“You know her?” Marny asked.
“Not at all.”
“Should make for an interesting night,” Nick offered.
A familiar silver cab arrived and we loaded up.
“I’ve a tonne of things to get settled this afternoon,” I said.
“Did you get investors lined up?” Nick asked.
“Contracts are in your queue. I sent Ordena the rough drafts yesterday. I think you just need to accept them. Sam’s been pretty great. We should formalize some sort of arrangement with him in the future. I’d never have been able to put this together without him.”
“Sam?” Nick asked.
“That’s what Ada’s dad goes by.”
“Sure, if we could have someone putting together loads for the tug, that’d be worth something. I got a ping from the shipyard. Sterra's Gift will be ready by 0900 tomorrow. Have you finalized the load for Jeratorn?”
“I’ll do that when we get to the hotel. I didn’t want to commit until I knew when we’d have the ship. What about another crew?”
“I’m not sure about that yet,” Marny said. “If there’s a chance of a crap-storm I don’t think we want someone we don’t know.”
“Yeah, frak. Makes sense.” I felt like we were flying short-handed, but she was right. “How about the chandler? I’d like to go heavy on supplies.”
“Thinking about staying out a while?” Marny asked.
“Not really, but I’ve got a weird feeling about this trip.”
“Weird like you think it is going to go easy? ‘Cause as far as I know you’ve never actually made it to a single destination without getting into it.”
“Hah. No. It’s just Qiu being tight-lipped about the mission and Belcose dropping Harry Flark’s name.”
“I wouldn’t think the Navy would be quite so accommodating if they weren't expecting trouble. I’ll bump up the supplies,” Marny said.
We made it to the hotel and walked up to the room without saying much. I had a million things that I needed to get done and I imagined Marny and Nick felt the same.
“Ready to go about 1700?” Nick asked as I was ducking into my room.
“Think we need to bring anything?” I asked.
“I’ll get the hotel to put together something for us,” he said.
Open comm, Qiu Loo. I shut the door to my room.
“Loo.”
I mentally bristled at her terse greeting. She had denied visual comm, which wasn’t totally unexpected.
“Sunday, 1700 at Coolidge ship yard. Work for you?”
“I’ll be there. Anything else?”
“Nope.”
“Loo out.” She terminated comm. At least I had that out of the way.
Open comm, Ada Chen.
“Hiyas, Liam.” She opened the video channel. It was refreshing to see her cheery smile.
“Heya, Ada. Can you arrange to get the barge-string ready to go by Sunday, 1700 or so?”
“Sure. Am I soloing it?”
“Can you load solo and we’ll meet you? We’ll be leaving Coolidge shipyard at 1730, give or take.”
“Any reason for me not to get rolling first thing Sunday? You’d be able to catch me by midday Monday.”
“I guess it’s up to you. I just don’t want you too far out without an escort.”
“You sound like Dad. Nothing’s going to happen this close to Mars, especially since we aren’t filing a plan with anyone.”
“Jeratorn Co-Op knows we’re coming.”
“Pirates aren’t interested in empty strings, we're safe on the way out.”
“I suppose. Okay, sure. If you want to get rolling early, send us navigation data-stream and we’ll catch up. For my sake, though, don’t sail directly there. Make a couple of legs along the way.”
“That’s going to cost fuel,” Ada waggled her virtual finger at me.
“That’s a cost I’m willing to pay. I’ll tell Marny you’re disembarking early. She’s taking care of the chandlery order.”
“Great! Happy sailing, Liam. See you Monday.”
“Roger that, Ada. Happy sailing.” Close comm.
I shot a quick comm over to Marny about Ada taking off early. I didn’t want to interrupt my work.
Open comm Sam Chen.
“Sam Chen,” he answered.
“Hi, Sam. We should be in Jeratorn in sixteen days. You want to start firming up the load?”
“Not yet, Captain, but I’ll have it done before you get there.”
“Did you get the contracts back from Nick yet?”
