by Gorg Huff
A few minutes later, he was back. “It’s hot out there all right, Skipper. And the ship’s boat is melted.”
“So we wait,” Tanya said, though she wasn’t at all sure for what. Of the thirty members of her crew who survived the battle, eighteen were either in the shieldgold shelter or, like Tanya, shielded by chance. The rest suffered severe to fatal doses of radiation poisoning. Fairbanks was on the border. Any naval personnel who hadn’t been shielded were dead, even if they were still walking around.
Pandora, Approaching Jump 37,472,325
The nukes worried Danny, and he didn’t want to take Pan into a fight if he didn’t have to, but he knew that there might be people over there in need of aid. Besides, the trip between jump points took several hours, and by now hours had passed since the last nuke went off. Also, they had been able to watch the survivors get back into formation and head for the next jump.
A couple of light hours is a long way.
Pan had good sensors, but something as small and dim as a ship, even a big one like a Dragon or Demigod, is hard to spot. They saw the nukes blow, and they had what they thought were good reads on the surviving fleet. It was enough for Pan to get what she thought was a decent read on the battle, but not enough for a high level of confidence.
By that read, the Cordoba fleet was destroyed. The Drakes lost one of their Dragon-class ships and four of their smaller Falcon-class ships. What hadn’t been trashed was moving away from the jump at a standard gravity.
But they weren’t sure, and based on that uncertainty and the fact that there were kids on the Pandora, Danny had the Pan make a loop around the jump. At the end of the loop, Danny entered the jump at an angle, with a vector that would give him a shot at running if it proved necessary.
∞ ∞ ∞
Pandora and her crew came through the jump and found the hulk. There was only one. The space where the other ships should be were expanding clouds of radioactive junk.
At first glance, it looked like the hulk was just as dead. But as the Pan bounced radio waves off the hulk, she saw that the shieldgold had been concentrated around the med section and made a guess.
“I see it, Pan,” Danny agreed. “I’ll take the new boat over.” They’d put together a new ship’s boat out of parts picked up in Danworth and other ports and were back up to their complement of two. Doc Schmitz fixed one of the busted ship’s boat brains that they bought in Danworth. The new boat was actually a bit brighter than the old one. More talkative, anyway, sharing a constant report of the electromagnetic environment like a happy German shepherd, reporting on all the interesting smells he was smelling.
“Ooh, that’s hot!” Boat Two sent over Danny’s link as they made their way to the hulk. They managed to identify the jerry-rigged shack of shieldgold, and Danny found a hole in a bulkhead that let him get to it. He wasn’t wearing any sort of suit, because there are two ways of avoiding radiation. One is to stop it, the other is to be as transparent as you can to it. Oddly enough, the human body is fairly transparent, as long as the exposure is not too much or too long.
Using a glove, Danny knocked on the lock door and waited. It wasn’t a long wait.
∞ ∞ ∞
It took a couple of hours to get the former crew of the Jonesy aboard Pandora.
“So what happened?” Danny asked after they had everyone stacked in the Pan. They were going to be stretching life support, but that mostly meant they were going to harvest and freeze some vat meats early. That would leave the environmentals producing more O2 and less CO2. They were also going to freeze some of the CO2 out of the atmosphere for a while. It would still get a bit stuffy and they couldn’t do it forever, but it would work for a few weeks. There was a lot of redundancy built into Pan’s systems, and John had been using the gardens as an extra source of income, growing plants and meats for sale.
The crew quarters of the Pan were full to bursting, though, and people were bunking four to a room.
“We got word that the Drakes found, or learned about, a gray route into Cordoba space and that Admiral Huffington was going to use it to invade. Admiral Frankin felt that it was a probe, and the best option was . . .” Tanya Cordoba-Davis’ voice trailed off.
“Was it bad intelligence or is Frankin an idiot?”
“Admiral Frankin believed that there would be damage to the Cordoba Combine’s reputation if we retreated before the Drakes.”
“Frankin’s an idiot. Go on,” Danny said.
“Captain . . .”
