I said, “While I think we should have meetings in the meeting room and not right here in Airlock Room 4.” I turned to the Holdian and said, “Please tell me your idea. I have not forgotten you asked.”
He started to wipe his hands again, and he said, “Ma’am, that is exactly what I wanted to talk to you about. I was thinking since we are supposed to be pirates and we might need to entertain guests and all that, our meeting room would be inadequate for this so we could turn our empty B hangar into a pirate den. You know, like they have in those old Three-Dees. Real cool with treasures in the corners and a skeleton in a cage and all that. Besides, we do need a place for our treasures and the special valuable loot. We could put in a big table with impressive chairs and decorate the whole hangar so we can let guests in through the side ramp and never show them the rest of the ship.”
I went to my knees and put my hand on his tiny shoulders. “That is actually a very good idea, Mr. Holdian. I put you in charge of this project.”
The old merchant clapped his hands. “It is getting better by the minute! You are going to be pirates?”
I simply told him the entire story, just leaving out a few technical details and he listened and became quite serious.
“I don’t like pirates one bit.” He glanced at Har-Hi and added, “I don’t mean the Dai; they honor their opponents and don’t slaughter the innocent. I did hear about this Red Dragon who attacked Outpost 96 so recently. I’ve seen reports from my own Intelligence service about just how vicious and disproportionally violent he is toward his victims. I don’t know if you know, but we Golden deal in anything, except sentient lifeforms. Slave business is prohibited, and we deal with our own who violate that quite severely.”
I knew he spoke the truth. I remembered the Golden slave dealer on Alvor’s Cove.
He rubbed his chin. “That Barracuda was here indeed just a few days ago, and I am certain they went to Brhama Port, which is an asteroid base much like this one, run by an independent Bassett family of Roid-Miners. It is also a known pirate base as there is a backdoor into the Union nearby. I also know of a dealer on Sin4 who has Loki torpedoes. Next to the translocator cannons, Loki torpedoes are the most desired Mil-Tech there is. No other species has anything comparable. The pirate known as Red Dragon was here, trying to buy spare parts and new ISAH pods. His shiny and unique ship didn’t look so shiny and new when he was here. His ship’s aft section was severely damaged.”
Listening to Sobody, I realized having him aboard might prove to be more valuable than anticipated. He seemed to know much about Free Space and what was going on here. To hear about a backdoor into Union Space was quite disturbing. It also became clear I would have to return to Sin 4.
I was so distracted by my own thoughts that Narth had to call me mentally and tell me that the Golden was still taking to me.
He said, “Now that I know your secret, I am sure you might object, but if you think you can trust me, please let me out once more. I want to go with the little Holdian and help him get a few treasures worthy of a pirate of your reputation. In order to blend in, we must visit the various pirate hideouts and the trade markets on Sin 4, Alvor’s Cove, and many other such places. Pirates and other scum go there to brag, buy parts, sell or purchase ships, and, of course, turn their loot into profit and polos. It is at those places they band together for raiding parties and pack attacks.”
I said, “Mr. Sobody, we can’t really keep you prisoner, and so far, Narth trusts you and that has more weight with me than anything else. So, yes, I trust you, too.”
To the Holdian specialist, he said, “Would you accept my company since you are in charge of decorations and that is what we are going to get?”
Two days later, Har-Hi came into my office and said, “The battlegroup and the Baghdad have just arrived.”
It was Three-Four the Non-Corp who called me just as Har-Hi had told me the news and said, “Sir, we are being hailed by the USS Baghdad. Captain Changpu Rong is on Fleet Chanel for you.”
Since Three-Four was on the bridge, it was already second dog watch, meaning it had to be past 0600 hrs. I took the call right from my desk. A human female captain became visible on the screen. She wore her black hair in a similar style as Elfi but had more slanted eyes.
She actually smiled as she saw me and said, “Good evening Captain Smith, and nice to meet the Captain of the USS Enigma. I am Captain Rong, and I have direct orders from Fleet Command to take charge of the situation here, and you are free now to continue with your mission.”
