by Britt Ringel
The freighter captain now leaned casually against the kitchen island next to Brooke as he reflected upon the last twenty-four hours. The trip had nearly killed them all but his crew’s resourcefulness, tenacity and sacrifices had carried them through to Carinae.
Truesworth centered the cart with a military precision before snatching his datapad from its surface. He stepped back to inspect his work. “Well,” he mused, “it looks terrible but there’s no point in patching over the hole until we know if we have anything new to hide back there.” He spun toward Lochlain. “Is that all, Captain?”
Lochlain ran down his mental checklist. For once, finances were not at the top of his concerns. Although the major systems were restored, Zanshin would need half a week at dock to fix all that was still broken. The ship would then depart Carinae through the risk-free, Type-B instant tunnel to Iaslone. From there, they would begin the long journey to Kett and leave the Federation’s coreward sector forever. The move was necessary; Appiation and Larsson would still be searching for them. “Yeah, Jack. Thanks for staying aboard this long. I didn’t expect any trouble from Verdin’s men but it’s always smart to be prepared.”
Truesworth quickly typed a message into his datapad and offered a coy grin. “Well, then… I’m going to go connect with Elease. We’re both staying on the orbital at a hotel called The Great North. Just ping if you need us.”
Brooke’s mouth curled upward in a mischievous smile. “You two have fun connecting, Jack.”
The Brevic’s face began to color as he retreated from the mess with a spring in his gait.
“Where’s Casper?” Lochlain asked Brooke.
“He’s off the ship too. All of them need a little vacation after the week we’ve been through.” She leaned into Lochlain and snaked a hand around his waist. “We should take some time off as well after the fuel cell recharge.”
“What about Zanshin?”
“The big stuff works, for now. The navigation hardware and software have been replaced and the system rebooted just fine.” She pressed the side of her head into Lochlain’s shoulder. “I promise, Capitan, she’ll be fully operational by the end of the week.”
He wrapped an arm around the lithe woman and teased, “Good thing for you, I’d hate to be forced to demote you to Second Engineer.”
Brooke opened her mouth to offer a retort but Lochlain’s datapad chirped loudly on the island.
“Saved by the bell,” he said, slipping away from Brooke to view his screen. “Uh-oh.”
She returned quickly to his side. “Why would a representative from Tengying be calling you? We haven’t done anything with that information so far.”
After the final message from Zanshin’s former captain, the recoded holo-game had granted full access to the body of Dr. Tsai’s work. The numerous files detailed not only the joint effort between the Brevic Republic and Tengying Universal but recounted, in upsetting detail, the fate of the science colony and each man, woman and child lost. Brooke determined that these were the mysterious files that had consumed Zanshin’s storage space and a skillfully written program had prevented their accidental deletion until the game had run its course. The lock had been removed though and the information was now readily accessible, free to be transmitted or deleted.
Lochlain stared at the flashing communications request. He tentatively tapped to accept. “This is Reece Lochlain.”
A man wearing a high-collared jacket appeared on the screen. The Tengying logo was easily discernible over the left breast pocket of the immaculate suit. The man’s jet-black hair was cut short and groomed to perfection. “Captain Lochlain, my name is Bolin Peng. I am the director for Tengying-Federation expansion efforts in the Carinae system.” The man’s black eyes pierced through Lochlain as he smiled with all the emotion of an automaton. “Would you care to guess why I am contacting you?”
Lochlain’s first instinct was to lie, to profess ignorance and insist that Peng had made a mistake. Instead he uttered, “Harmleikur.”
A fire burned behind Peng’s dark eyes. “Honesty. Very good, Captain,” he praised. “I can see my decision to approach you directly is well justified.”
“How did you know?” Brooke asked from beside Lochlain.
If Peng minded the woman’s interruption, he did not show it. “I shall repay you the same courtesy of honesty, Miss Brooke. Over a week ago, one of our representatives in Ancera happened upon a burst transmission from your ship that carried fragmented logs of events that transpired over thirty years ago. These logs, although completely fabricated, would nevertheless do immense damage to the reputation of our corporation. The rumors and innuendo contained in that information would collapse Tengying’s stock prices and set back this corporation’s ambitions by decades. The shockwaves inside the boardroom alone would be legion. As such, the corporation protected its future by implementing reasonable safeguards to be triggered if tall tales of these events were discovered to exist. Prudent safeguards that laid dormant until one week ago.”
