HMS Nightingale (Alexis Carew Book 4)

by J. A. Sutherland

  “‘An internal matter,’ as you said before.” Alexis sighed. Finding the bodies in the burned out building had been bad enough — that and loading them aboard the boat for transport back to the landing field. She’d thought the local authorities would be grateful for the Navy’s assistance and provide her with some information to go about locating the men who’d slaughtered and burned an entire farmstead.

  Instead Stoltzfus was infuriatingly insisting that there had been no piracy, that this was entirely an internal matter for Man’s Fall’s settlers to deal with, and that the Navy, in particular Alexis, should bloody well shove off and mind her own business. Moreover, he was steadfast in his insistence that Alexis was mistaken in her belief that any modern weapons or transport could have been involved.

  “We saw clear evidence of modern weapons at the farmstead, Mister Stoltzfus. Flechettes and lasers, both. The bodies may have been too badly burned to demonstrate that, but there are walls still standing that bear the marks, and —”

  “Moving the bodies was another sign of disrespect for our ways, lieutenant. The Yoders would have preferred to remain on their lands.”

  “And have their bodies burned to ash in the rubble of what they’d built?”

  Stoltzfus nodded. “To remain in the place where God chose to call them home.”

  Alexis sighed. She couldn’t comprehend that the man was so undisturbed by the deaths and the destruction of the Yoders’ farmstead. Especially with the tiny size of the colony’s population — the port town had barely two hundred residents and the planet as a whole had only four thousand, all within a hundred kilometers of this one town.

  She pulled out her tablet.

  “Sir, if you’d look at these recordings of the damage done, you’ll see the marks of flechettes and lasers on the —”

  “Away with the devil’s devices!” Stoltzfus closed his eyes and held up a hand between his face and the tablet’s screen.

  “Mister Stoltzfus, I don’t pretend to understand your ways —”

  “We do not expect you to understand us, Lieutenant Carew, we merely ask that you leave us alone. Our group has worked for decades to purchase Man’s Fall; we wish to remain here undisturbed.”

  “Sir, if there are pirates —”

  “Pirates are your responsibility, yes, but as I said, the accident at the Yoders’ farm is an internal matter and of no concern to the Navy or the Crown.”

  Alexis clenched her jaw. The man’s tendency to cut her off would be grating at the best of times.

  “There were powered weapons used, and an aircar of some sort, both of which you deny having on this world.”

  “Both of which are forbidden on this world by the tenets of our faith. Once landed, we have chosen not to sully ourselves with your technology and the devil’s metal of those vehicles you ride in.” Stoltzfus shook his head. “Regardless, we will look into your allegations when we return the Yoders to their proper place — more likely than not, we will find these marks you speak of to be entirely natural. Perhaps their ammunition caused it due to the heat of the fire — many of our holders keep a great deal on hand.”

  Only if your god is suddenly turning lead into lasers and gunpowder into thermoplastic flechettes.

  Alexis fought down the urge to argue further, as it was clearly a lost cause. Stoltzfus either believed what he said or was hiding the truth for some reason.

  “Rather than continuing to insert yourself into our internal affairs, a better use of your time might be upholding your Navy’s obligations to our colony,” Stoltzfus said.

  “And if not putting down pirates who attack innocent farmsteads, sir, what might you suggest that be?”

  “Our charter and colonial agreement call for the Navy to keep all shipping away from our system — all shipping, not only pirates. We are regularly visited by merchants and, thus far, our complaints to your predecessors have accomplished little.”

  Alexis frowned. “Most colonies welcome the arrival of a merchant ship. The goods they bring from the Core —”

  “Are an abomination. The very transports which carry them are an abomination upon the face of God. One which we had hoped to avoid by coming here, and your Navy agreed to protect us from. Yet within the last fortnight one of your merchants alighted here, peddling all manner of the devil’s temptations.”

  Stoltzfus frowned.

  “I see that you still don’t understand us. I imagine you’re unfamiliar with our faith, but do you at least know the verses, lieutenant? ‘And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.’”

