“Everybody, we’re dropping. Low-G first but be ready.” Nadine keyed a very gentle .1 G thrust, and they began to creep away from the Onion.
Something flashed right in front of the control room. Nadine raised her eyebrows and keyed the speaker again.
“Jake, get up here. I need you.”
Jake must have already been on his way, because it was only a matter of seconds before he came through the door behind her.
“What’s up?”
“Somebody’s alive on the Bountiful Onion’s bridge. And they’re shooting at us.”
***
“But, sir, I told you. We’re not pirates. And we certainly didn’t kill your crew. That was the disease.” Jake had managed to contact the Bountiful Onion. The captain and a single rating were still alive. The rating was on the bridge, linking the captain’s internal comm with the external one to Jake. The rating was also, at the captain’s order, firing the laser at them. But he must be uncomfortable with bridge operations because he appeared to have no idea how to adjust the targeting computer. His shots were wide. Jake began to understand how they could have dumped both the fuel and the reaction mass by accident.
“Liar,” the captain’s voice rang over the comm. “All my crew are dead! And they all got sick from your ship. Why aren’t you sick? Why are you immune and not my crew?”
“I’ve been immunized.”
“And why were you immunized against this specific disease? It was so you could infect us and then steal from us and escape unharmed, wasn’t it, pirate!”
“I told you. It had happened where I lived. Either way, sir, my crew mostly died as well. But, enough about that. Sir, you’re on a collision course with an asteroid. You need to get off the ship and come with us.”
“This is a TGI-pirate plot to steal the Bountiful Onion. You’re just waiting until we all die and then you’ll seize the ship. That is why you ran away, to call to your pirate friends to come and pick us up.”
“Sir, we ran away because we didn’t want to crash into the asteroid!”
“Or freeze to death,” Nadine added helpfully. She was able to control her board one handed, mostly. But she wasn’t going to be doing any fancy flying.
Jake shook his head at her and turned back to the speaker. “Could you please stop shooting at us, sir?”
The captain continued yelling at them, and then began yelling at the rating on the bridge to keep firing. A pale-faced Suzanne entered the bridge and sat down. “What’s going on?” she asked.
“Well, according to Colau over there,” Colau was sitting in the corner of the bridge. “We’re hearing Captain Crazy over there, who’s locked in his stateroom. The guy on the bridge doesn’t seem to know what he’s doing, but the captain has him running things. They’re currently shooting at us because the captain still thinks we’re pirates and he won’t believe me that they’re about to hit an asteroid.”
“Jake,” Nadine said from the control board. “Their maneuvering jets just fired. Big energy surge over there.”
“I thought that had no power?”
“They don’t. Ah, shit. It’s the mass driver. They’re firing from the capacitors.”
“Well, what do we do now,” Suzanne asked. She didn’t sound that interested in the answer.
“We zig and zag, and hope they run out of power before we run out of time.”
“What happens if they hit us?” Suzanne asked.
“We’ll die.”
“Fire again, idiot,” Captain Marchello screamed. “They’re pirates. If we don’t kill them, they’ll seize the ship.”
“Sir, I’m trying, but I’m not very good at this.”
“Silence! You are a trained member of this crew. That is why you are here.”
I’m here, thought the pseudo-gunner, because your cousin yanked me out of a sweet gig at that five-star spa. “I’ve never fired a mass driver,” he yelled over the comm. “I’m just your masseuse!”
“Keep firing. Go to rapid fire. Fast as you can.”
“Yes…yes, sir.” He looked down and found a button for mass fire. Well, at least he could do that right.
The mass driver began to dump steel cubes into the track, and a group of electro magnets began to propel them down at supersonic speeds. It was a very delicate balance—the metal cube started at rest, was magnetized by the first magnet, and then the computer switched on a magnet slightly behind that that “pushed” the cube forward, then another magnet re-magnetized the cube, then another pushed the cube faster and farther, and the process repeats until the cube comes screaming out the front.
