22 Salas 1117: Jumpspace
Saahna and I checked out early and made our way to the starport area. If anything, it was even more crowded than it had been when we landed. I was happy to step into the confines of our docking bay.
I went on board long enough to drop off my downbag and change into my jumpsuit; there was no need to worry about my Captain’s Jacket anymore. I almost dumped it in the recycler then decided it might be useful for something sometime; I put it back in the storage cube.
I checked the cargo bay, and almost everything was there. Except for a 3-ton lot of… curry powder? I commed the agent, and he promised me that it was on the way.
I didn’t care; we had already been paid for carrying it. If he didn’t get it to us, then it was his problem, not mine.
I checked the rest of the cargo, and everything looked OK. The “special” cargo we had gotten from Tahma the night before was already on-board, and I checked the manifest. It consisted of foodstuffs, medical supplies, and entertainment cartridges.
That seemed like a weird set of freight to smuggle so, while we had some space in the bay before the rest of the cargo was loaded, I had the Grayswandir open a few. They were… what they said they were. I had no idea what was going on. By the time I had checked enough to feel that we weren’t in any danger from the cargo, the loaderbots were getting unhappy, so I let them put the remaining cargo on board.
From there I went up to the bridge. Do’rex was already in his seat, as always, and setting up for our departure.
“Everything looks good?” I asked as I pulled up my own displays.
He clicked. “Yes, Captain. It looks like the last of the freight has arrived and the cargobots are getting it on board. Since we have no passengers on this trip, we should be able to depart as soon as loading is complete.”
“What about Doctor Korvusar?”
“She arrived about 30 minutes ago and is on-board. I cycled her in, actually. She seemed unperturbed by our no longer being a passenger ship.”
I sighed. “Yeah, I’ll have to talk to her. But… thanks.” He clicked.
I spent the next half-hour or so checking the status of the ship. Everything looked good. Jami was already configuring the engines for departure and Jump. I was a bit surprised to see that Saahna was prepping the Gunnery suite but decided not to ask.
Shelly and Varan hadn’t checked in yet. We weren’t carrying passengers, but they still know what lift protocol is. I pinged both of them from the ship’s comms and told them to get to the port.
As I had been doing that Saahna had come onto the bridge. She was tapping on her own console when I finally looked up.
“We good?”
She waved a hand over her shoulder. “Yeah. And Varan is late. Again. I just wanted to make sure we were ready in case we ran into someone unhappy with us.”
“And who would hate us… the ship that helped seal the deal that shut off Tlianke from their Sector-wide ambitions?”
She turned to look at me. “Sometimes, your lack of concern is so frustrating!”
“Hey! They knew who we were before we landed. They’ve known the past few days. If they wanted to do something to us, then we wouldn’t be back on the ship. We’re fine.”
“Sorry. Marine training.”
“Don’t apologize. Being worried about things like that is why we have you with us.” I hesitated, then smiled. “Well… one of the reasons.”
She smiled at that, then turned back to her console. “Shelly and Varan just came on board.”
“Good.” I checked the cargo. The last of the freight was being loaded, so I locked down the main airlock.
“Looks like we’ll be cleared for departure in about 45 minutes. How do we look?”
Do’rex clicked as Saahna tapped on her console. “Yeah… 45 is enough; it isn’t like we have to plot a ground-to-orbit track. I’ll set up the Jump tumble once we clear the station.”
“Good.” I climbed Do’rex and Saahna were busy with their consoles. Saahna waved over my head as I left the bridge.
—
Entering the crew lounge, I found Shelly and Varan angrily confronting each other.
“Look,” she was saying. “Last night I told you that it was just last night! Have you forgotten that already?” She was wearing her full camera rig, and her cambot was hovering overhead.
“Yeah, but I thought…”
“What? That I would suddenly change my mind? Hells, no wonder Carma got angry at you so fast!”
“Hey!” That touched a nerve. “She suddenly wanted…”
“Something that you were OK with a few days before? Hells, this is why I…” She suddenly noticed me standing there, and she tried to change her expression, with a lack of success. “Oh! Derek! I mean, Captain!”
“Am I interrupting something?”
“No! We’re… fine.” She looked between Varan and me. “I’m taking my stuff upstairs, then I’ll get ready for the passengers.”
