by Richard Dee
I could tell him about that, later. “And you never came to find me, to ask what had happened? What have you been doing?”
“Dolmen got me working for him, a bit of smuggling and a few other jobs, I tried to find you but nobody knew where you were. Time passed and it all lost its importance. I couldn’t just wander off and track you down. The people I had working for me, you had to act in a certain way, no sign of weakness was allowed.”
“You should come back now, Griff would like to see you, I’m sure of that.” I wasn’t so sure about Ria though.
“No thanks, it’s good to see you but I’ll stay here out of the way. I’ll try and find out what I can about Irin’s family, if I can I’ll get you a message somehow. I’m involved now because it was my decision to let you go and Malkin’s gone against it. Now, what’s this about my mother?”
“Can we talk about what you’re going to do to find my family for a while?” said Irin. “And what we’re going to do to get them back. I’m getting a little fed up with all your history.”
“Of course we can,” I said, not wishing to apologise, even though we had ignored her again while we reminisced. “Well?” I said to Rixon.
“Just finish telling me and we’ll get to them,” he replied.
I was about to tell him when there was a beeping noise from his pocket. “I have to go, I’ll be in touch,” he announced and turning, he ran quickly into the shadows.
“Rixon,” I shouted, I was about to say more when there was a blast of air and sound, I realised why he had gone.
Chapter Eighteen
There were three ships and they were full of armed, uniformed men. It was pointless running, we just sat in the ruins until they found us. We were marched out into the bright lights from their hull-mounted searchlights. Two were on the ground, one each side of Freefall. They had disgorged soldiers who pointed their automatic rifles at us. One ship hovered above, blocking a take-off.
A gap opened in the ranks and a tall, statuesque woman walked through it. She was dressed in a tailored black uniform with her grey hair half-hidden by a small cap. There was enough braid on her shoulders to mean that she was very important. Older than me, her uniform did little to hide her shape, her hair had been pulled back into a bun so severely that her eyebrows were higher up than they might have been. It made her look quizzical.
She looked at us and held out her right hand. One of the soldiers ran up to her and placed a strange-looking instrument in it.
“Let’s see who you are then,” she said as she approached us. “Keep still.”
The voice had the unmistakable tone of command and we both did as we were told while we were scanned. I wondered about Rixon and whoever had been with him, had they escaped?
She stood back and the man ran in again to take the scanner, irritably she waved him away.
“So, we have a Mr Travise and a Ms Siggursson, citizens of the Federation, here on an Independent World.” She paused… waiting. We both kept quiet.
“Nothing to say? You’ve broken several of our laws, to say nothing of yours, just by being here. We know that you were talking to Captain Rixon, a suspected criminal, which makes me question your motives.”
Another officer, although with less braid than her, approached and saluted. “Nothing, General. They have evaded us.”
Her face fell. “Thank you,” she said. “Carry on.”
She turned back to us. “Let’s begin then. Mr Travise, what were you doing here with Captain Rixon? As he’s not here I can’t ask him, but I know where he lives so I can ask him later. What’s your explanation?”
I looked at Irin. “What are you going to do with us?” she said.
The woman gave her a frosty look. “I was talking to Mr Travise here, your turn will come, your scan has pulled up a file on you which I will have to read. Let me ask again…”
“I knew Rixon a long while ago,” I said, deciding on at least partial honesty. “I had important news for him about his family.”
“Ah family,” she said, “it’s all we really have, isn’t it. Your chip, now that is interesting, there’re signs that it’s been… adjusted. My scanner goes deeper than most, there’s a layer of information that it’s detected below the surface. That suggests you are of interest. We will take both of you into custody and find out.”
“You can’t, we’re citizens of the Federation,” said Irin.
An eyebrow raised even further. “Yes, dear, but you are not IN the Federation. And I doubt that they know you are here, so they can hardly make a fuss when you don’t show up. You will be well treated; we are not savages, despite what your propaganda may tell you. If you are lucky, you will be sent back. If not, then the legal process will decide your fate.”
We were in deep trouble now; if they saw the full information on my chip I was finished. If they found out Irin’s history, she was finished. Rixon had vanished again and we were no closer to finding out about Irin’s family. In fact, just about everything had gone wrong. The only plus point was that Melva wasn’t here.
We were escorted onto Freefall by two armed soldiers; the woman called the General came with us.
A box was plugged into Myra. “What are you doing?” I asked.
“It won’t damage your computer, it just takes over control.”
Freefall lifted off and flew herself into orbit, the manoeuvre strangely silent without Myra’s chatting.
When we were in a stable orbit, the General sent the soldiers down to the lounge while the three of us stayed in the wheelhouse.
“Now that we’re alone,” she said, “off the record, what were you doing seeing Rixon.”
“He knows where my family are being held,” Irin said. The General looked puzzled
“I thought you had family information for Mr Rixon?” she replied, staring at me.
“Both of us have things to talk to Rixon about,” I told her. “Look if we’re off the record it’s a long story.”
