Milk Run (Smuggler's Tales From The Golden Age Of The Solar Clipper Book 1)

by Nathan Lowell

  Gunderson sniffed. “That’s real coffee?”

  Natalya dragged another cup out of the galley and handed it to him. “Yep. And I sold a bunch to Nancy last night so this one’s on the house.”

  He took a sip and sighed. “Yeah. That’s the stuff.” He took another sip and smiled. “Beer and coffee. Two things you gotta have good water to make. Seems like we been trying to make water taste good as long as we been drinkin’ it, eh?”

  “You need beer?” Zoya asked.

  Gunderson shook his head. “We got beer. Brew it ourselves. You mighta had some last night.”

  Zoya shook her head. “Not a beer drinker.”

  “It’s easy to make, doesn’t take up a lot of time or space, and we’re the only bar for a million kilometers in any direction.”

  “Captive audience, eh?” Natalya said, toasting him with her mug.

  He shook his head. “Let’s just say it’s only one of the many features that makes Odin’s Outpost a tourist destination.”

  Inge snickered. “It’s the only destination in this part of the Deep Dark, you old pirate.”

  Gunderson pursed his lips and grunted. “Never was a pirate. Don’t plan to start.” He turned to Natalya. “Sorry it took so long. You’re going straight back to Dark Knight?”

  Natalya nodded. “Soon as you give the word, we can pull out and bend space.”

  Gunderson rubbed the back of his neck again. “Willing to take something back for me?” He glanced at Inge. “Besides her?”

  Inge snorted.

  “That’s what we waited for,” Zoya said, a bit of acid in her tone.

  “Yeah, yeah. Sorry about that. I thought we’d be ready before this.” Gunderson took a solid pull off the coffee cup.

  Natalya shot a quelling look at Zoya. “It’s nothing, Captain. Thanks for your hospitality.” She paused for a couple of heartbeats. “If I could ask, what is it that you want us to take back?”

  “A lock box. Goes direct to Kondur, just like that chip came direct to me.”

  Natalya nodded. “Seems fair. Terms?”

  “What’d he pay you for the chip?” he asked.

  “Enough. What are you offering for the return run?”

  He grinned and shrugged. “Fifty kay and I’ll cover your fuel bill. Already waived your docking fees. Half now. Half on delivery.”

  “Any deadline?” Zoya asked.

  “Soon as you can. Sometime this week would be good.”

  Natalya stuck out a hand. “Deal.”

  Inge nearly choked on her coffee and held up a hand while she cleared her pipes. “I’m all right. Just inhaled wrong.”

  Gunderson shook Natalya’s hand and glared at Inge. “I’ll send Nancy over with the box in half a stan.”

  “You don’t want a surety bond?” Inge asked, one eyebrow rising slightly.

  Gunderson looked at the deck and shook his head. “Not from these ladies. Tortuga covered it.”

  Inge’s other eyebrow lifted. “Good to know.” Her tone made it sound like maybe it wasn’t actually that good.

  “Yeah, well.” Gunderson drained his mug and handed it back to Natalya. “Thanks for the coffee. I better get Nancy movin’ on this so you can head back.” He started down the passageway, Natalya close behind.

  “Anything in particular I need to worry about with this shipment, Captain?” Natalya’s voice barely reached the deck but Gunderson heard it and glanced back at her.

  “Nothing unusual. My usual courier is delayed on the far side of Toe-Hold. If you’re going right back to Dark Knight, you can save me the hassle.” He paused at the lock.

  “You’re being pretty trusting.”

  He looked into her eyes. “Not so much. I’ve got a bond in case you scarper with the box. Tampering with it will likely be the last thing you’d ever do, but I suspect you knew that.”

  She nodded. “Yeah. I’m familiar with the routine.”

  “Your ole man taught you well,” he said. A tired smile reached all the way to his eyes.

  “You know my father?”

  “Demetri?” He nodded toward the bridge. “Everybody knows Demetri Regyri.”

  Natalya keyed the lock open. “How well does she know him?”

