Privateer Tales 3: Parley (18 page)

“So this junk’s all over the ship and reproducing?”

“Paranoid much?” Tali asked. “No, I programmed them to target Loo. Here, look.” Tali handed me her reading pad. It looked like I was seeing directly through the pad at the table in front of me. There was a small smudge of yellow on the table and when I lifted it up I could see a large cloud on the door.

“That’s just the baseline data. Your AI will analyze the data for you,” she said.

I hit the button and the smudges turned into more obvious shapes resembling chat balloons you might see in an old-school comic strip. There was a lot of information, including the time when the contact occurred. It also included more invasive information, like blood pressure, respiration rate and body temperature.

“This stuff’s a little scary,” I pushed Tali's reading pad back toward her.

“Yes, it’s also on loan and would cause problems if anyone found out we were using it,” Tali said.

“No worries there. Pretty sure I don’t need you or Marny pissed at me.” We all laughed, but I was at least partially serious.

I excused myself and grabbed a large cup of coffee from the galley. It was brewed from synthetic beans, but was pretty close to the real thing and I appreciated that Marny was saving us the significant difference in cost.

I palmed my way onto the bridge. “Captain on the bridge.” I said it to save Nick the trouble. “I’d like to bring us in, if you’re okay with that.”

“Yup. I’ve a few things to tend to so that’d be good,” Nick said. We exchanged the ritual words of transferring the bridge watch and I sat in the chair.

We were still sailing backward towards Jeratorn on the decelerating burn plan and would be for the next two hours. We would only flip over for the last half hour of our trip.

Calculate when the bow thruster will have enough thrust to complete our deceleration plan
.

The ship’s AI replied.
That point was crossed fifteen hours ago
.

I rubbed my hands together in excitement.
Roll ship and engage bow thruster to continue current burn plan
. The ship slowly disengaged the rear engines and used the arc-jets to rotate us in a graceful tumble.

Incoming hail from
Adela Chen
.

Accept
.

Spooling down the rear engines had caused us to sail right past Ada’s position. She hadn’t missed it.

“What’s up Liam?” she asked.

“Trying out my new bow thrusters. I’ll slide right back.”

“Okay, a little warning might be a good idea next time.”

“Right, sorry.”

“No biggie, glad everything’s okay.”

I coaxed the bow thrusters to pull us back in line with Ada’s ship. I lined us up momentarily so we could see each other through our armor-glassed cockpits. Ada waved back at me. It wasn’t a particularly safe place to stay, so I moved back to the formation we’d been sailing in for the last couple of weeks.

I felt a little nostalgic when I looked out into the deep dark. In the distance and with the help of my HUD, I could make out many of the outlying large asteroids in this part of the main asteroid belt. It felt both familiar and foreign. My mind tried to locate markers I was used to seeing, but of course they weren’t there.

I wondered what my parents, Big Pete and Silver, were doing at this moment. I suppose they were working their claim. I hadn’t heard from them for a while, but the last I had, Big Pete was onto a spot he thought was really showing a lot of promise. I’d, of course, heard this from him for as long as I could remember. He was the eternal optimist and had eked out a life where many had failed before him. It seemed to me to be a hopeless life, but Dad was thrilled by it every morning when he woke up.

Display layout of Jeratorn on forward holo, include nearby asteroids and outposts
.

Jeratorn was three independent towers, each with a spread-out cluster of habitats linked together to form a rough cylindrical shape. These three main structures were laid out in a loose triangular configuration and connected via multiple catwalks. It defied the normal logic of building one dense structure that would be easier to defend against random asteroids and space junk. A long finger-like structure stuck out from one of the buildings. This was apparently a pier for ships to dock at, as the HUD showed several ships at rest, on top and in berths.

Only a few asteroids showed on the vid screen, a lot less than I’d expected given my experience on Colony 40. The AI showed several long range, asteroid-mounted turrets that covered the wide corridor between the co-op’s ore station and Jeratorn. They were significantly heavier weapons than we had at Colony 40 and some of my original concern about safety dissipated.

The AI alerted me to a new comm from Sam Chen
.
Play Sam’s comm on main holo
.

Sam Chen was sitting at his desk in his apartment.

“Captain Hoffen, we’ve cleared a full load for the strings. Price has been holding steady for a couple of days now. We’re priced nice and low, so get that load hooked up and sailing and we’ll clear a hefty profit. I just heard a rumor of tensions between the PDC and the North Americans. Somebody’s trying to redraw some borders. Hate to be too much of a capitalist, but they’ll need good old fashioned steel if they want to beat on their war drums too much. Send me a ping when you’re headed home. Oh, and tell Ada to listen to her comm once in a while.”

