Starship

by Michael D. Resnick

  “We already passed through some at the spaceport,” said Cole.

  “Ours are more thorough.”

  The scanners pinpointed all of Val's weapons, which she removed, but missed Cole's ceramic pistol.

  “Your burner, your screecher, and your daggers will be returned when you leave,” another of the men told Val.

  “They'd better be,” she said coldly.

  “And now,” said the first man, “if you will accompany us into the airlift…”

  The five of them floated up to the ground floor and stepped out into an ornate foyer. From there they were taken to a large, luxurious parlor where they were told to remain. The three men left, and a moment later a bald, rotund little man with a handlebar mustache entered the room. He waddled over to them and extended his hand to Cole.

  “I have heard of your exploits, Mr. Cole,” he said. “I knew it was only a matter of time before the Republic found some pretext to rid itself of its greatest hero. That is, after all, the way of governments. I am Euphrates Djinn, at your service.” He turned to Val. “And you, my dear Cleopatra—or should I say Nefertiti, or Domino, or Flame, or…but why go on?—we both know who you are, if not what to call you. May I offer either of you a drink?”

  “Later, perhaps,” said Cole.

  “Fine. Now, how may I serve you?”

  “As you may have heard,” began Cole, making it up as he went along, “I came to the Inner Frontier with my ship and most of my crew. As such, there's probably not a ship on the Frontier that can match our firepower.” And if you believe that, he thought, the rest will be easy.

  “I've not seen your ship, but there are some pretty powerful vessels out here,” said Djinn.

  “Not with highly trained military crews,” continued Cole.

  “I will grant you that,” said Djinn. “Have you a point to make?”

  “You are a successful fence, Mr. Djinn,” said Cole. “Your reputation extends throughout the Inner Frontier. They have even heard of you on the Spiral Arm and out near the Rim.”

  “I'm flattered.”

  “But such a reputation can be a two-edged sword,” continued Cole. “No one knows what you're worth, but guesses range up to three billion credits.”

  “Ridiculous,” said Djinn.

  “I'm not here to argue whether it's one billion or three billion, Mr. Djinn. I'm here because whatever the amount, it is bound to attract the attention of men and aliens who are not bound by the same code of ethics I'm sure that you and I share.”

  “And you propose to protect me?”

  “I know you have a security force, and I'm sure you've got some ships. We're not talking about protecting you from the man who sneaks in here by night, or the lone ship that decides it's worth the risk to attack one of your ships or customers. But there are warlords all over the Rim, and with the Republic's attention focused on its war with the Teroni Federation, they're starting to appear on the Inner and Outer Frontiers. That is the kind of enemy we can protect you from.”

  “Why am I blessed by your presence?” asked Djinn. “Why haven't you made your offer to David Copperfield or Ivan Skavinsky Skavar?”

  “David Copperfield is right next to the Republic. If he needs help, he can call upon the Navy and they'll probably come. The reason I chose you rather than Ivan or the others is standing beside me. She is our one recruit since we reached the Inner Frontier. We chose her for her knowledge of the current situation, and she assures me that you're the biggest and the best. If you reject my offer, I'll make it to the next man or alien in line.”

  “And what do you want for your services?”

  “It may be a week, a month, a year, or a decade before you're attacked by a major force,” said Cole. “You and I can determine the proper fee for such an engagement, to be paid only when we have achieved victory. Beyond that, I want only a small annual retainer, which will give you first call on our services.”

  “And how many millions of credits constitutes a small retainer?” asked Djinn suspiciously.

  “I don't want money.”

  “Jewelry, then? Or perhaps art treasures?”

  “What I want is treasure enough for me, Mr. Djinn. I am a collector of ancient books, dating from the days when Man was still earth-bound. If you have any, I'll look them over and make my selection.”

  A smile spread across Djinn's pudgy face. “You had me going for a moment there,” he said with an amused laugh. “He sent you, didn't he?”

