Privateer Tales 3: Parley (17 page)

“I’d think the three of you would have palm access and no one else.”

What she was saying made sense, I looked to Marny and she nodded affirmatively. “How about we try it for this trip? If we don’t like it, we can adjust.”

Later that night on the bridge with Tabby sitting on my lap, I felt a pang of guilt. In the rush to get everything going, I’d not done a great job of paying attention to her. She’d been good about it, but I still felt badly.

“Hey, I’m sorry. It gets hectic when we’re heading out. I’m not being very attentive.”

“Are you kidding? This is so much fun. You do this every day now?”

“Yeah, I suppose.”

“Cool.”

“We can sleep in the captain’s quarters. We’re not underway and the ship will do what’s necessary if something comes up,” I said.

She was obviously getting tired and nodded her approval. The bridge door automatically closed behind me.

The next morning I woke up at 0200 and slipped out of bed. I palmed my way onto the bridge and checked system statuses. I’d never seen so many green systems on the screen before. I engaged the return navigation plan. I wanted to be docked by the time everyone got up and rolling. I grabbed a cup of coffee from the galley.

At 0600 we docked in an open berth at the Coolidge shipyard. I informed the docking master that we’d be gone within twenty-four hours and he seemed satisfied. I sent a comm to Qiu and asked if she would like to get going early and let her know she could board at her leisure.

Tabby joined me at 0830. “Hey, you left me.”

“Sorry, I had to bring us back.”

“We’re at Coolidge?”

“Yeah, Marny and Tali are off on a last minute supply run.”

“You mind if I get going a little early today? You’ve got a lot going on and I could use some more time with the books.”

“Am I running you off?”

“Only a little. It’s great, Liam. You’re really in your element here. I’m so proud of you.”

At 1030 Tabby and I walked over to the elevator.

“Probably see you in a month or so?” I said.

“Send me messages. It’s hard for me to find privacy to respond, but I sure love getting them.”

“Give ‘em hell, Tabby. I love you.”

“I know Liam. I feel the same way about you.”

She stepped into the elevator and just like that she was gone. It was a long walk back to the ship.

At 1145 Qiu pinged me to let me know she’d be on board by 1330. And finally by 1430 everyone was accounted for.

“All sections report status for immediate departure,” I announced over ship wide communication.

Marny and Nick both replied immediately with a green status. By taking off five hours early, we would overtake Ada and
Adela Chen
by midday Monday. I didn’t know what I would do with myself for the next two weeks while we were sailing. Nothing on the ship needed repair and getting a return load from Jeratorn was still ridiculously easy.

“Permission to enter the bridge.” Nick’s voice came through the comm next to the bridge door.

“Granted,” I was still feeling moody from leaving Tabby behind.

“What are you thinking for bridge shifts?” he asked.

“I was thinking about integrating Marny and doing four hour shifts, but making every third shift a six hour shift. It’ll break up the day.”

“Yup. I’ll pass it on to Marny. You doing okay?”

“Yeah, it’s just hard,” I said.

“She’s worth it.”

There it was. He was right, but it didn’t make it any easier.

“I’ll take the shift until 1800, then you and Marny can take the next two. That work?”

“Yup.”

At 1800, Nick relieved me, carrying a plate with him. “I think they’re holding dinner for you,” he said.

My next shift would be at 0400. It’d be a hard one to stay awake for, but if I only had to go four hours I figured I could do it. I joined the rest of the crew at the table in the mess.

“Cap, any update on when we’ll overtake Ada?” Marny asked.

“Just after 1315 tomorrow,” I said. “Welcome aboard, Lieutenant Loo.”

“Thank you, Captain Hoffen.”

“I trust the accommodations are to your liking.”

“More than satisfactory. Thank you.”

“Great. Shall we eat?” I’d noticed no one was eating. I’d heard about the ritual of waiting for the captain before starting a meal and I’d even experienced it on the
Kuznetsov
with Commander Sterra. I didn’t think it would apply to me. I appreciated the gesture.

“Don’t have to tell me twice,” Marny said.

“Marny, mind if I ask you something kind of personal?” Tali asked.

“Fire away.”

“How much of your jaw got replaced?”

“Not sure that’s good dinner conversation - anyone squeamish?” She looked around the table. I hadn’t thought she was serious when it’d been brought up before.

“I know I’d like to hear about it,” I said. I was also interested in the idea that a bone could be replaced and wondered if that was possible for my foot.

“On the left side, everything from the eye socket down and most of the top jaw as well as the entire lower jaw.”

“Synthetic skin, sinuses, the works?” Tali was obviously enthralled.

“Aye. If you look real close you can see where skin is matched back in with my own.” Marny ran her finger along her cheek, leaning toward Tali.

