"We'll see…"
We awoke early the next morning at 0500. Well, most of us did anyway. Ada had to be prodded to get moving. I'd heard her come in only a few hours before we got up and she was dragging badly. It was unusual to see her without her normal level of enthusiastic energy.
Level-1, Meerkat Shipyard, I instructed the elevator car.
Like most cities, there were a few people up at the early hour, but for the most part we were alone.
"Coffee?" Ada squeaked, looking at us with bleary eyes.
Tabby let go of my hand and wrapped a long arm behind Ada's back, which she accepted gratefully.
"How about you get some rack time while we sail over to Nannandry? You can take watch once we're down there." Tabby said.
"You're a saint," Ada said, closing her eyes.
"It'll cost you. I'm going to want a full accounting," Tabby said.
"Nuh-huh," Ada said. I couldn't tell if she was agreeing or not.
"Are we square with the yard?" I asked Nick as we stepped off the elevator. Hotspur was sitting to the side, taking up a good portion of the main hangar area.
"We're square and we'll get a walk-through of the fixes. Most of the damage was to the armor," he said.
"Any problems getting the armor replicated?"
"No, ironically, we paid through the nose for nano-crystalized steel," Nick said. "They bring it in from Curie."
"It'll be a long time before we'd be able to produce nano-steel," I said.
"Agreed. But at the prices we paid, we might want to push that schedule," Nick said.
"I bet Big Pete would love that conversation."
A man in a Meerkat shipyard uniform approached.
"Hotspur?" he asked.
"Roger that. Liam Hoffen," I answered, extending my hand.
"They call me Bing. Would you like to inspect the repairs?" he asked. It was mostly a formality as the repairs were electronically logged.
"Sure thing. You mind if the crew gets loaded while we take a look?" I asked.
"Suit yourself," he said.
"Count me in, Cap," Marny said.
Meerkat had a grav-lift that easily accommodated the three of us and Bing lifted us up to the first repair location. The damage had been perfectly repaired, at least to the naked eye.
"We had to replace the entire panel," he explained. "That armor is tricky to work with."
"You get many Oberrhein ships in here?" I asked.
"We'll get an occasional Oberrhein freighter, but they're always old and beat up. Since they don't trade credits, it's hard for their captains to pay," he said.
We moved to the next repair location.
"Any warships?"
"Treaty doesn't allow their fighters in our airspace, but they never had much anyway," he said.
"I was under the impression there'd been quite a war between Nuage and Oberrhein," I said.
"Sure was. Airships aren't their strength though. What they've got are great floating ships that can shell the cities from the surface," he said.
"Sounds like you might have had some experience with that," Marny said.
"It was hard times and we didn't know if we'd make it through. Hate to see us back in that mess again," he said.
"Well, you have a beautiful city and you've done a great job on our ship," I said.
"Much appreciated," he said, finally depositing us near the exterior hatch on the starboard.
"Like what you saw?" Nick asked when I passed him on the bridge.
"Can't tell there was ever a problem," I said.
"Yup. They're expensive, but if they do a good job, it's worth it," he said.
"Agreed. Tabby, you want to run us topside to the loading bay?
"Course is laid in, and all sections are reporting green," Tabby said.
"Nicely done, helm is yours," I said.
Tabby gently lifted Hotspur from the floor and glided slowly through the pressure barrier. A sharp updraft immediately caught our wings and we easily drifted up to the docking bay where we'd pick up the small load we had for Nannandry.
"Cap. Can you and Tabby handle the load?" Marny asked.
"Roger that," I said. "What's up?"
"Breakfast run," she said.
"Heck yah."
***
"Heya, sleepyhead," Tabby said, looking over her shoulder.
I hadn't heard Ada's approach from behind us and when I turned I could see she was gingerly sipping a cup of tea.
"If I didn't know better, I'd say you have a hangover," I said.
"Shhh," she said.
"Luc?" Tabby asked.
"Yeah."
