by M. D. Cooper
Tanis was appalled at the thought and looked around at the ship’s crew. They didn’t seem like barbarians, but their treatment of AI would have landed them in prison back in Sol.
Thompson and Flaherty didn’t have AI at all, just simple Link interfaces—most of their information access was through retinal overlay. It was crude enough that Tanis could even see it on the backs of their eyes when she dialed up her vision.
Though she suspected that Flaherty might have an additional interface, since his retinal overlay rarely showed any information. Initially, she thought him to be little more than a deck hand, or perhaps an enforcer of some sort, but something about that assessment didn’t fit.
He had glanced at her when she entered, and then again when Sera introduced him. He nodded his greeting, not saying a word. His build wasn’t heavy like Thompson’s or Cargo’s, yet that didn’t diminish the growing impression Tanis had that he was the most dangerous person in the room. Every movement he made was both spare and precise.
She had no doubt that he had also observed her completely and had formed his own silent opinions.
An additional clue was Sera’s introduction of Flaherty. It was obvious she had a personal connection with the man, and was very comfortable around him. Yet, his lack of internal AI and little more than a personal Link, combined with what was obviously the lowest position on the ship didn’t make a shred of sense.
Even though the pilot was a self-modified nymphomaniac, Tanis found herself taking a liking to the woman. Cheeky had bounced into the wardroom on what had to be twelve-centimeter heels, wearing a miniskirt that barely covered her ass, and a tight top with a semi-lewd slogan dancing across her breasts.
She had gushed how happy she was to meet Tanis and how cool it was to meet someone over five thousand years old. Her smile and laughter was infectious and Tanis found herself reminded of Trist.
“Watch out for her,” Sera said. “You are witnessing the mating ritual of the sexually aggressive Cheeky. In the wild, they are truly dangerous. She’s tamer than usual since she gets a lot of it out of her system when we’re docked.”
Tanis laughed. Perhaps the woman was a bit more like Jessica.
Sera moved on to the next member of her crew, a large man named Thompson. She was amazed at the presence of body hair. Tanis had to restrain herself from touching the peach fuzz on his arm. It looked like pictures of men from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. She had always thought it would be repulsive, but seeing the somewhat rough blonde man with his soft blond hair in person, she found it to be quite the opposite. Despite that, Tanis noticed how he shifted uncomfortably when he shook her hand and had shot Sera some significant looks.
“So, what’s the biggest difference you’ve noticed so far between your time and the ninetieth century?” Cheeky asked after the introductions were done.
Tanis pondered the question for a moment while the crew stared at her, greatly interested in the answer.
“Aside from the obvious FTL and gravity drives, it’s the attitude you’re able to have about the galaxy and humanity’s place in it. I grew up in the crush of Sol—people everywhere, a military with a million warships. Yet if you wanted to get away from it all, you could. You could go to a colony world and live a simpler life—knowing that the overpopulation of Sol would just be a memory—you would never encounter it again, because you were just too damn far away. Now it would be a week’s trip and you’d be back in it.”
“I wouldn’t have thought of that,” Cheeky said. “I can’t imagine how different it must have been. You lived in the time of greatness, the planetary rings, space elevators everywhere—moving worlds, terraforming everything…near immortality, it must have been amazing.”
“Is all of that lost?” Tanis asked.
“Not all,” Sera replied. “Worlds are still terraformed; planets are moved, but not commonly—not like in your day when Sol had dozens of habitable worlds. There are few rings left; in Sol, only High Terra remains.”
Tanis felt her breath catch. That meant the Mars1 ring was gone. Ceres, the Cho, all no more. She knew losing a ring was no small thing—it meant those worlds may have been destroyed, as well. She decided not to ask; she didn’t want to know.
“We didn’t have all those things,” Tanis said. “No one was immortal.”
“I guess not,” Cheeky replied. “But they lived a long time—over five-hundred years from what I’ve read. How old are you? If you don’t mind my asking.”
“Cheeky, really…” Nance sighed.
“I don’t mind,” Tanis held up her hand and smiled. “I’m still pretty young, only about two-hundred and eleven years of real-time on my clock.”
Thompson whistled. “You look pretty good for two-eleven. None of us are over fifty. Two-hundred is about the best we can hope for—unless we strike it rich somewhere along the line.”
“Or live in the AST,” Nance added.
“AST?” Tanis asked, trying to guess at what that could be.
“If every time needs to have a dark, greedy empire, the AST is ours.” Sera’s expression was grim. “It is what has grown from the first interstellar government that started with Alpha Centauri, Sol System, and Tau Ceti. Hence, the A. S. T. At least, that’s what everyone else calls them. Their real name is The Hegemony of Worlds.”
Tanis nodded. It made sense that those systems were at the core of a large empire. Alpha Centauri and Tau Ceti were two of the most powerful colonies when she had left Earth. Alpha Centauri even had slow, but regular trade with Earth.
