Void Contract

by Scott Rhine

  “So how much does a spaceship cost nowadays?”

  A lot apparently. Buying a ship sounded like an obvious solution that night but over the next few days it turned into a logistical nightmare. Bella’s retirement savings could cover the cost of a small ship. However, choosing which ship to purchase was like comparing apples to rabbits. The Fleet had ships with open offers for purchase but the prices were high and the ships were worn down. The Fulton system manufactured ships of its own, but the military wasn’t selling and civilian ships weren’t suitable, lacking the ability to defend themselves from a hostile universe.

  Bella sat with the young man, Omar, in her home while they researched their options. Around them, men packed her belongings in anticipation of the sale of her property. Bella had already selected the few things she wished to bring with her and they sat in two small boxes near the terminal.

  “Ok Omar, so we’ve seen what won’t work. The question now is what can we do to make it work?”

  “Regardless of what we buy, we won’t be able to purchase a jump drive. Even your considerable resources aren’t enough to buy one of those. We’ll have to contract with one of the larger ships for transport between systems. That means we dock with them during stellar jumps but we’ll still be considered independent. It’s not a great long term solution and we’ll hemorrhage credit every time the Fleet jumps. To offset that cost we need to be useful to the Fleet.

  “My experience with the Fleet tells me there is a small gap where we might be of use. There are more than enough ships that can engage an enemy in deep space but few that are effective inside a planetary atmosphere. Most of those are dropships, unarmed or lightly armed. It puts the Fleet in the position of firing into the atmosphere from orbit to defend ground transports. Your system has a few ships capable of smoothly transitioning from space to a planetary atmosphere. This one in particular,” He pulled up a cargo ship from a local shipyard. “is both large and sturdy enough to be refit with weapons systems from the Fleet without compromising its hull integrity.”

  “Won’t buying the weapons systems piecemeal end up being as expensive as just buying a ship from the Fleet outright?”

  “Technically yes, but buying this one has a couple of benefits. One, the Fleet captains like when new ships are added to the roster. It makes everyone feel better, especially considering the losses we incurred a few months back.

  “Two, your world has made some real improvements in ship design. I won’t go into the details but trust me, we’ll be nearly as maneuverable as a fighter in space while still able to operate inside an atmosphere. That versatility means we should be able to find a use for ourselves in most systems. If I’m ever going to be able to pay you for my half for the ship we’ll need the work.” Bella shook her head.

  “Don’t worry about that, Omar. As far as I and anyone else is concerned this is your ship. You’re the one with all the experience and I don’t want the rest of the Fleet thinking I’m buying my way in, even if it’s somewhat true. You’re the Captain and I’m just crew. I’ve had enough of politics and bureaucracy to last me a lifetime.”

  “We’ll discuss repayment later then. Don’t think I’ll forget.” He paused, “Ok, so are we agreed?”

  “You’re the boss.” Bella had a local agent source the cargo ship while Omar did the same with weapons systems in the Fleet. The full retrofit would take months but the Fleet had a mobile manufacturing platform just for such work, the Westinghouse. The Industrial class ship had been originally designed as a mobile station for use in systems without a space infrastructure. It had been repurposed as a repair station for the Fleet, its manufacturing centers converted to churn out munitions for the Fleet.

  Bella sent her farewells to friends and family only after the sales were finalized and she was aboard the big industrial ship. She laughed aloud when reading the messages accusing her of having lost her mind. In truth she felt relieved to be free of Fulton and the life she left behind. She had debated taking the ashes of her second husband with her but in the end decided to leave them with his family. This was to be her adventure, one which he would never have approved.

  Bella had intended to spend her time in combat training, figuring out how to use her new body. Soon enough though, it became apparent that Omar was woefully unprepared to deal with being a captain. After stowing her few belongings in her temporary quarters, she dropped by his and found him with his head in his hands while sitting at a terminal.

  “What’s wrong?” She asked, placing a hand on his shoulder.

  “I have no idea what I’m doing.” He said. “I thought that once we got the ship refit started things would get easier. Instead, I’m getting hundreds of documents sent to me every day. I don’t understand half of what I’m reading and what I do understand makes me wonder why I’m reading it.”

  “Let me take a look.” Omar slid out of the chair so fast he actually lost his grip on the desk and flew backward to the far wall. Bella laughed, knowing she was far more likely to make that mistake than the man experienced in null g. She pulled herself down lightly into the seat. In moments she realized what the problem was.

  “My dear boy, you’ve fallen into the bureaucratic rabbit hole. Someone noticed you’re a captain now and added you to the mailing lists.” She pulled up a piece of correspondence on the terminal marked urgent. “See this one here? It’s marked urgent so you think it’s necessary for you to read it. However, if you look here you can see that you weren’t the primary recipient, the captain of the Mercy was. You weren’t even listed by name but included as part of a group being cc’d.”

  “What does that even mean?”

  “Every captain in the Fleet received a copy. Most would scan the heading and move on, knowing it had nothing to do with them. Others might not even do that. They would have underlings do it or filters built in to automatically file things like this.”

  “Why send them at all then? What is the point?”

