9 Eamis 1117: Jumpspace
I spent most of the morning in my cabin or on the Bridge. Saahna was still running diagnostics in the Gunnery suite, so I left her to it.
She accepted what I was doing. At least she wasn’t avoiding me anymore.
I quickly swept the ship and talked to most of the passengers and crew. The passengers I promptly assured them that we were on schedule for Jump exit tomorrow. I told the crew to bring up any concerns at the meeting.
Shelly still wasn’t happy, and Jami was slightly more annoyed than I expected. She had worked on a smuggler/pirate ship before, so this sort of thing should be familiar.
Though she may have thought she had put that behind her and was unhappy to find herself in that position again.
After that, I stayed in the cabin until the time for the meeting. I knew what questions I would be facing. I just needed to find out what the answers were.
—-
Right at 1400, I entered the crew lounge. Do’rex, Jami, and Saahna were already there, and Doctor Korvusar came down almost immediately. She was followed, reluctantly, by Shelly. Her expression showed that she really didn’t want to be here, and she didn’t even look at me as she went to the dispenser, pulled a drink of some kind, then sat next to Do’rex.
I waited until everyone was seated, or at least settled, then went to stand under the main holo.
“I know everyone has questions. And… I’ll do the best I can to answer them. But… let’s get the boring stuff out of the way first.” I waved my remote, and the lights dimmed as the overhead holo activated.
Mupikaa. It should be a Jump-over planet, but it isn’t. It has a full Class-A starport with some of the best facilities in the subsector. This is strange because there is little here.
The atmosphere is classified as thin and tainted, and the ‘taint’ is basically the only native life form. Well, not quite a life form. There are what are effectively amino acids and random free proteins floating in the oceans, but nothing has reached the cellular level. It’s a primordial soup. They’re supposedly harmless but can cause allergic reactions, so a respirator is advised. And the air apparently stinks because of them.
It also leaves a greasy film on everything. So either don’t wear anything that you want to avoid getting dirty or stay inside the enclosed areas of the colony. At least you can breathe.
It’s also hot. Very hot. Another reason to stay inside. There is a sizeable equatorial ocean with a large, singular land mass in the south and several smaller ones to the north. Plus a scattering of islands and archipelagos around the equator, but it is hot enough there that no one wants to visit. Most of the population lives near the southern pole, which is barely comfortable.
Their leading economy, officially, is mining. Mostly bauxite and silica compounds. Nothing that is in exceptionally high demand. A few of the smaller megacorps have operations here. Since one of the local conditions of allowing a corp in is to hire locals instead of bringing in external indentures, most of the larger corps don’t bother. There’s no actual ‘native’ life except for what they have imported for food production. Most of that is greenhoused to give it enough atmosphere to grow. Expect a lot of fabricated food. Those native amino acids do have their uses.
They have a reasonably advanced local economy. The local technology support is slightly below the Imperial average, but they can easily care for themselves.
Their primary source of income, which will mainly affect us, is that they have an extremely complex bureaucracy with an equally complex set of laws, regulations, and fees. There is a minor ‘commercial transaction’ fee if you order a drink. If you walk down a street, there is an ‘infrastructure usage’ fee. Basically, expect to be paying fees for everything.
Don’t worry; they are low, just a few deci-credits at most. But there are a lot of them.
And don’t worry about how you will have to pay them; just download a program to your comp and link it to your ident. Gray already has it, and it will update as soon as we get there. Use it, and everything will be taken care of automatically.
And don’t bother trying to avoid it by staying on board all week. There are fees for that too. It will be cheaper to go in.”
I paused and took a breath.
“We will be landing at their main starport, which is a good 50 klicks from the nearest city. There are fees for flying over inhabited areas. Because, of course, there are. They have the usual startown around the starport, but there isn’t much there. I recommend that everyone just take the mono into the capital, Lamika.
So… questions?”
Jami got in first. “And who will be waiting for us there?”
I knew what she meant. The Bandersnatch in the cabin. “That Solomani ship that followed us out from Gashuumi will probably be there. If not before us, then they will be in very soon after us.”
“Then why are we going there!”
“Because that was our destination? Because we have passengers and freight to deliver there?”
“And we couldn’t have changed?”
“Not without hurting our reputation.” I sighed. “Look, they are only after us because they think we have the Stetons on board. We don’t. Their local contacts will verify that with them within hours of our arrival. And, once they realize that they aren’t here, they will ignore us. It will be worse for them if they do.”