I thanked her and briefed her on the non-classified parts of the situation.
After I had talked to the battleship captain, I had Ship switch to external visuals, and I could see two majestic white Union Hospital Ships drift into view, deploying D20 shuttles in paramedic configuration. A huge Fleet Mobile Repair Dock dropped moments later out of quasi-space; an enormous disc with large tractor-projectors and manipulation arms able to plug entire ships out of space, place them onto the repair platform, and repair even the most damaged ships.
Har-Hi, who stood next to me, said, “It is amazing; sometimes I think it is this incredible efficiency of our Union that makes all the difference and not the battleships. That 14,000 meter MRP to me is just as amazing as the Devi, and it is not an alien product. When I was a boy, my father often told me about hospital ships and the Fleet Tender Units the Union had. Like so many other Dai, I laughed and found it a waste of resources to have ships dedicated to the care of the sick, but I learned that the Union is far more envied over these by others than for battleships and translocator cannons.”
I agreed with him and called the bridge.
Fective answered from the Conn, “Yes, ma’am?”
“Call all personnel who are still on shore back to the ship and prepare to undock within the hour.”
“Aye, Captain.”
Har-Hi said, “You have been to Hangar B lately, right?”
I shook my head. “No, I have not. I was busy coordinating the rescue efforts. You know yourself I spend more time out there in a suit than I care for. I am glad the Baghdad and the other ships are here.” I paused and looked directly into his snug face. “Why, what have they done?”
He shrugged. “I don’t think I have the correct vocabulary to describe it, but I think you might want to check it out.”
I followed my Dai friend to the IST. “What did they do?”
“It’s really better you see it for yourself.”
We left the Inter-Ship transport a few seconds later and stepped into the central corridor of the ship’s hangar and flight deck, also called the Equatorial Deck, as it was in the middle and by volume the largest deck section of the Tigershark. A big Marine, so loaded with boxes he could barely see, almost bumped us. He obviously did not see who he almost ran into because he said, “Sorry, mate, just coming on through!”
He went past us and disappeared behind the massive double doors to Hangar Bay B.
The Tigershark had four main hangars bays. Bay A was meant for the four Wolfcrafts we had yet to receive. Bay B was supposedly there for a complement of six Thor Gunboats, also still on the list of things we were missing. Bay C was home to the Gazelle Recon Craft, and our four Goliath Landing tanks, and Bay D held a D20 Shuttle configured as a Multipurpose Science and Survey platform. Each hangar bay was seventy meters long, fifty deep and the ceiling was twenty meters from the bay floor.
From the other side of the corridor, where the big freight elevator was, came Hans and the massive Y’All. They both struggled with a huge crate that would have been a challenge even for a big load handler.
Har-Hi pointed with his chin toward the two and said to me, “It has been going on like that for two days now. Every time I come down here, I feel I am in some sort of freight forwarding center. I doubt there is much left in that bazaar.”
Unable to predict what would await me, I took a deep breath and stepped through the big door that was parting before me. I had to brush a heavy velvet curt
ain aside before I could actually see. I stopped dead in my tracks as I looked around. It used to be starkly empty with hexagonal-shaped armor plating and X-shaped support frames. Now the walls were draped with heavy crimson and black velvet curtains. The ceiling sported a wall to wall picture of a space battle scene between the Silver Streak and a Shiss armed trader vessel. It looked more like a scene from a cheesy space holo than reality. I also noticed Narth floating way up there, putting finishing touches to it.
In the center of the former hangar bay was a massive-looking round table of at least ten meters in diameter, which had the appearance of being made out of a dark silver metal. The table surface was richly inlaid with artwork that could have been straight from the Nilfeheim Book of Traditions if the muscled heroes struggling with monsters would have been human. The entire surface was stylized like a wagon wheel of old, segmenting the artwork into twenty-four areas. Twenty-four golden spokes started at the inner ring and ended at a central nave.