"You two seem to be awfully cozy," Tabby said. "How's that going to work out with Selig?"
"Selig and I aren't that serious," Ada said.
"You're gonna break his heart," I said.
"Don't say that. I like Selig."
"Are you okay staying on board? Or we could lock up while we meet with the Ambassador if you want to come along," I said.
"Please. My head is pounding. I don't know how they drink so much wine," she said.
We'd been sailing, well, technically flying for the better part of the morning and would soon need to drop through the heavy, perpetual cloud cover.
Negotiate landing with Nannandry terminal, I instructed the ship's AI.
"There are no channels available for Nannandry," the AI replied immediately.
Identify Nannandry landing protocols.
"No protocol available."
"What do you think of that?" I asked, looking at Tabby.
"Sounds odd to me, but I'd heard they have limited tech on the surface. Something about the electrical storms," she said.
"Nick, you have any thoughts on a landing solution?" I asked.
"Yup. There's a landing strip, but the shape of it changes constantly due to the wild-growth of the plant life. I'm sending you coordinates now," Nick said. "You'll have to do a visual approach."
"Roger that. Okay everyone, let's buckle up."
I nosed the ship over and punched into the thick cloud cover. The heavy clouds looked like they should provide a lot of resistance, but we simply dropped in without any issues until the ship started bucking. To date, we'd experienced very light turbulence in the high altitude of Grünholz and what we found now was a completely different experience. Without being able to see anything through the clouds, the constant dropping and shaking was extremely concerning.
"Frak." Tabby said in response to a jagged lightning bolt that illuminated the clouds in front of us. She was having to talk loudly due to the noise generated by the uneven air rushing past the skin of the ship. "I'm not getting a good read on elevation."
"Roger that," I said.
Terms like elevation, ceiling and visibility all of a sudden jumped from being obscure to having relevance. I couldn't imagine how people flew regularly in this crap. I hated the idea of not being able to see out the window.
When we broke free of the clouds, things hardly got better. The clouds had blocked most of the light, but below them we passed right into a heavy rain and lightning storm. For a space-borne it was almost too much to bear.
"Port, twenty-five degrees," Tabby all but yelled due to the rain hammering against the hull of the ship.
"Is that hail?" I asked concerned, looking at the chunks of ice sliding down the armored glass.
"Sensors are back," Tabby said pointing at the vid-screen in front of me.
She was right. Hotspur was showing an instrument panel on the vid-screen. We'd exited the clouds at twenty-five hundred meters and were dropping at fifty meters a second. I pulled back on the stick and traded speed for elevation. I banked to the port and centered the targeting reticle on my HUD so that we were lined up with Nannandry. We'd leveled off and were flying at three hundred meters per second. It seemed too fast for the weather conditions, so I pulled back on the thrust.
"Shouldn't we see lights or something? We're only two hundred kilometers away," I said.<
br />
"Stay above five hundred meters until we get closer," Nick said. Ordinarily, I'd be able to hear him from where he was sitting, but I had to boost the volume in my earwig to catch it all.
"Why's that? I didn't think there was any civilization until we got to Nannandry."
"Some of the vines are able to reach three hundred meters during electrical storms," Nick said. "They're actually trying to get struck by the lightning, but they'd take us down just the same."
"I'd like to see that," Tabby said.
I had to agree with her and joined Nick at five hundred meters.
"You see that?" I asked.
Sheet lightning intermittently illuminated the sky around us like the Tipperary star couldn't. It wasn't until the heavy rain started to diminish that the reality of the lightning vines became evident. Giant vines reached up from the surface that boiled in response to their thrashing.
"There's one!" Tabby said as a bolt of lightning struck one several kilometers ahead. The nearby vines became agitated, as if irritated they'd been overlooked by the lightning gods.
"Liam, you need elevation," Nick said urgently.
