Privateer Tales 3: Parley (7 page)

Our navigation plan showed that we would accelerate for two days and then decelerate for four. I was more than happy to use the Navy’s fuel to cut our trip time down.

Tabby, my sort of girlfriend, had been at the Mars Naval Academy for less than three weeks and I was hoping to see her when we arrived. She hadn’t communicated much since we parted ways back on Colony 40, but the contact we’d had was more than enough to let me know she wasn’t trying to dump me.

Tabby, Nick, and I had known each other for virtually our entire lives. We’d grown up going to school together, played on the same pod-ball team, and palled around for the last seventeen years. It wasn’t until Tabby was about to ship off to the Naval Academy that she’d finally let me know I’d been an idiot to not have pursued a relationship with her more seriously.

Compose video to Tabby, center on my face.

“I hope your start at the academy has been okay. You’ll never believe it but Nick has fallen hard for that new crewmate, Marny. But, that’s not really the big news. We ran into another problem. It seems like trouble finds us. Anyway, it’s really a bad deal; a pilot and her daughter got attacked by pirates, even though they weren’t very far out from Mars. The daughter, Ada, made it okay but the pilot, her mom, ended up dying. It was terrible. We did, however, make a prize claim on the freighter we captured. Anyway, we are expecting to be on Mars in six days. If you can break free from school for a day or two, I’d love to see you. We’ll do something awesome. I’d really like you to meet Marny. Oh, you’ll notice I’m flying in a different ship. This is the tug we captured. Ada’s been teaching me how to fly it, and I’m going to work on my license. Anyway, let me know about getting together. I really miss you, Tabby.”

I felt like an idiot. My thoughts, when talking to Tabby, were jumbled and I seemed to just ramble. I hoped she’d be able to make something out of what I said.

In
coming hail from Sterra's Gift.

“Liam here,” Ada wasn’t in the cockpit with me so I played the audio over the speakers.

“Qiu’s on board and squared away. She wants to know when we’ll leave Mars for Jeratorn.” Nick said. He struggled to pronounce her first name.

“Think T.S.O. - nothing like it’s spelled. The time frame will depend on when repairs are complete, but I’ll get to work on lining up a load. We’ve been hitting it pretty hard lately and I’m going to try to meet up with Tabby.”

“Cool, I’d like to see her too if that works out,” Nick said.

“I left her a message, we’ll see what she comes back with. We should plan to pull some pay out for both of us so we can live it up. You set the amount. We also need to square with Marny.”

“Yup. Already on it. Marny’s been paid out and I dropped five thousand creds in our personal accounts. Marny said she was going to introduce me to hot springs. I can’t wait.”

“I’m not sure I want to hear this. By the way, have you looked into the TradeNet subscription?”

“Yup, done. So after everything, we’re running at ninety thousand m-creds without being paid for the load of pirate loot.”

“I was thinking, wasn’t there some artwork in those crates we liberated from the pirates on Baru Manush? Isn’t it likely stolen?” I asked.

“Yup. We’ll have to find a dealer who can do a provenance search. It’d probably be easier to find an auctioneer who deals in this stuff. The navy will validate our video evidence of how we procured the art, although some of it might get tied up. All in, just be better to let the pros deal with it.”

“How much will they take off the top?” I asked.

“I’m showing the big boys take fifteen to twenty percent.”

“Sounds like it’d be worth it.”

“I’ll set it up,” he said.

“I was wondering, have you gotten any security updates from the pirate base?” We’d captured a Red Houzi base about a month ago and we hadn’t come up with a plan to do anything with it. There was at least ten times as much loot left at the base as we’d been able to take with us.

“It’s all quiet. Not even a flyby as far as I can tell. We’ve got to get back there,” Nick said.

“Any thoughts on how we should go about that?”

“We have a tug now, we should just rent a barge and get Jack to help. Do you think your dad would be willing?”

