Pandora’s Crew

by Gorg Huff

  That would have consequences later, though. They would be declared pirates, and once the word got around they would be unable to deal in Cordoba space. The presence of Grand Stockholder Cordoba-Davis might ameliorate things, or it might not. There were fractures in the Cordoba power structure that Pan hadn’t been aware of until Tanya came aboard. There were military units that would show them deference if they knew about the grand stockholder aboard . . . and there were some that might shoot even faster.

  Pan turned her attention back to the conversation in the lounge.

  “The Cordobas came out of the Alenbie jump route,” Albert Gold was saying.

  “What about the Kingfisher?” Danny asked.

  “The what?”

  “We ran across a Falcon-class battleship, well, its hulk, five jumps out from the outsystem jump into Franklin,” Danny said.

  “Why didn’t you turn around and go back to Alenbie?”

  “We didn’t know what caused the wreck. It could have been pirates. And we couldn’t be sure how long ago it happened. There are other routes out that way. For all we knew, they were behind us.”

  “Well, they got here two weeks ago and they had pretty good intelligence about our insystem jumps. They came straight in and took out the royal station before we knew they were here. They came out of here—” He used the interface to put a circle around a jump point close to the planet. “—and fired a series of nukes at Royal Station.

  “That got most of the royal court and the Spaceforce command. Not to mention the royal yacht.” The royal yacht was the closest thing Franklin had to an actual battleship.

  “After that, everyone who could went to ground and they landed exspatios on the stations. The prime minister rolled over and showed his belly with no hesitation at all.” The prime minister was just that, a king’s minister who got his position from the king. There was an elected body, the House of Commons, but it wasn’t very powerful. There were administrators and clerks and all the other government functionaries needed, but they all ultimately reported to the royal family and the nobility. At least, they had before the invasion.

  “No reason for him not to,” Danny said.

  Pan noted an increase in Albert’s heart rate.

  The discussion continued.

  Chapter 25

  On the other hand, cul-de-sacs aren’t always useless. Sometimes there’s stuff in them, a frozen world where you can pick up liquid H, or asteroids of one sort or another. And there are times when knowing a place you can duck into to get out of sight can be pretty handy.”

  John Gabriel to Jenny Starchild, astrogation lesson

  Location: Station 1, Franklin

  Standard Date: 11 06 631

  Eddy, sporting hair dyed black for the occasion, took the elevator to the station core, then floated out along the cargo corridors to a station lock. Once he reached the lock he glanced around, trying to look casual. The corridor security cams had been diverted in some way that Eddy didn’t know, and no one was in sight. He keyed the code using his implant. His version of the upgrades didn’t include the biocomm system.

  The lock opened and Eddy floated in, pulling a pair of silicate gloves and a sack helmet from his pouch. The sack helmet was a clear plastic sack that went over his head and tied around his neck to make a good seal. It, like the gloves, could be folded into a small wad of plastic. Eddy filled his lungs, put on the sack helmet and gloves, then signaled the lock to depressurize.

  There was plenty of time to prepare, so the lock wouldn’t even report that it was opened.

  Once the lock was open to space, he floated out, holding the guide rings. Pandora was in orbit three kilometers from the station, waiting for a chance to dock, unload cargo, and load up on local goods.

  Eddy listened to the chatter, using his implants. There was a delay. The ship ahead of Pandora in the queue was having problems. Danny was complaining about the delay.

  Eddy debated with himself. He wasn’t supposed to jump for Pandora. He was supposed to wait. It wasn’t that he might miss the ship. Eddy’s spatial awareness was excellent for about the same reason that Danny Gold’s was. Even at three kilometers distant, if he jumped, he would hit the Pan. No, the issue was the possibility that he might be seen. He would be floating through space, a human-shaped radar reflection, for ten minutes, showing up on scopes all over the place. But if he just sat here, he was eventually going to run out of stored air. Eddy was fully loaded up on chemically stored oxygen, but that only meant that it would be a full hour before he ran out of air.

