28 Erbe 1117: Gashuumi – Tlianke/Hinterworlds (1206 B527769-7 O:1104 923 Na M4 V M9 D)
Saahna hadn’t scheduled us to go anywhere today; we would be spending the day at the resort. She had signed us up for a “couple’s massage” class which… OK, I was kinda on-board for.
And I was pretty sore from yesterday, so a massage sounded good.
As usual, I cleared the fresher first so that I could get the ship’s business done. There wasn’t much. All of our cargo offers had been accepted, and we had nothing more to worry about with passengers; we just had to make that rendezvous in a few days. Everything was taken care of.
We had a singleton of cargo space left, and I accepted a pair of containers of ore then shut us down. Ship’s business-wise, we were done.
Saahna had come down as I was finishing up and was looking over the menu. I finished the last transaction barely a minute before the satellite orbited out of range, then turned to her.
“So, what do you have for us today? Besides this massage thing?”
“You need to learn how to spend time with people!” she said as she placed her order. She got flat-cakes, circles of baked dough that would be covered with sweet syrup and butter, and sometimes various fruits. Sometimes they had the fruits baked into them.
“What does that mean?”
“You’re fine when you’re working. Otherwise? You drop back to work. You need to learn to relax. To spend time with your friends, or even just me, and enjoy the moment. You don’t have to be working all the time!”
I sighed. “Yeah, fine. I’ll do our trades. And I’ll let you know whenever something ‘odd’ shows up.”
“Good.”
—-
The “Couple’s Massage” wasn’t quite what I had expected. There were only two other couples and two instructors; a man and a woman. They took turns demonstrating techniques on both of us; the man on Saahna and the woman on me, then had us practice on each other as they watched and offered suggestions.
They had done one other couple before us, a man and a woman from Embala. After us, there were two women who were apparently more interested in the more… sensual aspects of massage–which the instructors were more than happy to show them. I realized I should have asked a few more questions.
I was watching the demonstration when my comm started buzzing with the crew emergency code. Saahna sighed and closed her eyes as I took a few steps away and pulled it out.
“What!” I said, a bit more angrily than I had intended.
“Are both of you all right?” It was Jami. “We’ve been trying to get in touch with you for hours!”
As she was speaking, my comm buzzed twice more, once from Do’rex and once from Varan. I frowned. “Yeah, we’re fine! We’re just… off on our contract week? Why? What’s happening?”
“Where are you!”
“At a resort. Down on Halaphon. We figured everything was under control and decided to take some time for ourselves? What’s going on?”
She cursed loudly in Standard, Vilanni, Aslan, and a few I didn’t recognize. Finally, she took a deep breath. “Where the hells have you been! We’ve been trying to reach both of you for hours!”
“Why? What’s going on?” I looked over to see that Saahna had retreated to near the entrance herself and was talking on her own comm.
“Security said that the two of you had been attacked but didn’t give any details. And then we couldn’t get in touch with either of you! Where are you?”
I frowned. “I told you. We’re down at a resort called The Excellent Ocean! on Halaphon. There’s no reliable net contact here. We can only communicate when we have satellite coverage. That was Saahna’s idea; she thinks I work too much.” I felt bad saying that. I wasn’t trying to deflect blame onto her.
I heard a pronounced groan of anger. “We’ve been worried sick! We thought… we thought someone had killed both of you or something! Why the hell didn’t you tell us you were going somewhere!”
I was suddenly angry. “Hey, I have never asked for detailed plans from any of you after we hit atmo! Why can’t you give me the same courtesy?”
“If you suddenly got visited by Security saying that something had happened to one of us, wouldn’t you be worried about us?”
“Well, yeah! Of course! But… we’re fine! What the hells is Security trying to say about us?”
She groaned. “Whatever! They said that the two of you had been attacked and were asking who you had been in contact with lately.”
I tensed up at that. “And… what did you tell them?”
“Nothing! Hells, I don’t know what kind of deals you’re making these days! I don’t know!”