“Who knows what could happen?” Tanis shrugged. “If we really have a treasure-trove of tech, and it is stuff that’s completely lost, we could trade it for a colony world. You guys could end up living as long as I plan to.”
“Girl, you could trade that tech for a hundred colony worlds and still have money to burn. Heck, you could trade it for fully populated worlds,” Cheeky exclaimed with arms flung wide.
“We have a few systems to hop through before we get to Bollam’s World. You can shop around,” Sera laughed.
“So it’s Bollam’s we’re off to,” Thompson said with a frown. “Are you sure that’s wise?”
“I’ve struck a deal with Major Richards,” Sera nodded at Tanis. “We’ll be well compensated—enough that each of you can retire after this run.”
Thompson looked about to say something else, but Sera shot him a dark look and he closed his mouth.
Tanis replied.
The rest of the meal progressed pleasantly, Tanis asking questions that would help her understand the present time as best she could, but she found herself coming back to the odd behavior that Sera displayed and Angela’s earlier warnings that Sera was hiding something; something significant.
RENDEZVOUS
STELLAR DATE: 07.05.8927 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Sabrina, Interstellar Space
REGION: Galactic South of Trio Prime, Silstrand Alliance Space
Sabrina exited FTL three light days away from her previously anticipated exit, an unfortunate consequence of entering the dark layer at an irregular vector. Cheeky’s calculations were as accurate as could be; it was just impossible to predict a ship’s precise location in space, when you weren’t even in space.
However, Cheeky had things well in hand as she rotated the ship a hundred and eigh
ty degrees. Starting with a slow burn, she lit up the fusion engines and brought Sabrina down on the meeting location.
The rendezvous was deep in interstellar space. No stars shone nearby; there were no planets, or moons, or bodies of any sort. The only marker for this meeting place was a clump of dark matter resting alone in the void.
During the days of FTL transit, the crew had ditched the cargo container in which Tanis had been found, and faked the logs to show that instead of outrunning the Padre’s ships, they had been stopped and boarded. Logs now showed the container being removed and then Sabrina being allowed to leave the Trio System.
Regarding Tanis, Sera decided that the best place to hide her was in plain view, as a new crewmember.
“Too bad we don’t have access to any advanced modifications. Those cheekbones are pretty distinctive,” Cheeky had commented.
“Amusing statement for someone named for their own cheeks,” said Tanis.
“I’m not known for those cheeks.” Cheeky pointed to her face, then placed her hands on her butt and swished it side-to-side. “These cheeks, though…”
“Believe me, I harbored no confusion on that fact,” Tanis smiled. “Though, I can do something about my cheekbones, if you think it’s necessary. Will he know anything about me?”
“He may. There are ways to send messages through FTL far faster than a ship can travel. If you can mask your appearance in some way that will stand up to inspection, do it,” Sera said.
The major sucked in a deep breath as her face changed right in front of their eyes. Slowly, her jaw widened and her cheekbones became less prominent. Her lips filled out and the corners of her eyes turned up.
“Hot damn! I’d forgotten how much that hurts!” Tanis said in a somewhat huskier tone, as she touched her face gingerly.
“Wow! That’s amazing!” Cheeky reached out to feel Tanis’s face. “How in the stars did you do that?”
“I worked counterinsurgency in the TSF,” Tanis’s statement was met with blank stares and she laughed. “I may as well have said Praetorian Guard, it’s probably better known.”
“Praetorian? Is that what the Regulan military calls its Royal Guard?” Nance asked.
“Yeah,” Sera said. “But they ripped it off from the Romans. The Praetorian Guard is the military unit that guarded Caesar.”
“The salad?” Cheeky asked, visibly confused.
“The Roman Emperor.”
Cheeky’s mouth formed an O, but the expression on her face indicated she had no idea who the Roman Emperor was, when he lived, or on which planet he had ruled.
Tanis was dumbstruck. “I guess a lot changes in five thousand years.”
“It has a lot to do with location, too,” Sera said “I’d bet people in the Sol System know all about the Romans. People on rim worlds don’t care to know much about AST worlds.”
Tanis spread her arms with a flourish. “Rachel, at your service. After serving as a station comm and nav tech on Coburn Station for a few years, I grew weary of it. Now, I’m working on my pilot’s license, and managing scan and comm here on Sabrina while Cheeky shows me the ropes and helps me get my practical experience hours in.”
“If Kade asks more than that he’ll already be suspicious and we won’t be able to fool him with anything further,” Sera said.
“That’s an encouraging thought,” Cheeky said.
Both Tanis and Sera began to say that they’d gotten through worse and stopped, eyeing each other for a moment. Then Tanis smiled and Sera let out a laugh.
“I doubt it’ll be the last time either.”
THE MEET
DATE: 07.09.8927 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Sabrina, Interstellar Space
REGION: The Mark’s Interstellar Drop Point, Silstrand Alliance Space
Sabrina had finished deceleration and was drifting near the meeting point.
