And Telford couldn’t fault Clay, either. The man had given him a place when he didn’t have to, even recognizing the threat that he, Telford, posed. He had rescued him from almost certain death, and given him a new life. So, despite Clay’s reservations, despite his own desires, Telford would never do anything underhanded against him.
Yes, formality had its attraction, and he did prefer it. He figured that Clay preferred it, too.
“Mr Pelburn, good to see you again,” Telford said as he entered the office.
Jackson Pelburn rose and extended his hand to Telford, who took it.
“Good to see you, Mr Telford. It’ll be nice working together again.” He indicated his screen. “They screwed mightily with our itinerary, Adrian, and I don’t know why. We weren’t scheduled to leave for another week, and now we’re getting ready to go as soon as we can.”
“Ms Yrden told me. Apparently, Starfield ran into some mechanical problems. She has to abandon her route, so the Family is scrambling to make sure everything gets where it’s supposed to go when it’s supposed to get there.”
Pelburn pursed his lips. “This mechanical problem. Something broke, or someone broke something? Sabotage?”
Telford smiled one of his rare smiles. “You have a suspicious mind, Jackson.” He paused. “I like that in a man.” Then his smile disappeared. “I had the same thought. I don’t know, but would love to find out.”
“Yeah. Makes a difference, doesn’t it. Like where it happened, what or who caused it, what we might need to look out for.” Pelburn fiddled with the ring on his finger. “Can you find out?”
“Me? You’re Security Chief.”
“Yeah, but you got the ear of the Yrdens. And Jenna likes you.”
Telford laughed. “I don’t know that Jenna likes anyone. But, yes, I’ll ask. I wish I’d known about Starfield before Ms Yrden got me on the workboat. I don’t like putting a query like this on the comm.”
CHAPTER 4
Blue Powder
“We just don’t know,” Colleen told Telford. “Something went wrong with Starfield, and she’s asked to come in to Haida Gwaii well ahead of schedule, dumping passengers and freight as best she can so other ships of ours can carry on for her.”
Clay nodded. “With the time-delays in getting information from system to system, this has thrown everyone. The family is scrambling.”
Clay had, at Colleen’s urging, brought all the department heads in for a briefing. She included Telford – a department in and of himself, though officially attached to Security.
Minda Yrden looked around the table, looked like she wanted to say something, but then didn’t. She caught Colleen looking at her, but only gave a slight shake of her head.
“In any event,” Clay continued, “the Family wants us to leave as soon as possible to help pick up the pieces. Does anyone have anything that would prevent us from leaving as soon as we get our supplies and cargo aboard?”
No one spoke up.
“Right. My sources tell me that we’ll have adequate provisions by end of next shift,” Clay said, wrapping up.
The chef smiled, knowing that he referred to her.
“And this tells me,” he held up a reader, “that all freight and trade goods will have entered our holds very shortly after that.”
Minda nodded.
Gerard Yrden, Cargo Master, gave the thumbs up. “We’ll have everything lashed down one hour after the last workboat leaves, Captain.”
“Thank you, Gerard. That’s good news. We’ll tentatively schedule our acceleration to begin twenty minutes after you give the word. First stop, New Brittain, where we’ll pick up both passengers and freight for Manila. Starfield should arrive there and be gone again several days before we do. After that, we go to Yamato, via Pelgraff. New Brittain had originally lain much later on our itinerary, but those passengers and freight come from Starfield, and they have precedence.”
He let his gaze wander from person to person. “Nothing else? Good. Let’s get to work.”
Colleen stayed where she sat. She gave Clay a short nod, which he received with just a fraction of a lift of his eyebrows. Minda remained seating, as did Telford. Jackson Pelburn, likewise didn’t get up as the others left.
“What is it that you couldn’t bring up at the general meeting?” Clay asked once the room had cleared. “We’ll start with you, Mr Pelburn.”