“None!” I said with more force than I had planned. Jami hadn’t shown up at our last meeting, so she didn’t know about even the vague plans that we had back them. “We didn’t do anything you would need to worry about.”
“Security doesn’t question people for no reason.”
“Security has to know that we are down here and that we only have sporadic communications. And it sounds like they contacted all of you when they knew we would be out of range. They were probably fishing to see what they could get from all of you.”
“I know how to keep secrets, Captain!” She emphasized the last word a bit too much. “Just… maybe let us know where you are going next time?”
“Will you keep me informed as to what you are doing every system?”
“Hey, what I do doesn’t affect all of us!”
“Until it does,” I said flatly. “OK, yeah… I’ve been kinda blind as to what we’ve been doing to ourselves. I get it now. Crew meeting on the 2nd, at Vandiver’s back near the Starport. We’ll deconstruct all of this there. Until then, don’t share what you don’t have to.”
“I just told you that I know how to keep secrets. Enjoy your week. Captain.” She was obviously angry but clicked off before I could reply.
I looked at my comm. I had gotten messages from Shelly and Varan. I groaned and tried to return Varan’s call but got an “in another connection” message. I then pinged Shelly.
She responded instantly. “Derek! Are you… OK?”
“Yeah, we’re fine.” I quickly related the same info I had given to Jami. “I think Security is trying to see what they can get out of the rest of you while Saahna and I were out of contact. Hopefully, they didn’t learn anything more than they needed to.”
She smiled, almost embarrassed. “I kept telling them I didn’t know anything!” Her smile widened. “I’ve never been part of a secret conspiracy before! This is fun!”
“Well, I’m glad you didn’t give anything away, but… you really need to work on your poker face.”
“What?”
“It’s pretty obvious that you’re hiding something. And Security probably figured that out as well. Just…” I paused. “We’ll work on this next Jump.”
“What? I thought I was…”
“Shelly, believe me. You have skill at this. But… You need to work on it. We’ll all be happy to help you with it. But… for now, be careful. OK?”
She was suddenly crying. “I thought… I thought I was convincing them!”
“And you may have been! I wasn’t there.” I frantically thought about how to distract her.
“That package left for you by passenger Dradon. Did you look at it?”
She suddenly brightened. “Yes! It was a new imager drone! Much more advanced than Swoopy’s old frame! And I loaded his last backup into it, and he’s fine! I’m so glad to have Swoopy back!”
“Great!”
She paused, then continued in a more subdued voice. “And… they offered me a contract.”
“What kind of contract?”
Karran and Reina both thought that our Travels–well, the Grayswandir‘s Travels– were something that people might be interested in. They said that if I kept recording what we did and sent it to them, they would broadcast my updates over their network! And pay me… well, us… for them! I… I never thought that I could reach that level!”
I grimaced for a second before opening my eyes again. “That’s… great. But… Maybe don’t share everything?”
She glared at me. “I’m not stupid, Derek. I know not to share anything questionable.”
“OK, yeah. Sure. Just making sure.”
I could see her take a deep breath to compose herself. “Yeah, I guess I would be worried in your position too.”
I paused, remembering what Saahna had said. “Actually… share what you want.”
“What?”
“Look, do you disagree with anything we have done?”
“Um… no?”
“Well, let’s share that! We’ll do what we do. Yeah, I’ll be a bit more careful from now on about what contracts I accept, but… let’s let everyone know what we’re doing! Maybe that’s what the Doctor means when she says we’re ’embers’ or whatever. As long as we are doing what we need to be doing, no one can criticize us. And, any enemies we might have made? Well, they may be a lot less willing to do things to us when they realize that their actions will be broadcast over the entire sector. So, yeah! Tell everyone whatever you want.”
“Um… anything?”
“Well, maybe not anything actually illegal,” I added. “And let’s try to keep our contacts private. But, outside of that, just say what we do.”
“Well… OK, sure. I can do that! So, can I talk about this?”
“What? This conversation?”
“No, about how Tlianke Security told us that the two of you had been attacked, and we were all worried!”
