Intersystem News Feed

Excerpt from article by Jonis Ridge

Terra-Sol date 3814.250

Officials have tried to keep this secret, but sometimes the hardest thing to hide is something that isn’t there.

As of the time of initial publication, three Pax ships have either missed docking times or rescheduled them. For an organization famous quadrant-wide for being on time, transparent, and communicative, the changes in delivery schedule would be unsettling enough. Even before the first missed port of call, however, the PSSC had begun to close ranks. PSSC Control delayed decisions and confirmations that had taken only minutes the week before. Now, most communications to ships go unanswered and requests sent to officials on Paxis Station don’t fare much better. There have been no new debris fields or attacks reported by either Pax officials or any other system, so Pax’s missed stopovers can only mean orders from Control have changed. Are the ships being pulled back to Paxis Station or simply diverted to a new course? If threats have been leveled against the fleet, no one has bothered to report them and no system or fringe group has claimed credit for the disruption.

This leaves the quadrant watching the movements of all Pax ships with growing trepidation. Feris, which hasn’t answered a single communication since Terra-Sol 3814.233, had been carrying two modular cargo pods of medical supplies desperately needed in the Alula system, where a vicious plague has been sweeping through Syèlifi. Amitis, only radio-silent since 3814.242, has on board a supply of industrial atmospheric water generators that are even more necessary to the drought-stricken planet Vohtu in the Draconis System. Given the immense carrying capacity of Pax ships, these items are just the first in a long list of valuable goods, all of which would fetch an incredible number of credits on the black market.

More than one planet in more than one system is asking itself a very important question: What will happen to us if Pax neutrality has been compromised?