10 Eamis 1117: Mupikaa System
Saahna left a few minutes ago to head back to our cabin. I wanted to post today’s update before I followed her because a lot happened today.
—-
This morning was quiet. I did a quick circuit through the ship, and everything seemed fine. Well, as fine as they could be. Everyone was on edge, which wasn’t surprising.
Shelly ignored me when I tried to talk to her. Jami was as perfunctory as she could be without being actually insubordinate. What else should I expect? There were requests from Varan’s cabin, which I ignored. I would face that later.
The Bridge was empty when I arrived. I wondered where Saahna was, but when I got into my seat, I saw she was in the gunnery suite. I pinged her.
“Everything OK?”
“Yeah. I hope. I wanted to be here in case something is waiting for us at Jump exit.
“We should have plotted for a non-standard arrival.”
“Yeah. Too bad neither of us thought of that before.”
“Yeah.”
“How are we doing?”
I shrugged, even though she couldn’t see me. “About what I expected. Shelly won’t talk to me, Jami is being as unhelpful as she can, and I have no idea where Do’rex is. At least all of our passengers seem to have realized that our situation is what it is, and there isn’t anything they can do about it.”
“Do’rex isn’t on the Bridge?”
“No.” I looked around. “Yeah, that isn’t like him.” I looked upward. “Gray? Where is Do’rex.”
“First Officer Do’rex is currently on the passenger deck. Do you wish me to ping him?”
“Um… no. Thanks.” I turned back to my console. “I think he’s talking to Shelly.”
“Oh? The two of them have been getting close. He may be trying to convince her to stay.”
“Uhh… close?”
Her sigh was audible. “You know, it is possible to be close to someone and not be physically involved. Though… from a few things both of them have said…”
“I don’t want to know!”
“It isn’t any of your business anyway.”
“OK, fine. We will only need him once we arrive in-system anyway, and I’ll need to plot a course first. So… he’s fine.”
“Sounds good. Let me know when we do our exit tumble in case I miss it somehow.”
“Hard to miss, but will do.”
“Thanks. Let me finish the simulation I’m in, and then I’ll get ready for exit.” The circuit clicked off.
I sighed and scanned my console. There really wasn’t much else I could do right now. An Exit Tumble occurs when it occurs. You can’t change it. Everything depends on your Navigator’s astrogation calculations and how cleanly your Pilot executed them. I trusted both of them.
I looked up at the chronometer. We were just shy of an hour out of our projected exit time. I could do nothing but wait.
—-
The hour passed quickly. A few minutes before, the iris cycled, and Do’rex entered, giving a click in greeting as he ducked under my seat and found his own. He immediately pulled up his console, tapped a bit, and then looked at me.
“We should be exiting in about ten minutes if you want to alert everyone.”
I nodded, turned to my console, and opened shipwide comms. “Hello, everyone. This is your Captain up on the Bridge. I have just been told that our exit tumble should be within the next ten minutes. While we do not expect any problems, in the interest of safety, please return to your cabin or station and find a seat. I will inform everyone once the tumble is complete.”
I clicked off and turned back to him. “Is… everything OK?”
His back was to me, and he didn’t turn from his console, but he clicked in response. “I am well, and our systems seem to be well. Why do you ask?”
“I, uh… I don’t want to pry into your personal life, but you… I’ve never seen you on the Passenger Deck before. Is there… something I need to know?”
There was a silence, followed by a few sharp clicks.
“You have said you do not wish to pry into my personal life. Unless you feel that my personal activities interfere with the safe operation of this ship, please maintain that desire.
I was a bit taken aback by that, but… he was right. I had overstepped.
“Sorry. Just wanting to make sure things are OK.”
“‘Things’ are in flux at the moment, but I am doing my best to resolve ‘things’ in the most positive manner possible.”
“Again, sorry.”
There was a pause. “Accepted, provided you remember this.”
What the hells have I stepped in now?
“I just want to ensure everyone in my crew is OK. Especially given recent events.”
“I fully appreciate your concern, Captain. And I am trying to resolve things to the mutual benefit of all of us. But I would prefer that you maintain a division between the professional activities of our crew and their personal activities.”
I grimaced at that. “I’ll… try. And that wasn’t my intent. I’m just trying to avoid another situation like the one we just found ourselves in. Varan’s ‘personal’ life certainly impacted us this time.”