Jackson Pelburn stood. “Mr Telford and I got to discussing this, sir. We wonder that we don’t have more definite information on what happened to Starfield. If, say, she lost her back-up Grav-gens, we could understand her wanting to come for repair. But why not say, ‘Hey, Family, a couple of our Grav-gens broke down. We’re coming in for repairs’? That’d be what other ships have done before, what this ship has done before.” He fixed Clay with his gaze. “Do you have any further information that you weren’t willing to hand out at the general meeting, Captain?”
One could count on Pelburn to lay it on the line.
“No, I don’t,” Clay responded. “Why is Security so concerned?”
Telford took part of the weight. “If the damage to Starfield isn’t accidental, then we need to put special precautions into effect, Mr Yrden. If a clumsy pilot decided to shift from 3rd to 1st, in order to slow down in hyperspace, but shifted into reverse by accident, forking the transmission, then we continue as before. The lack of concrete information ... well, that doesn’t make us happy,” he said, indicating Pelburn and himself.
Clay grinned. “That’s not exactly how our hyperspace drive works, but point taken, Mr Telford, Chief Pelburn. As I have nothing to add, let’s operate under a worst-case scenario. Let us assume that malevolent forces either attacked or sabotaged Starfield with the aim of crippling the Family, and remain under the resulting operating conditions unless and until we find out otherwise.”
Pelburn nodded. “It looks like I have work to do. Care to lend a hand, Mr Telford?”
“Presently.” And Telford didn’t explain himself further. Pelburn nodded to each of the Yrdens, and then took his leave.
“Mr Telford?” Clay asked.
“Starfield’s still your brother’s ship, right?” He received a nod. “Yeah. Well, something’s going on. I caught a few rumours down on the planet, and this might tie into them. Sounds to me like there’s something brewing in the FTL.”
“I agree,” Minda said. “And there’s something very wrong with our reaction to Starfield’s problem. But I’m operating on more than just overheard rumour.”
“You have the floor,” Clay said. “What’s wrong with the Family’s reaction, Minda?”
“As Head Trader on Blue Powder, I have to have contingency plans. Clay, Colleen, as traders, you know what I mean. What if I pick up merchandise for New Brittain and we get diverted? Who will take that merchandise on? Can it wait until we finally reach New Brittain? Or will a delay in delivery cost the Family more in money and lost good will than the loss of profits – and maybe outright loss – caused by shipping it with another, non-Yrden, ship? If so, I’ll hire Treverston’s Stiletto – or whomever I can get – to transport the goods from our next stop to New Brittain.”
Clay regarded her intently. “Yes, I see. I hadn’t thought of that. I’ve been up to my eyes working the shakedown. Half my mind is still on Blue Powder.”
“Will someone inform the poor Security guy who doesn’t operate at these levels,” Telford pleaded.
“It’s simple,” Colleen said. “Under normal conditions, Starfield would dump cargo and passengers onto any and all available ships in order to cause least disruption to schedules – both ours and those of passengers and freight. Then she would come in for repairs.”
“I thought that’s what she was doing – dumping and coming in.”
“No,” Minda said. “Starfield is continuing her route – more or less. But she’s shedding where other Yrden ships – not other Yrden or FTL ships – can pick up her goods. Only after we’ve covered for her will she come in. We’re
doing this alone without help from the other Families. That’s why the rush to get Blue Powder out there.”
Telford looked grim. “A power struggle within the FTL? Someone wants to unseat the Yrdens?”
Colleen loved the quick intelligence of her bodyguard. “That jibes with the info I’ve received from Family.”
Clay sat down. How would his brother do this? “Let’s operate under that assumption. Starfield doesn’t want to make her problem widely known. Brian’s a canny man. He might figure that Family won’t want to let any one else know we’ve been hurt. Or maybe he’ll figure that Family wants it to be known that no one else will profit from hurting us: damage one of our ships, and only Yrden ships get the resulting cargo dump. I’ll lay any odds you like that he’ll have left a message with the cargo we pick up, letting us know the situation and giving what recommendations he can.”