  “Some busybody a long time ago decided the captains should be updated on overall operations in the Fleet. In theory it’s a good idea but in practice it’s just a pain. The thing is, once a bureaucratic practice has become entrenched, it is nearly impossible to root out. Let me see what I can do about it.” Though unfamiliar with the system, after a few minutes of tinkering Bella was able to organize his inbox.

  “Ok, you have ten messages addressed directly to you. Six have headers that read something like congratulations. Two seem to be vague threats from other captains not to interfere in their business. One is a transfer request and one is from someone named Veronika. The last is marked personal.”

  “I’ll look at the last in private if you don’t mind.” Bella gave him a sideways glance at that but the man’s face was carefully blank. He continued. “The other one though, the transfer request, who is it from?”

  “It seems to be a bit garbled. Someone named Pulan but it appears he is asking for a group to join us. He doesn’t mention any of the others by name. Must be a pretty large group though.”

  “Why”

  “He’s included a list of specialties a mile long. Experts in linguistics, genetics, physics, engineering, chemistry and a dozen more want to join us on our little freighter. Is there a science ship somewhere with a lot of unhappy people?”

  “The Westinghouse is the closest thing to a science vessel in the Fleet. We will have some positions to fill. I can fly the ship but a qualified engineer is essential if we are going to make it long term. A linguist would come in handy as well. We can probably score some initial contact negotiations if we have one. Send a reply that we’ll be happy to speak to those two. If there’s a gunner on the list I’d like to see that one as well. I can pilot and operate the systems myself but a gunner would increase our reaction time.”

  “Send it yourself. I’m not your secretary.” Bella smiled when she said it.

  “You agreed I was in charge. That makes you my underling. You’ll do what I say when I say it.” Omar replied, someh
ow keeping a straight face.

  “You’ll pay for that one.” Bella paused. “It does raise an interesting question though. If we take on crew doesn’t that mean we’ll need a hierarchy, a chain of command? If I need to play possum so that you can be Captain let me know before we bring anyone else in.” Omar cocked his head to one side as though deep in thought.

  “I really hadn’t considered it. I don’t want you to feel like you can’t speak your mind. I’ve seen what happens to captains who feel that way. They end up getting a filtered version of reality. They also end up very much alone.” He paused, a frown forming on the edges of his mouth. “No, we’re in this together. However, in a dangerous situation I will need you to follow my orders. You can argue with me all you want before or after but in the moment I need to know you’ll do as I ask. Otherwise we’ll end up dead.”

  “Agreed. Want me to send out that reply, sir, Captain Hadi, sir?”

  “No, I’ll get to it later. I do want you here when I interview them though. Your input is important. A ship only runs well if the whole crew can get along.”

  “All right. If you give me access to your account, I can set up some of those filters I was talking about later tonight.”

  “Sure.” He replied. “It’s funny though. If anyone else in the Fleet had asked me for that I would have said no. I haven’t trusted anyone enough that much in a long time, yet we’ve only known each other a short while.”

  “Well if I wanted to knock you down I sure blew a lot of dough setting you up first.” Bella laughed.

  Helping Omar with his mail had come easily to Bella, too easy. When Omar had asked her to write the reply she had responded with a joke but only to hide the flush of anger she had felt. Once she was alone, Bella took out that anger and turned it over in her mind, examining it. She floated aimlessly down the halls while she thought, letting inertia decide what halls to turn down.

  Bella was terrified that she would fall back into her old patterns, become once more the person she had left behind on Fulton IV. To prevent that, she knew she needed to find an outlet for her frustrations, some way to express the person she wanted to become.

  The Westinghouse was a big ship. Bella had visited orbital platforms near Fulton that weren’t as large. Seen from the outside, the ship looked like a monstrous insect. Its abdomen covered in layers of modular shielding that could encapsulate smaller ships to facilitate maintenance while massive limbs lined the frame like ribs which could stretch out and capture larger cruisers if needed.

  Inside, the decks near the bottom were mostly warehouses and manufacturing plants to assist the maintenance docks. The rest of the ship was more like a small city than a starship, with living quarters that could house thousands. Some of these were homes for the repair crews and builders but many more were occupied by a supporting cast of cooks, tailors, drug dealers, bartenders and more. The Westinghouse was the primary home of vice for the Fleet, swarming with activity whenever the Fleet’s finest were not welcome in the systems they visited.

  Bella was mildly surprised as she wandered into the entertainment district of the ship. So many things which had been outlawed for centuries on her homeworld flourished there. She marveled at the cage fights, the drug dens and the brothels. She promised herself that she would try each and every venue, giving herself over to new experiences completely and without regard to the constricting morals of her old life.

  Over the next few days several things became very clear to her. She did not like the drugs being offered, sex with nonhumans was tricky at best and the Fleet placed a very low value on the life of anyone not in the Fleet. She found herself complaining about the last to Omar when they met before meeting with the prospective crew.

  “I’m surprised at how callous the Fleet is when it comes to the systems it visits. Most of the crew I’ve met seem nice enough. To find out Fulton was only safe from attack because we could defend ourselves is a bit of a shock.”