“Then I suggest you be more open with what you are doing. Even if that involves letting outsiders know what we are doing. They will discover that on their own fairly quickly.” He abruptly cut off.
“Exit tumble starting.”
I turned to my console but felt the familiar discomfort of jump transition before I could open internal comms. I took a second to recover, then tapped the console.
“Welcome to Mupikaa everyone!” I glanced at my readouts. “We are approximately 62 megameters out and will be starting our arrival burn. Please feel free to resume your normal activities. We should be landing in about… 9 hours.”
I clicked off and turned back to Do’rex. “Saahna is in the gimbal, so I’ll need to get us a course. Give me a few minutes.” I brought navigation up on my console and started tapping.
I was almost immediately interrupted by Saahna. “That Solomani ship is in-system and currently vectoring toward Mupikaa. And it is showing a transponder now, so it is apparently known as the Amalfi Coast. There are three other ships out here with us, one of which is a Mupikaa SDB vectoring toward us.”
“Great.” I looked over. “You hear that?”
Do’rex clicked. “Yes, I have them on scans and sensors. The SDB is designated MK012 and has gone to full power. The other two ships in the vicinity are the bulk freighter Big Bootay, which has initiated a burn toward Mupikaa, and a scout with the designation ISS-BJK14.”
“Great.”
“We are receiving a comm from the MK012”
I sighed. “Open comms.”
There was a beep. “Grayswandir, this is Mupikaa COACC. Please match vector with this vessel and allow an inspection team on board.”
“Um… of course. But… who am I speaking to? And what is going on?”
“I am Lieutenant Kalverson, and this is just a random scan. You have nothing to worry about, Captain, unless you have something you would prefer that we not find.”
I uttered a few choice phrases, then opened comms again. “Certainly not, but we are carrying passengers… well, one passenger, who isn’t taking kindly to any delays.”
“Which is your problem, Captain… Kodai is it. There was a pause. Or is it Count Kodai? You realize that we are not part of your Imperium and that your rank means nothing to us here.
“The only rank I claim anymore is ‘Captain.’ We will match course with you and let your customs people waste their time. We have nothing to hide.”
“Of course, you don’t Captain Kodai. We will meet shortly.” They clicked off.
I looked at Do’rex, who had turned to face me. “Just… match course with them.”
“Are you sure that is wise?”
“There isn’t anything else that we can do. I’m sure they’re doing this for their Solomani friends, but they out-gun and out-maneuver us, so we just have to play along. They won’t find anything anyway.”
“And if they want to question former-crewmember Varan or supercargo Evel Kane?”
“Then I just have to hope they and everyone else remember our cover story.”
He paused, then clicked. “I hope you are correct.” He tapped a bit. “We are on course. Rendezvous in approximately 20 minutes.”
“Great.” I opened shipwide comms. “Sorry, everyone, we’ve been picked by local customs for a detailed inspection. Yes, this will delay us for a few hours. But I hope everyone realizes that we have nothing to hide and that working with them is our best course of action. I would hate for us to be quarantined for days or more while they try to determine what we might have done. So… cooperate as best as you can.”
“Smooth,” came Saahna from the gunnery suite.
“What do they have?”
“Eight hundred d-tons. They have already launched four fighters, all of which are converging on us. It looks like three lasers, three missile turrets, and a particle beam, somehow. I’ve never seen one on a ship that small.”
“Not something we want to challenge.”
“Hells no! I’ve already been ‘yes, sir, no ma’am!’ to their gunnery crew. No way am I doing anything.”
“Then get up here. I need a Navigator more than a Gunner right now. I suspect I’m going to be trying to keep a lot of passengers, and a few crewmembers, in line for the next hour or two.
“Good luck.”
“Thanks.” I clicked off and dropped out of the seat. “You can handle things for now?”
Do’rex clicked. “Yes. But they will probably want to meet with you when they arrive.”
“Sure. And when is that?”
“Seventeen minutes at optimal rendezvous.”
“And what if we try to make it a non-optimal rendezvous? Without being suspicious?”
He clicked again. “And what do you consider ‘non-suspicious?'”
“Fair enough. We want to look as if we are freely cooperating. Do… whatever you need to do.”
“Certainly.” He turned back to his console.