“I’ve got plenty of time, how about you tell me yours, Miss Siggursson, you seemed eager enough to talk when we were on the ground.”
“I used to work for Rixon,” Irin admitted, “but not in the IW.”
“Go on.”
“Well I left him and he couldn’t accept that.”
“Ah,” she said, “the hostage situation, we’ve come across this before.”
“That’s right,” I said, “but he agreed to forgo revenge on Irin’s family.”
She looked surprised. “Really? That must have been a shock, what could possibly make him change his mind?”
“Because he knew me,” I said. “He told me that he would leave them alone as the favour he owed me, that we were even and the next time we met, we started fresh.”
“Brave of him, the families wouldn’t like that.”
“Then my family vanished,” Irin broke in.
The General nodded as if it was only to be expected when dealing with criminals. “And you think he changed his mind?”
“No, we’ve since found out that there was another who disagreed.”
“A falling out among thieves?”
“That’s right.”
“And this man is?”
“Malkin.”
“Thank you for your honesty, Ms Siggursson,” she said it as if Irin was only confirming what she already knew. “I’m sorry to hear your story.”
She turned to me. “How about you, Mr Travise? You said that you knew Rixon.”
“I worked with him, a long time ago, for fifteen years I thought he was dead. I was good friends with his sister.”
“Would that be Myra, on the Orca?” she asked. “You see I’m well informed, and I know all about that story. I’m sorry about the Chenko’s and what happened. I seem to be saying sorry a lot to you, it’s not my style. The Chenko family were a part of the whole thing that you’re up against now, we have a lot of criminals in the IW that only operate in the Federation. We have no reason to hold them here, they have powerful friends. For t
hat, and our government’s hostility to yours, nothing is done about them.”
Somehow I felt that I had to tell her the rest. “Before Myra died, she had a child, our child. I only found about that recently, it was kept from me. I went to see her, and Rixon’s mother. Naturally, she was surprised to find that her son was still alive. That was why I’m here. You have to understand that the two things are coincidental.”
“You both stay here, I need to think for a few moments,” she said. She got up and left the wheelhouse. I could see a tear in the corner of her eye.
“Should we have told her all that?” wondered Irin.
“I don’t see why not, she could have got it out of us anyway, my chip is what’s bothering me. She was right, it’s been altered.” Her face showed shock.
“My real name has been erased. She said that their scanner does more than a normal one.” She nodded. “It must have read everything on the chip.”
“You mean you’re not Dave Travise?”
“No, it’s a long story and I’ll tell you one day if we get out of this. Don’t worry, I’m not a mass murderer or anything that bad.”
She gave me a hug. “I would have known if you were,” she said, “not that it would have mattered.”
Ten tense minutes later, the General came back. “I’ve been sitting in your lounge, thinking about a lot of things,” she said. “I have a way to keep everyone happy.”
Did that mean she was going to let us go? I kept quiet and so did Irin, perhaps she was learning.
“If you found Malkin, what would you do?”
“Get my family, and Costa, the Villiars manager they were with, to safety,” said Irin without hesitation.
“And would you be prepared to kill to do it? Don’t worry it’s not a trick, I can’t arrest everyone who says they’d do something bad.”
“If it meant saving them, yes,” said Irin.
She nodded. “Very well. I have a problem with people like Malkin. I know they break no laws here, as I said, they have powerful friends. They use the IW to hide from their actions and I don’t like that. It fosters the enmity between the IW and the Federation. We are seen in the wrong light. I don’t like the way things are. You can help me start to change them.”
This wasn’t what I had been expecting. “How?”
“If I let you go, and you get back in touch with Rixon or Dolmen, you might be able to find out where Malkin is. I could follow you and arrest him for kidnapping. If I can get him and get him talking, it could bring the whole crime thing down.”
“What’s in it for me? I’ve promised Rixon’s mother that I’ll get him to her.”
“Your loyalty is impressive,” she said. “Is it worth more than your freedom?”
It struck me what she was offering in return for my freedom. “You want me to be a spy for the IW?”
Didn’t I have enough on my plate, with the imminent release of the truth about the Khayan, a new daughter and everything else that was going on? However, the alternative was probably worse. Assuming I was released back to the Federation, I would be on their radar when I’d rather be hidden. Melva would lose me when she had only just found me. Not only that, my refusal wouldn’t help Irin, she would be affected by my decision too.
She smiled. “Not a spy. I don’t intend to blackmail you into working against your government; I just need your help to remove a problem in my world.”
“So we’d be working for you but Rixon or anyone else wouldn’t know.”
“It could be our secret.”
“And the alternative?” Irin just had to ask.
“The wheels of justice grind very slowly here,” she said, “especially if we let them. It could be a while until you’re released, we would have to impound your ship. After a long trial, we’d send you back into Federation custody on an official freighter.”
Not much choice there. I couldn’t give up the last vestige I had of Myra. “If you let us go, won’t you have to justify it to someone?”
“Rank has its privileges. I’m the General; in charge of security for the IW and I can do as I see fit.”
