He nodded again.
“You’re not very talkative, are you?”
The big man just stood there.
Making a decision he said, “First, Chief, wait here just a moment.” He then trotted off back to the tavern they had just left.
Walking inside he motioned the bartender over.
“The big man that was with those other guys, do you know him?”
“I know who you’re talking about,” the barkeep answered.
“How long has he been with Marley?” he asked as he put more money on the bar.
“Gossip? Not long. He’s only been on praxis for about a year or so and he only recently hooked up with those guys. He usually keeps to himself. I guess maybe he ran out of money.”
“Gossip? That’s his name?”
“That’s what Marley and his crew called him.”
“Geez… You know where he’s from?”
“No, but that jacket he’s wearing carries some patches I recognize. They’re from Cromwell’s Legion. They were a fairly well-known mercenary group in this sector.”
“Were fairly well-known?”
The barkeep shrugged. “They were one of the more reputable groups but rumor has it they got decimated on Tripoli a while back. Kind of a sad story – they were betrayed by their employer.”
“Anything else I should know about him?” he asked.
The bartender looked him in the eye and said, “He’s never caused any problems around here but I hope you know what you’re doing. He’d be a hard man to control.”
“Or a good man to have at your side,” he added.
The lieutenant started to walk away from the bar and stopped himself.
“Hey, one more thing…”
The barkeep glanced at the bar top, indicating more money would help.
The lieutenant just glared at him.
He sighed and said, “What is it?”
“We need a star map. We’re new around here and we need to know where we’re going.”
The bartender laughed. “Is that why you were looking for an astrogator? That was stupid.”
When the lieutenant started glaring again he quickly added, “All you need to do is go to the Miner Guild’s offices. You’ve got a ship; tell them that you’re interested in hauling some freight and you want to get an idea of what routes are available. They’ll help you out.”
“Isn’t that kind of dangerous? Advertising their routes like that?”
“Na, there’s not much piracy around here, especially for raw ore. Besides, they need all the transport they can scrounge up.”
ΔΔΔ
When Lieutenant Stark trotted back up to the group he looked at Argentine and said, “First, I’d like to hire this man.”
Argentine glanced at the chief and then shrugged.
“If you hire on with us,” the lieutenant said to Gossip, “You’re going to have to earn our trust. If you betray us we’ll either drop you off on some obscure planet or kill you, whichever is easiest.
“Can you live with that?” he concluded.
Gossip nodded once.
“I heard your name was Gossip; is that what you want us to call you?”
The big man again held his arms out from the side and just shrugged.
“Can we get back to the shuttle now?” the chief asked.
Argentine was undecided. It was getting late but they still hadn’t found out what they needed to know.
Finally he said, “Let’s head back for now and get a fresh start tomorrow morning. We need to come up with a strategy and find out where we’re going from here.”
After a brief moment Lieutenant Stark said to them, “Actually, I already have the answer to that…”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
An Unlikely Rescue
Adrift in the Praxis System
By the next afternoon they had a fairly good idea of what this sector of the spiral arm looked like.
“I had no idea,” the chief said, honestly amazed.
“This probably isn’t everything,” Sami added.
When Argentine looked at her questioningly she continued, “These are trade routes. A star chart needs to list all gravity wells, so every star system should be accounted for. But the only planets this map is going to show as being inhabited are the trade destinations. There could be, and probably are, a whole bunch of these worlds that are populated but just not buyers.”
“That’s incredible,” said the chief, still surprised by what he was seeing. “I had no idea that civilization was so… dense.”
Argentine briefly reflected that the comment could be interpreted a couple of different ways…
“Apparently our Republic wasn’t as aggressive and expansion oriented as we’d been led to believe,” he said.
“So where do we go next?”
Chief West brought up the obvious. “Before we go anywhere I think we need to take advantage of the local economy and stock up on our consumables. Especially food.”
Argentine nodded. The metals that they’d refined on ship were bringing a great price on this planet, but you never knew what the economy would be like on the next one.
“Okay, then that’s our agenda for today. We’ll make a couple of trips and restock our larder. In the meantime, Sami, I want you to focus on our next destination… Sami? Are you paying attention?”
“Yes, of course. I’m sorry, what did you say?”
From anyone else but Sami this might’ve been irritating.
