by Jaleta Clegg
The printer spat paper into the slot. I shied away from it, as if it were going to bite me. Which it probably was. More papers tumbled into the slot. Jasyn picked them up.
“Durnago Medical Services,” she read. She scanned over the rest. “It’s a bill for noncompliance with a trade and shipping contract. Fifty seven thousand credits? That’s outrageous!”
“Fifty seven?” I squeaked. I stood behind her, peering over her shoulder. It didn’t help that I’m quite a bit shorter than she is. She handed me the paper.
“What’s going on, ladies?” Clark had a cup in one hand and a cookie in the other. Jasyn had been baking again, although when, I wasn’t sure.
“We’re being assessed fifty seven thousand, and some change, for breach of contract,” Jasyn told him.
“And they’re filing charges against us with the Guild,” I added, flipping to a new page. “It will cost my membership for sure. We don’t have the funds to fight this.”
“They can’t do that.” Clark reached for the papers.
I handed them over. “Yes, they can, and they are.”
“Hail the ship and all that,” someone called from the open hatch.
The voice was familiar. Jasyn and I looked at each other and grinned.
“What?” Clark demanded.
“Come in, Leon,” I said, stepping around Clark and going to the hatch.
Leon was just as short and weasely as I remembered. He was a lawyer who’d managed to get Jasyn, her brother, and me off almost completely in the Sessimoniss affair. He was the perfect answer to our current problem.
“What brings you here? Want a cookie? Help yourself.” I gave him my widest smile.
“Warm welcome, that isn’t like you, Dace,” he said.
“For our favorite lawyer?” Jasyn gave him a hug and a kiss on his balding forehead.
He turned a bright shade of purple. “You want something, don’t you?”
“Who’s he?” Clark asked his wife.
“Old family friend,” Jasyn answered, turning her back on Leon to face Clark. She gve him silent signals. He backed off. “Leon Gravis, meet my husband, Trevyn Clark.”
“A pleasure,” Leon said with a big smile. He walked over to Clark, his hand out. “Quite a woman you got there.”
Clark looked like he’d eaten one too many quiizo fruits. His smile was more than a little strained. They shook hands.
Leon bounced around, smiling at me and Jasyn. “And how are my two favorite ladies?”
“In a bit of a pickle, actually,” Jasyn said. “But sit down first. Tell us why you dropped in for a visit. Lady Rina is well, isn't she?”
We all sat at the table. Jasyn fetched what was left of her latest batch of cookies.
“Lady Rina is fine. She has investments here,” Leon said around a mouthful of cookie. “She sent me to check on them. I work for her now,” he added at my surprised look. “If I were thirty years older or she was thirty younger.” He broke off with a sigh. “So, anyway, I’m here checking on her investments, and what do I see on the latest newscast but you. So I came to say hi.”
“How’d you get in, Leon?” I asked.
“Told them I was your lawyer, retained and all that. I am, aren’t I?”
“Most definitely,” Jasyn said, with a wicked smile. She took the papers from Clark and spread them on the table. “And here’s our problem. Dace?”
I summed up the situation as quickly as I could.
“What’s she’s leaving out,” Clark said, “is the whole situation that made us late and damaged the cargo.” He proceeded to give Leon a very different version of events of the last few weeks, very different at least from how I would have put it.
“Durnago Medical Services,” Leon said, rubbing his hands together. “Contracted through Black Shipping, no doubt. Rest easy, your problems are solved. Lady Rina owns over a third of their voting stock. I need your cargo manifest,” he added.
I fetched it.
We went over it line by line, checking serial numbers and items and pricing. The figures Durnago Medical Services had sent were a lot higher than the ones on our original manifest. Leon was chuckling like a lunatic before we were done.
“This is going to be good,” he said, rubbing his hands together. “Overinflation of cargo value is not a minor offense.”
“Neither is failure to deliver,” I said. “The point of this, Leon, is not to bankrupt Durnago. It’s to keep our standing in the Independent Traders Guild. If we have to pay, we have to pay.”