Tali whistled in appreciation. “That’s nice work.”

“Mind if I ask how much of your arm is your own?” Marny asked.

I interrupted. “How do you know about that?”

“Cap, she hit me hard enough to shatter her hand a dozen times over. Initially, I was more worried for her.”

“Is that why you didn’t bruise?” I asked.

“It actually does bruise but it’s not anywhere near as noticeable. If I use the right kind of patch it heals most things overnight.”

“Entire arm, shoulder, socket, clavicle, shoulder-blade, ribs and part of my spine,” Tali said somberly.

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Marny replied.

“It was tough for a while, but like everything else, you either let it get you or you don’t. Right Liam?”

Tali’s question caught me off guard. I finally answered, “Seriously. I’m done moping. It’s just hard when I have to say good bye.” I didn’t think I was bringing everyone down.

“Uh, Cap, I think she’s talking about your foot,” Marny said.

“Oh …”

The next morning 0400 came unmercifully early. I palmed my way onto the bridge.

“Captain on the bridge,” Marny’s voice was subdued.

“It’s mesmerizing, isn’t it?” She was gazing out at the stars.

“Sure is.”

“Thanks for taking a shift.”

“Just part of the job, Cap.”

“Well, get some sleep, we’ll see you in the morning.”

“Aye, aye.”

The shift went without incident and Nick relieved me at 0800. I slept for a couple of hours and had my alarm set for 1200. I relieved Marny early so I could be piloting when we overtook Ada.

At 1323, and with a bridge full of spectators, I slid
Sterra's Gift
up alongside the
Adela Chen
. Normally under hard burn, we wouldn’t be able to communicate, but I was close enough that we were able to punch through the interference.

Hail
Adela Chen
.

“You sure got here fast.” Ada’s always cheery voice played across the sound system of the bridge.

“You want to break from burn? We’d like to transfer a passenger.”

“Are you joining me again, Captain?”

“Not this time and you’re on a public comm.”

“Hiyas, all!”

Everyone chuckled and returned her greeting. She had an infectious personality.

“Okay, burn off in 3… 2… 1…” She counted down and I adjusted so that we were sailing along together, no longer accelerating.

“Who am I getting?” Ada asked.

“Jordy Kelti. You okay with that?”

“He’d better be on his best behavior. I won’t have anyone messing up my ship.”

“You hear her, Jordy?” Marny asked.

“Yes, ma’am. Unlock your airlock and I’ll be over in a jiffy.”

He wasn’t kidding either. No more than ten minutes later, he was safely aboard the
Adela Chen
.

“Well, there’s one last thing,” I said.

Broadcast on both ship’s public address
. I instructed. I caught Nick rolling his eyes at me.

“Breaker one-nine, Breaker one-nine.” I said in the cheesiest voice I could muster. I had a larger audience than usual, but I’d be darned if I was going to miss this.

C.W. McCall, Convoy
, I instructed the AI.

The song started out with someone talking on the radio and I really only remembered the chorus, but I had to join in once we got there, all the same.

Cause we got a little convoy

Rockin' through the night.

…

It would take two weeks to arrive at Jeratorn. If it were just
Sterra's Gift
, we could easily shave off five of those days, but the
Adela Chen
wasn’t designed for the same type of acceleration while pushing barges.

Life aboard the ship quickly fell into an easy rhythm. One of my favorite activities was watching Tali and Marny spar. It was obvious that Tali was significantly faster and had better technique than Marny. It didn’t seem to bother Marny in the least and she accepted the smaller woman’s advice easily.

Marny, in turn, pushed Nick and me to practice with her. If feeling tired and beat up were any indication of progress, then I was doing really well. Otherwise, I didn’t see the progress that Marny insisted was there. At a minimum, it gave us something to do.

Midpoint in the journey, we stopped the hard burn in preparation to start decelerating. We decided to take a break for a couple of hours and have Ada and Jordy join us. It was mostly a celebration to break up the monotony, but I thought it would also be a good time for us to talk about how I wanted to approach Jeratorn.

The mess table was a tight squeeze for the eight of us, but we’d all become pretty comfortable with each other. Marny had a special treat for us in the form of chocolate chip cookies. I was pleased that Qiu had loosened up enough to join us. She was quiet, but it meant something to me that she made an effort.

“As you all know we’re less than a week from Jeratorn,” I started. I wanted to make sure I had everyone’s attention. “Ada, how long do you think it will take to refuel and load the barges?”

“We’ll drop the string at the co-op and then head over to the refueling station. Most of the time, strings get loaded within twenty-four hours, sometimes more quickly.”

             
“How is Jeratorn set up? Refueling at the main station?”