“There aren’t any, except Doctor Korvusar. But let her know I need to speak to her as soon as I can.”
She nodded, grabbing her downbag. “Yes. Of course.” She glanced at Varan. “I’ll… talk to you later.”
“Yeah, right.” He looked at me. “Do you need something, Captain?”
He was being a bit too formal, so I let Shelly clear the ladder and waited for the iris to close before turning back to him.
“You can do whatever you want during your downtime, as long as it doesn’t interfere with the operation of this ship. And as long as it doesn’t offend our crewmates. OK?”
I didn’t need my training to see that he was angry. “Oh, like you get to say that after some of the things you’ve done! And don’t criticize me for being with Shelly; I’ve seen you and Saahna…”
I cut him off. “You’ve seen me be unhappy with Saahna, yes. I’ve told her what I want. But I’ve never tried to tell her what she could–or couldn’t–do. You need to keep that in mind.”
“But you and Shelly…”
“Did nothing. It was a stunt for her netcast. I could have forced things, but I didn’t. I’d advise you to do the same. I don’t want to lose either of you.”
“Why? We don’t need her! We aren’t carrying any rutting passengers anymore! Why do we need a ‘Steward?'” I caught the way he emphasized the last word.
“Because she isn’t just our ‘Steward’ anymore. She’s our Liaison officer. We want her to make sure that everyone we deal with has a good impression of us. Which means that all of us need to be nice to her.”
He gave me a tight smile. “I thought I treated her pretty ‘nice’ last night.”
His attitude annoyed me, fueled by an unexpected twinge of jealousy. “Look, maybe you connected last night, but last night isn’t today. If she wants to go her own way, let her. That’s what took me so long to learn about Saahna. If she wants to come back, she will. If she doesn’t? Well, you had one night. Handle that any way you want. But don’t let it interfere with the ship.”
His smile turned into a smirk. “You’re jealous.”
I decided not to try to deny it. “Maybe. But that doesn’t change anything.” I paused. “Besides, I’ve learned that sometimes not being interested gets more interest in return.”
“Yeah, and I’ve seen how successful you are.”
“Hey!”
“OK, fine. I’ll try not to hurt your feelings. In the meantime, I guess I need to make sure the turrets are ready in case someone here takes offense to our meeting last night.” He turned and walked away.
I sighed and pulled out my comp. It looked like everything was ready and that we were just waiting on a departure window. I snapped it back shut and went upstairs.
The passenger lounge was unoccupied, so I grabbed a beer from the dispenser and found a seat on the sofa. It was weird to see the place so empty. Was I doing the right thing by no longer carrying passengers? I thought I had learned everything I needed to from Captain Anna but… had I missed something?
After sitting there for a while Do’rex announced that our lift would be in about 10 minutes. I was about to leave when Doctor Korvusar came out of her cabin and saw me.
“Ah, Captain Kodai! I understand you wanted to speak with me?”
I stood up and nodded. “Yeah. Look… I did what I talked to you about; we aren’t carrying passengers on this trip. So… you may not get the service you are used to.”
“Given your wine selection, I can hardly say what you have been giving me up until now is ‘service,’ but I suppose I can deal with the inconvenience.”
I sighed. “OK, I get it. But you can drop the persona now; there’s no one around but us.”
“You really do have an atrocious wine selection,” she said, making her way to the dispenser and tapping in a request. “But I suppose it will have to do.”
“Good. I just wanted to bring you up to date.” I quickly filled her in on the deal we had made.
She nodded when I had finished. “I have no concerns with you doing anything that causes problems for Tlianke. They have been thwarting the Imperium’s attempts at entry into the central portions of the sector for some time.”
“Wait… what?”
“The Imperium lives on trade. You know that. Tlianke has, for decades now, forced a surcharge on Imperial trade. This limits the Imperium’s expansion into this sector. You are functioning as a disruptive influence on that.”
“Is that… Is that what you’re expecting from us?”
“Of course, Captain. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be here.”
“I still think you’re expecting too much out of us.”
