Smuggler's Dilemma (27 page)

The signal wasn't good enough for video, but he sounded young.

"Roger that, Lieutenant. I assume that it will be acceptable to cut our engines?" I wasn't sure what heave-to meant to Lieutenant Feldman. We were currently hurtling toward Mars and the term normally referred to staying at rest.

"That is correct, Captain," he replied curtly.

"Will do. Hoffen out."
Terminate comms
.

"Ada, cut engines. There's a Navy cutter,
Penderghast
, which will be coming along side."

"What's up, Captain?" she asked.

"Not sure. He said he was performing an inspection," I answered. "Nick, Marny, to the bridge, please."

I could have saved my request, as Ada spinning down the engines would have gotten their attention just as fast.

"What's going on?" Nick asked.

"Navy requested that we heave-to. They're doing an inspection," I said.

"That's not good," Marny said.

"How do you want to handle it?" I asked.

"I'll make an announcement, but you should probably meet them at the air lock," Nick said.

"Roger that. Can you validate their transponder?" I asked.

"Yup," Nick said.

I waited as two burly Marines in armored vac-suits cycled through the airlock first. Lieutenant Feldman followed. He was taller than most spacers and I caught a flash of red hair through his helmet.

"Welcome aboard, Lieutenant." I offered my hand which he accepted.

"Thank you, Captain."

"How can I help?"

"Under the orders of the Mars Protectorate Judiciary, I've been tasked with seizing all electronic records of the events for the dates 498.12.14 through 498.12.16. Will you comply?" He asked.

"If we refuse?" I asked.

"I'm under orders to seize your ship in that case and take you and your crew into custody." He visibly stiffened, although the Marines didn't change their stance.

"How do you propose to execute your task?" I asked. The idea that he could simply remove three full days of ships logs was a task I couldn't fathom. The information was stored on literally millions of devices throughout the ship.

"I'm to release a virus into your ship's systems. It will first extract the information and then delete it. It will also spread to all personal networks and remove the same," he said.

"And this is legal? You can just decide to wipe our systems?"

"Actually, the choice is yours," he said.

"Give me a minute?" I said.

"Not possible. You might attempt to transmit the data, which I feel compelled to tell you would be prosecuted as an act of treason," he said.

I breathed through my nose, trying to avoid fury. "Well, this just gets better and better."

"Mars Protectorate is at war, Captain Hoffen. I'll need your answer," he said impatiently.

"Very well. We'll comply."

NEW BEGINNINGS

It didn't take Lieutenant Feldman more than twenty minutes to plant the virus and be on his way. To say that it didn't sit well with everyone was something of an understatement.

Over the next day and a half, Mars grew to fill our view screen. The
Hotspur
, unlike
Sterra's Gift
, had engines that performed symmetrically, both providing acceleration and deceleration along the same axis. While I preferred this ship's design, where the cockpit view was always what we were approaching, it was hard not to miss our first ship.

"I've rented a pod-jumper for a week," Nick said as he sat down in a chair next to my desk.

"Glad you're making progress. I couldn't be more tired of working on loads. I'll tell you, I'm about fed up with these short hauls. We barely cover fuel, salaries and insurance. I can't imagine if someone had to buy a ship," I said.

"Show me," Nick said.

"Please. This is driving me nuts." I ran him through the different loads I'd been looking at. Initially, the numbers looked good if you just paid attention to the revenues.

"That's okay with me. Right now, we just need to break even for a while. If we can pay salaries and maintenance on the tug, that's worth a lot. You'll clear enough to cover our living expenses on the ground. We're not going to get rich, but at least people have something productive to do. You're doing the right things. Have you talked with Sam Chen about helping set up runs?" Nick asked, referring to Ada's dad.

"I'm not sure he'd return my pings. I finally listened to his comms. He has a temper."

"Maybe not, then. If it helps, I don't think you're doing anything wrong," Nick said.

"I talked to Mom. She's in."

