Coalition Defense Force Boxed Set: First to Fight

by Gibbs, Daniel

  "Samina, you're a regular prodigy, and you've done good work on my teams these past few years," Linh answered. "This is me repaying you." She made a face. "Mostly."

  "Oh?"

  She sighed. "The woman who saved my life in the revolution is Captain Henry's second-in-command. He’s done a lot for her. He took her in when she needed an ally—well, an ally who wasn't a cripple." Linh gestured to her hand. "So when they need help to get repairs done without becoming paupers, well, I couldn't say no to that."

  Samina swallowed. "So… this isn't just finding me a good ship and crew. You're looking out for them too."

  Linh nodded. "I am." She gave Samina a sly look. "So yeah, it's a bit of pressure on your shoulders, fetcher, but I think you've got what it takes. I'm trusting them to look out for you just as much. Let's go introduce you and hope they've got room for all of this." She held up the bag. "Did your uncle demand you take your whole wardrobe?"

  Samina blushed. "Only most. For when I go to other worlds and must protect my modesty."

  "Well, Tia will help you there. If men bother you, just let her know. The girls on the Shadow Wolf will back you up."

  As they approached, Samina noted the damage to the Shadow Wolf. It was not the worst she'd seen—it didn’t compare to what had been left of her Uncle Ali's ship when the salvagers got it back to Trinidad Station, with only her and Ali still alive among the crew. By that standard, the Shadow Wolf wasn't so badly off. "You fit the fusion drive assembly in the aft holds?" she asked Linh.

  "Best place for 'em without having to cut out the entire stern," Linh replied. "They keep the aft holds in vacuum to fool customs inspectors. Independent traders typically get by on shoestring budgets, so inspectors usually don't think twice."

  "That's clever," Samina said, still surveying the damage. The ship was spaceworthy but would require days of repair work. "They couldn't afford a full crew with the material costs?"

  "Not with the recent price hike. You're their best shot at getting this thing moving in a reasonable amount of time."

  Metal stairs brought them up to the walkway for the middle gantry. They led to the ship's port airlock, set between the front and middle holds. Nearby, a repaired hull breach was being resurfaced by a man with darker skin than Samina's, his hair arranged in rows on his head. It was a style Samina was not familiar with. She watched the head turn so the man could face her with a pair of light-brown eyes. "Sister," he said in an accent she couldn't place. "Peace ta ya."

  "Um, to you too. Are you one of the Faithful?" Samina asked, given his chin had a beard as well.

  To that, he laughed. "All of us are Faithful in one way or another. I’m a Bahá'í myself, an' we see the followers of Abraham, Christ, an' Muhammad as siblings, all seekin' the truth of God, just as we."

  "I see." She bowed her head to him. "Well, it is good to meet you. I am Samina Khan."

  "Vidiadhar Andrews. From New Antilla, if you're wonderin'."

  "I was born on Jinnah."

  "Ah." His eyes fell. "Ya lost a lot ta the League then, sister?"

  "My family's home. Pirates killed my parents and cousins." Samina's voice caught a little with emotion. Jinnah was becoming more of a dream than memory, but the wound from her parents' death, the hollow in her soul, could still ache when she least expected it.

  "God doesn't always ease the pain," he said to her. "Can't without takin' something away from us. But ya don't worry. You’ll see them again."

  "Do you know where Tia is?" Linh asked him, interrupting the conversation. Samina could see that Linh wanted her to get to know her new shipmates, but Linh also had work to do.

  Even as she spoke, the door was sliding open. Samina watched a woman emerge who had Linh's complexion, if lighter and closer to the brown tone of Samina's own skin. She had a similar facial structure to Linh, as well, but with stormy gray eyes. "I'm here," she said to Linh. Her eyes turned to Samina. "So this is our new engineer's mate?" A small grin crossed her face. "You know this isn't a pleasure ride, right, kid?"

  "Sorry." Samina sighed, suitably embarrassed. "It's my uncle, he insisted. And the ladies from our district charity joined him."

