25 Sina 1117: Jumpspace
I got up early, tossed the last few items into my downpack, and then stopped long enough to grab a coffee bulb before heading for the starport. I had just gotten to the surface when my comm pinged.
I looked and saw that it was from Minister Trakon. I immediately punched it open.
“Good morning, Minister!” I said, waiting for the airlock to cycle. “How can I help you?”
“You were trying to leave without speaking to me again!” he said. His tone was light, but I sensed a slight tension to it.
“Oh? I… Oh yeah, you said you wanted to meet with us before leaving!” I shook my head as the iris opened, and I stepped out into the surface cold. “I’m sorry, Minister. We’ve got a couple of hours before lift today; do you think you could meet us at the ship?”
I heard a sigh. “Actually, I was trying to do that. But, it seems that because of ‘increased security’ I am not allowed onto the starport without an escort from the ship I’m supposed to meet. Do you think…”
I laughed. “Sure. I’m actually on my way there. See you in a few.”
It turned out to be a bit more than “a few.” I was trying to go back the way I had left the starport a week earlier, but when I got to the airlock, the battlesuited Marine there told me that that entrance was “off-limits” and that I needed to enter through a different entrance, one from underground. I shrugged and followed her directions.
I eventually found my way to the actual entrance to the starport. After taking an overly long time to check my ident, I was allowed to enter the concourse and found Minister Trakon and a Boilingbrook marine escort. He was standing in front of the entrance to our docking bay.
“Sorry,” I said as I came up. “I tried to go in the wrong way.”
He smiled slightly. “I think every way is the ‘wrong way’ right now.”
I nodded. “Got it.” I showed my ident to the annoyed-looking agent at the entrance. “I’m Derek Kodai, Captain of the Grayswandir. Minister Trakon here is a former passenger and our guest. Can you allow him entrance?”
He made a show of checking my ident and of checking something on his comp. “Yes. We can allow you, and him, entrance. But his companion…” He glanced towards the Marine. “His companion will have to remain out here. Only sophonts with a legitimate reason for being in the starport are allowed.”
The Minister frowned but shrugged. “If that is really necessary…” He stopped and said something to the marine, then followed me into the tunnel.
In the landing bay, I saw that the cargobots already had most of the cargo on board. Saahna was there, supervising the loading. We walked over to where she was frowning at something on her comp.
“You’re here early,” I said.
“More like up too late,” she replied, turning to face me. She started when she saw who was with me. “Oh! Minister Trakon.” She straightened up a bit. “I wasn’t expecting to see you here.”
He smiled and extended a hand. “I promised your Captain I would thank all of you again. It appears he forgot to tell you.”
“More like simply forgot.” I shrugged. “This hasn’t been my best stop in a while.”
He nodded. “Yes, I am certain you have had a lot on your mind. I apologize for bringing our problems to your ship.”
I shook my head. “You were a passenger on my ship. We would have treated any passenger the same way.” I paused. “Actually, you did far more than we would have expected.”
“I was more than happy to, Captain. Which reminds me, I need to pass this on to you.” He pulled a datastick out of his pocket and handed it to me. I took it, looking dubious and, upon seeing my expression, he laughed.
“Yes, I see the irony,” he said with a smile. “But you aren’t carrying this to anyone. It has Boilingbrook Naval recognition codes. Now, they’re also codes for the new Hinterworlds Joint Economic and Defense Initiative. If you find yourself in a tight situation, they may help you.”
“Thanks,” I said, tucking the stick into a jacket pocket. “I hope I won’t need to use it. I hope.”
“I hope so too. Ah, here is another of your crew.” I turned to see Varan entering, his arm around Carma. He hesitated, then waved in my direction with his free arm, almost dropping his downpack as he did.
Minister Trakon and I headed in his direction.
“Hey Captain, I sold another cabin for us!” he said, finally giving up and dropping his downpack then pulling up something on his comp. He tapped something and flicked it over to me.
I smiled in surprise. “Hey, great!” I looked at my own comp and pulled up the passage, then hesitated. I looked up at them, trying to suppress a frown.
He tightened his grip around Carma. “Yeah, Carma here was saying she really wanted to see some of the Galaxy, and since Minister Trakon here is going to be helping us out now–thanks, by the way–I figured I could buy a few passages for her and let her see a bit of the galaxy.
I frowned. “As long as it doesn’t distract you from your duties…”
He shrugged it off. “Hey, I’m just the gunner now.”
I shook my head. “I expect you to be backing up Shelly too. At least for the first few jumps. She’s new at this.”
He frowned slightly but nodded. “Yeah, sure. No problem.”
“It shouldn’t be.”
He frowned a bit more. “Yeah, OK. Got it.”
Minister Trakon smiled slightly. “Of course. Thank you for all of your help, Mister Hort.”
He smiled. “Thanks! If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t be able to spend more time with Carma here!” He squeezed her again.
“Of course.” Minister Trakon turned to me. “When do you expect the rest of your crew?”
