Pandora’s Crew

by Gorg Huff

  “It wouldn’t be so bad if their shorter lives made them more fractious, but the hive nature means that they are less willing to question professional wisdom.”

  “I thought you liked Zheckpak.”

  “I do.” Zheckpak was a Parthian electrical engineer the Zheck clan rented to Gerhard to help with integrating his electronics with native Parthian systems. “And I like Togkok and Siskiik. They’re bright, capable, and hardworking. But if something is written in a textbook, it might as well be written in stone to them.”

  “How did we end up on the subject of Parthian scientific conservatism yet again?” Rosita asked the ceiling. Not getting an answer, she turned back to her husband. “What exactly don’t they have?”

  “Huh? What are you talking about?”

  “You started this diatribe by insisting that the Parthians don’t have anything?”

  “Oh, yes. They don’t have molecular printers,” Gerhard said.

  “They don’t have . . .” Rosita stopped herself. Every asteroid miner, every station job shop, every everyone, had molecular printers. Little Angie had one in her toy box on the Pandora.

  “The Jackson-Cordobas are working really hard to keep the Parthians out of the modern universe.”

  “I’ll see what I can do,” Rosita promised. “The Costas are coming into the station for resupply at the end of the week, and I’ll see if I can beg one from them.” The Costas were one of the small families of deep space miners who were making a living extracting materials from the asteroid belts to provide to the Parthian orbital industries, and they were on good terms with Rosita. “What about the Arachne?”

  “It’s coming along. We can’t do the weights transfer until the Pandora gets back, but the structure seems good.”

  Location: Pandora, Parthian Outsystem

  Standard Date: 02 11 631

  It was almost a surprise. Danny felt the wings shifting, the pressure smoothing. The jump was small, twenty thousand miles across, and they were moving fairly fast. Pan was running through the space, and Danny was expecting another false alarm, but just as they got to the possible jump point, it settled into place and they slid through.

  Six light days. Not a long jump, but it put them well past the Parthian Kuiper belt into the inner Oort cloud, a good place to put stuff you didn’t want noticed. It would be fairly valuable information, even if it was a one jump cul de sac, but Danny was hoping for better. “We’re going to stay out here for a while, Pan, and see if we can find a few more links.”

  “Skipper,” said John over the shipnet, “we ought to report back to give our people contact directions.”

  “Right. Pan, work up some mail drops that we can shoot back to Goldgok and the professora.”

  It took them a day to jump back and send the new itinerary to the professora on Gkok Station.

  Location: Rick’s Cafe, Gkok Station, Parthian System

  Standard Date: 02 11 631

  Rosita walked into the restaurant and saw the big, beefy man in the captain’s cap and a worn flex suit. She walked over and offered her hand, saying “What can I do for you, Captain?” After all, he asked for this meeting.

  “You can tell me where the Pandora is and what you people are still doing here after three months.”

  “Well, I suppose I could, Captain,” Rosita said, taking a seat. “Not that I will, but I could. What makes you think it’s any of your concern?” She didn’t look up at Captain Farris, a Cordoba stockholder with two shares.

  Still standing, Farris said, “The Pandora doesn’t have a license to operate in the Parthian system. We have to respect the native rights, you know.”

  “In that case, let me put your mind at ease,” Rosita said, examining the menu and pointedly ignoring the looming captain of the recently arrived Cordoba trade ship Bonaventure. “The Council of Clans has accepted Clan Gold as an official Parthian clan.”

  That was true. It took some fairly significant bribes and was a close vote. By virtue of the fact that Goldgok was a member of Clan Danny Gold, and that clan had a working alliance with Clan Zheck, the council in its wisdom recognized Clan Danny Gold, with Danny Gold as the primary breeder, and the clan having several secondary breeders and one not-breeder.

  “There were a few . . . well, more than a few . . . jokes about our clan being rather breeder heavy, but that’s an internal clan matter, and the council felt that it was no one’s business but ours. I like Parthians, Captain. They don’t butt into other clans’ business.”

