Smuggler's Dilemma (3 page)

"Commander Sterra," she said. "She gave a lecture on ethics."

"Did you get a chance to meet her?"

"Of course, silly, why do you think I’d bring it up? She ate lunch with my whole class. Did you know she knew your dad?"

I just looked at her dumbfounded, "No…"

"When he and your mom were in the Amazonian conflict." I must have looked confused. She returned my perplexed look. "Are you serious? You didn’t know they were in the war together?"

"Mom? I knew Dad was, but…"

"You Hoffens really need to talk more. So, guess what else?" she asked brightly.

I smiled. It was fun to see her so energetic. "What?"

"Guess," she repeated.             

"Uh, you got a promotion?"

"Well, true, but that’s only sort of it."

"You’re… Frak, I don’t know…"

"I got accepted to Space Combat School," she said.

"Doesn’t that describe the Academy?"

She punched me, "No dumb-ass. Space Combat School means I’ll fly a fighter, and I’m going to be assigned to a ship, probably a destroyer."

"No shite! That’s amazing! When do you start?"

"At the end of this semester. I’ll take a reduced load and start flying trainers right away."

"We need to celebrate," I said huskily. I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her tight "Can you stay at the hotel tonight?"

She kissed me, but before I could get serious, she stopped and said, "I’ve got until 1900 tomorrow. My time was extended since I was promoted to combat-school candidate."

I whistled, "Two whole extra hours. Big stuff."

Tabby slugged me in response. I preferred the kissing.

She sat up, grabbed her bag, and pulled her vac-suit out. "Look away," she demanded and started removing her dress whites. I made a half-hearted attempt to look away, but gave it up when I saw a number of bruises on her ribs and legs.

"What’s all that about?" I asked, running my finger across her ribs.

Her eyes followed mine down to the bruises. "Oh, that's nothing to worry about. Hand-to-hand training. We’re supposed to go half-speed, but sometimes it gets a little out of control." That made sense to me. The Tabby I knew didn't do anything halfway.

The cab arrived at the Coolidge main transport terminal. Waiting fifteen minutes for the next train was easy, I was spending time with Tabby. We grabbed meal bars and sat on a bench next to the track.

"What are we doing today?" she asked.

"Non-stop fun," I said, teasingly. "No, really. It's a big day. I rented a hauler so we can run a container over to the frigate we captured. We’re moving all of our gear and supplies out."

"I didn’t completely follow what happened to
Sterra’s Gift
. Did you actually ram the back end of that frigate with your ship?"

"Yeah. We were desperate. That frigate wa-ay out gunned us, it was the only thing I could come up with," I said.

She nodded, as if seeing the action in her mind. "Do you have the combat data stream? We’ve been dissecting data streams in our fleet maneuvers class. I’d love to share it with my professors."

"Sure, later tonight we can run through some of it and see if it’s something you’re interested in."

We’d just stood to get on the train. Tabby was holding onto my arm with both of her hands and she gave me a squeeze. "I’m not sure I like that you keep getting into these scrapes."

"I think you don’t like us getting into these scrapes without you. You gotta know that’s why we’re shopping for ships. We’re upgrading our offense. I’m tired of getting kicked around."

"Can’t you keep the frigate? That thing should be loaded for bear," she asked as we stepped into the train.

We sat and waited for it to start. "It totally is, but the cost to keep it running is incredible. It runs through more credits of ordinance in a minute than we could recover on most trips. We’re better off selling it and stepping back. Besides, a frigate is a fleet vehicle and not really designed for one-on-one combat. It’s all teeth."

She snuggled against me as the train sped toward Puskar Stellar. I wondered how we would ever make it as a couple. I felt so complete when we were together. It was as if she filled a hole in my life that I didn’t know was there. I hated that we were always having to leave each other. Tabby must have been tired because she fell asleep against me. I wrapped my arm around her and enjoyed a quiet ride.

I pinged Ada on my HUD to let her know where we were. She was already at Puskar Stellar’s space station.

Open comm, Ada Chen.

I smiled when I heard her cheerful voice. "Heyas, Liam. Are you guys getting close?"

"Yup. Sleepyhead and I are just getting off the train and we’ll be on the elevator in a couple of minutes."