“You’re awfully confident when the rest of us may be targeted.”
I felt my temper rise at that, but I fought to keep my voice level. “I had a gun pointed at me the other day. Actually, two, if you remember. And I convinced them that shooting me was a bad idea. Their non-expendable resources certainly aren’t going to risk exposing themselves. We’re safe.”
“Yeah. Easy for you to say.”
“Mupikaa is a major port. There are dozens of ships there at any time. Do you want to leave? Fine. Leave. I’m sure you’ll have no problem finding a new berth. And before anyone asks, Varan will be finding a new ship there; he isn’t welcome here anymore.
But it isn’t up to me. I would like the rest of you to stay, but… this is where we are. You can decide what you want to do.”
There was a long, awkward silence. Finally, Do’rex spoke up.
“Are you… anticipating further problems?”
“Yes, but not for the reason you may think.” I took a deep breath. “OK, we’ve all heard what the Doctor here has told us. The Imperium is tearing itself apart, and its influence will be at a minimum for a while. And we know that the Sols, and any number of minor polities, also believe that. Hells, the Sols wouldn’t bother us unless they think the same thing; they wouldn’t antagonize an Imperial-flagged ship otherwise. And Boilingbrook and Tlianke wouldn’t be trying to set up their own polities if they thought the Imperium would just come sweeping back in a year or two. So yeah, we’re in for problems for a while.”
“I agree with your assessment. But how does that affect us? What do you see as our part in all of this?”
I gave a quick, silent thanks to him. He understood what I had said earlier.
“Interstellar trade is going to drop off. Radically. I expect most of the Imperial megacorps to pull back soon if they haven’t already started. Hells, Margaret basically runs Tukera Lines, and she will need its resources to support her own worlds for a while.
And the Sols are moving in, but they must pass through the Old Expanses, Alpha Crucis, or Spica first. So it will take a while for their megacorps to get out here.
Until then, a lot of systems in the Hinterworlds will be dependent on independent Free Traders like us. And I’m going to do the best I can to help them. We’ll get a reputation as someone on which the independent systems can depend. Which can only help us.”
Jami had been getting increasingly agitated. “Why? We aren’t going to make a profit that way? We’ll carry low-value things like food, raw materials, and basic goods. So why don’t we just ally with one of the local polities? Hells, we’re already a partner with the Boilingbrook people. From what you have said, the Tlianke people are probably willing to accept us. So why go against everyone?”
“I’m not! We’ll still be trading with them to get the necessary cargoes. And I’ll be careful to make sure we take care of ourselves first! I started as a Steward, and I know the instruction. ‘Make sure to get your companion into the emergency bubble before entering one yourself’? Of course, we will take care of ourselves. But don’t expect too many more mega-credit paydays.
“More danger and less pay. Right.”
I looked directly at her. “As I just said, you can make your own decision as to what to do.”
“Hey! I was just saying…”
“Yes. You were.” I looked around. “Anyone else have questions?”
Do’rex clicked and waved a tentacle. Jami was suddenly interested in something on her comp, and Shelly looked away. Saahna and Doctor Korvusar kept looking at me.
“Fine then,” I said. I flicked the holo off and headed for the dispenser. “Our exit tumble should be around 1300 tomorrow. I want everyone to be on-station by 1100, just in case. Until then, if you have more questions, just ping me.”
I pulled a pair of beers as the rest of the crew stood up behind me. Jami immediately headed for Engineering, and Shelly wasted no time heading for the ladder to the passenger deck. I just went to the Bridge.
—-
Saahna entered a minute or so later. She tossed a crunchstick at me as she passed, then dropped into her seat, but instead of pulling forward, she spun it to face me.
“Well… that was inspiring.”
“I just told them what we are doing.”
“You didn’t say or do anything to alleviate anyone’s concerns.”
I paused to open the crunchstick, using that to cover time for me to think.
I decided to just be blunt. “What concerns do you have?”
“I don’t like doing even more things to make us a target.”
“I don’t either. But… are they the right things?”
“We need to take care of ourselves!”
“I can’t. I have an opportunity to help the sophonts out here, Maybe, a lot of them. My father tried to help our sophonts back home. And yes, he died. Because that went against Imperial interests. But the Imperium is dying. We all know it, whether we want to admit it or not. Maybe, just maybe, we can help bring something better out of what remains.”
