Virtual

by S A Pavli

  “May I introduce my chief engineer, Josephine Baross and my Systems Specialist, Andreas Baross.”

  “It’s a pleasure,” said Carstairs. “Are you related?”

  “Yes, we are husband and wife,” said Andy impassively.

  “How interesting,” said Carstairs politely. He stood to one side and invited them in with a gesture of one hand.

  “The other members of the expedition are here,” he said. “Let’s join them and over lunch we can discuss the details of the expedition.” As they followed him, he turned to Mark.

  “Did you manage to see some of our beautiful city?” he asked. Mark nodded.

  “We had a guided tour this morning with one of your Tour Taxis. Complete with very informative robot driver,” replied Mark.

  “Ah, we are very proud of our robot drivers,” said Carstairs. “Developed here in New Athens you know. Advanced AI. We are developing many other applications for that kind of technology.”

  “It was certainly very eager and well informed,” said Mark, deciding tact would be better than criticism at this point. He wondered how many other applications there would be for eager talkative robots and flinched at the thought. He tried to size up Carstairs as he followed the man through. Average height and build, if a little portly, with innocuous features, created a bland first impression. But the intense blue eyes were shrewd and the laughter lines around the mouth hinted at a lighter side. He had the instant ability to put you at ease thought Mark. All the more reason to be cautious whispered a cynical voice from his subconscious.

  He followed Carstairs through a door into a large room set out as a dining room. A number of individuals were standing around a table holding drinks and all heads turned in their direction as they walked in.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, Captain Mark Alexander, Chief Engineer Josephine Baross and Systems Specialist Andreas Baross,” announced Carstairs, like an old fashioned master of ceremonies.

  “I believe your father was joint owner of Trans Space Shipping?” asked Carstairs. “The Bounty Hunter was one of his ships?” It was more of a statement than a question.

  “It was,” said Mark, his face impassive. He wondered how much Carstairs knew about the circumstances behind the collapse of the company. Probably everything he decided. The Bounty Hunter was the only ship that remained, all the others had been sold off by the Receiver. Carstairs nodded, and to Mark’s relief, changed the subject.

  “Let me offer you a drink. It is Adelphi’s best champagne.” He indicated the chilled flagon of Champagne and Mark nodded his thanks. Carstairs turned politely to Andy and Jo who smiled their acceptance. As the waiter served their champagne, Carstairs began the introductions. When he came to Melanie, he paused a second.

  “Doctor Carstairs will be the head of the scientific team. Um… there is no coincidence with the name, Melanie is my daughter.” Mark nodded politely at the dark haired young woman, before being transfixed by almond eyes and ruby lips. He tore his eyes away as Carstairs moved on to the two military men.

  “Major Follet and Private Petrov are responsible for managing on planet activities and ensuring the protection of the scientific team. On board your ship, you as Captain are in charge of course.”

  “Of course,” said Mark. “As indeed are my officers, in my absence,” he added, looking around quickly to ensure his comment had been understood. There was a general nodding of heads.

  “No need to worry Captain,” said the Major, stepping forward with a broad grin to shake Mark’s hand. “Myself and Jimmy are trained in starship procedures. We are pretty handy in a spacesuit so if we can be of assistance, please ask.”

  “Except cleaning the hull,” said the young Petrov as he stepped forward to shake hands.

  “Don’t worry. We have something called the External Examination Robot. He is a very industrious fellow, very good at polishing hulls and other tedious tasks,” said Mark.

  “Could have done with him in the Thirty First,” said Petrov.

  “How long were you gentlemen in the military?” asked Mark.

  “I was in for twenty five years. Career officer. Young Jimmy did three years and got a discharge. Banged up his knee badly in an accident,” said the Major.

  “Yeah, got the latest bionic knee,” said Jimmy, thumping his right knee.

  “I’m surprised they discharged him,” said Mark. “His artificial knee is probably better than the original.”

  “You bet!” agreed Jimmy.