  Eddy fretted and waited. Then he jumped. Once he was in space, he curled up in a ball to make his shape different. If a normal were tossed out a lock or jumped, they would starfish as the arms and legs filled with fluids. Eddy figured that curling up would make him seem less like a dutchman and he wasn’t wearing a suit, so had no locator beacon. He hoped that he would seem a glitch and that the filtering systems would filter him out of the data stream.

  ∞ ∞ ∞

  “Bow B lock opening,” Pan reported while Danny was climbing into a ship’s boat. Then she sent the vid feed from the lock’s cameras.

  Danny reversed his action. “Pan, see if you can find out if anyone spotted the little idiot. And hide the vid from that lock. I don’t want our people to see it.”

  ∞ ∞ ∞

  Eddy was still in the lock when Danny got there because Pan prevented him from opening it. “Okay. Let His Majesty out, Pan,” Danny said, and the lock opened.

  “Why was I held in the lock?” Eddy asked.

  “Because you’re an idiot who shouldn’t be here yet,” Danny said. “Now come on.” Fortunately, most of the living quarters on the Pan were at or near the bow. He escorted the new king of Franklin fifty meters spinward, then turned him aft into hydroponics, then to a mostly empty pantry. He pointed. “Inside.”

  “What?”

  “Inside. Now.” Danny let his right hand fall to the hilt of his pistol. “I don’t want, Tanya Cordoba-Davis or the other former Spaceforce personnel seeing you while we’re still in range of the local authorities. For that matter, I don’t want the professors or Robert seeing you, either.”

  Eddy went in, looking resentful.

  Danny had Pan close and lock the hatch.

  ∞ ∞ ∞

  Eddy was most extraordinarily displeased. He knew about the Cordoba officers, but if anyone should be locked up it ought to be them. The truth was, Eddy knew that his suggestion was impractical. But it was wrong for the king of Franklin to be locked up in a cell.

  The whole thing was offensive.

  Location: Offices of the FSCG, Station 1

  Tanya Cordoba-Davis sat in the outer office of the newly installed chairman of Franklin System’s Corporate government. The office was carpeted, and an ensign was seated at a desk using a virtual keyboard to write something. Tanya could tell by the way the young man’s fingers were flicking over empty space above the desk.

  The newly installed chairman was Andre Chin, the nephew of Admiral Julio Chin. Andre was a minor stockholder with fifty-seven shares of Cordoba stock and recently resigned his commission as a commodore in Cordoba Spaceforce in order to accept the appointment.

  As it happened, Andre and Tanya were at the academy together, and they had not been friends, though they might have been. While Tanya was trying to sneak into the military classes, Andre had been trying to get into the political classes. Each had considered the other a poser on some level. Which, Tanya was pretty sure, was a good part of the reason she was sitting in the outer office while Andre gloated and pretended to be busy with managing the new corporate government of the system. Tanya took a couple of deep breaths and firmly told her body to cut down on the production of adrenaline.

  ∞ ∞ ∞

  Just the other side of the door, Andre Chin was anything but gloating. Oh, he would have been gloating, but the truth was he didn’t have time. He was using his implant and trained motions to call up file after file on possible adminis
trative personnel.

  The subjects of the Franklin crown didn’t seem nearly as pleased as they should be with the new government. Just now, he was looking desperately for anyone who was both reasonably honest and willing to work for his administration.

  It was not going well. When his aide told him there was a grand stockholder waiting to see him, he hadn’t even waited for the name. He’d just told the aide to put the stockholder off for a couple of days. His secretary buzzed again. Andre used his implant to open the comm. “What now?”

  “Grand Stockholder Cordoba-Davis decided to wait, Mr. Chairman.”

  “Cordoba-Davis? Send him in.” He flicked his right hand and the screen blanked to an image of near space. The Cordoba-Davises were a powerful faction. Together they had real influence. And if this adventure of Uncle Julio’s was going to get sanctioned, they were going to need that support.

  The door opened and in walked Tanya.

  “What the hell are you doing in Franklin?” Andre blurted.

  He didn’t realize it, but that was precisely the best thing he could have said. It completely diffused Tanya’s simmering resentment.