I didn't hesitate and pulled back on the stick and jammed the thrust forward. A huge tentacle towered above us and I realized we had no chance to climb away from it. I rolled to the side and it adjusted with us, somehow recognizing that we were avoiding its destructive swing.
I heard the rapid fire thup, thup, thupping of the blaster turrets letting loose with a barrage.
"Marny, no!" Tabby said. "They're drawn to the electric discharge."
Indeed, the area flooded with hundreds of monstrous arms, seeking out the source of the blaster fire, like kittens to their mother.
Silent running, I commanded and pulled the thruster back, switching to arc-jets. The arc jet's power alone wasn't enough for us to climb quickly, but our emissions would be reduced to virtually nothing. I was taking a gamble.
We lost elevation and were soon flying just above the deck at forty meters, where the bases of the huge, seething plants were anchored. Each base was at least ten meters across and, at this elevation, had little capacity to flex. Contrary to common sense, it was considerably safer down here than up around their flailing arms.
"Nice call, Tabbs," I said.
"That was crazy," she agreed.
A tense twenty minutes later we exited the field of lightning vines and caught a glimpse of the dim lights of Nannandry. It was like no city I'd ever seen, rising up from the surface of the murky water, carved from the thick overgrowth of century old leadwood trees. Unlike the clean lines of a space station or the sprawl of the bazaars of Puskar Stellar, Nannandry was a loose collection of platforms connected by ladders or narrow paths.
"It's like they barely have power at all," Ada said.
"That's true," Nick said. "Grünholz actually repels technology. Electromagnetic waves are naturally generated by a phenomenon that's never been identified. It's like a low level electrical magnetic pulse is released every few minutes by the planet. Between the constant EM and the rain, tech just doesn't survive for more than a few years."
"Lightning vines, constant rain and no tech? Why would anyone live here?" Tabby asked.
"A constant twenty-two degrees, potable water, digestible bio-mass and an atmosphere that's a perfect match for human life," Nick said. "On paper, it's paradise."
"Yeah, except they never see the light of the star," Ada said.
"It's just a little less than most mining colonies," Nick defended.
We were close enough that I needed to look for the landing strip in earnest. I had the coordinates and needed to gain a hundred meters from our current altitude.
"Tabbs, see if you can locate the strip," I said as I flipped on Hotspur's powerful search lights.
It wasn't until we were perfectly lined up with the coordinates Nick had given us that I finally saw a narrow clearing with faded markings that heralded our destination. I waited until we were completely over the strip before I spun around and lowered us to the platform. There were no other ships, but I made sure to snug up next to the edge, leaving as much room as possible without allowing us to be blocked in. The intertwined growth of the vines and trees continued skyward, eventually rejoining above us. I wondered how long it would take without human interaction before Nannandry simply disappeared, swallowed by the verdant growth.
"When are we meeting with Ambassador Turnigy?" I asked, joining Nick and Marny on the bridge.
"We're to go over right away," Nick said. "He's been expecting us."
"Ada, are you still okay with this?" I asked.
"Copy that, Liam," she said. She appeared more alert and I suspected she'd applied a hang-over med-patch.
"I've started a security subroutine. It won't fire on anyone, but the bottom turret will track entities that approach within four meters. It's more of a visual deterrent than an actual threat, but you'd be surprised at how effective a blaster turret tracking your every move can be," Marny explained.
Ada smiled and nodded her understanding. Maybe she hadn't taken a patch after all.
We'd switched to our vac-suits enroute and I pulled on a shoulder holster, loading it up with a small flechette. I'd found that the larger flechette was uncomfortable in the shoulder holster, and I didn't like the look of a chest or hip mounted holster for a supposedly friendly meeting.
"You know where we're going?" I asked Nick doubtfully as I opened the exterior hatch on the starboard side. Rain dripped down the pressure barrier. I wasn't looking forward to stepping out into the storm.
"Yup. Just go, you big chicken," he said.