"Sounds great, see you in a few," Ada said and then cut the comm.

"Ada’s coming?" Tabby asked.

"It was last minute, but Nick and I are trying to hire her. She’s a killer pilot. I thought it’d be good to get her opinion about the ships we’re looking at."

"Really?" Tabby raised her eyebrows and the look on her face confused me. We were heading for bad territory and I had no idea why.

"Okay, what?" I asked.

"You didn’t think to mention that you were bringing your gorgeous pilot friend, who you just might be hiring, along on our day out?" She definitely seemed miffed.

I’d totally missed that angle and wasn’t sure what I needed to do. "I don’t think about her like that. She’s just a friend."

"You should have seen your face when you were talking to her. You were all smiles."

The trap had been set. It was right in front of me, but I was completely unable to avoid it. "That’s because she’s always so upbeat."

Tabby closed her mouth and looked away, her lips so tightly pressed together they were white. We only had a couple of minutes before exiting the elevator and this wasn’t how I wanted us to spend our day. There were things we had to do and I needed Tabby not to be grumpy. With our limited time together, fighting was a terrible waste of time.

"We’ve had this conversation, but just in case you forgot how I feel…" I grabbed her arm to turn her toward me. She held fast, but I didn’t care. I moved around her and pulled her in close, kissing her face with small pecks. At first she was rigid, but she soon began to melt. Within moments she accepted, started giggling and finally returned my affection.

I pulled back, "I’m serious, Tabby. As long as you’ll have me, I don’t have eyes for anyone else." Apparently, this wasn’t a bad thing to say because she pulled me back in for another long kiss. I could get used to this.

I heard clapping nearby and let go long enough to look up. To my dismay, the elevator had stopped and a small crowd of people who were waiting to enter, applauded our efforts. My cheeks burned and I grabbed Tabby’s bag from the floor of the elevator as we slunk off. At least she was also blushing. Once we cleared the crowd, she gave me a quick poke with her fist.

"Tabby!" I heard Ada’s voice from nearby. I thought it was odd that Ada called her by name since they hadn’t actually met. I turned to see Ada in her vac-suit, approaching at a jog. "Liam said you’d be joining us today. I couldn’t wait to meet you. The boys talk about you all the time." She didn’t hesitate and pulled a slightly reluctant Tabby in for a hug.

In typical Ada-style she kept right on rolling. "Oh, my gosh! They totally were telling the truth too. You’re gorgeous! Do you ever grow your hair out? I bet it’s beautiful. But I suppose, as an officer you like to keep it short. It’s great to finally meet you!"

"Liam neglected to tell me that I’d get to meet you today," Tabby said, not yet completely over it.

"Men. They’re useless." She grabbed Tabby’s hand, led her away and called over her shoulder. "Liam, did you rent that hauler?"

I trailed along behind them and Tabby glanced back apologetically. She now understood the enigma we all knew as Ada and was helplessly swept along in its wake.

HMS HOTSPUR

"You want to fly it?" I asked Tabby while we were standing next to the spindly legged container hauler. It reminded me of the ore-sled I used to fly for my dad on our mining claim.

"Absolutely," she said. We’d exchanged enough video messages where she lamented her lack of time in the pilot’s chair, that I already knew the answer.

"Ada’s probably better suited to helping you through traffic than I am."

Tabby nodded amiably. I popped the bat-wing door on the port side and climbed over the pilot’s chair and onto a back bench. Tabby and Ada strapped into the two front seats and pressurized the cabin.

"First stop is to grab a container. Nick bought one from the yard where we stored the frigate. I just sent you the nav-plan, Tabby," I said.

"Got it."

She smoothly joined a stream of traffic exiting the controlled space around Puskar Stellar Space Station. I was surprised that she was stick flying. In heavy traffic, I preferred to let the AI do the work. In my defense, I’d always been sailing a much larger ship, but I didn’t think for a moment it would have made any difference to Tabby.

"You’re a natural," Ada said in her normal bubbly way. If I didn’t know better, I’d have thought that she was sucking up to Tabby.

If Tabby thought anything of it she didn’t give any clue, "Thanks. Liam gave me a nice wide nav-path."