“Why not? We could cut ‘em both in on the haul.” I hadn’t said anything to Nick yet, but I wanted to set up our own base somewhere using buildings and guns we scavenged from the Red Houzi base.

“I’m in. How is Ada doing? She had a pretty rough day,” Nick said.

“Hanging in there. She’s sacked out right now. Can you find us? I sent you our navigation plan.”

“Check your sensors. We’re right on top of you.”

The displays weren’t set up like I was used to, something I would soon resolve. Sure enough,
Sterra's Gift
was fifteen kilometers above us.

“Would have bit me …” I muttered.

“Hey Liam, you did the right thing back there. Ada’d be dead if you’d turned away. I don’t give a crap what Veras and Marny said about the other thing.”

“Thanks bud, it means a lot coming from you. But, don’t let Marny hear you say it, I think she can take you.”

“Nah, she knows. I get where she’s coming from. When she was in the Navy, she had to clean up a lot of messes those pirates made. It was hard for her not to take ‘em out when she had the chance.”

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this. I’m not sure we’re dealing with the same class of pirates.”

“What do you mean?”

“This ship is immaculate - like Navy immaculate. There isn’t a single thing out of place.”

“What are you thinking?”

“Not sure. I guess it’s just different. Also, we’re six days from Mars. That’s striking pretty close to home.”

“Yeah, I suppose, but it was just dumb luck that we were close by.”

“No. I know. I’m not sure what I’m saying. We’re missing something. Anyway, I have a class to start working on.”

“A what?”

“Oh, Ada’s got me all fired up to get my
Operator’s license. I need two tests and five hundred hours on the tug.”

“You have the hours.”

“What do you mean?”

“You need five hundred hours sailing under load. What do you think you’ve been doing with all that ore from your claim to the refinery?”

“You think that counts?”

“I know it does.”

“That’s pretty cool." I couldn't believe that all of those years working Dad's claim was going to pay off for something like this. "I’m going to sign up for the coursework and see what kind of loads are available between Jeratorn and Mars. Ask Qiu if she can help us with scheduling at the dry dock.”

“Good point. I’ll ask her. I’m out.”

“Roger that. Over and out.”

I was shooting for an
Operator’s license in the greater-than-a-hundred tonnes class. With license in hand, AI oversight was all the Mars Port Authority would require when entering their controlled space. Docking fees would be higher too, but I didn’t have the time to finish my Master’s license. Fortunately, with Ada along, it wouldn’t matter on this trip.

The first course was estimated to take forty hours of classroom work and was followed by
a test. At least I would have something to keep me busy and if I got after it, I might be able to complete it before we got to Puskar Stellar. The course was already available on the freighter’s systems. All I had to do was transfer five hundred credits to M-Corp.

I fired the course up on the main vid screen. The first order of business was to take a placement test. The AI would adjust to my current understanding and drill me on the information I was weak on. I scored horribly and got a forty five percent.

To me, the questions were over the top. I didn’t see what difference it made if I understood the buoy systems, since I would have an AI plotting my route or what difference it made if I could recognize the light patterns of the different types of ships. Even so, I thought I knew most of it. My score certainly didn’t reflect my confidence. I decided to spend two hours working through the material before I switched gears to other tasks. Ugh, I thought I was done with school, it sure was going to be a long six days to Mars. I’d rather have toilet fixing duty.

Two hours later, I was grateful to be able to close the course. I needed more coffee and could use a quick trip to the head. When I passed by the bunk room, I heard the soft sound of sobbing behind the door. A lump formed in my throat. Ada had seemed so brave through it all, I'd momentarily forgotten her loss. I considered knocking, but decided to give her some space for now.

Several hours later I woke up in the pilot’s chair. I had hit the studying again but must have dozed off. Sleeping at the helm was just part of the job for an independent freighter captain. You had to be a light sleeper just in case something came up. At the speeds we sailed, the AI’s default actions would almost always be the preferred responses, and they would come in milliseconds. It was especially true with this amount of mass. There was no dodging with three, two-point-five-kilo tonne barges in front of us, and Jupiter help the dumb-ass who got in our way.