“That’s right. The co-op ore station is maybe fifty kilometers away from the main station. I imagine it's getting pretty full, with as little traffic as they’ve had.”

“That’s what concerns me. Makes ‘em a big target.”

“I say we sail in at the same time. I drop the string, while you fuel up and then you unload while I get fuel,” Ada said.

“Lieutenant Loo, any way to predict how long you’ll be on station?”

“Most likely case is four days or less. If I can’t get the information I need by then, I will have blown any chance I had.”

“I thought you were planning to bring a package back with you,” I said.

“Depends on the information.”

“Fine. Marny, you good with that plan?”

“Small tweaks. I’d prefer that we’re not unloading while Ada’s fueling. Maybe we heave-to off the station instead of docking overnight. That’d keep us close enough to communicate with the lieutenant, but far enough away that anyone approaching is suspicious.”

“After a couple of weeks of sailing, I think we’d all like some shore leave. Any issues with that?” I asked.

“How about
we play it by ear. If everything’s quiet, then we tie up for the night at the station. If things are looking sketchy, we go back to plan A.”

“Good. I like it. Anyone else have anything to add? Tali?”

“I agree, we can assess the risk once we get there, but it sounds like a plan. I think you want to let people know that the two ships are together. Strength in numbers ‘n all. I wonder, though, what happens with the tug once the string is full?” Tali asked.

“If Lieutenant Loo is done in four days or less I’d like to hold Ada back so we can sail home together. If it takes a lot longer than that, we may need to consider sending Ada on her way, alone. I guess I’d like to play it by ear.”

“Makes sense,” Tali agreed.

“Any other business?” I asked.

“Did Sam finalize that ore contract yet?” Nick asked.

“Let me check,
we may have received a comm by now.” I looked at my comm queue and didn’t see anything from Sam. I wasn’t surprised, as we still had a week of sailing left. When we’d left Mars, the market for most ores was sinking. “Nothing yet. I’m sure he’ll have it lined up by the time we arrive.”

“He’d better,” Ada said.

“I sincerely doubt he’d mess with you,” Jordy added.

“Do I smell fear?” Tali asked.

“No. I’m just saying …” Jordy looked away.

“
Bawk bawk bawk …” Tali quietly imitated a chicken.

“Meeting adjourned. Happy midway! Where’d those cookies go?” I said.

After an hour, we agreed it was time to get back underway.

“Liam, would you like to pilot the circumvolve? It’d be good experience for you,” Ada said.

“Absolutely!”

Back on the tug, I slid down into the pilot’s seat, with Ada in the seat to my right. Jordy was interested enough to stand behind us and watch.

“Do you remember the checklist?” Ada asked.

“Not all of it,” I said.

“Okay, I’ll run it, but you have to check ‘em off.” I appreciated that Ada wasn’t giving me a hard time about this. I recorded her list so I could transcribe it to my own reminder list later.

“… release the glad-hands … “

“Check.”

“Stow the tongue and wait for the green light.”

“Check … we’re green.”

“Replace the dead-heads.”

“Why not leave the dead-heads off, we’re just going to release them when we get to the other side?” I asked.

“Technically you could, but if you always put them on you never have to question if you’ve done it.”

“Check.”

“We’re free. Captain, bring us around.”

I pulled the sticks out from beneath the arm rests and locked them into place. I felt a lot more comfortable with them this time. I slid the tug up and rotated in a slow cartwheel, stopping the rotation once we could look straight down on the barges.

“Ugh,” I heard from Jordy. I turned to see him sit down on the floor. I’d heard of people who couldn’t take orientation shifts, but I was surprised that someone with Jordy’s background was one of them.

“Sorry man,” I said. I’d wanted a good look at the barges, but they weren’t anything more than large metallic platforms. I rotated the ship around so we were sailing in line with the string.

“Thank you Liam, that was very thoughtful,” Ada said.

“Not everyone’s born in space.” I said. I could hear Jordy breathing hard.

I slid the ship around and lowered it to be in line with the barges. “Hit the big switch?”

“Nicely done, yes.”

I flicked the switch and watched as tongues slid out of the barge toward the freighter.

“How are you doing back there, Jordy?” Ada asked.

“I’m fine ...” He sounded anything but fine.

“Ada, tell me why this ship sails so slowly when not attached to the string. It has significantly more power than
Sterra's Gift
.” It was a problem that’d been bothering me since I first sailed it around.

“Inertial and gravity systems wouldn’t be able to keep up. It’s something I can override in an emergency, but normally it’s best to leave that alone. It’s also very easy to get out of control with those safeties off.”

“You’ve done it?”

“All the time when I was younger. You’d have trouble keeping up with me in that lug of a ship you sail.”