“Captain, really?” She carefully examined her wineglass before coming back over to stand before me. “You stopped an assassination leaving Fugitak, gaining the favor of one of the most powerful polities in this sector. On Kupakii, you disrupted the relationship between the Scout Service and the locals, gaining the local governor’s favor in the process. On Gimisapun you added a new member to their ruling council, one that is now predisposed to your favor. And here, without even trying, you made contact with a rebel faction and are now working with them; someone else who will be predisposed to your favor. And you say you don’t believe you are a ‘disruptive influence’?”
She wasn’t wrong. “Well, when you put it that way…”
“How often did these things happen when you were under Captain Martin?”
“Never? She tried to avoid anything that would bring notice to us. Even if that meant that we lost profit every Jump.” I frowned as I said that last bit. Why had I said that?
She smiled. “It’s your ship now. Yes, you are attracting attention to yourselves. Some of that attention will be good and, yes, some of it will be bad. But, I think, you will find that the former will far outweigh the latter. I have faith in you.”
I closed my eyes, frowning for a few seconds, then opened them again.
“I wish you would just tell me what it is your simulations said about me.”
“Just that you could be counted on to make the proper decisions. Don’t question yourself. Just do what you think is the right thing.”
“Oh, great! Now I’m going to question everything I do.”
“Everything you have done for the past few months has been the right thing. Don’t stop now.”
I was trying to come up with a response when the shipwide comms came on-line. “Five minutes until departure,” said the Grayswandir’s modulated voice. “All passengers and crew prepare for lift.”
I looked at her. “I’ve got to go.”
“Of course, Captain.”
“Look, I’m going to have a crew meeting after we hit Jumpspace. I’ll like to have you there.”
“But why?” She took a sip of her wine.
“Because officially you’re our medical officer now. On working passage. We’ll figure out what to do about that three months from now. Until then, I’d prefer that you show up.”
“Of course Captain,” she said after taking another sip. “I obviously can’t refuse a request from my commanding officer.” She looked at me over her glass.
I sighed. “Fine. I’ll let everyone know when the meeting is ready. Now, if you will excuse me?”
She nodded. “Of course. I need to catch up on my reading anyway.”
“Fine.” With a final nod, I headed for the ladder and the crew lounge.
—-
I headed immediately to the bridge. Once in the Captain’s seat, I pulled up my displays and saw that everything was ready. I turned to Do’rex.
“We ready?”
He clicked. “Yes. We can depart as soon as we get clearance.”
As if on cue, the comms came on-line. “Free Trader Grayswandir, you are cleared for departure. Are you sealed?”
I opened the comm. “We’re good, Tlianke. Pull back your O2 whenever you are ready.”
“Thank you Grayswandir. Depressurizing.” Almost immediately, the external pressure started dropping.
It was only a few minutes before the externals registered zero and the iris cycled open. Do’rex immediately lifted us and directed us towards the opening.
I had already switched our internals on. There had been no sensation since we had already been matched with the local, internal gravity. We passed through the iris, and I noticed that it stayed open, waiting for the next of the numerous ships hovering around to dock.
“You are clear, Grayswandir,” came the voice from STC. “Feel free to assume free maneuver as soon as you clear 100 kilometers.”
“We’re good, Tlianke. Thanks.” I clicked off. “Up to you two.”
Do’rex waved a tentacle. “Plotting route. We need to move a few hundred kilometers’ up’, then I’ll start heading for the Jump point.”
“Right here,” said Saahna. She flicked something to him. “We’ll have to circle the planet, but that shouldn’t be a problem. Just be careful… there are a lot of ships here, and some of them aren’t as good at maintaining orbital discipline as others.”
“Understood.”
The next few hours passed quietly. I stayed in the Captain’s seat but pulled up a netvid and started watching it. Every now and then Do’rex and Saahna would make a brief comment to each other, but otherwise the bridge was quiet.
Probably six hours had passed before Do’rex announced that we had reached Jump distance. I paused the vid and turned to him.
“We ready?”
“Yes. There are no other ships near us so we can start our tumble any time you wish.”
“Then let’s do this.” I hit the switch to dim the lights. I didn’t bother making an announcement; everyone on board would know that meant.
“Jump when ready.”
He clicked. “Jumping.” Almost immediately, the stars outside started fading. I waited until they were gone, lost in the shifting gray mist, before hitting the control to close the shutters over the canopy.
