The Unlamented Death of Micah Carillon

The Unlamented Death of Micah Carillon is a short story written by Jamie Ibson, self-published as a free download. It is a direct prequel to Do or Die.

Captain Mick Mitchell races aboard the ICS Pandora's Hope, shouting for her crew to make ready to leave. She advises them that the Ridian government has issued a Jade Alert, meaning piracy and kidnapping at one of the habs in-system, committed by an old nemesis of hers, Micah Carillon. The Hope burns sunward and finds the jump wake where Carillon's ship, the Reprisal, left Rideau space. The Pandora's Hope gives chase, until arriving in the several-jumps-distant system of Parker-Barrow in the United Systems of Texas. Now knowing that Queen Suzanne of Windsor has issued a formal writ authorizion Carillon's execution, they hunt him down at an asteroid hab, far out-system.

The Hope visits a much closer hab and picks up a load of cargo bound for the asteroid hab to deliver. Once on the hab, the Myrmidons investigate what Carillon might be doing, and concludes they are likely selling the kidnapping victims into slavery, or worse, as lab-test subjects to the unethical Baird Research. The Myrmidons identify the gangsters acting as the middlemen on the trade, and ambush them.

With his fixers dead, Carillon flees the asteroid hab for some other destination, not knowing the void-capable Myrmidons are clinging to the exterior of the Reprisal. They force their way aboard and seize the ship. The Myrmidons rendezvous with the Hope sunward, and per the Queen's writ, eject Carillon from the ship at a distance from the sun that quickly overwhelms his suit's ability to regulate his temperature, and Carillon is burned to space ash.

Captain Mitchell and pilot Kari Castel board the Reprisal to greet the women and children captured in the raid, since the Myrmidons look, well, scary. One curious young boy, Eric, asks Kratos if it's true he chopped off his whole body. Kratos says yes, because he was dying beforehand, and now he's better. Eric thanks Kratos. "If you hadn't chopped your body off, you wouldn't have been here to save us! I'm sorry you were dying, but the new you is awesome!"