Record response
.

“
Got it Sam. Thanks for setting that up. We have a layover here, but I’ll send Ada packing in four to five days no matter what. Hoffen, out.”

End comm
.

When you’re sailing long distances, time can get away from you. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that for days on end you’re simply looking forward to your point of arrival. It seemed like I had barely sat down when the AI started spooling down the forward thrusters as it was programmed to do when we were thirty minutes out. I thought I might be able to make out the station, unaided, through the armor glass.

Hail Jeratorn control tower
. I didn’t know what they called it out here, but my AI would be able to translate that just fine.

“Jeratorn control. What’s up?” It was a significantly less formal response than I’d expected. Even on Colony 40, we
used more formality than that.

“I’ve got two ships on approach. We should be at the ore station in thirty minutes. Any protocol you need us to follow?”

“Nah, we’re pretty laid back here. I’ll give ‘em a shout and let them know you’re inbound. Are you tying up here?”

“We’re planning on refueling and taking some shore leave. We’ll need two medium berths, one of those needs to be a bay for unloading.”

“Total will be six hundred for each twenty-four hour period. How long’re you staying?”

“Put us down for twenty-four, we’re on a tight schedule. Any problem if we need to extend that?”

“We don’t get that busy, I’ve got you down, Captain …” He was obviously fishing for my name.

“Liam. Thank you. Over and out.”
Terminate Comm
.

All ship announcement
. “We’ll be arriving at the ore station in thirty minutes. Prepare for arrival.”

Incoming hail from
Adela Chen
.

“Hey there Ada, what’s up?”

“Have you called in our arrival to Jeratorn?”

“Just did.”

“Stay on the comm. I’m going to talk to the co-op ore station.”

“Roger that,” I said.

“Jeratorn Ore Control, this is
Adela Chen
arriving with an empty string. Please provide instructions.”

“Say again? That sounds like my girl from the
Baux
. That you Ada?” The man’s voice was pretty high and his inflections made him sound like he would be able to sing my old earth country music pretty well.

“Yes, hello Elvard. How have you been?”

“Can’t complain. Well, I suppose that’s not true, but good enough. Hey, I heard an awful rumor about your momma. Tell me it ain’t true.”

I winced. I suppose he felt like he was on a private communication but what a thing to ask.

“Mom and I got attacked on our way back from Delta. She didn’t make it.”

“Sure sorry to hear about that. Is that the reason you’re sailing with a gun ship?”

“Yes, at least partly.”

“You’ll have to tell me all about it. You gonna be at the Welded Tongue later? I get off in a couple hours. You still owe me a date.”

“Don’t make me hurt you. Tell you what though, I’ll buy you a beer.”

“It’s a date.” Elvard’s voice was triumphant. “You have your pick of bays today, but we won’t have a shift until tomorrow that can load it. Things have been real slow.”

“Tell me about it tonight?” Ada asked.

“Talking sure is a thirsty business.”

“See you tonight, Elvard.”

“Count on it.”

The Jeratorn Cooperative ore station sounded more impressive than it was. There was a total of three buildings sitting on a large, conveniently flat, asteroid. In this case, ‘large’ was a general description and did not indicate size on a solar system scale. This rock was only one kilometer long by five-hundred meters wide – nothing particularly spectacular. But from a ‘really great place to sift and stack a few hundred million tonnes of refinery grade ore’ perspective, this was one of the coolest asteroids and largest rocks I’d ever seen. I suspected someone had located it and paid to have it towed into its current location. Or possibly, Jeratorn station had been moved nearby because of this rock’s particular utility.

The power plant, machine shop, and control tower were located on the narrow side of the asteroid. Blinking blue lights marked the location of the gravity generators placed every twenty meters along the circumference. The generators were connected by thick power cables to each in series, finally ending back at the power plant.

There were massive piles of ore on both sides of the rock and I estimated they were close to sixty percent full. It would take an empty M-Corp freighter with a whole lot of cargo sections to haul that much ore off. Our three strings were capable of hauling seven point five kilo tonnes back to Mars. We wouldn’t be making much of a dent in the pile.

I was still on the comm with Ada when we got close. Nick, Marny and Tali had joined me on the bridge to get a good look at our new surroundings.

“That’s a whole lotta ore, Ada,” I said.

“Never seen it so full before. Most of the times we’ve been here they’re scraping up a pile for us.”

“That’s gotta be hard on the miners,” I said. On Colony 40 we’d go four to six months between pickups from M-Corp and we’d always be running short of funds when they finally arrived. We knew a lot of the less fortunate miners who would be well on their way to broke, hanging on by a thread, waiting for the freighter to arrive. If what Ada was saying was true, people here might be getting fairly desperate.