This relied on very precise measurements of the magnetic fields, as well as a very stiff sub-structure holding everything together.
The Bountiful Onion was a very old ship. It still flew, but repairs had been made over the years with different materials. Expansion and contraction in space and good old-fashioned metal fatigue had taken its toll. As the mass driver went to rapid fire, the ship was still spinning, trying to get the Petrel on target.
The hull flexed. Just a little.
“Wow!” Nadine yelled. Jake had pointed a telescope at the Onion and put it on screen, so Nadine could tailor her random course changes to keep making things difficult. They watched the Bountiful Onion as a series of explosions burst just below the crew decks and the front of the ship blew off.
“Jake, what did you fire at them?” Nadine asked.
“Nothing. It wasn’t us,” he said, wide eyed.
“They just did the ship equivalent of shooting themselves in the foot,” Nadine laughed.
“Pretty spectacular screw up,” Jake said.
“Good. They killed Zeke. I want them to die,” Suzanne said.
Nadine and Jake looked at each other but didn’t say anything.
“Jake, can you get us a course back to the Roundhouse? That’s the nearest station.”
“Yes, Let me program it in.”
“Good, because that shot is starting to wear off, and my arm is hurting like hell.”
“Give me a minute and I’ll have it. Once it’s locked in, why don’t you all go and get some sleep. We’ll need a bridge watch, so I’ll take first shift. It will take us about seventeen hours to get to the station. You two need some rest.”
“I’m up for that,” Nadine said.
In short order, Nadine had locked in the course, and bounded off the bridge toward one of the staterooms. Suzanne and Calou left as well. Jake sat down and turned all the passive sensors on, and all the monitoring systems on. He didn’t want to be surprised again. He did notice a spike in power as Nadine sent a very large, very loud electronic message, but it was encrypted, and he didn’t really care that much. He waited an hour until he was sure both of them were asleep and went back to the med bay. Zeke’s body was still there, and he had a lot of work to do.
Eight hours later he returned to the bridge. He was as physically tired as he’d ever been, and completely drained. His arms ached and so did his back. He buzzed the cabins to wake the girls.
Suzanne came up first. “You look beat, Jake.”
“I am. Suzanne, I’ve cleaned up Zeke’s body and dressed him in better clothes. I’ve got him in a sleep sack and tied to a metal frame. I’ve figured out a course. If you like, I can set it up so that we can eject him so that he floats down into the dragon, eventually. He’ll burn up on re-entry. That’s the way we did it at my station.”
Suzanne looked very sad for a moment. “That was kind of you, Jake. Yes, let’s do that. I have a few things to put with him, and we would always say prayers at home. But he always wanted to go into space, so this will do.”
Suzanne collected Nadine. Jake made a few course corrections and told them when to let Zeke go. They watched for a few minutes as Zeke floated into space. Suzanne said some words in Francais. After Zeke was on his way, Jake brought them back on course for the Roundhouse.
Suzanne and Nadine came onto the bridge. Suzanne slumped down in the co-pilot’s seat. Jake got
up from his seat and turned the helm over to Nadine.
“Nine hours until we arrive. I’m going to get some rest. Wake me up when we’re almost there.”
Nadine nodded. Jake looked over at Suzanne but she didn’t say anything. Jake turned and headed for the nearest cabin. He really did want a long sleep.
***
A long time later, Jake woke feeling bleary. The light in his cabin was on. He checked his comm. Over nine hours. That was long enough. He collected himself and belted on the revolver that he had brought to the cabin. He walked up to the bridge. It was unmanned, purely on auto-pilot. He looked at their course. They had slowed down considerably—it would be another six hours before they got to the Roundhouse at this rate. He flicked through his monitors. Nadine and Suzanne were just coming into the airlock from outside. He flicked to the outside cameras. A very small vessel had matched velocity off the port airlock. It looked like a ship’s launch. Not a lot of range but a great deal of speed. It would have come from another ship close by.