I shrugged. “I… don’t know?” I glanced at my comp. It was 1017. “They should be here by now, so…” I pulled out my comm.
“Gray? Crew status.”
“1st Officer Do’rex is on the bridge,” she replied. “Engineer Wistina is in engineering, and Steward Tharis is in the Passenger Lounge. You, 2nd Officer Denan and Gunner Hort are in the docking bay.”
“Thanks,” I said. I turned to Minister Trakon. “They’re all on board.” I gestured towards the airlock. “After you.”
We first stopped by the bridge. Do’rex was polite, but quickly said that he needed to prep for launch and we left. We then went up to the passenger lounge.
Shelly was there, pacing back and forth. She brightened up when I entered then frowned slightly when Minister Trakon followed me up.
“Oh!” she said. “Minister Trakon.” She shook her head. Sorry, I wasn’t expecting to see you today.”
He smiled. “Yes, I realize you were as trapped in your cabin as I was. But, since it seems you are part of this crew now, I wanted to tell you that you had the support of myself, and of everyone in the Hinterworlds JEDI.”
She smiled but glanced at me. “Yes, thank you, Minister Trakon.” She paused. “I did vote for you, you know.”
He laughed. “That doesn’t matter. You’re a Boilingbrooker. You are one of us. So, I will always attempt to help you. No matter what.”
She gave what was obviously a forced laugh. “Yes. Thank you.”
He smiled. “You’re welcome.” He turned to me. “Well Captain, that seems to be everyone.”
I nodded. “Yes. And thank you again, Minister Trakon. I suspect that things would have gone a lot worse for us here if you had not intervened.”
He shook his head. “No. You have Agent Korvusar to thank for that.”
I nodded again. “Yeah, without her we…” I suddenly stopped. “Agent?”
For the first time since meeting him, I saw Minister Trakon look surprised. “Oh? You didn’t know? Well…” He coughed. “Well, forget that I said that.” He looked around uncomfortably. “I’ll… be leaving now, Captain. Again, thank you for all you have done. I’ll… find my way out.” Without another word, he turned and went to the ladder.
“Thank you, Minister!” I said, suddenly thrown off by this latest revelation. I started following him. “Let me escort you out.”
He waved me off. “I can manage from here. You need to focus on your crew.” He waved again. “Don’t forget those codes, Captain.”
I patted my pocket. “I won’t. Thank you again.”
He shook his head. “No. Thank you.” He stepped onto the ladder and descended.
I turned back to Shelly. “So… How’s it going?”
She shook her head. “Honestly? I’m scared to death! What do I do?”
I smiled and shook my head. “Just either give the passengers what they want or say you’ll have to talk to me. Never do anything you think is questionable. That’s… pretty much it. Why?”
She smiled slightly. “I’m… pretty good when I’m talking to an imager, but face-to-face?” She grimaced. “It takes me a bit to warm up to someone new.”
“You didn’t have any problems when you first came on board,” I said with a grin.
She stepped back and raised her hands with a smile. “Hey, I had done a lot of research on you, and your crew, before I came on-board. And that was for the show anyway!”
I laughed. “Yeah, yeah, I got it.”
She nodded, then smiled. “Yeah, I’m fine. I’m…” she shrugged and raised her hands. “I’m not good without an imager on me.”
I pointed to the ceiling. “Gray’s watching everything. If you need footage, just ask her.”
“Oh?” She seemed surprised by that. “Yeah… sure. Thanks.” I nodded and headed down the ladder.
There I found Varan and Carma standing close and talking to one another and Saahna standing to one side, looking irritated. I walked up to her.
“Everything OK?”
She nodded. “With me? Yeah.”
“Got your Gauss back?”
She shrugged. “Had to let one of them escort me on board before he would give it to me, but it’s back. No problem.”
I nodded. “Good.”
She sighed. “I’ll be glad to get away from this.”
“Me too.”
She looked at me, curiously. “Really? I figured you would be the big celebrity here. Our encounter with the Spoilsports in-system was apparently the most exciting thing ever to happen here. So, how many Traveller groupies did you find yourself with?”
I frowned and turned to her. “None. Not that it is any of your business. And why? You’re the one who decided that we were only together while on-board.”
She frowned as well, but hers was more in surprise. “Oh? I thought…”
I shook my head. “Not now. Later.”
She hesitated, then nodded. “Sure. OK. Now…” She tilted her head towards Varan. “What about those of us who did have a little too much fun this week.”
“On it,” I said. I took a few steps forward. “Hey, Varan. Time to be on the clock.”
He looked up at me with a bit of annoyance. “I’m the Gunner now, remember? I don’t have to prep anymore.”
I shook my head, frowning. “Couple of things. First? I said I expected you to back up Shelly for the next few Jumps. Second?” I pointed to the gunnery suite. “I want to make sure everything is working while we’re still on the ground so we can get anything that isn’t fixed. I don’t need some local hotshot pilot thinking they’ll take us on and make a name for themselves.”
He laughed. “We’ve got the Boilingbrook Navy backing us up. No one will bother us.”