Colleen nodded, agreeing. “He won’t leave us in the dark. I wonder how the message got to Family, though, with only his decision and no reasons for it.”
Clay gave her a look that silenced that line of talk.
“I think that wraps it up,” he said. “We operate as if the Family is under attack until informed otherwise. Mr Telford, that means added inspections on incoming cargo – let Mr Pelburn know.”
Telford gave a curt jerk of his head, indicating he had understood. He turned and left.
Colleen turned to the head trader. “Minda, no one goes off the ship alone – and that includes traders going to well-known merchants. Pairs at least, threes or more preferable. Even on Haida Gwaii.”
“I don’t like that. It will compromise our efficiency.”
“Better than compromising our safety,” Colleen told her. “We don’t want to lose any people.”
Minda’s eyes went wide. “You joking?”
“No.” Colleen recalled Erin and Liberty Station, where others had hunted her and Clay, wanting to kill them. “You’re thinking sabotage to interfere with our trade. I’m looking at the next level up. If someone really wants to hurt us, they’ll not stop at damaging our ships – especially if that doesn’t get the desired results.”
Minda looked like she didn’t want to think that way. She picked up her reader and stood.
“As to efficiency, Minda, traders don’t have to go in groups of two or three, they just have to have one or two other crew with them,” Colleen said.
Minda nodded, and left in a bit of a daze.
“Well, that certainly livened up the day,” Clay said.
“Don’t take this lightly.” Colleen watched the smile fade from his face. “I’ve seen things spiral out of control real fast – and so have you.”
“I’m not taking it lightly. I also refuse to allow it to drag down the morale in this ship – my ship – and leave us paranoid. Mom and Dad didn’t give you anything else?”
“No. My guess is they don’t know. But why not? They got the info that Brian wants to bring Starfield in.”
“That’s what I didn’t want you spreading about. We have lines of communication – out to all the planets – that don’t depend on Family, ours or any of the others.”
She stared at him. Why hadn’t he told her before? She asked.
“Before, we weren’t in charge of a ship. That’s knowledge that resides with the captain – and occasionally the first mate. If the captain becomes incapacitated, the first mate gets the basic file.”
She cocked her head, and looked at him through narrowed eyes. “And you didn’t know this until the Family promoted you?”
“I’ve known this for a long time, as Jenna and Tamm’s son. I haven’t told you because you didn’t need to know. Now you do. And I’m not giving you the basic file to study; you get the whole thing.”
Great. Just what she needed, more study material.
“And I’m going to give you the Captain’s Emergency File. I haven’t gotten all the way through it, myself, but I’ve seen some stuff in there that really surprised me.”
And he wouldn’t tell, she knew. She’d have to find it for herself. She sighed.
“It looks like an interesting first voyage, Captain,” she said.
Interesting didn’t begin to cover it.
CHAPTER 5
Blue Powder
Everything seemed to go as planned. The supplies came in – straight from the Yrden warehouses on Haida Gwaii and the French station, where Yrden Family security thoroughly checked them – into the docking bay where Gerard had his people checked everything again.
“I’ll need more people if we want to do this everywhere – unless you’re willing to spend more time docked,” Gerard reported to Clay.
Clay pondered that a moment. “Work up a schedule for training sessions. We’ll need to get more crew interested in the cargo handling program, as well.”
“Then I’ll get more people?”
“Even if Colleen and I have to come down ourselves. And don’t forget to refer anything at all suspicious to Security.”
And that seemed to placate Gerard.
Clay filled the hyperspace trip to New Brittain with security drills. As they carried no passengers on this first leg from Haida Gwaii – other than a few Yrden personnel, who had transferred from there – the entire crew could participate. And participate they did, until Colleen called a halt to it.
“Crew’s getting sick of this, Clay,” she told him three days before the drop at New Brittain. “They’ve done well; give them a break.”
Clay had followed her suggestion.
Now they sat at emergence stations, ready to drop to New Brittain. Clay’s stomach tightened as the countdown started, and saw that his bridge crew felt the tension of the moment.