I went to the iris. When it cycled, Saahna was standing on the other side.
“Are we OK?”
“Depends on what everyone else says.”
“Do you trust everyone?”
“No, but I hope to appeal to their own self-interest.”
“That… isn’t very comforting.”
“It’s all I have.”
She shook her head. “I know you and sophonts. If anyone can convince them to play along and dodge the inevitable questions, it’s you. So…” She took a deep breath and sighed. “Let’s do this.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence.”
She patted my cheek as she pushed past me. “I love you.”
“Me too.”
She didn’t respond. I stepped into the crew lounge, and the iris closed behind me.
I had two problems. Varan and Evel Kane, and Ms. Ceana. I trusted Karmon and Vitraman to maintain their cover. I hoped that Jami and Shelly had enough self-interest to not say anything incriminating.
Varan was my biggest concern, so I decided to take care of the easy problem first. I went up to the passenger deck.
I wasn’t surprised to see everyone there. Most of them were clustered around Shelly, who seemed to be on the verge of panic. The only passenger not vying for her attention was Doctor Korvusar, who was still in her usual place and ignoring everything around her while focusing on her comp.
I did notice that she was wearing her vest again and saw the slight bulge on the left side.
I went to where Shelly was standing. “OK, everyone, I know that all of you are concerned. I don’t have much more to tell you than I have already told you, but I can try to resolve your concerns as best as possible.”
Shelly barely glanced at me, eyes narrowed, but she took the chance to duck away as all attention was suddenly focused on me.
“What is all of this about, Captain!” Of course, Ms. Ceana was the most upset. “I need to get to Mupikaa, and frankly, I don’t want to spend any more time on this ship than I have to!”
“I don’t blame you. I’m not too fond of this delay any more than you do. I have freight contracts that won’t pay until I deliver them. But… we have to deal with local regulations.” I shrugged, trying to be disarming.
She wasn’t accepting it. “We had someone pulling guns on us up here a few days ago. And ships following us. And you say that you haven’t done anything?”
I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, then looked back at her. How close to the truth can I get?
“OK, here is what is going on. On our previous Jump, some of our passengers were tricked into bringing a nanophage on board. It went off and caused… a lot of problems.
I talked to them and… I believe that they were innocent. I think that the bomb was designed to kill them, not the rest of us. Fortunately, everyone on board survived, but the Stetons were arrested and scheduled for involuntary organ donation.
I still believe they were innocent, and I made that as known as I could. But TliSec dismissed my concerns.
Since then… someone has broken them out of jail, and everyone involved is still missing. Since I was basically the only person who stood up for them, they immediately suspected me. Well, us. But we don’t have them, and I have no idea where they might be. And I was elsewhere at the time, and TliSec was well able to confirm that.
In the meantime, I had scheduled to pick up Ms. Kraymon and Mr. Vitraman here. They were breaking a contract and hired us to get out-system.
So yeah, that is one law I broke. But, when confronted by TliSec, I told them why we had done that pickup, and they were surprisingly OK with it. So we have no problems with them.
The only people angry with us at the moment are the Solomani. Who we knew had contacts back at Gashuumi and apparently have contacts here as well. And one of their contacts got here before us. And, in about ten minutes, the local authorities will be boarding us looking for the Stetons.
The Stetons aren’t on board. I don’t know where they are. No one here knows where they are. So… answer truthfully to whatever they ask. They may be unhappy, but we have done nothing wrong. And the sooner they realize that the sooner we can be on our way.”
Ceana was still glaring at me. “I have never been subjected to an indignity like this! I will tell them everything that has happened since I came on board. Do not think that you can get away with this, Captain!”
“I’m not getting away with anything. I just told you everything. Feel free to repeat that. You can speculate and make up anything else you want to try to hurt the rest of us, but…”
I took a few steps toward her.
“The Sols aren’t worried about the Stetons. They’re worried about what the Stetons know. They just want to ensure that no one on board knows whatever that is. And we don’t. None of us do.” I managed to not glance at Karmon and Vitramin as I said that. “That attack went off before they could tell anyone anything, and we haven’t been in contact with them since. We don’t know anything! Tell them the truth, and they’ll realize we aren’t a threat and let us go.”
She was still glaring at me, and I could tell she wasn’t wholly convinced, but she knew enough to avoid making more problems for herself.
