“What makes you think this isn’t just a snipe hunt?”
He shook his head. “Hunch, but it could be.”
“And you’ve got an ace in the hole.”
His eyes widened and a smile teased his lips. “I do?”
“You always have an ace in the hole.”
“Nice of you to notice. What do you think my ace is?”
“A joker.”
“A joker?”
“Somebody else knows where the ship is.”
“Yes, but I don’t know who that is,” Pip said, lacing his fingers over his chest. “That doesn’t do me any good.”
“Maybe,” I said. “Whoever it is knows the data is on the Chernyakova.”
“And?”
“And by swanning around from station to station we give him plenty of time to find us.”
Pip’s brows met over his nose. “What good would that do? He already knows where the ship is.”
I shook my head. “Maybe, but that’s not why he’s looking for us.”
“Why, then?”
“Because we have the location somewhere in our astrogation database.”
Pip sighed and tipped his head back to stare at the ceiling. “And he’ll need to make sure we don’t find it,” he said.
“There’s another possibility,” I said.
“What’s that?”
“He doesn’t actually have the location and wants to get it for himself.”
Pip straightened up and looked at me. “That’s possible.”
“Either way, we’re bait,” I said.
“Of course we’re bait,” Pip said. “Always have been.”
“How does that help?”
“When somebody comes sniffing after us, we’ll be ready for them.”
Chapter 23
Viceroy System: 2375, May 13
Leaving Mel’s Place felt strange. We filed no flight plans and only needed to notify traffic control a stan before undocking so they could get us a tug and make sure we’d paid our bills. The tug showed up without any fanfare and gave us an easy ride away from the local station traffic before kicking us out toward the Deep Dark. To be fair, traffic from our docking gallery consisted of us. Short range showed a lot of traffic on the far side of the station, mostly small ships and shuttles.
We only had to kick off from the station for a stan before we were outside the safety perimeter and were able to bring up the sails and keel. We only had to run out for half a day beyond that before we were far enough out to make a short jump. I waited until after breakfast mess before calling the ship to navigation stations.
“Status, Ms. Ross?” I asked when we all got comfy.
“We are at navigation stations, Captain.”
“Thank you, Ms. Ross,” I said. “Do we have someplace else to be this morning?”
Al’s grin showed up clearly in the bridge’s subdued lighting. “There’s an empty piece of nowhere out there a ways, Skipper.”
“Sounds delightful, Ms. Reed.”
“Mr. Reed, the captain would like to go somewhere other than here this morning,” Al said.
“Course to interim jump plotted and locked, Ms. Ross. Ship dead on course.”
“Thank you, Mr. Reed. Systems, are we ready to jump?” Al asked.
“Systems green for jump once, Ms. Ross,” Ms. Fortuner said from her console.
“Thank you, Ms. Fortuner. Astrogation, are we ready to jump?”
“Astrogation is green for jump twice, Ms. Ross.”
“Thank you, Mr. Reed. Chief?”
“Engineering reports green for jump, Captain. Ship is green for jump thrice.”
“Thank you, Chief. Captain, the ship reports green for go thrice.”
“Thank you. Ms. Ross. Ready about, Mr. Reed. Hard a-lee.”
He punched a key and we bent space. The Deep Dark ahead seemed a bit different but if I hadn’t been watching, I might not have noticed.
“Position validation,” Reed said. “We’re here, Captain. Wherever here is. Logged at 2375, May 13 at 0918.”
“Does it have a name?” I asked, looking back and forth between Al and Mr. Reed.
“It’s apparently called ‘A Wide Spot For MP,’ Captain,” Mr. Reed said.
Al nodded. “Most of the stations have scouted clear jump points within a BU or so of their systems so outbound vessels have a short-legged jump.”
“How convenient,” I said.
“They want ships moving. Which is something we should be doing, Captain.”
“Chief?” I asked.
“More than enough legs, Skipper.”
“Mr. Reed?”
“Next jump locked. We are on track, Captain.”
“Any reason not to jump, Ms. Ross?”
“None, Captain. Ship is still green for go thrice.”
“Thank you, Ms. Ross. Ready about, Mr. Reed. Hard a-lee.”
The view out the front shifted again and Mr. Reed began his assessment.
“Position validation,” Reed said. “We’ve jumped two percent long but within operational parameters. Logged at 2375, May 13 at 0924.”
“Long range?” I asked.
“Clear, Skipper,” Al said.
“Chief?”
“We could do a half-power jump now if you wanted, but we’ll have full juice by dinner.”
“Recommendations, Mr. Reed?” I asked.
His head jerked around to face me. “Me?”
“You’re the astrogator.”
“We’re going to need two full and one short hop for Dark Knight, Captain.” He tapped a few more keys and looked at his displays. “Half a jump now won’t buy us much. Doing the two full and then a recharge for the final hop puts us in-system by this time tomorrow.”
The numbers made me dizzy. “We just left Mel’s this morning and we’re going to be in the Dark Knight system by tomorrow?”
Al laughed. “Welcome to Toe-Hold space, Skipper. They won’t all be like this, but most stations are where ships can get to them easily because they don’t have to be deep in the gravity wells to support Goldilocks.”
