Privateer Tales 3: Parley (13 page)

I kept the pistol up near my chest. I wanted to give myself the best chance I could at actually getting a shot off. My confidence with the fletchette had grown significantly in the last several weeks. Marny worked with me on the ship and I was able to get at least thirty minutes of practice in every day, even while we were on shore leave. The nice thing about the flechette was you could practice just about anywhere, printing practice ammo to fit the situation.

From the corner of my eye I caught a slight movement, but didn’t want to give away my position by reacting too quickly. I stayed completely still, scanning the area, but couldn’t find anything. I thought someone could be up and to the right. Frak, maybe I was just hallucinating, too amped up on expectations.

The attack on the first holo player happened in the blink of an eye. A small, lithe figure, dressed entirely in black (imagine that), jumped silently from an upper level, rolled forward, extended a long black pole and thwacked the holo actor’s head violently. I lowered my gun in her direction but before I could get a bead on her she’d vaulted back up over the alcove and disappeared.

She - I presumed it was a she based on her relative size - had been on the ground for no more than a couple of seconds and made no more noise than a slight scuffing. She might as well have been operating in zero-g as easily as she’d vaulted up and out of the way. I was starting to consider the openness of this encounter as a disadvantage to me.

I imagined she would make the same type of strike on the second alcove. No way had she seen me. I lowered my gun to try and fire at her, but her back was to me.

“Nice try, cheesecake.” A rough whisper in my right ear, just before I felt the pressure of a soft object swipe across my throat. My helmet lit up blue. I looked over at the chiseled face of a man several centimeters taller than myself. He had bright blue eyes that were alight with amusement at taking me so easily.

I nodded, not wanting him to think me a poor sport. How he had so easily dropped in on me, I had no idea. I wondered if that had been the entire gambit. They’d discovered me the first time I’d spotted movement. Then the black-suited woman kept me distracted at the same time she took out another combatant. I vowed I wouldn’t ignore a warning like that again.

“You still up?” Nick asked through the comm.

“No. I had a slight warning but really didn’t stand a chance.”

“I didn’t see anything. My helmet just went blue right after I felt a thump on the back of my head.”

“You get a look at ‘em?” I asked.

“Yes. Guy about your height, really muscular, like Belcose.”

“One who got me was tall, fairly muscular. I also got a good look at their third. I think a woman, small and incredibly fast.”

“Marny still up?”

“Yup. She’d be on channel if she wasn’t”

“I’m down, damn it.” I was surprised. Marny wasn’t prone to cussing. “Got suckered. I saw a big old boy and I wanted to get into it with him. Someone tapped me out right then and there with a thrown weapon.”

“Sorry Marny. I’m about to re-enter.”

“My fault, Cap, won’t happen again.”

The next few scenarios ran pretty much the same way. I got a couple of shots off but never came close to hitting anyone. It was always a misdirection. One of them would get my attention in one direction and then someone else would take me out from another. I needed a better approach.

The final scenario was set in a heavily wooded forest. Ugh, I had virtually no experience in the forest. The scenario map showed two buildings; a barn and a building next to a stream. I’d been pretty consistent in trying to set traps, waiting for someone to attack a holographic combatant. I wondered if they might be keying off my predictable choices. This team had probably run enough scenarios that they could easily figure out where the holo players would be set up. By now, they knew right where to find me based on how the holo players were reacting.

It was time to mix things up a bit. I felt like this team was relying on the predictability of the holo players too much. Maybe I could use that against them. Nothing else had worked, so it was worth a try.

My understanding of the holo players over the last few days was that they operated in a limited area. They would path around; some using a linear path, some just a set of boundaries, like a room, hallway or small building. Marny had said that the holo players responded to us. If I had enough time, I was pretty sure I could make something work.

“Nick, on my six!” I said.

“Roger.” Nick ran out from behind a tree and we sprinted down the road to the other side of a bridge and into one of the old wooden buildings we’d seen on the map. As I expected, there were four holo players in the building on the first level.