  “I have no idea what you're talking about,” said Cole.

  “David Copperfield. He's been after my signed first for more than a decade. Nice try, Mr. Cole, but my answer to him is the same as always: Never.”

  “Why should I lie?” said Cole. “Yes, he did make me a handsome offer if I could obtain it for him. But that has nothing to do with my offer to you. If you'll give me the book, my ship and crew will stand ready to defend you from any and all attacks for a period of, shall we say, eighteen Standard months?”

  “I know the Albion Cluster far better than you do,” said Djinn, “and I know that no warlord is going to assemble a powerful enough force for me to require your services for at least five years. So it really makes no difference to me whether your offer is sincere or not.” A smile worked its way slowly across his thick lips. “Now perhaps you'd like to make another offer?”

  Cole frowned. “I don't follow you.”

  “What is it worth for me to let you leave here alive?”

  “Oh, you're going to let us leave here alive,” said Cole. “And you're going to let us leave with the book.”

  “I admire your sense of humor, Mr. Cole.”

  Cole pulled his pistol out and trained it at Djinn. “I hope you admire my taste in ceramics as well.”

  “Does that toy really work?” asked Djinn.

  “There's an easy way to find out,” said Cole. “I'm hoping you don't choose it, and just hand me the book.”

  “Kill him and get it over with,” said Val, and Cole couldn't tell if she was trying to scare the fence or if she really meant it. “We'll find the damned book without him.”

  “You heard the lady,” said Cole. “Make up your mind.”

  Djinn shrugged. “You may have the book for the rest of your life, Mr. Cole,” he said, walking to the wall behind him. “Which is to say, I expect to have it back within ten minutes.”

  He touched the wall a number of times in a precise pattern, and suddenly a small section slid back to reveal the leather-bound Dickens novel. He stood aside, but neither Val nor Cole stepped forward.

  “You bring it to us,” she said.

  “I detect a lack of trust here,” said Djinn in amused tones.

  “Who do you think you're dealing with?” said Val. “The second a hand that wasn't in your security system's memory banks reached for it, every alarm in the place would go off.” She paused. “It might save the book, but it wouldn't save you.”

  “What the hell has Copperfield offered you to take such risks against a man who never did you any harm?” asked Djinn curiously.

  “You wouldn't understand,” said Cole. “We're old school chums.”

  Djinn got the book and handed it to Cole. “Ten minutes,” he said. “Maybe twelve if you're lucky. Enjoy them while you can.”

  “Val,” said Cole, “I get the impression that Mr. Djinn would like to take a nap.”

  Before Djinn could react, Val's hand chopped down on the back of his neck and he dropped to the floor.

  “You didn't kill him, I hope?”

  “What difference does it make?” she replied.

  “We're pirates, not killers.”

  “Don't get preachy with me,” she said. “You killed a bunch of men on the Achilles.”

  “They attacked us.”

  “And you think Djinn just planned to let you walk away with his book without attacking you?”

  “We'll argue about it later,” said Cole. “Right now we need to figure a way out of here.”

  �
�Only three men brought us up,” she replied. “I'll take two, you take one.”

  “They were all armed,” said Cole. “And we don't know how many more are out there.”

  “All right,” she said. “If you don't want to fight them, let's look for Djinn's escape route. I never yet saw anyone this rich and powerful who didn't have an emergency exit hidden somewhere on the premises. This is the room where he does his business, like David Copperfield's study, so it must be accessible from here.”

  “Who the hell would he escape from?” asked Cole dubiously. “He owns the local authorities.”

  “The authorities are never a problem, and no rival walks in here without being disarmed. No, men like Djinn have to be able to escape from ambitious lieutenants.”

  Cole considered her statement, then nodded his agreement. “It makes sense. Let's start looking.”

  “Not toward the door. All the ambitious underlings are on the other side of it.”