It didn’t really take much consideration; we could do with all the help we could get to find Irin’s family.
“Very well, we’ll do it,” I spoke for Irin before she had any chance to argue. After all the delay, she should be pleased that her needs were being addressed.
“Thank you,” Irin said.
“It’s my pleasure,” she said with a smile. “If we can help each other, so much the better; when I leave, I will try and find out what I can about Malkin and your family. Now we can land, you can let me off. I’ll have to leave a tracker on your ship. Don’t worry, the Federation and you will never find it. You can get rid of the beacon by your airlock.”
She used the box she had installed to land us by her ships. “I’ll be in touch,” she said as they all left us in peace.
Chapter Nineteen
“Are you OK, Myra?”
“What happened? There’s a gap in my memory. I remember landing here, and I remember you leaving and then coming back on board. I think that there was someone else with you but it’s all a bit hazy. Then there appears to be a blank for over two hours. I can see from the engine log that we’ve flown somewhere but we seem to be very close to where we started off.”
“Never mind, Myra. Can you take off now and get us back to New Devon?”
“I believe that I can, Dave,” she said and I felt the rumble as the ramp closed. We lifted off, her voice was silent.
We left and began the journey back to New Devon. We had done what we could for Sanja and Nuri – if Rixon and the General were telling us the truth!
Our course back to the Federation was the shortest route to the border, then once we were in our own space we could head for New Devon. As soon as we were clear of the planet I removed the beacon again. This time I just left it floating in space as we accelerated away from Greenfield.
We were just approaching the border when Myra called me to the bridge.
“I’ve received a request to stop from an official border patrol,” she said, “the same code as when we arrived the first time.”
Even though we now knew that there was no such thing, I was intrigued. Was it the General with more instructions? “OK, Myra, you’d better stop.”
We watched as the craft came alongside and docked. It wasn’t the same configuration as the one that had stopped us last time; this one was multicoloured instead of black. It looked more like a pleasure craft than the IW secret police but maybe it was undercover. It was too late to do much about it, it was alongside. The airlock pressurised with a hiss. We went down.
Their door opened and through the viewer, I could see that it was Rixon. He waved.
I opened our side and he walked on board, as cool as you like.
“Hi Dave, Irin,” he said. “It’s been a while since I was on here.” We walked up to the wheelhouse; he saw the dent and never commented.
“Where do you keep finding all these Rixon’s?” asked Myra. Rixon stopped short; you could tell he hadn’t expected that.
“You’ve got a Nancy,” he said. I remembered the computer on the Orca, she had helped me with so much when I had joined. “Hello, Myra,” he added. “How're things?”
“You’re not the border patrol are you?” she asked. “The identity said border patrol.” He laughed.
“No, Myra, I’m not the border patrol. Didn’t Griff tell you, there’s no such thing? We tracked you, figured you’d come back the shortest way, I guess the General saw you?”
“Yes, she did, after you ran off.”
“I couldn’t let her get her hands on me, or my crew. So now you know all about Malkin from her as well. I bet she asked you to track him down for her.”
“She did, how did you know?” So much for our little secret.
“I spoke to Dolmen. It’s logical, the General tolerates us, up to a point. Malkin has crossed the line, been stupid and arrogant. Dolmen think
s it would be a good idea to get the General on our side; the boy has got ideas above his station and needs taking down. We can’t do it, there would be a war between the families if we tried. You could innocently lead the forces of law and order to him. Especially if you found him while you were looking for the Villiars manager. The General never told you but the IW government knows all about the kidnap. They’re desperate not to involve a major Federation company in its own problems. Malkin’s sure to do something stupid, he’s over-confident, you’ll solve the problem for us.”
It all made sense. “What are you doing here, is it just because you couldn’t finish telling us that on Greenfield?”
“No, I want to know your big news. You said that it involves my mother and I should really go and see her. I need to make my peace with Ria as well, and I’d love to see Griff again.”
“So you want to come with us?”
“If that’s alright with you? Angie and the boys will go back to Kendye, that’s where I’ve been hiding out. It’s a neutral planet, in the buffer zone, near Qister.”
I’d heard of Kendye, one of the planets that were neither IW nor Federation, they formed a loose Alliance and provided entertainment and legal services like arbitration, to anyone who could pay. All the vices that were disapproved of in both systems were available, as well as a neutral place to resolve disputes. It all helped keep the peace.
“Sure,” I said. “What do you reckon, Irin?”
“If you can promise me that you had nothing at all to do with Malkin, and you’ll help me get my family back, then I guess so.”
“I’ve already told you,” he said, “their capture had nothing to do with me or Dolmen. Malkin is using them to make a point and a play for power. I want him stopped.”
“Fair enough,” she said, “then you’re welcome on here.”
Rixon called his ship, a woman’s voice answered. “Are you stopping?” she asked.
“Yes, Angie,” he replied. “I’ll be in touch, get back to Kendye and wait for me.” The ship detached and flew away.