5 Salas 1117: Gimisapun – Tlianke/Hinterworlds (1103 A000000-B Lo Ni As Ba 603 Na M0 V M2 D)
I spent the morning handling cargo. Most of the freight had already been picked up, and I had several hits already on parts of our cargo; apparently, Kupakii spices were more popular than I realized. I adjusted the prices on the rest of the cargo accordingly.
The local market was mostly raw minerals, as I had expected. Not the most lucrative cargo, but a pretty reliable one. I put in bids on a few lots but decided to hold some of our space back in case I found something more promising.
Which meant I needed to start doing some legwork. After the events of the last few weeks, I realized that I needed to start taking a few more precautions than I had been.
I looked through the local net, looking for a place. I was Streetwise enough to know that the place that everyone was directing the visitors to wasn’t the one I wanted, so the Purple place was out. I finally found a place that looked promising, near the outer surface of the asteroid. I put on my ship’s jumpsuit, stuck my snub pistol under my jacket, and headed out.
It was down about a dozen levels and about a third of the way spinward around the station. It was called the 7th Parsec and, from the outside, it looked like just another heavy pressure door; only the “7P” stenciled on it identified it. I spun what turned out to be a merely decorative latch wheel and pushed it open.
Inside it was quieter than I had expected. Oh, there was still throbbing music coming from hidden speakers, but conversations were a dull murmur. I don’t know how they were talking over the music.
I stepped around the dance floor, which here was a glassteel panel showing space spinning below us and periodically providing glimpses of the primary, Gortel, and Vistan, the gas giant whose trailing Trojan point this asteroid was located in. It was crowded. As an asteroid base, there wasn’t really a concept of “day” or “night”; things ran on a continuous clock here.
I found an open spot at the bar and sat down. Almost immediately a human bartender came over and dropped a basket of something in front of me, then stood there looking at me wordlessly.
“Um… just a beer for now.”
“Oh, yeah. Sure.” He shook his head as if trying to clear it. “Anything in particular?”
“Got any local pales?”
He nodded, smiling. “How local?”
I smiled as well. “Well… I don’t guess you have anything from in-system.”
His smile turned to a smirk. “New here, aren’t you? Hang on.” He turned and busied himself at the bar. A few moments later, he handed me a glass.
I took a drink and smiled. “Hey, not bad! You make this here?”
He shook his head. “Not exactly. It’s from Vanatos. That’s one of the Trojans for Sketon; the innermost giant. We’ve got a couple of agricultural stations there growing food for the system. Don’t want to depend on traders like you for everything.” He nodded towards my jacket.
I smiled and stuck out my hand. “Derek Kodai, Captain of the Free Trader Grayswandir. First time here.”
“Well, welcome to Gimisapun!” he said, taking my hand for a return shake. He abruptly pulled away as my expression changed, his smile turning to a frown. “Is there a problem?”
I looked at his hand. I hadn’t been paying attention, but instead of a normal hand, he had a metallic framework surrounding a webbing of cables, joints, and gears. My surprise must have been apparent.
“Sorry, I… hadn’t noticed. Just surprised me, that’s all.”
He frowned. “You have something against cybers?”
I shook my head and raised my hands. “What? No! No. As I said, I just hadn’t noticed, and it surprised me, that’s all.”
He relaxed a bit. “Well… OK. Some of you Imperial types come in and look down on us for having them.”
I shook my head. “I’m Free Trader, remember? We see everything. And, for what it’s worth, I’m not Imperial either; I’m from the Glimmerdrift.”
He nodded. “Yeah… OK.” He didn’t seem completely satisfied. “So… what brings a Free Trader Captain down here? We’re mostly a local bar here; you out-system types tend to stay up closer to the axis.”
I shrugged. “I’m… looking for something.”
He smirked and leaned forward. “Something? Or some… one?”
“Information, actually,” I said. “Or, more precisely someone who can give me some information. We’ll worry about the other two later.”
He nodded, but I could tell he was thinking to himself. “Information broker?”
“Yeah, if there’s one around.” He paused again, seemingly thinking to himself. Suddenly, a look of surprise broke across his face. “You’re just in from Kupakii! You know some of these Boilingbrook people!”
I leaned back in surprise. “Yeah, we did. I…” I paused. “How did you…” I paused again. “Cyonic?”
“Yeah? Is that a problem?”
I shook my head. “Again, no. I’m just… not used to it.”
