6 Salas 1117: Gimisapun – Tlianke/Hinterworlds (1103 A000000-B Lo Ni As Ba 603 Na M0 V M2 D)
I woke up this morning sore in muscles I had forgotten I had. Kona was… enthusiastic was the best way to describe it.
We made our way around each other in the single, cramped cabin and tiny fresher, then made our way up to the bridge. Well, it was the only other space on the ship outside of the cargo bay, so there weren’t many other places to go.
I dropped into the pilot’s console, and she fell into the co-pilot’s. I pulled up our orbital track.
“Looks like about 6 hours,” I said, looking it over. “Now will you tell me what all this is about?”
“Six hours, huh?” She smiled in a way that had become familiar. “Maybe we should spend some more time in back?”
I held up a hand. “Hey, I’m getting too old for this.”
She laughed. “Don’t they have drugs for that in the Imperium? Or implants, or something?”
I sighed. “Yeah, I… try to avoid those.”
She shrugged. “Your loss.” She glanced at her console for a moment, then back. “You really don’t have an implant?”
I shook my head. “Nope. As I said, I don’t want something that can be hacked inside my head.”
“It isn’t like that.”
“I know. Well, I know that’s what they say anyway.”
She shook her head. “I can’t imagine not having one. Having to pull out a comp, or ping someone on a comm whenever I needed them? That’s a waste of time. Especially here.” She tilted her head. “You haven’t spent a lot of time in a Belt, have you?”
I shook my head. “Nope. I’m a Trader, not a Belter. You mine it, I buy it.”
She nodded. “OK, then. Well, as a Belter you spend a lot of time in your suit. Half the time we don’t even bother to pressurize the ship because it’s faster to get stuff in and out when it’s in a vacuum. And that means it’s a lot easier to just think about what you want instead of having to pull up your comms or access your comp just to see what is going on. Especially when you’ve got your hands full with a laser drill and need to direct a bot over to pick up the chunk of rock you just cut loose.”
“Yeah, I get it. It makes sense here.”
“But why not everywhere?” She tilted her head. “Surely, that would always be an advantage.”
“Maybe. But… not everyone thinks that way. There are a lot of planets in the Imperium, and outside as well, who think it’s a dangerous invasion of privacy.”
“What, they think that just because people get implants, they’re suddenly in the Consulate?”
I shrugged. “Yeah, basically. The Zhodani have been the Imperium’s boogieman for so long that everyone has a knee-jerk reaction to anything cyonic. You don’t even see cybernetic replacements that much.”
“Or enhancements? Or skill implants?”
I shook my head. “Nope.”
She looked back to her console. “I kinda get that. Kinda. It’s pretty common here when someone loses an arm or a leg, which happens more often than you would think, that they get a cybernetic replacement. Less actual body mass means less air, which lets them stay out working that much longer. Hells, some people even deliberately get their limbs removed just to gain that advantage.” She shook her head. “I haven’t gone that far.”
I winced myself. “I definitely can’t see that.”
She continued looking at her console. “Yeah.”
I frowned. “So… are you going to tell me what all of this is about or not?”
She hesitated, then glanced at my console. It pinged, and I looked down, then pulled up a set of sensor scans.
“I’m our sensor operator,” she said. “We’re a belt system without belts here; all of our asteroids are Trojans around the giants. But there are a bunch of wanderers, just like any system.” She pointed at my console. “That’s one of them.”
I looked at it. Interpreting sensor scans wasn’t my strong point, but you have to know how to do a basic read on them as a Navigator. But I wasn’t sure what she was wanting me to see.
“It’s small,” I said. “A few hundred meters at most. And a high metal content. High for a rock that small, but…”
I heard her sigh. “Yeah, but look at the metal content.”
I looked at the display again and tapped a few controls to enhance it. What was she expecting me to see? Then I saw it.
“Lanthanum?”
She nodded. “Yeah, lanthanum. High concentration too.”
I frowned, looking at that. “It’s a small percentage, though. Of what is a pretty small rock in the first place.”
“That’s what Tayna –she’s our Captain– that’s what she said too. But I don’t think it’s a deposit.”
“What then?”
“I think it’s a ship.”
