Myra,: The start of a galactic adventure. (Dave Travise Book 1)

by Richard Dee

  It couldn’t have been anything to do with her, my suspicions were just that and I mentally apologised to her. ‘Look after her,’ Rixon had said; I would have to do that now.

  On the third day, Ria ran into the mess. “He’s awake,” she shouted, turning straight back to the bay. We followed her. Griff was trying to get the sleeve off, weakly grabbing at it as alarms buzzed.

  “Calm down,” Myra and Ria called. “It’s alright now,” and at the sound he flopped back.

  “Take it easy, Griff,” I said and he turned his head. “That you, boy?” he weakly muttered. Ria held his right hand, he squeezed it.

  “I’m here, Griff, what happened?”

  He shook his head; “I don’t know much, my head is throbbing and I can’t remember. I know I was doing a job in the troopship, fixing some alarms and checking the stores when we launched and started bouncing about. I strapped myself in but my tools and other stuff were flying all around the cabin. Something must have clobbered me because the next thing I know, I’m awake on the planet, the ship is wrecked, there’s blood everywhere and the radio’s bust.” He took a deep breath. “Rixon must have jettisoned me.”

  “Have you any idea why?” Myra asked.

  He shook his head. “No, it was all quiet. We were early to meet you. Why is my arm so cold?” We had to tell him. “Oh,” he said. “At least it wasn’t my drinking arm, or the one with my chip in. I would have had to go see Rick again,” His attempt at humour was lost on Ria, who sat there numb. The readouts said that I could remove the sleeve, I did and the extent of the surgery was revealed. A line of neat sutures encircled the stump of his arm, just above the elbow. The flesh was coated in a plastic film to keep it clean. Griff just looked at it, then at Ria as she helped him sit up.

  “I’m not much good to you now,” he said, waving the stump. It sounded brutal but it was probably better for him to get it out, now we would see what she was made of.

  “It’s okay, Griff,” she said, strength in her voice, “you’ve still got me, we’ll be alright.” It was said with such emotion that I knew that she meant it. She was going nowhere, she had her man. Griff smiled and put his other arm around her shoulders.

  “Okay,” he said, “it is what it is. I’m alive and that’s a start. It’s nothing to do with me, you’re in command here Dave; but for what it’s worth here’s what I’d do, I’d scoop up the debris and see what’s in there.”

  He was right of course, I was in command and he was reminding me of my obligations without usurping me, just like a good chief mate would. I felt the weight of responsibility, it was no longer a game played by Myra and me, things were getting serious.

  We secured the Freefall and lifted off. Once we were in orbit we found the debris field again. Myra scanned for the largest objects; she found a lot of bits and pieces which I scooped up. But there was nothing there to help us.

  Griff improved over the next few days, he was soon up and about and started to fill his skin again. Ria was a constant presence, but he didn’t let her do too much. “Let me try and do it,” we heard him say gently, time and again. The boom in his voice gradually returned, he was adjusting to the loss of his arm remarkably well, like he did everything.

  “I need to get online,” he announced. “Time’s wasting. Rixon and I had an arrangement, if anything happened to either of us; there were things we had to do.”

  “Help yourself,” I said and he sat at a terminal for several hours, typing one handed and muttering as he had to keep correcting his spelling.

  “Right, that’s all done,” he announced. “I’ve secured all the money and set up a message to say that we’re busy for any callers. And I’ve downloaded the latest traffic, on and off, the Black Box data, and Rixon’s log from our cloud. It’ll take a bit of going through but it might give us some answers. I’ll make a start; it’ll give me something to do.”

  “I can help, maybe set up a search in the computer for keywords,” suggested Ria. Griff took her hand and squeezed it. “We’re going to make a good team,” he said, his love obvious.

  “How long were you in the troopship before it was jettisoned?” asked Myra.

  “About four hours,” he replied, I was just about to come out for lunch when… Wait a minute!” He frowned, trying to recall the details. “There’s something, I can’t recall it,” he muttered and shook his head, as if trying to physically align his neurons.

  “What?” we all asked at once.

  “I remember bits and pieces,” he answered. “The job wasn’t due but Rixon insisted I do it that morning.”

  “Does that mean that he knew something was wrong, maybe he was trying to protect you?”

  “Maybe, things were different since you and Myra had gone, the whole atmosphere had changed on board.”

  “How do you mean?”

  “The new crew, the ones we got from New Devon, they were not ideal, there was a lot of tension.”

  It sounded like the happy world we had left had gone downhill.

  “Rixon, me and Tan were in one group,” Griff explained. “The new engineer and Nav kept to themselves, they were okay and onside with Rixon. They were a couple and highly recommended. The fly in the ointment was the man we got to replace Stu. He was Marik, he said he used to be a security guard at one of Pennington’s mines; he was hanging round the port looking for work. Well we hadn’t got anyone from the agency and we were ready to leave so we took him, we thought we could check him out on the way to Farista.”

  That was just about as wrong a place to get crew as you could find. All the dubious types hung around the ports, safe from the customs and discovery.

  “Why did you take him?”

