by J. P. Larson
“The people who decide who gets command of the new ship have never left the planet. They’ll see you wearing my necklace and believe exactly what we intend for them to believe. That somehow I tamed you and took your ship away.”
“And when you get your ship?”
“We’ll meet with Jane’s Gift in neutral territory. I go home on the Gift, and you go where you want. You keep your ship. I take my share of the profits. Finance Officer’s share according to standard DS divisions. It’s in the contracts you signed.”
“The people down on your planet. What will they think when I don’t go with you?”
Pamela returned to her exercises. “Our husbands don’t ship with us. You’re a spacer. For humanitarian reasons, I agreed to divorce you so you could stay in space. As a good will gesture and a sign of my affection, I even returned the Pride to you.”
Alex thought about this for a while, switching to another machine. Pamela moved to a cool down pace, then finally stopped and looked at him.
“I’m using you,” she admitted. “We planned what we would do from the moment we realized you were in trouble. If Ms. Danforth couldn’t fix your ship, we would have taken you with us, found a spare hyper drive, if need be, then brought you back.” She turned to leave.
“I was ready to space myself rather than go with you,” he told her.
“It’s worse. We manipulated you. We already had a contract to fix your ship. The original plan was simply to get to know you, then politely invite you to trade with us. Once we got to know you, we changed the rules, then presented the new rules right when you were most emotionally vulnerable and likely to forget that we’d already promised to fix your ship.”
Alex stared at Pamela for a moment, then looked down and resumed his workout, still thinking. Pamela headed for the door, but Alex looked up and said, “Pamela.”
Pamela turned to look at him. Alex spoke quietly. “Everyone wins. DS gets a trading partner and some good press. You get to log command time. I’m alive and stand to make a nice profit.”
“I’m using you, in a cold and calculated fashion.”
“And now you feel guilty. Why?”
“I miscalculated.” Pamela paused, trying to find the words. “I thought as soon as I put my necklace around you-“
Alex interrupted her. “You thought it would really make you captain, that I would just do what I was told to do.”
“When I first found you, you seemed helpless and incompetent, like you needed someone to come in and take over. If you tried to resist, well…” Alex felt her brush his mind.
He thought about it before responding. “Something changed your mind about me.”
“I can push you around, but I don’t think I would like the results. When I’m polite to you, you’re polite back. When I try pushing a little, you dig your heels in right away. And underneath, you turn very hard. I don’t think I want to see what happens if I push harder. I don’t want to have to kill you.”
Alex looked at her with a shocked expression, but then tempered his reaction. “So, you realized I’m not incompetent, but just a lousy mechanic. And you’re having culture shock. Why the guilt?”
“Because if I’m not doing you any favors, we’re back to me using you, cold and calculated.”
“I’m afraid I don’t see a downside for me, Pamela. It’s a little odd, I admit, but I don’t see how I’m hurt by all this.”
She turned for the door.
“Well,” Alex said after a while. “There is that.”
* * *
Alex and Pamela settled into a shipboard routine. While the hyper drives were engaged, there wasn’t a whole lot that needed doing beyond checking the gauges and keeping the ship tidy. Alex didn’t ask for Pamela’s help on these tasks, but she bent her mind to them, anyway. He also occasionally found her sitting in the cockpit, staring into empty space. During these times, it was extremely difficult to capture her attention. The third time Alex interrupted her, she yelled at him.
“If it’s not vital, cut it out!” she spat. “When you drag me back like that, it gives me a killer headache.”
“You were…” he began.
“Doing my duty. But now I have to start over to make sure I didn’t miss anything.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t realize. I just thought you were wool gathering or missing your friends.” He paused. “Give me thirty seconds.” He left the cockpit door and ran to his cabin. He returned and held something out to her.
She took the object and looked at it. “It looks like the gifts you gave Linda and Kari.”
“This is the first one my father gave me. He’s gotten a lot better since then. Hold it with both hands, try to relax, and look at it while you hold it.”
“I don’t have time for this.”
“Pamela…”
“Okay, okay.” Pamela held the small figure. She realized it looked vaguely like a teddy bear. She ran her fingers over its features then looked back at Alex. “It’s not working.”
“Give it another minute or so. I told you, it’s an early issue. The effect takes a little time with this one.”
Pamela further investigated the figure. She was very thorough, but finally looked up again.
“Still not working,” she told him.
“How’s your headache? Any tensions left in your shoulders? Still mad at me?”
She smiled and held the figure out to him. “Thank you, Alex.”
“From now on, when we’re on opposite sides of a door, I’ll knock, pause a moment, then think at you. You can decide if you care to listen to me. If it’s important, I’ll be more forward.”
“That would be fine,” she said. “I better start my scan again.”
“Let me check the gauges first.”
“They’re fine. I already checked them.”
“How long will the scan take? I was thinking about dinner.”
“Two hours.”
