Yesterday's Spacemage

by Timothy Ellis

  Station calm verses suit temper. Calm won. The officer dragged a still yelling suit off towards an elevator, giving orders into his pad. The groups of people clumped about on the dock, now headed after them, the slave group being last.

  And finally I saw my opportunity. I walked fast ahead of the slave group, and positioned myself next to the elevator doors. As a set of doors opened, I popped in, and immediately went invisible, shorting out the camera at the same time. Some pressure on the open doors button kept the elevator where it was.

  One of the guards peered in, saw an empty car, and told the slaves to enter. They did so, cowering at the back, and the guards followed, standing across the front, their backs to the slaves. For a moment I wondered why, but they had no fight left in them, and once the doors opened again, they wanted to be able to deal with anyone they found outside. In fact, one of them waved several other people off, while another punched the doors closed button. They remained open.

  I force punched each of them in the head, and pushed them out of the elevator. Before they were even on the deck, I released the door control, punched the close button, and pressed the next level down. The doors closed, we went down a short way, and the doors opened.

  The slaves stood there, looking at each other.

  One of them seemed to get a grip on himself, and he turned to the others.

  "Run you idiots!"

  He ran. The others took a little longer to realize no-one was going to hurt them, and one by one, they left the elevator. I rode it down another level, stepped out, and went looking for a drink.

  I had no idea if any of them would remain free, but at least I'd given them a chance.

  Twenty Three

  On the way out-system, I did some research on shipping companies.

  I quickly found there were hundreds of major companies all vying for the same freight, as well as thousands of independents. And this was just the local area of space. The larger companies apparently had ships all over, where smaller ones specialized in specific areas of space, and the independents went wherever they could get the work.

  The larger companies tended towards fixed routes, the smaller ones tried to fill in the gaps, or join other planets into those routes, and the independents went wherever the freight available sent them.

  Which seemed to be in contrast to the amount of freight available here, and a decidedly lacking number of freight movers. All the material readily available suggested there were too many freighters, and not enough freight, but this didn’t seem to be the case, at least here. I thought of asking Jenna, but one look at her face told me to get lost, and stay there.

  Anyway, the reason for the research was to identify who the bad outfits were. The ones with not so good reputations. The ones who broke the rules, but managed to get away with it more often than not. In other words, the ones an honest thief could rob, and feel good about doing it. Or at the least, not suffer Jenna's wrath afterwards.

  That Jenna had a wrath level, I didn’t doubt for a second. And I also didn’t doubt the need to avoid being anywhere near her when it went off. Underneath that drop dead gorgeous exterior, was an ice cold metal skeleton, and if her velvet glove ever hit you, the metal underneath would do serious damage. No doubts at all. I’d seen drill sergeants who looked the same, and would’ve stepped well clear of her if they saw her.

  She was worried about her crew mate. I understood. She didn’t need to take it out on me though. I was on her side. I stopped and pondered that. Yes, I was on her side. Anyone who took slaves was also on my shit list. And I wasn’t at all sure if I saw someone torturing a slave again, I’d be able to stop myself from killing them on the spot.

  I dragged my thought processes back to the task in hand. I’d spent enough time on this ship already, to know it well enough to move things around inside, with only minimal checking. To test this, I created a pallet sized metal box in the main cargo hold, and moved it straight into my own personal cargo hold, specifically to the number one pallet position. It could hold up to twelve standard containers two high, and had individual positions for thirty six pallets. I'd already committed the layout to memory.

  Rather than using my sight, I took the time to walk there, and confirmed the imitation pallet was in the correct place. I ducked out the hatch, and did the same with a container sized version. Poking my head in, I could see it was also sitting correctly. With a thought, I crushed both into a solid ball, and moved them to a store room for later use.

  As a pirate ship, the cargo capacity was pitiful, but it was also fitted out as a slaver. So fast, armed, and able to take the choice cargos, and enslave the crews. There was something wrong with this picture, but I couldn’t pick it. Something to ponder when staring at the deep dark next.

  My next stop was my own bridge, where I sat watching the displays, looking for a likely target. There were a number of ships heading out-system the same as we were. Most of them were a lot bigger than us. All of them were slower.

  I watched as we overtook the first one. The closest we came was five kilometers. Which defined my next test. Was I able to look into a ship as far away as this was? I drew on power, and opened my sight, starting with the bridge. It was a lot larger than any I'd seen so far, with more people on it, making me wonder what all of them actually did. Not that I really cared. I started moving from room to room, pausing to watch a nice looking lady in the shower, but forcing myself to find the cargo bays. I found a small one first, obviously used for boxes rather than pallets, and started reading labels.

  Time for a distance test. The label on the box said it contained gold class meals. I reached for it, and a blink later, it was sitting in the middle of my bridge. I stripped the fastening off the top, and took out one of the meal trays. It was almost identical to the ones I’d first encountered after being taken. I grinned to myself, placed the tray back in the box, and moved it to my kitchen.

