by I. J. Thompson

illustrated by Amanda Price

Having firmly established themselves at the space station Almar Upside, the crew of the newly christened Freespirit, under the command of captain Itar Grendling, blasts through hyperspace toward Resh's homeworld of Lanthrym.

There, among the dark, artificial rain soaked streets, they'll need to find a solution to their greatest puzzle so far - the complete and utter downfall of the pirate lord Dorok Zalaster...

Log, personal: Avery Kranzt, 20.19.K6311
--Begin recording--

"Avery here. Everybody thought I should log this one - I guess when you get to the end, you'll see why!

"We set down on Lanthrym, in Capital City (and for the record, I just gotta say I can't imagine a more despicable place). We were heading to Kaggle's tower, when we were accosted by a bunch of Arconan beggars. And wouldn't you know it, one of the smaller ones lifted my blaster rifle! We high-tailed it after them, catching them in a dark alley. Well, what do we see, but about thirty or forty other Arcona, lying around in various stages of lucidity. The oldest of these ragged beings comes forth and introduces himself as Tegok, and apologizes on behalf of his 'child'. The little triangle-headed kid gave me the rifle back and, appeased, we decided to ask this Tegok just what the problem was with this rag-tag flock he'd assembled back here.

"The answer was heartbreaking. I didn't know this, but it turns out these Arconans are extremely susceptible to salt addiction. Couple that with the fact that one of Lanthrym's chief exports is - you guessed it - salt, and you've got trouble. We asked Tegok where his people were getting the salt from, and I can't say any of us were surprised. It seems Dorok Zalaster had a little sideline trade running right here on the surface. So Tegok would spend all his time taking care of his poor, addicted flock, and try to keep them away from Dorok's salt dealers.

"The guys and I had had enough. With Tegok's permission, we assembled the poor beings into a group, and explained to them at length the need for Zalaster to be stopped once and for all. Realizing that their freedom, and that of their children, lay in the balance, the Arcona agreed that the time had come to end Dorok's reign over them. Heartened by the fact that the three of us were going to be attacking Zalaster's pirate gang on our own, the aliens began to get pretty enthusiastic about standing up for themselves. They didn't look like much of a fighting force, in their varying stages of addiction, but we were grateful for the help - and I think they were grateful for the inspiration..."

"When the whole gang of us popped into Kaggle's, the little crimelord was quite impressed. He had a real distaste for chemical pushers himself, so he was behind us one hundred percent (of course, the pusher in question being his number one annoyance didn't hurt matters any!). We told Kaggle we wanted guns, and lots of 'em. Never one to pass up a juicy opportunity, Kaggle agreed, on one condition: if we managed to clean Dorok Zalaster's scum out of Deadsville, then he would get to keep the deserted ghost town (and anything in it) for himself.

"The next stop was Rocket Rental, where we were fixed up with a snowhopper and a good, sturdy repulsor trailer to ferry our passengers. I joined Resh in the cockpit (he drove - them 'hoppers are just way too complicated), while Itar supervised our new Arcona friends in the covered trailer. Already they were showing signs of salt deprivation, and were getting twitchy. Since each of them also held a shiny new blaster pistol in their shaky, clawed hands, it was touch and go back there. Itar took it all in stride, though, and never ran out of patience for the unfortunate souls.

"Anyway, it turned out we had bigger problems. As we hopped across that frozen hell, we were attacked by, not one, but two snowcrabs, which Resh explained to me were actually fairly common on his planet's surface. Well, if I never see one of those big ugly critters again, it'll be too soon. I swear, at one point, it looked like one of those massive, silver claws was going to crush the trailer full of our new Arconan buddies (and Itar!) like a tin can. As it was, we were lucky to get away with a pretty severely damaged snowhopper. If we hadn't been so close to our destination anyway, I think that little encounter might have been curtains for us all..."

