The Salvagers

by John Michael Godier

  "He's getting close, Mayor," I interrupted.

  "Fire!"

  Neptune’s Revenge recoiled as though it had hit an asteroid. Finley's ship disintegrated into a cloud of torn metal, bits of which I heard hit our hull.

  "What the hell was that?" I asked in astonishment.

  "A cannon," the Mayor replied quietly.

  "A cannon? But there's only been one instance where someone mounted a. . . . My God, Mayor Stunt. You and Sister Mary Joanna are the pirates?"

  She squealed and said, "Arrrgh!"

  "Oh, I wish you hadn't said that," Stunt said to her. "Bad Sister Mary Joanna!"

  She sipped her cola, staring at him indifferently.

  "I was just about to lie and say no. Yes, I am the pirate. Those rubes on Europa are the gift that keeps on giving, and now I'm going to grift them as their spiritual leader. But since you know, I'll have to kill you."

  "There's no reason to resort to that," I said.

  "I'd hoped I wouldn't have to. I wasn't even going to rob you of your scrap metal. I don't see how it would have been worth more than what you were paying me, unless you found the Cape Hatteras or something. But now I have to take it, seeing as how you can't imprint your thumb on a hypercheck when you're dead."

  He pulled a particle pistol from his overcoat and pointed it at me. "I'll let you live long enough to watch us kill your traitors. It's the least I can do. I'm sorry, I really am. I hate unpleasantness. After the other ship, Sister."

  We were on Keating faster than he could begin evasive maneuvers. A brief laser barrage cut the power lines to his engines and reduced his thrust to a weak sputter. As we moved alongside, the Mayor pressed an intercom button, ordering his crew to board the ship.

  But they weren't men. It was a swarm of armed drones that cut through the Hyperion's hull in only a few minutes. I was impressed. It had taken us a full day to cut through the Cape Hatteras, yet these hovering robots were through Keating's hull in no time, with an airtight corridor ring mounted. Fifteen minutes later they radioed that the crew had given up without a shot and were jailed in a bathroom with the door welded shut. They'd never seen the face of the pirate who was robbing them.

  "Alright, Mr. Hunter, now to deal with you," Stunt said with his gun still drawn. "I really am sorr. . . ."

  I heard a zap and cringed, thinking it was all over for me. I opened my eyes to see Stunt's body floating in front of me. He had been shot by none other than Sister Mary Joanna.

  "I've ordered the drones to stand down. The ship is ours, Mr. Hunter."

  I had no idea what to say.

  "Mary Joanna Johnson, UNAG Intelligence," she said.

  It was the first time I'd heard her speak, but I recognized the voice instantly. It was the sexy one from the spy note.

  Chapter 17 Day 248

  "December 21, 2259. 1100 hours. Log of Captain John Andrew Nelson, Commanding Officer, UNAG Mining Vessel Cape Hatteras. Crewman Galon and Fitz have been collecting samples as they descend into the cavern system. They report a host of carbon-based minerals containing amino acids, the building blocks of life."

  "You're the agent who was watching out for me?" I asked.

  "That's me!" She let out a little giggle, but now it rang hollow.

  "It's so hard to believe. If I had to make a guess regarding you and the Mayor, I'd have said he was the agent. You always seemed to be, well, just there."

  "That's why I'm such a good spy," she said.

  "How long have you been watching him?"

  "I joined him shortly after his raid on the Europa colony. Play the bimbo, slay the crook."

  "So the UNAG knew that he was the pirate?"

  "Yes, but it wasn't our place to interfere with Europa's internal business unless they wanted help. They never asked for it. And losing that crop was in Earth's interest."

  "In Earth's interest? How? Stopping the drug trade?"

  "Yes. The Europan traders are very good at distributing their garbage on Earth. We haven't had much luck with catching them in the act. The Mayor was bolder, and it paid off for him, but his distributors were sloppy amateurs. He watched them all go down one after another. He'd taken some precautions. None of them knew precisely who he was, but it made him paranoid, and he automated this ship."

  "Automated?"

