108-1117 – Gashuumi – Tlianke/Hinterworlds

23 Erbe 1117: Gashuumi – Tlianke/Hinterworlds (1206 B527769-7 O:1104 923 Na M4 V M9 D)

Saahna wanted to spend extra time in the fresher this morning, so I went downstairs without her to find something to eat. The hotel restaurant was only about half-full, and most patrons were obvious locals. I ordered a sausage flip and a coffee bulb.

The coffee was way too hot, and the flip had way too much salt in it. I would have complained if it wasn’t obviously fabricated–we weren’t in that nice of a place–so there wouldn’t have been any point. Instead, I just slowly ate it while looking around at a sea of Tlianke jumpsuits.

It was actually somewhat depressing. I was a Traveller because I liked visiting new places. We had been in Tlianke space for what seemed like months. And none of the systems we had seen had anything that really stood out.

More time to focus on trading I said to myself.

I pulled up my comp and started going through our deals. We had offers on several of our lots, and I quickly let most of them go. I held off on the fructose syrup because I was sure it would sell for a bit more if I held out for a while longer. A few brokers are always looking for that trader who is desperate.

I wasn’t.

I announced Mupikaa as our next destination and opened us up for passengers. I was curious about how much information about our arrival had been made public. And I wondered if anyone would want to travel on an attacked ship. Then I thought about what Tlianke would allow on their local net about their “Preferred Trade Partners.” Probably not much.

I was browsing a list of locally available goods and thinking about what might sell well on Mupikaa when Saahna arrived and sat down opposite me. She gestured at my half-eaten and now cold sausage flip.

“Not hungry?”

“Yeah, but I want something besides salt.”

She smiled slightly. “Well, you need to eat. From last night, you need to work on your stamina.”

“Hey!”

She laughed, then gestured at my comp. “How are we doing?”

“Great. We’ve sold everything except that syrup, and I’ve announced that we’re going to Mupikaa next. I’m looking through what’s available to see what we can pick up for there.”

“Good, good. Glad to see you back at it again.”

“You know me.”

“Yeah. Too well.” She paused as the waitress came over and ordered a selection of fruits and a coffee. I handed back my sausage flip and asked for a breakfast scramble. When the waitress left, she looked at me again.

“So… what are we doing this week?”

I shrugged. “Same as every on-planet week. I make our deals while the rest of you have fun.”

“You don’t get to have fun?”

“I get to do that on board while the rest of you work.”

She frowned. “And what if I want to spend time with you?”

“Trust me. This stuff is boring.”

She laughed and shook her head. “And I always thought you were having the time of your life on-planet.

I shook my head. “Yeah. This takes way more time than you would think.”

The waitress returned, and we spent a bit of time getting our orders and starting to eat. The scramble was almost as salty as the flip, but I at least wasn’t gagging after every bite. I waved for another coffee then turned back to her.

“So… what are you up to this week?”

“I just told you. Hanging out with you.”

“And I just told you that my on-planet weeks are pretty boring. If you want to go off somewhere and have fun, then… go off and have fun!”

“So… you don’t want to be with me?”

“Of course I do! Hells, haven’t I said that enough? You said yourself; you don’t want to be attached to me!”

“Because I was afraid of getting too close to you.” She looked away. “And you were always fine with that.”

It was my turn to hesitate as I took a deep breath. What is going on? “I thought that was what you wanted!”

“I… was saying what you wanted. And what I thought you wanted.”

“What?”

“You wanted a contract. And I didn’t. Yeah, fine. Because I had gotten too close to someone before, and I didn’t want to go through the pain of losing someone again. And then I met you. And I fell in love with you. But I didn’t want to be. And so I kept… finding people to be with. And when I asked you to pick a planet and get a contract, you wouldn’t. And then you almost died. So I… don’t know.”

I could tell that she was upset about something and that she was sharing herself with me. I was almost afraid about how much she was opening herself to me.

She hesitated. “I’m still willing to sign a contract.”

I replied without thinking. “I can’t stay on one planet. You said that but…” I shrugged and gestured around. “Could either of us survive that way?”

There was a long pause.

“We’re Travellers,” she said, finally. “I… guess I have to accept that. No! Don’t take that wrong. What we want, our lifestyle… we’ll always be in danger. I thought I wanted someone who would always be safe, but a ‘safe’ life isn’t what I want. I… I need to be with someone like me. And… you’re like me.”