“You willing to be bait?” I asked.

“Can you take one out?”

“Better odds, I think.”

“Let’s do it,” he said.

I explained my plan and we took our positions. Nick hid behind a large wooden cupboard. It was a good hiding spot and would give him a chance in a normal scenario. Of course, this wasn’t normal.

I held my pistol as if I were pointing it at someone directly across from me. I’d seen holo players lining up like this a million times over the last few days. I picked my route and started pathing it faithfully. It was all about repetition. I kept my eyes alert but didn’t move my head side to side, like someone who’d been thwacked a dozen times in the last couple of hours.

One moment I was walking up the stairs and the next I heard a slight scuffling below, near Nick’s position. I spun around and fired just above Nick’s position on full automatic. The figure who’d just thwacked Nick with a Bo Staff was launching themselves up the stairs at me. His helmet lit up blue.

“Frak!” He gave me a quick salute and sat down. My helmet lit up blue just after I felt a soft thud on the back of it. It had required sacrificing both Nick and myself to take out one of them, but I felt like we’d still achieved the impossible.

In the end, we’d played scenarios, not real life. Our opponents had been relying too much on the weaknesses and limitations of the holo players. For me, that was the crack in their armor.

“Come down. It’s an impasse.” I heard a woman’s alto voice call from outside the building. “You’re past my weapon range and you’ll never hit us.”

I looked at the extremely muscular man who was seated on the wooden stairs. He shrugged at me as if to say, why not? I gave him my hand to help him up. He surely didn’t need my help, but he accepted it. I have always liked a good sport. The three of us exited the building and walked toward the clearing.

“Mano a mano takes all,” Marny called from a nearby tree.

“Accepted,” the small woman said.

The woman had no sooner responded when Marny swung down easily from a lower branch of the tree and into the clearing. She landed in a three point stance with her eyes locked on the small figure. In her free hand, Marny held a long black Bo Staff. I had no idea where she’d come up with the weapon. It was the second time I’d seen her with this staff in a combat situation. The first had been on the pirate base near Baru Manush.

The small woman didn’t hesitate and launched an attack at Marny. Her speed was difficult to follow, the staff she held spun around her body at angles that were visibly impossible to identify. It was mostly just a blur. A fourth figure joined us - the taller man who had taken me out so silently in the first scenario.

Marny gave ground to the woman who was less than half of her own mass. She was obviously trying to judge the enigma that approached. Making her decision, Marny stepped into the whirlwind. The staffs connected with a resounding crack. Having successfully stopped the maelstrom, Marny pushed her advantage and started methodically striking and trying to overpower her adversary.

The small woman made a surprising move and dropped her staff to the ground. She did this at the same time Marny swung through with a hard strike. Marny was pulled forward, off balance. Up to this point, Marny had been hammering the smaller woman, and with each blow, advancing.

The small woman jumped forward, placing one of her feet on the side of Marny’s calf, using it as a step to bring her even with Marny. She unloaded a vicious blow into Marny’s helmet with her fist. Helmet or not, I would have gone down. Marny staggered but didn’t fall and had the presence of mind to use the smaller woman’s momentum and her own over-commitment to allow her body to spin around.

The woman was thrown forward as Marny gave an extra push with the back of her staff. I recognized the next move as the woman, instead of landing, rolled over her shoulder and back up to a standing position. It was a basic Aikido maneuver that one of my own adversaries had taught me not so many weeks before.

Marny, seeing her opponent without a staff, threw her own aside. She gave the smaller woman the universal signal for ‘bring it’ and beckoned her forward.

The woman gave a small forward nod and brought her fists up in a classic boxing stance. It looked ridiculous. She was giving up forty kilos and twenty centimeters. Marny took it plenty seriously and adopted a wary martial artist stance. Apparently, the woman was bluffing since as soon as she saw Marny’s stance, she also switched up.

She launched herself at Marny in a flurry of blows. Marny defended, moving at speeds that I thought were beyond her. For nearly a minute the two women traded strikes. The smaller trading two for Marny’s every one. Their fatigue was evident, especially Marny’s.