  “They offered him the option and he took it,” said the Major. “Or actually, I made him an offer he could not refuse.” Mark gave him an enquiring look and the Major went on. “There is a great deal of private work available for trained military astronauts. It pays very well, and is generally much more interesting than the military.”

  “Baby sitting tourists and sightseers around the galaxy,” said Mark.

  “Tough work but someone has to do it,” agreed the Major with a grin. Mark chuckled.

  “Good,” he said. “Me and my crew have our work cut out running the ship. We’ll rely on you to look after the passengers and keep them out of harms way.”

  “You can count on us Captain,” said the Major looking pleased.

  “What sort of harm can you come to on a starship Captain?” asked Leslie, looking archly at the young Captain. He returned her look and tried not to examine her too obviously.

  “There are many areas that would be out of bounds to the passengers,” he began. “And of course passengers need to be trained to handle emergencies.”

  “Emergencies?” Leslie looked alarmed.

  “Just a precaution,” said Mark. “It’s like flying in a commercial airline. We have to go through the rigmarole.”

  “If anything goes wrong with a starship you can hardly walk home,” said Leslie.

  "Starships constantly transmit their co-ordinates back to their origin,” chipped in the Major. “If the transmission ceases, a rescue ship will be automatically sent by the military after a fixed period.”

  “Very reassuring.” This was from the physicist, LeBlanc. “The boys in blue will arrive to fight off the flesh eating aliens. Two weeks later!” He was a small slim individual with a ruddy complexion and twinkling blue eyes.

  There were chuckles around the table and the Major snorted derisively.

  “Flesh eating aliens? Flesh eating bacteria is about the worst thing we ever found. On the planet Aurora. After they eat your flesh, they die of indigestion. A fairly unsatisfactory arrangement all round really, so… we had to exterminate them.”

  “Humans one, flesh eating bacteria, nil!” said LeBlanc amiably.

  Chapter 4

  Mark awoke to the pleasure of a silent hotel room. A starship is full of noises; air conditioning, electronics and the hum of the Warp Drive all merge into a background noise that becomes part of the subconscious. The hotel room was uncannily quiet and he lay in the bed and savoured the peace. He pondered on the events of the previous evening; Over dinner, Carstairs had explained the mission in detail. Their destination was a type G sun three thousand seven hundred light years from Adelphi. It was one hundred light years from the nearest explored star, and was believed to have a normal retinue of planet.

  The announcement that the sector was being opened for exploration had not been made yet. It was scheduled for the next few days, by which time they would be well away from prying eyes and awkward questions. The journey would take twenty days at maximum warp, a long trip for the Bounty Hunter.

  His thoughts turned to his passengers. Carstairs would not be coming of course. Far too old to go gallivanting around the galaxy he had said, as if he was expecting to walk there and back. But his daughter, the taciturn Melanie Sophia, would be in charge of the team. She had said very little throughout the evening, and Mark’s curiosity was roused. Beautiful, and clearly a women with intellect. But, when it came to women passengers, the ethos was that crew never mixed business with pleasure. The problem had never arisen yet; the B
ounty Hunter being predominantly a freighter. The only passengers he had transported to date had been ‘hairy arsed’ engineers nursing their cargo. A temptations easily resisted!

  Of the others, the two scientists were an amiable pair, a sort of comedy double act. LeBlanc was full of witticisms, while the gangling totally bald Walters specialised in dry one liners. Their easy going humour disguised two brilliant minds who were the best in their field. Major Pete appeared to know his stuff, as did his young sidekick. Carstairs seemed to have both the nous and the clout to get the best.

  So why has he chosen me and the Bounty Hunter Mark asked himself. He was sure that Carstairs must have his pick of vessels just as good as the Bounty Hunter, here on Adelphi. Perhaps picking an off planet ship would preserve the secrecy he thought. He put off the analysing for the moment and decided it was time to move. The passengers would be on board this evening, and there was cargo to be organised and loaded. In addition to supplies, clothing and equipment, there were two rugged AG surface vehicles which were to be used on planet by the exploration team.

