Home: Interstellar: Merchant Princess

by Strong, Ray

  “Well, the pirates have no reason to come after us now,” Elizabeth said, “except for vengeance.”

  “Vengeance is motive enough.”

  “But it’s inefficient with a low return on investment. These guys are in business.”

  “We’ll see. Check the news, Liz,” Meriel said, and Elizabeth pulled up the local news.

  GNN Top News Today: Spacer with a history of drug abuse and delusions brings scurrilous charges against the most reputable members of Earth society. Defamation charges have been filed on Moon-3 and injunctions issued to stop distribution of slanderous lies.

  “Ouch,” Meriel said. “Looks like we need to scratch Moon-3 from our vacation plans.”

  “They’re fighting back,” Elizabeth said. “I wonder whose version will get traction.”

  “Independent News Network’s story of the hour: Troopers issued an arrest warrant for General Subedei Khanag for recent attempted piracy and piracy approximately a decade ago. The general was unavailable for comment. The archtrope, the general’s mentor and spiritual leader, had this to say…”

  The video switched to a news conference with the archtrope, in ceremonial mitre and vestments, alongside a man in a well-tailored business suit.

  “Certainly, if General Khanag was in any way involved with attacks on innocent civilians, we would support the strongest of sanctions to make sure that such events can never be repeated. We believers are humanitarians and respect all human life. However, the general is the most pious of men and committed to the peaceful teachings of our most revered prophet. I am sure that any charges against him are specious and will be dropped as soon as the investigation is under way, and his good name will be cleared of all wrongdoing. Thank you. His holiness has nothing more to say.”

  While his handlers hustled the archtrope away through a crowd of journalists and disciples, one reporter shouted after them.

  What about LeHavre? What do you know about the Treaty of Haven and attempts to invade an occupied colony?

  The vid switched back to the news anchor, who continued the report.

  “In a related story, the Archtrope of Calliope has been implicated in a ten-year-old conspiracy to invade an independent colony called Haven. BioLuna and an unnamed member of the UNE/IS have also been implicated in the conspiracy.”

  “Well, the news is out,” Meriel said.

  “You understood that, right? General Khanag is missing,” Elizabeth said, and Meriel nodded.

  “Breaking news: Alan Biadez, UNE president, has just announced his resignation for unspecified health reasons after less than a month in office.”

  The video feed switched to footage of Biadez and his family boarding a shuttle. Reporters with vids and links surrounded them.

  “…yes. Thank you. That is most kind. I’ll be staying with my wife, Ellen, and our children on Calliope during my recovery.”

  “Calliope. That’s the archtrope’s turf,” Elizabeth said.

  Meriel shook her head. “Asylum with the thugs. That clinches it. I totally hate his guts.”

  The news feed and Biadez’s interview continued.

  “Yes, yes, my resignation is immediate, and Vice Chairman Toyama is now acting president, pending confirmation by the General Assembly. Thank you for your love and support all these years—“

  The voice of a reporter interrupted him.

  “What about Haven when you were chairman of the UNE/IS? What about the Treaty of Haven?

  Biadez’s wife turned with a feral look on her face and shouted at the reporter.

  “How rude! How dare you impugn the honor—“

  Alan Biadez elbowed his wife out of the way.

  “No more questions now. Thank you.”

  “His wife knew about the Treaty of Haven,” Elizabeth said.

  Meriel nodded. “They’ll be busy running for a while,” she said. “Now, what are BioLuna and Khanag up to?”

  ***

  Meriel walked to LeHavre’s null-g axis, where the crew and naval architects refitted the Tiger. The periphery was maintained at a full one-g artificial for the comfort of the residents and the discomfort of Meriel on her crutches. She walked to the window and beeped Molly, and in a few seconds, Meriel saw a space-suited figure tether a carbon welder and jump toward the air lock.

  New EMP and laser cannons broke up the smooth lines of the Tiger, weapons intended to discourage General Khanag from more mischief. Ship designs would change once again now from the most efficient for space trade to designs that could adequately discourage piracy with the minimum mass and energy. Those that did not have the equity to afford the transition would be uninsurable and grounded.

