Running With Argentine (8 page)

Adrift
in the Praxis System

By the next
afternoon they had a fairly good idea of what this sector of the spiral arm
looked like.

“I had no idea,” the chief said, honestly amazed.

“This probably isn’t everything,” Sami added.

When Argentine looked at her questioningly she continued,
“These are trade routes. A star chart needs to list all gravity wells, so every
star system should be accounted for. But the only planets this map is going to
show as being inhabited are the trade destinations. There could be, and
probably are, a whole bunch of these worlds that are populated but just not buyers.”

“That’s incredible,” said the chief, still surprised by what
he was seeing. “I had no idea that civilization was so… dense.”

Argentine briefly reflected that the comment could be
interpreted a couple of different ways…

“Apparently our Republic wasn’t as aggressive and expansion
oriented as we’d been led to believe,” he said.

“So where do we go next?”

Chief West brought up the obvious. “Before we go anywhere I
think we need to take advantage of the local economy and stock up on our
consumables. Especially food.”

Argentine nodded. The metals that they’d refined on ship
were bringing a great price on this planet, but you never knew what the economy
would be like on the next one.

“Okay, then that’s our agenda for today. We’ll make a couple
of trips and restock our larder. In the meantime, Sami, I want you to focus on
our next destination… Sami? Are you paying attention?”

“Yes, of course. I’m sorry, what did you say?”

From anyone else but Sami this might’ve been irritating.

She continued, “It’s just that I’ve been tracking that crazy
damaged ship. He’s done something that I thought would’ve been impossible.”

“He?” asked the Chief. “Ships are female.”

“Not this one,” she replied.

“How do you know?”

“I just… do.”

Argentine wanted to put the conversation back on track…

“Okay Sami, what did he do?”

“I think I told you earlier that after his swing around the
outer gas giant he was heading in-system with much too high a velocity to
rendezvous with the planet. So he traveled past the star and then must’ve done
a 180 gravity swing with another planet on the other side, because he came
shooting back this direction dangerously close to the star itself and then did
something incredible.”

Somehow Sami managed to make even astrogation sound
exciting…

“He dramatically reversed his thrust. The energy curve on
that ship is just incredible. Especially for it being damaged and all.”

“Are you saying he slowed enough to fall back into the sun?”
the chief asked.

“No, just the opposite. He still had escape velocity but
instead of circling the star’s gravity well in an ever-expanding orbit, his
thrust had the effect of climbing straight up the side of the well. I’ve never
seen a maneuver like that. It was terribly inefficient and could ruin a stellar
drive engine, but he shed enough velocity so that a planetary orbit is at least
possible.”

“So that ship is heading this way?” Argentine asked.

“Not exactly. I think he was trying to make it here… Until a
few hours ago he was providing lateral thrust, and then all of a sudden it gave
out. Unless he turns those engines back on he’ll miss orbit, spiral out of the
system and into the dark.”

She sounded almost sad as she said it.

“Or,” the Chief said. “He could be waiting to start up his
engines because he has a completely different destination in mind.”

“Maybe,” she said. “But I can’t see what it would be.”

“Well, keep us informed,” Argentine said. “But Sami, in the
meantime figure out where we need to go next.”

ΔΔΔ

Argentine had
to step up into the crew quarters hallway.

Praxis III practiced an ancient and inexpensive way of
preserving food; it was called canning.

He'd wanted to stock up on every provision possible. He had
no idea what the future held but the only thing in life that really terrified
Argentine anymore was the thought of not eating.

The Pelican wasn't really designed to store that much food,
so the floor of the passageways were now stacked three deep in cans with a
bunch of hard ceramic hull patches laid on top of them. The floor was still
smooth but it bugged Argentine to have to duck in the corridor. He actually
laughed to himself when he realized that Gossip was a full head taller than he
was.

He’d known Sami long enough to know what was coming next. So
he was prepared for it.

“First? Can I talk to you?”

“Sure,” he said while gesturing her to come into his cabin.

“It’s about that ship. He hasn’t started up his engines and
I don’t think he can. He gave it a helluva try but I don’t think he’s going to
make it.”

“Are you suggesting that we should try and rescue him?”