It took twenty minutes of sailing, but Tabby didn’t have any trouble. Once there, she hooked up to the empty container we’d purchased. Having grown up in a mining colony, it was old hat for her as much as it was for me.

As we sailed over to the frigate, I was pleased to discover that it was designed to receive cargo by placing the open end of a container next to the cargo elevator. Heavy clamps held the container in place and the elevator doubled as an air lock, pressurizing and depressurizing so cargo could be transferred quickly. All in all it was well thought out and it took us less than twenty minutes to secure the container and get going again.

The first shipyard, Brinkman’s, was a bust. They had two beautifully maintained CA-12s but they were very proud of them and the price reflected it. The second yard had a single CA-12 that was a possibility, but still on the high end. I wouldn’t rule it out. When we finally made it to Weird Wally’s Bone Yard it was getting late. Fortunately, Weird Wally didn’t mind that at all.

"So, you’re looking for what exactly?" I hadn’t expected to be meeting with Weird Wally himself, but there he was in a purple vac-suit covered by a white suit coat. We’d already sailed through the Bone Yard and seen his three CA-12s. From the outside, they’d seen a significant amount of use, but their prices were also the most competitive. Even so, the lowest price was half a million and we needed to fit repairs and another ship into my max budget of seven hundred thousand.

"We’re looking for two ships. I need something with some real teeth and a General Astral CA-12." I had no idea how to negotiate with a ship salesman, so I just put it out there on the table.

"I see. What kind of budget do you have?" The four of us were seated at a clear glass table in his office. While he talked, Wally was gesturing, giving commands to his HUD. Three CA-12s emerged from the glowing, translucent blue table top, hovering in a line. They looked so lifelike that I couldn’t help myself and reached out to touch one. It jumped to the center of the table, and grew in size to half a meter long and perfectly proportioned.

"Seven hundred thousand for both ships, fully functional," I said.

He nodded and flicked one of the CAs off of the table. It tumbled and disappeared when it reached the edge. He lined up five smaller ships in front of the cutters. Two of them were the same arrowhead shaped darts that we’d come into contact with many times before. I wasn’t impressed with their armor. Sure, a dart was fast, but we’d been able to take them out every time.

"Probably not the darts," I said.

"Good. Tell me why, it will help the search," he said.

"Too fragile. They’ve got speed, but missiles or even a good gunner takes 'em out too easily."

He considered what I said and nodded appreciatively. "That’d be quite a gunner, but I get your point. I don’t get too many fighters in, so you’ll understand that they come at a hefty price." He swept his hand across the entire lineup of fighters and sent them tumbling. "You’ve really got to have a CA-12?"

"Yes. Why?" I asked.

"It’s killing your budget." He pushed the two remaining cutters off the board. "We’ll get back to those. Like I was saying, the fighters are going to be the hardest to find and eliminating the dart class causes some problems. Let’s be creative for a minute. Tell me why you need more than a dart. What are you kids getting into?" Ordinarily I’d have been offended by his use of the word kids, but he was such an odd character and he’d said it so earnestly that it didn’t bother me.

"Loose Nuts is a shipping company, recently founded. The problem is we keep running into trouble and the equipment we’re sailing gets beat to crap."

"You’re smuggling?" he asked, completely unabashed.

"Not so far," I replied honestly.

Ada was scandalized by my comment and she gave me a one word correction. "Liam."

I looked at her and smiled. "Right. No, just problems with pirates."

"And the CA-12 isn’t enough? Surprising, since that’s the point of a cutter. Long range and teeth enough to defend itself. That Chrysler Frigate you brought back, did you take that down with your CA-12?"

I was shocked. How did he know about the frigate? I didn’t even know that it was a Chrysler make.

"We got lucky and the CA-12 didn’t survive."

"More than luck if you all made it back. That cutter isn't designed to take on warships. Let me take you out to the yard to look at something special. I don’t even want to put it on the table. You’ve got to see it in person."

He had my attention. I knew I was being reeled in by a master salesman, but felt powerless. He’d shown aptitude, interest and even indirectly complimented me. I was trying to learn something from his salesmanship, but it was hard as I was the target of his not inconsiderable charm. I looked to Tabby and Ada for support, but they’d been drawn in too.