Milky Way Repo

by Michael Prelee

  “What the hell is this?”

  He lit a cigarette and raised an eyebrow. “What?”

  “This ship? This is the one bringing the wetjack?”

  “Yup.”

  “The Blue Moon Bandit?”

  “Uh-huh. Is something wrong?”

  She threw the phone at him. He caught it and looked at the picture. “Yeah, something’s wrong,” she said. “It’s my ex-husband. The repo guy I told you about.”

  "He owns this ship?"

  "Yes. Why is he the one bringing the wetjack here?"

  Montario got up and pulled on a pair of exercise pants and a t-shirt. "I have no idea, honey. I sent the demands to Saji and told him where to meet Milo.

  She pulled her own clothes on and sat on the bed rolling up her socks. Play time was over, Montario noted. "This is not good. Not good at all. We do not want them coming here."

  Montario laced up a pair of running shoes. "Why's that, babe? Everything is running to schedule so far."

  "Why not?" She said. "I'll tell you why not. Nathan and his crew are smart. Outwitting people is what they do. Did I ever tell you about them?"

  He looked at her."You told me he was a repo man. And you told me you didn't like the life."

  "Right, well, he's very good at what he does. Very good."

  "I'm still not seeing a reason to be concerned."

  She came around the bed. "Nathan gets back all kinds of vessels. He finds people that don't want to be found and he finds where they've hidden starships they don't want found. It doesn't matter where they are. As long as he is getting paid he'll find the ship."

  "Yeah, well, since we've already told him where we are I don't see that as a problem," Montario said.

  "Don't be a dick about this," Celeste said. "Once he finds the person he plays on their weaknesses and personality until he can scope out where their ships are and then he cons his way onboard. He has never failed at finding and retrieving a ship. Ever."

  Montario shrugged. "Look, he's a glorified taxi driver in this instance. He brings the wetjack here and the guy does what we ask him to do. There are no angles to play, no weaknesses to exploit. If Saji wants his ship back, and it appears he does, then everyone will play nice."

  "Where's the ship, Montario?"

  "It's up in orbit, Celeste. What was I supposed to do? Put it in the closet?"

  "Right, just sitting up there in orbit. All by itself."

  He sighed. "It's not by itself. There's a couple guys on it doing housekeeping stuff. I wanted to make sure there were no problems with it leaving once our business is conducted. I assume your ex will have an engineer look it over before we all agree the deal is done?"

  "Of course."

  "Well then no one will be sneaking onboard and making off with the ship. Besides, Saji wouldn't leave you and the rest of your crew here."

  She laughed. "Are you serious? If Nathan can grab that ship and never put the wetjack in a position to do anything illegal or dangerous he'll do it in a minute. I would be very, very surprised if Saji didn't order him to do just that. It's the least risk with the greatest reward."

  "Saji would leave you here?"

  "No. If he gets his ship back he'll call Protective Services and tell them we're being held here. You know what else? He'll do it the minute he has his ship back. You'll never see it coming."

  Montario considered her argument. He was a grifter and a good one. He was good at figuring the angles. Hell, he'd conned his way into this gig and lived the good life for more than a year now. Celeste was smart and clever. And just about as ruthless as anyone he had ever met. She might be on to something.

  "Okay, let's assume what you're saying is a possibility. Would your ex, Nathan, really fly out of here with the Charon and leave you here? Remember, he doesn't know what we're capable of. He doesn't know what we would do to you if we don't get what we want."

  She laughed. "After the way we parted? He'll want to give me as much grief as possible." She closed the distance between them with two soft steps. "Don't expect my presence here to give you any favor with him."

  "Wow, babe. You make friends wherever you go." He stubbed out his cigarette in an ashtray on the nightstand. "What was so bad about your break up?"

  She shook her head. "It's nothing I want to talk about."

  "So it was your fault, huh?"

  She gave him a glare. "I said I didn't want to talk about it."