He turned and climbed down the ladders to the airlock. Nadine and Suzanne must have heard him, because they were waiting for him. Nadine had a rifle. That was new. Suzanne carried one of the cases of platinum they had brought over.
“Nadine. Suzanne.”
“Jake,” Nadine said.
“Where did you get the rifle?”
“From the locker outside. You are wearing a revolver.”
“I am. Is that the last of the cases?”
“Yes, the rest are all across. We were going to go up to your cabin to wake you up and then tie you up. But I guess we don’t have to now.”
“You aren’t going to shoot me again, are you, Nadine?”
“Only if I have to. That was just business, Jake. Don’t make it personal.”
“I won’t.”
Suzanne turned to Jake. “Jake, give us the gun.”
“What if I pull it and try to shoot you, Suzanne?”
“Jake, I’ve seen you shoot. You missed a standing target at five feet. We are in no danger.”
“Is Nadine as good a shot as you with the rifle?”
“Do you want to find out?”
“Not really. I’m going to unbuckle the holster belt and hand it to you. Don’t shoot.”
Jake slowly unbuckled the gunbelt. Suzanne took it.
“Suzanne, are you going with Nadine?”
“Yes, we talked a long time while we were locked up on the Onion and on the bridge after Zeke’s…after Zeke’s funeral. She has a job for me. It sounds interesting. Zeke would have said it was fun.” Suzanne teared up a bit.
“The Militia will be looking for you. Technically we’re still indentured to them.”
“Nadine seems to think we can avoid them. And what do I care?” Suzanne gave her patented shrug. “Zeke is dead. Besides, it will be an adventure.”
“Zeke would have been proud.”
“Yes, I think he would have been.”
“I assume that after you leave, I’ll go back to the bridge and find that the console is locked or that you’ve cut maneuvering or something.”
“We dumped a lot of fuel. You’ll be able to make Roundhouse safely but only if you stay on this course,” Nadine said.
“Did you kill Colau?”
“No. Just gave him some basic laced with sleeping pills we found in the med bay. He should sleep for a day.”
“Well, thanks for not killing him. Or me.”
“Jake, we would not have killed you.” Suzanne said. “I like you too much.”
“We aren’t going to have any problems with you, are we?” Nadine asked.
“How? I don’t have much fuel. And I’m sure the weapons are down too.”
Nadine nodded her head.
“Honestly, I’m not even going to turn on the sensors to track you. I’ll say that you disabled those and that I managed to fix them later. You’re free and clear.”
“Aren’t you mad about the PMGs?”
“It’s not like they’re mine, Nadine. And you do have a gun.”
“Do you want to come with us?” Suzanne asked.
“Yeah,” Nadine offered. “Suzanne here says you aren’t nearly as useless as I always thought. The people I work for might be interested in having you around.”
“Yes, Jake. Come with us,” Suzanne said.
Jake stood and thought about it for a very long time.
“No. I think I’ll stay here.”
Suzanne looked disappointed. Nadine looked smug. “Told ya,” she said, turning to Suzanne. “You owe me ten credits.” She turned back to Jake. “Jake, I like you, so I want to tell you something.”
“Yes?”
“You’re a horrible spy. You should get out of this business. You’re just not fit for it.”
“Why do you say that?”
“You think too much. You can’t shoot. You’re useless in any sort of physical situation. You tend to panic.”
Jake stared at her. “Well, I like to think I have other skills.”
“You do, but they aren’t any good in this business. You’re out of your league, Jake.”
“I’ll try to remember that.”
“And the most important thing, Jake.”
“Yes?”
“You always loose,” Nadine smiled. “Good bye, Jake,” she said, and turned and walked into the airlock.
“Good bye, ladies. Free trades.”
“Free trades,” Nadine said over her shoulder.
Suzanne smiled at him, again. Jake looked over her shoulder to see Nadine fussing with the airlock control. He stepped forward, pulled Suzanne by her shoulders, and gave her a passionate kiss full on her lips. She leaned right into it and kissed him back. Jake stopped and stepped back. He looked at Suzanne. “I should have done that a long time ago.”