I didn’t hesitate. “You know you’ve always been the only one I wanted to be with.”

“But you weren’t always there! You were always off with Varan! Or you had found someone else! Like, your down-girl on Gimisapun!”

“Because you were off doing something on your own!” I hesitated. “And, every time I compared whoever I was with to you? You always won.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

There was a long pause. I had no idea what was going on.

She finally broke the silence. “Do you really want me?”

“Yes!”

“Then let’s go get a Contract.”

“What? I thought…”

She interrupted. “Let’s go and get a contract. A permanent one. Now.”

“What?” I had lost the thread of the conversation. What was happening?

She had pulled out her comp and was furiously typing. “There’s an Officiant not too far from here. We can go there now.” She typed a bit more, then stood up. “I just registered us. Let’s go!”

“Wait… why do you…”

“Let’s go!”

I looked around helplessly. “I haven’t paid.”

She groaned, gestured at the waitress, then waved her ident. “It’s our hotel; they’ll just add it to our room. Let’s go!”

—-

I wasn’t sure what was happening, but it felt like what I had wanted for a long time. I really didn’t have time to think! I followed her to the air-raft, then to a downtown government facility. We met with the Officiant, who only seemed surprised when she said we wanted a permanent contract.

“That… might be for a long time,” he said, looking at me. “Are you sure that is what you want?”

I didn’t hesitate and just looked at Saahna. “I’ve never wanted anything more.”

He shrugged. “Well, let’s proceed then.”

I barely remember the next few minutes. I had wanted to be committed to Saahna for so long that the fact that it was happening suddenly overrode anything else I might have thought of. In front of an Officiant, we pledged ourselves to each other for all of our existence. The ceremony was brief, and he flicked a copy of the contract to us when it was done.

“I will file a copy of this on the official records, and it will be distributed on the X-Boat network. Including your Imperial one.” He glanced at me when he said that. “Is this what you want?”

“Yes!” I said as Saahna said, “File it.”

He raised an eyebrow but nodded. “Then I will file your contract right away. I truly wish you happiness for the rest of your lives.” He quickly turned and left.

Saahna almost as quickly grabbed my arm. “Well, let’s go make this official then.”

We wound up at an artificer that was conveniently located nearby. She chose a pair of matching arm cuffs as our contract display and had them engraved with each other’s names. She then presented the one with her name to me.

“You have what you wanted. Don’t let me down.”

I took it from her, shoved up my sleeve, then put it around my upper arm. “I will never let you down.”

“And I won’t either.” She put her cuff in place, grabbed me, and kissed me passionately. “Let’s go back to our room. We need to celebrate.”

—-

Arm-in-arm, we headed back to the air-raft. We were maybe a bit too interested in each other because we were both surprised when, as we approached the air-raft, someone stepped out from behind it.

“Captain Kodai?” He was wearing a full breather mask that obscured his face, and his voice was modulated and distorted.

We both froze. Saahna glanced around, then squeezed the arm she was still holding and gestured with her head. Two other people wearing similar breathers had stepped out from behind other vehicles and were walking towards us.

I did my best to keep myself under control.

“You have me at a disadvantage, Mr….”

“You can call me Elijah,” he said. “Elijah Green. I understand you were looking for someone with K’kree bedding material available for sale?”

I cursed under my breath, then sighed. “Yeah, I did. I… really didn’t expect someone to respond.”

He looked at me. “It must have been important if you were willing to risk an open channel.”

“I didn’t have any other channel!” I said, angrier than I should have been. We had seen three. I knew there had to be more.

“Yeah, and given how little you know about operational security, I can see why. Oh, ‘Elijah Green’ has been retired as an identifier. Someone over on Kupakii blabbed it on an open channel while under surveillance, so we had to change it. Oh wait, that was you too, wasn’t it.” He shook his head. “We would have ignored you, but you’ve somehow gotten yourself flagged as an aleph-level asset, so we have to respond. So, why did you contact us!”

Aleph-level asset? What the hells? I pushed the thought aside to focus on the moment. “I had an idea, then realized it was a bad one. I figured that getting into contact with anyone was a long shot anyway, so I didn’t think to say otherwise. So… sorry?” I shrugged.