  Alexis frowned. “I’m sorry, Mister Stoltzfus, but I don’t understand what that has to do with merchant shipping.”

  “Are you of any particular faith at all, lieutenant?”

  Alexis considered. Her family wasn’t — most of the original settlers of Dalthus weren’t — so it wasn’t something she’d ever paid attention to. Many of the indentures were religious, she knew.

  There was a sort of shared chapel in the village near her home, put up collectively by the indentures and workers. Different groups of them met there at different times, but Alexis had never paid a great deal of attention to it and had little knowledge of any religion — other than the multitude of oaths and curses she’d picked up from the men working mines, lumber camps, and, most recently, aboard ship.

  She doubted that qualified as any sort of faith Stoltzfus would recognize.

  “No, I’m afraid not.”

  Stoltzfus nodded. “It’s a sad commentary on our modern times that we’ve fragmented as we have. That is from our holy book — the very beginning of it, in fact.

  “And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep,” he said again. “Does that not sound like something you’re familiar with, lieutenant? Does it not sound like your darkspace? The Dark, as you spacers call it?”

  Alexis shook her head with growing frustration — she was trying to deal with the attack on the Yoder farmstead and a dozen dead, not receive a lecture on the man’s religion.

  “The Dark permeates everything, not just Earth or any one world.”

  Stoltzfus nodded. “Of course, yes, but we must make allowances for the words being written down by someone planet bound, long ago, without even the knowledge that the stars were more than bits of light in the nighttime sky. The most basic tenet of our faith, lieutenant, is that darkspace is the realm of God. It was first, always, and ever will be where God Himself resides. It is a holy realm and man’s intrusions there are a sinful act of pride.”

  Alexis frowned and her brow furrowed.

  “I mean no disrespect, Mister Stoltzfus, but you and all your people had to travel through that very realm in order to reach this planet and colonize it.”

  “A necessary evil, as it were.” He smiled. “And one we ask forgiveness for. But having done so, we now have an entire world dedicated to living as God intended us to, unsullied with the Devil’s temptations of your technology.” He frowned. “Save the landing field where your Navy’s boats arrive … and now the Yoder’s farmstead, thanks to your interference there.”

  Alexis wondered if he was saying those places were now somehow forever unclean, but was more curious about the rejection of technology.

  “Our faith rejects all technology and advancements which do not function within God’s realm, lieutenant. Yes, you manage to make things like your electronics work there, but only by encasing the devices in gallenium. We believe this would not be necessary if those technologies were blessed and intended for our use. Their creation, and gallenium itself, are temptations, perversions of our natural state, sent by God’s enemy to lead us astray.”

  “I see.”

  Stoltzfus’ face grew sad. “We were quite content here, you know, before the Jadiqi arrived.”

  Alexis’ brow furrowed. She didn’t quite understand Stoltzfus’ leap from the colony’s religious beli
efs to this. Al Jadiq was the next inhabited system, farther out, pushing the edge of inhabited space ever more.

  “Those merchants I mentioned,” Stoltzfus explained, seeing her expression. “They never visited before, but the Jadiqis import a great deal. The merchant ships stop here sometimes, thinking to trade with us. They seem to feel that since they’ve come all this way for the Jadiqis, we’re somehow obliged to welcome them as well. Many are … quite insistent.”

  “If you’ll name the ships, Mister Stoltzfus, I’ll see what Nightingale may do to convince them to respect your space.” That might be little, given the unlikelihood of encountering them — or that they’d listen, when she’d have to catch them at it to truly do anything.

  Stoltzfus chuckled. “Do you think they tell us their true ship’s name when we ask? Knowing we have no satellites or other means of confirming it?” He shook his head. “No, they land and try to entice us — mostly our youth — with their goods.” He shrugged. “Who they may be, I couldn’t say.”

  Alexis bit down on her response, not asking just what, then, he thought she and Nightingale might do about it. In truth, it was the Navy’s responsibility to do so, but short of a permanent blockade, something she certainly couldn’t implement with her single ship, she didn’t see how.

  Stoltzfus smiled. “And now, lieutenant, if you have no other business on this visit?”