“A ship!” I looked at the display again. After a few seconds, I could see it. The proper proportions of duralloy, synthetics, and organics. But no radiation signature. If it was a ship, it was dead.
“So what are you expecting to find?”
“I need a ship,” she said intently. “Of my own. I can’t do this forever.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
She sighed. “Things here are… complicated.”
I shrugged. “Welcome to the Galaxy. What’s up?”
She shook her head. “I… shouldn’t drag you into things…”
“You did plenty of dragging last night.”
She laughed at that. “OK, but… that was different.” She paused. “OK, what do you know about our situation here.”
I shrugged. “More-or-less standard belt system, minus the belts. Primarily a mining and refining economy. Considered an ‘anarchy’ system since outside a handful of habitats all of the ships are independent, and you unite really well to block any intrusion from the big megacorps. And you’re willing to join up with this alliance that Boilingbrook is proposing to keep your self-sufficiency.”
She seemed surprised at that. “What? That just got distributed on our Captain’s-Eyes-Only network last week! How did you.”
I smiled slightly. “You didn’t do your research on me. You must have really wanted to get out here in a hurry.”
“What! Who are…” She paused, concentrating for a bit. “Hang on…”
“Speed of light is too slow, isn’t it?” I said. “Maybe depending on your implant for everything isn’t the best way to go?”
She shot me a dirty look then glanced back at her console. We weren’t more than a dozen light seconds from the starport. She frowned for a moment, interpreting what she had just received, then turned to me in surprise.
“You had a Boilingbrook ambassador on your ship! And defended him against an assassination attempt!”
I shrugged. “Actually, I confronted the assassin without thinking. It was my security officer who actually shot him.”
She shook her head. “I didn’t. I…” She stared into space a bit more, apparently looking at more data from her implant. “Maybe this wasn’t the best idea. More people may be watching where you go than I thought.”
I glanced at my own sensor displays. “No one seems to be following us. I can’t see another ship in-system at the moment that could intercept us before we get to that asteroid. We’re fine.”
She sighed audibly. “Good. I really need this to go well.”
I nodded. “OK, fine. You know about me now. Now… how about telling me what all of this is about.”
She paused for a few seconds, then nodded. “OK… sure.” She paused. “How much do you know about our internal politics?”
“None?” I said with a shrug. “Normally I try to get more details on the systems I’m going to, but I’ve been… distracted for the past few Jumps.”
She nodded even though she had just learned about the attack at Kupakii. “OK, I guess.” She paused again. “You called us an anarchy system. You… aren’t wrong in that. But there actually is a government here.”
“The system is run by ship-owners. If you own a ship, even just a Seeker, you get full input into how things go. Everyone else? Hope you find a ship that wants you on in.”
She sighed. “I’m from Well. Do you know what that is?” I shook my head.
“Well is the only inhabited ‘planet’ in the system. It’s the third moon of Xatan, the outer gas giant. They call it ‘Well’ because it’s the bottom of a gravity well.”
She turned to look out the canopy. “Well was founded because it’s an ice moon and a good source of water for fuel. Then… someone decided gravity was good.”
“I like gravity,” I said, not sure where she was going.
“We spin the asteroid habs for gravity. Officially because it’s safer since even if we lose power, we’ll still have gravity. But…” She paused. “I kinda think a lot of people here don’t completely trust technology.”
“Really?” I said, surprised. “But… don’t you pretty much have to depend on it out here?”
She shook her head. “Or, maybe realizing how much we depend on it makes us try to do without it as much as possible. A lot of ships here never bother to use their gravitics. Most of them have removed their Jump Drives to make more space for cargo. And… they’ve kinda gotten a thing for natural gravity.”
I frowned. “I’m not following.”
There was a pause. “Yeah, I guess it’s kinda different from elsewhere. Probably. Anyway, most people here think being conceived, gestated, and born in ‘natural’ gravity produces a better child. So… everyone comes to Well to have kids.”
“So… mothers stay there for the entire time?”
She shrugged. “Some do. We have wombs of course if they don’t want to have to carry it for three-quarters of a standard. But I’m from Well. I grew up there.”
I frowned again. “So?”
She sighed. “Well has a bit of a… reputation. You see, there are some women here who… like having children. They tend to travel to Well. Some guy wants a child? They’re always there. And willing. So, the general opinion is that any woman from Well is… looking for someone to have a baby with.”