“Leave it, Commander. Frankin is a paragon of military virtue. So goes the party line. I get it. Go on with your story.”
Tanya kept silent for a moment as she worked out how to respond. She had been thinking exactly the same thing. To an extent, she still was. But Captain Gold’s comments made her look again. The plan might have worked if word of it hadn’t leaked to Huffington. She hadn’t favored the plan, but it wasn’t so much stupid as it was risky. What killed so many of their people wasn’t the plan, but Rodriguez’s inability to abandon it after it dropped in the crapper. She tried to explain the reasoning behind Frankin’s position as best she could, but clearly Captain Gold wasn’t buying.
“Whatever,” Captain Gold said. “The upshot is we have a Drake fleet in Cordoba space and we don’t know where they’re going.”
“They’ll head to Parise. It’s a major linkage and a vital connection between New Argentina and a fair chunk of Combine space. And right now it’s not defended worth a damn. At this point, all Admiral Frankin has are the forts at Parise and a bunch of Noble-class patrol boats that are all out patrolling. We need to get there and warn them, tell them what happened.”
“What difference would that make, Commander? You just got through saying there is nothing there to defend the place with, and your Admiral Frankin knows they’re coming. Otherwise, why send you?”
“If the Drakes take Parise and can hold it long enough to get reinforcements, it’s going to take a major force to push them out.”
∞ ∞ ∞
“Not my problem, Commander,” Danny said.
The woman was near to shock and he could see she was falling back on her training. She was also a Cordoba patriot, loyal to the Cordoba Combine.
But Danny wasn’t a Cordoba anything. He was a stockholder by convenience. He was a Drake expatriate with little loyalty to the Drakes and none at all to the Cordobas. He told the commander, “In case you haven’t noticed, this is a civilian ship with children on board. We’ll drop you and your crew at Ferguson, and you can report in from there.”
Tanya argued, but Danny wouldn’t budge.
Chapter 18
“People should either be caressed or crushed. If you do them minor damage they will get their revenge; but if you cripple them there is nothing they can do. If you need to injure someone, do it in such a way that you do not have to fear their vengeance.”
Niccolò Machiavelli
Location: Pandora, Ferguson System Naval Station, Cordoba Space
Standard Date: 11 20 630
“W
hat happened?” Commander Kevin Evans, skipper of the Enola, the larger of the two Ferguson System Defense boats asked as Pandora made the jump into Ferguson space. Danny was on the bridge, and so was the Cordoba commander, Tanya Cordoba-Davis.
There was no Cordoba naval presence in Ferguson space. There was the Ferguson System Defense Force, consisting of two jump-capable patrol boats and fifteen non-jump-capable insystem boats.
Danny told him, and the Pan was escorted to the Ferguson insystem by the Enola. They lost two more of the Indiana Jones’ crew on their way insystem. Radiation poisoning.
∞ ∞ ∞
The Ferguson CEO, John Zeek, got on the comm within minutes of their exiting the final jump to near Ferguson orbit.
Danny called Tanya to the bridge, then listened as Tanya asked John Zeek to send one of their cutters to Parise to warn them.
Zeek added Commander Evans to the call and the commander appeared
in another box on the bridge screen, saying “We don’t have a fast courier. We have a couple of outmoded patrollers. The Cordoba Combine has not allowed us any more.”
“Do you think the Drakes are going to be any better? If you do, you’re in for one hell of a shock.” Tanya’s hands were shaking.
“No, we don’t, Commander Cordoba-Davis,” CEO Zeek said. “But between you and the Drakes, what we think doesn’t make a hell of a lot of difference, does it? My system is probably going to get smashed, either when the Drakes come in or when you folks come to take the system back, and there’s not much we can do about it. Do you expect me to thank you for that?
“I’m sorry, Commander. I really am. We will do all we can to take care of your people here on the station, but we literally can’t do anything more than that.”
Tanya didn’t say anything, and Danny could see the effort that silence cost her. Evans was right, and Tanya had to know it, but knowing something was true and accepting it were two very different things. He activated his mike through the interface and said, “I have a lot of very sick people here, sir. How soon can we get medical care to them?”
