Eric Olafson: Space Pirate

by Vanessa Ravencroft

  With a face of utmost contentment, Mao stuck it in his mouth. I heard it hiss even louder, and it seemed he had to fight whatever he just put in his mouth before he managed to swallow it.

  To my horror, the commander did it, too.

  Mao proudly explained, “It isn’t entirely without dangers. You’ve got to get them just right, or you will know why they’re called Sucki-Lums.”

  Har-Hi was no less affected than I, but had it somewhat better under control, and said, “It’s considered a great feat in the Shail society to eat ten of them without getting hurt or killed.”

  While Elfi pressed a bapkin to her mouth, Wetmouth said, “It is because Captain Elgar of the USS Wintergreen did just that, swallowing ten of these and during a Shail banquet that the Shail began to respect and trust humans and the Union. The Shail used their considerable influence over the Nosirrah and, instead of war, the dialogue was started, and it ended with the Shail and the Nosirrah joining the Union.”

  I noticed the commander’s nametag and only now learned that his name was Cardwell.

  The Base Commandant nodded. “All this, of course, made the reasons to build Richter Base obsolete.” He shrugged and, after eating another Sucki-Lum and drinking a glass of water, he said, “I don’t mind. I love this post. It is very quiet and leaves me time for my hobbies, but some can’t handle it and get crazy.”

  I asked, “Like the ensigns in the Crawler Cat?”

  He swallowed his third slime thing and nodded while fighting the thing inside his mouth. He swallowed and said, “Totally unnecessary, too; they did races across the surface, intoxicated with alcohol and drugs, way too fast and not wearing protective suits inside the cats, which is required, by the way, and would have saved their lives.”

  He burped, applauded Mao for doing what he just did, and pointed at us. “That is why I was looking for you and came up here in the first place. I do not want to lose my cozy posting because you guys get bored and do stupid things. I was told you checked on the ship.”

  “Yes, we were considering taking the ship to explore the system a little.”

  Wetmouth added, “I am certain you have heard of this, sir. The initial survey team also checked on Richter 5 and found the remains of a primitive civilization, and I was hoping to go there to examine that further.”

  He leaned back and declined Mao’s offer for the last one and said, “I told you that you can do what you like. Just do it properly and with all safety precautions observed.”

  I said, “I promise you, sir, we will.” I was glad Mao put the cover back on the plate.

  “Well, then carry on, and remember C & C is off limits.”

  He got up, nodded to Mao, and left for the elevator.

  Mao followed him with his eyes and said, “Maybe he isn’t such a bad person. I imagine it would take a certain type of personality to take a posting like this.”

  I could see his tongue moving inside his cheek while he was talking and then realized it wasn’t his tongue.

  Mao said, “Darn, I missed the head!” Something crunched, and he looked happy for a moment then leaned forward. “That is what my mind tells me. My guts tell me he was acting a role.”

  Wetmouth almost whispered, “Do you know where he graduated from?”

  Har-Hi groaned. “Please don’t say Newport.”

  She said, “Sorry, but it was plain to see on his ribbon read out.”

  Narth, who had until now and with great interest followed the Sucki-Lum proceedings, said, “His pulse rate increased, and I could sense a jolt of fear as you mentioned the Cat Accident. He didn’t like that you knew about it.”

  I put my coffee down and cursed, “To hell with all those scheming, worm-infested bastards. There is no way this is a coincidence. No one can be that unlucky to get postings like that all the time and run into those shady characters and strange situations all the time. Before the Fleet expands even one person and one ship, they should start cleaning their own backyard first.”

  Har-Hi also put his cup down and said, “Maybe that is why we are here?”

  Hans asked, “So what are we going to do about it?” while eying the covered plate that was moving!

  I said, “We continue exactly as ordered. He has not done anything wrong or treated us badly, but I think we check our quarters for listening devices and keep our eyes wide open.” I pointed at the covered dish. “And we are going to make sure the food we eat is well done and not moving the tableware.”