“You know what your problem is, Dace? You don’t think about the possibilities. You aren’t willing to take a risk now and then.” Leon shuffled papers while he talked.
Clark sputtered cookie crumbs over the table. Leon brushed them off, giving Clark a dirty look.
“Never take a risk? How well do you know her, Leon?” Jasyn spoke for Clark. Clark was still having difficulty breathing crumbs. “How do you think we keep getting into these messes?”
“Gotcha,” Leon said, grinning at Jasyn. He shoved the papers together, thumping them on the table to straighten them. “As I see it, we can nail Durnago to the wall, get most of those charges dismissed. You’ll still have to pay something, their contract is pretty tight. I’ll go over it later, see if there’s any holes to wiggle through. As for the Guild, let me do some research. I think we can fix this without too much trouble.”
“And what do we owe you when it’s over?” Clark asked. He’d finally coughed out the last of the cookie.
“Lady Rina pays me to keep an eye on you, when I run into you. No charge to you for this. You make it fun to be a lawyer.”
“At least let us take you out to dinner, or something,” Jasyn said.
“I’m not going anywhere,” I said, remembering the crowd at the gate.
“I’ll collect later,” Leon answered. “I’ve got a million things to do besides take care of this for you. Lady Rina has more connections through here than the government.” He stood.
“Leaving already?” Jasyn asked.
“Have to,” he answered. “Thanks for the snack. And the challenge.” He waved the papers at us and was gone. Jasyn hurried out with him, walking him across part of the field.
“How many more weird people are there that you two know and I don’t?” Clark asked.
“Quite a few,” I said truthfully.
Chapter 35
I was informed, very politely but very firmly, that I would be attending a press conference the next afternoon. Just what I needed to make my day even more special. I was summoned to the Patrol complex again, this time to be questioned by the scientists from the local university who were going out the next day to study the golden men. They didn’t call them that, they called them aboriginal colonists with degenerative cultural trends and a loss in technological status. At least they fed me dinner, after I refused to cooperate until they did. I didn’t get back to the ship until very late.
They dragged me back the next morning for another round. They only let me go because their ships were ready to lift. I returned to the Phoenix to try to think up a way to miss the press conference.
Everyone on the Patrol base knew who I was. I was greeted and saluted by the ones wearing uniforms. The others, those I had met on the planet and those I hadn’t, smiled and waved when they saw me. I got back to my ship and found several people there, visiting with Jasyn and Clark. I slouched in a chair and listened. It was better than getting nervous trying to guess what Commander Nyles was going to ask me to do at the press conference.
The group were all from the same ship, the Nueva trading ship. Roz and her younger brother Kyllan and half a dozen others I hadn’t met were telling their stories. There were lots of smiles. All of them seemed convinced that I was the only reason any of them had escaped. With a little help from Jasyn and Clark, of course. I couldn’t understand it. I really hadn’t done anything. Or had I? It got embarrassing after a while. I mumbled some excuse and hid in my cabin until they left.
“I don’t remember running for the job of hero.”
“You’re just scared.”
“No, I’m not.” I threw my pillow at her.
She caught it and threw it back. “At least we aren’t on the most wanted posters this time.”
“True.” I sighed.
“Your escort has arrived,” Clark said, sticking his head in.
“You have to be there, too,” I insisted.
“Wouldn’t miss it for anything,” Clark said. I wasn’t sure if he was sincere or not.
I got up and ran my fingers through my hair.
“You are impossible.” Jasyn fetched a comb then made me stand still while she undid the mess I’d made of my hair.
Commander Nyles really had sent an escort. Eight of them, in full parade dress, waited outside of the ship. I pulled my collar straighter when I saw them, and found myself imitating the same stiff posture, old habit from the Academy, where drill had been a way of life for the first two years.