  “I bet she knows him better than he knows himself.” His smile warmed toward Natalya. “Probably better than his own daughter.”

  “I doubt that,” Natalya said.

  He started down the short ramp and stopped halfway to the deck to look back at her. “You know where he is now?”

  Natalya felt a pang of alarm. “Not exactly. Somewhere here in Toe-Hold space, last I heard.”

  He nodded toward the bridge again. “She knows.” He waved and stepped off the ramp. “I’ll get Nancy over here with the box. You’ll be able to leave in half a stan.”

  Natalya watched him stride off into the station without a backward glance. She keyed the lock closed again and stood there for a few moments. Random thoughts chased themselves around her skull without making a great deal of sense. She’d covered half of Toe-Hold space in a few days and still was no closer to figuring out why Margaret Newmar had drugged her, staged a theatrical murder, and chased her into the Deep Dark.

  A nagging feeling that she might never know started tugging on her hind brain. It wasn’t a comfortable feeling, and she felt pretty sure it wouldn’t go away any time soon.

  Chapter 14

  Dark Knight Station: 2363, June 2

  Natalya and Zoya found Kondur in his booth at the bar on Main Street. He smiled at their approach.

  “Nice to see you again,” he said. “You have something for me?”

  Natalya nodded as she slid onto the end of the bench across from him. “We do. How would you like to handle it?”

  “You can deliver it here, if you like. Nobody’ll think twice about it.”

  Natalya nodded to Zoya, who pulled the small box from the messenger bag hanging from her shoulder. She placed the box on the table and put her tablet on the top.

  Kondur grinned at her and thumbed the tablet before sliding the box off the table and handing it to the beef beside him.

  “You don’t want to check it?” Zoya asked, sounding more curious than surprised.

  “What for?” Kondur spread his hands out. “You didn’t tamper with it. I’ve every confidence that it contains what it’s supposed to. If not, then I’ll have somebody visit Bjorn.” He looked at Natalya. “Coffee, Captain?”

  She smiled at him. “Thanks. I could use a cup.”

  Kondur waved a hand and mugs appeared as if from thin air, followed shortly by a thermal carafe. He topped the mugs and held his up in a toast. “To business.”

  Natalya lifted her mug and clinked china to china. “To business.”

  Zoya followed suit, albeit somewhat less enthusiastically.

  Kondur took a solid pull from the cup and smacked his lips. “So, tell me, Captain. Now that you’ve stocked up with spare parts and gotten a couple of runs under your belt, what do you fancy next?” He winked at her.

  “Last time we were here you mentioned there might be something else.”

  “So I did. So I did.” He sipped some coffee and gave them each a considering glance. “As it happens, I need some people I can trust.”

  “You think you can trust us?” Zoya asked.

  “No,” Kondur said, giving a little shake of his head. He nodded at Natalya. “Her, sure. You? I don’t know yet.”

  “What’s the deal?” Natalya asked, cutting off whatever Zoya might have been thinking about saying.

  “Well, I’ve got a ship that needs some hands for a run out to Dunsany.”

  “We’re not exactly crew material,” Zoya said, a sour look on her face.

  Kondur pursed his lips. “How about officer material?”

  “Officers?” Zoya asked.

  He nodded. “I need a third mate and an engineer.” He looked back and forth between them. “I assume you graduated before being framed for murder?”

  “W
hat’s the job?” Natalya asked.

  “I’ve got a Barbell running a can into Siren. Needs enough hands to fill out the crew roster and I’m just old-school enough that I kinda like to have people who know what they’re doing when I can get them.”

  “Not exactly what we signed up for,” Natalya said.

  Kondur shrugged. “Just thought I’d ask. Something to do while you’re making connections.” He shrugged again. “Pay’s good.”

  “How good?” Natalya asked.

  “Fifty kay. Each.”

  “Shares?” Natalya asked.

  He snorted. “For hire. One run. Round trip to Siren and back. This ain’t no High Liner operation here.”

  “How long?”

  “Twelve weeks, plus or minus. Most of it’ll be in Siren’s gravity well.”

  “Siren? That’s a Confederation port. We have this problem with TIC,” Zoya said.