He shook his head. “We didn’t go through what we had to do to arrange this meeting for us to just walk away. So, just tell us what you want. We’ll decide if it was worth it or not.”

I sighed again. “OK, fine. You obviously know who we are, so you should know that we had some problems on our way here.”

“Yeah, you had a couple of passengers try to kill you.”

“I’ve had a passenger try to kill me, but not on this most-recent Jump. I don’t think that was the case this time. The Stetons are being blamed for the attack, but I don’t think they were behind it.”

“Really? Two of your own passengers, who are being branded as Solomani agents, smuggle a device onto your ship that would kill everyone except them, and you somehow don’t think they were responsible?”

“No. I don’t. They were as shocked as we were about what happened. Look, I can read people. That’s my skill. That’s why I’m as good at running a Free Trader as I am. And even if one of them is a better liar than I am, I can’t believe both are. They didn’t know.

Besides, if I had done what they were asking me to do back on Girar, then they wouldn’t even have been on the Grayswandir in the first place! Yes, someone planted a bioweapon on my ship and tried to kill us. But it wasn’t them. And it wasn’t TliSec, because they didn’t want the Stetons to board us either.

I had been getting louder as I spoke, and I abruptly cut off. The person facing me continued staring for a few seconds, then gave a single nod.

“I… saw the reports from Girar. You got on the wrong side of the people in charge on Tlianke, but they were trying to inconvenience you, not kill you. They care too much about their Preferred Trade Partners. And, to be fair, there is no reason for the Stetons to try to capture a Free Trader. They might have realized that they were completely compromised, and not just by the locals, and were desperately trying to get away, but… no offense, but a Free Trader can only go so far. If the Sols are active in this subsector, then there is no way they would be able to outrun them. So they didn’t know.”

He paused.

“OK, you have questions. So do we. Why did you try to get in contact?”

“I don’t think they knew. They’re innocent. And it happened on my ship. I… can’t just sit around and accept that they will be executed for something they had no involvement with.”

There was a long pause as he looked from me to his companions. Then he turned back.

“I… understand your feelings, Captain. I would feel responsible in your position too. But… why do you think we should get involved.”

I closed my eyes. Why should they?

“Because they know… something,” I said, finally. “Maybe they are SolSec agents, in which case they probably have all kinds of intel. And if they really are innocent, they learned something important enough to make the Sols try to kill them. Either way, they know something!”

There was a long silence. I saw him look to his companions again, and I took the time to glance at Saahna. She nodded quickly and squeezed my arm.

He finally looked back and nodded. “OK. That… makes sense. I guess I see what the people in charge see in you; you see the situation and want to do the right thing.”

He glanced at the others again, then whipped up his arm and tapped quickly on a wrist-comp.

“Can you go somewhere? We need to talk.”

I grimaced and glanced at Saahna, who gave a knowing look but nodded.

“Sure. Where do we need to go?”

“Do you need to bring anyone else with you?”

I hesitated but shook my head. “I’ll have to tell my crew what is going on, but I need to know what that is first. We can convince them later.”

He nodded quickly, then tapped something and flicked it to me. I felt my comp ping.

“Head there. It’s safe. We’ll meet you there. Tell them to ask for the Sweetwater Party if you decide to bring anyone else. I’ve got an idea, but we’ll probably need your help. So… it’s up to you.”

“I’ll always hear the plan.”

“Great. See you in a few.” He nodded to Saahna and me, turned away, and walked back towards the building, his companions following. I looked at Saahna.

She let out a long sigh. “That went way better than it could have. They’re good; I was Recon and didn’t see them.”

“Lucky I have my personal charm.”

She slapped my arm. “Yeah. Let’s get out of here.”

—-

I lifted us up and set a course towards the starport at a moderate rate of speed. It would give us time to talk before I had to make a decision.

Course set, I turned to face Saahna. “So… meet with them, or just be glad we got away?”

“Do you think they will just let us walk away?”

“Would they have let us go off on our own if they didn’t?”

“And if they planted a bomb on the air-raft?”

I tensed slightly but shook my head. “No, I didn’t get that from them. They’re annoyed but doing what they think they need to do. Even if they aren’t sure how that involves us. They’re on our side. Reluctantly, but on our side.”