“Did you seriously just challenge me to tag?”

“Don’t start something you can’t finish, pal.”

A final clunk was felt as the tongue finished seating itself into the frame of the freighter.

“Back to work then. Thanks for thinking of me,” I said. I walked past Jordy who was still looking a little green. “Sorry, Jordy.” I patted him on the back and slid down the railing.

“Never sail with a spacer …” He muttered above me.

I exited the airlock and arc-jetted back to
Sterra's Gift
. I took it slowly so I could see all the upgrades that had been made by the shipyard mechanics. Of all of the changes, I was most excited by the armor added to the belly of the ship. It made us a little slower, but would pay for itself in repairs alone if we kept getting shot at.

Back on board, Marny, Nick and Tali were still hanging out at the galley table. “Ready to get underway?”

“Let me run a check,” Nick said.

“Can we skip the bad country music?” Marny asked.

“Hah … You never know.” I didn’t have anything planned, but I wasn’t telling them that. I palmed my way onto the bridge and slid into the chair.

Open comm with
Adela Chen
. “Ada, we’re about to start our burn.”

“Okay, I’ve got the nav plan plugged in and we’re ready to go.”

“Happy Sailing! Over and out.” I said. End comm.

“All sections, check in, status for departure.” Nick and Marny reported green.

Engage deceleration burn plan
.

The second leg of the trip was as uneventful as the first. I spent time working on my yoga with Tali and Marny, who both seemed to enjoy my pain, and Nick and I continued training with Marny in Krav Maga. We weren’t getting drastically better, but at least I was starting to grasp some of the fundamentals.

We were three hours out from Jeratorn and I would be back at the helm in less than an hour. I found Marny and Tali talking at the galley table, so I grabbed a pouch of orange juice and joined them.

“I’d like to meet with Qiu today and
discuss a communication plan while she’s on the station. Would either of you like to join me?”

“We’d both like to be there for that. I tried to approach her about it, but she’s a might bit reserved,” Marny said.

“She in her cabin?” I asked. Bunk Room 2 (BR-2) was no more than five meters from where we were sitting.

“Aye,” Marny said.

I walked up the hallway and knocked on her door.

“One moment, please.”

After a few moments she opened the door and looked at me questioningly.

“Would you be available for a short meeting?”

“Give me five minutes?”

“In my quarters.”

Qiu nodded and shut the door.

After several minutes Qiu knocked on the doorframe of my quarters. Tali, Marny and I were sitting on the L-shaped couch. “Come on in.”

“What’s up, Mr. Hoffen?”

“Captain,” Marny corrected. If being corrected was annoying to Qiu, she didn’t show it.

“Captain,” she acknowledged.

I had no idea how to handle the tension so I pushed on. “Lieutenant, I would like to have an established communication protocol while you’re on station.”

“I’m not sure what you mean,” she said.

I thought I’d said it so darn Navy-like I was disappointed to discover she didn’t know what I was asking.

“Sure you do,” Tali said without looking up from a reading pad she was gesturing to. “How about - no less than every six hours you will communicate with this ship or we’ll come looking for you.”

“It would destroy my mission if you did that,” Qiu said.

“Do you have a reason why you wouldn’t want to communicate with us?” I asked.

“I will do as you request and communicate every six hours.”

“We’ll give you as much leeway as possible, Lieutenant,” Marny said.

“Thank you, is there anything else?”

“Once we’ve off-loaded the cargo and taken some shore leave, we’ll be standing off several thousand kilometers, close enough for quick communication but far enough away not to cause problems.”

“That will work fine.” Qiu stood and left the room.

“Grab the door, Cap?” I was seated closest to the door and swung it closed.

“All good?” Marny asked. She was looking at Tali.

Tali placed a small device on the table and my ears popped, like they often did when pressurization occurred. “All good,” Tali said.

I looked at the device that I suspected generated a sort of privacy field and asked, “What am I missing?” My voice sounded strange, like I was talking next to a fan.

“We’ve infested the reluctant Lieutenant Loo with nanite trackers. For the next twenty days, she’ll be exhaling these little guys everywhere she goes.”

“You get this from the Navy quartermaster?” I asked.

“No,” Tali said.

“Is that what you were doing with the reading pad?”

“Yes, I was transferring them from the chair to her suit. They’ll migrate into her respiratory system, where they can reproduce.”

“Frak, that’s disgusting. Won’t she be pissed if she finds ‘em.”

“Not going to happen, Cap. These little buggers are biological and they don’t show up on scans unless you know specifically what you’re looking for. Even to bio-scans they look like bad breath. I’ve got a specially tuned sniffer that recognizes their signature. It’ll tell us when any surface we’re looking at had contact with her.”