by James Darcey
"Ah yes, let's not forget the pilot. Just what were you trying to tell the... er... Director anyway? You started to say 'if they'. If they what?"
I was unsure just how far I could push this captain with the assumed authority of a director. I didn't even know how much power a Director possessed. By now this captain had been developing a bit of a sneer, and what I took to be sarcasm in his tone. Maybe I could keep his attention shifting between us enough to bypass the questions that had no good answers.
"He's worried you'll find his store of holo's"
"I asked him!"
"Yes, my collection of classic holo's; Irreplaceable."
He tossed accusations at us, and we did our best to deflect the more direct questions, or I should say that I did. Traxel was nervous, and every time the questions got too close to the truth he would start stuttering a bit. The Captain wasn't slow about picking up on the nervousness either, and when Traxel began stuttering, the questions would get really direct at him. A few times we were saved by the Captain's comm signaling a message that he took note of before resuming. The break usually gave me the chance to think of a way to steer the questions away from topics that had no answers.
Every time Traxel became the focus, he came close to breaking down and admitting the lie we were telling. When it got that close, I had to pull the focus back to me with a show of power. I didn't know if I could get away with actual threats, so I merely left it at hints about incorporating him directly into research. That hinted threat actually seemed to stun the Captain for a minute. It left me wondering how powerful Teyrn was to get a reaction like that.
Finally the door opened admitting one of the Kanari. She came in and whispered into the captain's ear. I would surmise that the message held important news as his pointed ears sagged noticeably. I hoped that the news meant good fortune for us. I was running out of ways to stall him, and had basically been repeating a few of the more effective ones. She handed the captain a holo cube, like the one the young Kanari had handed us when they first boarded the ship.
The Captain slid the little cube into the viewer slot on the table, and we all watched as the holo field lit up. The first thing that came up was a very familiar symbol. I'd seen that thing every day of my life, worn by all the people on that orbital lab, including me. The shipsuit I currently wore had the same thing near my left shoulder. Next the scene shifted to display a ship -- our ship. I'd seen the image in the operation manual.
That's when the surprise hit home. The view shifted to an image of me! The only thing about it was that this image was one that had never existed in reality. It displayed me with my hair pulled into a braid as I sometimes did, but this image had me wearing clothes I'd never seen before. They were similar to some of the things I'd pulled from Teyrn's closet, but my one and only suit was this one that I currently wore. The image was also captioned 'Region 1 Senior Director Ion'.
It was hard reading the mood of this Kanari Captain, but it seemed like all the air of importance seemed to have left him. He even seemed to shrink a bit as he turned back to us with a softer tone to his voice.
"I... uh... Director! Thank you for your patience in this... situation, as it were. We..."
He glanced at the Kanari still standing by his shoulder. She handed a tablet to the captain and stepped back. She looked as though she would rather be a thousand parsecs from there at that moment. Reading from it he went on.
"Your ship appears to have hit an unregistered plasma stream upon entry to this system. I will record this event so that the stream can be located and listed. Your ship's systems were overloaded resulting in catastrophic damage to virtually every system aboard."
The Captain looked up at me. I think Traxel had been forgotten several minutes earlier. His change of posture was so sudden and complete that I began to wonder just how big of a bluff I was executing. Could a Director really out power a Reliance Guardsman Captain? My assumed position had enough power to not only get us past this Guardsman captain, but he was actually frightened. All the texts said that this was a point to keep up the front, but reduce the pressure to mild as a way to instill relief. He continued reading from the tablet in a monotone.
"The stellar drive is still non-functional, life support is currently working in marginal conditions. The cyber AI system is not responding, the data grid seems to have escaped with minor damage, and the comm system is half melted."
He was absolutely pleasant as he offered to tow us into Reliance Station. He even extended the invitation to enjoy the view from the bridge of his patrol craft. I started to decline when Traxel tugged at my arm and whispered something about a gift.
I nodded to him: "Of course. Oh, and Captain, my visit here is intended as a surprise. I'd like to keep it that way if possible."
"Of course, Director."
Traxel had a better understanding of the game that was being played at the moment. I had the simple lessons on it from the texts, but this was the first opportunity to put that knowledge into practice. Let him pull off one of his Rampari style victories. Now that his life was not in imminent danger, he was back to his old self. Traxel left the room heading for the air lock, followed by one of the guards, while the captain escorted me to his bridge. I had no idea what gift Traxel could be thinking of, but had to trust that any gift would help about now.
The hatch opened, and we stepped onto a much larger version of the cockpit. Right away I could see why he wanted to show it off. It was impressive. Where our ship had three seats in a triangle, this one had two at the fore, with another three in a row behind those, forming a truncated triangle. The central seat was different in that it had no dedicated console to operate. As we entered a Kanari jumped out of the seat offering it to the captain. He waved the offer aside telling them to take us into the Reliance Station by way of the sun-lit side.