“Well, thank you for explaining the situation to us, Captain. You should be more open with your passengers next time.
I gave my most professional smile. “Hey, I wish I had known this before myself. But this is what all of us wound up with.”
She stared a few more moments, then abruptly turned away and walked toward her cabin.
“Please tell me when we are on our descent vector, Captain. Until then, I will retire to my cabin.” I watched as the door slid shut behind her and the privacy notice activated.
I glanced around the Passenger Deck. “Does anyone have any more concerns? I don’t have much time before the Custom’s inspectors arrive, so if anyone has any questions, now is the time.”
Vitriman took a step forward. “We’re… sorry that the breaking of our contract on the Arifan apparently led to all of this.”
“It isn’t your fault. Someone back at Gashuumi jumped to the wrong conclusion and just assumed we were going after someone we weren’t. They’ll come on board, look for them, and when they aren’t here, they’ll leave us alone.”
“I hope you’re right.”
“Mupikaa depends on trade. Independant trade. They won’t want a reputation of attacking random Free Traders for no reason.”
The Lemmis were looking uncertainly at each other. Lanta finally spoke.
“We aren’t going to have another situation like the other day again, are we?”
“I wish I could say there will be no problems, but I also wish I could just ignore this request. So, just go along with whatever they say and tell them what you know. We have nothing to hide.”
He didn’t seem convinced but looked at Reika and nodded. “Well… thank you, Captain.”
I nodded and looked around again. “I wish I had more to tell you but… I don’t. Now, if you will excuse me?”
Without waiting for a response, I turned and headed for the ladder.
—-
Back on the crew deck, I took a deep breath, hit the annunciator on Varan’s cabin, and opened the door.
They were sitting beside each other and apparently in a close conversation when I stepped in. Varan looked up in annoyance.
“You could have waited for me to answer the door.”
“We don’t have time.” I quickly filled them in on the incoming inspection team. “Just… think carefully about what you tell them.”
He smirked. “Why? Afraid of someone finally calling you on your biowaste? I’m looking forward to telling them everything we’ve been doing for the past few months.”
“Help yourself,” I said through gritted teeth. “But remember, I have Gray’s logs of what happened a week ago. Do you think you have something more than the grievances of someone who just lost their position for pulling a gun on their Captain? Hells, even here, that won’t look good. So… decide how bad you want things to go for you.”
He laughed. “I don’t care! I just want to see you taken down from that pedestal you’ve put yourself on.”
“Be careful what you ask for.”
“Hey, I’ll tell them about the Doctor and her forecasts! Or maybe Saahna’s spoilsports? Or even the fact that we shouldn’t have our status with Tlianke? How do you think that will go over!”
I closed my eyes, partially to block out my reaction. Varan had been a friend. Until last week. Or… had I just never realized the actual situation.
I took a deep breath and then looked back at him. “Say whatever you want,” I said flatly. “We’ll just see how it works out.”
“Yeah, and what will these inspectors think when they find that you have been keeping us prisoner in this cabin all week?”
“I’ll show them the logs.” I turned and left. “Say whatever you want. Just… think more than a few hours ahead for once.” I stepped back into the lounge, and the door slid shut before he could reply.
—-
And, as if on cue, the inner door to the airlock irised open. Five sophonts stepped out, all human. Two were in full combat armor and carrying ACRs, while the others wore subdued uniforms. Saahna had just entered from the Bridge, but they looked around, and their leader was already walking toward me.
“Welcome to the Grayswandir I said, holding out my hand and feigning politeness as best as I could. “Captain Kodai. And you are?”
He ignored the hand and stopped just in front of me. “Captain Kodai. I am Leiutenant Kalverson of Mupikaa COACC. We need to conduct an examination of your ship.”
He paused, looked around, then looked back at me. “A very thorough investigation. Unless you want to save us some time, just tell us where your illegal cargo is.”
I stared at him for a moment, then lowered my hand. “I’m sorry, Mr. Kalverson, but I am unaware of any ‘illegal’ cargo on board. Unless one of our freight clients snuck something on board that evaded our sensors. So, I am afraid I can’t help you.”
I had deliberately ignored his rank. I wasn’t in a mood to be any more polite than I had to be.