Two of them led the way. Jasyn and Clark and the rest fell in behind me. We walked across the landing field towards the main building. It was huge thing, with the official Patrol logo glowing on the side. People hurried inside, arriving from all parts of the base as well as the port city beyond. They saw my escort and moved aside.
We were marched right up the center of the main foyer of the building, a huge echoing room floored with polished stone. Cameras flashed and clicked all around us. We were marched to a single table set at the far end, under the Patrol banner. I was politely seated at the table. Clark and Jasyn stood behind me. I saw others from the planet lining the walls behind us. Lovar saw me and gave a wide grin and a thumbs up, universal symbol for green status. Wade stood at the far edge of the crowd. I would have to catch him later. I still owed him a lot for dragging me up the cliff. Darus wormed his way over and whispered with Jasyn. Captain Esslen stood on the other side, talking with another group. The whole room had a festive air. It was also crammed full of Patrol uniforms, but there were quite a few other shipsuits mixed in. I shifted uncomfortably in my chair. I didn’t belong at the front. I wanted to be back in my ship.
There were only five chairs at the table, each of them fronted by a mound of various recording devices. I sat at the far end of the table. The man introduced to me as Taffer Jeffs sat at the other end. He wore a pale blue Exploration uniform, with a captain’s bars gleaming on the collar. He was deep in whispered conversation with a man dressed in Patrol silver. Next to him was Commander Hovart, looking very distinguished in a dress uniform. He had a row of medals across his chest and a sector commander’s clusters on his collar. I’d had no idea he was that high ranking. Commander Nyles came up and took the last seat next to me. The talk in the room died away.
Commander Nyles looked across the room and smiled. “Thank you for coming today. I see we have the planetary governor here with us, and the port city director, and several members of the sector council. Welcome to you.”
He paused for a smattering of applause. The group of reporters shifted restlessly, cameras and recorders whirring away.
“As you know, we have had a very surprising turn of events in the last few days. Three days ago, a ship entered this system, a ship which was listed missing thirty seven years ago. That ship had disappeared on the Kumadai Run, along with over a hundred others. The reappearance of the ship of course drew quite a bit of curiosity.” There was dutiful laughter. “I personally spent over an hour talking with the crew of the ship as they approached the planet. During that time, seven other ships entered the system, ships which had also been listed as missing. The story they told was incredible.”
I almost went to sleep. Commander Nyles was milking the spotlight as long as he possibly could. I didn't mind in the least. He dragged his story out. The first ship in told a wildly exaggerated version of events. By the time the Phoenix had arrived, over half of the other ships had landed. And my name had been spread by all of them as the one who had solved the mystery of Kumadai Run. The last ship had limped in only that morning, towed by one of the rescue ships Commander Nyles had dispatched. Miraculously, no one had been hurt in the exodus from the planet. No ship had failed to arrive at Parrus. Every single one of the prisoners had been accounted for. Even in the wild night of fighting before Wade and I finally got the generators shut down, no one had been killed. My broken ribs were one of only twelve cases that needed medical attention. Commander Nyles finished his initial statement and turned to Commander Hovart.
“Sector Commander Greyson Hovart,” Commander Nyles said, “along with Sub-commander Taffer Jeffs, coordinated much of the rescue operation. But the real hero in all of this incredible, improbable tale is sitting on my other side. Though she has made it very clear to me that she wants no part of this, may I present to you Captain Dace, of the freighter Phoenix Rising.” He turned expectantly to me.
I had no idea what to say or do. The Patrol officer standing next to me slipped a page on the table. She leaned over and whispered, “Prepared statement, ma’am.”
I looked at the page and couldn’t see the words. I was too nervous. Clark leaned in close.
“Imagine them in their underwear,” he whispered in my ear.
That surprised a grin out of me. I pushed the paper aside.
“First of all, Commander, it’s a fully registered, bonded and licensed ship with the Independent Traders Guild. And it isn’t a freighter, it’s a cargo ship.” That got a ripple of laughter. “As to the claim that I was the one that rescued everyone, look at the people standing up here. I didn’t rescue anyone. They rescued themselves. I’m not the hero you’re looking for. If you want a hero, pick any one of the people here.”