“But how did you find out?” Lochlain pressed. “We’ve only been in Carinae two days. How did the information wave beat us to this star system?”
Peng merely smiled.
“Oh my God!” Brooke exclaimed. “We carried the information ourselves!”
“Precisely,” he confirmed. “Captain, just as there are portions of standata that only military organizations can read, there are other, lesser known blocks inside the transmissions exclusively for corporate governments.”
Lochlain reeled with the deeper meaning of the revelation. “We’ll always carry that warning with us,” he lamented. “We’ll never escape it.”
“That is correct,” Peng agreed. He sat back, lessening some of his air of formality. “And we will never cease our attempts to procure this slander, or prosecute it.”
“Don’t you see, Reece? They’re the ones that sent those people after us in Ancera and that ATAC team in Vulsia!” Brooke blurted while tapping her head. “It makes perfect sense. Appiation wouldn’t have dedicated those kinds of resources to us but this…”
Peng softened his voice slightly and made his pitch. “I have come to you openly, Captain, and was rewarded with your honesty. In return, I have given you equal honesty. We are both businessmen. I am willing to offer fair market value for the information I seek.” He raised a pointed finger skyward and added, “However false it may be. This need not end in violence, Mr. Lochlain, for I am a reasonable man.” He tilted his head and cautioned darkly, “However, Tengying’s patience is not without end.”
“How much?” Lochlain asked.
“One hundred million credits, payable immediately. In return, my people will wipe your ship’s memory cores clean.” Peng’s smile seemed almost to gloat. “This ends our negotiations, Captain Lochlain. You may take it or leave it.”
Brooke turned to Lochlain. She opened her mouth to speak but faltered.
“You realize that I could release this information with the press of a button,” Lochlain stated. “One, simple key press and your collusion would be made public to everyone in this star system. You’d never be able to stop it from spreading.”
“You have yet to do that and I do not believe you will make that mistake now,” Peng countered. “I know of your past just as I know you will never turn down the windfall I offer you. There is no profit in revenge, Captain Lochlain.”
Lochlain looked to Brooke. He could read the conflict in her eyes. “I need to think about it, Mr. Peng.”
The man nodded curtly and replied, “My offer is good for twenty-four hours. After that… well, you have seen how determined Tengying is to stop these lies.”
Lochlain blanked the screen and killed the connection.
* * *
“So that’s the situation,” Lochlain explained to his crew inside Zanshin’s mess. Upon ending his conversation with Peng, he had immediately recalled his crew to discuss their options. “We can hand over the evidence of this cover-up and be handsomely paid or re
lease the information to the wild, the consequences be damned.”
Sitting next to Lingenfelter at the table, Truesworth was the first to speak. “You’re the captain. You’re also the one who originally discovered the game and the information. It’s your call.”
Lochlain stared thoughtfully at the sensorman in consideration. “Yeah,” he agreed, “and maybe not too long ago, I would’ve already made the decision. But now, I want everyone’s input.” His eyes shifted around the table. “With all we’ve been through, we’re a family and we’re doing this together.” He could not help but notice the smiles and nods at his comment. Beside him, he felt Brooke’s fingers enjoin with his own.
“One hundred million credits,” Lingenfelter choked out while staring wide-eyed at the table’s surface. “It’s a fortune. I can’t even begin to imagine how much that really is.”
“It’s almost half this ship,” Naslund said to help put the amount into perspective, “but I wouldn’t call it a fortune.” The young heir paused and then admitted, “Although it’s not an insignificant amount either.” He returned his gaze to Lochlain and summarized, “The question is, will this much money quiet our conscience. That’s assuming these events actually did happen. That Tengying rep might be telling the truth. I can’t believe any government would actually do something like that, let alone cover it up.”
“I believe it,” Truesworth spat distastefully and crossed his arms. “This kind of thing has the Republic’s stench all over it.”
“But would the Republic actually work with a corporation?” Brooke asked him skeptically. She shook her head. “I thought the Brevics considered all of us a cast of sellouts and corporate cogs.”