  “Is it really? There was a reason you bought all those military upgrades for yourself. There is a reason I heavily invested in weapons for our ship. The Fleet is a living organism and to a degree the laws of nature dictate its actions. The Fleet preys on weaker worlds for one simple reason; it can.”

  “That’s a pretty dark way of viewing the world.”

  “It’s a pretty dark world out there. Go look outside if you don’t believe me. The light of the stars is only visible because there is so much darkness.” Bella had begun to adjust to Omar’s poetic view of the universe.

  “I have to believe that mankind is capable of better than that.” Bella said.

  “I want to agree with you, but I haven’t seen a lot of evidence to support that claim. Peace and goodwill are in short supply. The worlds which are at peace tend also to be the worlds which are most devoid of joy. Consider your own for example.” Bella’s anger flared even as she realized he was correct. She was about to reply when a gentle rapping from the open doorway stopped her.

  “Have we come at an inopportune time?” The voice came from the open doorway and had a hollow ring to it. Bella turned and was surprised by the source. The creature which stood before her was roughly humanoid but fell sharply into the uncanny valley as its body pulsed and shifted constantly. Its ‘face’ was little more than a rough approximation of human, lacking all defining features such as eyes or a mouth.

  “Not at all.” Omar seemed unfazed by the creature’s appearance. “I take it you are one of the specialists Pulan recommended?”

  “You are partially correct. We are Pulan and we are the specialists.”

  “Excuse me?” The words escaped Bella’s mouth before she could keep them in and they sounded rude even to her ears. The creature didn’t seem to react, though Omar shot her a warning glance.

  “Please come in, Pulan.” Omar said politely. “It is a pleasure to meet you. I think there may have been some confusion. Our little ship is unable to accommodate alien physiology and we lack the resources to retrofit at this time.”

  “There is no need. Human atmospheric conditions are acceptable to us. We need no special accommodations other than our dietary requirements which we are fully capable of providing for ourselves out of our wages.”

  “You keep saying we. Are there others like yourself coming?”

  “We are Pulan. Many species find our plurality distressing. If we may explain?” The creature paused and Omar nodded. Pulan proceeded to explain their intrinsic nature to the two humans. Bella was doubtful until the creature split into two equal parts and each spoke rationally. One then separated a single of its parts which approached Bella cautiously. She reached out a hand and it appeared to sniff it much as a dog would, though Bella could see no nostrils per se. Convinced, Omar asked Pulan to reassemble.

  “So Pulan, why do you want to join our crew?”

  “We have spent the last several years attempting to achieve consensus with the Locan. We have reached a point where our efforts provide ever diminishing returns. As our mission is to seek true understanding of alien life, we have concluded that the time is right to attempt consensus with the dominant lifeform in this region, the human species. We have heard that your crew organism is just forming and we believe it may facilitate consensus if we join at its inception.”

  “The Locan?” Omar asked. “That’s the species from the Ruchald, yes? Its an impressive ship though I don’t know that I have ever met any of them.” Pulan nodded its head, a spine shatteringly uncanny motion which made Bella shiver. “You were part of their crew when they joined the Fleet?”

  “Yes, the Locan are explorers like ourselves. They were as eager to achieve consensus with us as we were with them. It was they who first made contact with us on our homeworld. It has been a mutually beneficial relationship.”

  “What does that mean exactly, achieve consensus?” Bella asked, a little fearful of the answer.

  “Our primary objective is to observe and interact with alien sentience in an attempt to commune with them as closel
y as possible. We are aware that we cannot truly join with any alien mind and it is a challenge to understand others when the communication tools available are so limited.”

  “Limited how?” Bella found herself interested despite her apprehension at the creature’s appearance.

  “We achieve consensus within ourselves in the moments after joining. We spent years with the Locan and even with the aid of their machines were only able to achieve a partial understanding of their thoughts.”

  “Within moments…” Omar seemed fascinated. “This immediate connection, is it how you are able to master so many skills?”

  “Our individual parts were selected from the greatest minds of our world. Each retains expertise from its prior existence. It was unknown which skills would best enable us to succeed in our mission. We have found that our expansive skill set has enabled us to be of great use to the Locan. We believe that we can be of similar use to the new crew organism which you are forming.”

  “You keep saying crew organism. What does that mean?”

  “You were speaking of one such collective upon our arrival. Organisms are collections of parts working together for a common goal, their continued existence. Some more complex organisms do not exist in a single physical space yet still operate with a singularity of purpose. We work within consensus to achieve our goals. It is alien to us how creatures such as yourself come together without consensus and still operate as collective organisms.”

  “If that’s the case then you should be on a planet, looking at governments and cultures.” Omar said.

  “Incorrect assumption. We also thought in this erroneous fashion upon first encountering alien species. The larger the collective organism, the more difficult it is to see how all the parts work together. Small organisms such as your ship provide more data of use. To be present at the formation of this organism would be of great benefit to us in our research. To this end we will offer our expertise as payment for the opportunity. We require no financial compensation other than that needed to sustain our lives and pursue our research.”