  Behind her, Cookie walked up and began to suit up for EVA.

  “I’ve got your friend’s new firewall and sniffer, M,” he said.

  “Nick’s?” she asked.

  He nodded.

  “You don’t trust the navy’s version?”

  Cookie shook his head. “I expect the UNE will sneak some other spyware into our systems. I’m gonna scrub everything down to the fullerenes and—”

  Meriel’s crutch slipped out from under her on a puddle of condensate from the high ceiling, and Cookie caught her before she fell. “Damn these things,” she said.

  Cookie helped her manage her crutches.

  Meriel saw his frown. “It’s not your fault, Cookie,” she said.

  Cookie still frowned, and Meriel reached up, pulled his head down, and kissed him on the cheek.

  Molly exited the air lock, and Cookie stood and saluted. “Permission to come aboard, ma’am?” he said.

  “Granted, Sergeant.

  “The nav system is installed, Meriel,” Molly said while removing her hard-suit. “Once the retrofits and Cookie’s reboot are complete, we’ll prepare for a shakedown run. You game to get into space again?”

  Meriel held up her crutches. “I won’t be very good for a while, Molly, but thanks.”

  “Meriel, I contacted the Pacific League, and they offered to support your claim for the Princess,” Molly said. “You can own her clear. And the kids will be free to choose when they are of age. The league has legal representation for you stationed at Enterprise. And don’t worry. Mr. Bell on Enterprise remains your counsel; he’s just in a nicer office.”

  “What can I say, Molly? This is more than I hoped for.”

  “I’m the grateful one, Meriel. I’m sleeping with my husband tonight and not a memory. No one else did that for me. And the rest are on their way.”

  “Rest of what?”

  “The kids.”

  “When!”

  “As soon as we can get the papers in place. They are in the hands of the troopers now. This likely includes their fosters.”

  Meriel looked down and put her head in her hands.

  Molly walked over to her. “They’re safe, M.”

  Meriel looked up. “What about their training?”

  “Funding is in place. The league is paying, but there are strings.”

  “Uh, oh,” Meriel said.

  “When you get the Princess back, the league wants a piece of your circuit.”

  “They want me in the league?”

  Molly nodded. “They want to set up a new route, a route here. It’s yours when you’re ready.”

  “How big a piece are they asking for?” Meriel said, now skeptical of the league’s largess.

  “Tiny. Seems when you put BioLuna on the defensive, they pulled the embargo on Haven. That’s huge for the league. They may be incapable of gratitude, but see this as a bounty, a reward for opening up a new route.”

  “What about the new station?”

  “Talk to John. The league will get the financing. It’s already begun.”

  Meriel could not speak. The future her mother had hoped for was becoming reality.

  “So, now, I think you can help us again. Richard and I have a bet about how you kids could communicate for so long without anyone knowing. Some encryption scheme?”

 
“All of our messages were over the public net in clear text,” Meriel said. “I don’t know how it works, really. Nick sent us some software on a dongle. He said it’s not encryption but obfuscation, like having your jigsaw puzzle mixed up with a billion other jigsaw puzzles of the same color.”

  “How does it know which pieces to use?”

  “That’s his magic.”

  “Mil-tech?”

  “They wish,” Meriel said.

  ***

  “Your pack of dogs screwed up,” the nondescript man said on the laser tight beam to the yacht in orbit around Etna.

  “They’re not my dogs.”

  “You should have engaged me sooner,” the nondescript man said.

  “Yes, Benedict, you are correct. I was assured it was under control—my mistake. This bodes ill for our other joint ventures. A moment, please.” The line went quiet.

  “Sir?”

  “Yes, I’m back. It’s time for you to end this problem of ours.”

  “The news is already out, sir,” the nondescript man said. “Why risk more attention?”

  “The fanatic is the face of this particular problem. We still have plausible deniability, and any connection to us is rumor and speculation. Anyway, it’s too late to stop this.”

