21 Sina 1117: Kupakii – Tlianke/Hinterworlds (0101 C654352-A S 905 Cs K4 IV M8 D)
I woke up this morning to find our Boilingbrook sold and most of my offers had accepted. So we had already come out pretty well for this trip.
There was no luck on the passenger front, though. We still only had those two passages from yesterday. I shrugged. We had a few days yet.
My business done, I flipped over to the local newsnet and almost immediately frowned. The news of the Boilingbrook-Kupakii alliance had been announced.
I glanced through it. There wasn’t too much unexpected. They were officially calling it the “Joint Economic and Defense Initiative”; a loose alliance between Boilingbrook, Kupakii, and several other worlds; Tlianke and Gimisapun were mentioned. I frowned; Commander Winters would certainly not like that. I suspected the other polities in the area wouldn’t either, which meant that our new relationship with Boilingbrook could work against us in some areas.
I decided even more that heading rimward was a better choice than staying near Ral Ranta or the ATC.
Well, there was nothing else I could do at the moment. I decided to go out for a bit.
I didn’t see anyone in the lobby. Not that I expected to, really. I thought about pinging some of the crew to see what they were up to, then hesitated. I shouldn’t bother them on their week off. Instead, I just headed down the corridor.
I found a food place a few hundred meters down and went in. It was mostly automated–a couple of dispensers along one wall and a few dozen tables scattered around–but they still had human hosts taking orders and retrieving them from the dispensers. Most of the tables were occupied by locals, so I figured their templates must be pretty good. I went in.
I grabbed a sandwich, some tama leaves, and a beer, then looked around. Almost all of the tables were full, and I didn’t feel right taking the lone remaining one since it was just me. There were a couple of standing counters along the walls, and I went over to one.
I started eating and looked around. A few locals were standing here, and I glanced at the woman on my right. She had just put her comp away and was taking a drink, so I tried to talk to her.
“Big changes, huh?” I asked, looking at her.
She looked over at me in irritation. “What?”
I shrugged. “The alliance with Boilingbrook. Sounds like changes around here.”
She shook her head. “Do I know you?”
I gave my best smile. “Well, no… Just making conversation.” I stuck out my hand. “Derek Kodai. Captain of the Grayswandir.”
She frowned. “Why are you talking to me?”
I hesitated. “Um… just making conversation?” I repeated.
She shook her head. “So we don’t know each other. Let’s keep it that way, OK?” She turned away and pulled out her comp, busying herself with it. I winced a bit, sighed, and turned away.
I looked around. The local on my left saw me glance in his direction and turned away as well. I shrugged and went back to my meal.
I ate a bit more quickly than I had planned. I had hoped to find out what the locals thought of the changes occurring, but apparently, the bartender’s comments from yesterday had been correct; the locals really didn’t care much for off-worlders. I finished my meal and headed back to my room. I had just stepped inside and flipped on the light when I heard a voice.
“Close the door and shut up. We need to talk.”
I turned quickly, dropping my bag and reaching for the snub pistol under my jacket. I stopped when I saw an automatic aimed at me, held by the Jarishki from the Vikkainisha. I slowly moved my hand back and closed the door behind me.
“Look…” I said, trying to sound as non-threatening as I could. “I wasn’t trying to avoid you, any of you, at the bar. I really just wanted to do some work. So…”
“Work?” He asked, waving the gun. “Work? You could have done that at the Rusty Stanchion two days ago. Was it not important enough then?”
“What? Wait… how do you know…”
He sighed, a surprisingly universal reaction, and lowered his weapon slightly. “You’re really new at this, aren’t you?”
“New at what?” I said, louder than I had planned. “Look, I…”
“I go by Elijah Green here,” he said, tilting to look at me. “Just as well; my actual name isn’t in a frequency you can even hear. And why the hells are you looking for me?”