I shrugged. “Why not? We’re leaving in three days and I’m not planning on coming back here for some time. So yeah, let’s put their little game on display.”
“Great! I mean, this is so exciting! All this political intrigue stuff, we never had anything like that back on Boilingbrook. I’ll get all kinds of views from this!”
“That’s good! I’m happy for you!” I suddenly noticed that Saahana was trying to get my attention and was obviously unhappy about something.
“Listen, I’ve got to go. We’ll check in later.”
“When?”
“We’ve got a crew meeting at Vandiver’s on the 2nd. We’ll go over everything then. Until then… have fun with Swoopy II.”
“I’m calling him Stwoopy, but thanks! I will.”
I think she was saying something else, but I clicked off and headed over to where Saahna was glaring. “Sorry, it was Shelly. You know how she likes to talk.”
“And you’re more than happy to talk to her, right?”
“Hey, she was freaking out! Apparently, TliSec had told them that we had been attacked or something, and everyone was concerned. And I talked to Jami as well, for what it is worth!”
“Yeah, and I talked to Varan. ‘Freaking out’ is an understatement. He was in an absolute panic because he thought we were dead.” She shook her head. “OK, maybe there are reasons we don’t want to go completely off-net.”
I nodded. “Did he say what TliSec told him?”
“Only that we had been attacked, and they were asking who we had been in contact with lately.”
“Yeah, Jami and Shelly said the same thing.” I paused. “Is this connected to that weird guy we met yesterday? Harris?”
She was slowly shaking her head. “No… Unless they thought he was trying to hurt us?” She paused. “I guess that confirms that he wasn’t working with them.”
“Yeah. But what else…” I paused. “No one else knows that we contacted Pelter and his team.”
“What?”
“No one else came with us to that meeting. Varan was the only one who even responded, and he was annoyed at being contacted. So, literally, no one else on the crew knows that we have made plans to rescue the Stetons.”
“But, would TliSec be curious about that?”
“We were the ones’ who brought them in system. And I, at least, have insisted that they are innocent. Maybe our ‘friends’ have rescued them, and they’re trying to figure out if we are involved. We aren’t, technically, but they probably felt the need to talk to us.”
“So why haven’t they talked to us?”
“We’re on one of their resorts, remember?
“So… I guess we can be ready to get questioned as soon as we head back.”
“Yeah. Probably. But… we know. Now.”
“Great.” She rolled her eyes.
“Derek? Saahna? Sorry, but do you want to see the sensual demo?” That was the female instructor. I saw that the two women had stripped entirely and were lying on the massage beds, while the other couple had almost finished getting dressed.
Saahna spoke up. “No. We’re… actually good, we think. We just got a contact from our shipmates, and we need to go take care of some things.”
“Shipmates?” That was the woman from the other couple. “Wait… you two are Travellers?”
“Uh… yeah, we are!” I said, smiling and dropping into my best Liason mode. “Derek Kodai, Saahna Denan. We’re from the Free Trader Grayswandir. We had some repair work to do and, since we were stuck in-system for a while, we decided to have some time to ourselves.”
Saahna quickly joined in. “Yeah, but we’re just trying to relax right now. OK?”
“Oh, sure!” the woman said. “I’ve just… well, I’ve talked to people from Tlianke or the other colonies, but I’ve never actually met someone from elsewhere! Will you… you’re at the resort, right?”
“For a day or two, yeah.”
“Great!” She took a few steps forward, pulling an Ident from her bag. She flicked it at us. “Valiant Task. And this is Oran. Oran Task. My contract partner.” She gestured to her companion, who was regarding us dubiously. “Maybe we can at least meet for lunch before you leave? I’d really like to talk to someone from off-world!”
“That’s fine,” said the woman running the class. “But if you aren’t interested in the final part of the lesson, would you mind taking your conversation outside? It’s hard to explore intimacy when there is a loud conversation in the area.”
Valiant quickly apologized, and she and her husband left. Saahna and I quickly dressed as well and followed. I had expected to find Valiant and Oran in the hallway outside, but they had apparently gone elsewhere instead of waiting for us.