I frowned a bit more. “The Boilingbrook Navy is here to protect Minister Trakon, not us. We can yell for help, but it isn’t like they’re going to escort us everywhere. I need those lasers checked. Now.”
He frowned in obvious annoyance. “Fine. I’ll take care of it.” He turned to Carma. “See what I told you about this guy?”
I gritted my teeth but said nothing.
He gave her a kiss. “Let me escort you upstairs to your cabin. Then, once I do what the Captain here wants, I’ll get back with you.”
“Of course, Varan!” She kissed him back. He led her towards the ladder. As they passed, she turned to me.
“You really should treat Varan better! He works really hard to help you!” Varan grimaced at that and pulled her away. Again, I frowned but said nothing.
I watched until they had disappeared into the passenger lounge, then turned back to Saahna.
“Want me to go check the guns?” she asked.
I sighed. “You shouldn’t have to, but… yeah.”
She nodded, heading towards the gunnery suite. “I agree, but I don’t want to die either.” She cycled the iris and stepped through. I sighed and headed to my cabin.
A bit later, having cleaned up and changed into my Captain’s jacket, I returned to the lounge to see Shelly welcoming two of our passengers on board. They were Chesta Kolm and Barik Thompson, both with Ling Standard Products. I welcomed them on-board and introduced myself to them, but they seemed ready to get to their cabins. They were exceptionally concerned about some piece of equipment they were bringing on-board as part of their luggage allowance, and I assured them that it would be safely stored in the cargo bay. That done, I escorted them upstairs while Shelly waited on our other arrivals.
In the passenger lounge I found Varan, still in his street clothes, explaining the dispenser to Carma. I glared in his direction, but he seemed not to notice. Keeping that in mind, I showed Kolm and Thompson to their cabins, went over the features, and directed them to the computer or Varan or Shelly if they had any more questions.
Then I went to see Varan.
He was now at the front “viewport.” It wasn’t an actual window, of course; the only real “window” on the ship was on the bridge, and we only had that because, if all the external sensors were down, we would have to fall back on the original model “eyes.” But passengers can deal with not seeing what is outside as opposed to having another weaker point in the hull.
And you don’t want a laser hitting a window anyway.
I walked up behind them and coughed. Varan turned, frowned slightly, and then returned to his best, professional smile.
“How can I help you, Captain?”
I shrugged, smiling as professionally as I could. “Well, not me, but you could help Shelly. Passengers are boarding, you know.”
His smile tightened. “OK,” he said after a long second. “Sure.” He turned to Carma. “Let me show you to your cabin. I guess I have to work. See you later?”
She nodded at him. “Sure!” Then she turned to me. “You need to be nicer to Varan! He’s told me about you!”
“Oh?” I said, turning to look at him.
He flushed slightly then put a hand on Carma’s back. “Yeah. We’ll… talk about that later.” He turned fully back to me. “I’ll be there in about 15 minutes.”
I hesitated, then nodded. “Yeah, sure. See you in a few.” I turned and headed back to the crew lounge.
There, I found Shelly talking to our two middle passengers; Jakon and Tarin Phose. I greeted them, and they thanked me for giving them a chance at a new life. They were joining a mining crew over in Gimisapun and were happy for the trip. I smiled and wished them the best. I wondered if they really knew what they were getting into. I’ve lived on a starship for most of my life, but being a belt miner is a particular skill. We’re on board together for a week at a time, but being a Belter means you’re with the same four or five people every day for months at a time, and it is hard, physical work too. Not everyone can handle that. But, seeing how hopeful they were, I wished the best on them.
I was about to tell Shelly to go ahead and show them upstairs –the only passenger we had left was Dr. Korvusar, and I figured she knew the ship well enough to find her own way up– when Varan came down the stairs. He immediately came up to me.
“All right, I’m here. So… what’s so urgent I need to be down here for?”
I pointed to the Phose. “Show them to the cabin. Well… let Shelly show them to their cabin while you watch. Make sure she knows our onboarding sequence.”
He sighed but nodded. “Yeah, sure. Got it.” He turned to Shelly. “Hey, Steward Tharis. Want to get these people upstairs?”
Shelly frowned slightly but nodded. “Yeah, sure.” She turned to me. “OK, to go back upstairs?”
I shrugged. “We’ve got everyone except Dr. Korvusar, and she knows the way. If she doesn’t…” I shrugged. “She’ll have to deal with it.”
She nodded. “Got it.” She and Varan started showing the Phose towards the ladder while I headed for the bridge.
Do’rex and Saahna were both there. “We OK?” I asked as I climbed into the Captain’s seat.”
Do’rex clicked and waved a tentacle. Saahna looked more intently at her console. “Lasers and missiles are fine. We didn’t get any restock on the missiles we fired or on the sandcaster. Think that will be a problem?”
I frowned. That should have been Varan’s responsibility, but he hadn’t been in the suite during the encounter, and I would have ultimately been the one to order the restock anyway. I shrugged.