Sera wasn’t sure if Kade himself would be at this transfer, but she hoped not; this whole ‘hiding human cargo act’ was making her stomach twist enough as it was. Her misgivings aside, Tanis was actually fitting in with the crew quite well. She had picked up the comm and nav systems with appreciable speed and had watched Cheeky’s final maneuvering of the ship with great interest. The crew had helped her flesh out a few parts of her story in greater detail, but Sera was still of the opinion that if too many questions were asked it was an indication that they were already in trouble.
Flaherty and Thompson had moved cargo to be transferred into the few rooms off the bow corridor. They also placed a few containers in the corridor itself. It made for some tight maneuvering, but the sooner they could transfer the cargo and got on their way, the better.
Tanis had argued very strenuously that perhaps they shouldn’t stick around for the meeting, but Sera said she needed the business with Kade right now and couldn’t afford to run across the Orion arm just to avoid him.
The meeting time arrived and they expected The Mark ship to show up on scan at any moment, decelerating toward the meeting coordinates. Sera was certain they had a few passive probes floating quietly in the area, so they would know who was around and be able to drop back into FTL if something were amiss.
As much as Sera wanted to look for those scan probes and tap into them, the chances of The Mark picking up on it were just too high.
Even though there was plenty of room, the bridge felt crowded with four of them up there. Tanis was operating scan at the comm station and Sera wondered what it would be like to go from what had to be a very clean, crisp, and ordered society to working on Sabrina. Tanis’s back was straight and her movements spare and efficient. If she was feeling any anxiety over this cargo transfer, she wasn’t showing it.
She surveyed the rest of her bridge crew. Cheeky was wearing a bit more clothing than normal—she didn’t much like being ogled by the types that made up Mark crews. Cargo was as inscrutable as ever as he checked over ships systems and did whatever it was that always seemed to keep him busy at his station.
Sera accessed her Link again to see if scan showed anything; to be informed yet again that The Mark ship hadn’t arrived.
Even as Sera was pondering the possibilities, Tanis spoke up. “There they are. Just came up on scan.”
“They? There was only supposed to be one.”
“Two ships, one an obvious freighter, the other looks a bit smaller, larger engine signature—you have it on record as the Vertigo. Both have turned and are firing AP engines to decelerate.” Tanis plotted out where the two ships would come to a relative stop and sent the co-ordinates to Cheeky, who laid in a course.
“And we’ve got contact,” Tanis announced. “They’re still a good thirty light minutes out, so it’s just a welcome.” She sent the message to Sera’s screen, who saw with dismay that Kade had made an appearance himself. The message was brief. It instructed them that Kade’s ships would decelerate to 0.15c and maintain their current course. Sera was to bring Sabrina up to a matching speed and set a course to intercept. The maneuver would make for a faster overall rendezvous.
Sera piped the pertinent information to Cheeky, who put Sabrina on course to match up with Kade’s ships. Once that was done, she sent a message over the ship’s main net.
It was easing into the third watch and Sera decided that things would be hectic
soon enough. She slated everyone to get at least six hours of sleep before the rendezvous.
She opted for sleep first. If anything interesting happened, it would be later rather than sooner.
After her allotted six, she was awake and back on the bridge nursing the first cup from a fresh pot of coffee.
Humans may have done a lot in the previous ten millennia, but so far nothing had been invented that was better than a cup of coffee after waking up. Well almost nothing, but people didn’t invent that.
By the time a soft seal was made against the Vertigo, Sera had quelled her anxiety over potential conflict with Kade. Her concern was more due to the wrench it would throw in her plans. Kade had made it clear he wanted to meet with her and look over the cargo, which was something he had never done before.
Sera was starting to wonder if they should have just thrown Tanis in a hazsuit and dropped her in one of the nastier enviro tanks, one that no one would go peeking in. Too bad she hadn’t thought of that earlier. They could have kept the container she had been in and shrugged when it was found to be empty.
Sera cycled the bow airlock herself and let Kade and his two companions on board. She was tempted to wait for him on the bridge, but this was no time to antagonize the pirate with power plays.
He came through the lock first, just as she remembered him from the last time they’d met. His long, dark hair was somewhat greasy, and, although his clothes were crisp—and probably cost more than the value of all the cargo they were about to transfer—they somehow didn’t transmit that wealth to him.
With him was a person that Sera had dealt with many times, and liked less on each encounter—Kade’s right hand woman, Rebecca.
Rebecca was a beautiful woman who had no compunctions about using her looks to her advantage in every way possible. She also looked nothing like a pirate, more like the unlikely combination of a princess and a dominatrix.
Where Sera gleamed in her tight leather, Rebecca sparkled with necklaces and bracelets. All made of diamond, platinum, and whatever was currently the most expensive gem in vogue.