by Richard Dee
“Okay, Rixon,” I shouted at him, “so what was so bloody important that we nearly didn’t make it?”
His voice was calm; he had recovered from the beating and was buoyed by the adrenaline of our escape.
“It’s a medical pod, fully automatic, top of the range.”
I remembered them, I had hidden in one on my arrival in Basilan, and the priest had been in one having his knee fixed. They were a pretty expensive piece of kit and Rixon was right, it would more than cover his expenses and make up for the hassle. But I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction, not yet.
He carried on talking, “It was them or us, I wouldn’t have been able to protect Myra from Van and his boys, and now Vlad won’t necessarily know we got away. You saw the state of the Bishop; it could have exploded at any time. We’ll have to dump the shuttle, but first we go and get the Orca back.”
“How about the Inverter?” I asked.
Myra smiled at me. “We have a spare, hidden on board, just in case; it’s the one thing that will stop us so we keep one handy. We’ll just have to lay our hands on another.”
“I expect Griff knows where to get us one,” I suggested and there was laughter. As long as Griff wasn’t the one who had fancied his chances.
Chapter Thirty
We dropped into the port and landed the shuttle next to the Orca. The ramp was down and we hurried inside. Rixon had the pistol drawn but there were none of Van’s men around.
Griff and the rest were awake and tied up in the mess room, Stu was missing. We released Griff, and he turned to help us untie the others.
“What happened to Stu?” Myra said.
Griff shook his head. “He’s down at the back of the cargo hold.”
We found him behind a container in a pool of blood, a pulse rifle in his hands. There was a hole in his chest from a large calibre pellet-gun; seeing his mangled torso made me feel sick, I had liked Stu; he was a bit eccentric but hadn’t deserved to die like that. I was changing my mind; I had initially felt that we shouldn’t have blown up the Bishop, seeing the broken body lying there was teaching me that Rixon was right. It had to end.
Myra vanished into the engine room whilst we cleared up, it didn’t take her long to fit the spare Inverter and fire up the engines. We had decided that I would fly the shuttle into orbit and transfer to Orca, Stu would come with me.
Rixon shared his thinking. “I know you didn’t want to destroy the ship but we had no option. Let me give you the background, Dave. We had to do that for Myra, she was terrified of Van. He’s been watching her since she was little, and made it plain what he wanted her for. Vlad being around has kept her safe, when Van tried to grab her a couple of years ago, Vlad went crazy on him and that’s when this all started.”
He paused for breath. “Everything just fell into place for him there, he had us and Vlad wasn’t around to stop him. He probably forgot to stop paying you after Wishart, I said he was sloppy. He hadn’t reckoned on your knowledge of the Bishop, sloppy again.” He paused. “I’d like you to take Myra and keep her out of trouble for a while, while I go to Basilan and try and sort this lot out. And I think I know the perfect place for you both. It’s something that Griff mentioned to me.”
I nodded my agreement; the background I had just heard made me more certain that we had done the right thing. And with the thawing of the tension between us, a bit of quality time with Myra could be just what the doctor ordered.
We put Stu into the shuttle and I flew it into orbit after we had scavenged what we could from it. I was joined by Orca and transferred across after setting the Nav to fly into the star. Rixon said a few words for Stu as we watched it fly away.
We had a conference in the mess room; everyone congratulated me on my escape plan, which I shrugged off. “Just a bit of luck, we happened to be in the right place for it all to work,” was my response.
“Well you’re definitely one of the crew now,” said Rixon. “I owe you big, and I won’t forget.”
Our thoughts turned to the way we had been manipulated into capture.
“Danno must have called the Chenkos the first time he saw you,” reckoned Griff. “He knew you weren’t Dave and thought he might get some points for telling them.”
“Only, they already knew,” I said. “They must have cooked up the idea of getting back at Rixon through me; maybe they had spoken to Dolmen or one of his boys, perhaps they had the Black Box recording.”