“Yes!” she said excitedly. “Thank you! I know it’s what
we’re supposed to do!”

“Wait a minute; I haven’t said we’re going to do anything…
And what do you mean it’s what we’re supposed to do?”

“It is… I mean, I just think it’s the right thing to do.
Don’t you?”

“Sami, I have no idea. We’re kind of making up the rules as
we go here. How do we know what we might be sticking our nose into?”

“We don’t! We just know it’s the right thing to do!”

“No Sami, you know it’s the right thing to do. I don’t have
your confidence in that.”

“But you’re the Captain! You have to know the right thing to
do!”

“I’m not the Captain! I’m just a guy running for his life
along with a few friends,” he exclaimed. “And even if I was, being a captain
doesn’t mean I always know what’s right!”

Sami got a confused look on her face and then shook her head
sharply. “You won’t know the right thing to do because you’re the captain;
you’re our Captain because you always know the right thing to do! Don’t you get
it? We believe in you.”

She abruptly stood up and for a moment Argentine thought she
was going to cry.

“So do the right thing!” she said as she walked out of his
cabin.

ΔΔΔ

It took them
four days to rendezvous with the unknown ship.

It was the strangest looking thing that Argentine had ever
seen. Or maybe it was just because of all the damage, but its designers had
certainly taken a different engineering approach.

Sensors showed that it had stopped venting much atmosphere
and that its engines were indeed cold, and probably dead. Besides a minute
battery trace there were no energy readings detectable.

Lieutenant Stark and Chief West recovered the lone body from
the ship.

The former pilot was in a funny looking spacesuit. Everyone
was gathered just inside the airlock when they brought the lifeless figure
inside.

While the lieutenant and the chief removed their suits Argentine
bent down to get a look, but the pilot’s faceplate was opaque. It only took a
few moments to figure out the latches and he removed the helmet.

Sami had been right; the pilot was male. With pasty skin,
sweat matted hair and that ugly smell that only spacesuits can give you…
Argentine contemplated throwing him right back out the hatch.

As he started to stand up, however, the body gave a huge
gasping inhale of breath.

Argentine was so surprised he almost stumbled. And he wasn’t
the only one; everyone took a step back.

The man blinked his eyes open and in a croaky voice said,
“It took you long enough.”

And after a moment he focused on Argentine and added, “Oh,
and thank you mate…”

Adrift
in the Praxis System

To say that the
Pelican had a sick bay was a misnomer. Instead there was a medical alcove just
off of the main passage with an office attached to it.

Their new patient now occupied the one bed in the alcove.

All crewmen in the Chezden fleet were trained in cross
specialties. On small ships, especially, it was a necessity. Lieutenant Stark
was certified as security and weapons. Sami’s specialty was astrogation and she
could also pilot the ship when necessary. The chief was the Pelican’s lead engineer
and had expertise in hyperspace theory as well as the ship’s mechanical systems
such as life support and damage control.

As a First Officer, Argentine was expected to be familiar
with all specialties but not necessarily be a master of any.

Which made for a wide variety of skills, but as luck would
have it, none of them had medical training.

So, Sami watched over the unconscious pilot the best she
could while the chief, the lieutenant, and Argentine huddled on the bridge to
discuss what came next.

“We’ve gone over that ship bow to stern,” said the chief.

It was designed for a crew of five and there’s no sign of
them, but all their personal effects are still there. The interesting thing is
there’s not a single photo of our patient. I don’t think he was one of the
crew.”

“So he stole the ship?”

The chief just shrugged.

“What about the ship’s records?” Argentine asked.

“We accessed what we could but the last entry in the
Captain’s log was entered twelve days ago and there was no mention of anything
amiss. I’ve downloaded the ships telemetry but I haven’t had time to go through
it. Maybe it’ll tell us something.”

“First, I did find a cabinet of small arms weapons,” the
lieutenant said. “I brought them back with me and I’ll look them over. I’m not
familiar with the design but I think I understand them well enough. Judging by
how compact the energy source is I’d say that the technology is slightly more
advanced than ours.”

“Okay, let’s…”

“Argentine,” said the chief with a huge grin. “That’s not
all we found.

“I was able to download the ship’s star chart as well as its
database.”