  Cirruit said, “Those are high-security suites we are in are equipped with the latest anti-spyware to give ambassadors and flag officers the required privacy!”

  I just looked at him, and Cirruit raised his hands. “I am going to sweep them nevertheless.”

  I waved the robot to get me another coffee and said to him, “They have been here for years and had all the time in the world to do circumvent things if they are indeed up to no good. It was him who recommended these places in the first place.”

  For the first week, we explored the base and used the recreation facilities. Krabbel could not get enough of the vintage-style thrill rides that were part of the local amusement park. Har-Hi worked out a class schedule, and we continued to cross-train each other. Har-Hi turned out to be quite a taskmaster as he drilled us in the still-empty Marine training facilities and in zero-G combat, where he was unbeatable. To my surprise, it was Narth who deeply enjoyed the physical aspect. He, in turn, began to train me and Elfi, who was already somewhat talented in psionics. The training at first consisted of simple meditation exercises, which weren’t so simple after all. He wanted us to sit in a darkened room and listen to our heartbeats, our breathing. Har-Hi and the others even Cirruit joined as well. Our sentient machine friend had, of course, no psionics whatsoever, but Narth was convinced that even Cirruit could become more aware of these things.

  Elfi deepened our knowledge in communications and Galacto Politics. It turned out she was very knowledgeable how the individual members of the Union worked together, what the issues were and how they perceived each other. The internal politics of the Union on the federal level were easy to understand, but the nuances below were quite complicated. I learned many surprising little facts and issues I had never known to exist.

  Hans, who knew much about that as well, deepened our knowledge about the various task forces, federal departments, and law enforcement agencies that existed, about crime and counter-intelligence efforts and challenges.

  The Worm, so I learned, was only one of several such organizations. And even the Worm had independent cells. Old criminal organizations of the Ult, the Sarans, the Pan Sarans, Terra and all the others did not disappear after the Union was founded but adapted and evolved. Some united their efforts and some fought each other for territories and influence. It sounded worse than it was as he said that the Union was a very lawful and orderly Mega-culture if looked at as a whole. Wetmouth considered crime and criminal organizations even to be a vital part of a civilization and that only a few completely totalitarian societies such as the X101 and Klack did not know organized crime. Krabbel, however, told us that crime, in general, was unknown on Archa as well and that theft and murder were virtually unknown in their society. Despite their carnivore origin, the Archa were among the most innocent and open societies I had ever heard about.

  Shaka gave us complicated helm exercises and also made sure we all understood the different helm systems and their technical aspects. Especially Narth and Elfi had still very little helm experience.

  Doing all this filled our days and time flew, even in these uneventful surroundings.

  On the first Saturday after our arrival, Wetmouth did take us on a geological tour on the surface of the planet and surprisingly Har-Hi did ask her lots of questions, and I knew he wasn’t just pretending to be interested.

  As we returned with the Crawler Cat and several boxes of rock specimens, the commander greeted us at the entrance. “I see you do keep yourself busy, and I am actually quite pleased that you kee
p to yourself. Maybe I misjudged you to be just another bunch of busybodies. So what did you do out there anyway? We watched you as far as we could and didn’t see you do any races or other stupid things.”

  Wetmouth opened a specimen box and said, “We did a geological survey, and I think this world is quite rich in minerals and has an abundance of iron ore. If I am correct, I think there are a wealth of rare minerals to be found.”

  He looked into the box with rocks and shrugged. “I guess that can be interesting, but iron ore is quite abundant everywhere, I personally don’t see the attraction, but I guess you science officer types find carpet mites interesting. I actually came to tell you that you are welcome to use the base ship to go to Richter 5. Maybe over the weekend and make me a nice long report about those ruins you mentioned.”

  Without really giving us a chance to say anything, he walked off.

  Hans said, holding an entire stack of sample boxes, “If you ask me, I think he wants us off the base for the weekend. Every time this character talks to us, I feel I need a shower.”

