The Murder of Gaio Ingenito
Posted on Sun Jul 26th, 2015 @ 1:08pm by Micheletto Corella
Mission:
By Dawn's Early Light
Location: Piombino Colony
Timeline: Early 2391
Piombino, a long forgotten colony on the very edge of the Federation's territory in Galactic South, was idyllic. It consisted of one leaf-green continent resting in the centre of a tempestuous ocean, lush, fertile and perfect for the farming community which had grown up on it. The farmers eschewed the modern advances of the Federation in favour of the traditional approach and their produce would have been famous across the sector- across the galaxy even- if anyone had remembered it was there.
The small city which served as its administrative centre lay at the intersection of seven great roads which jutted out like spokes into the countryside where there could be found only small villages, hamlets and farms of all kinds. The city itself was mostly arable and rustic. The only building over one storey was- coincidentally- the only one which remained built from the reclaimed bulkheads and fuselage of the original colony ship. The rest of the buildings, kept a fair distance apart by olive groves, marketplaces and piazzas were all built from quarried rock from a nearby range of cliffs.
For Piombino, time seemed to have stopped. Rather than encourage the absurdities of the modern world, the farmers and settlers had decided upon a simpler life only interrupted by the requirement of the Federation placing a Governor on border worlds. The Governor's office, situated at the top of the three-storey building which stood out like a sore thumb against the skyline of the town, was the only one to have a computer service and a communications relay to the outside world.
Elsewhere the question of the day was inevitably the evening meal which streets often shared in large communal dining rooms with individual families taking turns to cook and set the agenda for the evening's social calendar. Everybody knew everybody else and their business and that was exactly how they wanted it. Conflicts were quickly settled and frank exchanges of ideas avoided the kind of in-fighting which often tore colonies apart.
A solitary bird chirruped somewhere in the grove prompting a reluctant smile to spread across the granite-haired, sunkissed face of the old man. He plucked one of the plumper green olives from the tree and popped it into his mouth, savouring the salty note as his teeth burst through its flesh. He wiped a bead of sweat from his brow. The suns were beating down on Piombino today, but then they always did. He could hear his grandchildren running around, throwing olives which had fallen from the tree at one another. They were boisterous children but Salustio didn't mind; they kept him young.
His olive grove, just on the outskirts of the main town centre had provided him with a good living for years. He provided his wares to the market traders and he received a decent price in return. Usually a credit or two per kilogram of olives, depending on the harvest but the last few years had been good to him. The new Governor had arrived- Salustio thought back- a couple of years ago now. Time seemed to move so fast. It seemed like only a year ago he had first held his granddaughter in his arms; she was eight now.
The Governor, Gaio Ingenito, had seemed at first to be the same as all the rest. He looked different, with blazing red hair and deep-set sad eyes, but he carried himself in the same way as the others. He looked washed out and broken. Years in politics would do that to you. He barely integrated with the people he governed, realising that most of the governance of the colony was done by people in dining rooms rather than by a central authority. He spent days locked away in his office on the top floor of the administration building, returning to his modest residence by a lonely, winding road which led up the hill.
His actions spoke louder than the few words he ever said. Salustio, who was now among the town's elders although he felt like a young man, had spoken with him only three or four times since he had arrived but he made quick steps to introduce by-laws which allowed tramp freighters to land on Piombino. There had been objection, of course there had, but the freighters which passed by came so infrequently and were so few in number that they never caused problems.
It did mean that the produce which they had long suspected would be a hit across the sector was able to be exported and the few freighters who carried it became part of the community and brought huge profits to the region's producers. Of course, there was very little to be done with Federation credits. The markets of Piombino dealt in them but there was very little to buy beyond the provisions which everyone in the colony could afford just by simply doing their bit.
He reflected on the colony's wealth. One of the few who spoke with the Governor on a regular basis had told Salustio that Piombino was one of the richest colonies by head of population in the Federation. He didn't care. No-one cared. They were all quite happy to live out their years on the little planet, with their simple lives and simple concerns.