“What?”
“Yeah, we have a… reputation.”
“That must be tough.”
“Yeah.” She sighed. “I got the position of sensor operator on the All of Us, but it kinda came with an… expectation.”
I frowned. “Then why the hells are you still there?”
She looked away. “You don’t know what it is like here. Maybe you Imperials are serious when you talk about how ‘equal’ everyone is. You were equal enough that you let your Emperor get assassinated anyway.” She gave a laugh. “Here? Are you belt-born with a ship? Then you’re high class. You’re belt-born without a ship but happen to be male? You’re OK. A woman? Not so much. And born in a gravity well?” She gave a depressed sigh. “Forget it.”
I had winced as she spoke. “What is this, the Confederation? Sounds like Solomani attitude shit. That… happens here?”
She turned to me, anger in her eyes. “You have no idea. You’re a ship’s captain. You get treated like the elite anywhere you go. Maybe you should try to think about how we normal people get treated sometimes!”
I felt my face flush at that. “I haven’t always been a ‘Captain,'” I said, my voice taking on an edge I should have controlled. “And trust me, I know what it is to be on the downside as well.”
She looked at me, face tight. “That’s not…” She stopped as she saw my own expression. “Well… OK. Maybe.” She turned serious again. “But that’s what this is all about. If I can make a good score. If I can get enough to get my own ship, or at least get enough to get out of here and start over again somewhere else? That’s all I want! I have to get out of here.”
I nodded slowly. “Yeah. I get that.” I thought back to home. “More than you might think.”
She frowned. “Yeah, right.”
We were silent for several minutes. I hadn’t done as much research here as I should have, apparently. But what would I have found? No government means no central authority. And no central opposition. Anything would get drowned out in the noise of thousands of voices.
I did pull up the feeds and check the status of the ship. We had two pairs of Medium passengers already. Two looked like the typical corporate passengers; two anonymous tickets paid for by Takashina Pharmaceuticals. I wondered what they were doing in Gimisapun.
The other two I frowned at. They were booking mediums but were requesting several tons of cargo as well. And they were flagging the cargo as ‘hazardous.’ I responded that we were considering their request then routed it to Saahna to check on them.
The rest of our cargo had sold, and a few more of my offers had been accepted. I thought about adding a few more bids then decided to wait. I’d see what we found on the asteroid first.
Almost an hour passed, with us slowly drawing closer to the asteroid. Finally, I broke the silence.
“So… What do you think we’re going to find here?”
She took a moment to return from her own thoughts. Or from whatever she had been watching on her implant. “A ship. Or at least the remains of one.”
“Remains? What does that do for either of us?”
She shrugged. “Finder’s fees if it is at least somewhat intact. Salvage rights otherwise. Either one gets me off the All of Us.”
“That bad there?”
She nodded. “Yeah.”
I frowned, wincing internally. “Hey, I hope you weren’t thinking you owed me anything last night…”
She gasped at that. “What? Hells no. I wanted to spend some time with someone who didn’t think I owed them anything. That was the idea.” She smiled tightly. “I’d have picked someone with a bit more stamina if I had known.”
“Hey!”
She laughed. “Don’t worry. I can deal with a short duration signal if the frequency is high enough.”
I flushed brightly. I was trying to think of a response when my console beeped. I turned and tapped it.
“We’re getting a distress signal.”
She had turned back to her own console as well. “Yeah, I see it.” She paused. “It’s coming from the asteroid!”
I nodded. “Yeah. Apparently, you were right. It is a ship.”
“Yes!” I saw her clench her hands over her head; an indication of excitement usually used by people who have spent a lot of time in a suit. “I knew there was something there!”
“Well then,” I said, bringing up the sensor suite. “Let’s see what we have.”
I opened the comms circuit. There was a signal. Faint, but doing nothing but repeating a “GK” over and over. I frowned.
Nothing but an automated distress signal. No details. Not even a transponder.
She had been looking at the sensor console. “I’ve got it located. A little bit off from the center of rotation.” She looked a bit more. The asteroid is about 300 meters long and around 150 across. Rotating on its short axis, about once every two or three minutes. That’d still be enough to throw you off if you were at the ends. They were lucky to land where they were.”