I ratcheted up my courage and stepped out into the warm rain and thick atmosphere. Immediately, my legs complained at the 1.3g and for the first time in a long time, I felt the pinch of my prosthetic foot as I climbed down the stairs to the landing strip's deck.
The first thing I noticed was that the deck wasn't flat, rather it was entirely composed of logs that had been laid next to each other and scraped flat on one side. Gaps as wide as my hand could be seen where the logs didn't perfectly line up. In some places the gaps had been filled in by debris. In others, the water simply escaped to unseen levels below.
"Smells like the Amazon," Marny said as she joined me at the bottom of the stairs. "At least we don't have to worry about swarms of autonomous, killer drones."
"They say it's always raining on Grünholz. The locals have over twenty different words to describe the different types of rain," Nick said.
"I'd go with wet," Tabby said.
My HUD projected the familiar blue contrail that directed me to the opposite side of the strip. I could just make out an opening in the vegetation. The uneven surface of the strip took some getting used to. My boots had reasonable grip for most surfaces, but the soles had a difficult time shedding the small, wet particles we picked up along the way.
Through the opening at the back of the strip, narrow stairs led down a winding path. Small trails exited from the well-traveled corridor and I caught glimpses of the shorter, thicker Nannandrites going about their business. They appeared to embrace the wet environment, wearing neither rain gear nor shoes for that matter.
We exited this main stair onto what my HUD indicated was one of the larger markets. Thatched huts, with narrow countertops formed many aisles. And unlike our descent, this area was bustling with activity. The burly locals dickered with each other as they traded their goods. I was particularly interested in the vendors who displayed varieties of the local animal population.
One particularly gnarly woman with long, stringy hair caught my eye as I looked at her display of dead reptiles. "What have you to trade, pigeon? It's all freshly killed today," she said. Her voice was surprisingly melodic, not matching her rough outer visage.
"Just looking, nothing today," I said.
"You could use some meat on those bones, boy," she said.
I nodded politely and kept moving, barely avoiding running into a small boy racing t
hrough the street.
On the other side of the market, we re-entered the dense vegetation through a much narrower path that led upward. I had a difficult time getting enough traction on the slick logs and had to take it more slowly than I would have liked. The downpour had all but stopped and in its place, a drizzle remained. If we were going to spend much time here, I'd want to learn more names for the precipitation.
Solid walls of thick plant growth rose up on either side of us, broken here and there by passageways kept open with primitively cut timbers. Each opening was the same; a short set of stairs ending in a crude doorway. It occurred to me that the only purposes the doors might serve was for privacy or security, as they appeared to allow atmosphere and moisture to freely pass. As we climbed and passed into a more affluent area of Nannandry, the doors became nicer and more refined.
Finally, my HUD indicated that we'd arrived. The path took a slight turn and a wider stairway led up to a recently hewn set of double doors. Like its neighbors, the entry wasn't sealed to the elements. In contrast to the first homes we'd passed, the doors and surrounding timbers were heavy, giving a strong sense of security.
I turned back to my companions as I mounted the stairs. I was about to ask if we should knock. To my surprise, Marny had drawn her flechette and was pushing Nick to the side and around the corner. Tabby had also drawn and was moving to take cover. I was committed to the stairs. To retreat would paint a target on my back, so I spun around and faced the doors. I ignored my pistol, since it was encumbered in my shoulder holster and drew my half meter long nano-blade.
MESS WITH A BULL
My heart sank as the scene unfolded in front of me. Petar Kiirilov stood at the center of a well-armed group of thugs. Unlike his normal crew, they were all significantly shorter and bulkier - obviously locals.
"What are you doing here?" Petar snarled, his blaster pointed at my chest.
"Lower your weapon, ass-clown," I said. "We have a meeting with Ambassador Turnigy."
"I'm afraid he isn't available," he said. I had to wonder what was keeping him from blasting a hole in my chest.
"How did you get here?" I asked. "We didn't see any other ships."
Buccaneers (Privateer Tales Book 8) Page 25