She continued, “It’s just that I’ve been tracking that crazy damaged ship. He’s done something that I thought would’ve been impossible.”
“He?” asked the Chief. “Ships are female.”
“Not this one,” she replied.
“How do you know?”
“I just… do.”
Argentine wanted to put the conversation back on track…
“Okay Sami, what did he do?”
“I think I told you earlier that after his swing around the outer gas giant he was heading in-system with much too high a velocity to rendezvous with the planet. So he traveled past the star and then must’ve done a 180 gravity swing with another planet on the other side, because he came shooting back this direction dangerously close to the star itself and then did something incredible.”
Somehow Sami managed to make even astrogation sound exciting…
“He dramatically reversed his thrust. The energy curve on that ship is just incredible. Especially for it being damaged and all.”
“Are you saying he slowed enough to fall back into the sun?” the chief asked.
“No, just the opposite. He still had escape velocity but instead of circling the star’s gravity well in an ever-expanding orbit, his thrust had the effect of climbing straight up the side of the well. I’ve never seen a maneuver like that. It was terribly inefficient and could ruin a stellar drive engine, but he shed enough velocity so that a planetary orbit is at least possible.”
“So that ship is heading this way?” Argentine asked.
“Not exactly. I think he was trying to make it here… Until a few hours ago he was providing lateral thrust, and then all of a sudden it gave out. Unless he turns those engines back on he’ll miss orbit, spiral out of the system and into the dark.”
She sounded almost sad as she said it.
“Or,” the Chief said. “He could be waiting to start up his engines because he has a completely different destination in mind.”
“Maybe,” she said. “But I can’t see what it would be.”
“Well, keep us informed,” Argentine said. “But Sami, in the meantime figure out where we need to go next.”
ΔΔΔ
Argentine had to step up into the crew quarters hallway.
Praxis III practiced an ancient and inexpensive way of preserving food; it was called canning.
He'd wanted to stock up on every provision possible. He had no idea what the future held but the only thing in life that really terrified Argentine anym
ore was the thought of not eating.
The Pelican wasn't really designed to store that much food, so the floor of the passageways were now stacked three deep in cans with a bunch of hard ceramic hull patches laid on top of them. The floor was still smooth but it bugged Argentine to have to duck in the corridor. He actually laughed to himself when he realized that Gossip was a full head taller than he was.
He’d known Sami long enough to know what was coming next. So he was prepared for it.
“First? Can I talk to you?”
“Sure,” he said while gesturing her to come into his cabin.
“It’s about that ship. He hasn’t started up his engines and I don’t think he can. He gave it a helluva try but I don’t think he’s going to make it.”
“Are you suggesting that we should try and rescue him?”
“Yes!” she said excitedly. “Thank you! I know it’s what we’re supposed to do!”
“Wait a minute; I haven’t said we’re going to do anything… And what do you mean it’s what we’re supposed to do?”
“It is… I mean, I just think it’s the right thing to do. Don’t you?”
“Sami, I have no idea. We’re kind of making up the rules as we go here. How do we know what we might be sticking our nose into?”
“We don’t! We just know it’s the right thing to do!”
“No Sami, you know it’s the right thing to do. I don’t have your confidence in that.”
“But you’re the Captain! You have to know the right thing to do!”
“I’m not the Captain! I’m just a guy running for his life along with a few friends,” he exclaimed. “And even if I was, being a captain doesn’t mean I always know what’s right!”
Sami got a confused look on her face and then shook her head sharply. “You won’t know the right thing to do because you’re the captain; you’re our Captain because you always know the right thing to do! Don’t you get it? We believe in you.”
She abruptly stood up and for a moment Argentine thought she was going to cry.
“So do the right thing!” she said as she walked out of his cabin.
ΔΔΔ
It took them four days to rendezvous with the unknown ship.
It was the strangest looking thing that Argentine had ever seen. Or maybe it was just because of all the damage, but its designers had certainly taken a different engineering approach.
Sensors showed that it had stopped venting much atmosphere and that its engines were indeed cold, and probably dead. Besides a minute battery trace there were no energy readings detectable.
Lieutenant Stark and Chief West recovered the lone body from the ship.