She nodded. “Yeah. I could tell that they were good. They could have done it if they wanted to get rid of us.”

“OK then.” I pulled out my comp and looked at their leader’s message. It was the address of The Erudite Scholar, an upscale bar in Kelpergon, a decent-sized city about 250 klicks away. I reprogrammed the air-raft to head there, then turned to Saahna.

“Who do we need to bring with us?”

“Varan,” she said without hesitation. “Everyone else will go along with whatever you decide. But he gets agitated when you don’t include him.” She paused. “He really admires you, you know.”

I sighed. “Varan is probably the oldest friend I have. We’ve been together since… before I even met you. We used to do everything together. Then… things changed.”

“He’s… a lot less confident than you might think. He really depended on you. And you becoming less available really hurt him.”

“Yeah. I kinda miss hanging out with all of you.”

“You don’t have to, you know. And you definitely can’t avoid hanging out with me anymore.” She held up her arm and wobbled her cuff back and forth.

“Yeah, got it,” I said, pulling out my comm. “I’ll ping him.”

“And Doctor Korvusar,” she added. “She’ll decline, but I suspect most of what we’ve gotten involved with is because of her, so she needs to know.”

“Got it.” I pinged her as well. That done, I turned back to her.

“So… Kelpergon is about 40 minutes away.”

“And?”

“Well, we did just get contracted.”

“… And?”

“Well, you know… we could…”

“The back of an air-raft? Really?”

“It’s not like we haven’t done that before.”

“Yeah. I was younger then.”

I leaned over. “Well, I’m younger now.”

She sighed. “I’m going to regret that, aren’t I?”

“Well, we…”

I was interrupted by a ping from my comm, the tone indicating it was from one of the crew. It was my turn to sigh as I opened it.

“What?”

“Hey, you pinged me!” It was Varan. “How important is this?”

“You’re the one who is always complaining when I make decisions without involving you. So, I thought I’d invite you along this time.”

“Decisions? What the hells are you doing now?”

“Trying to help the Stetons. You in, or do you just want to go along with what I decide?”

There was a pause. “This… isn’t a good time. Can you…”

I cut him off. “This is a terrible time for me too. But things happen. Do you want to be involved? Meet us. If you don’t? That’s fine too. Just don’t complain later.”

“This is not the best time. I’m… kinda busy.”

“Then enjoy yourself. I’ll fill you in later.” I clicked off.

Saahna was looking at me. “He’ll resent that.”

“He may be my friend, but he’s also a crew member. And I’m the Captain. I’m… trying to remember that.”

She nodded. “Probably for the best.”

We were silent for a few moments as I flicked through my comm. My message from earlier had been received, but Dr. Korvusar hadn’t responded. Not that I had expected her to. No one else seemed to need anything. There was a freight offer, but I hadn’t filled our speculative cargo space yet. I filed it for possible use later.

When I snapped the comm shut, Saahna spoke up. “Why are we doing this anyway? I thought we had all agreed that there was nothing we could do.”

“If someone has an idea, I want to hear it.”

“And what if these people we’re supposed to meet are just looking for a more convenient place to kill us?”

“They aren’t. And if they have an idea, I want to hear it.”

“Yeah, OK.” She glanced over her shoulder. “And the back seat of this thing isn’t that cramped, though the cargo area might have more space.”

“But no padding.”

“Yeah, good thought.”

—-

I was barely back in the pilot’s seat when the two-minute warning pinged. I took over from the autopilot, guided us to a parking deck, and then set us down. It was a parking garage, primarily designed for the internal-combustion ground vehicles they used here, but the top level had designated grav vehicle slots.

“Um… are you armed?” I asked, turning to Saahna.

She shook her head. “I… wasn’t planning on anything dangerous.”

“Neither was I.”

“So… we just go in unarmed?”

“What else can we do?”

“Ignore them and just go back to our hotel?”

“I want to hear what they have to say.”

“And if it sounds unworkable?”

“Then we’ll leave! Look, I can read people, remember? They don’t want to hurt us. They’re annoyed because we brought attention to them, but they aren’t mad at us. We’ll be fine.”

She sighed but nodded. “OK, I trust your instinct there. So… what do we do?”