  “I don’t really know why,” he said with a perplexed expression. “Maybe I can’t remember because of the bump on my head? He was signed on by Rixon. He got off on the wrong foot with Mitch and Ardullah, instead of keeping his head down and getting established, he made it plain from the off that he didn’t like the way they did things, said they were sloppy.”

  It sounded like a disaster, in a small crew, the last thing you needed was a troublemaker.

  “In the Navy,” I said, “we’d have got rid of him straightaway, presumably he was on a trial?”

  “Oh yes, that was the plan, we could see he was wrong for us but before we got to Farista and could; well it all got messy. Marik made a play for Mitch, she knocked him back, obviously he hadn’t been paying attention. Tan got upset at that and wanted to get involved. Mitch stopped her, words were said and the whole thing fell apart. Marik had a rethink, he sat back. Then, when we got to Farista, Mitch and Ardullah walked off the ship.”

  This was terrible news. “Then what happened?”

  “Tan went crazy, she had to be restrained, we locked her in her cabin. Rixon said it was the first time he had ever had to do that. Marik realised that he had overstepped the mark. He apologised to everyone and said it would be best if he went. He did but of course it was too late.”

  What a mess. “So when you came to get us, you were three men light?”

  Griff nodded. “That’s why we weren’t answering your calls; we had all that going on. Tan was not best pleased without Mitch… well let’s just say that things were strained and work took longer than it might have. And with the jobs we had, we all had to do extra to make up. I was doing lashings, at my age!”

  There was a lot of food for thought there, maybe a reason in there for the destruction of the Orca. I had a sudden thought, “Could the Chenkos have hacked Nancy and set up something while they had the Orca, back on Nara? Maybe there was a bit of code hidden in a message to trigger a virus or subroutine.”

  “I don’t think so,” said Myra. “I went over all the systems after we got free, I couldn’t find anything.”

  “I know!” Griff shouted out, “That’s it!”

  “What?”

  “The reason I found Marik logged in. He must have been a Chenko plant, I caught him fiddling in the database, he said he
was trying to find a movie to watch.”

  “You think he was doing something he shouldn’t?”

  “I went over his history but couldn’t spot anything, I told Rixon, the night before. It’s possible he was hacking the system. Trouble is, unless we find him and ask him, we’ll never know, best to get over it and move on.”

  We absorbed this and it certainly made us think. We had all been changed by the events of the last few days. And in a way he was right.

  But then there was the drive, and the proof that there was a second man. It hadn’t been Marik, we were no closer. It all seemed immaterial now though.

  We scooped a few more times in the debris but found nothing, any evidence had gone. There seemed little point in staying here any longer.

  “What was Rixon’s plan after we had met up here, Griff,” I asked.

  “It was my plan really,” he said. “You know the man on New Devon; he was a shipping agent and cargo broker. We used him to get an introduction to the crewing company and he told me that he wanted to sell up and retire. I think I could do a deal with him. His agency was going to get work for both ships, no reason I couldn’t buy him out and do it for you though.”

  “How would you feel being stuck on the planet?” In answer he waved his stump. “Wouldn’t be much use out here anyhow would I? And you’ll need someone with contacts while you get organised.”

  Ria spoke up, “I’ll keep him happy, he won’t want to stray from me.”

  “What? You be a businessman, Griff?”

  “Don’t laugh, boy, I’m not getting any younger and New Devon is a good place to be, as good as any and I’ve seen a few.”

  Chapter Forty Three

  New Devon was a revelation, probably the most beautiful place I had ever been. The scenery was breathtakingly glorious, unspoilt by man’s colonisation. If it hadn’t been for the fact that it seemed to rain all the time, it would have been perfect. The people were friendly and the food was good. Griff explained that the port had a gang of young women, the locals called them Gyrls, who guarded the ships from theft or damage in exchange for food and a few coins. In itself that was no surprise, a lot of ports had them in one form or another, but all female gangs were unusual.

  One wandered over as we opened the ramp, a scruffily dressed teenager, all in black with dark hair and eyes. She walked with shoulders forward and a fixed, determined stare. Griff said, “Leave this to me, I’ve been here before.” He talked to her for a while and when he came back he introduced us. “This is Hannah,” he said. “She’ll be watching the ship for us.”

  She waved her hand. “’right all,” she nodded. “Like the Sprite! Griff ’ere says you’re seeing Ivan. Tell Benj I got it so far.”

  I was confused by that, but Griff seemed pleased.

  As we rode into town he explained. “The port wouldn’t run without the Gyrls,” he said. “Unofficially of course, you keep them onside or else. They’re all tec wizards; they can get in to your ship anyway so it’s easier to work with them. They can do small jobs or supervise cargo work for you, once you get their trust or get vouched for.”

  ‘Interplanetary Freight’, the agency that had provided Griff with my replacement was a run-down concern; with one old man and his wife in charge. Ivan and Eva were lovely people and the six of us got on really well. The agency had clearly seen better days though, they were losing interest, and wanted to retire and explore all the places they had been sending ships to while they still could. That was dependant on the price being right. After some haggling they agreed to sell Griff the business and all the goodwill they had built up over the years. They made a point of introducing him to as many of their customers that they could find, growers of fruit and vegetables and manufacturers of electronic goods.