  Alexis shook her head. “No, I suppose I don’t.”

  “Very well.” He rose and motioned toward the shack’s door. “Perhaps, you and your ship should be on your way — you might even catch up with that merchant who violated our system’s space and have a word with him about it.”

  Twenty-Seven

  23 November, aboard the Marchant Company ship Dark Gale, stopped for customs inspection, darkspace, enroute to Al Jadiq System

  “Did you not see our colors, Lieutenant … Carew, is it? Or did you simply choose to ignore them?”

  Alexis raised an eyebrow. Nightingale had stopped a dozen or more merchant ships on her patrol thus far. Some captains were irritated at the delay, others friendly and welcoming Nightingale’s news or simply the presence of a Navy ship, but all were at least polite and reasonably respectful of Alexis’ position. Captain Lounds of the Dark Gale was … not.

  “I did see your colors, Captain Lounds.” Alexis looked around his cabin. The Dark Gale was a large ship, as large as the 74-gun Shrewsbury she’d last served on, though as a merchant she was not so well-armed. The captain’s quarters were similarly large, as well as lavishly outfitted. Captain Lounds, it appeared, did like his comforts and had the wealth to indulge them.

  “Do you know what those colors mean, girl? Who this ship belongs to?”

  Alexis narrowed her eyes.

  “My orders, Captain Lounds, are quite clear, regardless of who a ship belongs to. I am to stop and examine all merchantmen, provided doing so does not unduly delay Nightingale in any of her other duties.”

  “This is a Marchant Company ship, not some common trader! Do you know what that means?”

  Alexis caught herself from snapping that she supposed it meant the ship was owned by the bloody Marchant Company, as that would do little to calm Lounds.

  “Are you suggesting that the Marchant Company is exempt from the Navigation Acts, Captain Lounds?”

  Lounds glared at her.

  No, I suppose that wasn’t all that better a thing to say, was it?

  “No, of course not,” Lounds finally allowed.

  “Well, then, let’s be about it. The sooner my crew inspects your cargo, the sooner you can be on your way.”

  “As though a Marchant ship would stoop to smuggling.”

  “As you say, sir, but, again, my orders …” Alexis let that trail off with a little shrug.

  “I suppose you insist?” Lounds’ nostrils flared.

  “My orders provide me little leeway, sir.” Alexis kept her face impassive. “I must answer the contrary at my peril, you see.”

  “Do you mock me, lieutenant?” Lounds asked, eyes narrowing.

  “I assure you, Captain Lounds, it would not occur to me to do so.”

  Although it might flow quite naturally from your attitude.

  The captain was silent for a moment. Alexis was certain he was weighing his ability to refuse her outright. That would be a dreadful underestimation of her, she thought, for she was already frustrated and on edge. The sail from Man’s Fall had been uneventful, but the devastated farmstead there still weighed on her mind.

  Nor had conditions aboard Nightingale improved — the crew was still barely competent at their tasks. Spindler — despite her best efforts to assure him that she’d merely been venting her frustrations and truly didn’t hold him at all responsible for the events on Man’s Fall — continued to jump, wide-eyed, whenever she spoke to him.

  “Perhaps if you spent as much time drilling your crew as you do stopping honest merchantmen, you’d not waste half my morning with your ship’s attempts to come alongside.”

  Alexis flushed as Lounds echoed her own thoughts, growing all the more irritated that she couldn’t rightfully argue with the man on that point.

  “I assure you, lieutenant,” Lounds went on, “that I will inform my superiors of this delay and they will make a protest to Admiralty.”

  “As is your right, sir. I’ll have Nightingale’s log encrypted and sent to your secure storage for transfer to Admiralty when you do so. Or do you claim exemption from that courier service, as well as inspection?”

  “I claim exemption from nothing, damn your eyes!”

  “Captain Lounds —” Alexis managed to keep her voice level. “— it’s clear we are at odds and unlikely to convince each other. Would it not be better to proceed with the inspection, be on our respective ways, and allow our superiors to determine the right or wrong of it?”