“Know what it is yet?”
“Small, that’s all I can tell. 100 dtons, or less. But there’s a lanthanum trace, so it has, or had a Jump Drive.”
“X-Boat?” I was curious and was looking at the sensor display myself, but she obviously was better at interpreting them than I was. I could confirm it was an asteroid and… that was about it.
“It could be?” I heard the disappointment in her voice. “I was hoping for… something.”
“Well, we’ll see when we get there.” I made a few minor adjustments to our course. “We should come up near the rotation axis; as near as I can without getting clipped by the ‘roid.”
“Good.” She still sounded subdued.
There was another period of silence as we drew closer. Then she spoke again. “It’s a Fast Courier.”
“Scout?” I asked, switching back to my own display.
She shook her head. “Not a full Scout/Courier, no. One of those 50 dton jobs. ”
“Don’t see those much.”
“Yeah. Wonder what it was doing out here?”
“Hopefully we’ll find out.” I adjusted course again as we drew near the asteroid. I passed us “over” it, rotated our own ship so that it loomed “above” us, and then it came into view.
It was definitely a courier. It had that traditional diamond wedge shape that the Scouts were so fond of, but the oversized canopy indicated its small size. I looked closer.
“They took a hit,” I said, pointing. There was a visible rupture in the hull about two-thirds of the way back. “Definitely got their fuel tank. Maybe Engineering too.”
She was focused on her console instead of the view. “Yeah, no active power source. Maybe that’s why the signal is so weak?”
I shook my head. “No, it’s lost its antenna as well. Surprising we’re getting a signal at all.”
“Asteroid impact?” she said, looking up at the wreck. She frowned. “No… I see carbon debris.”
I nodded. “Yeah. Explosion. Either something inside exploded, or they took a missile hit.”
“One way find out,” she said.
—
We went out through the cargo bay; it was faster than cycling through the airlock one after the other. Kona simply jumped across the roughly 20-meter gap to the asteroid while I carefully clipped a line before following more carefully.
“You need to spend more time on rocks,” she said, waving her arms in amusement. I just grunted and started making my way towards the breach in the Courier’s hull.
The breach led to engineering. I looked around. “Definitely a missile hit,” I said, pointing. “And a direct hit on the Jump Drive.” There was almost nothing recognizable left there. The entire compartment was scorched and peppered with blast debris, but the Jump Drive had obviously taken the brunt of the blast.
“And it ruptured the fuel feed there.” Again, I pointed.
She sighed audibly. “Yeah. Thank you, Captain Obvious. I have been on a ship before. Anything else?”
I winced. “Sorry.”
She gave an exaggerated shrug. “Let’s check the rest of the ship.”
The iris forward was, of course, dead. I found the manual crank and opened it, but the passage ahead was blocked by cargo. I sighed.
“Guess we’ll have to do this the hard way.”
We went back outside and to the main airlock. It too was unresponsive. I popped the emergency release, pulled out the handle and cranked it open. Then repeated the process twice inside to again close the outer lock and open the inner one.
Inside we didn’t find much. There were only a tiny cabin and the bridge, neither as big as the one on our boat even. The suit locker was empty.
I dropped into the lone pilot’s seat and tried to pull up anything, but there was no power here either. “This thing is completely dead.”
Kona was looking in the supply locker. “The suit and emergency kit are gone. Whoever was here went somewhere.”
“Rescued?”
“Then why leave the cargo.”
“Not worth it?” I got up and squeezed past her. There was another cargo access in the back of the cabin; couriers were designed for utility, not comfort. I cranked open the iris and took a closer look at the crates.
“Wait… these are pharmaceuticals!”
“Really!” She came over, looked at the readout, and whistled. “That’s… a haul. No way they would have left these behind.” She slapped me on the shoulder. “I told you this would be worth it!”
I turned around to look at her. “You were right! But… How did you know?”
She raised her arms in a shrug. “I didn’t. I guess I got lucky.”
I nodded my head invisibly. “Yeah, you did. These things carry around 10 tons of cargo. If this stuff is still good, that’s a couple of million credits between us.”
“Oh…” she said. I heard an unexpected paused. “All of the cargo? That’s yours?”