“We should still have some stock of each. I really didn’t want to provoke Commander Winters any more than we already have. We’ll restock at Gimisapun.”
She turned towards me and frowned. “I hope we won’t regret that.”
I nodded and looked back at my own consoles. “Yeah, me too.”
The next half-hour passed in silence. I noted that all of our passengers had checked into their rooms, including Dr. Korvusar. I guess I was right about her knowing her way around. Jami was apparently on board and was reporting that the engines were ready for our lift.
I frowned. I hadn’t known that she had come on board; I should have taken Minister Trakon down to see her. Oh well. Nothing I could do about it now.
I pulled the ship’s status up again. Everything looked good, so I initiated a remote lock on the airlocks and cargo doors, then opened a channel to STC.
“Kupakii Space Traffic Control, this is the Grayswandir requesting clearance to depart.”
“Please stand by Grayswandir,” came an almost immediate reply. “We are arranging for your escort.”
“Escort? We didn’t request an escort.”
“Don’t worry,” came the voice. “We’re just wanting to make sure you don’t have any more problems in Kupakii space.”
“Got it,” I said, irritably. “Let us know when they’re here.” I clicked off.
“We have not made many friends here,” said Do’rex, his head swiveling entirely around to look at me. I hated it when he did that.
I shrugged. “Well, we’ve made some. And maybe a few we didn’t want. But, hopefully, we’ve made more friends than enemies overall.”
“I hope you are right.” He turned back to his console.
Saahna glanced at me then turned back to hers as well. “Fine. How long do we have to wait?”
“I don’t know.”
She sighed. “Well, my calculations to orbit should be fine. I’ll just have to tweak my numbers for heading to 100.”
“We’ll be fine.”
“I hope so.” She tapped on her console for a while, then looked back up. “Can we trust them?”
“I suspect so. There are at least three Boilingbrook Naval cruisers in-system at the moment. Unless the Imperium has a bunch of ships hidden here, somewhere. Even if they wanted to a fleet of Scout/Couriers couldn’t do much against actual warships; you saw what the Eye did to the Fesarius. They might try to make an example of us, but Commander Winters has to know what would happen the instant they tried anything. She’s stuck with the situation as it is now. Unfortunately for her. This is just a show of force. Trying to make us think twice before coming here again.”
“Sounds good to me,” she said, still looking at her console. I frowned to myself. After we were in Jump, I would scan the ship to make sure we didn’t have any more scanner discs or bugs on board, then I’d have to tell the crew about the “Hiver bedding materials.” I still wasn’t sure what I would do if we got that offered as a cargo, but I wouldn’t keep it secret from everyone else.
It was almost an hour before Kupakii STC came back on-line. “Sorry for the delay, Grayswandir. Your escort is here now. We’ll send you your orbital course.”
I frowned and looked at Saahna. She had turned to look up at me and waved her hands in a gesture of annoyance then turned back.
“Sure thing, Kupakii. Transfer orbital insertion vector when ready.”
There was no reply, but I saw the data feed light up. Saahna tapped a few things on her console, then nodded. “Got it.”
“OK STC,” I said, opening the comms again. “We’re ready to go.”
“Depart when ready, Grayswandir.”
I flipped to the shipside comms long enough to announce departure and tell everyone to find a seat. Not that we had ever had a problem with our gravity or compensators, but it would be my luck to have one of them fail the first time I didn’t announce our departure.
After that, I switched us to internals without feeling anything. I then nodded to Do’rex and Saahna. “Anytime you two are ready. Get us out of here.”
Saahna nodded and flicked something to Do’rex. He clicked in acknowledgment and tapped his own controls. A few seconds later, I saw the docking bay drop away beneath us. We pivoted, and I got a brief glimpse of a Scoutship hovering nearby before we tilted upwards and accelerated away.
We took a shallower ascent than Do’rex would typically have selected, but we headed for orbit. Or, maybe it was because I had always been the one who plotted our departures. At any rate, it only took a few minutes longer than usual to hit vacuum, and within 15 minutes we were in orbit above Kupakii.
I checked the sensors. A second Scout/Courier was rendezvousing with us; its orbit apparently the one we had been trying to match. We were scheduled to break orbit for our jump point in about 20 minutes.
There were a few dozen other ships in orbit, as would be expected. I saw one of them was a Boilingbrook naval cruiser. I suddenly remembered the datastick that Minister Trakon had given me. I pulled it out and plugged it into my console, updating our transponder and IFF with the codes. Almost immediately the Boilingbrook cruiser changed to green on our display. Shortly after that, we got a friendly pingback. I relaxed a bit. At least someone was watching what we were doing now.
Just short of 20 minutes later we hit our transfer point. Without saying anything Do’rex fired the engines, and we slowly pulled away from Kupakii, aiming for a point some 100 diameters ahead in its orbit. From there we would Jump to Gimisapun. Saahna was already at work on the calculations.
I noted that both Scout/Couriers were matching course with us. I wasn’t sure if they had any plans against us or if they just wanted to make sure we were leaving. Hopefully, it was the latter.