He sighed, pulled out his comp, and tapped on it. “Then, will you allow my colleagues here to examine your ship? Your entire ship?”
I feigned a smile. “I run a Free Trader. This isn’t my first inspection. You will have the full cooperation of my crew and myself.”
“Good,” he replied while still looking at his comp, gesturing to the people with him. Inspector Aftern will thoroughly interview your passengers, while Inspector Xaanten will interview your crew. I personally will be inspecting your cargo. And your air-raft. And we will start there.”
I frowned, then shrugged and gestured toward the ladder. “This way.”
“No.” He smiled and shook his head. “You will remain here with our security detail. We don’t need you or your presence influencing what anyone around you might say.”
“Wait, this is my ship!”
“And I am sure you have no secrets to keep, so you should have no reason to worry.”
I looked around, trying to come up with a response, but Saahna stepped forward. “I am Second Officer Saahna Denan. Also, our security officer. I will be happy to show you around.”
Kalverson looked at her, then nodded. “Your air-raft is on your upper deck?”
“Yes.”
“Then we will start there.” He gestured to the ladder.
Saahna glanced at me, then headed for the ladder. Kalverson followed after gesturing to the other members of his team.
“Aften, you talk to the passengers. Start with Ms. Kane. Xaanetn, the crew, starting with Mr. Holt. Once I have finished upstairs, we will go through their cargo. Parkson and Talis, you keep an eye on our Captain here. Ensure he doesn’t try to communicate with or talk to anyone.”
I tensed at that but couldn’t think of anything else I could do beyond hoping everyone stuck to the facts. I knew this was about the Stetons, and no one on board knew anything about them. Well, not directly. I just hoped everyone would remember that.
One of the inspectors came up to me. “We show Do’rex Kapan as your first officer. Where would we find them?”
“He’s still on the bridge, I believe.”
He nodded. “And we have access?”
“Certainly.” I looked up at the ceiling. “Gray? The Mupikaa inspection team has full access to all of the ship. Allow them any access they need.”
“Confirm,” she replied.
I gestured. “There’s the iris.” I looked around to see the other Inspector starting to climb the ladder. “Hey, are you looking for Ms. Kane?”
She stopped and turned to face me. “Yes? Is she not a passenger?”
“Not exactly.” I pointed over my shoulder at the door I had heard open. “She’s in there. Varan Holt is in there as well.”
She frowned. “You allow passengers in your crew cabins?”
“Not usually, no. Feel free to ask both of them how they arranged that. Then come to me, and I’ll show you some logs.”
She frowned but took a few steps away from the ladder. “We need to interview everyone individually.”
“Fine. Use the lounge here. I’ll just head to my cabin.”
“We need to keep you where we can watch you.”
“OK, have one of your people come in with me. You can watch me watch bad net-vids.”
“We’ll need to examine your cabin as well.”
“Fine!” I pointed. “Just… do whatever you want.”
“Actually, it would be easier if you waited on board the MK012. If you don’t mind.”
I did, but there was nothing I could do. One of the combat armored sophonts had stepped forward. “Will you accompany me, please?” he spoke through the external speaker.
I really didn’t like this but… what else could I do. I nodded, then walked toward the iris. The guard followed.
—-
I spent hours just sitting in a small chamber on the SDB. It was obviously intended to be used as something other than a waiting area. It was just a bunch of suit and equipment lockers. And I couldn’t even look at my comp; I tried, and someone took it from me. I now had several sophonts with me.
I just hoped they were as bored as I was.
There was a chronometer visible, and about four hours passed. I was about to try to move around by complaining of needing a bio-break when the airlock cycled. The remaining four members of the inspection team entered. Three of them took a lift up, but Kalverson stopped in front of me.
“You lead an exciting life, Captain Kodai.”
I shrugged, trying to hide my irritation. “I’m a Traveller. It comes with the lifestyle.”
He sighed and pulled up his comp, tapping on it.
“Tell me about the Stetons.”
“They had applied for passage on my ship, and I had accepted them. Then, the local authorities on Girar started giving me problems. They were trying to make it difficult for me to get them on board, but I figured out how.” I shrugged. “I was irritated and determined to get them on board just to annoy whoever was trying to keep us from carrying them.”
“And then they attacked you.”