  Tia let out a small chuckle. "I heard your uncle was a spacer. Certainly, he should know better. Well, good news for you is that we're shorthanded enough that we don't double-bunk. As things stand, you'll get a room to yourself."

  "I'll leave her to you, Tia," Linh said, setting down the bag she'd carried for Samina. "I've got a guild meeting in half an hour. See you tomorrow for the repair overview?"

  "I'll be there."

  Satisfied, Linh walked off.

  "Looking good, Vidia," Tia said to the man, who nodded back before returning to work on the resurfacing. She glanced Samina's way again and, after a moment, reached down and took the same bag Linh had carried for Samina. "This way, Miss Khan."

  Samina dutifully followed the first mate of her new ship into the hall inside the airlock. "This is a Holden-Nagata, right?" Samina asked. "Mark VI?"

  "Mark VII, actually."

  "Ah. Yeah, that makes more sense. But what about the bulge between the holds? Below the lower deck? That's not standard."

  "Nor is our fusion drive," Tia pointed out. "We'll explain once you're settled."

  Together, they went through the upper deck to the living quarters. Inside was an unfurnished room, save for a mattress on a plastic bedframe. It was a little less space than Samina lived in with her uncle, which said more about that confined space than anything about the room on the ship. Samina set her things down and noticed a weird smell. "What is that?"

  Tia sighed and shook her head. "We've never quite gotten the smell out. Several months ago, we tried out a Tal'mayan hand for a couple of trips. He couldn't lay off the sweet smoke. It permeates the walls now."

  Samina's nose curled. "I still don't get why it's called sweet smoke."

  "Because to them, it tastes sweet. Or something. Put some air fresheners in the room, and you can fight off the smell. Until then, let me give you the tour."

  Tia showed Samina the rec room and the galley next then took a trip to the infirmary. Captain Henry's office and the bridge came next. Finally, they journeyed to the back of the ship for the engineering spaces. Three medium-weight fusion cores powered most of the ship's systems and were arranged in a triangle in the rear section of engineering. Coolant and electrical cabling abounded, as did the framework toward the bow for the Lawrence drive. She knew from the ship model’s layout that the drive was accessible from both the upper and lower decks and noted it'd been opened up from above. A light-skinned man leaned over it, working on something inside. Before Tia or Samina could say anything, he pulled himself from it and looked their way with a pair of blue eyes. His sandy hair was slick from oils. "Ah, there you are," he spoke with an accent Samina hadn’t heard before.

  "Samina, this is Pieter Hartzog, your new boss," Tia said. "Pieter, this is Samina Khan."

  "So you're the nice fetch tech the lady boss's friend recommended, eh?"

  The way he drawled out the "oo" sounds was strange to Samina's ears, and she struggled to place his accent.

  He grinned at her. "You think I talk funny, do you?"

  "No, sir," she said politely. "I just… I'm not familiar with it. Where are you from?"

  "New Oranje, girl. Ah, that's right. I'm a nasty ol' Boer, gonna hate and abuse you 'cause your skin isn't white as pearl." Pieter gave her a sardonic look.

  Tia rolled her eyes. "Don't mind him. Whatever idiocy they practice on his homeworld, he doesn't follow it."

  "Yeah. I'm harmless unless you f—unless you foul up my engine. Then, yeah, I get mean. But Chief Khánh says good things about you, and she's got good judgment. Ready to show what you can do?"

  Samina nodded. She could put her things away later. Getting right to work sounded right to her. She pulled the hijab from her head. "I am."

  "Well, don't want to get your pretty dress ruined." Pieter motioned to a locker. "Get a spare jumpsui
t and get over here. We've got a Lawrence drive to overhaul."

  "Yes, sir!" Samina responded, not hiding her enthusiasm. She knew Lawrence drives and had worked on them even before she and Uncle Ali were stranded on Trinidad. I can do this. She breathed a silent prayer of thanks as she rushed to the jumpsuit locker.

  29

  "Say again, Morozova, do not approach, or we will assume hostile intent…"

  Piotr listened to the hail from the Captain of the Astra Mater, a man named Cooper, and forced the best English he could manage as he said, "We are not hostile, Astra Mater. We only wish to know condition of spacer woman you come for."