I flipped my consoles to standby and climbed down. “It looks like we’ve got a couple of hours,” I said. “Make sure we’re on course then take a break. See you about 20 before Jump.”
“Where are you going?” asked Saahna, glancing back at me. “You trust me to calculate my first Jump on my own?”
I tilted my head and looked at her. “I’ll check before we jump, don’t worry. But I have to do that ‘mingle with the passengers’ thing.”
She shrugged. “OK, yeah. And I’m sure I’m fine. But… I’d kinda like a check anyway?”
I nodded. “Got it.” I left the bridge and took the ladder to the passenger lounge.
Shelly and Varan were both in the lounge, as were most of our passengers. Dr. Korvusar was, oddly, still in her cabin. I wondered about that, then shrugged. Anything I had to talk to her about probably should be in private anyway.
I spent a few minutes introducing myself again to the passengers. The fact that we had an escort was evident, and I spun it as the Scout Base on Kupakii wanting to make sure that we didn’t have any problems while in-system. No need to explain things further. Everyone seemed satisfied with that.
Kolm and Thompson cornered me for a while and talked trade. It turned out that some of the freight we were carrying belonged to them; seven tons of water purifiers. They wanted to know how I decided what cargo to bring, how much to pay, and why I hadn’t picked up more of theirs. They knew the basics, but I was again thankful for the experience I had gotten from Captain Anna. I gave them a few pointers. Not good ones, mind you; they needed to learn some things on their own. But I didn’t give them any actually incorrect advice. Just some that was… marginal.
Hey, why help the competition, right?
After that, I talked to Jakon and Tarin Phose. They had been standing near the aft display, watching Kupakii dropping away behind us.
“Saying goodbye?” I asked as I came up.
Jakon turned to me and shrugged. “I was born there. I’ve… never actually seen it from space before. I mean… I’ve seen pictures, but…”
I smiled slightly. “Well, this isn’t a viewport. It’s just a display from the external sensors.”
He nodded. “Yeah, I understand. But… it is what I would see from here if it was a viewport, right?”
I nodded in return. “Yeah, sure.” I paused. “We’d like to let the passengers see a direct view, but the fewer weak points in a hull the happier we are.” I didn’t mention that Jumpspace would be problematic.
“Yeah, I get that. I’m an Engineer myself.”
“Oh?” I was surprised. “Sorry, I thought you just said you’d been on Kupakii your whole life?”
He nodded. “Yeah, but I’ve got my Engineering cert. Fusion plants are fusion plants, you know? Yeah, a Jump Drive is a bit of a different beast, but it’s still fusion energy going somewhere. Not that different. I’ve been keeping the plants alive on Kupakii for years… it’s time to go somewhere else.”
I smiled. “Watch it, you’ll get the Traveller bug too.”
He shrugged. “Yeah, maybe not that much. I’ll stay in one system for a while.”
“Yeah, I’ve heard that before. Once you get off-world… you keep going.”
“I hope not,” said Tarin. “I don’t want to have to uproot again.” He was looking somewhat irritably at Jakon.
I shrugged. “It isn’t that bad, really.”
He shook his head. “You don’t know how much I’m leaving behind back at South End.”
Jakon put his hand on Tarin’s arm. “I told you that you didn’t have to come with me.”
Tarin shook off the hand. “Yeah. But there wasn’t much left for me on Kupakii either. Especially with the Boilingbrook people there. And their friends.” He turned and glared at me as he said that.
I held up my hands. “Minister Trakon was just another passenger. I didn’t even know who he was at first; he had booked passage under a false name. He didn’t reveal his identity until we hit vacuum.”
Tarin frowned. “You don’t vet your passenger list?”
I shrugged. “When it’s the planetary government trying to keep you in the dark there isn’t a whole lot you can do about it.”
He nodded slowly. “Yeah, that I understand. I worked with local security down in the South End.” He shrugged. “I’m good with a gun. Not talented like people like Jakon here.” He took Jakon’s hand and squeezed it. Jakon smiled, then Tarin turned back to me.
“I knew there was stuff going on. Ships would land outside of the Starport and Scout Commander Winters would tell us to ‘ignore it.’ Or we would have incidents where someone from the Scout base, or even some random Imperial…” He glanced at me. “No offense.”
I shrugged. “I’m from the Glimmerdrift. The ship may be Imperial registry, but I’m not.”
He smiled tightly. “Yeah. Anyway, we always had ‘incidents’ involving Scouts or Imperials or something, and we always got told to ignore them. That they would be taken care of. I… was kinda getting tired of it. That’s the main reason I agreed to go with Jakon to Gimisapun.”
“I can see that, from what I learned while I was there. For what it’s worth, I think things are going to be changing on Kupakii soon.”
He sighed and looked away. “Yeah, we’ll be serving Boilingbrook instead of the Imperium. We’ll still be answering to someone else.”
I raised my hands in my most disarming gesture. “At least it will be someone one Jump away instead of a few hundred. That close? They can’t afford to give the local population too many problems.”