“Everyone knows everyone,” agreed Griff. “And the stuff from the Moth was just the thing to set it all off.”
“Danno’s offer of a job was probably real enough to start with,” suggested Rixon. “But Danno would have been told to get us back so we could get picked up.”
We couldn’t think of anything else to say about that; it had made Myra feel better, she had been sobbing and blaming herself for everything, talking it through like that made her realise that her play with Danno was not the reason for our plight.
“We’re going to need another hand,” said Rixon, changing the subject.
“I know where we can find someone,” said Tan. “I keep in touch with the lads from my crew on the mine supply ships, any one of them would fit in nice.”
“How about Max or Lyl?” suggested Mitch. “Their contracts must be nearly up.”
“If they survived,” said Tan dryly, I wondered what she meant.
“What’s the plan now then, Rixon?” Griff asked. “Vlad will be slightly agitated when he finds out the Bishop’s gone, with most of his boys and his baby brother. And he will.”
Rixon nodded. “He’s never going to believe that it was all an accident. I reckon I can square it all away with Vlad; after all he’s the more sensible of the two. But it would be better if Dave and Myra were out of the way, just in case.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” was her reply.
“You’ll do what you’re told,” said Rixon. She laughed at that; Rixon ignored her. “Dave, how would you feel about doing up a ship with Myra?”
“Doing what?” I had visions of hiding on some backwater world in a cheap hotel with Myra trying to run away from me.
“Well,” he said, “Griff told me ages ago that there might be a ship for sale on Wishart. We could go and take a look. If it’s okay you could buy it; you and Myra could do it up, then you can work for me.”
To my surprise and relief Myra grabbed me. “Oh yes please.”
Chapter Thirty One
Then
Griff took me out of the forger’s door; I was still a bit unsteady on my feet from the hangover and the static. Griff had his arm around my shoulders and he supported me easily.
“Come on then,” he said. “I’m gonna take you to your new home, you can meet the boss.” We walked down the rubbish strewn streets toward the port. The high buildings meant long shadows. Sunshine was fortunately absent; I don’t think I could have dealt very well with bright lights. I tried to speak, and found that by really concentrating I could form thoughts and turn them into sounds.
“Do you mean Rixon?” My voice sounded slurred to me, like after a trip to the dentist, and Griff was obviously aware of my discomfort, because he told me to be quiet. To my dismay, he led me into a bar. Although it was well after lunchtime, the thought of more alcohol made me feel worse. Griff parked me at a table. “Stay there,” he growled, as if I could run away; and wandered up to the bar. He returned with a glass of beer for himself and a small shot of a brown liquid for me.
“Drink it in one, boy,” he advised and helped me to do so, holding my hand as I raised the shot glass. I took a sip, it was foul. His hand kept the glass to my lips and forced me to drink it all.
“Good,” he said as I lowered the glass, his grip relaxed. “You’ll thank me for that in about a minute.” He took a long swig of his beer and watched me.
Suddenly, as if I had been plugged into a charger of some sort, I felt amazing. My headache and all the pain vanished and the day improved immeasurably. Griff smiled.
> “What was in that?” I asked.
“You don’t need to know, it flushes your system, when you go to the toilet over the next few days your stream will be a funny colour, that’s fine, no need to worry.”
“Thanks,” I meant it; I was used to having a few beers but not that much that quickly. And then the chip thing had really disorientated me.
“Was meeting you a coincidence or part of the plan?” I asked him.
“Dolmen called us when he had his overreaction,” he said flatly. “Stupid fool; all he had to do was to get rid of the Moth so he could complete the job whilst you were off to Mistiq. Even when the marines started finding things he should have hidden, he could probably have talked his way out of it. Did you know the place was a stronghold?”
Talking no longer felt like an effort, but I merely shook my head. Griff carried on, “Thought not, he could have said the pirates left all that stuff to ensure good behaviour, but no. Somehow shooting started, and of course once that road’s been taken, it has to be walked to the end.”