ΔΔΔ

A day later
they were setting around the one table in the ship’s mess when the chief asked
the main question on everyone’s mind.

“So what are you running away from?”

“Running away? I wasn’t running away. Why would you ever
think that?” responded their now fully awake patient.

“Besides, what kind of way is that to start a conversation?
No
hello mate
, or
how you feeling
? Just accusations? What kind of
people are you?”

The chief didn’t miss a beat.

“We’re the kind of people that saved your butt and you
haven’t answered the question.”

“Well, I suppose I should be thankful… That blasted ship let
me down at the last minute.”

“How did you survive hitting the gravity wall?” Sami asked
enthusiastically.

“Yes, that was pretty incredible wasn’t it?” he answered
with a grin.

“Let’s stay on track here,” Argentine interjected. “Tell us
your name and then we want to hear the full story. I think you owe us that.”

“Ah, civility at last. I don’t suppose you have a spot of
tea to go with the politeness?”

Gauging the looks he received he just sighed.

“Very well, my name is Barry and I will once again thank you
for being there when my situation went all to pot.”

“Barry who?” asked the chief.

“Does it really matter old man? This should be a
celebration. Let’s not turn it into a damp squib, don’t you think?”

Argentine said, “I think you still need to tell us how you
got on that ship and exactly what happened to bring you here, and I think now
would be a good time to do it,
don’t you?
”

“Don’t be giving me a bollocking, mate. It hasn’t been an
easy road, you know.”

Mocking offense Barry leaned back in his chair and said,
“Hold your water and I’ll walk you through it all. But a spot of tea really
would be blinding.”

Most everyone around the table looked confused but Sami
smiled and said, “No problem, I’ll get it.”

ΔΔΔ

“I found myself
stranded on a planet my star chart said was Eridi III. The locals called it
Haven.

“Now I’m an industrious sort, mind you. So I didn’t let any
grass grow before I started looking for employment.”

“Employment as what?” interjected the chief.

“As a pilot, of course,” he responded. “That’s what I do;
that’s what I am. You won’t find a better pilot on this end of the spiral arm.

“Anyway, I was having trouble finding anyone to seek
employment with. It turns out that Haven was a very insular society. They don’t
have a tremendous amount of contact with other worlds and then it always comes
through the theocracy. Religion controls everything there.”

Argentine understood the type of society Barry was
describing.

As an officer in the Chezden fleet he had been required to
study the spacefaring capabilities, militarization, and technical abilities of
other civilizations they might clash with.

Theocracies were the worst.

The reputations of most societies in the Galactic spiral arm
were seldom representative of their populations as a whole. That is because the
only interaction outside worlds would usually have with any given civilization
would be through its space presence.

For example, the worlds of the Barbary Alliance were known
as being crude, vulgar, and merciless. 99% of the population on those few
planets were no such thing, but since most of their space presence was made up
of opportunists and pirates, such was their reputation.

Conversely many planets, like Shannon’s Home and Serenity,
formed very professional space fleets that were unfailingly polite and fair in
their dealings with the outside world. Argentine knew from personal experience
that wasn’t representative of their cultures. It still made him mad to think
about how he had been swindled there, but that was a story for another day.

The spiral arm was teaming with civilizations. Some were
militaristic while others were almost totally based upon a trading economy. Of
them all, however, the theocracies were the worst.

In the true theocracies the priests of the one religion
ruled everything. So when you met the High Priest Captain of a trading vessel
and endured his disdain for all infidels you can safely bet it was a true
representation of his society.

What kept everything from boiling over was that as common as
populated planets were, no one culture dominated the space lanes.

Most of the space holovids children grow up watching give a
very inaccurate depiction of stellar empires.

First of all, most ‘empires’ are made up of one or two
planets located within the same star system. There were exceptions and the
People’s Republic of Chezden had been one of them. But compared to the largest
empires that claimed over 1,500 stars they were still puny. And of course,
nobody knew if there might not be larger empires; the spiral arm was made up of
billions of stars.

Even a massive fleet like the one that had been built by the
People’s Republic, however, was still outnumbered 1000 to 1 when compared to
all the combined starships of the other empires, republics, trade associations,
and independent planets of the spiral arm.