He frowned. “And you don’t like things you aren’t used to?”
I sighed. “I didn’t say that. I just…” I frowned. I was slipping. Usually, I’m pretty good at researching the systems I’m going to. I didn’t realize how common cybernetics were here.
He held my gaze for a long moment, then shrugged. “OK… fine. Yeah. You’re from the Imperium. Or the Glimmerdrift. Or wherever. I’ll see if I can think of someone.” He turned and headed down the bar.
I frowned. Well, that went well, I said to myself. Everything that had been happening had really thrown me off my game.
—-
I sat there for an hour or two, growing increasingly irritated. I did my best to hide it, but I was pretty sure the bartender, who never had mentioned his name, was avoiding talking to me. I had another few beers, some tama leaves, and a Terraburger; a ground meat patty on a bun with cheese. Apparently, it was considered a delicacy back on old Earth. I suspected they weren’t using the template from there.
I was about to leave and try somewhere else when a woman dropped into the seat next to me. She immediately turned to me.
“So you’re a Free Trader?”
I frowned a bit but nodded. “Yeah, word gets around that fast?”
She tilted her head down the bar. “Torres has been talking about you.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Yeah?”
She laughed a bit at that. “Don’t worry about him; he hates everyone who isn’t a Belter. He’ll still treat you fine, but he will be sure to let you know he doesn’t like it.” She stuck out a hand. “Kona Ranis, of the Seeker All of Us. You?”
I shook the offered hand. “Derek Kodai, of the Free Trader Grayswandir. How can I help you?” I looked her over. She was short and stocky and had half of her head shaved; the hair replaced with an intricate tattoo. But her smile seemed genuine.
“The All of Us is in airdock for a while. Annual thing. But… I’ve got something I want to check out. Something that I don’t want to be immediately connected to me.” She held up a hand. “Don’t worry, it’s totally legal. But a Free Trader in port may have a reason to go somewhere else in-system for a while. Me? Some people may wonder what I’m up to.”
I frowned. “What are you up to?”
She smiled tightly. “I can tell you that… if you agree to keep quiet about what I’m about to tell you. Don’t worry; you’ll be well compensated for it. And… maybe I know someone who can help you as well.”
I regarded her for a long moment, but she seemed to be being honest. “OK, sure,” I said nodding. “As long as it is something I can help you with.”
“You a Pilot?”
I nodded slowly. “Not the best one I know, honestly. But I’m pretty sure I can get a ship where it needs to go. But… we’re only here for a week.”
She nodded. “Yeah, that’s great. That’s fine. I want to go somewhere. In system. Again, nothing illegal. But I need to get to a particular place without anyone knowing I’m going there. You’ll need to rent a shuttle. Hells, I can even fly it; I’m a Pilot myself. But I need someone who isn’t me to rent the shuttle and go there with me. All the official records need to show you as being the Pilot. That’s all. And you’ll be compensated at the end.”
I frowned slightly. It all sounded a bit sketchy. But… she also seemed to be being honest, and wholly invested in what she was wanting. So I nodded.
“OK, sure. Sounds promising. But… I don’t know how much you heard from… Torres was it? But I need to find an info broker. And soon enough that I can get info back from them before my scheduled departure date. Which is the 11th.”
She thought, then nodded. “Yeah, that’ll work. It’ll take us about a day to get there. Say a day in transit, a day there doing what I need to do, and a day back. That’ll leave you with two days. Is that enough?”
I thought. “Can I stay in contact?”
She nodded. “Yeah, sure. As long as you don’t tell anyone what you are doing or that I’m with you.”
I thought another long moment. I really didn’t want to get the crew involved in something else, but this seemed purely local and personal. And if I could get some info at least at the end? That would work. I nodded.
“OK, sure. Why not? What next?”
She smiled nodding. “Great. We’ll need to get a shuttle. Or a ship’s boat. Or… anything that flies. We need to get to the area around Xatan, the outermost gas giant. That’s all.”
I frowned slightly. “Are you going to tell me what this is all about?”
She smiled slightly. “Once we’re on our way.”
I hesitated but nodded. “That’ll work. We can’t get to wherever you want without you telling me.”
“Great! When can you get a shuttle?”
I frowned. “Whenever. You want to go like… now?”
“The sooner, the better!”
