Shadowplay: Book One of the Starcrown Chronicles

by Jon Gerrard

  Chapter Eight

  We brought the ship into a high orbit above the planet and powered down the engines to conserve fuel. I had asked Ian and Mark to give the ship’s systems a quick once-over to be sure it was space worthy. Between Ian’s engineering experience and Mark’s electronics knowledge they should be able to identify any potential problems. I’d rather know about any problems now while we could still put down and try to make repairs than to be hit with a nasty surprise out in the interstellar void. As Alex and I finished locking the bridge systems in standby Ian called from the engine room. In spite of the pigsty conditions everywhere, he reported that the ship’s systems were in surprisingly good order.

  “Although I’d say that’s more from design than any special care on the part of the crew,” Ian continued. “By the way, did you know that this is a Gilead Fleet ship? SC-3000 class, I think, but definitely Fleet technology. There’s no mistaking this equipment. I’m surprised it’s not still in service.”

  Alex and I exchanged looks. We had just had the same conversation ourselves. Although someone had gone to great lengths to remove any identifying markings from the bridge stations there were certain details of the ship’s construction and control layout that had led us to the same conclusion.

  “As long as it’ll take us out of this star-system,” I said. “How long a trip do you think she can handle?”

  “As long as our fuel lasts, I suppose. Maybe a dozen light-years, give or take. There are a number of systems out of adjustment so our fuel economy won’t be optimal, but nothing that will keep us from pulling hyperlight speeds. There is one system that I want to take a look at pretty soon, though: the air system. Some idiot let the cytolichen tanks get infected. That’s mostly what that god awful smell is. I’m going to have to shut the system down and clean it out completely. I think I can salvage enough healthy lichen to re-culture the exchange tanks, but it’ll be three or four days before it can be ready to take over again. The reserve tanks are fully charged so we should be able to hold out that long.”

  “Thanks, Ian. I think everyone would appreciate that. Which just leaves us with the question of what course to set. Meet us in the main cargo bay.”

  “On our way.”

  I had asked everyone to assemble in the cargo bay because it was the only space on the ship large enough to accommodate all of us. There were a number of things we had to work out before we got under way and we needed to make these decisions soon.

  Alex and I left the bridge and made our way quickly down the main stairwell from the command deck. Even before we exited the stairwell on C deck we could hear the excited murmuring coming from everyone waiting in the bay. As we turned into the starboard passageway we saw the other seven members of our group huddled together by the open bay doors. I had asked Chris and Lucky to check on something for me and I was expecting to meet them at the cargo bay entrance. They must have run into the others on the way. The group of them was standing in a tight circle talking animatedly to each other as they focused on something in Lucky’s hands. As we approached, Lucky looked up and shot us that lopsided smile of his that said he had news.

  “Catch.” Lucky tossed something in my direction that I snatched out of the air. It was a packet of bills, Gilead currency in the amount of ten thousand Solars according to the band.

  Bobby looked up at me and grinned like a kid at Christmas as he fingered the packet of golden bills he was holding. “Can you believe it? Lucky says there’s millions on board!”

  I turned to Lucky. “The captain’s safe?”

  “Actually, no. We searched his quarters like you said, but the safe itself was empty.”

  I turned the bills over in my hand. Physical currency was rare these days since virtually all business was conducted with electronic funds transfers. The government maintained cash reserves, as did most of the larger banks, but the average person rarely handled actual money any more. “So where did you find this?”

  “Cross had some storage containers in his cabin lined up to one side. I wasn’t going to give them a second thought until I realized they were bolted to the deck and locked tight, so of course I had to know what was inside. Fortunately, I had borrowed the blaster pistol Ian liberated from that pirate in the engine room and, well, I guess they don’t make locks like they used to. When we opened them we found each one packed tight with sealed bags of cash. Most of it is in Solars, although we did find a few other currencies as well.”

  I wasn’t surprised that Cross favored Solars. Gilead had one of the strongest and most stable economies of any of the star nations, giving our currency a significant advantage on the international exchange. I had suspected that someone like Cross who regularly trafficked in illegal goods would have a cache of money aboard. In fact I was counting on his greed to bail us out of our current situation.