“Looks like we’re good until Girar,” I said, climbing out of the seat. “Let’s just go ahead and have our departure meetup around 1600, then we’ll all be on our own for about a week.
Do’rex clicked. “Of course.” He started shutting down his console. Saahna had already put hers in standby and stood up with me. “So… what now?”
I paused. I was momentarily confused. Usually, I would make my rounds, mostly talking to the passengers, but we didn’t have any. I wasn’t quite sure what to do.
I decided I needed to check in upstairs anyway. I told Saahna I would catch up with her later and headed up to the passenger lounge.
—-
Dr. Korvusar was sitting on the sofa where I had left her, still engrossed in her comp. Two utilitybots were floating in the center of the lounge, each holding some luggage. A door to one of the passenger cabins was open. I looked in.
Shelly was unpacking another piece of luggage and storing its contents in drawers. The cabin was configured for a double High.
“Moving?” I asked.
She jumped. “Oh! Derek! I… didn’t know you would be up here.”
“Habit. So… moving upstairs?”
“Yeah.” She seemed embarrassed. “I… you said last night that we could.”
“Yeah. We have these cabins, may as well use them. I’m surprised you’re the only one up here, actually. We have to load life support for them anyway; some Imperial regulation or the other requiring us to be fully prepared in case we have to take on emergency passengers or whatever. So it’s fine.”
“Are you moving?”
“No. I know where everything is now. It would take me forever to remember where I put things if I moved again. Plus, we’ll probably pull these out next maintenance and expand the cargo bay.”
That seemed to worry her. “So, when is that?”
“End of the year. We aren’t due for maintenance again until the end of Salasser. I’m not going to take us out of operation until then.”
“OK, good.” She paused. “I… I’ll just be up here this week. I just need to… be alone for a while.”
“Is everything OK?”
She grimaced but nodded. “Yeah. I’m… fine.”
“I’ve talked to Varan. He’ll keep his distance. Don’t worry.”
“No, that’s my problem.” She shook her head. Gods, what a mistake.” That last was quiet, almost to herself.
“Do you… can I do anything?”
“What? No! I’m… OK. I’ll be OK. I just… don’t want to talk about it.”
“Varan knows better. If it was a one-time-and-done thing, then he’ll accept it.” I paused, remembering what I had said earlier. “I’d prefer not to lose either of you.”
That seemed to surprise her. “Oh?”
“I’m glad you’re with us.” I gestured towards her luggage. “Go ahead and get settled in for the week. Then tell Doctor Korvusar that we’re having a crew meeting in a bit and I hope she’ll be there.”
“Yeah… OK.”
“Thanks.”
—-
We all gathered in the crew lounge an hour or so later. I had put the data for Girar on the overhead holo as everyone else was filtering in, got something to eat or drink, and found a place to sit. I noticed that Shelly and Varan pointedly sat on opposite ends of the lounge but let it go. I waited until Doctor Korvusar came downstairs and found a place before starting.
“OK then, Girar.” I gestured towards the holo. “Amber Zone and Puzzle World. Sometime in the past half-million years or so two moons collided in orbit. Or something like that, the Scout Service isn’t totally sure.”
“Whatever it was, the planet is surrounded by a swarm of shattered rocks and ice. In another few million years it will have a nice ring system, but I doubt any of us will be around to appreciate it.”
No one laughed.
“Anyway, it gets those classifications because there are still occasional meteorite impacts throughout the lower latitudes. It isn’t like you have to dodge falling asteroids continually, but enough that the locals have impact shelters in every city. Just in case. Plus, the light reflections from the ice shards overhead make doing anything on the surface confusing; the light show is apparently almost hypnotic. Fortunately, they’ve built a complete subshuttle system to avoid all of that.”
“And how does that affect us?” Varan asked. That was a bit unlike him.
“Mainly that the Starport is near the northern pole. That’s so that it isn’t sitting under the orbital tracks of the majority of the debris. So it will be cold. The landmasses are scattered across the lower latitudes, so the Starport is built on floating ice. Which has its own problems, of course, but that isn’t one of ours.”
“What about the cargo you decided we would be carrying?”
“That’s… going to one of those landmasses.” I paused. I had thought about a way to do this last night but hadn’t shared it yet.