Soon it was decided that some of the surplus credits would be pooled to buy a ship for the colony to export their own wares. Very few, not even the Governor thought that this was a particularly good idea. Why would they spend credits to make more credits which they did not need? The idea had been put forward by Ivetta Di Vita, an ambitious young woman who had been born on Piombino eighteen years earlier. Her case was compelling. While she loved Piombino, its people and its customs, she longed to spread her wings into the Galaxy without having to leave her home forever.
Many of the youngsters of the colony came forward supporting this notion and it was decided by both the Governor and the Elders to allow them a ship to explore and trade with. The Governor secured the purchase of a Phoenician Sprinter- a ship Salustio was assured- which was much coveted in Galactic South. The only caveat of their travels was that they were to report everything they saw, every conversation they had, and every trade they made to the Governor.
Salustio reflected in the baking heat of the suns on that. The Elders had been happy with the arrangement. The Governor was clearly homesick, missing wherever it was he had come from, and the Elders would be able to pass on the reports to the families of the crew. Although they returned to Piombino every three solar weeks, their absence was a source of understandable concern for their relations.
How foolish he had been to think so little of it, Salustio mused as he turned to look back into the town centre where the remains of the administration building still smouldered in the midday heat. Everything had run along smoothly until just a few days before when a previously unknown tramp freighter requested landing permission on the planet. No freighters were expected, at least not any of their usual ones.
That wasn't unusual. Freighters came and went without any issue and often some just rolled on by, encouraged by a beacon promising trade and rest on the colony.
Immediately upon landing the crew of the freighter, instead of unpacking their wares and greeting the traders who stepped out from the markets to meet them, made straight for the administration building. Only the Governor and his aide worked in the building, its bottom two floors were given over to the computer core, a small armoury and a large subspace communications relay, and he never made direct contact with anyone from the tramps. Their wish to see him was decidedly odd- but who were the residents of Piombino to argue with galactic business.
Testimony in the aftermath from traders who had met the captain of the freighter, told Salustio that he identified himself as Hirriv, a Romulan, and that he told them of a need to speak with the Governor most urgently. The traders, eager to keep their reputation for customer service, helpfully pointed him in the direction of the large, reflective building in the centre of town.
The Romulan had been denied entry to the building by its security system, leading the Governor to address him from the balcony of his office. What happened next was unclear. Some said that the Romulan had fired at the Governor, others told that the rest of the Romulan's crew had placed bombs on the superstructure of the building. Some reported that the Governor had been killed instantly, others said they had seen the Governor draw his weapon on the Romulan.
The only thing that was clear was that the Romulan and his crew were gone within an hour of arriving. The arrival in orbit of the Piombino trading vessel appeared to have spooked them into leaving, satisfied that their dirty deed was done. The Governor was dead and the people of Piombino were left with no way to communicate his death to the outside world.
Salustio had heard these stories second hand and stood by while one of the other Elders took charge of the situation. He felt unsafe for the first time since he left the core worlds of the Federation. The Romulan and his crew clearly came for one purpose and left without so much as speaking to anyone else from the town. They had been stunnned into inaction- unarmed and unable to form any kind of defence, these people had walked into their home and murdered one of their own, their Governor Gaio Ingenito, without giving them a second's thought.
The Elders dispatched the trading vessel on a new mission to bring word of the attack to the Federation by reaching the communication relay station in the next sector. The journey would take them a number of weeks and the intervening period would be one of uncertainty where the people of Piombino would try to continue on as though nothing had happened, for the good of their society and the good of their children.
They lit candles for the Governor. They reflected on how little they knew of him and a few speculated as to what he had done in a past life to deserve such a fate. The aide, who had left for the day by the time of the attack, was grilled at length by some of the old gossips of the colony. They wanted the dirt on Ingenito, the man they had decided was a criminal on the run. The aide knew nothing or at the very least said nothing as he shielded his candle against the night air.
In his olive grove, with sunlight pouring down upon him and his grandchildren playing nearby, life seemed almost as it was for Salustio Nordozzi. He resolved to make the death of Ingenito a lesson, a lesson that he and all the inhabitants of Piombino would learn. He would never allow someone to make themselves an outcast from the community again. He would never have to stand by helpless while one of his own was taken from him, and nor would any of his kin.
Gaio Ingenito
Former Governor of Piombino
