Most of our visitors are a ragtag bunch. We get a lot of ripped jeans and faded jackets. But many businesses use The Scar too. Plenty on the route are looking to make a fortune.
Much like the Butter Mice, they drink heavily and spend well. They take their suit jackets off, and loosen their ties. There is a lot of backslapping and drinking games. Discussions about currency rates.
Most head back to the cosy if soulless beds on their ships. But one guy stayed late last night, his head slumped on the bar. An abandoned red tie lay next to him, the knot still intact.
He gave us a story. I remain unsure about posting it. Five empty glasses stood in front of him already, and each world was slurry porridge. But he hammered the table of the bar until I turned on the recorder, and wrote out a letter of permission in scrawly handwriting.
I have no idea what his name was. Whoever you are, if you are reading this, let me know if you want it taken down. Oh, and you left your tie behind.
?: We deal with abandoned places. Worlds where millions of turnipheads roam. When things go that wrong, you have to consider if fighting back is a viable option. Is the planet worth saving? Once the infrastructure breaks, the houses crumble, and the crops are gone, what's the point?
We find a point. That’s our job. Our company buys up these wastelands on the cheap, burns them, and sells them on. Maybe to a storage company, or someone looking to expoerment with dangerous chemicals. We discuss the sale with whoever claims to 'own' the planet, strike a deal, and go from there. A burned out planet is a resolved planet, and no one is going there any time soon.
You might say that I have the easiest job. All I have to do is burn the place down.
::At this point our interviewee popped to the bathroom. Some loud retching noises filled the bar. He returned, and ordered another vodka orange::
Sorry about that. So where was I? Yeah,so, burning a world. On paper, or rather on screen, easy peasy. You look up the planet on our database, check the measurements, and work out the amount of explosive needed. Then I send a few messages, and it's done.
The people are all dead. But I still destroy something. What about the wildlife? The insects? Even those that are dead, they are still walking around. Gone forever in a ball of flames.
Everyone tells me it is just business. That I shouldn’t get emotionally involved. That it isn’t personal.
But isn’t it personal for me?