The former pilot was in a funny looking spacesuit. Everyone was gathered just inside the airlock when they brought the lifeless figure inside.
While the lieutenant and the chief removed their suits Argentine bent down to get a look, but the pilot’s faceplate was opaque. It only took a few moments to figure out the latches and he removed the helmet.
Sami had been right; the pilot was male. With pasty skin, sweat matted hair and that ugly smell that only spacesuits can give you… Argentine contemplated throwing him right back out the hatch.
As he started to stand up, however, the body gave a huge gasping inhale of breath.
Argentine was so surprised he almost stumbled. And he wasn’t the only one; everyone took a step back.
The man blinked his eyes open and in a croaky voice said, “It took you long enough.”
And after a moment he focused on Argentine and added, “Oh, and thank you mate…”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
I’m In It For The Prophet
Adrift in the Praxis System
To say that the Pelican had a sick bay was a misnomer. Instead there was a medical alcove just off of the main passage with an office attached to it.
Their new patient now occupied the one bed in the alcove.
All crewmen in the Chezden fleet were trained in cross specialties. On small ships, especially, it was a necessity. Lieutenant Stark was certified as security and weapons. Sami’s specialty was astrogation and she could also pilot the ship when necessary. The chief was the Pelican’s lead engineer and had expertise in hyperspace theory as well as the ship’s mechanical systems such as life support and damage control.
As a First Officer, Argentine was expected to be familiar with all specialties but not necessarily be a master of any.
Which made for a wide variety of skills, but as luck would have it, none of them had medical training.
So, Sami watched over the unconscious pilot the best she could while the chief, the lieutenant, and Argentine huddled on the bridge to discuss what came next.
“We’ve gone over that ship bow to stern,” said the chief.
It was designed for a crew of five and there’s no sign of them, but all their personal effects are still there. The interesting thing is there’s not a single photo of our patient. I don’t think he was one of the crew.”
“So he stole the ship?”
The chief just shrugged.
“What about the ship’s records?” Argentine asked.
“We accessed what we could but the last entry in the Captain’s log was entered twelve days ago and there was no mention of anything amiss. I’ve downloaded the ships telemetry but I haven’t had time to go through it. Maybe it’ll tell us something.”
“First, I did find a cabinet of small arms weapons,” the lieutenant said. “I brought them back with me and I’ll look them over. I’m not familiar with the design but I think I understand them well enough. Judging by how compact the energy source is I’d say that the technology is slightly more advanced than ours.”
“Okay, let’s…”
“Argentine,” said the chief with a huge grin. “That’s not all we found.
“I was able to download the ship’s star chart as well as its database.”
ΔΔΔ
A day later they were setting around the one table in the ship’s mess when the chief asked the main question on everyone’s mind.
“So what are you running away from?”
“Running away? I wasn’t running away. Why would you ever think that?” responded their now fully awake patient.
“Besides, what kind of way is that to start a conversation? No hello mate, or how you feeling? Just accusations? What kind of people are you?”
The chief didn’t miss a beat.
“We’re the kind of people that saved your butt and you haven’t answered the question.”
“Well, I suppose I should be thankful… That blasted ship let me down at the last minute.”
“How did you survive hitting the gravity wall?” Sami asked enthusiastically.
“Yes, that was pretty incredible wasn’t it?” he answered with a grin.
“Let’s stay on track here,” Argentine interjected. “Tell us your name and then we want to hear the full story. I think you owe us that.”
“Ah, civility at last. I don’t suppose you have a spot of tea to go with the politeness?”
Gauging the looks he received he just sighed.
“Very well, my name is Barry and I will once again thank you for being there when my situation went all to pot.”
“Barry who?” asked the chief.
“Does it really matter old man? This should be a celebration. Let’s not turn it into a damp squib, don’t you think?”
Argentine said, “I think you still need to tell us how you got on that ship and exactly what happened to bring you here, and I think now would be a good time to do it, don’t you?”
“Don’t be giving me a bollocking, mate. It hasn’t been an easy road, you know.”
Mocking offense Barry leaned back in his chair and said, “Hold your water and I’ll walk you through it all. But a spot of tea really would be blinding.”
Most everyone around the table looked confused but Sami smiled and said, “No problem, I’ll get it.”
ΔΔΔ
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Running With Argentine Page 7