“They just arrived. You guys must be working this afternoon.”
“Finishing up a few last minute details.”
“Captain, you take good care of my girl out there.”
“I will, Sam. Let me know if you need anything. We’ll be under hard burn by 1730 Sunday.”
“Understood. Be safe.”
“Roger that.” Close comm.
Run TradeNet saved query for Jeratorn. Optimize for arrival on or before eighteen days from Sunday 1800. Order by profit, eliminate bond in excess of two hundred fifty thousand.
The returned list of loads was even longer than it had been two days ago when I had last checked. The available profit was even higher, but so were the required bonds. It wasn’t a good sign. High bonds made me believe the shippers were building into their calculus that loads might not actually make it.
Open group comm Marny, Nick, Ada.
One by one they popped up into my vision, the AI placing their avatars next to mine.
“What’s up, Cap?” Marny asked. All three were looking at me.
“I’m not sure. I guess I’m just having some second thoughts.”
“What’s bugging you?” Nick asked.
“Aren’t we contracted to the Navy to do this?” Ada asked before I could respond to Nick.
“Nothing specific, Nick. It’s things like Jeratorn paying really high and … well … just a bad feeling I’ve got. And, yes Ada, we’re contracted, but I’d rather deal with that than push anyone into something we know is wrong.”
“So, you’re saying we’re getting paid too much and that’s got you spooked?” Marny said.
“Well, when you say it that way it sounds ridiculous.”
“Aye,” she replied.
“Equal votes. Anyone want out? No hard feelings if you do,” I had to get this out in the open.
Ada was first to answer, “Liam, there might be something going on, but that’s always the case. Listen to your feelings, but canceling the run isn’t the right thing. Be prepared. Take precautions. Sailing is always a risk.”
“I’m in,” Nick said.
“Gotta agree with Ada and Nick on this,” Marny said. “Cap, nothing ever goes as planned. You have to put yourself out there.”
I sighed, kind of wishing someone would have bailed. But, at the same time, I would also have been disappointed.
“Roger that. Game on. Sorry for the last minute jitters.” Close comm.
Select first load plan. Finalize contracts.
If everything went without a problem, we’d earn seventy-five thousand for this, more than we were going to make for the ore delivery. In actuality, there were three different loads and they all needed to be picked up in Puskar Stellar and delivered to Jeratorn. We could pick them up as soon as Sterra's Gift was ready to go.
Having finished my duties, I rejoined Nick and Marny in the living room. When we finally left, I was going to definitely miss this spacious suite. It had nearly the same number of square meters of floor space as all of Sterra's Gift, the main difference being every square meter in the suite was made for relaxation. I would miss that bed and shower, to be sure.
“Is there a time slot I can take Sterra's Gift down to Puskar Stellar tomorrow? Ideally, it’d be afternoon so I could bring Tabby along.” Nick held up his hand to ward me off a minute.
“Explain replaced.” Nick was clearly talking to someone virtually. I wasn’t used to looking for whatev
er clues a person gave when they were using an earwig. I did notice, however, that the earwig cable running along his cheek was slowly pulsing green. It made me wonder if mine did that.
Nick listened for a while and finished up. “Include replicator specs? … Right … No, I get it, I’ll take it up with my Captain. Thanks for the update. Yup, 0900.” I watched Nick’s earwig blink red and then back to its normal black color.
“What was all that about?” I asked.
“Shipyard. They decided to replace our turret,” Nick said, frowning.
“I don’t follow, it’s not their ship.”
“Right, their project engineer missed that.”
“Did he look at it? Does it look like a Navy ship? Can they undo it?” I asked.
“Not in time and he didn’t see the ship, he’s planet-side. I think it confused him since the turret we had installed was Navy issue. He said it’s a pretty decent upgrade and doesn’t require ammo.”
“Oh, so maybe I shouldn’t be complaining?” I asked.
“Marny?” Nick asked.
“I’d have to see the specs, but the general difference is laser blaster turrets are faster with less punch. No ammo, but they require an energy store and you can run that thing dry.”
