Bob piped in, “Mark 10, eh? I knew you bought a starship, but Jesus - an Icaria Mark 10?” he whistled, “Mile and half long; pion-drive antimatter engines; can reach up to eighty percent the speed of light. Them Terrans sure know how to build a starship. How much did that cost you? Must be a pretty penny.”
         “Eight million.” said Jack.
         Bob gave an incredulous grin.
         “Yeah, that’s about right. Where’d you get that kind of money?” he said, “You never made that much working at Astrocor, I can tell you that much.”
         He took a sip of his margarita.
         Jack replied, “I never made that kind of money. I leased those rockets off the Autocracy.”
         “The Terran Autocracy!?” cried Bob, spitting out his drink, “But they’re on Earth. How’d you make a deal with them?”
         Jack looked at his friend.
         “John Sterric.” he said.
         “You mean Iron Sterric?”
         “Hsyeah,” said Jack, “I don’t know if you knew this, but he’s actually a Terran official.”
         “Yeah, yeah,” said Bob, settling back in his chair, “I heard the rumours. So it’s true than. I s’pose they sent him here to look after their stake in the company.”
         “Yeah, something like that.” said Jack.
         “I heard he’s back now.”
         “He is.” said Jack, taking a drag from his cigar, “I was just dealing with him not too long ago, actually. But, I’ll tell you more about that later.
         “As I was saying, he was able to act on behalf of the Autocracy to lease me the rockets... on the condition that I complete a mission to the Epsilon Eridani System to trade contraband with the E.R.E.”
         “The E.R.E.?” said Bob, “You mean the Epistemian Republic of Epaphus?”
         “Yeah, that’s right.” said Jack, “They’ve been on bad terms with Earth for years and refuse to deal with ‘em. That’s why the Terrans have been working through intermediaries like myself to get any trading done. Anyways, I took it as an opportunity to get myself back to travelling the universe. One dangerous mission to Epaphus and I’d own myself an interstellar vessel again.”
         “Right,” said Bob, flicking his ashes into the ashtray, “But I’m guessin’ you’re about to tell me it didn’t all work out as planned.”
         “You can say that again.” said Jack.
         “So, what happened?”
         “Well,” said Jack, “let me tell ya.”
         He leaned back in his chair, crossed his leg, and threw his arm around the shoulder. He took another puff from his cigar and continued.
         “I was on my final approach to Epaphus - just on the outskirts of the system. I had just been unthawed from cryostasis and was enjoying my first cup of coffee when the alarms just started blaring. An unknown ship was approaching my trajectory off my starboard side. At first, I thought they might be government space rangers, but when I tried to hail them - no response. They just kept comin’ until they were right on top of me. They latched onto my airlock and boarded my ship. There wasn’t much I could do.”
         “So, who were they?” asked Bob.
         “Pirates.” said Jack.
         “Holy shit. You’re kidding.”
         “‘Fraid not. They’ve pretty much overrun the system, now. It’s become more than the Republic can handle. The pirates that boarded me, I guess they were part of one of the largest criminal syndicates in the system. Run by some giant crime lord named Doctor Damn.
         “Anyways, they took my ship and I was forced into a holding cell on their boat. I don’t know how many weeks I was in there but if I ever have to survive on recycled protein paste again, I think I’d rather starve. Eventually, they threw me in a small shuttle and took me down to some small, jungle compound on Epaphus and locked me in a dingy, little hut. I was there for five local days - by the way, an Epaphus day is about eight standard days long so that’s like five or six weeks here. Anyhow, when they finally figured out they weren’t gonna get no ransom money for me I thought they were going to kill me. Luckily, though, I made friends with one of the guards and he spoke up for me. So instead of shooting me, they blindfolded me, threw me in the back of a truck, and dumped me smack dab in the middle of the jungle with nothing but the clothes on my back, a canteen of water, and a small knife. I was in that jungle for three Epaphian days before I made it to civilisation.”