Around the table, I counted twenty-five oversized high-backed matching arm chairs, richly upholstered with black leather. A twenty-sixth chair was even taller than the others and featured the skull of something large and wicked centered on top of the backrest.
Six-meter-tall braziers stood in equal intervals all around the hall. They were made of twisted dark metal and must have been dreamed up by a gothic artist who spent most of his time thinking about torture and claws. They looked as if a dozen serpents or so completely intertwined fought each other with hooks, claws, and spiny thorns. Dark red flames flickered smokeless out of bowls mounted on top.
Above the table hung a chandelier that matched the table’s design and each of the chandelier arms held a glittering diamond-shaped dragonhead, projecting light on each of the table’s segments.
To the left side, stacked against the wall, were at least fifty large transport chests, and several of them were open, overflowing with Polonium Coins. Metal barrels were filled with gemstones, gold coins, and jewelry. To the right side were several stacks of Saresii silk bales, each worth many thousand credits, along with a pile of furs and other luxury fabrics.
In between those treasures stood solid-looking racks of steel and wood holding an arsenal of swords, lances, rifles, and energy weapons, a collection it seemed represented every known and quite a few unknown civilizations.
Huge Saran floor vases, made of black alabaster and gold, a statue of the Saran death god Seth holding a sharp-looking wickedly curved sword were only a few of the art and antique objects that decorated the room I could identify.
Cirruit stood at the opposite of the bay, directing the little Holdian, who operated a hand-held tractor crane projector manipulating a large an exceptional ugly stone statue depicting what I thought was a headless, very fat Shiss female, in a prominent place.
Cirruit noticed me as I came closer, still staring at all the things. Even though his face was expressionless as always, I knew he was deeply satisfied.
He stemmed his fists into his hips and said, “What do you think, Captain? This is the famous Venus of Milo, a priceless pre-Astro Terran art object.”
I looked at it closer and shrugged. “I don’t know. It sure looks like a headless pregnant Shiss to me.”
He sounded almost offended. “Captain, this is priceless art from a Terran artist named Donald Duck. He lived on the Planet Coney Island and was famous for his work, all over the moon! I remember each detail the Gellurian art dealer told me.”
I said, “How can it be Terran art if he lived on a different planet?”
Har-Hi held his chin while he looked at the statue with crossed arms. “You know, I have this perfectly good genuine rock made of real rock, barely used, and I was told it came from a river on Terra. I’ll let you have it for a spot.”
Cirruit protested, “And you never told me you have such a thing? How much do you want for it?”
I slowly turned, taking it all in. “This is really some work you all put in here!”
The Golden Merchant, wearing only a pair of pants and a shirt, with dark grime all over his face, crawled from underneath the table, holding a polishing rag and a tube of metal polish. He smiled in deep satisfaction.
He wiped his brow, leaving another streak, and he said, “I am glad you like it, ma’am. This table is over half a million years old and was made for the council room of a once mighty but now forgotten kingdom. It’s made of nineteen tons of pure platinum and eight tons of gold, not to mention almost a ton in Rhodium inlays. The spokes and chairs are enriched with Rhodium inlays. So is the chandelier. I doubt even your famous Schwartz Industries has a more expensive and impressive conference table!”
He held up his polishing rag. “It doesn’t look like much now, but once I get it all shiny, you will see how pretty it is!”
Cirruit shrugged. “I told him we could get Nanites to do the cleaning, but he insists that an antique like that needs to be hand polished!”
The old merchant said, “So what do you think, Captain?”
Everyone stopped working and looked at me. I noticed that the tail of the little Holdian twitched while he looked at me with anticipation from his big black button eyes.
I looked around once again and then said, “I think it is marvelous, beyond anything I imagined. Do we owe someone a huge bill for all this?”