  "Yes, Mr. Hunter. There is no crew at all. It was just the Mayor and I plus the robots. If you go down below, all you'll see is computers and drones. When he raided Europa, this was just a fueling hulk with a crew of three and a big cannon mounted on it. Now it's a warship as good as anything we've got in the UNAG fleet. One of the reasons we helped you was to take it out of commission. I needed a way back on board, and you provided that."

  "What happened to the original crew?"

  She drew her finger across her neck.

  "He killed them?"

  "We think he ejected them into space. I wasn't with him when he did it, but he talks in his sleep."

  "Why didn't you just arrest the Mayor early on?"

  "We'd have gotten him if he hadn't tricked the Europans into electing him. The UNAG considered that a bonus. Europa under a bad administration meant only bad things for Europa's economy, so we didn't interfere. But the new crop is set to be distributed in a few weeks, and we intend to stop them. Picking up the Mayor was the first step. The moment he left that moon, he was in our territory."

  "You mean space."

  "Yes, colonies may do as they please internally, but space is ours."

  "What about the other unions?"

  "We all agree on one thing, Mr. Hunter: space is ours."

  "Call me Cam. No reason to be formal. You just saved my ass."

  "Alright, Cam, and you're welcome."

  "Well, where to next? Will we be going back to the Cape Hatteras as planned?"

  "Yep! Don't worry. We'll tow that salvor with us. Your gold is safe. The Neptune's Revenge is a powerful vessel. We could pull two or three ships."

  "Why didn't Stunt tell me the ship was automated?"

  "I'm sure he would have told you that there were 40 people on board so he could charge you wages for them. But it's just us now, and I have full control of the drones."

  "How did you gain the Mayor's confidence so easily?"

  "By playing dumb, loyal, and sexy."

  I didn't want to pursue that conversation to its natural end. I was content just to be in a better position than I had been a few days before. One thing still worried me, however. I couldn't guarantee that the UNAG would relinquish my gold when the time came. It was originally theirs. Moreover, they could prove that they had never actually abandoned it. That undermined my claim. But if they did pursue it in court, it would be a very public affair. I doubted that they wanted the publicity.

  I contacted Ed Iron from the Neptune's Revenge. He assured me that the UNAG was in his pocket, but there was still the matter of just what they did want with the Cape Hatteras. Two days of access is one thing, but I could see that turning into a week and then finally a confiscation. I pressed Mary Joanna on the issue. She said that it was classified information. She didn't have the whole answer, and if she did she couldn't tell me about it, but she did say that the person who knew the most was on one of the warships with which we were set to rendezvous at the location of the Cape Hatteras. I couldn't wait to meet him.

  I went over to the Hyperion to talk to Keating. He and his loyal thieves were not in nice quarters. The drones had imprisoned four men in a single bathroom and welded the door shut.

  "Captain Hunter, you've got to improve our conditions," said Keating.

  "Why would I do that?" I responded, speaking through a small hole cut in the door.

  "It's what they're feeding us. They're taking perfectly good food and converting it into a more efficient form. When we get it, it's just a paste."

  "I'm sure it's perfectly nutritious. It's probably had all the fat removed and vitamins added, and I'm sure you're getting plenty of fiber."

  "It’s tasteless.
We'll go insane cooped up in here."

  "Well, I do have some candy treats."

  "What do you want for them?" he said, seemingly willing to do anything I might ask.

  "Well, you know, you deserve what you've got. You did maroon most of my personnel on a derelict, but I will trade you for some information. Whom else did Pace tell about the Cape Hatteras?"

  I was worried that Pace might have reinforcements on the way and that the task of keeping the Cape Hatteras secret was spiraling toward futility by the day.

  "He didn’t tell anyone," declared Keating. "We were to keep strict radio silence. Pace wanted it kept a secret as much as you did. He didn't want the Europa pirates or the UNAG government to know. I don't think he expected you to cut a deal with the pirates. Who was it?"

  "How do you know I wasn't the pirate all along?" I said, giving him the candy and returning to the Neptune's Revenge and ignoring his pleas for better accommodations.