Ada slid her freighter’s barge string neatly up to a large buoy that was flashing red. Her orientation was perpendicular with the asteroid. A handler would come along later and connect the barge’s gravity generators to hold the loads down. While sailing, the freighter was able to feed most of its energy, caused by acceleration, back into the barge’s gravity system and keep the loads in place.

Once in position, Ada dropped the tongue and slipped the tug away from the barges.

“Let’s get some go-go juice,” she said.

“Go-go juice? Hah. I’m on your six,” I said.

“Try to keep up…”

Ada spun the now freed tug in place and rocketed away from our position. I thought about chasing her for a moment when I heard …

“Full load of passengers, Cap,” Marny warned.

Frak. I dutifully rolled
Sterra's Gift
around in a slow arc and followed after the fleeing
Adela Chen
.

“Roger that,” I said. “This one goes to you, Ada Chen.”

“Aww, don’t be a sore loser.”

The closer we got to the main station of Jeratorn, the more obvious its design, or lack thereof. The three large cylindrical structures were obviously patched together sections, having been built up over the years. I’d received a berth assignment that was several spots away from where the
Adela Chen
would be docked. I wondered why they’d split us up like that and hoped it wasn’t due to poor maintenance.

             
“Marny, would you see if Lieutenant Loo needs any help getting off the ship?”

“Aye.”

“Ada, are you topping off with O2 crystals also?”

“I’m in pretty good shape, only about twenty percent down. You might want to check prices.”

I punched up the station’s price list and discovered she was right. O2 was outrageously priced, as was fuel. I felt fortunate that Nick had negotiated to have the Navy pay our fuel bill, although our account would get hit pretty hard in the meanwhile.

“You’re right Ada, thanks for pointing that out. Let’s hold off on the O2 for now.”

“Okay, give me another twenty minutes.”

“Cap.” Marny’s voice came over the bridge’s speakers.

“What’s up, Marny?”

“Loo’s gone. I knocked on her door and when she didn’t answer, I opened it and she’d cleared out.”

“That’s strange. Any ideas on how she left?”

“No, let me see what I can find out.”

“Let’s leave it alone for the moment. We should probably talk about how we want to do shore leave first.”

“Aye. I’ll be right there.” Marny must have already been in the hallway because she requested entry a moment later.

“How do you want to do this?” I asked. Tali and Nick were both on the bridge, but this was clearly Marny’s responsibility and I wasn’t about to undermine her authority.

“We’ll have to do this in shifts. It’s a pretty easy split. Two from
Sterra's Gift
and one from
Adela Chen
. And … Since everyone’s on comm right now, I’ll go over the rules. First, stay out of confrontations, I don’t need to be getting anyone out of the brig. Second, first names only and no titles. There’re no rules about weapons here, but be discrete about it. A flechette is a good choice if you’re going to carry, since killing a local is generally a good way to get locked up. Remember, in the eyes of the local law, locals never start anything …”

“Good info. You have shift rosters picked out?” I asked.

“Nope, that’s your job.”

“Four hour shifts?” I asked.

“I’d go three hours for tonight. That’d put us on a shift change about 1900 so everyone can have a chance at the local cuisine.”

“Let me see about lining up the stevedores and I’ll get you a shift roster.”

“Aye.”

“Anyone have any questions? Nick, how’re we doing on O2 crystals?”

“Completely full. The algae system, if anything, is over producing.”

“Any chance you want to sell some of it?” I asked. “The O2 prices are sky high here.”

“I’ll look at it,” he said.

“On my way to the dock, Liam,” Ada said over the still open comm.

“Roger that. We’ll head over and get fueled up now.”

Display navigation to Jeratorn fuel station. I pulled
Sterra's Gift
out of the berth slowly and navigated there. It was on one end of the largest of the three habitation complexes. I was shocked by the fuel prices and made a mental note to make sure to take that into consideration on any deal that, in the future, looked too good to be true.

The excitement of the station approach had dwindled and I found myself on the bridge, alone, once again. People were getting ready for shore
leave.

I had three different receivers for the load aboard the ship.
Send notification to shipping recipients of our arrival in station. Request windows of when they’d like to receive delivery
.

The fuel hadn’t even been completely transferred to the ship when the first response arrived.

Captain Liam. We’d like to arrange for immediate delivery. Will you accept? Beth Anne Hollise
.

Before I could respond, I had an incoming hail.

“I’m going to have to drop our comm, Ada.”

“Okay, ping me when you figure out shore leave.”

“I will, I’ll try to get it going soon.”