“Oh, we do.” Truesworth worked hard to suppress his grin. “But there isn’t a councilmember in the Republic who wouldn’t jump at the opportunity to increase the number of planets they could colonize. The Republic feels hemmed in. It’s hungry to expand.”
Brooke’s mouth opened and closed as she struggled to find the words. Finally she asked, “But how could they hide a disaster of that magnitude?” She shook her head insistently. “You can’t keep something like that a secret, even in the Republic.”
Truesworth’s mouth became a thin line. “You’d be surprised, Mercer.” Another wave of bitterness soured his voice. “Up until the very end, most Brevics thought we were winning the war against the Commonwealth.” He frowned further at the thought. “I’m only surprised that a corporation would go along with it.”
“Frankly, I am too,” Lochlain agreed. “Tengying has a sterling reputation. If word of this got out, it might destroy them. Which, I guess, is why they’ve tried to kill us all twice and now, they’re offering us a bribe that’s almost impossible to reject.”
“But why the bribe now?” Lingenfelter asked. “I mean, one hundred million credits buys a lot of attic teams, doesn’t it?”
“ATAC,” Brooke clarified. “I’ve wondered about that too but I think it’s possible Peng doesn’t have the resources on hand or connections inside Carinae to organize something like that here. We’re three dives from Tengying space and although they might be helping with the development of this system, I bet they haven’t had time to sink roots into it.” She gestured lazily around her. “This is, after all, Federation space.”
“So because he can’t just take the information, Peng is appealing to our greed to secure what he wants,” Lochlain explained. “Which brings us full circle. What are we going to do?”
Lingenfelter raised a lean arm. “Whatever you decide, Captain, just promise me that we’re going to stay together.” She smiled bashfully. “I don’t want to lose this family too.”
“I’ve grown up with big money,” Naslund said flippantly. “It’s not all it’s cracked up to be.”
Truesworth leaned back into his chair with a contented grin. “It’d be one hell of a slap in the face to the Republic.”
Lochlain looked to Brooke. “One hundred million credits,” he emphasized. “We could practically waltz to anywhere in the galaxy we wanted with that much money. All we have to do is behave, play nice and don’t make waves.”
She looked back at him. Her hazel eyes flashed even as the corner of her mouth tipped upward. “We don’t always have to play nice.”
Epilogue
Zanshin was underway with less than a third of what she could carry. One of her containers was destined for Iaslone, the other two for Vellin. The ship would lose money on the run but that hardly mattered now. In the last twenty-four hours, the freighter’s crew had worked around the clock to make her as spaceworthy as possible. Nearly all of her systems were repaired, or at least repaired enough, and although there were still action items of lesser priority, they were inconveniences rather than of the life-threatening variety.
Six hours after casting off from the Vela orbital, the ship waited patiently in the queue near the instant tunnel point to Iaslone. Lochlain watched with a gratified smile at the coordinated efforts of his bridge crew. The pair worked almost seamlessly together.
“Captain,” Truesworth announced confidently, “Tunnel Point Control has cleared us to move up. We may dive when ready.”
Lochlain stroked a key on his console’s screen. “Mercer, is Zanshin ready to dive?”
The woman’s cheerful voice returned a heartbeat later. “Ready in all respects, Capitan.”
Lochlain looked away from the console. Both Truesworth and Lingenfelter were twisted in their chairs, staring back at him with eager grins. He felt his own face tighten as he echoed their expressions. “You ready, guys?”
Enthusiastic nods answered him.
“Elease, sound the dive bell and prepare to dive,” he ordered, noting his voice had taken on a commanding air that surprised him. He raised a finger at Truesworth. “Jack, open a broadband channel, general frequency to every ship around us.” Lochlain paused for a moment, savoring the unfamiliar sensation running through him.
“Transmit and dive.”
* * *
Thank you for your readership and be sure check out my other books. Jack Truesworth appears in the original series, This Corner of the Universe.
This Corner of the Universe (Book 1)
No Way to Start a War (Book 2)
The Wrong Side of Space (Book 3)
Loyalty to the Cause (Book 4)
Last Measure of Devotion (Book 5)
The Parasite Initiative Series
Hero of the Republic (Book 1)
Across the Blue Line (Book 2)
For updates on future books, visit http://www.thiscorneroftheuniverse.com.
If you liked Confidence Game, consider leaving a review where you bought the book.