“OK, they have all that debris in orbit. A lot of debris in orbit. We keep Tahma’s cargo on board. We leave but plot an orbit into the debris field. STC will probably yell at us, but whatever. We land at the agreed-upon coordinates, drop off the cargo, get our payment, and head for Jump. Easy.
“You’re risking all of us?”
“No. I’m not. If you Do’rex clicked in surprise, but Varan leaned back.
“I guess we’re good then.”
“It will work.” I turned to Jami. “What do you think? You have more experience with this sort of thing than we do.”
She looked up in surprise. “Well… you’ve thought ahead, which is more than Captain Barrikus usually did. Though he wouldn’t risk the ship in a debris field. He’d probably sneak out of the Starport in an air-raft and deliver it that way.”
“They’ve got too much scanner and sensor coverage for that. That’s kind of a necessity on a planet where things are randomly falling from the sky. Hopefully they will think we’re just another piece of debris until we brake for landing, and hopefully, our clients and us will be long gone before they can get anyone there. If we head out in the air-raft, they’ll have plenty of time to see where we’re going.”
“That… makes sense.” She shook her head. “As I said, you’ve given it more thought than Captain Barrikus would have.”
“But have you given it enough?” Everyone turned to Dr. Korvusar. She had been sitting a bit apart from us and looking at her comp, seemingly not paying any attention to what we were discussing.
“What do you mean?”
She sighed. “How much effort did your contact last night make when they met with you to remain undetected?”
“They had some kind of scrambler that made it look like we had an innocuous conversation. It even messed us up trying to order; it apparently works.”
“So the local authorities didn’t know what you were talking about, but they knew that you were talking. They knew you were there. They knew who you were with.”
“They heard about our exploits and wanted to meet us. So what?”
“The exploits of the ship that blocked their ambitions for the subsector? You don’t think the local authorities aren’t going to question them, intently, as soon as they can bring them in? And are you sure they won’t break and tell you what they know?”
“They are quite aware that they live in a dictatorship. I’m sure they know how that works. They would have some kind of plan in place.”
“But are you sure? I’m in Naval Intelligence, remember? And the fact that they contacted you directly instead of going through an intermediary is a huge indicator that they aren’t particularly astute at what they are doing. I have no doubt that they are sincere, but… they aren’t very good at this.”
“And… what does that mean?”
“That, if not already, in a day or two someone on Tlianke will know that we are carrying illegal cargo. Or at least a cargo we plan to deliver to someone we aren’t legally supposed to deliver it to. We’ll get there before that information can be sent, but the information will certainly be there before we leave. If we wait until lift to deliver the cargo, then they will almost certainly be suspicious.”
I frowned. She was, unfortunately, right. “So… what do you suggest?”
“Sell all of the cargo. Even what we got from the deal. That will make them think that we never had any intention of delivering it and they may stop their surveillance. Then, we buy the same items as cargo for our next Jump. Your reputation as a Trader is enough that they probably won’t question it. Then, we deliver that cargo and are gone before the authorities realize what has happened.”
“Yeah,” I said, nodding slowly. “That makes sense.”
“And you’ll have to be aware that, if you do, you’ll make an enemy of Tlianke and their colonies. That will cause problems if you come back through here again. The decision is up to you.”
“It’s a big galaxy. I don’t have to make everyone happy with me.”
“Good.”
“Wait…” Varan had been looking between us. “Really?”
“Why not? I’m planning on heading rimward for a while anyway. Unless something strange happens, it will be a year or more before we come through this area again. Hells, I was thinking of swinging spinward once we hit the sector’s edge and come back coreward via the Old Expanses. With the Imperium pulling all of its fleets out they will probably be happy to see some off-world trade; we all know the big lines won’t do anything without the Imperial Fleet looking over their shoulders.”
“And what about the Solomani?”
“They need trade too. We’re a Free Trader, and we’re one that has ties to a non-Imperial polity. I doubt they will turn us away.”
“But… the Solomani?”
“Are horrible sophonts, yes. But their credits work too.”
Dr. Korvusar had been nodding. “Yes, and you could actually function as a positive influence on the worlds they have assumed control of after the Imperium abandoned them. I keep telling you, never underestimate what you are doing.”