“No worries.” Ada terminated communication.

Accept hail
.

“Captain. Gerald Beutler, and I just received your notification. I’ve got the local stevedores standing by, are you in a position to offload now?”

“Just taking on some fuel. We’re in berth fourteen and should be back in twenty minutes, give or take.”

“Great. See you there.”

“Marny, can you join me on the bridge?”

“Be right there, Cap.” It took her a little longer this time, but she joined me just as I was signing off on the fuel bill. We’d never paid anywhere near that price for fuel.

“How can I help?” Marny asked.

“We have stevedores waiting for us back in the berth for an immediate offload. I think we’ll be getting to this right away.”

“Aye, aye. I’ll suit up.”

I sailed
Sterra's Gift
slowly up toward the berth and returned the first call.
Establish communication with Beth Anne Hollise
.

“Captain, great, you got my message. We’ve been waiting for your arrival and we’d like to offload right away. Can you help with that?”

“Stevedores are already on their way. If you clear it with them, we can deliver your load too.”

“Thank you, Captain. I’ll give them a buzz right now.”

I almost expected the third shipper to ping me before I slipped back into our berth, since the first two had been so quick on the draw. Generally, protocol called for a prompt receipt of goods, but I’d been told that a two or three hour window was pretty common.

The berth we were in had no working bay door which meant we’d be in vacuum. The bay was set to .6 gravity which was standard for most space stations. Any less than that was harmful to the human body over long periods of time.

Marny met me at the airlock wearing her armored vac-suit and carrying a heavy blaster rifle. She handed me a holster with a blaster in it.

“I thought you said flechettes.”

“Not when we’re offloading cargo. Never know who might be lurking around.”

We stepped out of the ship and I noticed that Marny had the lights up all around the ship.
Sterra's Gift
gleamed in the light, having just received fresh paint. I almost choked up looking at her - I was so proud of our ship.

A man stepped out from next to the airlock and walked up to me.

“Ready to get going, Captain?” he asked.

“Mind if I scan your ident?”

“Not how we do it out here,” he said.

“It is today.” Marny looked as intimidating as always.

“You really want to do this?” he asked. “I can make this go fast or slow.”

“Hey look, we’re not trying to be pricks here. We just don’t know you. How about first round’s on me?”

The man looked at Marny then over to me. “Okay, top-shelf though.” I wondered if he shook everyone down like this. It wasn’t strictly legal to gift a stevedore, but I figured a friendly drink could be considered a social gesture. He held his identity up for me to scan. Richard Horten. It was legit enough.

“Who do you have first?” I asked.

“Gerald Buetler,” he said. “He’s all fired up, too.”

I’d found the program that linked to the stevedore’s inventory checklists and had loaded it on my tablet. I chose Buetler’s shipment and the list of crates displayed on my tablet. I sent the information over to Horten's tablet and instructed the ship to lower the two cargo bay elevators. Thirty minutes later Buetler’s load had been removed from the ship.

“Have you heard from Hollise?” I asked Horten.

“She’s coming through the airlock now,” he said. “We’ll deliver the crates to her right here and she’ll have her staff move them out.”

I loaded Beth Anne Hollise’s manifest onto the tablet. There were forty-two crates, all listed as restaurant supplies.

Marny intercepted the approaching female figure and scanned the ident in her outstretched hand. I was accustomed to seeing women in tight vac-suits but Beth Anne momentarily distracted me with her generous curves. Extra body weight was a personal decision and easily removed with med patches. Beth Anne had clearly made some personal choices.

“Beth Anne.” She held her hand out to me, knuckles up.

“Liam.” I took her limp hand and shook it the best I could. She smiled accommodatingly, as if we were sharing an inside joke.

“If you’ll allow it, I’d like to offload next to the airlock and have my boys move the crates on down to the bar. Would that be okay with y’all?”

“How long will it take to clear the bay?” Marny asked.

Without looking to Marny, Beth Anne answered with a reassuring smile, “No more than forty minutes or an hour.”

It was difficult to not be drawn in by her. I wasn’t excited about tying up the bay like that, but as long as they stayed away from the ship we’d be okay.

“I don’t see why that’d be a problem. Marny?”

“That’s fine, Cap. Just need to stay away from the ship.”

“Oh, certainly,” Beth Anne answered.

“Let’s get this done,” Stevedore Horten broke in.

An annoyed look passed over Beth Anne’s face for a moment, then her smile returned, causing me to question what I’d seen. I suspected that she had to deal with Richard Horten regularly.

I flicked my fingers across the top of my reading pad, sending the manifest to Horten’s tablet.

“Where do you want ‘em?” I looked to Beth Anne.