  He held his hands up. "All, right, all right, I'll get a few more guys up on your ship. Maybe I'll send Caleb up there. Get him out of our hair."

  "Good idea. That might give you a chance of getting our money."

  “As long as you’re here,” he said, “can you tell me anything about this guy and his crew? Anything we can use to get up on them?” Montario looked her over. There was no reason to treat this development as a negative when it could so easily become an opportunity.

  Celeste sat down on the bed thought about it. “I don’t know. Nathan doesn’t have any bad habits. He doesn’t smoke; he doesn’t drink, at least not more than anyone else. He doesn’t do any kind of drugs, even the ones that are legal.”

  “What about gambling?”

  “Nathan? No way. All he does is sit in the pilot’s seat of that ship and grind out the credits. If he gambled and lost it would just piss him off. He’d obsess over how much work it would take to make it back.”

  “He sounds like the most boring person I’ve ever heard of. Why did you marry him?”

  She shrugged. “I was young, he was older. He knows how to treat people, especially women. He listens, knows how to give a compliment. He has an excellent reputation as a pilot so when he tells you he noticed you or something you did, you light up a little bit.”

  “Yeah, but he sounds like a real tightwad.”

  She screwed her mouth up before she answered, thinking hard. “Not exactly. He’s tight, don’t get me wrong but when he cares about someone, he makes things happen. He wants his women to know how much he appreciates them. There were trips and gifts. He understood romance, you know?” She paused for a moment, remembering something. “He just really got set in his ways.”

  "Your not giving me a lot to work with here. I'm looking for an edge, you know? Some way to get over on this guy."

  "What do you want me to say? There's not much there." She paused for a moment. "You know, he could be a little obsessive about things. Like entertainment."

  "Like compulsive?"

  "Not exactly."

  "Yeah? Can you give me an example?"

  "I don't know." Another pause, more deep thought. Her face showed the concentration. "It's hard for me to explain. There was one time we were in the middle of a repo job on Titan and we had some down time waiting for a ship to arrive so we could take possession. I booked us into a dynamite hotel. Nice view of Saturn's rings, a pool and a nice club. Nathan gets all obsessed with this game on his computer. It's interactive and takes up half the damn suite. I'm trying to enjoy some downtime and I have to walk through the hologram every time I need something from my luggage."

  "Holograms, huh? He likes those?"

  "Oh yeah. He's definitely one of those guys that gets into vids and obsesses over them. He'll watch them, he'll do the interaction with them and then he goes to sites on the G-net and picks them apart with other fans. He reads their reviews, re-watches them and sees if other people's viewpoints are valid. He seriously loves holographic entertainment. Come to think of it, I've even seen him watch old 2D stuff, if you can believe it. Serial dramas and comedies of some kind from a couple hundred years ago."

  "TV."

  "Yeah, that might be it. Anyway, we're at this great hotel with a great view, a great pool and me wanting to spend a lot of time by the great pool. Believe me, Saturn and the rings are beautiful when you are lounging by the pool and you've had a couple cocktails."

  She walked to the door. "I'm going to go back to Captain Geechy and let him know that our 'ordeal' may be over soon."


  "Try to act like this has been hard on you. Don't smile too much." He lay back down on the bed and considered his partnership with Celeste. After a minute he grabbed his phone and called Caleb to make some preparations.

  Nathan walked into the cockpit and slumped into the left hand pilot's seat. Marla looked up at him, headphones wrapped around her head. They were the good kind, he noticed. Not the cheap ones or the crappy little buds some people favored. Marla took her music seriously and was grooving to something she liked, he could tell. She touched a button her console and slipped the headphones off.

  "How far out are we?"

  "About two hours,” she said. We're coming up on traffic approach so I just started cutting our speed."

  “Good. How’s it look?”

  Marla touched one of the monitors in front of her and passed an image of the moon over to Nathan’s console. It wasn’t yet visible through the cockpit glass but the telescopes could pick it up. It was a strange looking place, Nathan observed. The atmosphere was blue-green and striped with puffy white clouds. It certainly wasn’t the majestic blue marble that Earth was from lunar orbit but it was welcoming enough.