He looked genuinely sad and wistful. “There’s been enough killing in the last couple of generations, most of us are sick of it. Dolmen called Rixon, he knew that we needed a new Nav. Apparently Dolmen told Rixon that here was something about you, that your turning up was a bit of synchronicity. I don’t know all the details, but Dolmen believes in all that sort of thing. You know the rest.”
“So I’m going to be working for Rixon?”
“Well, it’s better than working for some of Dolmen’s other… acquaintances or being in prison. Or back on Oonal with the rest of your shipmates. Now do you want some food? It’s getting late, we have a party to go to and the stuff here is really good.”
I hadn’t eaten for ages and my stomach growled at the thought of solids, but Griff, who did nothing by halves ordered a huge array of local dishes.
“What do you mean,” I asked him, as we waited, “a party to go to?”
“Didn’t I say? I’m taking you there as soon as we’ve eaten; it’s on the Orca, that’s your new home. We’re leaving tomorrow and we’re having a farewell party tonight. It’ll be fun. Come on; eat up.”
The food had already started to arrive and plates soon filled the table. Although I didn’t recognise half of them, I had a try and most of them were really tasty. More beer arrived; I stuck to the fruit juice. If I was meeting my new Captain I wanted to be sober when I did it. Griff never forced me to have a drop.
We left the bar just as it was starting to fill with workers coming off shift. Walking towards the port, we had reached the Gate and I was almost feeling human again. Griff and I were scanned at the barrier by a bored official. “Two crew for the Orca?” he said without looking up from his screen. “Griff no last name and Travise, Dave; Navigator.” He called to his mate, “Let them through.”
The barrier lifted and I walked towards my new home.
Chapter Thirty Two
Now
“There are a few things to sort out first,” said Rixon. “We’ll need a new engineer and a Nav as well as a replacement for Stu.” We were sat in Rixon’s cabin, just him, Myra, Griff, Tan and me.
“I reckon I can find the Nav and the Engineer easily enough,” said Griff.
“But not from round here Griff. I don’t want anyone who has the slightest chance of knowing the Chenkos.” Rixon was cautious “I don’t want another Dave Travise situation, especially now.”
“I know a shipping agent on New Devon,” said Griff. “He can spread the word quietly.”
Griff’s tone was thoughtful. This was the first time I had heard New Devon mentioned on board; it had a reputation in the Navy as a good run ashore. Officially it was called Nova Five but nobody outside the government called it that. It was one of the first settled worlds and some said the first, despite the five in the name. It was a place dedicated to technology and well away from the Rim. I had never been there. Nancy had been invented and made on New Devon.
“Let me do some checking first,” he continued.
Tan repeated her comments about the replacement for Stu. Rixon nodded. “Anyone who survives the mine supply ships will be tough enough for a job here,” he said. “I’ll leave that with you, Tan.” She nodded.
Myra was excited, her eyes shone. Was she eager to do some engineering, or was it the thought of being with me? I knew which one I wanted it to be.
“What sort of ship are we talking about?” Myra asked. “Does Dave have enough cash for that?”
“Like I said, Griff’s heard that there’s a Sprite for sale,” Rixon announced. “It would be a perfect addition to our enterprise. And yes, if what Dave said on the Bishop was true, he has more than enough money to buy it and do it up.” The fact that he thought of it as an enterprise meant that there was a future, a plan and that was good. “The two of you could run a Sprite; you could run it on your own, Dave, if you did a bit of work on it.”
I thought that I’d rather run it with Myra but kept quiet.
“I’m grateful, Dave,” he continued, “you saved my neck back there, you’ll have to put the money up but I’ll guarantee you plenty of work. There are a lot of jobs that we’re too big and costly for, you can do them. We’ll draw up a proper contract.” It sounded more than reasonable to me, after all the money was just lying there in the bank; it might as well do some good. And I hadn’t had to work for it, just stay alive.