  “And the survivors?”

  “That’s on him, too. As for our immediate problem, we placed delusions and antipsychotic medication on her record years ago for just this eventuality. We can spin any story we want as long as she’s not around to contradict us. But she is elusive.”

  “They don’t sell tickets to Haven, sir,” the nondescript man said.

  “I’ll find you a ride,” said Cecil Rhodes, the chairman of BioLuna.

  Chapter 13 Home

  Coming Home

  The shuttle shook violently when it entered Haven’s atmosphere, and Meriel closed her eyes and gripped the armrests so hard that the veins in her hands protruded. The ride down to the surface bumped and jarred her like nothing she had ever experienced.

  “Jeez,” she said. “Is your atmosphere made of rocks?”

  “At this speed, yeah, pretty much,” John said calmly, pretending that the drink in his hand might actually end up in his mouth.

  When they cleared the upper atmosphere and the flames outside her window dispersed, she looked out. The torus and odd protrusions of LeHavre got smaller, and the tan landscape on the surface of Haven changed to shades of green.

  As the ride smoothed, Meriel stopped worrying about disintegrating on reentry and returned to worrying about other things she could do nothing about. She fidgeted with nervousness, having never been on a planet before, but even more nervous about seeing John’s kids. He had told her everything about them, and they’d had a video conference, but meeting in person would be different. John also had an extended family on Haven, and they might not be so welcoming. It’s only a visit, she told herself.

  They left their seats, and Meriel could feel the increased gravity through her forearm crutches. The sunlight blinded her as she approached the elevator. Until this moment, Meriel and Elizabeth had never been outside a space vessel of some kind or on the surface of a natural body in space without a hard-suit.

  As they walked to the portal, cheers caught her attention, and she looked outside to see a crowd of people, more people in one place than she had ever seen in her life, and she bit her lip and looked around nervously.

  “Why are they here?” Meriel asked. Are they all so happy to leave?

  “They’ve come to see you, M,” John said. Elizabeth smiled and took Meriel’s arm.

  “Why?” Meriel asked, but John just smiled.

  Meriel stepped outside the escalator, still awkward on her crutches. In the shade of the shuttle wing, she could see more clearly, and the huge blue sky opened up. In front of her lay a carpet of red flowers. She took another step, careful of the uneven ground, and looked up but the horizon curved down, not up like a station deck. Leaning forward to put the perspective right, she lost her balance. Automatically reaching for a handhold, which, on board, would be only a few inches away, she found none and fell, smacking her head hard on the carpet.

  Elizabeth and John knelt. “Are you all right?” Elizabeth asked while John grabbed her arm to help her sit up.

  Meriel did not answer. She looked up, disoriented by the riot of colors. The sun glared down at her through open space, a sky without a dome to hold the air in. New scents irritated her nose, but she could not scratch it. The crowd and insects and noise all pressed in on her. She started to hyperventilate and got dizzy. Her eyes glazed over, unblinking.

  “M, what’s wrong?” John asked.

  Meriel kept staring at the sky and gripped the hands of Elizabeth and John. “I don’t…feel safe.” All those colorful blotches at the base of the big blue…dome. Oh my God, it’s the horizon. There’s no hull. I don’t have a suit…I can’t breathe…I don’t want this! Meriel shook visibly, and the color drained from her face. All she could think about was her meds.

  “John, what’s wrong?” Elizabeth asked.

  “Meriel? She’s frightened, Liz. Meriel, here take my hand,” he said, but Meriel remained motionless, staring at the sky and breathing rapidly. “Hon, take my hand.” He took her face in his hands and moved her head until she looked at him. “Look at me. Listen, hon. Trust me. This is what your mother wanted for you. Come take this step with me.”

  Meriel nodded slowly and, with the help of Elizabeth and John, got to her feet while keeping her eyes on John. She smiled, but from the corner of her eye, a balloon escaped the hand of a child and took her attention away. She glanced at the blue sky behind it. That sky! she thought. “Oh God!” she said and could not breathe and collapsed into John’s arms.