“Just… go meet them?” I gestured through the windscreen. “Does this look like a place where they would try to kill someone?” The Erudite Scholar was a surprisingly large place, with sky beacons showing its location. “I would have expected them to pick a low-key, out-of-the-way place. Not something this obvious.”

“Hiding in plain sight?”

“I guess.” I pulled out my mask and put it on. “Well, let’s go.”

She already had hers on. “Yeah, let’s see what they have to say.

—-

The Erudite Scholar was one of those dim, barely lit, all-about-the-ambiance places. I had to stop for a few seconds after we entered while my eyes adjusted before I could see anything. It was a large lobby, with multiple exits leading away and several individuals and groups standing around. The walls were lined with bookshelves, and the environmental music was some kind of low-key tapping on a piano. They had some gibberish “conversation” sounds playing as well. And there was a cloying flower smell that I instantly hated.

I had barely gotten my mask off before one of the people standing around walked towards us, waving at the greeter as she did. “Glad you could make it, Captain Kodai.”

It took me a moment to recognize her, without her breather mask, as one of the people who had intercepted us earlier, but she had been back at Embala. I shrugged. “Hey, I’ll see this through at least. And the rest of the crew knows where we are, for what it’s worth.”

She rolled her eyes but gestured towards one of the doors. “This way.”

The Erudite Scholar was a larger place than I would have thought, but it wasn’t a big, open space. It was a maze of hallways connecting who-know-how-many small rooms, each of which only held one or two tables. I felt sorry for any sophont waitstaff working here. I was starting to wonder if I could find my way back out again on my own when our guide pushed aside a curtain labeled “Private” and gestured us inside.

Two people were sitting at the table–one of whom seemed to be a Darrian. They were really far from home. The other laughed and held out a hand towards him.

“Pay me!”

The Darrian rolled his head, pulled out his ident, and tapped for a few seconds before flicking something to him. The other man turned to me and laughed again. “He didn’t think the two of you would show up.”

I shrugged. “I never promised anything, but I’ll hear what you have to say.” I recognized them as the other two who had been at the impromptu rendezvous, and the now-happy gentleman was the one I had spoken to. There were six seats around the table, and I walked around to drop into the seat next to the Darrian. Saahna followed, and our escort sat beside our contact, leaving an empty chair.

“Are we expecting someone?” I gestured to the empty seat.

“We assumed you would bring someone with you.”

“I invited people. I can’t force them to show up. You may have to deal with us.”

The three glanced at each other, then the person apparently in charge spoke. “You didn’t even bring your security officer?”

I was a bit surprised at that but pointed at Saahna. “She’s here.”

“Oh? Well, I guess we can…”

“Just tell me what this is all about…” I said, leaning back. They may be good at stealth, but they don’t know people. Who were they?

“Right to business then?”

“Unless you have a beer. Otherwise, let’s hear what you have to say? The two of us have some private celebrating to do.”

“Look, you were the one who contacted us!” said the woman who had escorted us in. “Stop acting like it’s us wasting your time!”

“And you could have told us to get lost back at Embala but instead decided to drag us up here anyway. And now we’re all here, which means we all need something from each other. So, let’s quit playing these shroud-and-vibroblade games and just hear what all this is about.”

“Again, you called us. So what this about?”

“No beer then?”

She groaned, but the Darrian rolled his eyes and stood up. “I’ll catch up. The usual for you two?”

“Thanks, Drasesn,” said the other man as he ducked through the curtain. He then turned back to us.

“I’m Pelter, and this is Xela. And she’s right. Why don’t you start by telling us what is going on and why you thought we might be able to help.”

“As I said back in Embala, I don’t think the Stetons were behind what happened on our ship and am trying to figure out a way to save them.”

“OK, let’s start there. What did happen on your ship?” he interrupted.

I frowned. “I’m sure you’ve heard by now.”

“I’ve heard the official story, not what happened. So start at the beginning. The very beginning.”

I thought for a moment. “This probably started on Tlianke. If not all the way back on Kupakii. It may take a while.”

“We’ve got the time.”

I shrugged and started recounting what had happened since we entered Tlianke space, from our initial redirect to the Highport on Tlianke, our meeting with Tahma and Kol’toti and the cargo deal, how we disposed of the cargo on Girar, and our encounters with security there, the problems we had leaving Girar, the attack while in Jumpspace, and our contacts with security here after I woke up.