Arrangements were made and in just a couple of days, Pan, no longer crowded with Cordoba spacers, was back on her way to Parthia.
Location: Pandora, Canova System, Cordoba Space
Standard Date: 11 27 630
The moment they exited the jump, they were awash in radio signals. Danny called up the scans of the space around Canova. There were two Parthian traders at Canova, both human crewed, one owned by the Jackson-Cordobas and one owned by a consortium of the Jackson-Cordobas and the Gkok clan. And both were sending queries to the Pandora. They were surprised to see Pandora because they heard about her from Fly Catcher, which came back to Parthia and was gone again.
Danny took the call from Captain Andri Jackson of the Fortune Find. “They figured you’d be long gone with the cargo, Captain,” explained Andri. “Opinion was mixed as to whether you had dumped the Zheck bug on a port or just out the lock.”
Danny grinned and looked over at Checkgok. “Now why didn’t I think of that?” he asked.
“Because, unlike Captain Kesskox, you are not a cheskek, Captain,” Checkgok said.
Captain Jackson laughed. She was a heavyset woman in her early sixties, young for her position, with a deep bellowing laugh for a woman. “I take it your bug didn’t get along with Kesskox. Well, I never noticed her as being any worse than the rest of them.”
Danny didn’t point out that calling them bugs wasn’t necessarily the best way of gaining their respect, which was easy enough because Captain Jackson was off on another subject. “Did you really drink a Parthian Banger? I’m as broad-minded as the next woman, broader-minded than most—” She winked at him. “—but that’s a bit weird even for me.”
“It was an accident, Skipper. I was messing with the auto-tender, making up names of drinks.”
“Done that,” Jackson agreed.
“And I even had to pay for the drink.” Danny grinned. “And the milk chaser! Those things are spicy.” He didn’t tell her about the effect of the banger on Parthians that he, Pan, and Checkgok all figured out. That was valuable information.
“Well, good luck to you, Captain.” Jackson ended the call.
Pandora didn’t stop in Canova. They had their cargo for Parthia and saw no reason to pay the docking fees.
Location: Pandora, Parthia Outsystem, Cordoba Space
Standard Date: 11 30 630
After coming out of the next to last jump to Parthia near space, Danny went to the lounge and called up the main screen to show a graphic of the system. The lounge wasn’t crowded, even with everyone there.
Checkgok, using his mouth-hand on the keyboard, explained, “Parthia has seven planets, only one of which is habitable. There are three large artificial worldlets in orbit around our homeworld. They are owned by the Gkok who own one, and the Fkis, who own two.” As it spoke, it highlighted the stations on the screen. “All three stations guest representatives from groundside clans, and between them they guest several of the important clans of the planet.”
Checkgok continued his explanation, then they reached the next jump and were in easy radio range of the stations and the planet.
Pandora sent their bonafides to Gkok Station.
“Pandora?” The surprise in the voice of the Parthian astro-controller was evident. “While what you did was indeed legal, I don’t think you’re going to find very many clans willing to deal with you after absconding with Clan Zheck’s goods that way.”
“And I wouldn’t blame you folks for that attitude at all . . . if that was what I did,” Danny said kindly while Checkgok sputtered indignantly. But Danny had already sent Pan instructions not to open Checkgok’s link until he signaled. “In fact, I wouldn’t have come here at all, except I had some cargo to deliver. To Clan Zheck.”
Then he opened Checkgok’s channel.
Location: Gkok Station, Parthia System
Standard Date: 12 01 630
Fourteen hours later, Pan having made orbit around Parthia and the ship’s boat having docked with Gkok Station, Danny, with Checkgok at his side, made his way to the Zheck section of the station.
It was different than a human-built station in many ways. First the halls were wider and a little higher. Parthians scuttled and rarely rose to full height unless they were upset. It was crowded, more crowded than any but the oldest stations in human space. Danny noticed that the Parthians were giving him and Checkgok as wide a berth as the wide hallways allowed, though among themselves they seemed comfortable with virtually no personal space. They rubbed one against the next with little concern.