"Great, when will you get them started?"

"She wants to recertify her master's license, which I didn't even know she had."

"She's qualified on tugs?"

"Not specifically, but her flight hours from the service are all transferable. She was qualified to sail huge ships, although she mostly flew troop transports. According to Ada, Mom just needs to complete a series of tests and then take an instructor out for a sail. She could have it all done in a few weeks. Frankly, I'm glad to get Ada on someone else's tail," I said.

"No kidding. We should pay for the testing. It's a reasonable expense."

"That works. I got a consensus about shore leave. We'll schedule forty hours. I think Mom and Dad want to get out and see the sights. It's been a long time since they've been planet-side."

"Did you guys ever go to Mars when you were a kid?" Nick asked.

"Not that I recall," I responded, my mind unable to focus on the past with all that we had coming up. "What are you going to have Jack doing?"

"I've scheduled the
Hotspur
for dry-dock at Coolidge. We just need to unload it into the warehouse we rented and Jack can help with that. I was thinking we'd bring him on full time as crew."

"Absolutely. So did M-Pro say anything about the mech suits?"

"Not yet. I'm guessing that whoever was in charge of the review got busy with other things. I wouldn't feel good about selling them. But, I'm not handing them over if they don't ask."

"Agreed." After watching Dad in a mech suit, I hated the idea of losing them. "We should drop Mom, Dad and Ada off at Puskar Stellar orbital platform so they can start their shore-leave. The rest of us can deal with stowing cargo and setting up the habitation domes."

"Jack and I will bring the pod-jumper over to the warehouse and load the domes. We'll take Marny with us," Nick said.

"Tali know we're coming? I'd hate to surprise her," I said.

Nick chuckled. "She knows we're coming. We won't even be able to see her house from where we'll be sitting. She has a large plot of land."

"Likes her privacy, I guess."

"She gave me the choice. I thought we might be noisy neighbors and it would be better if we weren't too close."

"How long do you think we'll be there?"

"I told Tali we'd stay a maximum of three months and then find a more permanent location. We might be better renting apartments in Puskar or Coolidge. At least this way we have time to figure things out," he said.

I realized the thing we needed to figure out was about Tabby. Nick would never say it directly, but he knew our business was on hold until we knew what was happening with her. I'd successfully been able to get her condition out of my head for several days, knowing that there was nothing I could do. A cold lump in the pit of my stomach was my only reminder.

The energy level on the ship was high as I dropped everyone but Marny off at the platform. Nick had manufactured a portable grav-box for the cat. Filbert was Jack's responsibility and he wasn't letting him go anytime soon.

All of us would stay in the hotel until we got the habitation domes set up. I wished I could be there today when Jack experienced his first set of civilian clothes and walked around without his vac-suit. I hoped it would bring a smile to his face as he took in the sights. Both he and Nick had been slowly recovering from the death of their mother and today would be a healthy diversion from the grief.

The warehouse was fairly close to the orbital platform above Puskar Stellar. It wasn't anything more complex than a grid of rectangular steel boxes, although there were thousands of them. The facility was protected by a security patrol and, no doubt, other less obvious measures. This close in, however, Mars Protectorate could be expected to respond quickly if security problems arose.

I checked in with the security patrol and they cleared our approach. The warehouse had a convenient platform we could request be moved in front of our unit. It would give us positive surface onto which we could lock the aft section of the ship. We didn't need to worry about the ship drifting in space, but moving cargo would be enough to dislodge it if we weren't well tied in.

I pulled on my armored vac-suit and met Marny in the cargo hold. She gave me an approving look.

The warehouse had a full time stevedore supervisor and we were lucky she was available right away. It cost extra to use this warehouse service, but moving three hundred fifty cubic meters of crates was more work than we were interested in doing without help. Nick arrived a few minutes after the bots had started and we stood together, waiting for them to finish.

"I'll run the
Hotspur
over to Coolidge. See you in a few hours? I'll probably stop at the Veteran's hospital and see if I can get an update on the
Hope's
arrival," I said.