  Now for something harder. I sat once more, concentrated my sight until I found the main cargo hold, and began looking at these labels. Nearest the airlock, the containers were all standard freight, labeled with the sender, the shipper, and with a destination I had no idea if we were going to, but suspected not.

  I worked my way down the container rows, until half way back, I started finding labels indicating no sender or receiver. Each stated what and how much was in the container, most of them full of the same items. Here it seemed, was the crew's investment cargo, which they'd paid for themselves, and were hoping to make a profit on at their next port. Much of it was bulk food, indicating to me the planet we were heading away from was a food producer, and their next stop was not.

  I gathered power, and was about to move a container to see if I could do it, when I remembered I hadn't checked if the ship was on my naughty list or not. I let the power go, and pulled up my list, comparing the details showing on my main screen, which I vaguely remembered Jenna had called heads up display, or HUD, which was supposed to show me everything of note in the system. Mental note for a dead time, I needed to do some playing with the buttons for the screen, and learn it better.

  For now though, this ship wasn’t on my naughty list. I sighed, and went back to watching the lady in the shower. By the time she was dried and clothed, I was aware holding the sight was taking more and more effort, so I released it, and sat there looking at the deep dark instead.

  I sighed. So now as well as being a thief, I was a peeping Thorn. It wasn't new of course. I'd peeked at lots of girls once I’d found my magic again, but this was the first time I’d used it to while away time.

  "Hi," said a voice I’d never heard before, from the doorway.

  I was so startled, I fell out of my chair.

  Twenty Four

  "Sorry, did I disturb you?"

  I picked myself up guiltily, and stood there facing her. She was wearing the same sort of clothes Jenna did while on ship, so either her clothes and stuff had been in the pallets with Jenna's, or Jenna had been shopping for her in anticipation of fr
eeing her.

  "Not really. Just doing some in depth navel gazing."

  "Anything interesting?"

  "Pondering what I'm becoming."

  "Ouch. I tried that once. Never again."

  She sounded like she should be smiling, but there was no smile on her face. I guess slavery did that to you.

  "My first time."

  She limped over, and extended her hand. I took it, expecting it to be crushed, but her grip was limp. I let go, waved her to a chair, and sat myself.

  "I'm Jessica. Jen said you got me out. Thank you."

  "You're welcome."

  "She's had a lot to say about you, but not a lot of it makes any sense."

  "Do you want it to make any sense?"

  "Probably. I'm too out of it with pain killers at the moment to understand much of anything. Give me a day or two to catch up. But I gather you tried to buy Jen, and when the bids went too high, you succeeded in springing her, and was the main reason you both made it away."

  I nodded. She looked at me speculatively.

  "She says you do magic?"

  "Yes. Where I came from, it was quite common."

  "And you magically jumped me off that terrible ship?"

  "Yes. I'm sorry he hit you after I broke his remote."

  "Not your fault. No-one but someone who knew that bastard could have predicted his reaction. Jen says you might have killed him?"

  "It's possible. But I was trying to make him sick enough to want to leave in a hurry, which worked. I couldn’t do anything until you were alone. Never having done it before, it's hard to know if it was enough, or too much."

  "His sort have so much luck, I bet he's already up and barking orders again."

  "I didn’t look, and I doubt Jenna thought to, since she was so worried about you."

  "She didn’t. Why didn't you?"

  "Don’t know how."

  "Checking hospital admissions is easy."

  "I'm still adapting to this new world I've fallen into. How to do a lot of things is still on my to-do list."

  "Ask me if you need help. I owe you. Don’t ask Jen though."

  "I worked that out already. What's her problem?"

  "Jen? Men."

  I laughed. A flicker of a smile turned up one end of her mouth, but it was only a flicker.

  "That much is obvious. The look of contempt she gave everyone at the auction, standing there naked in front of them, still gives me the shivers."

  "Her problem goes a lot further back than that. I know she's as grateful as I am for being rescued, but the damage to her goes too deep. It’s no surprise she banished you to here. In fact, I'm mildly surprised she didn’t leave you behind."

  "She told me not to leave the ship. I didn’t. When we left, I noticed she made no attempt to check if I was aboard or not."

  I paused, waited. Her look said ask the question.

  "Who broke her?"

  "Interesting question. That bastard was in the process of breaking me, but that isn’t what you’re referring to, is it?"

  "No. I get the impression she'd rather die than be some man's play thing. Which means she was broken by someone else, and not recently. I mean if looks could kill, everyone back at that auction would have dropped dead."

  "She used to be able to do that even before. Her bark is almost lethal, but her looks were legendary."

  "Can I ask what happened?"

  "I can't tell you much."

  I made an intuitive leap.

  "She was military, wasn’t she?"

  "We both were. She was the most promising junior command officer in the fleet. Half the time she didn’t need to even say anything to crew. One look, and it got done. She was fast track towards her own command."

  "And?"

  "The captain raped her. And worse than that, he got away with it. Higher ranks ignored it, and covered it up. Her attempt to bring charges was held against her. She was transferred to dead end duty."