“That’s what it seems like, but… I didn’t buy it. They weren’t suicidal. If they had boarded normally, then things would have been a lot worse. We survived because their cargo wound up in our air-raft instead of the main cargo bay, so the effects of their biophage were limited. In retrospect, I think the people at Girar were trying to help us somehow. We are one of their preferred trade partners, after all.”
“A status that your crew has admitted that you gained illegally.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Never look a gift eohippus in the mouth.”
He sighed, looked around, and sat on a bench facing me. “Captain Kodai, do you realize how big of a problem you have given me?”
“Oh, like I’m not having problems? Hells, you stopped us!”
He sat, flipping through his comp for a bit. Finally, he snapped it shut and looked at me.
“You realize we could just blow your ship out of space.”
My stomach tightened, but I kept my voice as steady as possible. “We haven’t done anything! Why?”
“That’s the problem. You haven’t.” He opened his comp again.
“What is your connection with the Ontology Media Group?”
“We carried a few of their people, and they were impressed by our service. They took a liking to our Steward, who runs a netcast of her own.”
“Yes. They did. And they have already posted reports on the net about your ship and what you have been doing. Just like there are reports of your involvement with the formation of the Hinterworlds Alliance, your actions at Gimisapun, and even the attack on you after leaving Girar. Yes, the Ontology Media Group told everyone about that. You aren’t just another ship passing through Mupikaa. Too many sophonts know who you are.”
He sighed. “We welcome everyone here. We only survive as an independent entity because anyone can trade here. Then… you show up.
“You are showing transponders for the Imperium, the Hinterworlds Alliance, and the Tlianke Confederation. We’re trying to keep a neutral status with all of them. Plus a few others that you aren’t obviously supporting. And one of those ‘others’ used up a bunch of the goodwill they had gained with us to get us to board you. And destroy you, if necessary.”
I was gritting my teeth. “We haven’t done anything!”
“Really? Do you really think that you haven’t done things? Well, you’re wrong. You and your ship are getting a reputation, Captain. I have never seen a list of activities like yours outside of a Captain Spaceways episode. And that is where I have a problem.”
I sensed a break and focused on it. “Captain Spaceways is fun, but it certainly doesn’t represent what actual Travelling is like. I don’t have a greater plan; I’m just trying to do what is best for me and my ship and crew at any given time.”
He was nodding. “Yes. I have realized that. Even those members of your crew who would like nothing more than to see you fail cannot give us any actionable information. At least, not anything that would cause us here to take any action against you. Again, we welcome everyone here. Our entire economy is based on that. You, as a Free Trader, must know how that works.”
I was confused. What is he trying to say? But, I nodded.
“I get it. That is why we are shifting to support systems like yours.”
“What do you mean.”
“Look, the Imperium has forgotten what it was. Things are going to be bad out here. I know that systems like yours never wanted us here. But I suspect that you don’t want the Solomani here either. You want to be independent and able to pursue your own agenda.”
He started to say something, but I leaned forward. “The Amalfi Coast is Solomani, right? And they called in whatever favors to get you to interdict us.”
I stood up and walked toward him. “We get that. I get that. We aim to set up a trade route, a circuit that we can make that will support as many systems as possible. Including Mupikaa.” I paused, but he said nothing and only nodded.
“I don’t care about the Imperium. You know who I am; look up my homeworld if you want. And I’m not actively trying to support either the Alliance or the Confederation. But I’ve been convinced that things will worsen over the next decade. And ships, like the Grayswandir, are the ones that will keep systems like Mupikaa alive during that time. Short dusk or a long night, you will need ships like us!”
I found my seat again. “I can’t stop what you decide to do with us. But… however, you decide to deal with us will affect your future traffic here. You said yourself that our ‘exploits’ are being broadcast elsewhere. Maybe only a few other ships will change their routes based on what happens to us, but…”
I leaned forward again. I could tell that I had his full attention, as well as the attention of the guard. “The Imperium is tearing itself apart. It will be a decade or more before it even thinks about looking at the Hinterworlds again. So… what will you do? Yeah, there is the Alliance, the Confederation, the Anubians, and the Ral Rantans. And, of course, the Sols, the Bandersnatch in the sector. So… if you really want to stay independent, you need to pick your allies.”
I was still sick to my stomach. This could have been better. But I hoped I had read things correctly and could still talk my way out of this.