“It’s not just my money though, is it?” I said. “Morally some of it’s yours and the crew’s, the money you lost because of the other Dave’s actions. And that’s not all; the Chenkos were still paying it to me a week ago. Hell, with Van dead they might still be paying me now.”
“That’s worth looking into,” Rixon said with interest. “I guess that must have been Van, with Vlad locked up. And we just found out how disorganised he can be. Buying the ship and running it will make money for us all, that’s the right thing to do with it.”
“I’ll take a look at the accounts,” I told him. “The payments were made every seven days, and the next one will be due the day after tomorrow.” Perhaps the Chenkos would continue to finance my new life as a ship owner.
“Now let’s get moving.” Rixon stood. “Dave, plot your course, we’re going back to Wishart.
Chapter Thirty Three
Myra and I stood side by side in the wheelhouse that evening; we were trans-light on the way to Wishart. The friction between us seemed to be a thing of the past, maybe it was reaction to the danger we had just faced, the realisation that we had nearly died or the loss of Stu. Either way it put our quarrel into perspective. She had applied the Sandalwood again; I hadn’t smelt it for a while.
“I feel terrible about Danno,” Myra said. “I know it wasn’t the reason for everything but I still feel like I shouldn’t have led him on.”
I put my arm around her and held her. “It’s okay, I feel bad about what I did on the mining platform, I never meant to hurt you; maybe I could have just bribed her.”
She put her head close into mine. “It’s over; let’s put it behind us, after all we weren’t an item then.”
I turned to face her, her eyes were misty and she had never looked more beautiful. I took a deep breath. “And could we be an item now?” I asked.
Her arms went round me; one hand pulling my face in close, as our lips met she whispered, “Yes.”
The remote alarm unit buzzed, waking me. I reached over for it and beside me Myra stirred. “What is it?” she muttered.
I checked the readout, suddenly awake as I read the alarm message, “High pressure alarm on the flux matrix, we’re coming out of light-speed.”
Quickly we both struggled into our overalls and as we headed for the door, there was a lurch as our speed dropped; the dampers must be off-line as well. The door opened and we tumbled into the alleyway. Picking ourselves up we saw Rixon emerge from his cabin, heading for the wheelhouse. He saw us together and frowned.
“What’s happening, Nav?” he growled.
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“High pressure on the flux matrix, Boss,” I answered him, hoping that was what he was referring to. Myra had disappeared towards the engine room. He was obviously annoyed about something; he never called me ‘Nav’.
Normally the alarm system gave you enough time to get organised before doing something radical, to have slowed down so suddenly meant that this must be more than a minor fault.
Rixon and I went around the wheelhouse cancelling alarms whilst we waited for Myra to report. The hull was intact and all systems except the main engine and the dampers were functioning so we were safe for the time being. Griff called from one of the shuttles, it was ready if we needed to abandon the Orca. Tan and the other two were loading supplies into it, in case we had a journey ahead.
We were between systems and there were only a few stars visible to us, out route was through a sparse area anyway, not a good place to get stuck.
“That spare Inverter that Griff got us might be duff,” said Rixon. “We’ve had it a while.”
I said nothing, I was wondering if Rixon would go into big brother mode after what he had seen. Maybe not, he had pushed us together with the promise of a ship of our own.
“You there, Dave?” the intercom buzzed. Rixon beat me to the pickup.
“I’m here,” he announced. “What’ve you got?”
“Inverter’s fried,” she answered, her voice partly drowned by the crackle of sparking electricity and warbling alarms. “No plasma, no matrix, no light-speed. And instead of tripping the board like it should; it had enough residual charge to blow a few other things. Give me a minute to sort it out.”
Rixon and I looked at each other; we were stranded in deep space. Automatically I asked Nancy, “Nancy, where are we?”