Lummatii
Lothian League
Marian Hegemony
The Periphery
27 December, 3149
Freyja stumbled from the guest suite, wrapped only in the fur blanket she had awoken in. She wandered through the halls until she came upon the Bakkers, sitting in the large family room that they used for everyday functions. As they spotted her, each shot to their feet, but only Clarissa ran quickly to her side.
"Dear God, child, are you alright?" she put an arm around Freyja in an almost motherly way.
Freyja nodded. "I hurt. Drugs are wearing off. Is he gone?"
"Yes dear, he's gone. You're safe. Here, sit down, you shouldn't be up."
Clarissa led her to a soft sofa and sat down beside her. She could feel her pulse throbbing in her head like a drum as the family all sat around her, unsure of what to say or do. For what seemed like an eternity, no one said anything. Finally it was Ned Bakker who broke the silence.
"Freyja, If I had known what--"
She cut him off with a glance. "Please, not now. I don't need to hear what you would have done. I don't need to hear how sorry you are. I don't need to hear that it will be okay," she paused for a few seconds. "It's done."
There was a lengthy pause before Ned spoke again. "What do you need from us? What can we do?"
"I'm going to kill him. He's coming back, and he has to be stopped. And I'm going to kill him." She closed her eyes for a moment. She thought of the long line of warriors who had come before her in her family. What would they do? How would they react? They wouldn't have let it happen in the first place. They were strong. You weren't strong enough. You have to get there. "We have to organize. His extortion rates have to be too much for everyone. We have to figure out some way to organize opposition to him. Is there any chance the planetary government will help?"
Ned thought for a moment before he spoke. "You're forgetting, this isn't some grand unified planetary government like in the Inner Sphere. Ever since the 'freedom' that the Lothian worlds won, it's been touch and go. It's why you've seen the rise of these kind of pirate lord too, with too little authority to knock them down. There's three planetary 'Senators' that report to Lothario, but they've got no authority in and of themselves. They sure as hell won't have any help to give us."
Freyja scoffed. "There has to be a list of people that these pirates extort. If they collect at your level of the bureaucracy, then that's the level we organize at. Estate owners like yourself, is there any organization or gathering that links you all?"
"Formally, no. This is the periphery. People value their freedoms out here, we don't tend to over complicate things. But informally, I could probably rustle up some kind of meeting of all the landed lords. The nobility and all is a patchwork here, but with their purse strings threatened, I think they'll see reason. It will take a few days to organize. But we have time."
"How much? How often did Bart Carter collect his payments?"
Ned shook his head. "This new guy is doing things his own way. Says his first 'payment' is supposed to be before the fifteenth of March, next year. So two and a half months."
"Do what you have to in order to make it work. We'll only get one chance at this."
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