The station was also almost entirely without augmented reality projectors. Instead, the walls, and even the decks, were covered with fabric coverings. There were actual fountains dotting the corridors and Parthians would dip a mouth-hand into them as they passed for a quick drink.
Gkok Station rotated for gravity the way most stations did, and the bottom outer level was run at five percent over Parthian planetary gravity, which was a bit over a standard G. They reached an elevator and went inward five levels to the Zheck quarters. The room was well lit by Parthian standards, which meant the light was a little bluer than was comfortable for humans.
A Parthian about a third of Checkgok’s size but whose pattern of spines was a match to Checkgok’s waved a mouth-hand, and the other Parthians in the room moved away. It then indicated a passage with its left eyestalk and left mid arm. All without saying anything.
Danny and Checkgok took the direction and preceded it into another room. This one was empty, with two Parthian nests and a human style chair. The older neuter male went to the smaller nest and, using its eyestalks, gestured for them to take the other nest and the chair. It waved Checkgok to silence.
“I am Zheckdsank, the senior trade representative of the Zheck clan on this station. Just to confirm, Captain Gold, you accepted kothkoke from Goldgok?”
Danny blinked. The combination of the last part of Checkgok’s name with his last name—especially combined with the accent of the speaker—took him a second to parse. Over the months since Checkgok had joined his crew, Danny had come to realize that Parthian thought processes and language were very much not human. He had even realized that while Checkgok was in one sense a single word, in another it was a phrase. Sort of, but not quite, like someone named Running Bear or Cartwright. Now it seemed that the name of his crewman was a bit more flexible than he thought.
He glanced at Checkgok and saw that the Parthian was in shock. He looked back at Zheckdsank, the older neuter male Parthian and said, “Yes. But, honestly, we thought of it as more a temporary matter. It needed a ship and Pan and I needed a cargo.”
Zheckdsank’s mouth-hand manipulated a control and a screen filled with the flowing Parthian script. “There was blood spilled. Your blood, Captain?”
“Yes, but not much, and it was clearly an accident.”
“That’s rather beside the point,” Zheckdsank said. “If we take the position that it was a matter of convenience, then it wasn’t a valid oath and Goldgok was guilty of defrauding the ship of Clan Kox. Now, based on the testimony of the crew of Clan Kox, fines and penalties have already been assessed to Clan Zheck and there will be considerable trouble in recovering those funds. If this was a matter of convenience, it will become the next best thing to impossible. Given all that, I think that we must consider—” One of the eyestalks twisted to point at Checkgok. “—it is, in fact, Goldgok.” Then its eyestalks came back to Danny, and it added, “At least for now.”
Danny looked over at Checkgok, and the Parthian’s eyestalks and mouth-hand expressed resignation. Then the mouth-hand moved up and down in its version of a human nod.
“Very well,” Danny agreed. “We’ll come back to that later. In the meantime, about our cargo . . . most of which belongs to Clan Zheck?”
Zheckdsank’s eyestalks lifted, indicating pleasure. “There, things are excellent. Even if the clan had not been under the impression that our goods were lost, we would be impressed with the quantity and quality of the goods you are returning to us. You must understand, Captain, that the rental of Fly Catcher was an expensive undertaking for the clan, and the purchase of the goods to fill it was an even greater one. We may never get back the cost of the rental. That is a matter for the interclan adjudicators, if not one that will lead to a clan war. However, your holds . . . that portion of the goods in your holds that you describe as the property of Clan Zheck, will more than pay back our investment if sold wisely.”
Location: Pandora Ship’s Boat
“So, tell me about the names,” Danny said, as they were riding the ship’s boat back to the Pandora.
“The name of an individual Parthian includes the name of the clan. Where it is placed is up to the clan. Clan Zheck places it at the front. A temporary adoption, renting of the worker, doesn’t involve the changing of the clan name, but a permanent adoption, selling the worker, does.”