Sobody looked insulted. “Captain, with all due respect, you could not even begin to imagine the wealth I have amassed in eighteen thousand of your years of being the leader of a merchant and trader society. I think I might even be a close second to this Rex Schwartz. He isn’t the only Centillionair, as the Union press always claims he is, you know!”
He pointed at the treasures and said, “This is but a small token to express my gratitude that you so readily accepted me.” He then pointed his rag at Cirruit. “If it is permitted, I must, however, teach your Chief Engineer a thing or two about the honesty of bazaar merchants, especially Gellurians!”
I laughed. “You may try that indeed. But you all did a tremendous job. I think we should have all our conferences and meetings here. And this should be our mess hall. Yes, we will have our daily dinner here; someone needs to work out a rotation schedule so all crew members can eat here.”
The Holdian said, perplexed, “Captain, did you mean all crew members? Officers sharing a table with enlisted?”
I nodded. “That’s right. We eat here, all of us. There are 360 of us, counting officers, crew, and Marines. We got eight watches, and they rotate, so everyone has same chance to eat the dinner meal here.”
Narth said, “That would be 14.4 dinners. Every crewman would eat here every 14.4 days.”
The Holdian clapped his little hands. “That means I eat here all the time. After all, I am the point-four crewman, right?”
Everyone laughed, even Har-Hi.
I said, “There is room for more chairs anyhow. It’s a big table and not all of us need that much space.”
Elfi interrupted us, “Captain, a pirate just attacked 211 light years from here in Union Space.”
I headed for the door and said, “Har-Hi, see that everyone is aboard. Cirruit, get your engines hot and get Shaka, on the bridge. There is nothing we can do about the attack, but we can start hunting now!”
Chapter 17: Rock Breaker
The Janus Device was active, and the Tigershark looked once more like the Kartanian Battle Merchant.
Krabbel said, “It’s official now, Captain. We are in Free Space.”
We had left the Golden Bazaar behind us and were on a course straight to Brhama Port. The journey would take four more days, as we could not fly as fast as we could but as fast as a Kartanian Battle Merchant with two added ISAH pods. Narth and Shea had been working for the last two days on something, and I noticed them now for the third straight shift. Now Three-Four had joined them, and I turned on my seat and said, “Would you three over there explain what you are doing? Not that I probably understand it, but I’d still sort of like to know.”
Shea said, “Union ISAH pods interrupt the super-symmetry that exists between Fermions and Boson particles. While a ship travels in Quasi-space, the correlated superpartners are affected in regular space, and while this is possible in zero dimension environments, it is not in four-dimensional environments. Therefore, we think—”
I said, “Teaches me to ask you guys what you are doing!”
Narth said, “Thankfully, I am able to understand the captain on a direct mental level, and she is not asking us to teach her more, but I think it was an example of sarcasm. The captain simply isn’t able to follow your explanation on an intellectual comprehensive level.”
I sighed, “He did it again! He managed to call me an idiot, and I should be angry, but how can I be, since I know he didn’t mean it.”
Narth turned, too, and said, “I would ask for apologies, but how can I, since you have already forgiven me. Would it be helpful if I tell you Wetmouth had to explain her idea to me as well before I comprehended?”
“In Odin’s name, just tell me what you are doing.”
Now it was Three-Four who said, “Captain, we are trying to isolate and find a possible trail of either the stolen Barracuda or the Red Dragon. Since both use Union Isah Pods and there is a high probability they went this way, if Brhama Port is their target. Since my natural senses allow me to sense such minute trails better, they now try to modify a sensor array with my input.”
“That was an explanation I understood, and it sounds really fascinating.”
Cirruit came on the bridge carrying a technical device and went straight to Shea. “I think I got it. I made it exactly to your specifications.”
Har-Hi grinned as he looked at me. “We are flying in the most advanced ship the Union has ever built, and our geeks are already tinkering with the hardware to improve it.”
Five minutes passed, with more tinkering and talking between the four, and Cirruit’s legs sticking out of an open access panel underneath Shea’s main science console.
Eric Olafson: Space Pirate Page 36