I frowned again. “Well, I’ll have to get my downpack. And alert the crew…”
She frowned herself. “Why? I thought Free Trader crews were on their own during landings.” She paused. “Unless… you’re involved with one of them?”
I grimaced at that. “Well, yeah but… it’s… complicated.”
She nodded. “Got it. So… how soon can we leave?”
“Is it that urgent?”
“Yes!” She glanced around, realizing that she had been a bit louder than she had intended. “Look, someone else may find what I am looking for. I need to be the first one there.”
I sighed. Some kind of mining claim or something? I didn’t know enough about how that sort of thing worked here; usually, I just bought the end goods. But as far as I could read her, she was being honest. Keeping secrets, of course, but honest.
And she was excited about whatever it was. And nervous. She kept looking around.
“OK, I’ll go grab us a shuttle.” I flicked my tab to the bar and stood up. “Any requests?”
“It doesn’t have to be too big, but you might want to get something with about a dozen tons of cargo. Just in case.”
“Oh?”
“I’m not sure. But… just in case.”
I nodded. “OK. Let’s go.”
She shook her head. “I can’t be seen getting a boat, remember? Just get it, get it ready, and then tell me where you are. There’s my comm code. Ping me when everything is ready.”
I frowned slightly. She hadn’t done anything, but I checked my comp. Her code was there.
“That confident I would accept? Or…” I paused. “Cyonic?”
She raised an eyebrow. “Yeah? You have a problem with that?”
I shook my head. “I go to too many planets to have problems with pretty much anything. You just don’t come across that many of them back towards the Imperium.”
She still seemed a bit skeptical. “Yeah? A lot of Imperials don’t think much of us who have one.”
“No… It’s good.”
She shrugged. “Free Trader captain, I figured you would have had one of your own.”
I smiled and shook my head. “I’ve seen what my passengers try to do to my ship’s computer. I’d just as soon not have a chip in my head as well.”
She laughed but shook her head. “It isn’t like that.”
“I’m sure.”
She turned serious again. “We can talk about all that later. Go get us a shuttle, and let me know.” She immediately turned and left the bar.
I turned back to see Torres looking at me. “What did you do to chase Kona off?”
I shrugged. “She wanted to do some business. It wasn’t something I’d care to be involved in.”
He snorted. “Yeah. ’Business.’ I’ve seen her business. It’s sleeping with anything that isn’t part of her regular crew. The ones she hasn’t driven off. Half the crew on her ship leaves every time they dock.”
“Really? She has her own ship?”
He waved a hand at that. “Her? She couldn’t handle a ship. She’s an ‘expert.’ A scientist of some kind. They keep her on her ship because she can figure out which rocks to mine and which ones to ignore. She must be good at it, else they wouldn’t put up with her.”
I frowned. “I didn’t get that particular feeling from her.” I paused. “Though she is a bit… forward.”
He laughed. “Hells yeah she is. Trust me, you made the right decision in turning her down.”
“Got it,” I said, swinging my pack onto my back. “Well, I guess I need to get back to work.”
“Yeah, whatever.” He turned to someone else at the bar as I left.
—
I stopped at the Chrysalis long enough to pick up my full downbag, then headed up to the docking level. I quickly found a rental place and selected a slowboat. They weren’t particularly flashy, but despite the name could still pull 3 gees and had a decent amount of cargo space, as well as a double cabin, so we wouldn’t spend the whole time in the bridge.
The agent looked me over as I presented my credentials. “You have your own ship?” he asked, checking my ident. “Why do you need a boat?”
“My ship has to be here to load cargo and to restock and refuel. I’ve got some business at Xatan. Just need to get there.”
He shrugged. “OK, sure. Doesn’t matter to me.” He clicked a few things on his console then flicked it over to me. “Sector 2, bay 17. It should be fueled and ready before you get there. It’s keyed to your ident so you shouldn’t have any problems.”
A few minutes later, I was in the bay. The boat was a bit beat up but, once inside, I did a quick check of the systems, and they seemed acceptable. We wouldn’t be in Jump, so it wasn’t like we would be completely isolated and on our own. I pinged Kona and told her where to meet me.”
About 10 minutes later she appeared, running across the bay and jumping into the airlock. It had barely finished cycling before she appeared on the bridge and dropped into the co-pilot’s seat.
“Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go!” she was saying as she fastened her harness.
“Whoa, hang on a second!” I said, raising my hand. “I don’t even know where we’re going!”