  "I am under strict orders not to share anything regarding the case," Cooper replied. "Not until the search for Ms. Lupa has been concluded."

  "Search?" That English word was one Piotr and his brother were both well aware of. "She was left with the spacers’ union by our friend! Our friend who has been murdered! Now you tell me you search for her?"

  The line was audio-only, so the brothers couldn't see the other man, but they could hear the exasperated sound that came before he resumed speaking. "I'm not sharing anything else. But you can consider this formal confirmation that P&Y is terminating our agreement with you and your people. If you approach any closer, we will assume hostile intent and request assistance from Harr'al authorities."

  Piotr felt a desire to scream in rage at the man for being so unhelpful. Pain gnawed at him still over Vasily, and his feeling that he'd caused Vasily's death was growing deeper with this new information.

  Pavel saw his brother's mood and took over. "We understand you, Astra Mater. We intend no hostility and are withdrawing. God go with you." With that, he nodded to Semyon.

  Semyon Timofovich Kuybyshev lowered his red-bearded face to focus on enacting Pavel's order, cutting the communication line. Of all of the Morozova crew, he was the only one to hint at the distant Viking ancestry that was distilled into the Russian people in the era of the Kievan Rus. Pavel often called him the Varangian, referencing the Varangian Guard of the old Orthodox Roman Empire and showing the younger brother's knowledge of old Earth histories.

  "We’ve been fooled," Piotr grumbled. "The Lupa woman wasn't a victim. She works for the League."

  "You don't know that," Pavel pointed out.

  "Don't I? Vasily is dead, and she is gone. You heard them! They have cut our protection agreement. They would only do so if they believe we attacked the Kensington Star."

  "Maybe they…" Pavel shrugged. "We still need more information, brother."

  "Then get it," Piotr said. "In the meantime, put us on course for the jump zone so we don't provoke Cooper."

  * * *

  For three days, the repair work on the Shadow Wolf proceeded at an excellent pace. The addition of an engineer's mate had been an unexpected part of the repair work, but given the financial issues at stake, Samina Khan's admission to the crew was welcome. The material costs alone, not to mention labor, made Henry worry about his bottom line.

  Still, there was some work the experienced dockhands of Trinidad were best suited for, so Henry sighed and paid. Now, he watched the result of that payment from his place on the gantry, observing as Khánh's Matrinad repair hand worked on the exterior hull with an expert touch. It seemed the best arrangement: let the dockhands do the work of fixing up the hull with the delicate process of cutting patches of the right size and composition while the crew handled the internal repairs.

  Tia walked up to him, her eyes fixed on the Matrinad as well. "It appears the hull repairs are coming along."

  "They are," he confirmed. "But we might have to go easy on the hold repairs. We can restore the structure, but the full repairs may have to wait."

  She sighed. "Until we have the money we need to finish."

  A thought came to Henry. "How's our guest doing?"

  "She behaves. Felix has been keeping an eye on her."

  "Like I asked." Henry sighed. "I'm not a damned jailer, but right now, I feel like one."

  "I hate to admit it, but you're right about keeping her around. She's safest with us at the moment." Tia shook her head and sighed again. "I'm not sure we're safer with her, though. Running for Omega or the Jalm'tar frontier sounds pretty good right now. Or, hell, the Jewel Box."

  Henry smirked. "Well, I did promise we'd go out that way if things went south here."

  "They're certainly shifted in a southerly direction, you've got to admit."

  "The damage to our hull is a good indication of that, I think," Henry remarked sarcastically, suppressing a laugh. "Another day or so, do you think? They know we're here, and it'd be nice to get out ASAP."

  "Two at the minimum," Tia replied. She leaned against the gantry as if to study the wounded ship more closely. "Pieter's still replacing the blown-out parts of our Lawrence drive from the double jump."

  Henry nodded. The next question was an obvious one. "How's Samina doing?"

  "Experienced in the right ways but still unlearning some built-in instincts. Half the time, she forgets she's not a fetch tech anymore. Pieter thinks once she's adjusted to handling the work herself, she'll do great."

