hesitation but nothing they say adds up and none of them can explain what happened or when it started. A few of them don't seem to re...