The bout finally ended when Marny slightly overplayed one of her strikes. The smaller woman ducked under and slithered up Marny like a snake in a tree, ending up behind her, with her legs wrapped around Marny’s chest. One arm was hooked under Marny’s jaw and the other levered it like a vice.

“Submit?” she asked breathily.

“Frak. I submit.” The woman immediately let go and dropped to the ground, sitting unceremoniously. Marny fell back heavily and lay out on the ground next to her.

“Marny Bertrand.” Marny held her hand over to the seated woman.

“Tali Liszt.”

The heavily muscled man, whom I’d lured, using Nick as bait, turned to me with an easy smile and stuck his hand out to me. “Ben Rheel, friends call me Jammin.”

“Liam Hoffen,” I replied. “And this is Nick James.”

“Jordy Kelti.” The taller of the two joined us. At two meters tall, he was significantly taller than all of us. He was also well muscled but not to the extent of Ben. “Nice takedown on Jammin. Maybe we grab a beer and you tell us how you did that.”

“Just got lucky.” I definitely felt that way.

Jammin looked from Jordy Kelti back to me. “That wasn’t luck.” It was a statement of fact. There was no challenge or question, simply a statement. I didn’t know how to respond, so I looked back toward the two women on the ground.

“That was quite a show,” I said.

“Yeah, Tali’s going to be pissed,” Jordy said, chuckling.

“How’s that?” Nick asked. “She came out on top.”

“Tali’s more of a one-shot, one-kill type of gal. The fact that it took her seventy-six seconds is going to really chafe her.”

“I had seventy-eight,” Jammin said.

We walked over to where the two women were recovering. Marny sat up as we approached.

“Everyone still whole over here?” Jordy asked.

This earned him a glare from the smaller woman, Tali.

“Aye,” Marny said. “But I’m gonna need a patch for my jaw tonight.” She nursed the side of her face.

“Are you sure? It felt like an iron plate to me.” The woman smiled admiringly at Marny.

I held my hand out to Tali as Nick had already made it to Marny. She accepted the help and it only took the lightest pull on my part and she sprung to her feet.

“Liam Hoffen.”

“Shite, no kidding. Tali Liszt,” she answered. I looked at her, slightly confused, but pushed on. “And my buddy, Nick James.”

“We got a thing going tonight, Captain. You guys join us for barbeque?” Tali asked. This caused me to do a double take. I quickly replayed the conversation and couldn’t find a reference to my being a Captain. Tali obviously noticed my confused look. “You show up. I’ll explain. Say, 0600?” She pinched an address and tossed it at me.

My HUD showed the location to be well south of Puskar Stellar in what appeared to be the middle of nowhere. Odder and odder. I looked at Nick and Marny, who both nodded their agreement.

“We’ll be there,” I said.

“Until then,” She nodded to us and walked to the nearby exit, Jammin and Jordy following along in her wake.

“Well, that kinda spiked my weird-o-meter,” I said.

When we exited the building we watched three grav-bikes flying away at high speed, all in different directions.

“You know her?” Marny asked.

“Not at all.”

“Should make for an interesting night,” Nick offered.

A familiar silver cab arrived and we loaded up.

“I’ve a tonne of things to get settled this afternoon,” I said.

“Did you get investors lined up?” Nick asked.

“Contracts are in your queue. I sent Ordena the rough drafts yesterday. I think you just need to accept them. Sam’s been pretty great. We should formalize some sort of arrangement with him in the future. I’d never have been able to put this together without him.”

“Sam?” Nick asked.

“That’s what Ada’s dad goes by.”

“Sure, if we could have someone putting together loads for the tug, that’d be worth something. I got a ping from the shipyard.
Sterra's Gift
will be ready by 0900 tomorrow. Have you finalized the load for Jeratorn?”

“I’ll do that when we get to the hotel. I didn’t want to commit until I knew when we’d have the ship. What about another crew?”