“What?” I was confused and took a deep breath, trying to collect my thoughts. “Look, I met someone on Boilingbrook. A guy named Jestin Former. He told me to come here and ask for you at the Stanchion. Now you’re here pointing a gun at me. What…”
He waved the gun to cut me off. “Look, you get here and manage to piss off every bit of official Imperial presence that we have. Then, as soon as you get a chance, you come looking for me. You have to know that that Commander Winters and her people are watching you. You have to know that anyone you talk to is going to be questioned to see if they’re part of your ‘conspiracy.’ But you apparently haven’t thought that far ahead. So… why should I risk exposing my entire network by letting her know she has someone working against her in Coverton?” He sighed, shaking his body. “You really don’t get this.”
Embarrassment threatened to overtake my anger, but the gun he still held on me overrode both. I found myself noting idly that his arm was oddly wide and flat; more of a flipper than an arm. There was no actual hand, but the flipper ended by splitting into four flat “fingers” that held the gun perfectly well.
“I don’t even know what ‘this’ is,” I said, my voice betraying how frustrated I was. “Hells, all this started when I carried a datastick from Fugitak to Boilingbrook.” I shook my head. “If I had known where that would have led…”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” he said. “You were just conducting business.” He gave what I thought was a sigh and stepped forward. “But this is my business! And I can’t have you screwing things up.”
I raised my hands further in frustration. “I don’t even know what your ‘business’ is! Yeah, I’ve talked to Dr. Korvusar. She’s told me some… things. I can’t say I disagree with her, but…” I lowered my hands and straightened up. “Look. My first responsibilities are to my ship, my crew, and to me. Have I gotten myself involved in something? Yeah, apparently. Do I agree with what I’ve gotten involved with? Maybe? Yeah, sure. Do I want to be here?” I shook my head then, ignoring the gun, walked across the room. “No. I just want to fly my ship.” I dropped my bag next to a chair and sat down, looking at him.
He stared at me for a long moment, then gave another of those sighs. “So you are just an idiot.”
I shrugged. “You aren’t the first person to make that accusation.”
He sat down on the end of the bunk. Well… kind of bounced onto it. “OK then… why don’t you tell me what you think is going on? Or what was with you assassinating an Imperial Knight while in Jumpspace.”
“Don’t you know?”
“Maybe? Why don’t you tell me?”
I hesitated, then frowned. “Ask Commander Winters. I’ve already given her my full report.”
He made a strange, blowing sound. “You think Commander Winters is going to tell me anything?”
I stood up. “I don’t know! Look, you’re waiting in my room with a gun and immediately accuse me of leading Winters to you, then demand that I tell you something I didn’t tell her. OK, let’s suppose you were right earlier and the Imperium here is keeping track of me. Why not send someone to pretend to be who I was looking for just to see if I tell them something different.”
He looked at me, his entire body tilting to the side. “Well then,” he said in what I could tell was supposed to be a condescending tone. “Why don’t you tell me what you told her?”
I sighed, then launched into my story again. I left out any mention of the Embers–or Torchbearers or whatever I was supposed to call them–but did tell of my encounters on Boilingbrook since I had already mentioned Jestin. Which really didn’t impact what had happened on-board anyway.
When I finished, he sat there for a bit. “You told Winters all of this?”
“Not exactly. I told her that I got offered the passage in exchange for planting the scanner, but I didn’t mention that I told Jestin about it first. Actually… I never mentioned the datastick and my earlier meeting with Jestin to her either.”
He gave an expression that I interpreted as a frown. “That’s probably a good idea. No need to have her looking deeper.” He seemed to be lost in thought for a moment.
“OK,” he said finally. “I don’t think you revealed too much. Beyond me, anyway.” He gave me what was obviously a look of irritation. “So… what do you think is going on here?”
I sighed. “Someone is wanting to know if the Grayswandir is a ship they can trust or not. I’m guessing the answer is ‘not.'”
He made a hissing sound. “Oh? Why should they think we would trust you now? Doesn’t that mean you’re a perfect ship for us?”
“Well… yeah,” I said, then stopped to think. “Wait… no. Yes. Wait… Maybe?”