  Narth, who stood next to Wetmouth looking inside the open specimen box, said, “I can confirm that suspicion. He was quite nervous and hoped we would take him up on his offer.”

  Krabbel said, “But we scheduled the rest of the day as free time. I wanted to go to the amusement park again.”

  Mao laughed. “There are no scarier rides than the elevators of Archa, and he can’t get enough of roller coasters.”

  Krabbel spread his upper leg pairs and said, “Roller coasters are much more fun and besides, there is a robot vendor that sells freeze-dried ice cream. It looks like colored sand, but it is ice-cream!”

  I shrugged. “He didn’t give us an order or anything, so we can do that tomorrow. Go and have fun you two.”

  Narth held up his hand and three fingers. “You should say you three as I intend to accompany the Archa and experience the rides again.”

  I grinned. “Don’t tell me you actually enjoy that?”

  Narth cocked his head and said after a brief moment of silence, “One comes to the conclusion that I actually do. It is fascinating. I think I just discovered what enjoying means. Besides, one must sample freeze-dried ice cream, again.”

  Shaka, Hans, and Elfi left the group to watch a Virtu-Theater show. They went to experience a new Saran opera. In it, you could take the role of one of the performers, but you ended up singing three hours before you actually were allowed to kill the evil guy or kiss the girl. It wasn’t exactly my cup of tea.

  Cirruit and Har-Hi decided to go back to the Fleet house and sleep a while. There was nothing Cirruit would rather do than sleep, except perhaps shopping.

  Har-Hi said before they left, “I’m actually going to read a while and check out that book Wetty recommended, Rock Hounding for Beginners. I am sure it will put me soundly to sleep.”

  Wetmouth could not be kept away from the labs, where she wanted to catalog our finds and do some further analysis.

  So it came that I suddenly found myself alone. Riding a weird contraption with Krabbel holding to the car and listening to him scream at every turn was fun perhaps two times... not twenty.

  As much as I enjoyed our excursion, my scientific curiosity was well satisfied, and I didn’t want to look at rocks through a microviewer.

  So I simply stood on one of the main artery slide belts and let it carry me through the sections of the base.

  There were faster inter-station transport tubes, but I wasn’t in a hurry and had no particular goal.

  After passing through the main complex and the connection tunnel to the station recreation park, I stayed on the belt, and it carried me to the third dome where Richter town was.

  It was eerie to see an entire town, designed to be home to twenty or maybe thirty thousand individuals, completely empty. Neat rows of family houses, clean streets, and tree-lined boulevards with little stores, shopping centers, and businesses were all silent and empty of life.

  The town had an artificial sky simulating the open sky of a Terran-type world with one golden sun, clouds, birds, and light wind.

  I wondered if anyone would ever live here, but there was no industry except the Fleet Base and thus no incentive to move here.

  The downtown area had a nice little shopping district with small shops and restaurants. Most were empty but not all.

  I had left the slide belt and was slowly walking along a pedestrian shopping area. A shoe store for human females caught my eye. It was a boutique with expensive brands; we had the same one in the Starport Mall on Nilfeheim and it was one of those places I had visited with Sif, Astrid, Elena, and Hedda. I wondered what they were doing right now. From my last talk with Egill, Sif was studying hard to catch up on what she had missed and had become a very good student. Elena, of course, would soon be the first female clan chief in Nilfeheim history and would marry. Hedda and Astrid were dead. While I was thinking about these things, I noticed the door was unlocked. It slid open as I walked by and so I went in. There was a fine layer of dust, and I did not see a robot attendant. The sales room was not all too big, and the shop lights did not come on, but it was not dark. Light came through the windows from the outside and cast the entire store in a mild shadowy atmosphere. It smelled of leather, perfume, and new fabrics.

  Rows of shelves and display stands featured shoes, footwear, and boots mostly for humanoid females.

  Looking at them made the other side of my personality stir, and I could not help but wonder how some of those shoes might look on me. So, with no one around, I tried on a pair of heeled boots.