The other reality that kept things confusing was that there
are no real borders in space.

The stars claimed by the People’s Republic were spread out
and diffused among 100 other political sovereignties. Many of them were single
system empires, but not all.

This made for an incredibly intricate political dynamic.

Add to this the fact that spaceflight was expensive.

Most ships were owned by planetary governments. Often, but
not always, that meant military. Usually it simply meant that the line between
military and trading vessels was blurred. What’s the difference between a
government-owned armed freighter and a military ship that hauls freight? For
that matter, an armed corporate ship could fight as well as some navies he’d
seen.

The investment to build a ship, let alone a fleet of ships
was usually too large for anything but a government or a large business
consortium.

That’s not to say that there weren’t smaller independent
groups or families plying the space lanes, but their ships were usually older
and sometimes even decrepit. Independent freighters like the current
incarnation of the Pelican were not common, but certainly weren’t unheard of.

For an individual to own or control a ship, especially one
in great condition, was.

“When I finally located the holy offices of his winged servants
I tried to apply for a job and was promptly arrested as a heretic.”

Sami gasped and Argentine realized she was totally engrossed
in his story.

“Apparently it was sacrilege to claim an ability to navigate
the heavens of the one true god if I wasn’t of their faith. They sentenced me
to death.”

“So you stole a ship and escaped,” Sami added somewhat
enthusiastically.

Barry grinned, tilted his head and said, “Well yeah, that’s
almost kind of exactly what happened.”

Argentine wasn’t buying it.

“
Almost
what happened?” he reiterated.

“Well yeah, sort of.”

When nobody said anything he continued, “There were some
other things that happened in the meantime but I don’t want to bore you.”

“Oh please. Bore us,” said the chief.

Based upon the looks everyone was giving him Barry thought
it best to elaborate.

“Well, there did end up being sort of a case of mistaken
identity.

“It turns out that one of their prophets bears a resemblance
to me. You know, same eyes, same hair, same skin complexion… I found the
confusion… beneficial.”

“You gained your freedom long enough to steal a ship,” Sami
concluded.

“Yeah, pretty much,” Barry said.

When no one else said a word he changed the subject…

"What is the name of this ship, anyway?"

"This is the Pelican," Sami responded to his non
sequitur.

"Pelican? You mean like the ugly bird with a big fat
jowl hanging from its beak? That kind of pelican? What kind of ship name is
that?"

"Stop trying to change the subject," the chief
said.

"I'm not changing anything. I just can't believe
someone would name their ship after a fish eating, cross eyed bird."

"They're not cross eyed," giggled Sami.

"Are you sure?" Barry asked. "Have you ever
checked?"

"Get back your story," the chief insisted.

"I'm sure it throws fear into your enemies," Barry
mumbled. Then, "I thought I was finished with my story."

"No… You said
pretty much
. I want to know the
rest of what you
didn't
say."

After a moment Barry gave an exaggerated sigh...

“Of course you have to understand that it wasn’t easy
getting ahold of the ship. It took some time.”

“How much time?” asked the chief.

“Well, they use a different calendar, of course. But I don’t
think it was more than 17 months standard…”

“So in other words, based on a lie, you went from being in
prison to living one of the highest lifestyles the planet could offer and
bilked it for as long as you could. Do I have that just about right?” the chief
finished.

Barry sighed and said, “More or less.”

“So what happened? Why are you on the run?” Argentine asked.

“You see, they confusedly thought that the prophet was
supposed to be celibate. Not that the highest religious leaders minded; as long
as I supported their edicts and propped up their rule they were happy to let me
be my own man, so to speak.

“It just became rather hard to hide once women started
popping up pregnant. That’s when everything went all to pot. How was I to know
their religion opposed contraception?”

Argentine resisted the opportunity to respond with the
obvious.

“Women?” Sami asked. “How many?”

Barry had a pained expression on his face and Argentine
interjected, “I don’t think it makes any difference at this point.”

“At least now everything’s hunky-dory,” Barry said. “Now
that I’m rid of their ship and with you they won’t have any way to track me.”

Argentine and the chief a shared a look.

With a frown on his face Barry said, “We are free of my
ship, right?”