“What?” I extended my hands in a gesture of surprise. “All? What are you…”
“This is mine,” she said, slapping a hand on the bulkhead. “I’m claiming salvage rights.”
“What?”
She laughed. “The Jump Drive is gone. So what? I’ll rip out what’s left, expand the cargo, add a mining laser, and it’ll be golden.” She paused. “Wonder what I should call it?”
I frowned inside my helmet. “A ship, even a courier, is worth a lot more than a few million credits.”
“Yeah?” she said, irritation in her voice. “And it needs a lot of work. It’ll have to have some repairs done way out here or be towed in. Then it will need refitting. That’s a lot of cost upfront. I’ll have to take some investors.” She gave a mock sigh. “I wish I could just take some free cargo and sell it.”
I sighed. “Yeah, got it.” I thought. “OK, I guess we need to get a salvage report back to Gimisapun. We’ll head back. Then we can see about dragging a power cable over to get this thing running long enough to open the cargo bay doors and transfer what is here across.”
She waved her arms in agreement. “Sounds good!” She immediately headed for the airlock.
A few minutes later, we were back on the boat. I usually would have tethered us to the other ship and run a cable over, but with the rotation of the asteroid that was impossible without spending a lot more time stabilizing it’s spin than I wanted to deal with. Instead, I just grabbed an emergency fusion pack from the engine compartment and jumped back.
Back inside the courier, I went into the shattered engine room and found the connections. A few minutes later, the lights in the ship came up and I felt a vibration through the hull as systems came back on-line. It would only last a few hours and the ship still wasn’t going anywhere, but at least it was alive.
Floating out of the breach again, I saw Kona floating nearby and doing something with a device she had taken from our ship.
“What’s up?”
“Setting up the beacon!” she said triumphantly. I saw her close a panel then look at it, activating it with her implant. A few seconds later, it lit up, and I saw a new signal appear on my comm.’
“That’s it!” she said, jetting towards the asteroid and landing beside me with a light bump. “Let’s get inside and check this thing out.”
Now that the ship had power, we cycled through the airlock and into the tiny cabin. Life support was trying to repressurize the interior, but it was still freezing inside. We stayed in our suits. I doubted there was enough room to remove our suits with both of us in there anyway.
Kona dropped into the pilot’s seat and started bringing up displays. “I’m gonna have to get this thing set up for implant access first thing. It obviously isn’t.”
“So, how’s it look?”
“Dunno for sure. Jump Drive is showing ‘off-line.'” She laughed. “No kidding. It’s also showing no fuel, obviously.” She paused. “Comm systems are out; apparently there’s more damage there than just the antenna. Everything else looks good.” She kept typing. “From the logs it’s… wow, it’s been out here for about 20 years.”
I frowned. “Sounds like about the time of the war at Venad. Imperial?”
She waved her arms in a negative gesture. “Nope. Looks to be Solomani.”
“Really!”
“Yep. It looks like they were running aid to Venad. At least, that’s the navigation data I’m seeing here.”
I grunted. “Yeah, we knew the Sols were involved in that, though they never acknowledged it.”
“You’ve got a smoking gun here then.”
I waved my arms in a shrug. “Do with that what you want then. I’m trying to avoid Imperial politics as much as I can.”
She laughed. “Yeah, I guess I get that.” She turned back to the console and started going through displays.
“Dammit, I can’t get a signal out,” she said. “Do you think you can go over to our ship and set up a relay? I need to get confirmation of my salvage here.”
“Me?”
She half-turned to face me. “I’m not leaving this seat until I know this is my ship.” She paused. “I think I’ll name it Flatland since I’m not in a well anymore. What do you think?”
I waved a shrug. “Sounds good. Can you open the cargo bay door? I may as well start moving these crates over while you’re waiting.”
“Sure thing.” She tapped on the console as I cycled through the airlock again.
Back on our boat, I set up the relay and grabbed a set of maneuvering units. We don’t use those much, but you attach a set of them to a cargo crate, and it lets you maneuver them in zero-g with a remote. We had a couple of sets on the Grayswandir, but this boat only had one. Fortunately. I hadn’t been looking forward to trying to drag those crates back to the boat even with Kona’s help, much less on my own.