“Don’t believe a word of it,” Taffer Jeffs said. “Without her and her crew and their pockets of gadgets, none of us would be here. We’d still be back on that planet. As slaves.”
That prompted a wave of questions. I sat back and let the others answer. I read the prepared statement out of curiosity. It was a load of piffle. None of it was true. And it made me sound pompous and conceited. I was glad I hadn’t read it.
“Captain Dace,” one of the reporters shouted into a pause. I looked up. “Just what exactly did you provide that made escape possible? How did you do it?”
“Sheer blind luck,” I said. “And a habit for carrying things in my pockets.”
The questioning went on for a while longer. I gave the shortest answers I could. The longer I sat there, the more uncomfortable I got. They were determined to make me the hero, all of them, Commander Nyles, Commander Hovart, Taffer Jeffs, the media, the planetary and sector dignitaries, and the rest of the people rescued from the planet. Commander Nyles finally took pity on my squirming and called the questioning to an end.
“Our time is over,” he announced. “Thank you all for coming. If you have further questions, please contact my office.”
I stood, eager to escape, and everyone applauded. My face flushed. I didn’t want this, I hadn’t asked for any of it. I’d only done what had to be done for me to escape. Just because it also meant everyone else escaped, too, didn’t make me a hero.
I headed out, led to a back door by my honor guard. Outside, in a spring afternoon growing dark with rain clouds, I could finally breathe again. A breeze played with my hair. I leaned against the wall and watched the clouds build.
People started to come out of the building, those who’d been rescued. The media and the others headed out the other side of the building, back to the city. For the first time in my life, I was glad to be locked inside a Patrol compound. My honor guard kept their distance, giving me what privacy they could and still do their duty. They were talking quietly a few steps away.
I saw Wade come through the door and hurried over to him.
“The great hero of the hour deigns to speak with me,” he said, and kept wal
king.
“You want to trade places? Fine. I’ll tell them it was you who turned off the generators. You can be mobbed by reporters anytime you step foot off the base.” I didn’t know why he had such a sour attitude. He’d been on the Phoenix on our way to Parrus, but I hadn’t talked to him then. I’d been a bit preoccupied with Darus. “Something wrong, Wade?”
“Not really,” he said, shaking his head. “It’s just a bit difficult. I’ve lost ten years of my life. Things change and move on without you. I don’t even know where my family is anymore.” He stopped and kicked a loose rock on the plascrete. “My enlistment was up seven and a half years ago. I don’t know if I should sign up again or not.”
“They should pay you for those years.”
“They are,” he said, grinning. He glanced back. “Your father is headed this way. And he’s bringing a whole mob with him.”
I swore. I didn’t want a scene and Darus seemed determined to cause one.
“I hate this,” I muttered. “Wade, come talk later. Please.”
“I’m leaving this afternoon. I booked passage on a ship for Gherrus. My mother might still be living there.” He leaned forward and kissed my cheek. “Take care of yourself, Dace. Maybe I’ll take you up on that some other time.”
He walked quickly away. I stood with my mouth open, surprised as much by the kiss as his leaving so soon. I snapped my mouth shut and turned to face my father.
Darus was tailed by at least a dozen reporters, the planetary governor, and the city director. He smiled proudly. My escort stepped in and kept the media back. I hoped they’d stop the others, but they didn’t.
“Dace, this is Governor Umtata and Director Porsepopalous. Governor and Director, Captain Dace of the Phoenix Rising. My daughter.” Darus beamed.
I could have strangled him. I had to be polite instead. I shook hands and tried to be gracious as they flattered me. I wasn’t even a citizen of their sector, I couldn’t vote for them, I wasn’t sure why they were talking to me. Until I saw the media going crazy as they posed with me for a whole series of pictures.