The one that had vacated the central seat turned and repeated the orders to the others seated in the seats with consoles. They each gave a short reply to let him know they'd heard him, though I was convinced that everyone had heard it first when the Captain had spoken. The ship altered course slightly bringing a bluish-green planet into the lower part of the wrap-around view port, which was easily twice the size of the one on our ship.
Even though the central seat lacked a console, there were several controls in the armrests. The Kanari touched a few of them, before calling our attention to a small box on the screen. It looked to be an enlarged view of a minuscule dot hovering over the planet. The enlarged one allowed me to clearly see the cylinder with a string that went all the way down to the planetary surface. There was also a large ring that circled the upper portion of the cylinder.
A speckling of lights along the ring had to be view-ports. There must be thousands of them. That would make the ring a good ten or twelve floors high, and it was only a part of the cylinder. That segment had to be close to five hundred meters tall. Even as I watched, a long tube crawled up the thread into the end of that cylinder.
The lower third of the cylinder was painted the same dull yellow as the uniforms around me. In that space there were at least twenty ships docked that were bigger than the patrol craft I was now riding, but they weren't big at all compared to some of the ones in the white part of the cylinder.
There were likely a hundred other ships attached along the rest of the cylinder. Some of those had to be more than a kilometer in length themselves. It looked like a hive of activity with small sparks lighting up where ships moved nearby. The game I was playing just increased in complexity and risk. I was walking through a field of nettle thorns, where every barb was tipped with instant destruction.
Oh, well. Into the nettle cluster we dive. I had no idea how I would escape from this place.
The captain, oblivious to my dread, introduced the crew on the bridge, and began telling me the details of his ship. There were over sixty Kanari aboard, although it only took about fifteen to run the ship. The rest were boarding soldiers for when they encountered pirates. He named
off weapon types and power that meant nothing to me. For my part, I nodded along with his monologue as though I fully understood every detail he was relating.
The one bit of statistics that sparked a recognition came when he talked about the missile bay on his ship that could be put to great effect should some military force decide to try taking them on. His ship had twenty missiles rated at fifteen whole Jumbarian units each. I kept it to myself that Teyrn had tossed two missiles at us that were each nearly four times the power of his. He really had meant to turn us into dust floating through the cosmos.
His monologue was interrupted by the return of Traxel leading the guard to the bridge. The guard was carrying the box of bottles from the stateroom. I caught his nod to me and hoped I understood his intentions. It brought to mind notes I had read before concerning the intricacies of diplomatic exchanges. Thank you, Traxel, for thinking of something to top off the delicate ruse.
"A gift to you, Captain! A thank you, to you and your crew, for your kind and generous assistance." Traxel Proclaimed.
The Captain's mood brightened visibly when he pulled out one of the bottles to read the label. He tried to make it sound casual as he instructed the Kanari to place it into his cabin for the moment, but he was nearly bouncing now. Traxel had come through and found a way to really alleviate any last vestiges of fear in the Captain. A fearful captain could have spelled unpredictable dangers.
With two hours more until docking he treated us to a tour of his ship -- treated me actually. I think Traxel tagged along as an afterthought. It put the captain in his element to be bragging about his ship. The part of it that I'd seen before, as we were led up to the interrogation really hadn't conveyed the proper size of the ship. I had thought it to be about three times the corvette, but it was twice again more. No wonder it moved the joined ships so easily.
I couldn't help but notice the Flux Genetics' symbol imprinted on many of the equipment pieces throughout the ship. When we passed through the weapon room everything was labeled as such. I was beginning to get an idea of just how sharp the knife edge was that Traxel had set me to walking along. So that would help explain why the Captain had deferred so greatly to a Director.
We ended back at the bridge in time to watch the docking maneuver. By now we no longer had to look at an enlarged view of it, the cylinder was facing us close enough to dominate the view-port. As we drew close grapples were shot out to attach to the corvette. Once they were secure it was released to be towed into an enclosed bay. The patrol ship slid sideways several berths before docking. It didn't enter an enclosed bay, but merely nosed to a coupling along the side, spinning at the last moment to dock tail first like our ship had been on the orbital lab.
In the midst of docking, that same Kanari that had brought the holo cube to the Captain stood by with her little tablet once more. She handed it over to him; and with a short glance at it, he actually smiled. He watched her bound back out of the door before turning to us with the news. It seemed that in the hours that we had been circling down to Reliance Station, his crew had been hard at work to bring some life back to my ship.
The latest word from that team was that they had managed to get the stellar drive back into operation, and had cleared up most of the minor faults. They were still unable to get the ship's AI responding, but life support was once again pumping out clean air.
As soon as the clang reverberated through the ship of the docking collar locking down, we turned and descended the passageways to the airlock. We were greeted there by four Kanari, including the young one that had brought us the holo cube. He stiffened up immediately when I greeted him by what I hoped was a close approximation of his name. He led the way as the three others escorted us through the docking area to the repair bay where our ship was still getting locked in place.
