The pirate/smuggler Julius Vernon was sitting in his ship, the Nautilus, in the outer rims of the New London system. He was waiting for his contact to show up in this farthest edge of the system, where even some of the most advanced sensors would have a hard time to catch the nature of their activities.
Julius Vernon were, as he so often did, writing on one of his novels, when he suddenly got this very familiar feeling, that something terrible was about to happen. Julius Vernon had a very distinct sixth sense of danger. A smugglers intuition, as he preferred to call it. It had saved his life more than once. And this day would indeed be another one, were his life was saved by the sneaking intuition.
Julius looked at the sensor pings, but nothing showed up on the green and black screen in front of him. Yet he could not shake the feeling, that something, or more likely someone, was getting closer and closer at a dangerous path and speed. Julius has no reason to distrust his sensors but he got a stronger and stronger feeling that something bad would happen unless he moved his ship away from the current coordinates. So he did move.
Little had he moved when he saw a "thing" pass by his window in the cockpit. He couldn't see what it was, but it moved very fast. His sensor made only a small sound as the "thing" passed by, meaning that it had only for a very short period of time been able to register the passing thing. Julius became very curious about what it was he had seen, so he quickly activated his engines and tried to figure out which way the thing had flown. Luckily the sensor had had enough time to plot in a projected course and speed of the "thing". It was a long shot since the projected speed and course was made within the short time the sensors had the ability to "see" the "thing". But it was the only the he had to go on.
Julius followed the projected course with a speed slightly higher than the projected speed of the "thing". He did not care about his contact anymore. It had anyways been one of those deals that he was going to turn down. But sometimes even smugglers have to show some interest in their trading partners offers just to be polite and keep the connections alive and prosperous. He had been flying around for almost half an hour without seeing any trace of the unknown thing he was chasing when he suddenly caught a light reflection a little to the left of his course. Without any doubt in his mind he knew it was the thing he was chasing, so he changed the course. Within less than a minute he could align his speed and course with the thing. He did not know, what he was looking at, but it very much resembled a casket, but it had an even more eerie glow to it. It felt like a casket with someone buried alive inside of it. But what could possibly be living out here, and why couldn't his sensors pick it up?
The sensor started a series of beeps and silence. Beep, silence, beep, silence, beep. The sensor reacted on the thing for short periods of time, but just as suddenly as it would register the thing, just as suddenly it would stop "seeing" it again. Julius was more inquisitive than ever and he had a strange feeling, that this thing would be the end of him. Maybe not straight away. But at some point. Should he leave it and fly away? Or was this his destiny smiling at him with a curious´object the could almost only be spotted by the naked eye and not by the sensors. The greed got the upper hand, and he decided to try and catch the object and bring it on board his ship.
Since the sensors had a hard time spotting the object, the tractor beam kept loosing its target. Julius manged to slow the object down more and more. But it almost took him 10 hours to get the object on board.
Julius arrived back at his secret base in the Sea of Shadows system. He had met some outcasts on his way home. But fortunately, they had been preoccupied with attacking the Ice Palace, so they did not bother him. As soon as he came home he left the hangar and took a long shower before he went to bed. The tiresome battle with catching the mysterious object had left him more tired than an air battle on his own against six Nomads at once.
Julius woke up after not so few hours of sleep. He felt completely fresh and the curiosity was only surpassed by hunger. So he ate a light breakfast and went straight for the hangar. He lifted the object out of his space craft and what he was completely bedazzled by what he saw. At first it was the beauty of the thing, when he saw it up close. Then it was the eerie feeling that it emitted. Lastly it was the little engraved plaque, that he saw in what he would describe as the footing of the "casket". The plaque read: »Here lies the scoundrel that dared lay hand on my daughter on the day of her marriage. May he never be awaken. Rex totius Britanniæ King Charles IV, 325 AS«.
