26 Erbe 1117: Gashuumi – Tlianke/Hinterworlds (1206 B527769-7 O:1104 923 Na M4 V M9 D)
Saahna had planned a busy few days for us. When I woke, she was already awake and immediately told me we had something planned in a few hours and that I needed to take care of any business in the next hour or so.
I pulled out my comp and started looking at what had happened. We had a few more accepted cargo offers, and I directed them to deliver to our pad. We had yet another couple asking for passage to Mupakii, which meant that I had to decide how to allocate our life support.
We could reconfigure our passenger deck as desired. We had a life-support capacity for 12 passengers, but Captain Anna had always insisted on giving High Passengers double space, and I had been trying to follow her guidance. I had learned everything I knew about running a Free Trader from her, so I felt I should follow her lead.
Even though I knew she had left a lot of Credits on the table. I had always wondered why she held back.
Then I thought about the reputation we were gaining. Was that a bad thing? Captain Anna was apparently trying to avoid making a name for herself and us. But why?
I pushed that thought aside to focus on the present. As a High Passenger, Doctor Korvusar took two slots. And I was holding four for the “assets” I had been asked to set aside. That left six slots.
The request I had received a few days ago was for a family of six. I almost took it, then decided that this might be a difficult enough Jump without having to deal with children everywhere.
Instead, I took the new couple and that corporate type from the other day. Depending on how many slots we would need for the “assets,” that might fill us up for passengers.
I was still waiting on a few more responses on my cargo offers, but I could wait a day or two. We could always carry freight to fill the space.
Maybe Saahna was right. Perhaps I didn’t need to spend all my time checking our status.
I almost started to relax.
—-
Saahna had scheduled us for a diving tour today. I was immediately out of my element. Of course, we had oceans back on Keystone; there aren’t a lot of agricultural planets without a high hydrographic rating, but I had never really spent that much time around them. She had received dive training in the Marines, but it was new to me.
I knew how to swim, of course. It isn’t like I had never been to an ocean. But I hadn’t sought it out either.
We went out on a boat powered by an internal combustion engine. That surprised me at first, but after a few seconds, I realized what was happening.
Gashuumi was only Tech 7. So internal combustion was about the most they could reliably take care of.
Yes, they know how fusion power works. Low-tech doesn’t mean ignorant. They have full access to the knowledge of the rest of the Galaxy. But they can’t locally manufacture the tools they would need to manufacture the tools that they would need to maintain a fusion plant.
And yes, there are fusion plants on Gashuumi. They had several, mainly near the Starport. It isn’t like the knowledge of fusion power is forbidden or anything.
But bringing things in from other systems is expensive. That’s how Free Traders like us–and all the other traders and merchants out there–make our profits after all. But here, using whatever could be maintained locally was far cheaper.
As trade continued, more and more facilities would upgrade to more current technology. Slowly. From what I had seen, Gashuumi would probably be at level 8 in a decade or so, which the Scout Service arbitrarily defined as being able to manufacture and support fusion power locally. Then they would start moving toward 9. Which would probably take another few decades.
But for now, they were stuck with what they could create and maintain locally. So they were stuck with internal combustion.
The tour dropped us off on a reef, and we all jumped in. The top meter or so of the ocean was covered by that fungus mat, but beneath it, the water was surprisingly clear. And also dark and cold. Saahna had picked out suits for us that compensated for the temperature. Our artigills had lights and comms, so we were OK. From the reaction of several of our fellow divers, not everyone had that benefit.
The sea life on Gashuumi was primarily long, thin fishy things with trilateral fins. They looked too much like snakes for me, and I tried to avoid them. Saahna found this amusing and would let one wind about her arm and try to swim close to show it to me.
She was laughing. “Well, I now know how to get you to stay away from me!”
“All you have to do is say so!” I said, frantically paddling away. “Just… Don’t bring one of those things near me!” She shook it free, laughing.