  “I’m sorry, Grand Stockholder. I heard about the battle, but . . .” He ran down, knowing better than to complain about his situation. “Anyway, I’m sorry about the board . . .” Again he ran down.

  “It’s all right, Andre,” Tanya said. “None of it is your fault, and I would imagine you’re pretty busy.”

  “Yes. Yes, I am, Tanya. But what can I do for you? Have a seat.” He waved to a comfortable chair that was not in front of the desk, but off to the side and he turned his chair to face it as Tanya sat.

  “It’s the blockade. I’m working on a freighter, trading. We’re trying to get back into Cordoba space and . . .”

  “You’re working on a freighter?” popped out of Andre’s mouth. Then he shook his head. “I’m sorry again, Tanya. I’m operating on three hours sleep and, frankly, just seeing you here is quite a shock. Why don’t you tell me about it? Start with the battle and tell me what really happened.”

  Tanya did. She sat back in the chair, relaxed, and began to speak. Over the next hour, she told him the story and found the commodore to be a very different person from the midshipman he used to be. Finally, she finished with, “So we have a full cargo for Parthia and no way of getting there unless we can get back to Cordoba space. We were told that the route you took to get here is still a military secret, but there must be something we can do.”

  “Well, there’s no way I’m going to be able to get you that. It’s not just military rutters Uncle Julio used. It’s private family rutters, and a bit of good luck.” Andre paused, and this time didn’t let his mouth run away with him. “On the other hand, you’re right that we aren’t going to be able to keep this incursion a secret much longer. I’ll talk to my uncle and see what I can arrange.

  “Oh, you’re not picking up any passengers, are you?”

  “One possible, a friend of Captain Gold’s. Rather, the daughter of a friend of Captain Gold. A fellow Cybrant expatriate. Captain Gold has no intention of returning to Cybrant.”

  “It’s not just Cybrant. It’s any place in Drake space,” Andre said.

  “Hence the problem. If we can’t use the secret route you used to get here, the only way to get back to Cordoba space is through Drake space. You can’t stop all trade, Andre. If you do, you’ll have a revolution and the Cordoba Board won’t be on your side.”

  “Believe me, I’ve mentioned that to my uncle.”

  “Is this incursion authorized?” It was Tanya’s turn to blurt something out.

  “Not exactly. The orders that Uncle Julio is basing this on are ‘to harass the Drakes wherever possible to help draw their forces away from Parise.’ And, yes, my uncle, the admiral, is aware that this is rather further than the orders probably intended. But the admiralty is frustrated with the board of directors, Tanya.”

  Tanya nodded. Her sympathies were mostly with the Spaceforce in this. As much as the Cordobas condemned the Drakes and the Drakes condemned the Cordobas, it increasingly seemed that they were mostly acting as scarecrows for each other. Strawmen to hold up to the mob to keep them quiet. “Can you do anything to help us get loose? It’s not like your uncle’s action will relieve Parise if the Drakes don’t know about it.”

  “Fair point, Tanya, fair point. Give me a day or two, and I’ll do what I can.”

  “I’ll owe you one, Andre.”

  “If I pull this off for you, Tanya, you’ll owe me several.”

  Location: Pandora, off Station 1

  Standard Date: 11 08 631

  The lock opened and a young woman with silver blond hair entered the cabin. Danny smiled. “All grown up, indeed. Yow!”

  Sara Electrum looked Danny up and down, then said. “Yow right back at you, Uncle Danny. You know, I had a horrible crush on you the last time you were through here.” Then she grinned a hungry grin.

  “What were you, five?” Danny patted the air about three feet off the ground.

  “Yes, but I was very mature for my age. Though I must admit it was more the notion of sailing around in the Pan than your person that attracted me.”

  “And another excellent match lost! I’m heartbroken.” Danny patted his chest.

  “Well, perhaps I’ll bandage it up for you sometime, if I’m bored.”

  “Pan, we must arrange a load of boredom for Sara.”

  Sara grinned again. “Don’t you dare, Pan.”

  “Oh, mush!” Little Rosita said disgustedly.

  “That’s right, darling, but we’re just playing,” Sara said. “I’m really a spy.”