  “How much do you think there is altogether?” I asked.

  “This is just an estimate of course, but based on the size of the containers and the denominations we found, I’d say it was somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 million.”

  Knowing Lucky, I was willing to bet that his estimate was pretty much on the nose. I watched Bobby’s eyes grow wider as he stared at the bills he was holding. It sounded like a lot of money but divided up among everyone aboard it would only amount to a little more than a hundred thousand apiece. While it was a significant sum, it was not enough to live on for long. If we pooled all of it together however, it would be enough for an idea I had in mind.

  “I’m glad you’re all here,” I said, handing the money back to Lucky. “I have something that I want to run past you before we talk to the others. I have an idea about what we should do now that we have the means to get away from here.”

  “But, I mean, I thought we were going, you know, home,” Chris said anxiously.

  All he had talked about during our time on Rabine’s plantation was how much he missed his family and wanted to go home. In particular I knew that he had a girlfriend he was pining for. Apparently they had been seeing each other for several years and had gotten quite serious. Before his arrest he had planned to propose to her as soon as they graduated. He had mapped out his entire future in his mind, right down to the three children they would have. Unfortunately, I had to be the one to make him understand how impossible that dream was now.

  “I know how much you want to get back to your family,” I said, trying to be as gentle as I could. “We all do. But that’s the one thing we can’t do.” I watched his face drop at my words. Momma Mary reached up and rubbed his back with one hand.

  “We may not be Rabine’s slaves any more, but don’t forget that to the authorities we’re still convicted criminals. We’d be locked up as soon as we set foot on any planet in Gilead space. Simple things like retinal scans, voice and facial recognition software, DNA scans—any number of things that we take for granted could trigger an alert to the authorities. By just walking down the street you could be scanned by dozens of security sensors that we pass every day without thinking about it, have your image flagged by the local police database, and be arrested before you got two blocks.”

  My words were an unexpected blow to him and I could see the will drain out of him. His entire body seemed to deflate as I spoke. I hated to upset him but he had to accept the reality of our situation. We had escaped our fate as slaves but we were far from being truly free.

  “There’s supposed to be an underground in Gilead,” Alex said. “I heard that they helped a number of people who were on King Sebastian’s most wanted list to disappear. We could try to contact them.”

  A flicker of hope returned to Chris’s eyes but I knew I had to dash his dreams again.

  “We could try,” I said slowly, “but I see a number of problems with that too. To begin with, we’re not even sure where to start looking for them. We’ve been out of touch for a long time and a lot of things are probably different now. For all we know this
underground group might not even exist any longer. If King Sebastian is as paranoid and ruthless as he’s supposed to be, he would have made it a priority to root out and eliminate any such opposition as soon as they started causing him trouble. That’s what I’d do in his place. Also, if the authorities catch us in possession of a stolen Gilead ship, which is what I’m sure this is, we’ll be lucky to get off with only a life sentence. Even assuming that we could somehow manage to get back into Gilead space undetected and make contact with this underground, what kind of lives would we have to look forward to? We’d have to live on the run, outcasts on the fringes of society. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I don’t want to spend the rest of my life looking over my shoulder.”

  Alex gave me a long, thoughtful look before she slowly nodded her agreement.

  “You may be right,” Alex admitted, “at least for now, but keep the possibility open, Cordass. If we’re ever going to get our former lives back I have a feeling that the underground is going to be our way back in.”

  With a ship full of frightened people who had just escaped a year’s brutal captivity as slaves, I knew this was not the time to go looking for some mysterious, clandestine group that may or may not even exist. But I had also come to respect Alex’s intuition. If she thought we should try to get into contact with this group there might be something to it.

  “Fair enough,” I said. “Once things have settled down we can look into finding out if the underground still exists. But for now I think we need to focus on the basics like finding a safe place for all of these people to call home.”

  “So what are we going to do?” Bobby asked.

  “You’re holding the answer in your hand,” I said. Over the next couple of minutes I outlined the plan I had come up with.