  Finally, Captain Farris took a seat across from her. “And where is your ship?”

  Now Rosita looked at him. “Again, what concern of yours is that?”

  Farris’ red face got a little redder, then he took a deep breath and leaned back. “I’m a stockholder.”

  Rosita nodded. “Yes, Captain Farris, I know. So am I. What’s your point?”

  “There is a long standing informal agreement not to get involved in internal Parthian politics. And as part of that, none of the wing ships—not even the ones owned by Parthian clans, not even Fly Catcher—does jump surveys of Parthian space.”

  “Really? Why ever not?” Rosita asked politely.

  Deep breath, then another deep breath. “As long as the Parthians are limited to their system, with only occasional exceptions, the rest of the universe is happy enough to leave them to their own devices. But the Cordoba Combine has laws about slavery.”

  Rosita snorted. “Yes, I am familiar with the laws, Captain. You can’t keep a stockholder as a slave, and aside from that, you’re supposed to call it something else.”

  Rosita saw the captain’s face getting red again and backed off a little. “Look, Captain, we are just learning the ways of these people, but their clans are in fact closer to hives and you know that. You must. We aren’t trying to rock your boat. We just want to be left alone to do our business.”

  The talk was fairly unproductive. Rosita didn’t give the captain what he wanted, and the captain managed, barely, to keep his threats veiled. But he threatened both legal and extralegal action if the Pandora were to share any information on jumps with the locals . . . or fail to share that information with the Jackson-Cordoba Trading Company.

  The Bonaventure stayed in Parthian space for two weeks, then headed out again with full holds.

  Location: Pandora, Parthian Outsystem

  Standard Date: 05 26 631

  Three months later, Danny sat on his preferred seat in the galley and called up the latest message from Gok Station.

  Pan now had several new insystem jumps. One of them was to a point just two AU from the primary and well off the elliptic. Two of the jumps had chains that went out into the big dark. The first was five links ending just a touch over two light years toward galactic north spinward. The second long one was a single jump that ended up two and a half light years toward galactic south spinward. None of those jump routes was yet a way to reach another star system, either explored or unexplored—but they were a good start.

  The message was a report and Danny laughed as Rosita’s voice rolled over him. “With you out of the way, Goldgok and Kiiggaak have acquired a warehouse full of goods that we can sell in any number of systems. A lot of those goods will sell better in Drake space than in Cordoba space. But it will all sell quite well, Goldgok assures me. And I have no reason to doubt it.

  “Only around fifteen percent of those goods actually belong to Clan Gold. The rest are owned by a selection of planet-based clans that, if they don’t care for Goldgok personally, do trust Clan Gold with their money and goods. After all, Clan Gold brought back Clan Zheck’s goods when it didn’t have to.

  “Gerhard is convinced, even without access to bodies, that he can build an interface for a Parthian brain and insert it with the same sort of nanobots that were used to install human interfaces.

  “It’s almost time for us to go, Captain.”

  Danny looked over at John Gabriel and lifted an eyebrow. “What do you think, John? Can you find us an e
xcuse to stay out here for a few more months?”

  “Sorry, Skipper. We could, but we’re getting low on ice cream and a few other vital stores.”

  Geri, who was playing with a Parthian doll, looked up at the mention of ice cream, then said, “We have to go back, Captain.”

  Danny sighed, then instructed Pan to turn them back toward the jump route to Gok Station.

  Chapter 20

  The only thing that’ll cost you more

  The choice you’ll come to rue

  Is to refuse that costly lore

  Which comes with postage due.”

  From the Song “Postage Paid” in the movie Bimbos In Space

  Location: Pan’s Galley and Virtual Space, Parthia Orbit

  Standard Date: 06 05 631

  Jenny slipped into virtual space in time to hear and see the meeting through Pan’s sensors. It felt a little like she was sneaking in, but she knew perfectly well that if she wasn’t allowed, Pan wouldn’t let her in.