  First, a long shower and some breakfast he mused, as he swung his legs out of the bed. The communicator on the bedside table buzzed and then displayed the ruddy face of Carstairs.

  “Good morning Captain, how would you like to join me for breakfast in an hour? There are a few things I would like to discuss; just the two of us.” Mark thumbed the comms button to audio only.

  “Good morning mister Carstairs. An hour would be fine,” he replied.

  “See you then Captain,” replied Carstairs and the comms screen blanked out. Mark wondered what Carstairs would want to discuss as he rummaged in his bag to find the anti-hangover pills. Probably just to obsess about details he decided.

  An hour later, feeling refreshed and even hungry, he was admitted into Carstairs palatial apartment by a white coated waiter. Carstairs greeted him and waved at the table set up with a display of food.

  “Should find something there you fancy Captain. Tea or coffee? We have the real thing here you know. Grows beautifully on the Southern continent.”

  “Yes I sampled the coffee yesterday evening,” said Mark. “There is enough food here to feed half a dozen people.”

  “In the interests of variety,” said Carstairs. “Oh, my daughter will be joining us later Captain. Now, let’s get stuck in to the buffet and the boys will serve us coffee.”

  Carstairs allowed a few minutes of eating before he began to speak again. Mark had made good headway with a pile of toast and a selection of eggs and bacon with all the trimmings.

  “Couldn’t’t get a better breakfast on Earth,” said Mark approvingly.

  “Everything from Earth grows like wildfire here,” said Carstairs proudly. “Adelphi is the closest of all the colonies to Earth.”

  “Not too much like Earth I hope?” Mark remark was pointed and Carstairs understood the reference..

  “Hah! If you lived here you would not ask that,” smiled Carstairs. “We have half a billion people in a planet the size of Earth with the same land mass. We are a frontier people Mark. Don’t think that what you see here in New Athens is representative.”

  “Perhaps I can stay and see more when we return” said Mark.

  “You will love it” said a female voice, and Mark turned to see Melanie walking towards them She smiled at the waiter, paused to give her father, a warm kiss on the cheek, and walked around the table to place a slender hand in Marks. He stood quickly and shook her hand with a smile.

  “It has given me a very good impression so far,” he agreed, looking at her approvingly. She wore the latest fashion in high necked silky blouse, in a shade of golden brown not dissimilar to her eyes, and tightly clinging slacks with a similar motif in the thread. Her unruly auburn mop framed those startling eyes and full red lips. Hips swaying she walked around the table and sat opposite Mark, leaning back to allow the waiter to pour her coffee. Not bad, thought Mark, and then suppressed the thought quickly. Professionalism, said a strict voice inside him; a voice which sounded very much like his fathers.

  They made small talk for a few minutes and then Carstairs lent back in his seat and looked thoughtfully at Mark.

  “Now, to business,” he said. Mark remained impassive under his examination.

  “I knew your father,” he said at last. Mark started in surprise, his coffee cup frozen half way to his mouth.

  “How…?” he began. Carstairs held up a hand .

  “Sorry to startle you. Twenty years ago, your father and I did some business. Quite a bit of business actually. Over a period of ten years, up to just before he died, I got to know him well.”

  “Well, it’s a small universe,” said Mark. Carstairs grunted.

  “No, it’s a very large Universe, but human affairs are still quite parochial by comparison. Your father’s company was well known amongst all the inhabited planets. His was the third largest merchant fleet in the Federation. And your father was hugely respected as a good professional.”

  “It did not stop him getting shafted,” said Mark bitterly.

  “It was a bad business. What happened to his partner? What was his name… Galston… Robert Galston?”

  “That’s him. He died in prison on Earth last year. Ironically of a heart attack at the age of fifty nine.”

  “He deserved worse,” muttered Carstairs. Mark shook his head questioningly.

  “Why would you care so much?” he asked.