"Deadsville - what a deathtrap! Fumbling around in the dark was pretty unnerving, and the Arconans, as you can probably guess, were really close to losing their cool. The cold, the hazards, the uncertainty of what we might be facing, all added up to one big collective bad mood. To top it off, we ended up faced with an impassable vertical shaft. About ten meters across, it couldn't be jumped, and there were no materials around with which we could traverse it. Adding insult to injury, one good, long, sturdy cable hung down the centre of the shaft, attached securely another ten meters above. It was utterly hopeless, and the Arcona were starting to make noises like they wanted to go home. I started to remind them that our snowhopper wasn't going anywhere, when what do I see but that same, thick cable, coming slowly toward us as if pulled by an invisible hand. As it came to the edge of the shaft, we all grabbed onto it - all but Resh. My Gotal friend sat cross-legged on the cold floor, looking decidedly spent. It seems he possessed some talents none of us were aware of! One by one, we swung across the shaft.

"Not long after, we found our way into the town proper. I could see how that place might have looked like a fun vacation spot when it was being constructed, but in its current state of abandonment and decay, it was just creepy. In particular, our travels had taken us into a forgotten amusement park, complete with silent, cobwebbed rides, and burned out, mechanical cartoon characters grinning maniacally down at us. I would have liked to avoid going this way altogether, but the plans that Anybody, through the late Grakkata, had given us told us that our quarry was located through a large portal on the other side. Compared to the frightening machines all around us, Zalaster and his pirate cronies didn't seem so bad! We made haste for the entry and, hunkering down in silence, peered around the edge for a look.

"A starship hangar lay beyond, four of Dorok's scout ships parked there. Scattered around them were scores of pirates; Human, Gamorrean and others, with a handful of the fearsome Binoshi assassins mixed in. And at the centre of this gruesome gathering, the despicable pirate scum who'd assembled them all... Dorok Zalaster."

"Tegok and I tried to figure out a plan of attack, but really, there was nothing to plan. With a shout of vengeance, Tegok, myself, Itar, Resh, and thirty salt-addicted Arcona charged into the hangar bay, opening up our blasters on the crowd. Nearly half the surprised pirates fell right away, and shortly thereafter the Arcona were upon them, throwing down their blasters and letting 'em have it with their sharp claws. Well, I never would have guessed, on the way here, that these guys could be so fierce. They fought with no concern for their own safety, and even the Binoshi Assassins were taken aback (the guys and I were able to take out the Binoshi with our blasters while they were preoccupied by the Arcona - cowardly, maybe, but we've already learned that with the Binoshi, you don't take any chances).

"Wouldn't you know it? In the heat of the battle Zalaster and a few cronies escaped into a neighbouring chamber. Inside, there was another hangar holding his ship, The Last Thing. By the time the fighting wrapped up and we were able to get over there, the transport was blasting out the hangar door and down the frozen canyon outside.

"Our quarry had escaped..."

"Kidron, the High City of Refuge. I'd heard about this place, but seeing it was something else altogether. Under that big air dome was a city full of beings on the run. Who would have thought that a whole town full of desperate people could be such a peaceful place!

"Tegok thanked us for bringing his people here, citing it as the perfect location for the addicted Arcona to recover. By now the luckless beings were getting into advanced withdrawal symptoms, and clearly wouldn't be good for much for a few days, at least.

"As we worked on finding lodging for the Arcona, we were met by one of the citizen police force, Chief Batt. Batt took a great interest in our story, and turned out to have a connection to Zalaster, himself. Turns out Batt used to be a member of Dorok's gang, 'til a covert deal with Anybody allowed him to sneak away. Anybody impersonated Batt for a couple of months, enabling the shape-shifting alien to take notes on Zalaster's operation and base, and trade the information to Grakkata. I guess it is a small sector, after all!

"Batt volunteered that a likely location for Dorok to have run to would be the junk world Korad, where the pirate used to lay low before he got his own base. Advising us to kick Zalaster while he was down, Batt promised to work with Tegok to find housing for the Arcona. With a round of fond farewells, Resh, Itar and I jumped on a speeder heading for the landing platforms outside of town, and the Freespirit.

"It was time to see this fight through to its conclusion..."

"We'd all heard about Korad, but we weren't prepared for the sight of it. Resh's sensor scans found The Last Thing pretty quickly, and Itar dropped the Freespirit down through that sickly, green sky. Setting down on the sturdiest pile of garbage we could find, the three of us strapped on some breath masks, and popped the hatch.