  A voice interrupted the silence, “Oh those are nice. They would go great with a mini-skirt.”

  I almost jumped out of my skin, and my hand dashed to my side arm, but I recognized the voice and, with the guilty feeling being caught doing something wrong, I turned to look. Wetmouth stood in the door of the shop.

  A thousand thoughts went through my head. What would they think about me if they found out? What would Har-Hi and Hans think?”

  She came in all the way and took a pair of sandals from a display stand and said, “I am sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you. I didn’t feel like examining rocks and decided to see what you were up to.”

  My mind raced to find some sort of explanation when she reached out for my hand. “It’s perfectly all right. Don’t be ashamed. I am a Sojonit. I understand.”

  Her hand was warm and tender, and the gentle tone of her voice made me relax, and I sighed, “I’ve battled this demon, this curse, all my life, and I still don’t really know to which side I belong.”

  She squeezed my hand a little tighter, and I could see her big green eyes sparkle behind the slits of her mask. “I’d gladly help you, but I don’t think you need to choose a side. Just find a balance between them. You know not everything needs to be black or white; there is always a third option.”

  What she said resonated with me; maybe she was right. Maybe I didn’t need to choose between Eric and Freya and could find a balance between both sides of my personality.

  She kissed me on the cheek and said, “Let me try on these sandals and then let’s go to the shop I found across the street. They do have great outfits.”

  It never came to that, as Har-Hi called us, “Eric, could you come to the Swine and Dine? They got ribs tonight!”

  It was the special code we had come up with if one had an important issue and feared he could be overheard.

  With my uniform boots back where they belonged, we rushed to the next IBT and reached the main concourse of the Base Starport in a few minutes. After crossing the open area, we reached the restaurant. We arrived almost at the same time as Krabbel, Mao, Narth, and Hans. The others were already there. We purchased ribs to go and followed Har-Hi to my rooms. We spoke the entire time about ribs and souvenirs. Har-Hi praised the special sauce, and Cirruit told us about the souvenirs he had seen.

  Only after we had closed the doors of my suite, and Cirruit assured us the room was secu
re, Har-Hi said, “About an hour ago, a space ship landed and it is a Kartanian Armed Freighter.”

  Elfi said, “We are not exactly friendly with the Kartanians, but we have trade relations with them and their ships are sold everywhere and to anyone.”

  Har-Hi nodded. “True that, but this particular armed freighter is the Blood Lust of Captain Grimgore, a notorious pirate and high on the Union wanted list, accused of acts of piracy, the trade in sentient life forms and is suspected to be behind several Colony raids.”

  No one spoke as he continued, “I saw Union personnel and robots starting to load Union Fleet supplies into the cargo holds of the pirate ship.”

  Shaka cursed, “Holy shit, there are warehouses with Wolfcraft fighters, Quasimodos, Cerberus Robots and I am sure there are secure warehouses with Translocator cannons and bombs.”

  Wetmouth turned from the GalNet Terminal and said, “I can’t call out; the entire system is powered down.”

  Just as she tried again, the terminal came on in local connection only mode and Commander Cardwell appeared. He said, “It was just noticed you tried to use GalNet. I am sorry, but we are upgrading software components, and a shutdown was necessary. Since I see you are all together, are there any Data Heads among you?”

  I said, “Sir, I fail to understand the significance of this question!”

  He snarled impatiently, “I asked you a simple question, and I expect you to answer it!”

  “Sir, this pertains to private information, and I am not compelled to answer it unless you can give us a valid reason.”

  He almost yelled, “Because I am ordering a complete communications blackout.”

  I knew now that he was fully aware of what was going on and said, “What is the reason for the blackout? Are we under attack by that pirate ship and are you under siege?”

  There was a pause, and we heard another voice outside the visual pick up, “So I was right, my men did see the Dai snooping around, and he did recognize my ship. I want them dead!”

  I said, “Why I am not surprised, Newport scum? I guess you missed watching the hanging of the Newport crooks. Dealing for the Worm and selling Union supplies, are we?”