I slid down the metal ladder. If you did it just right, you could place your feet on the outsides of the bars and slide. It was a harder maneuver for me since my left foot had been lost back on Colony 40. The military grade prosthetic did a lot of things well, but providing feedback about pressure on my ankle wasn’t one of them. I landed a little harder than I intended but it was okay.

“Want some breakfast?” Ada was up and working in the small galley.

“You find the meal bars?” I asked.

“No, there’s quality food here. Biscuits and gravy, bacon and eggs, and pancakes and that’s just the breakfast stuff.”

I was hungry and pancakes sounded really good. “Why not? Throw me in some pancakes.”

“Orange Juice?” she asked.

“Seriously?”

“Sure enough.”

“Absolutely.” Marny was going to be jealous. I would be sending her a picture.

“Anything crazy going on up there?” Ada asked.

“We’re six hours from deceleration. How hard is it to flip this bad boy over?”

“I’d better be there, but you’ve got good hands. You could probably do it.”

“Before I got on this tub I might have agreed with you, but I’ve got to admit, I’m a little intimidated.”

Ada smiled. It wasn’t flashy, just a friendly, connected smile. Man, could she light up a room. “That’s a good attitude to have on a tug.” I couldn’t help myself, I felt a little proud of myself for saying something smart. I hoped I didn’t have a dopey look on my face. Her slightly raised eyebrows indicated the opposite.

“How about you get some shut-eye. I’ll wake you up before we circumvolve.”

“We what?”

“Flip over.”

“That wasn’t so hard to say, was it?”

“No, but flip over isn’t on your test.”

“Oh, it’s gonna be like that, is it?”

“We’ll see.” She smiled again. I didn’t know what was worse, the thought that she was going to be testing me the entire trip, or that every time she smiled, my brain
tried to shut down.

As comfortable as the pilot’s chair was, the upper bunk was even more so. I set my alarm for five hours so I could shower before circumvolving. I slept like a rock and probably woke in the same position I’d gone to sleep in. I really had no idea.

I pulled off my vac-suit and removed my prosthetic foot. I hadn’t even thought about it in the last couple of weeks. It was amazing how well the technology worked. I checked the stump under the medical cap. It was clean and looked like my leg had just grown without a foot. A little freaky, but I was starting to get used to it.

In .6 gravity I found it easy to hop over to the shower. Before getting in, I put my suit in the suit-freshener and laid out a clean suit-liner. The hot water was wonderful. I was still taken aback by how spotless the entire ship was. Even the shower had absolutely no grime or soap buildup.
Maybe the ship had a cleaning bot. It wouldn’t explain everything, but it would explain the shower.

I pulled on a fresh suit-liner and hopped back to the bunk room. I was wiping down my prosthetic when Ada knocked and pushed the door open.

“Oh …” Her hand flew up to her mouth like she had caught me doing something awkward. She spun out of the room and pulled the door closed.

I mentally kicked myself for not remembering to warn her. Most people were okay with my missing foot, but it took them off guard when they saw me holding the prosthetic. I hopped up and pulled the door open.

She was standing there, right outside the door, staring at me, her mouth agape. I could tell she wasn’t quite sure what to say.

“It’s a prosthetic. Pirates blew off my real one back home. Don’t feel bad, takes most people a bit to adjust. I should have warned you. Believe it or not, you feel so much like all the rest of my friends, I kinda forgot you didn’t know.”

“Oh...” Her eyes glistened like she was ready to cry. “That’s about the nicest thing anyone’s said to me in a long time.” She pulled me in for a hug. Unfortunately, I wasn’t particularly well balanced when she did. She wasn’t expecting to carry my weight and as a result, we both fell over.