  “Why back to Ferguson?” Goldgok asked. “Even though the Drakes have been pushed back, things are going to be unsettled. Besides, we have tentative contracts based on taking the other route. We can take this gray route back to Drake space and sell our filters at Canda.” Goldgok highlighted a route on the jump map Pan was displaying on the large galley monitor.

  “Because I want to play rutter tag.” Captain Gold called up a map of the Parthian system. The sun was a G1 and a bit brighter than Sol. It had seven planets. Kkiitiik, the innermost planet, was twice the mass of Old Earth, but so close to the sun as to be useless. Parthia, Kikiskis in Parthian, was the second planet. Out beyond Parthia was a gas giant, Kjiksis, about the size of Saturn at about the distance of the asteroid belt. It had half a dozen moons, one of them big enough to be terraformed and, between the heat put out by the gas giant and the sun, warm enough too. However, life, for whatever reason, never developed on it.

  Beyond Kjiksis was KjeeKtee, about the size of Neptune, orbiting at six AU. TjisKee was next out, again about the size of Neptune, but with much less atmosphere. It was mostly water ice and in an orbit at about fifteen AU.

  Finally, there were a pair of twin planets, Sikikee and Sukket, close enough to the same size so that it was hard to say which orbited the other. The twins were out at twenty-two AU and beyond them was a Kuiper belt.

  “You know that survey I did while you were ripping off your fellow Parthians to fill our holds?”

  “It was all quite legitimate, Breeder,” Goldgok said snootily. “As you are a breeder, it’s not expected that you should understand the workings of finance.”

  Jenny giggled, which Pan didn’t send to the lounge.

  Captain Gold laughed. “Fine. While you were engaging in legitimate trade using a proxy, I was surveying your outsystem. I got pretty lucky. There is a jump into your outsystem, far enough out to have a secret base if we can get someone to put it in.” He highlighted a jump. “But even more importantly, there were jumps to chains in the big dark.” Now Captain Gold shrank the system map and highlighted several jump points. “The short one goes just a touch over two light years toward galactic north spinward. The long one goes two and a half light years toward galactic south spinward. Ferguson is seven light years galactic south spinward of Parthia in real space. If anyone is going to know a jump that hooks up to that chain, it’s probably going to be someone in the Ferguson system.”

  “Is that likely?” Goldgok asked examining the display with one eyestalk while the other looked at Captain Gold.

  “Honestly . . . no,” Captain Gold said. “But there’s a fair chance that we can find some jumps that get us closer. I want to find a route to Parthia that doesn’t go through the Canova system if we can. The Cordobas may not be as nuts as the Drakes, but they are more corrupt. I want a back door.”

  That made sense to Jenny, sort of, but she didn’t get why it was so important. That was why she was listening to the meeting. It seemed the grownups were more and more nervous lately.

  “Very well, Captain,” Goldgok said, consideringly. “In that case, we need another ship.”

  “We need two or three more ships,” said Doctor Stuard, interrupting their conversation. “We need a scout ship in the Parthian system to provide our allies on the clan council with more economic muscle.”

  Jenny knew she was referring to clans Zheck and Kiig for the most part, though at least a dozen others had nominally friendly relations with the new Gold Clan.

  “We need a space station that is not under the eyes of the Jackson-Cordoba Trading Company. That means out in the Oort cloud around the Parthian system, far enough away so that they won’t see anything unless they know precisely where to look. For that, the Parthians need their own jump-capable ship. We need another trade ship and we need an explorer to scout for routes.”

  “I’d rather play scout than merchant,” Captain Gold offered. “But I suspect that we are going to need to be all three for now.”

  “Why do we need all these things?” asked Jenny. She didn’t mean to interrupt, but it just popped out.

  “Because the Parthians are going to get crushed soon if they don’t get their industrial base upgraded,” Captain Gold said.

  “Why?” Jenny asked. Through virtual reality, she saw the looks exchanged by Captain Gold, the professora and Goldgok. The adults trying to decide how much to tell the kids. Since John wasn’t here she figured they would brush off the question, but they didn’t. The professora gave a minimal shrug, leaving it to Captain Gold.