  Kondur shook his head. “Won’t be a problem. I just need bodies to fill out the rosters. You’ll never see the docks.”

  Natalya sipped her coffee and thought about it.

  Zoya nudged her with an elbow.

  Natalya shook her head. “Not exactly what we’re about, Mr. Kondur.”

  “Understood.” He shrugged. “Offer’s open. Ship’s not leaving for a few days. Worst case I find a couple of rock-knockers to pretend for a few weeks.”

  “Thanks,” Natalya said, draining her cup. “And thanks for the coffee. We probably better get on with our day and let you get on with yours.”

  She slipped out of the booth with Zoya close behind.

  “Any time,” Kondur said. “Good luck and safe voyage.”

  Natalya led the way out of the pub and onto the wide thoroughfare.

  “That was disappointing,” Zoya said as they strolled along looking in the windows.

  Natalya shrugged. “Not exactly what I was expecting, but it’s not a bad offer. Chance to find our way in the Deep Dark. Probably make some good contacts out of it, too.”

  Zoya stopped and put a hand on Natalya’s upper arm. “You’re not thinking about taking it.”

  “We could do worse. That would be a nice paycheck for basically ninety days’ work.”

  “What about the Peregrine?”

  “She’d be safe enough here. I’d owe him docking fees, but maybe we could work out a deal.”

  “I thought you were the free spirit out to see the universe,” Zoya said.

  Natalya laughed and started walking again. “I can see a lot more of it when I’ve got the credits we need for fuel.”

  “We could skim it.”

  Natalya glanced at Zoya. “We could. I haven’t ruled that out. We could probably earn a week or two of docking fees that way.”

  “What’s the holdup, then?”

  Natalya sighed. “We can’t get contracts while we’re out there sucking gas. We turned down Kondur’s job, which means he’s not going to be thinking of us for the next one.”

  “But it’s not what we do.”

  Natalya shook her head. “You don’t get it. He’s the big fish here. It’s his pond. We’ll have better luck doing what he wants rather than what we want.”

  “Then why’d you turn it down?”

  “If I’d wanted to be an engineering third, I’d have signed up at Port Newmar.”

  They walked several meters in silence before Zoya spoke again. “So what do we do?”

  “Well,” Natalya said. “You’ve still not made contact with whomever it was who’s supposed to contact you, right?”

  “Right.”

  “I think we hang out for a while. See the sights, such as they are. See what kinds of jobs we might do here that won’t tie us up for three months.” Natalya glanced at her friend. “Maybe your spook will show. We’re not exactly broke.”

  Zoya didn’t look convinced but she shrugged and walked along.

  “Meanwhile, I need to get that fuel coupling looked at by somebody who knows about them.”

  “Fuel coupling?”

  “Yeah. It started overheating while we were on final approach to the station here.”

  “That doesn’t sound good.”

  “It usually means the lining is giving out.”

  “I thought the engines had just been rebuilt.”

  “Yeah, and they’re still barely broken in, but the fuel coupling isn’t part of the engine rack, exactly.” Natalya sighed. “I pushed the envelope pretty hard trying to evade those phantom TIC interceptors.”

  “You think you damaged it?”

  “I don’t know. That’s why I want to get somebody in here with the right tools to look before we need to get underway again.”

  “What’s the worst that could happen?”

  Natalya snorted. “I really wish you hadn’t asked that.”

  Natalya stared at the toad-faced yard manager. “You want what?”

  He pulled a red handkerchief out of a pocket in his coverall and wiped the sweat off his brow. “I don’t want anything, missy. You got a problem with that fuel coupling. I don’t think they even make them anymore.”

  She felt her molars grind together in frustration. “I know there’s a problem. I’m the one who diagnosed it.”

  “Then you know you’re taking your life in your hands to get underway in that antique unless you get it fixed.”

  “Yes. The operative word there is ‘fixed.’ I didn’t say anything about ‘replaced.’”