“Meet me in the galley, then.” Alex closed the cockpit door on the way out, put away his father’s figurine, which did indeed look like a teddy bear, and headed for the galley.
Execution
Two days later, Alex was cleaning the spotless corridors when he felt Pamela’s touch.
Alex arrived at the cockpit door, knocked and opened the door. Pamela was sitting in the pilot’s chair, staring into space. Her hands were twitching. Alex waited.
Alex worried while he waited. Piracy in open space isn’t easy, but it happens. Finally, Pamela turned around and looked at him.
“How many?” he asked her.
“Four that I could find. All big and well armed, arrayed in an arc in front of us. If they wait for us, we’ll be there in eighteen hours.”
“Can you show me? Let me see them with you?”
Pamela paused, considering. “Maybe. Not without the necklace’s help.”
“Jewelry chest?” Pamela nodded. Alex rushed off to her cabin, found the necklace, and ran back to the cockpit. He leaned forward and let Pamela wrap it around his neck.
“If you fight me, this won’t work,” she said. “It might hurt.”
Pamela turned around, and Alex leaned against the back of the chair, resting his hands on her shoulders gently. “Show me,” he told her.
Alex did the best he could and felt her entering his mind like a caress.
Alex felt the ship disappear and suffered a moment of panic. Pamela’s mind jerked out of his suddenly, and he found himself back in the cockpit, his hands tight on her shoulders.
“I�
�m sorry,” he told her.
“I’m sorry. We have to try again. I promise I won’t fight you.”
He felt her mind again.
She overlaid a map on their positions for a second, but it disappeared quickly.
The map appeared again, and Alex notice Pamela had been watching a cone in front of the ship.
Pamela began a search in the indicated areas. She moved too quickly for him, and Alex felt himself sliding back to the cabin. He reached out for her mind to hang on, but found himself alone.
So he waited. He noticed sweat start to form on Pamela’s forehead, saw her start to shake again. He wrapped his arms around her from behind the chair and tried to project strength into her. Several minutes later, she started to stir.
“Two more,” she said. “They’re only five minutes behind us in flanking position. Oh, Alex…”
“Are you sure they’re pirates?” he asked her.
“Yes. There is no doubt. We’re not close enough to tell for the ones in front of us, but the ones behind… There is no doubt.”
“Why would they chase us? We’re not worth six ships.”
Pamela didn’t say anything.
“We’re not, are we, Pamela?”
“My mother is, well, somewhat wealthy,” Pamela said.
“And how could they know you were here already?”
“There are factions on DS, just like anywhere else,” Pamela explained. “People like Linda and I have a somewhat unique psychic signature.”
“Are you telling me we’re being chased by six ships filled with DS witches?”
“Please don’t call me a witch, Alex,” Pamela said. “It’s not very complementary. But to answer your question, no. There’s one DS witch, as you say, on one of the ships behind us and one more on a ship in front of us. The rest just appear to be your run of the mill pirates.”
“Do they know that we know they’re there?”
“Maybe. I didn’t recognize individual signatures, so they may not be all that powerful. But they probably know you weren’t wearing your necklace but are now.”
“Can I assume they haven’t done a full, deep scan of me? Would you have known?”
“At this distance, you would have felt a deep scan. They may have been able to touch surface thoughts. But now with the necklace, they would have to be in the same room to scan any further, and even then the headache would be murderous.”
Alex thought for a second. “How about you? Could they read you?”
“Not without my knowing it. At this distance, they could get surface thoughts. Closer, they might get more.”
“Can you prevent it?”
Pamela shook her head. “If they’re as strong as Linda, no. Kari, yes. Kari’s strength is about the top ten percent. Linda is top one percent. Take your odds.”
“We’ll have to assume the worst, then. They know that we know they’re there. They can’t read me, and you’ll know if they read you.”
“Right,” Pamela nodded assent.
“I want you out of my mind. Immediately. No peeking. Out, out, out.” Alex started thinking about calculus problems.
“I’m out.”
“Ms. Grey, as the only handy representative of my partners on Jane’s Gift, do you have the authority to renegotiate the terms of our agreement?”
“Yes, Captain, to a point.”
“If I can get you safely out of this little predicament, will you give up half the fee I was to deliver to the Gift in two months?”
“Alex, we don’t stand a chance. But you would be saving yourself, too.”
“I’ve already taken that into consideration. I’ve also accounted for the early warning you provided, which is why I only want half my fee back. Pamela, I’m about to spend most, maybe all of the profits from this run.”
“Captain, if you can get me safely to Dawson’s Star, my mother will cover any losses you should suffer as a consequence of these people’s actions.”
“Ms. Grey, can you tell how easily the ships behind us are keeping up?”
“You have more juice in this thing?”
“We’re running at 91% right now. Sounds like 9% more to me. I want to know how they’re doing. Can you do it?”
Pamela took a faraway look for a few minutes.