  “I lost money over the collapse of the company,” said Carstairs. “Put me back a bit, but it was not disastrous.”

  “How so?” asked Mark.

  “We had paid in advance to get a shipment of hi-tech machinery from Earth and we never recovered the money. We had to pay again to have the cargo delivered by another company.” Carstairs lent back and looked thoughtful.

  “There is something I wanted to ask you,” he went on. “Did they ever find out what happened to the billions that Galston stole?”

  “He invested it in speculative ventures. Most of which were criminal, and most of which failed. He was an inveterate gambler in every sense of the word,” said Mark. Carstairs nodded.

  “How did your father die?” he asked quietly.

  “It was just a bizarre accident,” said Mark. “After the company collapsed, everything was sold off to pay the creditors and Galston was arrested. What was left was the Bounty Hunter and one of the company’s offices on Earth. Dad sold the office to fund a new company and captained the Bounty Hunter himself. He was going to start again and rebuild the company. So he said. On a trip to Atlantis there was an accident during an orbital transfer. An airlock was faulty and opened into Space. The transfer vehicle was de-pressurised and five people died. Dad was one of them.”

  “I am sorry Mark,” said Carstairs soberly.

  “It was five years ago,” said Mark. “Dad left me the Bounty Hunter in his will.” Melanie lent forward and looked questioningly at Mark

  “Why didn’t you work with your father?” she asked.

  “He wanted me to join the company eventually. I graduated and was offered a job by Federated Inter-planetary. They were the biggest by far and Dad said the experience would be good for me. I got my Captaincy a year before Dad was killed.”

  “The youngest Captain in the fleet,” said Carstairs. His daughter looked surprised.

  “How do you know that?” she asked.

  “It’s on the Captain’s personal profile.”

  “That’s restricted information surely,” she said with a frown.

  “No darling. This kind of professional information is available on all senior officers of the MSN,” replied her father. “It’s called the Merchant Fleet Professional Personnel Register.”

  “It’s one of the basic conditions of the job,” explained Mark. “It guarantees clients and prospective employers independent information. You can’t hide behind CV bullshit in Space.” Melanie looked at Mark with new respect in her eyes.

  “The youngest Captain of
the fleet,” she mused. “And I thought…,” she stopped suddenly, an embarrassed expression fleetingly crossing her face. That I was a shady bandit, thought Mark, completing her sentence. Well, you can climb down off your pedestal Doctor Carstairs. We have to take what work we can get, and some of it is fairly speculative, but so far nothing which was outright illegal. She recovered herself quickly and continued. “So the Bounty Hunter is all yours?”

  “Mine and the First Interplanetary Bank,” he said with a small smile. “But a couple more trips and it will be all mine.”

  “If we strike it lucky, it will be yours that much earlier,” said Carstairs. He took a sheet of paper from the sideboard and handed it to Mark. After reading it, Mark turned to Carstairs.

  “This is very generous Mister Carstairs,” he said. Melanie looked enquiringly at her father.

  “Just a small bonus,” he said airily. “If we strike it lucky, the whole team will be well rewarded.” Melanie continued to look puzzled and he explained further.

  “Mark will have very preferential trade agreements with the new planet. The other members of the team will be similarly rewarded,” said Carstairs. “Of course,” he continued. “It’s possible we will find nothing; A couple of gas giants… a couple of rocky planets, not worth any investment. In which case, you all get your wages, and Carstairs Enterprises is out of pocket a few hundred thousand credits.”

  Mark nodded his approval.

  “Thanks again.”

  “Now then my darling.” Carstairs turned to his daughter. “I have not had a chance to talk to you about this venture. How do you feel about it?”

  “How do I feel? It is very interesting,” she went on with a small and enigmatic smile.

  “Shall I take that as a yes?” asked Carstairs.

  “Try and stop me!” she said, and the smile broadened dramatically. Mark was not sure but he suddenly had the impression that someone had turned the lights in the room to maximum. He found himself blinking and returning her smile bemusedly. Carstairs nodded his approval.