We made our way back to the boat. With our artigills, we could have stayed underwater for days if necessary. Still, we were apparently the only guests here with them. The rebreather people were good for several hours, but a few people only had compressed air tanks and could only stay under for less than an hour. So the entire dive was on their schedule.
I checked my comm as we were drying off and preparing to head for the next site. There was a priority message from Pelter, so I pulled it up.
“We have a plan. We’ll have the Stetons out on Eames 2. They’ll be fine. If they really are innocent, as you suspect. We’ll get them out-system in that case.
“But, in exchange for a favor, we need you to get a few assets out-system. Can you deal with an in-air rendezvous?”
I was deciding how to respond when Saahna looked over. “You aren’t working, are you?”
I just held the comm over for her to see.
She tilted her head and shrugged. “I’m sure Do’rex can handle an atmospheric pickup. You wanted to rescue the Stetons, and it sounds like they have. And this is the price.”
I sighed, then responded with the affirmative. “Yeah, you’re right.” I started tapping in a code on my comm, but she grabbed my hand. “Hey, no work! Remember?”
I pulled away. “I just wanted to let Do’rex know what I just signed him up for.”
“He can deal with it. You know that as well as I do. Tell him what we’re doing when we have our pre-lift meetup on the 2nd. Until then, you need to relax!”
“But I…”
“RELAX!”
I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and put my comm away.
“Fine. But if he asks why I didn’t inform him sooner, then I’ll blame you.”
“Fine. Because he won’t.” She laughed. “We’re almost at the next site. Are you ready?”
I dug out my artigill. “Whenever you are. Just… no crawly things this time, OK?”
—-
This dive was on a set of “ruins.” Officially, Gashuumi had been uninhabited until a few hundred years ago when an outpost was set up to support ships heading toward Hiver space. But there were what looked like roads and building foundations underwater in this area. The scientists with the Scout Service had dismissed them as natural formations of some kind, but I had to admit that they looked like a grid of streets with buildings between them.
The First Imperium could have conceivably been here a few thousand years ago. We’ve lost many records since then, but this area had been submerged far before that, by a few hundred thousand years. The Ancients were around 30 thousand years ago, and we know that they were active in this sector–there’s even an incomplete ringworld here that they had started, then abandoned–but even they were too recent.
So either there was a species in the area well before the Ancients–which there is some evidence for–, or it was just a natural formation that just happened to look like a grid of streets and buildings. Ordinarily, I would have dismissed an idea like that as being ridiculous.
But after being there? Yeah… This was a city. Very obviously. And I couldn’t figure out why the Scout Service had dismissed that idea. I wanted to look into more details about this place once we got back to somewhere with actual network access.
Yeah, that cut out here. A lot. A few hours a day, a satellite overhead would let us access the local net, but most of the time, we were isolated. I hate low-tech worlds. How hard is it to put a few satellites in orbit, for gods’ sake! Anyway, I would check later.
This turned out to be our last dive. The boat headed back to the resort. We stopped by our room long enough to clean up, then went for lunch.
—-
There were several restaurants at the resort, and we settled on one called Bayside Bitesize. The place was about half full. I recognized one couple as having been on the dive boat with us, but Saahna steered us to a table near the window overlooking the bay.
Despite the slight haze over everything from the fungal spores hanging in the air, it was a nice view. I was glad to be inside where I didn’t need my mask.
A waiter came over and took our order. We got our usual beers, tama chips, and a “seafood platter” to share. The waiter left, and I looked around.
I suddenly realized that most people here weren’t wearing the usual Tlianke uniform of jumpsuits and monoculars. I doubted that most off-world Travellers were picking this place to spend their on-planet time. I commented on it to Saahna.
“Resorts like this, and there are more than a few, are exempt from Tlianke’s surveillance. I’m surprised you hadn’t found that in your research. I only found it out when looking for a place to spend our contract week. I figured you had done research before we got here.”
I sighed. “I usually do that a day or two before Jump exit. And I kinda got interrupted this time. So yeah, I missed a few things.”