I had intended to be calming, but that seemed to annoy him more. “The ‘Local population’? That’s all you think of us as?”
I flushed slightly, but I had already committed myself. “I see about 25 planets a year. Most everyone likes where they are from, but from where we are you’re just another planet.” I shrugged, trying to be disarming. “I’m a Traveller, what can I say? After some time in Gimisapun, you may decide to go somewhere else. After that, you’ll understand.”
He glared at me for a moment, then his expression softened. He sighed. “Yeah… OK. I guess… I guess if Kupakii were just another stop along the way, then you would feel that way. But…” He paused, thinking out his words. “But if you don’t identify with a place, what do you identify with?”
I gestured around me. “This. This is my home. Has been for almost 30 years. That’s why I’m still here. I have a home. It just moves around a lot.”
He seemed to think for a moment, then nodded. “Yeah… I guess I get that.” He turned to look at Jakon. “Just like home for me is with Jakon.”
I winced at the overt sentimentality but nodded. “Yeah, like that. Now, if you will excuse me?”
I looked around. Shelly and Varan were standing near the dispensers, Varan pointing out something on the display. As I approached, I saw that he was going over the diagnostic routines with her.
“Everything OK?” I asked as I came up.
Shelly nodded. “Yeah, I think I’ve got all of this.”
“Yeah, it’s pretty self-explanatory,” Varan said, glancing at her. “So, you’ve got it?”
She nodded again. “Yeah, for now.”
“Good!” he said, stepping back. “Listen, I’ve… got to go, but just comm me if you need something.”
I started to say something, but he quickly crossed the lounge and slid down the ladder. I looked after him for a moment, then turned back to Shelly.
“So… Is everything really OK?”
She sighed and shrugged. “Yeah, most of it seems pretty straight-forward; just a lot more cramped than I’m used to.”
“Not a lot of space on a ship,” I said, nodding. “But, did Varan tell you what you needed?”
She shrugged again. “Most of it. I think he was in a hurry to get out of here.”
“Trying to get back to Carma?”
She nodded. “Yeah. It’s weird, though… He was asking me if I had talked to Carma or if I knew if anyone else had. I don’t think it is so much that he is in a hurry to get back to her as it is that he doesn’t want any of us talking to her when he isn’t around.”
I frowned at that. “The few times I’ve talked to her she’s made some comment about the way we treat him on the ship. Maybe he exaggerated his involvement in our exploits a bit to impress her, and now he’s afraid she may find out the truth.” I shook my head. “Works if you’re leaving the planet at the end of the week. Doesn’t work so well if you bring her back on board with you.”
“Maybe he’s afraid that you will steal her from him,” she said, giving a slight grin. “You did ask me to tell everyone how good you were.”
I laughed at that. “Yeah… maybe. Well, we’ll see how long this goes on; he can’t stay locked in his cabin with her all Jump. But seriously, if you need any help up here…”
“I’ll comm him,” she said. “Thanks.”
—
I went back down to my cabin and changed out of my Captain’s jacket. Then, I grabbed a couple of things from the dispenser and headed into the bridge.
I handed Saahna a beer, which she accepted without looking back, and passed a stim-stick to a surprised looking Do’rex. I tossed a pack of tama leaves onto the console between them then climbed up into the Captain’s chair.
“So we’re eating on the bridge now?” Saahna asked as I strapped in. I looked to see that she was looking back towards me, but already had a handful of leaves.
I shrugged as I pulled up my console. “Yeah, why not. It’s not like spilling a beer will hurt anything up here.”
She shrugged in return as she turned back to her own console. “No, but there is something to be said for rules and a certain amount of order.”
I was looking at the sensor scans. “Yeah, well maybe Captain Anna liked her order and rules, but I’m running this on more of an equal basis now. We’ll be fine.” I paused. “And when did the Eye start following us?”
Do’rex clicked. “They broke orbit about a half-hour after we did. They have greater acceleration than us, so they are now escorting us along with the two scout ships from Kupakii.”
I sighed. “So it’s an entire party. Well, with everyone out here, no one is going to try anything. That’s good, I guess.”
Saahna shook her head. “Here now, yes. But later?”
I sighed again and leaned back. “We are where we are. Nothing I can do about it now. If you’re worried, I’m sure you can find another ship at Gimisapun.”
She turned around to glare at me. “I didn’t say that!”
I held up a hand. “Yeah, you didn’t. Sorry. I guess… I’m being just a bit defensive.”
She turned back to her console. “Yeah, you are. Now, you want to double-check my Jump calculations?”
“Yeah, sure.” She flicked them up to my console, and I spent the next half-hour reviewing them. They looked good. Not exactly the approach I would have taken, but the final result was the same.
“Looks good,” I said, flicking them over to Do’rex. He clicked and started updating his own console.
Saahna had been looking at the sensors. “You want me in the gimbal? Or let Varan have it?”