  “Look, I’m tellin’ you. You can’t fix it. It’s too far gone. That throat lining is down to metal and I don’t have the tools, materials, or even the know-how to reline it. That would take a ceramic fab shop and somebody who likes restoring old ships.”

  “So you want to charge me two hundred thousand credits to replace it?”

  “Lady, I can’t fix the old one. What I got is a replacement. It’s not new. It’s not even the right model, but it’ll do the job.”

  Natalya turned and stalked three steps away from the impossible little creep, running her hands around her neck and trying to think of a way out. “You’re asking more than the ship is worth,” she said, turning her head to talk over her left shoulder.

  He snorted. “I’m sure that ship’s worth a whole lot more than two hundred kay.”

  “Even with a bum fuel coupling?”

  “Oh, yeah. Somebody with the right connections and some time could slide that into a shop in Dree. They make those couplings there. Probably do a nice business in refurbing old ones.”

  “Even with an antique like this?”

  He grinned. The sight didn’t make Natalya feel any better. “They’d probably toss in a relined main rocket nozzle just for the braggin’ rights.”

  “But I’d have to sneak it into Dree and I don’t dare undock it the way it is.”

  Toad-face pursed his lips and nodded, wiping his brow again with the red rag. “You know that much anyway. It’s more sense than most have.”

  She sighed and mentally counted the credits in her account one last time. “This is extortion, you know.”

  “Extortion is such a nasty word. I prefer to think of it in economic terms. Supply and demand. I got the only supply in a billion kilometers so I get to demand what I want for it.”

  “I’ll have to get back to you,” she said. “Gimme a day or two to finagle the finance.”

  He nodded. “You want my advice?”

  She turned to look at him. “You gonna charge me for it?”

  “Pfft. No need to get snarkish.” He jerked his chin toward the ship. “Sell it. Get what you can for it. You could probably get enough to grab a modern courier right out of the yards and not have to put up with old crap breaking down and giving out.” He paused as if to gauge her reaction, his head tilted to one side. “You got lucky this time. Another few days and you might not have made it back to breathable air. Old ships like this one, well, they’re a rich guy’s game. Somebody startin’ out can’t support the habit.”

  Natalya felt her molars grinding and had t
o force herself to relax her jaw. “Not an option.” She pulled in a deep breath and blew it out through her nose. “Gimme a couple of days to figure something out.”

  He shrugged. “No skin off my hide. Not like I get a lot of call for replacement parts for antiques.” He scowled at her for a moment before saying, “Price will be the same.”

  “I wouldn’t expect anything else,” Natalya said.

  Kondur smiled when Natalya slid into the booth. “Twice in the same day? To what do I owe this rare treat?” he asked.

  She shrugged. “Seems I need the credits. Peregrine needs repairs that I can’t cover. If that job’s still open?”

  He nodded. “It is. Will your lovely companion be joining you aboard? I still need a third mate. Where is she, by the way?”

  “She will. She’s grabbing a bit of sleep while she can.”

  “Prudent,” Kondur said.

  “I’ve got a couple of questions about the job.”

  “Ask.”

  “Docking for the Peregrine for twelve weeks will add up. Is there someplace I can park her that’s less than a hundred a day?”

  “Permanent party docks are on the other side of the station. See Russ or Eng in the dock master’s office and get a berth assignment. They’re not exactly convenient, but they’re cheap. Three hundred a month. Shore-ties for power, water, and air at station rates. You can arrange a fuel tender to top off your tanks for a fee.”

  “I won’t be using much fuel.” She paused a moment before asking, “What’s security like?”

  Kondur smiled. “Nobody will touch her. I’ll see to it.”

  “That seems generous.”

  He shook his head. “Looking out for an asset I hope to use later.”

  “Me or the ship?”

  He chuckled. “Both, of course.”

  She nodded and granted him the point. “Fair enough. How’d you know I was an engineer?”

  “Natalya Regyri. Class of ’63. Top ten in the class. Top engineering student. Top-rated martial artist. Natural-born shuttle pilot. Even attracted TIC recruiters who became frustrated by your unwillingness to join their merry band.”

  Natalya felt her eyes widen. “That’s pretty specific.”