“They’re not happy,” she said finally. “Their engines are overheating. They’re happy the chase is nearly over.”
“We need to trade place. I want you to stand outside the cockpit with the door closed. I’m going to try a few tricks. I don’t want you to see what they are, and you had better not poke through my mind. Not even my surface thoughts.”
Pamela nodded, and the two traded places. Alex closed the cockpit door, then turned to the navigation computer. He ordered an emergency drop from hyperspace, telling the computer to shut up and do as it was told when it tried to refuse. The ship dropped into normal space.
Alex swore loudly, beating his hands on the console. Pamela burst back into the room. “We dropped out of hyperspace?”
“I’m sorry, Pamela,” Alex said. “I’d read about this trick once. It didn’t work. I blew the hyper engine.”
“Oh, Alex…”
“I think it might be a good time for you to negotiate our surrender, Pamela.”
“I won’t surrender to them. They’ll use you to control me, Alex. My vows! When we took away the right of men to protect themselves, we assumed that responsibility on ourselves. I’ll have to do anything they want to protect you!”
“It won’t come to that, Pamela. I have a few surprises.”
Alex got up from the chair, dashed to his cabin, then made a small detour that took a minute or so before returning to the cockpit with a couple of knives and the pistol. Pamela was sitting in his chair, but he chased her out.
“You can have the pistol and one of the knives. I’m keeping the other one. We’ll get a few when they board us. They won’t take me alive.”
“Alex, I can’t let you do that.”
“Ms. Grey. We are not in DS space. You have informed me that the ships chasing us are not DS ships. That means I am the captain of the vessel. Do you wish to dispute my authority?” She shook her head. “Negotiate our surrender. I’m going to try to avoid any initial missile attacks.”
Alex turned to the navigation computer and keyed in a pattern of evasive maneuvers. The ship’s thrusters began firing randomly, making the Pride a difficult target at all but the closest distances.
“Captain, thrusters won’t save us.”
“We’ll avoid the first volley, if they throw nasty stuff at us. That’ll give us time to surrender. Now talk to the woman behind us and tell her we surrender.”
Pamela took on a faraway look.
“Unconditional surrender are the only terms they’ll give us, Alex. They promise not to kill us. That’s it.”
“Where are they?”
“They’ll be here in another minute or so.”
“Negotiate harder. Make them promise not to separate us and to sell us quickly back to your mother. As a set.”
Pamela concentrated, then looked at him. “She knows about the weapons.”
“Pamela, I don’t really want to die. Please, I’ll do whatever you tell me. I’ll go to DS with you. I’ll wear your necklace. Get us out of this together.”
“I’m sorry, Alex.” Pamela concentrated again, then looked at him. “They’re here, Alex.”
“Pamela, pay attention to what they’re doing and let me know. I’ll stop the thrusters when
I know they aren’t going to just throw missiles at us.”
Again Pamela looked distant. In the meantime, Alex told his ship to scan nearby space. The pirates had fallen out of hyperspace well off target, thousands of klicks away. One had actually passed him, the other was well off the port side.
“Alex, there seems to be a problem for them. They’ve called out to the other ships. Something’s wrong with the hyper drives on both ships.”
“Now would be a real bad time for you to scan me, Pamela,” he told her. He then told the navigation computer to reenter hyper drive on the new course.
A few seconds later, and they were back in hyperspace.
“Alex, what did you do?”
“Don’t you dare scan me, Pamela! Don’t do it.”
“I won’t, Alex. But we can’t get away from those other four ships.”
“Well, we’re a little faster than they think, Pamela. Check the gauges.”
“We’re at 147%! You’ll blow the engines.”
“My gauges are calibrated to peak efficiency, not max performance. We’re burning fuel like crazy to reach 140%. The extra seven, well, I thought it was worth a little extra wear on the engines. We’re going to need a refit.”
Alex monitored the gauges for a minute, satisfied he wasn’t overdoing it. He told the computer to let him know if things fell off tolerance.
“Alex, they just scanned me. It was clumsy. But they know everything I was thinking about, so they know how fast we are. Nothing deeper than that.”
“Do not scan me! Remember. But I need to know what’s going on, behind us first, Pamela.”
Again Pamela took on a distant look, then returned. “Hyper drives are off line. Maintenance crews can’t believe their phase inverters…”
Alex smiled. “I hope we’re out of scanning range before they check you again, Pamela.” He paused, relaxing. “I don’t believe I told you how I got into trouble before, did I?”
“Sudden drop out of hyperspace?”
“I was practicing pirate evasion maneuvers. Funny how the strangest things can come back to help you out.”
“But we blew our engines, too.”
“Ms. Danforth left us a few spare parts. You noticed it took me a few minutes to grab the weapons. I also figure they blew theirs a lot harder than we did ours. We were idling along, while they were pushing to keep up. I’m hoping their engines are totally shot.”