“How fast?”
“Like I said, I need to see the specs, but probably seven or eight minutes of continuous rapid fire and then you’ll be down to a much slower rate of fire. You never truly run dry, since the ship is continuously charging it, but the fire rate is terrible at that point.”
“Hah, dumb it down a little, good or bad?”
“For us, I think it’s great. It eliminates the crow’s nest. Almost all of these babies are operated remotely. You’d puke if you spun around inside one of those bad boys. That puts the gunner on the bridge, which is better armored. But, if we run into something big, the laser blasters have difficulty ripping through the armor.”
“How big?”
“I wouldn’t want to run into anything much bigger than Sterra's Gift without a full load of missiles.”
“Okay, it sounds like they’re doing us a favor, other than they probably took our ammo. Did they give us a load of missiles like we agreed?”
“It’s an upgrade, Cap. Probably worth more than the ammo, and yes, six missiles.”
I should have picked up on the fact that we could only hold four, but it’d escaped me for the moment. Later I would be very grateful that the shipyard had increased our capacity to hold two more missiles.
“Perfect. Nick, are they still ready to go at 0900 tomorrow?”
“Yup.”
“Any problem if I take her out tomorrow afternoon to get loaded in Puskar Stellar?”
“I’ve got the chandlery loading at 1000, then I’ll need some time to re-fit the armory.” Marny said. “You should be good after 1400. That work?”
“Yes. I want to take Tabby with me, she frees up at 1200.”
“I’ve got some work to do on the ship, but I don’t mind if you’re underway,” Nick added.
“Can you think of anything else? Ada’s going to take off sometime Sunday morning and we’ll catch up with her.”
“You contact Lieutenant Loo?” Nick asked.
“Told her 1700.”
“I think we should take Ada with us tonight,” Nick said. It caught me off guard.
“Really?”
“Yup. She’s crew now and I think it’d help her to feel part of the team.”
“Why not? I’ll make the call.”
Open comm Ada Chen.
“Miss me already?” Ada asked cheerfully.
“Hah, yes. Any chance you want to meet us for a get together tonight?”
“Formal or informal?”
“We’ll be going informal and can pick you up. It’s somewhere south of Puskar, say around 1745? Sorry for the late notice, just came up this morning.”
“Part of being a spacer - plans are always changing. Sure, I’ll send you my address. See you in a couple of hours.”
On the way out of the hotel, Nick stopped by the concierge desk and signed for two large bags. The taxi he’d hired was larger and nicer than the ones we’d been using to get back and forth to the training facility.
“I hired it for the night - save us from all of the MAG-L connections,” he explained.
“What’s in the bags?” I asked once we were underway.
“Picnic food, whatever that is,” Nick said.
The larger cab we were in was very comfortable and once we got out of town it sped up considerably. I estimated we were traveling at least one-hundred fifty meters per second. In space that wasn’t very fast, but with all the atmosphere rushing by, it felt quite a bit different.
The cab slowed once we hit the outskirts of Puskar Stellar and finally set down on the street in front of a tall building. It looked like an apartment complex. Nick opened the door and Ada was already standing on the sidewalk waiting for us.
She was dressed in a white sun-dress with large yellow polka dots. She was such a nice looking girl, it made me feel off balance. Nick extended his hand and helped her into the cab. I felt a little jealous at his thoughtfulness, especially when she rewarded him with the bright flash of her petawatt smile.
I felt a little better, albeit no less confused, when she asked, “So you’re my date tonight, Liam?”
I looked to Marny and Nick and couldn’t come up with a good answer right away.
“Uh … yeah …” I finally recovered and committed myself to the conversation. “I sure am.” I smiled back at her as convincingly as I could.
“Hey, Cap. I think she’s just messin’ with you,” Marny said.
“How we fixed for time?” I asked, in an obvious attempt to change the conversation.