  “Oh, that’s okay then.” Little Rosita giggled.

  “Hide the super missiles and the magic sails, Pandora,” Danny said, trying to sound worried.

  “You really think she’s a spy?” Hirum asked Robert after Sara went to her cabin.

  “Pretty stupid way to go about it if she is, announcing it like that,” Robert said.

  “Actually, Danny is convinced that at least half the reason that her parents sent her with us is to spy for them,” Pandora said. “And if her parents are any indication, she is probably a very good spy.”

  “What’s the rest of the reason?” Petra asked.

  “Partly simply to get her out of the war zone. But also, because the captain is a fully licensed breeder. Any children by him would have status in the Cybrant System, at least access to the tests.”

  “You mean, she’s here to . . .” Petra’s face turned red.

  Location: Pandora

  Standard Date: 11 09 631

  Tanya was checking the alignment on the fusion plant when she got the call. She paused the bot and using her implants shifted the incoming image to her faceplate. Holding onto the wall of the exhaust tube with one hand, she said, “Hello, Andre.”

  “I talked to my uncle and you’re cleared back to Alenbie. Sorry, but that’s the best I could do.”

  Tanya watched his face and decided that there was something off. Not very, and Tanya wasn’t entirely sure what it was, but she’d known Andre for a long time. Not well, but she’d played poker with him a time or two. He was holding a busted flush of some sort. “Thanks for what you managed, Andre. Like I said, I owe you one.”

  Andre Chin nodded and signed off. And now Tanya was sure. If he’d really gotten them clearance, he’d have insisted that she owed him several.

  Location: Franklin outsystem, Alenbie route

  Standard Date: 11 09 631

  Tanya felt the wings through her interface and felt Pan and the Parthians as well. It was her watch, and they were approaching the getaway. About an hour away was the next standard jump and Tanya shifted the plasma feed to the C and D wings to shift their course a tad. Now they were approaching a different jump, one from the Franklin Spaceforce rutters. She waited, feeling the wings for almost an hour, then they were at the jump point and jumped.

  The new space, about five light minutes
to the stellar north and well out from where any telescope ought to be looking, had five jumps within fifteen light seconds. She shoved the Pan into a sharp turn and the Gs mounted. Tanya checked automatically. Everyone was belted in and safe.

  More time. A hundred thousand klicks, even at the speed they were going, took time. The Pandora and her crew pushed through space with a constantly changing vector until they reached the next jump.

  Again a jump, and they were out. It would take a special miracle for anyone not possessed of Franklin Spaceforce rutters to find them now.

  Unfortunately, there were no more known jumps in this chain. It was a cul de sac. But at worst, it was a place for them to wait while whatever happened in Franklin worked itself out.

  “Start looking for jumps, Tanya,” Danny sent over the comm, “and take us back to standard running.”

  Tanya did, and the acceleration shifted back to the standard one G and gradual changes in direction. Tanya knew Danny was hoping for a jump route out of the Franklin system, but she didn’t think they would find it. He thought that the addition of the Parthians to the crew added insight and improved their scouting ability. Tanya thought it might. But even if it did, finding a useful jump was a long shot, and Tanya knew Danny wouldn’t have done this without her warning.

  She just wished she knew what was up.

  Location: Station 1, Chairman’s Office

  Standard Date: 11 10 631

  Andre looked into the comm screen, at the face of Captain Burgin. “What do you mean ‘they didn’t show up’? We had telescopes on them, and they went through the jump.”

  “Send me the data,” Burgin commanded, which made Andre want to slap him down. But he couldn’t. The orders to mouse trap the Pandora in the big dark came from his uncle. He sent the scan data with a mental command.

  “That’s not the right jump!” Burgin said.

  “It’s not?” Andre spent more time at the academy on business and politics than on jump navigation. Since the academy, he had people to do it for him. He didn’t calculate coordinates in his head. But once Burgin pointed it out, it was clear enough, if not obvious. If he hadn’t had Burgin insisting they didn’t come out, he wouldn’t have realized they went through the wrong jump. It was less than a hundredth of a degree off where it should have been, probably much less than a light second.