  "Good to hear. We've needed a good engineer's mate for a while."

  Nothing passed between them for several moments. "Maybe it wouldn't be so bad to die out there," Tia finally said.

  Henry glanced toward her, wondering about why she was bringing up such a macabre subject. "Death's never pretty." The weight of his voice showed all he knew of the issue.

  "I know. I'm not…" Tia shifted her weight and shook her head before facing Henry directly. "I'm not talking about death being pretty. It's horrible, and I've seen more than enough of it. I'm just saying we all have to die. And some ways are better than others. From a personal point of view."

  Henry observed the distant look in her gray eyes. "Thinking of the past?"

  "Yeah. Something about this reminds me of it. How close I came to a bad end. I could've ended up being worked to death in a prison camp after being degraded and humiliated by the corps on Hestia." Tia crossed her arms as if to suppress a shiver. "Or hung publicly."

  Henry nodded. He'd seen some of it himself and understood her sentiment. "Yeah, there are good deaths and bad ones," he agreed. "I get wanting to have a good one alongside the people that matter to you. But if you ask me, the best death's the one where you're old, ready to go, and your family's together at your bedside."

  Tia smiled thinly. The smile was not a happy one, though, and he saw a tear form in her eye that told how much the thought of her family hurt. She hadn't seen them in over ten years. Even a GalNet call could have put them in danger of arrest by the Hestian government. "One day, maybe I'll be able to think that could be my end," she said. "But for now, if it comes, it's coming out here."

  "And on that note…"

  "On that note, I'll finish my rounds for now. See you for a working dinner?"

  "Yeah," he said, well aware they had finances to balance. "I'll see you later."

  * * *

  Pavel was waiting when the call came back from his source on New Cornwall, a government police agent whose son had been rescued from Harr'al slavers by the Morozova. The report he got from the Cornish woman made him scowl. He returned to the bridge, where his brother was still waiting for him.

  On the main display was the star TR-715, a K4 star of pale-orange light. Its solar system was mostly empty save for an automated helium-3 refueling station over the sixth planet in the system, which provided the source of that critical element to the Lou Shipping-built station. On Piotr's orders, Semyon had selected the system as a place to loiter.

  Piotr immediately turned in his chair to face Pavel. "Well?"

  "Inspector Morse has confirmed the news," he said. "The New Cornish authorities believe Lupa works for us and that we’re attempting to frame the League for the disappearances. They've already asked the other systems to intercept our ship if we're spotted and ordered Lupa's arrest."

  Piotr snarled. "I k
new it," he hissed. "That… bitch. She must have killed Vasily! Or ordered it! So she could escape without being detected!"

  "Even if she didn't order it, it's related." Pavel shook his head. "Brother, I want to find her too. This time, we’ll question her more thoroughly. Something greater is going on here, something dangerous."

  "Agreed. This sounds like a League plot, brother. Those Christ-hating monsters are behind all of it. Now we have to find out where she is."

  "If she left Harron, she would have left through Sektatsh. It would be too much risk to try to travel to another of the enclave cities on Harron." Pavel took his seat and called up system access. "I'm going to connect to the Sektatsh Spaceport and see what ships departed recently."

  Piotr waited patiently as Pavel did his search. He examined the ships that had left and details relating to them. It took time and patient examination, but not as much time as he’d feared. "Ah, I think I know now," he said.

  "Do you?"

  "Vessel Shadow Wolf out of Darien. She arrived carrying cargo from Lusitania on the day Vasily is believed to have been killed and left the same day. Rented a helicar and returned it the same day."

  Piotr considered that. "That's not too strange. Who would want to stay on that world for too long? They may have had business in the city."

  "But why rent a helicar for a single day just to attend to business? Why go to the expense when public transport would work just as well? A rented helicar would work to quietly slip someone to the ship. And the record shows they were temporarily halted on departure for suspicion of sneaking a slave aboard." Pavel could see from his facial expression that Piotr considered those facts more convincing.

  "All right. Something to possibly investigate," said Piotr. "Send to our contacts across the region. We are looking for the Shadow Wolf and wish to know her destination."