  I sighed.

  "She resigned, and went home to her parents. Two months later, some drunk idiot killed them in a freak accident. When the paperwork was sorted, she flew the ship they'd left her to where I was, and talked me into resigning the service, and crewing for her. I've been with her ever since."

  Something unexpected popped in.

  "Was the idiot linked to the captain at all?"

  She looked shocked, and stared at me for a good minute.

  "FUCK!"

  I waited.

  "It never occurred to us, but it's very possible. Why the hell didn't that occur to us? Damnit to hell! I knew at the time there was something hinky about the accident, but it never occurred to either of us it was a hit. It was just a random event, at a very bad time."

  I kept waiting.

  "DON'T tell Jen. She's not ready for that kind of revelation."

  "I won't."

  "Good. I'll tell her at the right time, once we have Leanne back." She noticed my eyebrow go up. "Leanne was, is, our cargo handler. Ship this size is supposed to have at least one."

  "Ex-military as well?"

  "Yes. We couldn’t trust anyone we didn’t already know."

  "Which is why she's having such a hard time with me? Apart from being male?"

  "Most likely. Trust is earned, and in her case, it usually takes years."

  "I'll be gone before then. I hope."

  "Gone? Where?"

  "My deal with Jenna is she takes me home. For now though, we don’t know where it is."

  "And for now, you're too useful."

  "Hopefully."

  "We need guns. If we get boarded ever again, I want to be able to shoot them."

  "Why didn’t you have guns?"

  "Never thought we'd need them. We trade. We're always on the move, and we stay away from the military."

  "So how did you get taken by slavers?"

  "Still don’t know. We should have been on a safe route. They took us as we down jumped. Never had a chance to run. Never saw it coming."

  "So they knew you were coming?"

  She went totally still.

  "Say the rest of it."

  Her voice sounded like metal grating on metal.

  "Someone set you up."

  Her whole body shook.

  "FUCK! Fuckity fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck!"

  Her fist bounced off the chair arm as she said it.

  I waited.

  She eventually managed to get a grip.

  "Guns. We need guns."

  I made one appear in her lap. She stared at it for a moment, picked it up, extended her arm, and sighted along it. She wasn't pointing it at me.

  "How many do we have?"

  "I don’t recall, but we did relieve a few people on our way off the slaver station."

  "It’s a start. If I show you what I want, can you make it?"

  "Stealing's quicker."

  For the first time, I saw her smile.

  Twenty Five

  "So you are a thief. Is that what you were pondering when I came in?"

  "Becoming a thief. I'm not sure yet if this is a temporary thing, or a career choice. Mostly it's been a need for funds, and stealing proved to be really easy for me. I don’t steal everything, if it makes you feel better."

  "But you could steal us heavy weapons if I showed you where they were?"

  "Probably."

  "What else?"

  "Actually, I was working on that before you interrupted my naval gazing. Any ships out there you don’t like?"

  She pointed straight at one of the icons showing ahead of us. No hesitation at all.

  "That one is owned by the bastard who bought me. His son was the one who was torturing me."

  I looked, and smiled at her.

  "It's on my naughty list."

  I explained how I’d made it.

  "What were you planning?"

  "My little cargo bay can handle a dozen containers. When we caught up with a ship on my list, I was going to check them for saleable cargos, and relieve them
of an even dozen."

  "Won't they notice?"

  "No way of telling. If I take them from the rear of the hold, they might not until they take out everything in front. Or someone might check them regularly and notice immediately."

  "Doubtful. Leanne never bothered. Containers and pallets in, accounted for, checked off, and job done. At the other end, all in reverse order. In the middle, she did what we all tend to do."

  "What's that?"

  "Anything which relieves the boredom."

  I chuckled.

  "What sort of range do you have?"

  "No idea. I took a pallet of food off a ship earlier, from five kilometers away."

  She whistled.

  "That’s about as close as we ever get. It'll be a while before we're close enough. Can I ask a question?"

  "Shoot."

  "Have you any idea how stupid joining up four ships is?"

  I laughed.

  "Nope. I know nothing about ships. Although I do know a lot more about sewage systems now."

  The smile flickered on again, but only for a second.

  "You do know this was impossible, don’t you? Even a shipyard wouldn’t attempt it."

  "We told the station the pirates did it."

  "Yeah, maybe they would. You want to know the stupidest thing about it?"

  "What?"

  "It worked. You positioned them exactly right. I couldn't have done it better myself. The whole thing needs balancing and tweaking, which is going to keep me busy for weeks, but it will work. I don’t get why only two of the engines are working though?"

  "The power plant for this ship is supplying me the energy I need to do what I do."

  "Ah. Sometime we need to talk about that."

  She gave me a speculative look.

  "If I find some bolt on automatic gun turrets, can you add them where I tell you to?"

  "Only one way to find out."

  "I think I'm going to like you."

  I grinned at her.

  "What's not to like?"

  "You're not female."