She laughed and took my hand. “Oh, don’t be offended. It’s just rare that I discover something about a destination before you.”
I tried to dismiss it. “Well, you got me this time. So, what is this ‘exemption from Tlianke surveillance’ thing.”
“When Tlianke was trying to annex Gashuumi about 90 years ago, the local government was all-in. They figured that Tlianke would help improve their infrastructure and tech level. But, most locals weren’t as keen on giving up their independence and were happy with the technology they had. So they came up with the idea of ‘resorts.’ The locals could establish an enclave and maintain it using only local resources, and then continue the way they were before Tlianke showed up.”
“That’s what this place is?”
“Yes! It isn’t here just as an oceanside resort; it’s a holdover from the Gashuumi society of a century ago. That’s why we’re so isolated here; they can’t even run a data feed without violating their agreement. But it also makes for a perfect place to ‘get away for a while.”
“Yeah, I wish I had known that. I might have suggested all of us stay down here.”
“Well, it is a bit more expensive than the Startown area, but I think most of us can handle it now. I told you that we’re all doing a lot better than before.”
“Yeah, I guess.” I shook my head. “All of you are helping us do what we do. Of course, I’m sharing it with you.”
“I’ve seen our records. You’re taking several shares, Owner and Captain, plus a ‘Trade Share.’ And you’re setting way more aside than we need for maintenance as ‘Operational Expenses.'”
“Hey!” I was suddenly defensive. “I am the person who bought the ship! And I need Credits for Speculative Trade. So yeah, I set Credits aside for that. And those extra maintenance Credits just came in handy for taking care of Shelly and me. You said I’m paying you more than Captain Anna ever did. So why are you unhappy?”
“I didn’t say I was. I was just commenting on the fact that we’re all doing really well.”
“Oh, OK.” I was disturbed for some reason. “Yeah, I’m just trying to be prepared for anything.”
“Well, I think we are.”
About that time, our food arrived, and our attention was diverted. Several different kinds of seafood were on the platter, mostly bite-sized pieces of fish that were either grilled or fried. There were also what seemed to be some kind of shellfish, though I hadn’t seen any of those on our dives. Though, to be fair, I hadn’t been looking for them either.
Surprisingly, the fish was all somewhat bland. After the overwhelming salt back nearer to the Starport, I had assumed that was a thing here.
Had Gashuumi not had salt deposits before Tlianke moved in? That seemed weird. Maybe they had just never put it on food?
Whatever. I was glad to be able to eat something without choking.
—-
After lunch, Saahna had planned for us to spend the afternoon at a concert. The area was packed with more people than I had seen in one place since arriving on Gashuumi. The show was a metal-ballet band called Cat a Pillow. I later learned that they were named after an old-Terra megacorp, though I never figured out why.
Later, we returned to the resort and went to dinner at a place called Evelyn’s, apparently named after the owner and chef, who was also obviously not there. The dinner was… different. We had trays of raw meat presented to us, and we selected what we wanted from the offerings. Then those cuts of meat were skewered on spines extending from a column in the middle of the table, and a flame was lit beneath them. We could move the meat up or down as we desired, and we could pull them off whenever we wanted. We also had a wide variety of sauces that we could select to dip the meat in before eating it.
It was actually not bad. I found one particular whitish sauce really good and wanted to find out what it was before I left.
Later, we danced more to some fusion-punk band that apparently thought that volume could replace talent. We left shortly after that.
—-
“See!” she said as we returned to our room. “Things won’t fall apart without you! You don’t have to spend all your time doing ‘ship’s business.’ Spend some time with the rest of us. If nothing else, spend some time with me!”
I stopped and hugged her. “You know I’ll never turn down downtime with you.”
“And Varan? Or Jami? Or even Shelly?” She smiled at that last one.
“Of course! But… not this week.” I gave her what I hoped was a passionate kiss. “It’s our contract week, and I am yours to command.”
She smirked. “Well, let’s get back to our room then.”