“Aww... Liam, I’m sorry. I’ve made you blush,” Ada said kindly. I’d spent a good deal of time with her and knew she liked to joke around. I also knew she didn’t have a mean bone in her body.
“Just caught me off guard a little,” I said.
“We’re really headed out of town,” Nick said. We all looked out the windows.
“Where do you think we’re going?” I asked.
“It’s a house,” Nick said. “Registered to Natalia Liszt, who happens to be a highly decorated, special-forces operative - retired. She runs a private investigation / security company.”
“Where’d you dig all that up?”
“It’s all out there if you’re willing to look for it.”
Several minutes later we’d completely left Puskar Stellar behind us and the cab accelerated back to its max cruising speed. When it finally slowed, we were approaching a lone house, sitting in a field of low growing grasses. There were two other outbuildings on the property, but other than that, nothing was visible for kilometers.
“Man, she’s way out here,” Nick said.
“I’m guessing she values her privacy,” Marny suggested.
“Where’d you meet her?” Ada asked.
“Training exercise this morning. She and Marny duked it out. It was epic,” I said.
“Oh, I hope you didn’t hurt her too much.” Ada looked a little shocked.
“She kicked my ass,” Marny said.
“That’s not what it looked like to us,” Nick responded. “You gave up your staff when she dropped hers.”
“She did that for me,” Marny explained.
“What do you mean?” Nick asked.
“She was way faster than me. It was only a matter of time and we both knew it. She was giving me another chance by dropping her weapon. It was unnerving.”
“Right. That reminds me, don’t you need a med-patch for your jaw?” I said.
“Aye, already taken care of. It didn’t take much time, most of my jaw was reconstructed out of alloy. When Tali said she thought she hit a steel plate, she wasn’t really too far off. Then again, I’d bet she isn’t made of all her original parts, either.”
“No kidding,” Nick said.
“Nope. Gross
you out?” Marny looked at Nick with concern.
“Nah, makes me want to know what else isn’t real though.” Nick waggled his eyebrows at her suggestively. I’d never seen him respond like that before.
The vehicle chose that moment to come to a stop.
“Oh, man, just when it’s getting good,” I complained.
Nick opened the door and a warm, dry breeze blew into the cabin.
“I never get tired of the real atmo,” Ada said, taking a deep breath.
“It’s so weird,” Nick said.
The cab had landed several meters away from a large, old, white house. Tali exited the house and walked toward us. She was wearing form-fitting black pants with clunky boots and a white sleeveless shirt. Her long black hair blew freely in the wind. I, once again, mentally face-palmed myself as I seemed always to be surrounded by gorgeous women. She waved with a friendly smile.
Just behind Tali, a young girl, full of energy, bounded out of the house. She was dressed casually in jeans and a loose t-shirt. When she took notice of us approaching, she swerved in behind Tali and sidled up next to her. It felt like an unusual reaction to seeing expected guests, but she could just be shy.
“I hope you don’t mind, but we brought our other crew member with us,” I said when we got closer.
“Not at all. Tali Liszt.” Tali held her hand out to Ada who shook it. “And this is Jenny. Jenny, this is Liam Hoffen, Nick James and Marny Bertrand.”
“Oooooh.” Jenny said. I guessed her age at fourteen, although I was terrible at guessing. The young girl didn’t accept the hand I offered, which wasn’t all that unusual, and stayed behind Tali. What surprised me was that Tali had remembered all of our names.
“Come on in,” Tali said. “You can put your bags on the kitchen table. There’re beers in the fridge. If you wait for me to grab it, you’ll likely be thirsty for a long time, so make yourselves at home.”
Jenny ran into the house in front of us. I didn’t know her very well, but she was acting like something was up. I was already a little on guard with Tali’s comfortable use of our names.
When I entered the kitchen there was a third woman standing there. She was taller than Tali. Initially, I thought it might be her mother due to the silvery hair. But, her body was wrong for that. She was also very attractive. All at once it hit me and my head snapped up to her face.
Privateer Tales 3: Parley Page 12