I was maneuvering the fourth or fifth crate into place when something occurred to me. Where was the pilot? They weren’t on the ship; there was no place else they could be, and the vacc suit and emergency kit were missing. If someone had rescued them, why hadn’t they salvaged the wreck themselves? Or, at least taken the cargo.
On my next trip, instead of immediately grabbing another crate, I drifted around the area near the wreck and soon found a trail in the dust. With nothing to disturb it, the footprints were as clear as they had been 20 years ago when they were formed. I followed the trail.
It led a few dozen meters up the asteroid; just far enough that it wasn’t visible from the wreck but still far enough up that the spin caused some disturbing gravitational effects. I focused on what I had found and soon was next to it.
It was a figure in a vacc suit. Male, flash-frozen in the vacuum. Their helmet sat in their lap, still in their grasp.
I paused a moment in sympathy. They were trapped, they knew it, and they knew rescue wasn’t coming. They could stay on the ship until their emergency life support failed, or… they could take a quicker way out. I felt sorry for them.
After a moment I started searching the body. The nametag on the suit read ‘Harker.’ I didn’t find an ident, comp, or anything else on them, but I didn’t try to pull them out of their suit either. I didn’t want to disturb the body any further.
I was about to head back towards the wreck when I noticed something next to the body; a hammer. I frowned. Why had they carried that out here with them?
I started following the trail back to the wreck. About halfway back, I saw what I was looking for; a clearly broken section of rock. Again, with no atmosphere, it would remain evident for centuries. Someone hadn’t thought of that.
I searched the area and a few seconds later saw what I was looking for. A crevice between two moderately-sized boulders with freshly broken rock shoved into it. I pulled the rocks away and found something.
It was a journal; the physical, written kind that some people preferred for private notes. It looked like leather, but it was sealed in a clear, synthetic pouch. I pulled it free.
I thought about opening it but instead shoved it into one of my suit pockets. I picked up the rocks I had freed and threw them into the sky. With the negligible gravity of this asteroid, they would quickly leave the area. I threw the hammer after them. Then I pinged Kona.
“Found the pilot,” I told her.
“Really?” she asked, sounding more annoyed than concerned.
“About 60 meters from the wreck, leaning against a rock. Took their helmet off. Looks like they weren’t expecting a rescue.”
I heard what could only be described as a sigh of relief. “OK, yeah. Thanks. Got the cargo off yet?”
“Not yet,” I said. I paused. “I saw the body on my last jump back and went to check it out. Want me to do anything with it?”
There was a long pause. “I… guess we should take it back with us?”
I was unexpectedly reluctant to move him. “He chose to end his life here,” I said. “I think… we should respect his wishes.” I paused. “We don’t want to find out he left instructions on who to give his ship to anyway.”
“Yeah! Right! Respect his wishes!” Kona was speaking a bit too fast. “Yeah, that… sounds like a good idea.”
“We’ll report it when we get back to Gimisapun?”
“Um… yeah. Or… maybe we should, you know, leave him alone?”
I invisibly shook my head. “When a salvage crew gets here to help you recover the ship there’s a good chance they will find him. I don’t think claiming we didn’t will hold up very well.”
She sighed. “Yeah, I see your point. Well, go ahead and finish moving the cargo. I’m still waiting to hear from someone on the Captain’s Guild.”
“You submitted your claim, right?”
“Yeah, and I immediately got a comm from Tayna telling me I was no longer part of her crew.” She laughed. “That was the idea, Vargr bitch!”
I winced. “OK, yeah. I’ll… finish moving the cargo.”
It was several hours later before I talked to her again. I had finished moving the cargo, returned to the boat, gotten out of my vacc suit and taken a shower, and was sitting in the pilot’s seat when she cycled through the airlock.
“Gods, those people are frustrating!” she said as soon as she had removed her helmet.
“But you’re good?” I asked.
She nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah, I’m good. They accepted my claim, and they’ve even accepted the new name. It’s mine now.” She suddenly stepped forward and gave me an intense kiss. “Wanna celebrate?”
“Now?”
She laughed. “You get us on course for Gimisapun. I’ll go clean up. As soon as you’re done? I’ll be waiting?” She gave me a wicked smile.
I smiled back. “Don’t take too long.”