“Yes, Jake. You should have.” She arched her eyebrows and stuck her tongue out at him. “Good bye, mon cheri. Say hello to Mr. D for me. ” she said, following Nadine into the airlock, pulling it closed.
Jake looked at the closed airlock door. Say hello to Mr. D? Surely she didn’t mean Mr. Dashi? How would she know him? Did she mean Nadine’s crewman Big D? He shook his head. He was tired and that felt too complicated right now.
Jake turned around and trudged up to the bridge. As promised, his fuel situation was not quite critical but close enough. He set up a conservative cruising course and checked that all the systems were green, at least as many as he could. He set up the passive sensors and a telescope to monitor the launch as it blasted away. It was doing at least 4 G—no way would he ever catch it. He thought about going out to fix whatever they had done to the laser and antennas. They had probably just unplugged the control runs again. But it might be misinterpreted if he went out on the hull right now. They could be watching him with a telescope, and that craft might be armed. So, he just got a cup of basic and sat in the captain’s chair and pondered his career choices.
***
After four hours the launch coasted up to a small station. “Do we owe you anything?” Nadine asked their pilot.
“Nope, all taken care of. Your ride is across the bay. Go quickly. There is a pretty narrow launch window for where you want to go.”
Nadine and Suzanne grabbed the cases and hauled them across the deck to the other ship. Suzanne managed four, two per arm, and Nadine two in her unbroken hand. The cases were more awkward than heavy and felt lighter in the station’s gravity then Suzanne had expected.
As soon as they entered the next ship, a long-distance speeder, the crew closed the airlock and began to drop. The cargo master was right there and made them each stand on a scale to get an exact mass. It was a very narrow window, and they had to hit it just right.
“Two girls and twenty-eight kilograms of metal cases,” he announced.
Nadine looked up. “Your scale must be off. That should be about 150 kilograms of metal cases.”
“Nope, twenty-eight.”
“Are you sure? Could your scale be wron
g?”
“You and your clothes and that gun combined mass exactly seventy kg. That sound about right?”
“Yes.”
“The scale isn’t off.”
Suzanne looked at Nadine. Nadine opened one of the cases and looked at the small metal bars on the top. She hefted one of them, then another, then began pulling them out. She stopped when she pulled out one in the second layer and weighed it in her hand. It was still a metallic silver, but looked slightly different, less lustrous, then the others. She handed two bars to Suzanne. “Feel these.”
Suzanne weighed them in her hands. “This one is heavier.”
Nadine nodded. “Hey,” she yelled to the cargo master. “Can you tell the difference between platinum and other metals.”
“Sure can, I was a miner for years.”
“Tell me about these two.” She handed both bars to him. He weighed them in his hands.
“This one is a lot heavier than the other one, but superficially the same color.”
“Right.”
“It’s probably platinum.”
“What’s Platinum worth?”
“Eight hundred credits a kg.”
“What’s the other one then?”
“It weighs about a tenth of the other.”
“Seems that way.”
“It’s probably aluminum. That’s eight hundred credits a ton, if you are interested.”
Suzanne started to laugh.
Jake watched the stars for a while and then walked back to the galley. He took another cup of basic and walked to the empty stateroom next to his. Piled on the bed were hundreds of ingots of platinum and palladium. In the drawer next to the bed were dozens of ruthenium and rhodium. He’d have to carry them back to the cargo hold and put them in cases before he got to Roundhouse station. He sighed and got to work.
Chapter 17
“So, are these navigation directions correct?” Mr. Dashi asked.
“As far as I can tell, sir,” Jake said. He was sitting on the fabric covered chair in front of Mr. Dashi’s enormous wooden desk. He was wearing a clean TGI uniform without any rank insignia, but with a single company flash. His other flashes were all white with black borders—no corporate allegiance. To the casual observer, he was a junior worker hired on contract to TGI.
Orbital Claims Adjuster: Adventures of a Jump Space Accountant Book 2 Page 20