  “It could work,” Ian said when I finished, his deep voice reverberating in the hallway even over the voices coming from the hold. “The ship’s basically sound and it wouldn’t take much to outfit it for our needs.”

  “Most of the others aren’t spacers,” Alex pointed out.

  “True,” I agreed. “But we have enough experienced hands for a skeleton crew and the others could learn.”

  “We’re really not ever going home again, are we,” Chris said softly.

  I placed a hand on his shoulder. “Not now,” I said. “It’s just too dangerous for us and our families.”

  “I understand. It was a nice fantasy.” Putting on a forced smile he looked up and slapped the bulkhead support beside him. “It could be worse. At least we’re free of that sick bastard, Rabine.”

  “We shouldn’t keep the others waiting,” Alex said.

  “You’re right,” I agreed. “Besides, this isn’t something we can decide on our own. Everybody should have a say since it affects all of us.”

  I turned and led us into the bay. As soon as we entered, everyone started whistling and clapping. In moments the entire compartment was thundering with applause. It went on and on until I finally raised my hands. I had to wait for a while for the noise to quiet down.

  “I guess it feels pretty good to finally be out of there,” I said, bringing cheers and laughter from everyone. “I have a bit of news for those of you who haven’t heard. It seems that in the confusion of our rather abrupt departure, Rabine’s property somehow managed to get destroyed–his mansion, the compound, all of it has been completely leveled!” The cheering and applause was even louder than before.

  When it finally quieted down I continued. “But we still have a problem. Even though we now have a way to escape this hell hole, we don’t have anywhere to go. Back home we’re convicted criminals. No legitimate government will offer us sanctuary. The bottom line is that we’re people without a country.” As the cold reality of our situation settled in I could feel the jubilant mood of a moment ago beginning to dissolve. A sea of worried faces looked up at me and I felt the weight of responsibility settle onto my shoulders. They were looking to me for answers.

  “But we do have this ship,” I continued. “Ian and Mark have checked it over and they tell me that its systems are in good shape. We figure that we have enough reserves to travel about a dozen light-years before we need to refuel, which is enough to get us away from the Argent cluster. The question of course is where do we go?”

  Urgent whispering sprang up throughout the compartment. I could feel the anxiety beginning to build and knew that I had to cut it off now before the fear took hold.

  “I want everyone to keep calm. We’re going to survive this, I promise you. And I want you all to remember something. The situation you find yourself in is not your fault. None of you has done anything to justify what has happened to you. The only reason we are even in this situation in the first place is because our own government turned on us. We’re not criminals!” At least they weren’t. “It was a selfish and incompetent king who branded us outlaws. Our homes, our families, in fact our very lives, were stolen from us by a cowardly despot who has absolutely no regard for our rights! He has turned his back on us, on his responsibility as our king, and we owe him no allegiance!”

  “What I’m proposing is that we let this ship be our home, our nation. There is enough space aboard for all of us to live comfortably. We can build new lives for ourselves as independent traders.”

  “Don’t you mean pirates?” someone called out. “This is a pirate ship, isn’t it?”

  “It was a pirate ship,” I said. “Now it’s ours. No, I mean exactly what I said, independent traders not pirates, and never slavers!” I took one of the packets of bills from Lucky and raised it over my head. It suddenly became very quiet.

  “A search of the ship turned up a hoard of currency, enough to repair and provision the ship. We can turn it into as fine a trading vessel as anything in space. Then it’s just a matter of deciding on a cargo to transport.”

  “What about Rabine’s shipment?” someone called out. “Look at all of that stuff. It’s got to be worth a fortune. Why don’t we just sell that and make us all rich?”

  I turned and walked to the stack of bags that was piled against the bulkhead behind me. It was as tall as I was and more than twice that in width. I pulled one of the bags off the top of the stack and turned back to face everyone. I held up my hands, balancing the drugs in one hand and the cash in the other.

  “We could do that. These drugs are worth a lot of money, enough to make each of us quite wealthy.” I dropped the bag onto the deck at my feet. It landed with a dull thud. “But is that really the direction you want to move in?

  “I suppose what it comes down to is a matter of choice. For myself, I don’t want to become a drug dealer. It’s not that I’m a purist and I’m not naïve. I know that a number of you have gotten into the habit of chewing coca leaves to help you get through the day.”