"Good luck," Marny said and clapped me on the back as I turned to go.

Set course for Coolidge Dry Dock
.
Negotiate arrival schedule
, I instructed as I slid into my pilot's chair. It turned out there were three ship manufacturing plants in orbit above Coolidge, in addition to the Navy's own shipyard. Fortunately, my AI knew which one we were scheduled for. I certainly wouldn't have been able to find it on my own.

Thirty minutes later, I slid through a blue energy field and onto the deck of a hangar that could accommodate a ship at least twice the size of the
Hotspur
. I dropped the small backpack that contained my civvies by the air lock door and met a brown-skinned spacer on the scarred deck of the bay.

"Priyanka Lanka." He offered his hand.

"Liam Hoffen," I shook his hand.

"What are we working on today?"

I was sure that Nick had sent him a list of repairs, but I didn't mind answering his question.

"We had a collision with another craft and it ripped off the starboard wing and engine."

"An old British sloop like this is a real piece of history, such a beauty. Let's take a look," he said.

His arc-jets lifted him easily from the deck and I followed him up to the wing. Even though there were bright lights in the bay, the armor's absorptive skin made it difficult to make out the details. The Naval engineer's field patch stood out against the otherwise sleek lines. After flitting around the wing, he pulled up and sat on the edge of it.

"It's a shame we can't manufacture the old girl's armor. We can make her look good, but you'll be able to see the scar. On the positive side, it was a clean break. The impact must have been incredible to sheer this wing off. Mind telling me how she got this way?"

"We got run over by a much larger ship. My co-pilot saw it just seconds before it happened. If not for her quick action, we'd have been completely crushed," I said.

"Sounds like a heck of a ride. I didn't think that was even possible with transponders. Do you need us to inspect your electronics?"

"Won't be necessary," I said.

He gave me a quizzical smile but didn't push further. He hopped off the wing and jetted to the top to inspect the twin turrets that had been rendered inoperable by the collision.

"It could be worse. The turrets are easily manufactured. The cowls that covered them have been lost and without access to the materials for the armor, there's no good reason to replace them," he said.

I wondered how much less effective our stealth would be without the cowls.

"We've already provided an estimate for the interior work. Should I contact your partner, Nick James, once I work the numbers up?" Priyanka asked.

I wasn't sure what interior work he was talking about, so I touched the side of my earwig to engage my HUD projector without verbal direction. The AI had been listening to our conversation and understood I wanted to see the plans for the work he was referring to. A drawing popped up showing a new, narrow separation that had been added between the berth deck and the hold. On the port side was a permanent armory and on the other, a hallway that led to the ship's only airlock. A new airlock door had been added between the hallway and the hold, in effect extending the living quarters to include the side exit and the armory. It was a nice upgrade. We would now be able to walk from the berth deck over to the starboard airlock or into the cargo bay without having to depressurize the entire hold.

"Sorry, I needed to review something. And yes, definitely contact Nick with the estimates. He'll copy me on them," I said.

"Excellent. Can I give you a ride over to the platform?"

"I'd appreciate it."

I grabbed my bag and we loaded into a highly polished, bright red passenger vehicle. I'd never sat in a vehicle as richly appointed and wondered how much it must have cost. Priyanka was solicitous, offering me a variety of drinks from his well-stocked bar and suggesting that he could arrange for entertainment planet-side. I turned him down, mostly because I didn't have a lot of experience with that sort of thing and didn't want to embarrass myself. While I was grateful for the ride, I was just as glad to be out of the vehicle and standing on the orbital platform.

I took the space-elevator down to the surface and changed into my jeans and blazer. I mostly wore the blazer to hide the fact that I was packing a flechette in a shoulder holster. It was completely legal on Mars, but I'd received funny looks in the past when I'd worn it on my belt.

Veteran's Hospital
, I directed the cab I'd jumped into.