“You really need to stop that!” Saahna said, grabbing my arm and leading me towards the lobby.
“What was I supposed to say? ‘Sorry, go away?'”
“It’s our contract week! You could have just said that and asked for us to be left alone!”
“Look. I didn’t promise anything. Yeah, she sent us her code, but she doesn’t have ours. So… we just don’t contact them?”
“And if they show up wanting to talk to us?”
“I didn’t send either of them my code. Did you?”
“There can’t be that many Travellers at the resort. And there are only a few hundred people here.”
“OK, fine. Fine.” I sighed. “It’s just… that’s Trader training. You never know who may be a contact!”
She sighed. “Yeah, OK. I get that. I guess, But… maybe… not now? Not here? Let’s wait until we get a few more Jumps behind us? Let us look like ‘normal’ Traders for a while? OK?”
“I’ll… try.” I paused, thinking. “Do you really think that our operations are that big of a deal?”
“Yes, I do. We need to be careful.” She shook her head. “You are sometimes the densest sophont I know!”
“And you contracted with me anyway.”
“Must have landed on my head in drop training too often.”
—-
We tried to spend some time at the “beach,” but it was too crowded. We weren’t outside, obviously; combo masks don’t make for the best sunbathing. But the resort had what was basically a giant greenhouse set up on the beach, where we could lie on the sand, in the sun and near the water, while still being in a controlled environment. But, because of those tech limits, the “solarium,” as they called it, was much smaller than a glassteel dome could have been. I think half the guests at the resort were crammed in there, almost shoulder-to-shoulder. Far more intimate than I would have liked. We left after only a few minutes.
“Ugh. They come down here to cram together like that?” Saahna was shaking her head as we left.
“There probably aren’t many places like that around. They’re still developing here; setting up places just to hang out is probably outside their planning schedule.”
“Yeah. Ugh.” She shook her head. “In the Marines, everything was so simple. They told us who to shoot at, and we shot at them. Trying to figure out all this economic stuff? Beyond me.”
“That’s why you have me!” I said, a bit proud of myself. She groaned and rolled her eyes.
We continued back to our room. We had just stepped inside when she suddenly spoke.
“That’s the secret, isn’t it?”
“What?”
“We all have our skills. You for trade, me for Security, Jami for Engineering, Varan for passengers and Gunnery, even Shelly is coming along taking care of the passengers and giving us some PR. You aren’t trying to run everything yourself. You’re letting us do our jobs, and you do yours.”
“Hey, you’ve seen me trying to shoot at a target at the range. I’m not about to challenge you. And even I won’t trust my own Engineering-1 certification to keep the Grayswandir flying. Hells, I need to remember to thank Jami for getting us in after that last Jump.”
“Well yeah, you should. But that’s not the point. Back in the Marines, we always had officers trying to tell us what to do, even when we were pinned down and receiving fire. You aren’t doing that to us.”
I frowned. “I hope I never have. And I don’t think Captain Anna ever did either. Yeah, there were times we disagreed, but she never told me that I was wrong, just that she thought a different course of action was better.”
She was looking at me. “I had never thought about it this way, but… we need to acknowledge each other’s strengths. And yours is understanding other sophonts.” She paused. “OK, if you think rescuing the Stetons is our best course of action? Then I’m in.”
“What?”
“You understand this stuff! How to interact with people. What the down-jump ramifications are. What was it you said earlier today? ‘You never know who may be a contact?’ I need to learn to accept that.”
“Hey, I value your input too!”
“That’s fine. But don’t assume I know everything you do or that I have your experience. Yes, listen to me, and respect my input. But, follow your own instinct.”
I put my arms around her. “Hey, you’re my contract partner. Of course, I’m going to listen to you.”
She returned the embrace. “You better. OK, want to go dancing?”
“You’ve seen my dancing.”
“Yeah. You’re like a dolphin on land without its AquaSuit. But still, wanna go dancing?”
“With you? Of course!”