Kalverson looked at me for a few moments, then, with a exhale of breath I hadn’t noticed he was holding, he turned back to me.
“I thought this was a bad idea.”
“What?” I asked. I was trying not to show the wave of relief that had passed over me.
“We were asked to intercept and inspect you. For a pair of passengers that we were told you were smuggling in. Look, like I said, we welcome anyone here. We don’t want word getting out that we are stopping ships for anything less than suspicion of WMDs or Ancient Artifacts. But we were told to intercept you.
“We were only told to look for the Stetons and to find anything else we could. Which… wasn’t much. Yes, you have done things that have really made some of the sophonts on your ship unhappy, but nothing that is anything that we can really act against. Without making it obvious that we were singling you out.” He paused. “You have too many people looking at you now to do anything arbitrary against you.”
I fought back a smile.
“So…” he said, flipping open his comp. “We have a few fines for you.”
“What?”
“Nothing serious, just… something to make this intercept worth our time.” He looked at me levelly as he said that.
I nodded slowly. “Well… let me know what the violations are, and we will strive to resolve them once we get down.”
He nodded, then started rattling off a list of minor, technical issues.
—-
I noted what he relayed, then indicated that I was free to go. I returned to the Grayswandir.
The crew lounge was empty when I cycled through the airlock. I almost immediately heard a clunk as the umbilical detached between us and the other ship. Do’rex started speaking over the internal comms.
“We have been granted permission to resume our approach to Mupikaa. We apologize for the delay. Planetfall should be in approximately… 11 hours.”
I stopped long enough to grab a pair of beers and a stim-stick from the dispenser, then entered the Bridge.
Saahna looked back as I entered. She started to push her seat back, then paused. “Was that… are we… what happened?”
“Give me a few.” I handed one of the beers to her. She frowned and waved away, then handed the crunchstick to Do’rex, who immediately took it and started peeling it open. I climbed into the Captain’s Seat.
“So… what happened?”
“Our Solomani ‘friends’ on the Amalfi Coast seem to have called in a lot of favors to have us intercepted. They are apparently really convinced that the Stetons were on board. I wonder how important the information they found really is. But… they aren’t here, and we don’t know what that was. And, apparently, no one on board had more information to give them. So… they let us go.”
“I’m still not happy about this.”
“Neither am I. But… the Inspector all of you probably met isn’t happy either. We… may have come out of this in a better situation than I could have hoped.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, we’ll talk about it later.” I looked over at Do’rex. “You got this?”
He clicked. “Navigator Denan has given me an appropriate approach to get us into a proper parking orbit. This will take about 10 hours. Once there, we can plot our descent.”
“Good. Are we on our approach?”
There was a pause as he tapped on his console. “Yes. We should achieve orbit in 10.47 hours.”
“Great. So 10 and a half.” I opened internal comms.
“Hello, everyone. This is the Captain up on the Bridge. As First Officer Do’rex has just told you, we should achieve orbit around Mupikaa in about 10 hours or so. It will take us less than an hour after that to land. So… I apologize for the one-day delay, but I am sure that all of you realize that this inspection was something we could not have prepared for. But, we are on approach now. Please return to your cabins and enjoy your final day on the Grayswandir.
Do’rex was already shutting down his console. “I assume you have no need of my services at the moment?”
I shook my head. “Yeah, get some sleep. I don’t expect any further problems, but we do need to land.”
He clicked. “Certainly. And I suspect I will need to deal with a new set of concerns from Steward Tharis. I will… attempt to allay as many of those as possible.”
I hesitated a bit longer than I should have but continued. “Yeah. I’ve got more info, but I’ll share it at the post-landing meeting tomorrow.”
“Certainly.” He ducked under the seat and exited the Bridge.
Saahna was looking at me. “Are we really OK?”
“Yeah. Better than I thought we would be. But… tomorrow. OK?”
She grimaced but pushed her seat back and ducked under mine as well. “Up here long?”
“Just need to update everything for today.”
She sighed. “I’ll let you know if I’m still awake.”
“Yeah.”
“It… hasn’t been a good day here. We have problems.”
“So I have been told. I’ll talk about it. Tomorrow.”
She held my gaze a bit more, then exited the Bridge. I opened the beer I had brought for her and took a long drink.
Well, we’re committed now.