  “How about traffic? Is the sky crowded?”

  Marla nodded. “Not a lot of passenger traffic but there’s dozens of freighters in the traffic pattern. Mostly around the three space stations they’ve got up in orbit. Cole said they export food, right?”

  “Yup.”

  “Well, there you go. They’ll be loading outbound transports for shipping to colonies and long range explorers who need to re-supply.”

  “I don’t suppose traffic control is identifying the vessels in orbit?” Nathan smiled at her.

  “Sorry, Nathan. They aren’t going to make it that easy for us. Unless we happen to fly by the Charon and see it out the window I don’t think we’re going to spot it in orbit.”

  “What about reading the Charon’s transponder signal? Saji gave us the frequency and the code.” Every starship had a transponder that broadcasted its identification. They were used for traffic control.

  Marla nodded. “Now there’s a better chance of that happening than just seeing it out the window. We can listen for the transponder once we’re in orbit. It’s pretty much line of sight but we’ve been lucky before. I’ll be listening.”

  “Good. Who are you listening to?” He pointed to her headphones.

  “A new band Duncan and I heard in a club last week called Chrome Sunrise.”

  “They any good?”

  “Not too bad. You may like them. I’ll send a copy to your entertainment unit.” She touched a monitor and slid a file from one folder to another with her finger.

  “Thanks. I’m going to give the ship the once over before we land, make sure your husband and his sidekick have been keeping us running smooth.”

  Marla shook her head. “You know my man holds this bucket together. There’s no reason to worry about him.”

  "Could we please not refer to my pride and joy as a 'bucket'?"

  She looked over at him. "This is how you take care of your pride and joy?"

  "Things are a little tight right now but this job should get us right again. Don't worry, she'll get the job done.” He stood up. “Take it easy."

  "You too. I'll let you know when we're scheduled for a landing location.

  "Thanks."

  Nathan Wandered back through the Blue Moon Bandit; through the galley, the small common room and back to the engine compartment. He found Duncan and Richie pulling something out of the port side engine. They didn't see him come in.

  "Anything wrong, Duncan?"

  The big man laid a wrench down and motioned for Richie to continue. He walked over to Nathan. "Nothing too serious, Nathan. While we're in Port Solitude I wouldn't mind getting a new lubricant pump. The bearings in this one are making some noise I don't like. We just re-packed the bearings in grease but I don't know how long that will buy us. It's a few hundred hours past its replacement schedule."

  Nathan looked over at where Richie was working. "Can it wait until we get back home? It will be easier in our own hangar."

  Duncan grimaced. "We really need an overhaul on this engine. We did the starboard one last year but we've been putting off this one. To tell you the truth, I hated to pull this pump out while we were under way but I didn't want it to fail when we're going through re-entry at Port Solitude."

  "Sounds like you made the right call," Nathan said. "I just don't know what the situation on the ground will be like. You could pull this out because we were cruising on the starboard engine, right?"

  Duncan nodded. "Right."

  "Well, once we're on the ground I'd hate to have to try a lift off on one engine. I know it's rated for it but that's a hell of a lot of stress."

  "First, you can take off with just the starboard engine," Duncan said. "I wouldn't let us fly in a ship that couldn't. Second, I think the pump will hold until we're home. I just prefer to do it as soon as possible but I understand other factors have to be considered and like you said, we don't know what is waiting for us down there."

  "Thanks, Duncan. I promise we'll get home as soon as possible."

  "Ah, one more thing, Nathan? Out here?"

  Duncan moved the conversation into the corridor outside the cramped engine compartment.

  "What's up?" Nathan said.

  "I had to reconfigure the servers this morning. Our navigation software had an upgrade available and I installed it after I tested it."

  "Great. So what's the problem?"

  "I had to free up some space. The upgrade was pretty significant so it ate up a lot of server room." Duncan reached into his pocket and pulled out a portable computer drive. "This is everything I had to take off the entertainment drive, which was just about everything in your files."