“OK, I wouldn’t go quite that far…”
“Do. I need you to believe in yourself. I… everyone needs all of you to believe in yourselves.”
I heard a groan from somewhere, but I had closed my eyes and was shaking my head. I looked back up. “Look… I don’t know what these computer models of yours are saying, but I can’t buy that we are some kind of ‘special’ ship. ‘Chosen Ones?’ That’s a Captain Spaceways storyline. Us? We’re just trying to survive in all of this.”
“Which is all you need to do, Captain.” She stood up. “I am confident in whatever you decide for us going forward. I would just make one suggestion.”
“What?” I asked, with more irritation than I had realized that I was holding.
“It would probably be a good idea for you to resume carrying passengers. At some point, Boilingbrook, or your contact ‘Jestin’, or even your new contacts on Tlianke will want you to carry a passenger for them. And suddenly accepting a passenger when you had been carrying them for a while will be… suspicious. Pick up passengers next time.”
“Oh? And how will we explain our landing again to them? That doesn’t look even more suspicious?”
“I’m sure you can come up with something. Now, if you will excuse me?” She climbed the ladder to the passenger deck and the iris shut behind her.
“Why are we keeping her on-board?” asked Varan.
I closed my eyes and rubbed them. “Because… I think if we got rid of her, we would have far more trouble than we’re having now. She’s on our side and has already helped us once or twice. I can’t turn that down.”
“Do you think she’s right?”
“About us being ‘special’? Of course not. She’s apparently one of those people who trusts her autopilot even as it flies her into a mountainside. She has confidence in her’ computer models’. We’ll see how that works out.”
“We had people like that on Boilingbrook,” Shelly suddenly spoke up. “They called themselves the ‘Quantum Church.’ They thought the ‘True God’ would be an AI we created that would take care of us forever and devoted all of their resources to studying computer systems. I don’t know what they expect to happen.”
“I don’t know. But… I’ve learned not to attack anyone’s deeply held beliefs. No matter what they are.” I paused. “That’s another Traveller lesson… other planets always believe other things. Never criticize them.”
“Oh, we had enough beliefs on Boilingbrook. Every floater seemed to have their own version.”
“Yeah. So, anything else?”
Jami raised her hand. “So… are we going to deliver Tahma’s cargo or not?”
“We’ll deliver it. I don’t want a reputation of being a ship that doesn’t fulfill its contracts. Or one that doesn’t even try.”
“Are you going to do what Doctor Korvusar suggested? Sell what we have and replace it.”
“No. I checked to see what it was before our lift. It’s way too normal to be anything worth paying 10 times normal freight charges for; there’s something special about it. Or hidden in it. I won’t risk it.”
Varan frowned. “So… us keeping it won’t be suspicious?”
“We’ll say the broker we’re transferring it to hasn’t checked in yet, so we’re hanging on to it. And we can’t say who they are because of our contract. It happens. Not too often, but enough to make it plausible. And uncommon enough that someone who isn’t a Free Trader, like our Doctor Korvusar, probably hasn’t thought of it.”
“You think you’re out-thinking her and her computer models?”
“Hey, she wants me to do things my way, then I’ll do things my way. If she doesn’t want to have to save our asses again, then she needs to be more explicit about what she wants.”
“How about passengers?”
“She’s probably right there. It’s more of a hassle for us but may help. Like, if Tahma had insisted on going with her cargo then taking her and no one else would have been suspicious. So, even if we stay out of politics, we should keep carrying passengers for those occasional ‘special’ times.”
I paused, thinking. “And now I think I know why Captain Anna used to ask me to be sure to take care of certain passengers.”
Varan nodded. “Yeah, she asked me for those too. I never thought about it too much.”
“And here I had been thinking that she had taught me everything she knew.” I shook my head. “She still had her secrets.”
“Well, thankfully, you’re catching on,” said Jami. “I could have told you that.”
“Whatever. Anyone have anything else?”
“Our Inquisitor game has been abandoned for far too long. Remember, we had to cut off that warehouse fight when that specimen got loose.”
“Oh yeah, right!” I smiled. “Meeting adjourned. Do what you need and we’ll start as soon as everyone is back.”