"Trying to cross the endless sea of mechanical garbage was just as difficult as you'd expect. Thankfully, after about an hours' hike, we were approached by a battered old speeder carrying an outdated, eccentric robot called Emtee-Seventee. It seems Emtee used to work in public relations for whatever company used to own that planet, and had been there ever since. He was eager to take us anywhere we wanted to go, including to our quarry's spacecraft. In fact, the droid had recently tried to offer his services to Dorok's gang, but had been run off. Grateful for the ride, we all hopped in the wheezing landspeeder, which bobbed drunkenly across the landscape.

"The Last Thing rested right where the rusty robot said it would be, but was crewless and locked up tight. Alarm bells ringing in our heads, we ordered Emtee to take us back to the Freespirit, on the double. Sure enough, when we finally got there, the trap was sprung. Though we fully expected an ambush, our wariness wasn't enough to prepare us for the stealth of Dorok's men... there were just too many places for them to hide.

"In short order, we were disarmed and staring into the face of the man himself. And what is he carrying? The alien, jewel finger I discovered on Bodrin, stolen from our ship. The very thing that had got me hooked up with these guys in the first place! It seemed he figured the mysterious artifact was going to win him big points with someone who would be appearing in the system at any moment, and was anxious to make orbit right away. Instead of executing us immediately, he had us chained to the side of an old, wrecked liner over a pool of oils, acids, and other foul liquids, planning to come up with an appropriate punishment after his 'meeting'. Dorok and his men got into their own speeder, and the vile gang took off.

"What they didn't bank on was that Emtee, who'd fled the area at the first sign of trouble, would come back to see if we were alright. His timing couldn't have been better, and the four of us escaped the area just ahead of some giant tentacles belonging to one of the ugliest life forms I've ever seen - the less said about which, the better! After dropping Itar off at the nearby Freespirit, Emtee, Resh and I sped off after Dorok, and my jewel..."

"The Last Thing didn't have to wait long for the other party to arrive, and Resh and I were able to witness it all, having stowed away aboard the freighter. I don't know who we were expecting him to be meeting up there, but Resh and I were absolutely shocked to overhear that the Imperial Star Destroyer Thunderflare had just appeared in system. Creeping as close to the cockpit as safety would allow, we were able to spy on the interchange from a discreet distance.

"The woman commanding the ISD asked Zalaster if he had what she'd come for, and the pirate scum produced my jewel. The strange thing was, this 'Captain Pryll' suddenly seemed distinctly unhappy to see it. Before Zalaster even had time to voice his outrage, the Imperial woman was ordering her battery crews to destroy The Last Thing! The craft instantly began shaking under multiple impacts, the crew running around like wildmen. We were quickly discovered, and Zalaster, helpless while his pilots tried to steer us out of there, now had a target for his rage in the name of (you guessed it), me.

"Well, I wasn't backing down. Zalaster had been partly responsible for Grakkata's death, and I'd been forced to leave my whole life behind for the strange, glittering jewel that he now held tucked into his belt. Fists flying, I charged right in there. And you know, I'm not superstitious - I've heard about people 'calling on a higher power', when they really needed to do something. Stars, I even saw my friend Resh manipulate a heavy cable with his mind! But I swear, something was working for me at that moment. Sure, I took some blows, but when the brawl was over, our pirate nemesis Dorok Zalaster lay dead on the floor.

"Grabbing my jewel back, Resh and I made a B-line for the escape pods as The Last Thing began to disintegrate all around us. Our timing couldn't have been better, as we shot out of the doomed craft mere seconds before it exploded into flaming debris. Of course our fate was still sealed, since the Imperials could just scan the surface of Korad for us later. However, our good friend Itar had other plans. Piloting the Freespirit with a skill that I'm sure surprised even him, he swooped in carefully, opened the port cargo bay door, and scooped our falling pod out of the sky as smoothly as an athlete catches a gravball!

"Setting course for a quick jump to Wherever, we escaped the Thunderflare, leaving nothing of Dorok Zalaster's pirate empire behind..."