  "Aw, man, really?"

  Duncan shrugged. "Sorry, but I've been warning you that we need to upgrade the servers. It takes a lot of software and processing power to run a starship, jump it past light speed and navigate it. Entertainment has to come second."

  "Why did you pull my stuff off the server?" Nathan looked at the drive. According to the label it was fairly large.

  Duncan smiled. "Well, your share of the entertainment server was larger than everyone else's. Combined. So it made sense to strip out your stuff and save it to one place." He pointed to the portable drive. "As soon as we get a new server I can get your stuff loaded back up."

  Nathan ran a hand through his hair. "Yeah but I can't run these holovids off the drive. They need a server installation."

  "I could loan you a book."

  "Yeah, that'll be fun." Nathan looked back toward the engine compartment. "When we get back we're going to have to go over the maintenance log and the budget, make a plan."

  "You said that a couple months ago."

  "I know."

  "We didn't do it and now our spare parts pool is getting pretty shallow. I've been keeping us going but I honestly don't know if I can fix the next thing that breaks. I don't want to get stuck somewhere because we don't have a hose or fitting in ship's stores, you know?"

  "I know and believe me, I do take this seriously, all kidding about me being cheap aside. We just haven't had the funds for what we need to do. I can see we've stretched what we have about as far as we could so as soon as we get paid from this job, we tighten things up."

  "It may mean some down time," Duncan said.

  "It is what it is. At least we'll have an extra pair of hands helping us." Nathan nodded toward the engine compartment where Richie was still working.

  "True," Duncan said. "He has a good set of hands so we should keep him on for a while. Anyway, we'll be done in about thirty minutes, plenty of time for us to land according to what Marla told us."

  "Yeah, you're good."

  The look on Duncan's face changed; he looked a little uncomfortable. "Hey, uh, things have been moving kind of quickly and I haven't had a chance to ask before now but how are you doing with the whole Celest
e thing?"

  "What do you mean?"

  "I mean in a couple hours you're going to see her. Hopefully. Are you going to be okay with that?"

  "Why wouldn't I be?"

  Duncan tilted his head. "Seriously? Well, there's that whole holovid thing that just happened a few days ago..."

  Nathan waved him off. "No, don't worry about that. It's okay. I've got it under control. I've actually been doing some thinking, kind of getting things together. You've got nothing to worry about."

  Duncan held up his hands. "Oh, no, man, I wasn't worrying about me. I was just thinking about you. It's obvious you still have some feelings for her."

  "No, it's okay, really, Duncan. I have it under control."

  "How could that be? You were obsessed enough to make that holovid and almost bankrupt yourself doing it. Are you telling me feelings that intense have just vanished with a few day's consideration?"

  Nathan stared at him. "Duncan, I have it under control. It won't be a problem." Duncan just stared at him, clearly disbelieving him.

  "Have you seen Cole? I want to check with him and our guests."

  "I'm pretty sure Arulio is in his room. He's probably in sleep mode or whatever he does when he's not hacking things." Duncan stopped there and didn't offer anything further.

  "And Cole?" Nathan said.

  "I think he's in his quarters with Kimiyo. I walked by his door a bit ago and it sounded like they were enjoying themselves."

  Nathan rolled his eyes. "I'll start with Arulio then. Man, I hope Cole doesn't piss her off. I just want this job to go smoothly."

  Duncan opened the door to the engine compartment. "Good luck with that."

  Nathan wandered back to the crew quarters and stopped in the galley. He grabbed a can of juice and saw a can of Arulio's nutritional supplement in the fridge. He looked at the clock on the wall and guessed that Kimiyo had forgotten all about feeding the wetjack. He picked up the can and walked down the short corridor to Arulio's cabin. He didn't hear anything from Cole's as he passed by.

  "Must be enjoying the afterglow," he thought and rapped on Arulio's door.

  "Please enter," came the response.