  And they stuck around for a while to help us pick up the way of working, which on New Devon was very laid back and relaxed. “Never put off till tomorrow what you can put off till the day after,” Ivan told me. “That’s the New Devon way.” As I said, the Federation would rather the place was called Nova Five but the locals just weren’t that keen.

  The Gyrl called Benj was their contact in the port, she organised the watchers in return for food and a bed in the back of the office. They had been training her up in the legal and financial aspects of agency work and pleaded with Griff to keep her on. “She will be a big help with your first harvest,” Ivan said. “She knows the ropes and you’ll be glad of her help.”

  We signed the deal and they departed on a grand tour of the sector. We saw them off and they seemed to have got ten years younger just by selling us their lives’ work.

  Griff used the money from the Orca’s accounts to buy the agency, it covered most of the costs of setting us up, even though it was a small outfit it had good contacts and Griff was right, there was money to be made. The small loan that we had taken out was soon paid off. Once Griff and Ria had looked through the books they discovered several ways to save money and make the company more efficient. There were a few freighters on contract to the agency; I joined them and found to my relief that the other skippers were a friendly bunch.

  I was worried that they might see me as a threat to their livelihoods but with Griff and Ria taking a different approach to running the business there was more than enough work for all of us. With Benj helping, Griff and Ria soon got the hang of the job. Myra meanwhile kept busy working with me on the Freefall.

  We settled into a routine, the work was varied with plenty of return cargoes; the trips weren’t too long and pretty soon the events of the past retreated in my mind until they were just memories, faded at the edges and full of uncertainties and contradictions.

  Myra wanted a place to call home, I still had the apartment that I’d bought as Finn Douglas, but I was never there so it seemed logical to sell it. Rick, all that time ago on Basilan had changed the title deeds to show that Dave Travise owned it. In the end, I actually made a good profit on the deal, now Myra and I could get a place of our own.

  Property prices on Nova were high, but between us we managed to get an old house on the coast. It looked out over the ocean and was in desperate need of renovation, it was the only reason we had been able to afford it. Myra immediately took it over as her project, Griff found cheap materials and a few workmen for the heavy lifting. In his usual way, he had quickly added to his network of ‘contacts’ and I made a few trips on my own while they were doing the place up. I’d never really had a proper home on land, I’d only spent the odd week in the apartment and it felt like a novelty shutting the world out behind our own door.

  Between them they did a fantastic job, Ria helped out with the decorating and soon we were ready to move in.

  “I can see myself getting old here,” she said one evening as we sat outside watching the sunset over the ocean, the blue turned to crimson by the last rays of daylight. A gentle breeze riffled her hair, she had never looked lovelier. “And I can’t think of a better place to have ended up.” At that moment, I couldn’t have been happier, everything was sorted and the future was ahead.

  After six months I asked Griff if he had ever tried to find out any more about what had happened to Rixon. He said that he hadn’t; after all, the wreckage was conclusive enough to show that survival was very unlikely. “It could have been an asteroid strike or some rapid depressurisation,” he said. “I was just lucky that I was in the troopship.”

  “But there was another troopship plus the two shuttles,” I pointed out. “Someone else might have got off. You said that Rixon made you go in there that morning; he must have had some inkling that something was happening.” It occurred to me that if he had been the second traitor on board then that was all a lie. I couldn’t bring myself to think it could be him though.

  Myra had been fidgeting around for several weeks now and I sensed that something was not right. I left her to her grumpy moods and mumbling for a while, she was too proud to ask for help, I had found that out the hard way already, when she was ready she would let
me know what was on her mind.

  In the end, we were sitting having breakfast, overlooking the sea. There were whales close in under our piece of cliff, blowing and sounding in the clear, unpolluted waters, saved from the persecution they had endured on Old Earth by carriage to this new world. They had thrived in the rich waters on Nova, now the native fishes were under threat, nature would find the balance; as long as we kept out of it.

  “I have to go away,” Myra announced, tears in her eyes. I moved to hold her and she snuggled into me. “It’s Mother,” she said.

  This was the first I had heard of her mother but then I had never mentioned mine.

  “What about her,” I replied, expecting to hear of some illness or desire to visit her daughter’s new home.

  “She doesn’t know,” Myra said. “And every day I don’t tell her it’s worse, now I can’t put it off any longer.”

  “She doesn’t know about Rixon?” I was surprised. Even if Myra and she weren’t close I would have thought that she would have been told, so she could mourn her son.

  “I didn’t tell her at first because I didn’t want to believe it. And as time went on I knew I should tell her but it seemed so final, as if I was admitting that he was gone.” She stopped and sobbed again as I held her, her body shaking. “I don’t want to believe it. You and Griff talking, well it made me realise that I had to do it, so I’m going.”

  “I’ll take time off, come with you.” She shook her head.

  “No, I’ll go alone.” It was said with force and invited no argument. “But I’ll keep in touch,” she said in a softer tone, mollifying me.