“Don’t forget the Burlesons back there,” the chief said. “Twenty-four BUs in three jumps instead of eight cuts down the transit time by a lot. How many back-to-back jumps could the Tinker make?”
“We only ever made a double,” I said. “And that was about it for us.”
“After sailing for five weeks instead of five stans,” Al said.
“True.” I tried to let my brain absorb the whole paradigm shift. I knew the logic but my habits fought me. “Secure from navigation stations, Ms. Ross. Set normal watch.”
While she made the announcement, I stood up and looked around at the empty space between the stars for a moment before dropping down the ladder to officer country. I found Pip at the bottom, and the chief slid down from the bridge to join us.
I looked back and forth between them. “Is this a social call?”
“Of course,” Pip said.
The chief grinned. “You got a hot date?”
I opened the cabin door and led the small parade in. The chief closed the door behind her and we all took seats.
“To what do I owe the pleasure of your company?”
“I’m just along for the ride,” Pip said.
“You’re CEO,” the chief said. “This is company business.”
Pip gave an airy wave. “Stockholder grievances already?”
The chief grinned. “Not exactly, no.” She looked at me. “Do you know where we’re going?”
“Dark Knight Station.”
“After that?”
I shook my head. “No. Depends on what we find there.”
She looked at Pip. “Do you know?”
“Not really. No.”
“That’s what I thought. You’re just going to sail around out here until somebody bites?”
Pip gave me the stink eye but I held up my hands in surrender. “I haven’t said anything.”
“You two,” the chief said
around a laugh. “I buried my first husband out here in the Toe-Holds before you two were born. You’re using us for bait.” She stared at Pip.
Pip started to put his hand to his chest but I cleared my throat and gave him a little shake of my head. For once he thought better of what he was about to do and simply brushed down the front of his tunic. “Whatever do you mean?” he asked.
She sighed. “You wanted this ship. You brought it back to Toe-Hold space. You took the first cargo you could find to get to Mel’s and now we’re going up to Dark Knight.”
“It’s where the can is going,” Pip said.
“Uh huh. And you left a much more profitable can bound for Bar None sitting on the dock.”
“Did I?”
“You also left a high-priority can bound for High Tortuga that we might have delivered in the same amount of time.” She gave him a narrow-eyed look and pressed her lips together in a tight line. “You’re not going to try to tell me you didn’t see them.”
“We need to see Inky,” Pip said.
The chief’s face went slack for a moment. “Inky? Something wrong with our astrogation data?”
“It’s incomplete,” Pip said with a glance at me. “There’s at least one station that’s not listed. I want to see if Inky’s data shows any more.”
The chief’s eyes narrowed again. “Which one?”
“Port Lumineux.”
She looked back and forth between us for a moment and pursed her lips. “Port Lumineux? As if.”
Pip shrugged.
The chief gave a quiet snort. “So, Captain,” she said, placing some emphasis on the title. “Will you tell your chief engineer what’s going on?”
“He’s looking for a ship that’s supposedly lost out here,” I said. “The Chernyakova’s last stop in Toe-Hold space was a supply run to it. The location is in the database somewhere but it’s not labeled so we don’t know which jump point, empty system, or stand-by coordinates it might be.”
Pip scowled at me but the chief sat back in her chair with a soft “oof” sound. She looked at Pip and back at me. “That’s what he told you he’s doing?”
“Eventually. Yes.”
“Eventually?”
“I’ve been asking for weeks. He told me just before we left Mel’s.”
“And you believe him?”
I looked at Pip for a moment. Did I?
He looked back at me with his eyes slowly widening and his face growing slack.
I looked back at the chief after what seemed like a long time. “I don’t know,” I said. “It’s consistent. It seems to fit the evidence. The Chernyakova is known out here.”
She stared at me for more than a few heartbeats without speaking. After a glance at Pip she said, “Some ground rules.”
Pip sat up in his chair and opened his mouth, but the chief steamrollered him.
“I’m the chief engineering officer on this ship. I don’t appreciate being lied to.” She glared at Pip. “You’ve been spooling out yarns ever since I came aboard. Even before that.” She nodded her head sideways at me. “He knows it. I know it. I suspect half the crew knows it. Why?”
“Need to know,” Pip said.
She snorted. “Don’t give me that operational security crap. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m hip deep in this operation already and whether you accept it or not, I need to know. Your operation needs this ship sailing and I’m the one charged with keeping it that way. You’re either going to straighten up and fly right or I’ll have a little word with Captain Waters.”
Pip’s eyes widened and his jaw went slack for a heartbeat, so fast I almost didn’t see it.
The chief looked at me. “And you,” she said. “It’s time for you to put on your big captain panties and figure out how to run this boat. I get that Pip’s your oldest friend and all, but you know he’s been lying like a cheap toupee and you’ve let him get away with it. Al did a good job getting you jump-started but you’ve still got your head up your ass. The paint job is good. The décor is lovely. You’ve made a few passes through the ship so the crew knows what you look like. Great. Keep doing that. Do more of it.” She paused and sucked in a deep breath through her nose. “But we’re in Toe-Hold space. You can’t let him lead you around by the nose like some dumb ox. You’re a better captain than that.” Her expression softened. “You’re a better man than that.”