“I’m not sure about that yet,” Marny said. “If there’s a chance of a crap-storm I don’t think we want someone we don’t know.”

“Yeah, frak. Makes sense.” I felt like we were flying short-handed, but she was right. “How about the chandler? I’d like to go heavy on supplies.”

“Thinking about staying out a while?” Marny asked.

“Not really, but I’ve got a weird feeling about this trip.”

“Weird like you think it is going to go easy? ‘Cause as far as I know you’ve never actually made it to a single destination without getting into it.”

“Hah. No. It’s just Qiu being tight-lipped about the mission and Belcose dropping Harry Flark’s name.”

“I wouldn’t think the Navy would be quite so accommodating if they weren't expecting trouble. I’ll bump up the supplies,” Marny said.

We made it to the hotel and walked up to the room without saying much. I had a million things that I needed to get done and I imagined Marny and Nick felt the same.

“Ready to go about 1700?” Nick asked as I was ducking into my room.

“Think we need to bring anything?” I asked.

“I’ll get the hotel to put together something for us,” he said.

Open comm, Qiu Loo
. I shut the door to my room.

“Loo.”

I mentally bristled at her terse greeting. She had denied visual comm, which wasn’t totally unexpected.

“Sunday, 1700 at Coolidge ship yard. Work for you?”

“I’ll be there. Anything else?”

“Nope.”

“Loo out.” She terminated comm. At least I had that out of the way.

Open comm, Ada Chen
.

“Hiyas, Liam.” She opened the video channel. It was refreshing to see her cheery smile.

“Heya, Ada. Can you arrange to get the barge-string ready to go by Sunday, 1700 or so?”

“Sure. Am I soloing it?”

“Can you load solo and we’ll meet you? We’ll be leaving Coolidge shipyard at 1730, give or take.”

“Any reason for me not to get rolling first thing Sunday? You’d be able to catch me by midday Monday.”

“I guess it’s up to you. I just don’t want you too far out without an escort.”

“You sound like
Dad. Nothing’s going to happen this close to Mars, especially since we aren’t filing a plan with anyone.”

“Jeratorn Co-Op knows we’re coming.”

“Pirates aren’t interested in empty strings, we're safe on the way out.”

“I suppose. Okay, sure. If you want to get rolling early, send us navigation data-stream and we’ll catch up.
For my sake, though, don’t sail directly there. Make a couple of legs along the way.”

“That’s going to cost fuel,” Ada waggled her virtual finger at me.

“That’s a cost I’m willing to pay. I’ll tell Marny you’re disembarking early. She’s taking care of the chandlery order.”

“Great! Happy sailing, Liam. See you Monday.”

“Roger that, Ada. Happy sailing.”
Close comm
.

I shot a quick comm over to Marny about Ada taking off early. I didn’t want to interrupt my work.

Open comm Sam Chen
.

“Sam Chen,” he answered.

“Hi, Sam. We should be in Jeratorn in sixteen days. You want to start firming up the load?”

“Not yet, Captain, but I’ll have it done before you get there.”

“Did you get the contracts back from Nick yet?”

“They just arrived. You guys must be working this afternoon.”

“Finishing up a few last minute details.”

“Captain, you take good care of my girl out there.”

“I will, Sam. Let me know if you need anything. We’ll be under hard burn by 1730 Sunday.”

“Understood. Be safe.”

“Roger that.”
Close comm
.

Run TradeNet saved query for Jeratorn. Optimize for arrival on or before eighteen days from Sunday 1800. Order by profit, eliminate bond in excess of two hundred fifty thousand
.

The returned list of loads was even longer than it had been two days ago when I had last checked. The available profit was even higher, but so were the required bonds. It wasn’t a good sign. High bonds made me believe the shippers were building into their calculus that loads might not actually make it.

Open group comm Marny, Nick, Ada
.

One by one they popped up into my vision, the AI placing their avatars next to mine.

“What’s up, Cap?” Marny asked. All three were looking at me.