I sighed. “I don’t think we need anyone there.” I waved towards the canopy. “There’s enough other ships out here with us that if someone decides to do something, there isn’t much we can do about it. And I’d kinda like him to be looking over Shelly’s shoulder since this is her first Jump.”
Her back was to me, but I saw her shrug slightly. “Yeah, I guess. Just feels weird.”
“Everything about this is weird.”
“Glad we’re out of it.”
“I hope so.”
There must have been something in the way I said it because she looked back at me. “What do you mean, ‘you hope so.’ We’re out, right?”
I nodded. “Yeah, we are. Like I told you, the last thing that Green, or whatever his name was, said to me was not to expect to hear from them again. Which seems pretty definitive, but…” I still wasn’t sure what else I could tell everyone. Once we were in Jumpspace and I had swept the ship for scanners, then maybe I could let them know them about the note he had left. Until then…
“But what?”
I sighed. “‘Don’t expect to hear from us’ and ‘You won’t hear from us’ don’t mean the same thing. I’m a good enough negotiator to pick up on things like that, and I’m sure they know us well enough by now to know that I would. He had to say it that way so that if we were being watched or monitored, which we almost certainly were, it would sound like they were writing us off while still letting me know that they were leaving the door open.”
She frowned. “You could have told us that last night.”
I nodded. “Yes, I could. But we were almost certainly being watched there. Hells, I suspect some of our passengers may be working for Commander Winters.”
Saahna looked up in surprise at that. “Really?”
“Yeah, she wasn’t happy with us. I wouldn’t be surprised if she stuck us with someone just to try to get something incriminating out of us.”
She turned back to her console and thought for a moment. “Carma? She does seem to have really gotten to Varan.”
I shook my head. “I think Varan is still holding what happened against me. He’s probably been telling Carma everything that I’ve done wrong over the past few weeks. That’s why he’s keeping her away from us; so we won’t contradict his account of things.”
Saahna was still looking at her console but nodded. “Yeah. That makes sense. I wondered why he was behaving the way he is. Well, I trust your instincts when it comes to reading people.” She paused. “But she still could have been planted on us by Commander Winters.”
“Sounds more like a plan from a bad net-vid but… maybe?”
“So why did you let her on board?”
I leaned back and sighed. “I could have said we were full or didn’t have life support or whatever, but Varan would obviously know I was lying. So would Winters; her people loaded the ship, after all.” I frowned. “That reminds me. We need to do a full re-inventory of everything in the cargo bay as soon as we’re in Jump. I don’t want any unexpected ‘extra’ cargo on board.”
She nodded. “Sounds like a good idea.”
“Then we need to sweep to make sure we haven’t picked up a few new scanners. I’ve had Gray run a sweep, and she claims she doesn’t see anything transmitting, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t anything recording.”
Saahna sighed. “How long are we going to have to be paranoid like this?”
“Too long.”
Do’rex interrupted us with a click. “We are starting our final deceleration to our jump point,” he said, acting as if nothing out of the ordinary had been going on. “We should be ready for Jump in about an hour.”
I glanced at my console and tapped the acknowledgments. “Thanks, Do’rex.” I opened the ship-wide channel.
“Good evening, everyone,” I said. “This is Captain Kodai up on the bridge. We are approximately one hour away from Jump. Please complete any activities before that time. All crew, please start preparing your stations for Jump.”
Almost immediately, my personal channel pinged. It was Varan. “Um… Do you want me to head back to the lounge with Shelly or take the guns?”
“No point in manning the gimbal,” I said, echoing what I had told Saahna earlier. “There are two scout ships and the Eye with us. If anything happens, it won’t be us controlling the battlefield.”
There was a slight pause. “OK, sure. That makes sense. Talk to you after Jump.” He clicked off.
I turned back to my console and started cycling through displays. Jami was obviously in Engineering, and everything seemed to be ready. Shelly and Varan were in the passenger lounge, and everyone else was up here on the bridge.
Do’rex clicked. “We are receiving a communication from Kupakii, Captain.”
I sighed. “Put it on.” There was a click. “Grayswandir here Kupakii, go ahead.”
“I trust you have had no further problems while in our system, Captain?” It was Commander Winters, sounding condescendingly polite.
I gritted my teeth and gave her my best polite response. “Not at all. Thank you for your escort.”
“I apologize that I couldn’t send any of our proper patrol vessels to escort you,” she continued. “But rest assured that some will be arriving in-system as soon as they get our request. You did know that the X-Boat system is under Scout service control, didn’t you?”
I frowned. “Well… yes, but I do thank you.”
She laughed lightly. “Of course you do. Just keep something in mind. We, and by that I mean the Scout Service as a whole, remember who our friends are. And who isn’t a friend? Keep that in mind the next time you return to Kupakii. We welcome friends. Non-friends? Not so much.”
I nodded. “Yeah. Got it.”
“I’m glad we have an understanding, Captain. I look forward to hearing from my colleagues as to their future encounters with you. Have a safe Jump, Captain.” She cut off.
I stared into the distance for a moment. “Thank you, Scout Commander,” I said to the empty air.