  I spent most of the rest of journey exploring Neptune's Revenge and chatting with Mary Joanna.

  "Care for some of Europa's best?" I asked her.

  "Best what? Not that hideous weed they're all dependent on."

  "No, this is better. Sausage's famous moonshine."

  I had brought two bottles with me. I thought they might come in handy, and UNAG was good enough not to confiscate them when they moved my luggage to the Amaranth Sun.

  "That I can handle. I'm so tired of hot water and cola."

  I poured a couple of shots. I had a motive in trying to get Mary Joanna drunk: I wanted more information. I didn't really care if it pertained to my salvage or not. I just wanted any classified stuff I could get out of a spy.

  "I know things that certain people would kill to know," she said with a slur as I broached the question of secrets after the fifth serving.

  "Tell me one."

  "I can't."

  "Why not? I won't tell anyone."

  "I trust you, Cam," Mary Joanna said, "but I can't tell you. I have an implant that will knock me out cold the moment I say anything that it doesn't like."

  "Does that mean you can't lie either?"

  "Oh, I can. I'm trained to lie my way past any detector. That's easy, but it's a lot harder to train someone to hold her heart rate down when she reveals a secret. UNAG Intelligence only accepts agents who can't do it."

  "Was that a secret?"

  "What?"

  "The initiation rituals of UNAG Intelligence?"

  "I don't know. Now that you mention it, it might be."

  She promptly passed out. The UNAG’s implant worked, but not quite the way they intended. She was out for at least eight hours. I had no idea what part of that sleep was the alcohol and what part was the effects of the implant, but she didn't move once the entire time. Mary Joanna just floated around the bridge like a helium balloon. I finally had to secure her to a wall with a strap when she drifted in my direction and planted her boot against my neck. When she came to, she had only a vague memory of the last few minutes of our conversation.

  "Your implant made you pass out!" I said.

  "Hard to get information from someone that passes out the moment you start torturing them," she said.

  "I wasn't torturing!"

  "I meant hypothetically."

  "Well, if I ever need to know if there's a spy in the room, all I have to do is ask everyone if they're UNAG agents. Whether they lie or not, the one that goes down . . . "

  "It doesn't work quite that way, Cam”

  "I'll bet it does," I said, intending to try it some day.

  We were faster than the Amaranth Sun, so we caught up with them a few hours before both ships arrived at the Cape Hatteras. The scientists were happy to be liberated. They had been marooned for only a week, but judging by their reactions it might have been years.

  "Cam, we're so glad to see you," Janet exclaimed.

  "You can thank me later, darling. It's all part of a day's work for a hero."

  "Hero? We've been cursing you for running away when we needed help," said my ex-wife.

  "He was going to ram and kill us!"

  "Don't make excuses for cowardice, where's that adventurous spirit and go get 'em attitude?"

  "No wonder I divorced you."

  "You didn't divorce me. It was the other way around. And we never finalized it. We need to do that as soon as we get back to Earth."

  She hugged me. I hadn't expected that.

  "Just glad to have you back," Janet said. "We've got to talk privately."

  "Alright, let's go to the bridge and. . . ."

  "Not on this ship, Cam. On that thing you arrived in. I've never seen a ship like that before."

  "It's the pirate ship with the big cannon that robbed Europa."

  "What? You hired pirates? That kind of idiocy coming from you isn't surprising. But how did . . . ? Tell me later. You've got to order the evacuation of this ship immediately."

  "Why? What's wrong?"

  "Just get these people off the Cape Hatteras."

  I ordered the third officer of the Hyperion, the most senior officer who hadn't been aware of the plot, to start the process. I also ordered a drone to remove the remaining bars of gold from the derelict. It did in minutes what had taken us days. Janet and I then suited up for the journey to Neptune's Revenge.

  "Let me get this straight," she said. "You captured the pirate ship, yet you couldn't defeat a pair of unarmed salvors."

  "There's a big difference between shooting a pirate captain aboard his own ship and trying to escape a salvor that's trying to ram you."