“They need to know,” Colleen had told him, and so he had given everyone a briefing. He only hoped that Brian had left some word on just what had gone wrong.
“Everyone’s tense, Clay,” Colleen said, looking over the bridge crew.
“I see it, too. That’s because no one – us included – knows what’s happening. It’s the damned uncertainty.”
He raised his voice.
“Drop in one minute.”
As had become their custom, he reached over and found Colleen’s hand, and they dropped linked. It gave drop a little extra thrill. This time he hardly felt it, and wondered if she had.
“Sean, set course for New Brittain’s Topside Station.” He found it strange, giving the order to the ship’s First Pilot, instead of doing it himself as First Pilot of the ship.
“Roger that, sir,” Sean Williams replied. “Eight minute burn commencing in one minute.”
Sean started the countdown as he adjusted the attitude of the ship, aiming it in the right direction for the burn to take them nicely into New Brittain’s orbit near Topside Station.
“Burn.”
Clay felt the familiar pressure of acceleration pushing him back in his seat. His stomach refused to settle down.
“Well, we’re committed now.” He reached for the InShip Comm, and dialled up Minda. “We’re on approach, estimate Topside Station in twenty-two hours, Minda. Time to start trading.”
“I have my message ready to send, Clay, as soon as you report in.” She toggled off.
“And so it begins,” Clay said. He turned to Colleen. “You might as well go help her, though we don’t have too much that New Brittain might want. We don’t want to hang around too long, either, just pick up Brian’s cargo, passengers, a little for ourselves, and boost out of there. Let’s try for time on station three days maximum, less if we can manage it.”
Colleen stood, and gave his shoulder a squeeze. “We’ll do our best. But we’ll want to pick up more than just ‘a little’ for ourselves, too. That may take more time.”
“Just keep it to a minimum.”
Twenty-two hours later, Blue Powder achieved orbit.
“Comm coming in from Mr Singh.”
“Put it through.”
“Hello, Captain Yrden. Good to see you again, and co
ngratulations on Blue Powder.” Sarindar Singh, their Warehouse Manager on Topside Station, looked as pleased as he sounded, but Clay noted that his left eye blinked a couple of times every few seconds.
“Thank you, Sarindar. She’s a good ship.” He looked around, then back at the vid camera. “We have some new protocols – captain’s prerogative.”
Singh’s smile brightened, and the blinking stopped. “Excellent. I see that you have scheduled your first workboat to pick up freight in an hour. I’ll be happy to meet you and Mr Telford at the dock.”
Clay nodded. “And he’ll be happy to make your acquaintance once again. I believe you still owe him from that last poker game.”
“Indeed. Tell him, I’ll transfer his winnings when he gets here. See you soon.” Singh signed off.
“Now, that’s trouble,” Clay said loud enough for all to hear. “I know everyone’s eager to check out Topside Station’s attractions. However, no one goes about in groups of less than four. Sean, you have the bridge, I’m going to shuttle over personally – with Security. I want you to maintain watch for anything approaching Blue Powder. Warn away if necessary. I don’t want anything getting close to us.”
“What’s up?” Williams wanted to know.
“Mr Singh just told me they have trouble that he can’t mention on the air. Looks like our drills weren’t done in vain.”
And with that, he left the bridge to find Colleen.
“Brian’s looking forward to seeing his great-grandfather,” she said. “David, too, though he’s mostly just reflecting Brian’s excitement.”
“As am I,” Clay replied. “I hope we can do it for them all. But first we have to find out what Sarindar wants to tell us. Need I say that I want you to stay with the ship until I discover what’s what?”
She grimaced. “I know. Both Captain and First Mate can’t walk into danger together. You’re taking Mr Telford, I hope.”
Even after over a decade of having Telford around, Clay still didn’t much like the man. But he trusted him. “Yes. Absolutely. And I’m going armed, too. Just what the blazes has Brian gotten us into?”
One Trade Too Many Page 3