It did take a while. There were pauses when they asked for more details, especially about what happened at Samone’s with Kanar, Darrin, and Samone herself. We wound up stopping at one point while Drasesn got food for everyone. Saahna filled in a few gaps from when I was unconscious and even had a question or two of her own.

When I finally got to the present, there was a pause while our new acquaintances looked at each other.

“That’s… quite the story, Captain,” said Pelter. “Kanar passed through and left his intel involving you from Tlianke and Girar with us, and we’re glad to have it confirmed. Your later info of what happened at Samone’s is concerning. Unfortunately, he probably won’t pass through here before returning to Girar; he typically makes a loop through the subsector. But we’ll note it in case he does come here first.

“Outside of that, I have to agree with you. Nothing you have told us sounds like the Stetons or anyone behind them were attempting to harm you. Hells, the entire plan seemed to be to keep them off of your ship! And I agree that they probably weren’t planning on killing themselves.” He frowned. “But… I’m not sure how we can help you there. You’re safe and on your way. They got caught up in something that didn’t involve them, but… is that really our problem?”

I grimaced. “They were passengers on my ship, and what happened affected them. So yes, that makes it my problem. If you can help, then fine. If not…” I trailed off and shrugged in resignation. “Then I’m out of ideas.”

“OK, let’s think further ahead then.” Xela was rubbing her forehead. “Let’s assume what you have told us is true.” She held up a hand before I could react. “And we do–everything that we have information on matches what you have told us. But again, why involve us?”

“Because they’re either known Solmani Agents, or they have learned something that the Solomani really don’t want becoming known. All of you are supporters of the ‘Hinterworlds Alliance,’ Right? I figured that any intel on the Sols was probably worth something to you. No matter what their actual status is, they know something!”

“And if we decide there is nothing we can do?”

I shrugged. “I passed on what information I had. That’s all that I can do.”

She thought. “Do you have any enemies? Anyone not associated with Tlianke?”

I laughed. “Yeah, we’ve probably made a few.”

She narrowed her eyes. “Like… who?”

I sighed and related what had happened between Boilingbrook and Kupakii. Then Saahna insisted on telling them about what had transpired on Gimisapun. When we finished, the others were looking at each other again.

“Well,” said Pelter after we had finished. “I think I can see why the higher-ups gave you Aleph priority. You’re a Hornet.”

“A what?”

“A Hornet. A stinging insect from Terra. You can be flying your air-raft along, doing everything right, and then a hornet starts flying around the cabin. You swat at it, but the disruption causes you to drift off-course and collide with another vehicle. And then you both crash into a building. All because an insect was flying around. You leave disruption behind you where ever you go. Good or bad, you embody change.”

“What? Hey, look. I’m not trying to change anything. I’m just trying to run my ship.”

“But you can’t deny that you have done things that have had far-reaching effects.”

I sighed and shook my head. “But I’m not trying to do anything other than run my ship.”

“But you are.” He smiled. “Yeah… you’re a Traveller. A capital-T ‘Traveller.’ Yeah. I get it now.”

“Get what?”

“Get why some of our contacts are considered important while others aren’t. You’re a disruptor. We need to keep tabs on those.”

“Yeah. I’m not sure I like the attention.”

“I get that.” He sighed again. “Can you send us any other intel you have?”

“Sure. But it will take me a bit to pull it together. Do you have a contact point?”

He shook his head, pulled out his comm, and flicked something over to me. “Use this. Send us whatever you have. We’ll evaluate it and… we’ll be in touch.”

“Great.” I looked around. “So… anything else? We did just get contracted, after all.”

—-

We spent another few minutes working out the details on how to contact each other. They promised to contact us in a day or two when they either had a plan or decided to abandon the idea. They asked me to hold around four passenger slots open in case they did come up with a plan and needed to get multiple someones out system in a hurry. It would cut down on our passenger revenue, but… that was a minor part of our income.

Soon afterward, we left as our new colleagues huddled together and started making plans they didn’t want us involved in. Saahna gripped my arm as we departed.

“Let’s get out of here and back to our hotel.”

“Shouldn’t we let everyone else know what we signed them up for?”

“Later. We’ve got a contract to celebrate.”