  "Wait, you shot the pirate captain?"

  "Well, I didn't. Sister Mary Joanna did."

  "A nun shot the pirate captain?"

  "She's definitely not a nun. She's a UNAG spy."

  I thought I deserved to pass out when I outed her. After exchanging waves and giggles, Mary Joanna left us alone on the bridge, though I'm virtually certain she had it bugged.

  "Cam, the Cherenkov radiation returned while you were gone. It took two more people."

  Chapter 18 Day 251

  "December 21, 2259. 1400 hours. Log of Captain John Andrew Nelson, Commanding Officer, UNAG Mining Vessel Cape Hatteras. The first sled of samples has arrived. They are full of a kind of crystal, uniquely formed in the low gravity of the asteroid. My mineralogist on the surface believes they are completely new to astrogeology. I expect several more sleds as the men descend deeper into the cavern."

  A week later a pair of ominous-looking UNAG warships positioned themselves near our fleet. These weren't the usual patrol ships; they were Poseidon-class cruisers, the biggest guns of the fleet. Normally having one those off your starboard bow would be one the most frightening sights imaginable. In my circumstances it meant safety and security accompanied by a huge element of uncertainty.

  I had transferred back to the Amaranth Sun, from which I could see several guns on those warships trained on both the Neptune's Revenge and the Hyperion. That was a natural precaution because they were recently enemy ships, but I also noticed a smaller gun dedicated to my ship and the bulk of their weaponry targeted on the Cape Hatteras. That was the clearest sign yet that they feared something on that ship so much that it warranted the presence of two armed cruisers. I had to find out what it was.

  I had been judicious about the information I was giving UNAG up to that point. I felt it best to save news of the missing people until I spoke directly with whomever was in charge.

  "Camden Hunter," came a radioed message. "Please dock your vessel with the UNAG battlecruiser Portsmouth. Clearance is issued on our mark. Mark. We will expect you within the hour."

  It sounded more like a summons than an invitation. Intimidating, to say the least. Docking rings were extended from both warships, so I had Stacey make extra certain that she got the right one. A mistake might have gotten us fired upon.

  Clearly the enormous ship was not designed for any commercial or recreational purpose but instead for a battle in space that
would probably never come. Most of the room onboard was dedicated to the weapons systems. I doubt that even Finley's ramming bow could have knocked it out of commission.

  "Our companion battleship will be docking with the Cape Hatteras immediately. It's a good thing you evacuated ahead of time," the ship's captain said as he greeted me near the airlock.

  "Just holding up my end of the bargain. I said that I'd allow two days’ access. It's all yours, but I do need to give a warning before your people go aboard. I'm not certain whether I should tell you or a specialist. I think you'll want to discuss it in a more private setting."

  "Come with me."

  I followed the captain into a small room that looked like a laboratory. A balding man in his sixties turned from behind a workstation.

  "Mr. Hunter, this is Dr. Westmoreland, Director of Research at Titan. He's the de facto head of this operation."

  "Pleasure to meet you, Captain Hunter," he said. Finally someone was getting my title correct.

  "A pleasure, Dr. Westmoreland. I've heard that your people have done great things at Titan, especially the work on methane as a fusion catalyst. That promises to do great things for our engines."

  "Thank you. I'm certainly glad that the captains of the solar system are paying attention to us. If the funding I get from Earth is any clue, you're probably the only people who are."

  "Do you have any theories on how to fix the fusion interflow problem?"

  "Yes." He seemed a bit hesitant. "I'd love to tell you about it, but time is rather short."

  "Mr. Hunter said he had a warning for us. I felt it best for you to hear it as well," the captain interjected, rescuing Westmoreland.

  "I do, but I'm curious about your fusion work and what it has to do with what's on the Cape Hatteras. Its fusion reactors are two centuries out of date."

  Westmoreland sighed. "I can see you're very perceptive. Fusion engine research isn't the only thing we do on Titan."

  "Oh? What else do you do? Since I am the legal owner of the derelict, I should be aware of what's going to happen while you're onboard."