  “Ye-ha!” came a shout.

  I looked toward the source of that yell. “Yes, Eddie, I was thinking of you, actually.”

  Some good natured laughing erupted briefly.

  “Rabine even allowed any of us who wanted to chew to do it. In fact, he encouraged it. Think about that. Rabine couldn’t have cared less about us. To him we were nothing more than strong backs to do his grunt work. What he cared about was increasing productivity. He encouraged you to chew because it made you work faster, regardless of the consequences to your long term health. But his guards were forbidden to touch the stuff. How many of you remember Paco Robles?” At the mention of Robles’s name the room grew quiet.

  Robles was one of Rabine’s guards who had been caught snorting cocaine behind the garage one day. Rabine became so enraged that he beat the man to a bloody pulp with his bare hands. Once Robles was sprawled in the mud at his feet Rabine had some of his men string him up by his wrists so he could go at him with a whip. For many long minutes Robles’s screams could be heard echoing throughout the compound. Even after the screaming finally stopped, Rabine continued to whip the
lifeless corpse until he was exhausted. He had beat him so long and so hard that by the time he was finished the flesh was hanging from his body in bloody, ragged strips. Rabine left the body hanging there for a week as a reminder. During that time carrion birds feasted freely on the corpse until it bore little resemblance to a human being. Eventually the grisly remains were taken down and discarded in the forest for scavengers to dispose of.

  It was silent as I continued. “Like I said, think about it. Even the most notorious drug dealer in the quadrant knows better than to use his own product. Is this really something you want to help spread through the galaxy?

  “Now I’d never try to tell any of you how to run your life, but I do believe deep down to the bottom of my soul that setting ourselves up as drug dealers is a bad move and I want nothing to do with it. But this isn’t something I can decide for you. If some of you want to try selling the drugs I won’t stop you, but I would ask that you do it away from the rest of us. I’m sure we can find somewhere to put you ashore with some seed money and as many of these as you want to take with you.” I glanced down at the sack, nudged it with my foot, then looked back up.

  “Or we can space the drugs and try to make a life for ourselves as inter-stellar merchants. But whatever we’re going to do we should make a decision soon and get under way. Someone’s going to get suspicious if we hang in orbit here for too long and we’re not exactly in a position to be answering a lot of questions.”

  There was some discussion for a while but no one was able to come up with a better plan. As I looked around the bay, watching and listening to people making their points, I saw that we were very different people from the frightened and helpless prisoners the pirates had captured a year ago. Living as slaves had toughened us and made us all realists. Eventually everyone agreed that our best hope was the plan I had come up with to turn the ship into a trading vessel. We could never return to our homes and our former lives, but we would not give up. A vote was taken and the decision was unanimous. We would space the drugs and become a cargo hauler.

  There was just one remaining detail to decide.

  “Excuse me,” Momma Mary called out once we had agreed on our main course of action. “But aren’t you forgetting something?”

  I frowned at her.

  “Just exactly who did you have in mind for captain of this trade ship?”

  That brought a round of laughter.

  “I figured we would hold elections to—”

  “Bull!” Mary said. “You know you’re the best man for the job!”

  “But he’s just a kid!” a voice called out.

  Mary spun on the crowd and leveled a laser stare in the direction the voice had come from. “If it hadn’t been for this kid, we’d all still be cowering in that rat infested barn Rabine had us living in. Most of you don’t know it, but Pell was planning our escape from the very beginning. He refused to even consider any plan that didn’t include helping every one of you to escape with us. We all owe him our lives.” She turned back to me, hefting her skillet like a battle standard. “I don’t know about anybody else, but I’ll follow you clear across the galaxy, honey!”

  Cheering went up throughout the hold. I felt the mantle of responsibility settle even heavier on me. Before I could say anything, Bobby and some of the others had lifted me up on their shoulders chanting, “Pell! Pell! Pell!” It didn’t seem like I had any choice.

  Just that quickly I was the captain of a trading ship, with the lives and welfare of a hundred and fifty people to be responsible for.