This was my first chance to actually see the outside of the ship I had stolen in my escape. The best description I could give was to say that it was like slicing a tear drop in half. The tip of the drop sat just below the view ports for the cockpit. Under the nose was the large cargo hatch that opened to the front of the cargo bay. The rounded rear of the drop was the airlock passage. The airlock passage served the dual purpose of dropping down as an entrance ramp with the ship poised on landing struts, as it was now.
The whole thing was something of a dull grey color, with scorches and little pockmarks from impacts. Panzo had mentioned that this was once a military vessel, though I found it hard to believe that Teyrn Elon would leave the outside battered when he had changed the inside so much.
TOC
GO
There were two more Kanari standing before the ship, awaiting our arrival. These wore the dark green of the maintenance division, or so the patch proclaimed. As we approached, Captain Korcktl leaned over to tell me that he was leaving us in the capable hands of Senior Repair Operator Z'Turstl, and his crew. This would be the Kanari in charge of seeing that our craft was once again worthy of carrying a Director.
After a brief exchange of greetings where the Captain acted as though this old Kanari was his dearest friend, though he couldn't even recall the name of the assistant standing next to him, he departed with vows to check back on the progress. The Captain and his escort turned about to return once more to his ship. I bid them goodbye, with my gratitude, and even added a thank you to the young Kanari that had been the one to climb those stairs and face our pistols.
"I understand that Captain Korky brought you in after your ship collided with a plasma stream. I will be supervising the repairs, while my crew chief Panzo will be your direct contact if I'm not available. If there's anything that you need, he can get it for you."
Panzo had already made a cursory inspection of the ship while we were still docking, and had a list of things that were in need of repair. All I had to do was to give my authorization and a crew was ready to go to work. The list was seventeen screens on his tablet, and I had no idea if I was agreeing to replace the melted AI, or paint the ship fuchsia and fill the hold with moatra berries. The berries were good, but filling four hundred cubic meters with them seemed a bit much.
Senior Repair Operator Z'Turstl excused himself, promising that he would get back in a few days to assess the repairs, and assured me that Panzo was quite capable of managing the maintenance crew while he was occupied elsewhere. As Z'Turstl walked away, Panzo took charge and with a few short orders into his comm the crew started swarming over the ship. Turning his attention to us, his tone brightened.
"Captain Korcktl sent me a short comm alert as you were still inbound. He wanted to make sure that you received the best of care. Please forgive Z'Turstl for his departure; I didn't tell him who you were. He thinks you're just the latest hormonal flare of the Captain."
Panzo led us on a tour of our own ship, showing the points where his crew would be working. The message from the captain had given him the chance to look up the technical information about our ship. Taking it a bit at a time like this, I got the feel of just how that electrical surge had affected nearly every system on the ship. We were very lucky to be alive. Already there were four Kanari stripping panels away from the machines in engineering. When we arrived at the mid deck hatch, where I had let loose the burst, Panzo asked if I would open the hatch lock.
"On these old battle jobs they liked to stick the AI in a hardened spot, like this one."
He told us that since the rest of the work was relatively straight forward, and the AI work was essential, that he would be doing that part personally. He had one other person with good experience working on the AI's, but he'd only use her if the job needed her expertise as well. Traxel stepped over to the controls, tapping in the codes. The hatch buzzed loudly, but failed to budge until he pounded on it a couple times. As the hatch swung open, Panzo let out a low whistle. He turned to me and lowered his voice.
"Not to worry Director, my oath covers discretion for my clients."
We ended the tour back in the repair bay with him asking where I would be stayi
ng while the repairs were proceeding. I hadn't even thought of that. I knew nothing about staying anywhere. Traxel spoke up with a thought that it might be better to remain with the ship, as all of the hotels would have records of the guests that anybody could get their hands on. That sent a shiver down my back with thinking about Teyrn Elon tracking us down. I didn't hesitate in confirming the thought to Panzo.
"Yes, it would be best to remain with the ship."
"Then I will have the crews work on the command deck things first. They should be done and out of the way by the time you have dinner. Let me know when you leave, and they can start then."
I hadn't even thought of dinner, but the mere mention of it brought a rumble to my stomach. I climbed the ramp and stairs up to the common room, and went about finding myself something that sounded good -- Frivalfin with Yaki noodles sounded different.
The two of us were alone for the first time in many hours. I had to stop and reorganize the plan. What plan? Mental laugh. I had been bluffing along so much that I didn't even have an idea of the rules to this game I was playing. My life, correction our lives, depended not only on playing this game but winning it as well. As soon as I ate I could start working on a revision to the non-existent plan.
Traxel was once again winding himself up with anxiety as he paced back and forth through the common room. I tried my best to ignore him as I set the controls on the rehydrator, but all of that resolve vanished the moment I pushed the engage button and nothing happened. I rounded on him ready to literally bite his head off as his low muttering drove away the last vestiges of calm.
"What is it now?"
"Doomed... We must run before they find us. With no money to pay for repairs, it will charge to Flux Genetics. A message will go straight to him! We can sneak onto the drop train, and be down on the planet in twelve hours."