“I’m not sure. I guess I’m just having some second thoughts.”

“What’s bugging you?” Nick asked.

“Aren’t we contracted to the Navy to do this?” Ada asked before I could
respond to Nick.

“Nothing specific, Nick. It’s things like Jeratorn paying really high and … well … just a bad feeling I’ve got. And, yes Ada, we’re contracted, but I’d rather deal with that than push anyone into something we know is wrong.”

“So, you’re saying we’re getting paid too much and that’s got you spooked?” Marny said.

“Well, when you say it that way it sounds ridiculous.”

“Aye,” she replied.

“Equal votes. Anyone want out? No hard feelings if you do,” I had to get this out in the open.

Ada was first to answer, “Liam, there might be something going on, but that’s always the case. Listen to your feelings, but canceling the run isn’t the right thing. Be prepared. Take precautions. Sailing is always a risk.”

“I’m in,” Nick said.

“Gotta agree with Ada and Nick on this,” Marny said. “Cap, nothing ever goes as planned. You have to put yourself out there.”

I sighed, kind of wishing someone would have bailed. But, at the same time, I would also have been disappointed.

“Roger that. Game on. Sorry for the last minute jitters.”
Close comm
.

Select first load plan. Finalize contracts
.

If everything went without a problem, we’d earn seventy-five thousand for this, more than we were going to make for the ore delivery. In actuality, there were three different loads and they all needed to be picked up in Puskar Stellar and delivered to Jeratorn. We could pick them up as soon as
Sterra's Gift
was ready to go.

Having finished my duties, I rejoined Nick and Marny in the living room. When we finally left, I was going to definitely miss this spacious suite. It had nearly the same number of square meters of floor space as all of
Sterra's Gift
, the main difference being every square meter in the suite was made for relaxation. I would miss that bed and shower, to be sure.

“Is there a time slot I can take
Sterra's Gift
down to Puskar Stellar tomorrow? Ideally, it’d be afternoon so I could bring Tabby along.” Nick held up his hand to ward me off a minute.

“Explain replaced.” Nick was clearly talking to someone virtually. I wasn’t used to looking for whatever clues a person gave when they were using an earwig. I did notice, however, that the earwig cable running along his cheek was slowly pulsing green. It made me wonder if mine did that.

Nick listened for a while and finished up. “Include replicator specs? … Right … No, I get it, I’ll take it up with my Captain. Thanks for the update. Yup, 0900.” I watched Nick’s earwig blink red and then back to its normal black color.

“What was all that about?” I asked.

“Shipyard. They decided to replace our turret,” Nick said, frowning.

“I don’t follow, it’s not their ship.”

“Right, their project engineer missed that.”

“Did he look at it? Does it look like a Navy ship? Can they undo it?” I asked.

“Not in time and he didn’t see the ship, he’s planet-side. I think it confused him since the turret we had installed was Navy issue. He said it’s a pretty decent upgrade and doesn’t require ammo.”

“Oh, so maybe I shouldn’t be complaining?” I asked.

“Marny?” Nick asked.

“I’d have to see the specs, but the general difference is laser blaster turrets are faster with less punch. No ammo, but they require an energy store and you can run that thing dry.”

“How fast?”

“
Like I said, I need to see the specs, but probably seven or eight minutes of continuous rapid fire and then you’ll be down to a much slower rate of fire. You never truly run dry, since the ship is continuously charging it, but the fire rate is terrible at that point.”

“Hah, dumb it down a little, good or bad?”

“For us, I think it’s great. It eliminates the crow’s nest. Almost all of these babies are operated remotely. You’d puke if you spun around inside one of those bad boys. That puts the gunner on the bridge, which is better armored. But, if we run into something big, the laser blasters have difficulty ripping through the armor.”

“How big?”

“I wouldn’t want to run into anything much bigger than
Sterra's Gift
without a full load of missiles.”

“Okay, it sounds like they’re doing us a favor, other than they probably took our ammo. Did they give us a load of missiles like we agreed?”