  “Because the Parthians are both a threat and a tool, even a weapon, for whoever controls them. There are nine billion Parthians. That’s not as many people as were in the Sol system when it got trashed, but it’s a whole lot for the Pamplona Sector. They have spaceships and biotech that is in some ways actually superior to human biotech, even if they don’t like altering their own physiology. It’s like there is this big cache of gold sitting out in the open. There’s going to be a fight over it, and whoever wins the gold, the Parthians lose.” Captain Gold looked over at Rosita.

  The professora took over. “At the moment it looks like the Jackson-Cordobas have grabbed the sack of gold, but that’s not going to last. Besides, we are going to need a base somewhere. Since Clan Gold is a Parthian clan, Parthia is likely our best option.”

  “Why?” Jenny asked again, though she didn’t want to sound like little Geri. She was worried because the adults were starting to sound like her parents did before the asteroid.

  Again, there was the look exchanged between the captain and the professora. This time it was Captain Gold who waved for the professora to explain.

  “Because I am increasingly convinced that the present balance of power between the Drakes and the Cordobas is not going to last. In fact, I am now seriously concerned that neither polity will survive for very long. When it all comes apart, we will need a place to hide.

  “Speaking of which, have you managed to adjust the contracts?” Rosita asked Goldgok. “Are you going to want to keep Kiiggaak?”

  “No. I think we want to keep it as an in-system agent. And that can be done best if we return it to its clan and deepen our relationship with Kiig. Besides, even though it has learned a great deal, it would not be happy among humans. What I was thinking about was acquiring some engineers for the ship.”

  Rosita considered that. She knew perfectly well that as the trader for Clan Gold, Goldgok had the authority to hire crew. But this was a little more serious, even if Goldgok didn’t realize it.

  She looked over at Captain Danny Gold, and he gave a slight nod. “Well, look into it then. But if you can, find some who won’t object to artificial enhancement.”

  Goldgok’s mouth-hand scrunched up, but it agreed.

  “We also need to finalize our agreements with Clan Zheck and possibly Clan Kiig about the printers and the manufacture of wing ships. They have much of the needed technology, but some of the vital bits are missing.”

  The molecular printers, i
f not absolutely necessary for the production of wing controllers, were the next best thing to it. And that was what the Parthians wanted more than just about anything else. They knew that without wing ships they were effectively trapped in their home system.

  “Are you willing to give up your Wilson-Clark IIIs?” Danny asked Gerhard.

  “I’m willing to give up one of them,” Gerhard said. “And if Goldgok can make a good enough deal, two of the three.”

  “Between the mine manager brains, and the possibility of wing controllers and fusion plant controllers, I can make an excellent deal,” Goldgok said.

  “Then we will be leaving two of the Wilson-Clark IIIs and one of Pan’s printers here?” Danny asked.

  “On the planet,” Goldgok said. “Clan Zheck wants to keep them away from the Jackson-Cordobas’ notice, and the brains themselves are quite small and easy to hide. They will be able to disguise some of the other work as supplies for us.”

  “Fine. And we get controller brains and everything else to make shield missiles in large numbers?”

  “Yes, but even with leaving them the two Wilson-Clark IIIs, the brains are going to be the bottleneck,” Gerhard said.

  Location: Girls’ room on the Pan, Parthia Orbit

  Same Day

  “You’ve grown,” Rosita said to her granddaughters, as she sat on a bottom bunk.

  “We found a really big asteroid and Daddy made us these,” Little Rosita said as she pulled a pendant from under her shirt. It was on a gold chain. Gold was no longer the monetary metal it was on Old Earth and was only moderately rare, but tradition made it more valuable than simple supply and demand would explain. Still, the real value for the six-and-a-half-year-old was that her daddy went on a spacewalk to get the gold to make it for her. Each of the girls had one, and most of the rest of the gold from the asteroid in the Parthian Oort cloud was now on the station and would be sold for use in making electronic components.