Filled with what could only be described as a strong feeling of disbelief, Julius went in to his library and searched on the computer. At this moment he was more than happy, that he had accepted to smuggle some bootlegged version of the new Encyclopedia system "librarian 2.1.34, ver. 2, update 5", because it meant his was up to date with all the different systems folklore and more. Julius was quick to find what he was looking for. He knew the story, almost every young child had been told this fairy tale as a kid. The story of the young heartbreaker LuBBerBoi, who cast his love on the wrong person. LuBBerBoi had fallen in love with a young Bretonnian princess. On the morning of her arranged wedding LuBBerBoi manged to get close to the princess. Very, very close.
The "librarian" told the story as Julius had heard it so many times before. The princess and LuBBerBoi fell madly in love. On the morning of the wedding, LuBBerBoi and the princess ran away together. The couple was found after a couple of days, but it was to late. The young lovers had already been married by the old traditions. The king was so furious that he punished the young LuBBerBoi in the most gruesome way that he could come up with. Nobody really knew what the punishment was, on this point the story had different endings depending on the imagination of the storyteller.
On the origins of the story, the "librarian" would have Julius know, that no proof of the story had ever been found. Probably because it was a folklore story made up by the common folks of the Bretonian systems many years ago. Julius had just discovered the only proof that ever was of this story. He had found the remains of LuBBerBoi.
Julius searched for a way to open the sealed casket. But his efforts was in vain. Julius started to investigate the coating of the casket. Curious to learn about its cloaking abilities. One day, while his good friend Phill Kay Dick was visiting, they were talking about Julius' amazing find, and they studied the casket together. All of a sudden, as though magic had happened, the casket opened up with a slight sound, peh-tisch. Julius and Phill jumped back in surprise. After only a few seconds a loud cough was coming from the casket, ah-hark ah-hark. Julius and Phill had just awakened the young (or more correct, the very old) LuBBerBoi. In the casket was a young boy at the age of no more than 20 years, by the looks of it. LuBBerBoi had been floating around in the New London system for almost five hundred years in a suspended animation.
Julius took LuBBerBoi in as a servant. LuBBerBoi served him well. He was clearly an intelligent boy, but he was badly traumatized. The old Bretonian King had been in one hellish bad mood, as he had chosen the punishment for the young LuBBerBoi. He had sentenced him to a fate worse than death. LuBBerBoi had not only been floating around in space for nearly 500 years, he had also had a slight recollection of the 500 hundred years as he woke up. He had the whole time been able to realize, that he was in a suspended animation, so he felt as time passed. It was a miracle, that he had not gone completely mad.
Julius continued to investigate the casket. He made many different experiments on the coating. But he never cracked the code. After a few years Julius started to get sick. The sickness progressed faster and faster, and no cure could be found. The mysterious coating of LuBBerBoi casket had been poisonous and Julius had been breathing its fumes and nano particles into his lungs, were they had started his downfall.
Phill and LuBBerBoi stood together at the bed as Julius Vernon gave his last will. He wanted LuBBerBoi sent to planet Manhattan in the New York system with enough credits to start on his own. Phill was to take the rest as a token of their long friendship. Julius warned the two to hurry away, since the secret home of Julius Vernon was wired to self-destruct upon the death of Julius Vernon. Phill and LuBBerBoi therefore hurried to the hangar, where Phills ships was docked. LuBBerBoi took some of the few possessions he had had while Phill uploaded the credits Julius left behind.
Phill left LuBBerBoi at planet Manhattan as promised, and he left LuBBerBoi with 150.000 credits. Before Phill left LuBBerBoi asked him. »What should I call myself?« whereto Phill without hesitation said: »You should call yourself what you are, young LuBBerBoi. Your fate has already given you your name in the form of a folklore myth, the myth of the young LuBBerBoi!«.
And so it came to be, that the young LuBBerBoi started out his career as a pilot ready to investigate the many systems of the Sirius Sector.