  Lounds looked as though he might explode at any moment, and it was only the knowledge that he wanted a fight, would relish it even, that kept Alexis calm — at least outwardly. A muscle in Lounds’ jaw twitched periodically, she noted with particular pleasure.

  “Very well.”

  Lounds jerked his head to his first mate who’d been waiting at the cabin hatchway and Alexis keyed her tablet to alert Villar that he could begin the inspection soon. She resisted the urge to suggest he make it a particularly vigorous inspection, though. There was no real need to treat Lounds and the Dark Gale any differently than the dozen other merchantmen Nightingale had inspected so far on these travels. Nor would she need to oversee the inspection herself — Ousley, at least, had shown himself as competent as any bosun at rooting out the hidey-holes a smuggler might use. She supposed she might have some insight to contribute in that regard, having traveled aboard a smuggler’s ship and seen such things first hand, but Ousley seemed to do a good enough job of it.

  Her tablet pinged as Lounds sent her the Gale’s log and manifest with a contemptuous flick of his fingers against his desk’s surface.

  “Thank you, Captain Lounds.”

  Lounds grunted and consumed himself with something else on his desktop. Alexis noted that she’d been offered no refreshment, despite the decanter of wine at Lounds’ elbow, and watched as the captain pointedly poured himself a fresh glass without so much as a glance in her direction.

  With the physical inspection underway, Alexis turned her attention to Dark Gale’s records. The ship had left Dalthus some few days before Alexis herself had arrived there. Delivered material for the station construction, then sailed for Al Jadiq with the remainder of her cargo. She’d followed much the same path as Nightingale did, save for Alexis’ stop at Man’s Fall, and taken much the same time in transit, being spotted by Nightingale just short of the Al Jadiq system.

  Which was somewhat odd, as Man’s Fall was several days’ sail off a least-time course from Dalthus to Al Jadiq. With the Gale having left Dalthus ahead of Nightingale, and Nightingale having detoured to Man’s Fall, encountering the Gale here was decidedly odd. />
  “I do find it curious, Captain Lounds, this time for sailing between Dalthus and Al Jadiq.”

  “Curious?”

  “It seems a great deal of time for the distance.”

  “The winds were against us.”

  “Nightingale did not find it so — at least where she followed the same course as is laid out here.”

  “Winds vary,” Lounds grunted, not looking up from his desk.

  “When Nightingale put into Man’s Fall there were … complaints.”

  Lounds was silent for a moment, then looked up. His eyes were narrowed and his jaw tight. “What possible matter is that to me? Benighted worlds like that are your responsibility.”

  “Yes, but one of those complaints was about merchant ships whose captains feel quite differently about the matter.”

  “You should, perhaps, address those complaints with the ships involved,” Lounds said with a shrug.

  Alexis nodded. “Yet without a satellite constellation or any communications gear, Man’s Fall was unable to identify the ships involved.”

  Lounds snorted. “The difficulties of such a backward world mean little to me, lieutenant.” He gestured at his desktop. “If you’ll forgive me, I have a great deal of work to complete.”

  Alexis nodded and returned to reviewing the Dark Gale’s manifest, becoming more and more convinced that Lounds’ ship was one which had attempted to trade with Man’s Fall. The manifest listing those goods shipped from Zariah to Dalthus and then those left for trade on Al Jadiq seemed to fall short of the cargo capacity for such a large ship — and Alexis doubted a captain such as Lounds would do less than squeeze every farthing of profit from each trip.

  She sighed. Regardless of the truth of it, there was little she could do about the matter, unless Man’s Fall was able to identify the ships which trespassed there. Perhaps she should speak to Stoltzfus about leaving at least a single satellite in orbit when next she was there?

  Her tablet pinged and she saw that Villar and Ousley had completed their inspection without finding anything — unless she wished them to perform a more thorough search, one which would include disassembling some of Dark Gale’s bulkheads. Much as she might wish to, in response to Lounds, she really had no reasonable cause to do so. Lounds must have received the same message from his officers, for when Alexis glanced up he was looking at her expectantly.