She let that settle into silence for a moment and sat back in her chair again.
“Now,” she said, looking back at Pip. “Try again. The full story or so help me Hannah, I’ll walk when we dock.”
Pip looked at me, but I just waited. He sighed. “About a stanyer ago, Waters contacted me about the Chernyakova. The second auction was underway but Waters knew it would fall through. I don’t know how and I didn’t ask. He had some information that the Chernyakova’s last stop before jumping up to the High Line was a supply run to the lost Mega.”
The chief looked at me and I nodded. “Go on,” she said.
“We got aboard and made sure the astrogation database was intact. If I’d been thinking, I’d have grabbed a copy then.” He shrugged. “I was focused on making sure it was there. It was.”
“How did you know?” she asked.
“We plotted a few jumps and found Toe-Hold stations I knew weren’t on standard databases.”
She looked at me again and I nodded again. “Go on.”
“Waters and I had a meeting after and he gave me the green light to go ahead with getting the ship.”
“That was why he came to see us?” I asked.
“Yeah. Well, and it was good to see him in person again.” Pip gave a sideways grin. “He was amused, but also pleased that I’d found a way aboard.”
“Couldn’t TIC have just gone aboard and searched?” the chief asked. “They certainly knew where the ship was.”
“Waters said they didn’t have sufficient probable cause and they didn’t want to tip their hand about their interest in the ship,” Pip said.
The chief’s eyes narrowed and she tilted her head.
Pip held up his right hand. “Truth. I swear.”
She folded her arms across her chest and nodded. “Thin, but I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt. It’s at least plausible. Continue.”
“On the way to Dree, I grabbed a copy of the database for safekeeping. The drive is in my grav trunk. I ran it against a standard Toe-Hold catalog, and about a thousand locations aren't indexed. They're there and named but they lack any identifying data.”
“Why that many?” the chief asked.
“Probably just jumps in the Deep Dark. Long jumps between known stations,” I said.
“What about plotting them out?” she asked.
Pip looked blank but I caught her meaning immediately. “Like see if any of them line up between stations?” I asked.
“Would seem logical,” she said.
“Worth a try,” Pip said.
The chief pursed her lips and nodded. “So what’s really going on?”
Pip looked at her with his head cocked sideways. “I don’t follow.”
“Bait. You were planning on using the ship for bait before you knew what was on the database.”
“Why do you say that?” Pip asked.
“Back in Breakall. You insisted the ship keep its name.”
Pip nodded. “Yeah. What about it?”
“What difference would it have made to your plans if we'd renamed it Jimmy Brick?”
He shrugged. “None, I guess.”
“Then why did you insist that we keep the name?”
“Did I?” he asked.
“Yes, you did,” I said. “And you haven't answered the question.”
He stared at his hands for a moment. “I thought we’d need the ship’s name to flush out anybody who might have known her in the past.”
“So, you planned her as bait, all along,” the chief said, scowling at him.
He gave the kind of half-hearted shrug a kid might give when c
aught with his hand in a cookie jar. “Planned is too strong,” he said. “I thought it was something we might need before we got to the end.”
“Why?”
“Somebody else must know about the Mega. I figured we might want to know who they are.”
“And you think that’s something we don’t need to know?” she asked.
He sighed. “I’d hoped to keep it contained.”
“Never occurred to you that somebody who knows the Mega exists might have wanted to keep that knowledge to themselves?”
“Well, of course.” Pip looked as confused as I’ve ever seen him.
“How do you think they’d do that?” she asked.
“I’d expect them to come to us to try to find out what we knew.”
The chief leaned forward in her seat and leaned her elbows on her knees. She sighed and shook her head. “It didn’t occur to you that they might just take out the ship and everybody aboard?”
“Not without knowing if we’d told anybody first,” Pip said.
She twisted her head around to look at him. “That’s the best you got?”
He shrugged.
She sat up and pressed herself back into the chair. She held her lips in a tight line and her jaw worked like she was trying not to grind her teeth. She looked at me. “Captain, we’re in over our heads here.”
“I have to agree,” I said. “Recommendations?”
“First, we need to know what this is really about.”
“I told you,” Pip said. “Somewhere out here is a mega-hauler. This ship’s last jump in Toe-Hold space was to that ship.”
She shook her head and gave him a glance. “That’s what you’ve told us. Here’s how that looks from my perspective. Assuming such a ship exists—and I’ve got enough scuttlebutt and suggestion to suspect it really does—it’s been two stanyers since the Chernyakova visited it. Why would it still be there?”
“Because it can’t jump,” Pip said. “Something happened to the Burleson drives.”
She stared at him. “How long has the ship been rumored?”
He gave a quick shrug. “At least ten—maybe twelve—stanyers. Maybe longer.”
“This is Manchester Yards we’re talking about here,” she said.
“I get that. The question is why would Manchester be involved in building the Mega?” Pip said.
“Why wouldn’t they?” the chief asked.
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