5 Eamis 1117: Jumpspace
I actually spent the night in the Captain’s Chair. Despite all I had drunk, I woke up way too early. I knew we would have problems today.
I could have overridden the lock on the Captain’s Cabin, but I just hit the communal Crew Deck fresher. I tossed my jumpsuit and jacket into the recycler as I did and retrieved suitably refreshed versions of them as I exited.
As I did, Gray addressed me. “Passenger Ceana is demanding to speak with you.”
I sighed. “Fine. Tell her I will be there.” I headed for the ladder.
—-
Twenty minutes later, I was climbing the ladder to the passenger deck. As I arrived, I saw Ceana arguing with Shelly. I had enough time to notice Vitriman, Kramon, and the Stetons sitting around a table to aft and the Doctor at her usual place forward before Ceana saw my arrival and charged toward me.
“Captain Kodai! I demand compensation for this hardship you have imposed on me! You cannot…”
Everyone else had looked up and was now staring at us. I held up a hand and tried my most calming voice.
“I understand why you are upset, Ms. Ceana. I would prefer not to have wound up in this situation myself. But… let’s not disturb our other passengers. Come down to the crew deck, and I’ll be happy to discuss things with you.”
“No! You either talk to me here, where everyone can hear me, or you can wait for Alexion’s lawyers to talk to you.”
Alexion is an Imperial corp based out of the Old Expanses. They mostly did mining and refining, specializing in Rare Earths. They would send out scouts to survey systems and planets, looking for likely sites. Factors like Ceana would go to the local government and negotiate rights to the claims.
Then they would recruit sophonts to work the claim, paying signing fees and providing transport to the newly built corporate-owned colony.
They could have been better at bringing those sophonts back home after working out the site. But, they were quite happy to move them on to the next site. They had a fairly large, semi-captive, mobile workforce.
“Ms. Ceana, I have refunded your passage and will still deliver you to Mupikaa with the full service provided by your passage. That is all I am required to do under Merchants Guild regulations. I am sorry that you…”
“Sorry? Sorry! No, you need to do more than ‘sorry.’ I demand compensation! You do not know who you are dealing with, Captain!”
I sighed. I was tired of dealing with sophonts like her. Why am I carrying passengers again?
“I do know who I am dealing with, Ms. Ceana. I’m dealing with a passenger who thinks that the fact that she works for an Imperial corp gives her special privileges that others don’t get. But I also know how the Imperium works–well, worked–and how Imperial corps work. And I know you don’t have anything to support your position beyond you yelling at me. That may have worked on other ships you have Travelled on, but it won’t work on mine.
She had been slowly turning red as I spoke. “Captain Kodai…”
“I assure you that Alexion doesn’t care how you have been treated. If they did, they would have given you an expense account that covered your passage on an actual liner, not a Free Trader. And if they gave you one, they’ll probably be interested in learning that you’re apparently Travelling with us and pocketing the difference.”
She opened her mouth, then closed it. She was still angry, but her expression turned thoughtful.
“And that assumes Alexion is even still functioning. Have you seen the news from the Imperium lately?
She scoffed, trying to cover her growing discomfort. “What? Nobles squabbling over which of them is more important? That won’t affect us out here!”
“Except it has. Lucan pulled the Imperial Fleets out of the Expanses and had them bombard anything of importance as they left. Then Margaret did the same with the Reserve Fleets. How many of those ‘things of importance’ included Alexion sites?”
“I’ve seen nothing like that! The Imperium would never…”
“Look at something besides TNS. Anything, actually. It’s happening. The Imperium is pulling out and leaving all of us out here on our own.”
She was looking frantically around now. Everyone in the lounge was either looking at us with interest or doing anything they could to not look in our direction, but I could tell everyone was listening in. No one contradicted what I was saying.
I had tried to talk to her in private.
She finally looked back at me, her earlier anger changing to confusion and fear. “So… If Alexion is… what should I do?”
“I don’t know. For you, get back to Imperial space as fast as you can. And the Old Expanses don’t count anymore; the Sols are already expanding into them. Head Spinward into Ral Rantan space and make your way Coreward. Try to get to Massilia. The Ral Rantans don’t like the Sols any more than they like us, and Margaret won’t abandon her own Sector.”
She closed her eyes, and her earlier anger dissipated.
“Are you heading Spinward?”
“No, we’re heading deeper into the Hinterworlds.”
“What? Why?”
“Because conditions out here are going to start getting bad. We’ve been getting by because news is slow to filter out, but we’re getting close to the end of the ‘denial’ stage. Polities will start withdrawing into their own borders, and Traders will start sticking to the safer routes. Systems are going to start losing trade.”
She let out a laugh. “Surely you don’t think things will be that bad, do you?”
I nodded. “Why do you think the Sols are getting so aggressive? The sophonts out here are starting to realize that the Imperium will not be back for some time and know that they can’t stand against the Sols without the Imperium looking over their shoulders. And the Sols aren’t going to worry about everywhere; they’ll concentrate on a few strategic systems. At least, at first. They won’t care about the backwater systems that are being cut off. It will be starships like this one that will be those systems’ lifeline. And we’re going to take care of them.”
She looked around uncomfortably and seemed to notice that everyone else in the lounge was looking at her for the first time. She pulled herself more erect.
“Well, Captain, I will have no choice but to report this incident to the Merchants Guild and my superiors at Alexion. I assure you that they will be in contact with you.”
“I look forward to hearing from them,” I said, my smile tight. “Now, if you will excuse me?”
Without waiting for an answer, I went to the ladder and descended to the crew lounge. There, I pulled a beer from the dispenser and dropped into a chair, staring at the ceiling with a sigh.
How had we wound up here?