  ***

  Meriel awoke in a dimly lit room and looked around: two beds, clearly a room for little girls, with stuffed animals and drawings and clothing strewn everywhere. She had slept through the day and night unaware of her surroundings and without the familiar hiss of ventilation and low hum of a ship’s engines. Instead, a soft breeze fluttered the curtains at an open window.

  Two little girls shared the room with Meriel. They were quiet as shadows. One of the shadows, John’s younger girl, Rebecca, sat on a chair next to the bed. She would sometimes play with a rag doll and regularly glance at Meriel. Alessandra, the bigger shadow, leaned against a dresser and watched intently through her good eye. Her other eye was covered with a patch that matched the bow in her hair.

  When Meriel blinked, Rebecca dropped her toy and took Meriel’s hand.

  “Hi, Merry.”

  “Hi, sweetie,” Meriel said. “Oops! Excuse me, ‘Brucilla the Muscle’!” At the mention of her heroine, Becky sat up straight, beaming, and struck her fist across her chest in salute. “And this must be your partner, Galatia,” Meriel said, referring to Alessandra, or Sandy.

  “Hi, Merry L.,” Sandy said.

  “Hi, Sandy.” Meriel held out her hand to invite Sandy to come closer.

  Becky would not be interrupted. “Last night, Maddie told us that you ‘saved Papa’s ass.’ Is that the gift you brought me?”

  “Quiet, Bru. She’s still resting.”

  “I am very sorry I couldn’t meet you at the dock,” Meriel said. “I wasn’t feeling well.”

  “Daddy told the others after dinner that you saved his life,” Sandy said softly, holding Meriel’s hand like a baby bird in both of hers. “We’re real grateful. He said you saved all of them in that big ship up there. We saw it from our telescope. It was all beat up and dirty.” And even more softly but with a big smile, she added, “Daddy said you were a hero.”

  “I don’t remember much,” Meriel said, “and none of that hero stuff. I’m just glad your daddy is home with you. Everything smells so different. Where am I? My God, is this Haven? Really?”

  “Uh-huh! You’re here at our house,” Sandy said, “on our farm and in our room. You’ve been sleeping since yesterday. The shuttle left this morning, but Da
ddy says you can stay with us as long as we take care of you and don’t disturb you and—”

  “We look after the pigs and the chickens and the goats, so we can be trusted, all right!” Becky said, tripping on her sister’s words, “and we helped foal a pony just last week, too, and Sandy…oops, she fell asleep again.”

  The two girls whispered their leave and closed the door.

  A few minutes later, the door opened slowly and a little face peeked in. Sandy walked over to the bedside and sat next to her. She put her hand over Meriel’s hand very gently and kissed her forehead as her mother used to do.

  “Thank you, Merry L.,” Sandy said. “I don’t know what we’d do without Daddy. I know you’re really nice by the way he talks about you. He kind of just smiles a lot and hasn’t acted this way since Mommy…died. Mommy used to spend time with us. Well, I guess we’d just follow her around ’cause we were just little kids then. We don’t have many friends here. There are kids at the next farm, but it’s too far. Papa built us a school for the workers’ kids here, but it’s real little. Most of the people are older, and they’re always busy. We work, too, but it doesn’t seem as important as what they’re all doing. They don’t let us do much with Becky so young and me with only one good eye. The doc says I need to wait until my brain grows up a bit before they can fit me with a prosth…a fake. I can see as well with one eye as they can see with two, and I can shoot better than any of ’em, but maybe I can get a cool bionic one that can see heat or figure distance or something.” She looked up for a moment and raised her eyebrows. “Oh, or maybe one that looks like a tiger or glows red when I’m mad.”

  Sandy took a breath and sighed. “Merry L, Becky and I talked it over, and we want you to stay with us; we didn’t ask Daddy yet, but we want you to stay anyway. So we want you to heal up real fine. Becky and I want so very much to be your friends.”