“I’ll let you know as soon as we’re clear of the rock! Just… get us out of here!”
I shrugged and opened the comms. “Gimisapun STC, this is shuttle K-17.21. Requesting departure clearance.”
“Acknowledge 17.21. Please seal and hold your position.” I checked and flicked my status over. Almost immediately, the pressure outside started dropping and, a few minutes later, the iris overhead opened.
“Please hold, 17.21,” came the voice from STC. “We have multiple ships in the interior. We will advise when traffic is clear.”
“Thank you, Gimisapun,” I said and flipped off the comms.
“They know!” Kona said, turning towards me in agitation. “We’ve got to go! Now!”
I shook my head. “Hey, STC told us to wait, so I’m waiting.”
“But we have to go! You don’t know how much is at stake!”
“You’re right, I don’t. Because you haven’t told me yet.” I was getting irritated. “But I’m flying this thing, so it’s my Pilot’s cert that is at risk here, not yours. So, I’m waiting for clearance!”
I saw her grit her teeth in anger. “OK… fine. But remember, we’ve got to get there first if either of us are going to profit on this!”
“What is ‘this’?” I asked.
She sighed and turned back to stare out the cockpit. “Fine. Just… depart as soon as you can.”
As if on cue the comms came on-line again. “17.21, you are clear for departure. Please make way for other ships in the exit corridor.”
“Thank you, STC,” I said, bringing the ship to full power. “Gra… 17.21 out.”
I lifted us vertically on the cold steam jets then spun us around to face the exit slot. A brief acceleration and we were through it and away from the station. As soon as we hit a safe distance, I ignited the fusion drive and accelerated us away at maximum thrust. Then I turned back to Kona.
“OK,” I said as I swiveled my seat to face her. “What the hells is this all about.”
She was staring at a sensor display and, after another minute, relaxed. “OK, good. I think we’re good.” She turned to me and looked at me for a second. “OK, there’s the course we need.”
I frowned then turned back to my display. An orbit had appeared on it, with a point marked. Not our orbit, of course. Actually, it didn’t seem to match any known orbit in the system.
“That isn’t the outer gas giant,” I said, knowing that she already knew that.
She nodded. “Yeah, I know. I couldn’t say more before because, well… I didn’t know who else was listening to us. But there is where I need to go. That asteroid.”
I looked at the orbit and associated data more closely. It was indeed an asteroid, but not one from the main Trojan regions. Gimisapun is considered a belt system, but there’s actually no asteroid belt here. Instead, each of the three gas giants has a dense Trojan asteroid cluster leading and trailing it.
But, not every object in a system can be neatly categorized. The asteroid I now had the orbit of was on a long orbit. It probably only got this close to the primary about once every 40 or 50 years. It was only a few hundred meters long and so would usually be ignored. Mostly ignored, except for Kona, apparently.
“There is something on that rock,” she said, watching me. “I want to see it.”
“What?”
She grimaced slightly. “I’m… not 100% certain. But I think it is worth us going there.”
I sighed and leaned back. “So… you’ve got me spending thousands of credits and days off-station on a wild swilder chase? What do you think we’re going to find?”
She sighed as well. “Look, Derek.” She paused. “Look… I’m a tech, OK? I know how to run sensors, analyze minerals, and operate processors like no one else. But, since I don’t know absolutely everything about running a ship I don’t quite get accepted around here.”
She pointed to her screen, even though I couldn’t see what was there. “I know something is there. I have a pretty good idea as to what it is. And it’s worth a lot of credits. A lot of credits.” She turned to me. “There should be something there immediately for you. And a lot more down the road. But… you’ll just have to trust me for a bit longer. OK?”
I closed my eyes and sighed. I was already committed. What else could I do?
“You’re going to have to tell me what this is eventually.”
She nodded. “Absolutely. Once we’re there.”
I gestured out the cockpit window. “As soon as we start maneuvering someone will know where we’re going. And will know I’m not going where I said I was.”
She shrugged. “Can’t be helped. We just need to get there before anyone else.”
I sighed. “OK, let me see what I can do.” I spent the next few minutes calculating an intercept course, then entered it. Outside the window, the stars spun as we lined up on the new course and the engines engaged.
I turned back to her. “OK, we’re on course. We should intercept in about 18 hours. Now what?”
She smiled and unfastened her harness. “Well, we’ve got some time to kill. Wanna fuck?”