He gave a recognizable laugh. “Yeah, you get that at least. You’re trustworthy, or you aren’t. You’re loyal, or you aren’t. Right now you’re Schrodinger’s Free Trader. So… what are you?”
I sighed. “I told you a few moments ago. My loyalty is to my ship, my crew…”
“… and yourself,” he finished. “Yeah. I got it. So… what do you want to do?”
I frowned at that. What did I want to do?
“I’m on your side,” I said, finally. “I think. I’m willing to help you. But… I can’t do it while endangering my crew anymore. Well, not unless they’re on-board with what we’re doing as well. So…” I shrugged. “Make what you will of that.”
He looked at me for a long moment. “And if we think you’re too much of a threat to us?”
I laughed at that. “What? I can tell them there’s a guy named Jestin on Boilingbrook at a bar that I’ve already exposed, and a Jarishki on Kupakii who might go by the name ‘Elijah Green’? Yeah, I know so much about what is going on.” I shook my head. “I just want to fly my ship.”
He gave another sigh. “Yeah? Fine.” He shook his head. Well, his entire body, actually. “If we need anything else from you. If!” He must have seen something in my expression. “If we do… we’ll let you know. Otherwise? This was just an interesting diversion from your normal routine.” He hopped off the bunk and headed for the door, the gun disappearing beneath his vest.
He stopped at the door and looked back at me. “We’ll probably never talk again. Forget we ever talked until then. Got it?”
I nodded. “Yeah. Got it.”
“Good,” He said. He bobbed. “Captain.” Without another word, he cycled the door and exited.
I sighed and leaned back. Again I wondered how deep whatever-it-was I had stepped into went. He was right, of course. If I was trying to keep a secret, then immediately going to where he was was the worst way of keeping it.
I shook my head. Well… maybe it was a good thing. If this was what it was like being an Imperial spy, then I was happy to leave it to the IBIS types. It wouldn’t help me. If we were out, I was happy.
I nodded. Back to business as usual. I pulled a beer from the room’s dispenser and went back to reviewing potential cargoes. I finally settled on what looked like the best use of our cargo space and put in my offers.
It had gotten to be late. I thought about heading out again but, after the reaction I had received earlier that day I didn’t see a reason to. I also thought about talking to some of the crew, or Dr. Korvusar, about my encounter, then shrugged. No need to interrupt their week off.
Besides, it looked like we were out anyway. I wasn’t sure if I was relieved or not by that. He was right; heading straight to meet him after our encounter with Commander Winters was a pretty stupid move, in retrospect. But… it was also the sort of thing an innocent Free Trader that had gotten in over its head would have done.
I shrugged again. Nothing we could do about it now. I’d let everyone know what happened at the pre-departure meeting and we would go from there.
I decided just to watch a few net vids then call it a day. I punched on the wall screen and went to drop into the bunk, then stopped.
There was a square of paper sitting on the bunk. Something small enough to stick in a pocket. Not to mention something that would have no electronic or other signs that could be detected. I picked it up.
“So you’re just new at this, not stupid,” it said. “Well, not too stupid. But we can’t check the mouth of every K’kree who brings us a gift either. If you someday get an offer to carry a load of ‘Hiver Bedding Material’ as cargo? Take it. And if someone insists on travelling with it? Let them. They’re good for it.”
I hesitated, looked around, and stuffed the note into a pocket. Apparently, we weren’t out. And I hadn’t realized how much I had relaxed after thinking we were until then. I sighed, then found the remote for the wall screen. I wasn’t sure what I would tell the crew, but I figured I would wait until we hit Jumpspace. A minor omission, but… probably a good idea, given how closely we were obviously being watched. At least “Elijah Green” seemed to have acted as if we were.
I wasn’t looking forward to withholding anything from them again but… they would understand why I hadn’t told them right away.
I hoped.
I flipped through the vid selections until I found something I thought I could fall asleep to. It was going to be a bad few days.