She looked at me for a long time. I was about to turn back to my console when she finally spoke. “We’re just one Free Trader. Do you really think we can do anything?”
I nodded slowly. “We can let the systems we visit know that we are still out there. That everything hasn’t collapsed. That they will have someone helping them through whatever happens. We need to be there to give them that hope.”
“What? They hope we come by every few years?”
I glanced at my console and pulled up a full-sector Jumpspace map of the Hinterworlds, showing all of the systems reachable via Jumpspace that anyone had any reason to visit. I looked at the systems there.
“I need to find a loop. A set of 20 or so systems that we can expect to visit at least once a year. And a self-sustaining loop. If we pioneer it, then other ships will follow us. We’ll be able to set up a circuit of worlds that can survive… indefinitely on their own.”
“That’s… a rather grandiose plan.”
I had only just come up with the idea myself, and I was paying more attention to my console than her.
“Yeah… yeah, we can do this. We’ll find a cluster of worlds. OK, only a dozen or so, all within several parsecs of each other. Where we can move goods to keep all of them working. Resources, food, technology. We’ll connect them. And we’ll try to get other Free Traders to join us. Hells, we’ll create our own fleet! And all of us will ensure that our pocket of the Imperium continues to exist.”
I saw movement near the iris and looked over. My father was there, just as he had been in the kitchen many decades ago. He smiled, then disappeared.
“Derek?” The moment was interrupted, and I turned back to Saahna.
“I think you’ve had a few too many.”
“I’m fine.”
“Really?”
“I said, I’m fine!”
She sighed and closed her eyes. I watched her for a long moment. I was about to turn back to my console when she finally looked up again and spoke.
“OK… yeah. I’m with you. “Hells, I…” she laughed. “Rut it, I wouldn’t have contracted with you if I hadn’t thought you were a person who would do something like this. I’m in.”
A wave of relief I hadn’t realized I was waiting for washed over me.
“Thanks. You… don’t know how much that means to me.”
She shrugged. “I love you.”
“I love you too.”
“Yeah. I know.”
There was a long silence as we just looked at each other across the Bridge.
“We… may lose a lot of the crew.”
“Yeah, I figured. So… who do we have? I’m sure they talk to you more than me. Varan is gone. I’m not Jumping with him no matter what he thinks.” I felt a twinge of regret as I said that, but I forced that down. “I’m pretty sure we’re losing Shelly, and I’m worried about Jami.”
She nodded. “Do’rex will stay forever, and he’ll pilot us into the hells if we ask him to. And the Doctor will stay because this is what she wants.” She paused in thought.
“Which, I guess, means those computer models of hers were right.”
“Yeah. That’s what bothers me.” I hadn’t realized that I was falling directly into her ‘prophesy’ until now. I had to shake off a shudder after that.
“OK. You can handle the gunnery suite, and I can backfill you on navigation. And I can keep the engines running, at least. And we won’t need a steward since I’m planning on dropping passengers from now on. So… we’ll be OK.”
“Dropping passengers?”
“Yeah, that’s where most of our problems have come from. So let’s just get rid of that.”
“And if, in your future plans, we need to carry people from one system to another?”
I sighed. “OK, I’ll keep a couple of cabins. Just in case. But we’ll convert the rest of the space to cargo.”
“You’re going to put us into spacedock?”
“Not now. Not for a few months, at least. But… I probably will do a bit of redesign.”
“What do you have in mind?”
“If I drop four passenger cabins, I can expand cargo by a bit and bump the drives up to M2. I want to be able to run if we have to.”
“Yeah… OK. Fine. So, when will that happen?”
I turned back to my console. “That… I don’t know yet.” I scanned the full sector map, but that was too much to take to make a quick decision.
“I’m going to do my research on Mupikaa. Type-A starport, so they’ll have the latest info. I’ll go through what data they have and then decide.
“Yeah.” She looked at the forward canopy, even though there was nothing to see with the shutters closed. And there was nothing but Jumpspace outside anyway.
After a long moment, she looked back.
“I’ll follow whatever you think is best.”
Another wave of relief passed over me, but I objected. “I’ll appreciate your input as well.”
“Of course. But what about the others?”
“I’ll listen to what anyone who stays with us has to say.”
She nodded, then pushed her seat back and stood up. “OK. So… that’s all decided. Now, we have one more thing we need to take care of.”
“Um… what?”
She smiled and headed for the iris. “We need to fuck.”