Saahna sighed. “That could have gone better.”
“Not much we can do. We are where we are. Let’s just hope the rest of the Scout Service isn’t as single-minded as she is.”
“We don’t know what she is telling them.”
“I know. But we’re outside the Imperium anyway. And, I suspect that all of them will be having their own problems for a while.”
She had started to look away but looked back at that. “Aren’t you the one who kept saying the Imperium had nothing to worry about?”
I waved my hands. “Look at what we’ve run into over the last few weeks. Multiply that by a few billion and imagine what is going on all through known space at this point. There are 11 trillion sophonts in the Imperium. If even a minuscule fraction of them are dealing with a mess like the one we’re in? Yeah, we’re in trouble.”
Do’rex clicked. “The current order has existed, with only relatively minor incidents, for over a thousand years. Any disruption to that has to cause problems.”
I nodded silently at that and scanned my console again. “We getting close?”
He clicked. “Yes. We should be at minimum Jump distance in a few minutes.”
“Then get ready to get us out of here.” I glanced at the calculations again and flicked them to Saahna, who nodded silently and flicked them over to Do’rex. He clicked acknowledgment and started setting up the jump.
He suddenly tapped something else and pivoted his head back to me. “We are receiving a communication from the Skesis’ Eye,” he said. “Narrow beam laser comm.”
I sighed. “Of course we are.” When he didn’t say anything, I continued. “Put them through.”
“Grayswandir? This is the Skesis’ Eye. Everything OK?”
I tapped my console. “Yes, we’re fine, Captain Kellis. Everything OK on your end?”
“You don’t seem too worried for someone who has the entire Imperial Scout Service after them. And the X-Boat operators as well! Yeah, we had a good laugh over here at Commander Winters’ call to you. She hasn’t quite grasped what is going on out here yet.”
I frowned. “You heard that?”
There was a pause, but I heard the amusement in her voice when she responded. “She was on an open circuit; apparently wanting to make sure everyone heard her ‘warning’ to you.” She laughed. “Kupakii isn’t an Imperial system anymore. It’s a Hinterworlds system. She just either hasn’t realized that yet or is actively denying it. I just wanted you to know that you, and the Grayswandir, will always be welcome here. We remember who our friends are too.”
I frowned and looked around the bridge Both Do’rex and Saahna were focused on their consoles in preparation for Jump and didn’t indicate that they were listening. “Thanks. I think we need all the friends we can find right now.”
She laughed again. “Yeah, I guess all of you are feeling a bit disconnected right now. Anyway, just know that anyone in the alliance will have your back as well.”
“Glad to hear it,” I said. Any further comment I would have made was cut off by Do’rex.
“We are at our jump point,” he said without looking back. “There are no other ships out here beyond the vessels following us. Should we prepare for Jump?”
I nodded. “Yeah, sure.” I switched back to the channel to the Skesis’ Eye. “Well, it looks like it’s time for us to hit Jumpspace. See you next orbit?”
“It’s a date!” she said. “Good luck, Grayswandir!”
“Thanks.” I clicked off then switched to the shipwide channel. “Everyone, this is Captain Kodai up on the bridge. We are about to enter Jumpspace. While there should be no problems, we recommend everyone find a place to sit during the transition. We will let you know when it is safe to move around again.” I closed the channel and dimmed the lights shipwide, then opened the crew channel. “OK everyone, let’s get out of here. We ready?”
“Always!” came a surprisingly enthusiastic response from Jami.
“Everyone is ready,” said Shelly. “I’ve got Varan double-checking me. Everyone else is in their cabins.”
“OK then, thanks, everyone.” I turned to Do’rex. “Let’s do this.”
He didn’t look back. “Jumping.” He tapped his console and, within a few seconds, the familiar glow built up around the edges of the canopy and the stars faded away.
“Jump complete,” he said, looking over his console. “Gimisapun in seven days.”
“We’re good then.” I restored the lighting and made the announcement that Jump was complete, then shut down my console.
“And I’m done,” I said, climbing down. “Glad that’s over with.” I looked around. “Anyone need anything else?”
Do’rex waved a tentacle, and Saahna shoved her own seat backward. “Nope, I think we’re good.”
I nodded. “Yeah. Let’s get some sleep.”
There was no one in the crew lounge as we passed through; I supposed both Shelly and Varan were still upstairs. I went to my cabin and started getting ready to fall into my bunk. Saahna came in a few minutes later.
I finished before her, even the Captain’s cabin only has enough room in the fresher for one person, and was half-asleep when she crawled into the bunk next to me and slid over.
“I’m glad we’re away from there,” she said, leaning against me.
“You and me both,” I replied, putting my arm around her.
“We’re done with all that now, aren’t we?” she asked. I could feel the tension in her.
“Yeah,” I said. “I’ve had enough excitement for a long time.”
I felt her relax. “Good.” There was a long pause. “I’ll be glad to have everything back to normal.”
I pulled her a bit closer. “Yeah. Me too.”