  “Why aren't they here already?” asked Cole. “You can't tell me the security system's not making half a dozen holos of this.”

  “I'm sure it was on when we entered. But he's no fool. He would have disabled it before he showed you the book. He wasn't worried about getting it back from you; he thought his men could do that, and maybe they can. He wanted to make sure they didn't know where it was hidden.”

  “You get a hell of an education in the pirate business, don't you?” observed Cole. He looked around the room. “It's probably hidden behind some wall panel, just the way the book was.”

  “But without knowing the codes, how are we going to open it?” she asked.

  Cole lowered his head in thought for a moment, then straightened up abruptly. “I think I know.”

  “What is it?”

  “If he had to make a getaway in a hurry, he wouldn't have time to punch in a code. It'd be more important for him to get out fast.”

  “So?”

  “So there isn't any code. The system is programmed to recognize him.” He walked over to the unconscious Djinn. “Come on, give me a hand lifting him up.”

  She walked over, and a moment later they had him propped up between them.

  “Now let's walk him as close to the walls as we can and see what happens.”

  They began dragging him, as two friends might drag a drunk, past the wall that held the book, then a second wall, and just as Cole was about to admit he'd been wrong, a panel opened on the third wall, and they stepped into an airlift.

  “Bring him or leave him?” asked Val.

  “Bring him. Maybe if we run into any of his men, we can use him as a hostage and convince them not to shoot.”

  “Most of them would probably love an excuse to blow him apart and split the spoils,” said Val. “Look what my crew did to me, and I was one hell of a generous captain.”

  “Bring him anyway. Even if they'd rather kill him than us, it doesn't hurt to have a shield.”

  The airlift descended to a lower level, but it wasn't the same level the shuttle had used.

  “Does it go any farther down?” asked Val, looking into a room filled with stolen art treasures.

  “No, this is it,” said Cole after checking the controls. “Let's see how high it goes.”

  “Wait!” she said.

  “What is it?” he asked.

  “Let's grab some of this stuff before we leave!”

  “It'll slow us down,” said Cole. “His men aren't going to stay put forever.”

  “Then you go,” she said, stepping out. “I'll be along later.”

  “We'll go together,” said Cole. “Just be quick about it.”

  She hefted a few small statues, decided they were too heavy, briefly considered a pair of paintings, and finally settled for a handful of alien gemstones on which had been engraved microscopic scenes of exquisite beauty. She tucked them into the top of one boot and rejoined Cole in the airlift.

  They ascended all the way to the roof, where they emerged and found a small ship, hidden from the street by the various angles of the roof.

  “Fueled and ready for a quick getaway,” said Cole.

  “How do you know?”

  “What's the point of an escape route if you don't keep everything in working order? I'll bet the damned ship gets serviced every week.”

  “We're going to have a problem,” said Val.

  “Oh?”

  “Take a look. It's a one-man ship.”

  Cole frowned. “I hadn't noticed.” He propped Djinn up against a faux chimney and walked over to the vessel. “Is there any way the two of us can fit into it?”

  “Not even if I were a foot shorter and we were locked in a sexual embrace,” said Val.

  “Okay,” he said. “Take it to the spaceport and come back with the Kermit.”

  “The Kermit could never land here,” she said. “It's too big.”

  “Then use your initiative and steal a ship that can land here.”

  “Give me your ceramic gun,” she said, holding out a hand. “All my weapons are still down at the shuttlecar's level.”

  He withdrew the pistol and handed it to her, along with the book. “Make it fast,” he said. “They may be used to his killing the holo system when he's doing business, but I'll bet he doesn't leave it off for twenty and thirty minutes at a time.”

  She began getting into the ship.

  “One more thing,” he said.

  “What?”

  “Whatever you steal only has to be big enough for you and me.”

  “You don't want to take him along?”

  “What for?” responded Cole. “No one here would pay two credits to ransom him. And Copperfield doesn't want him, just his book. If we take him to Riverwind, they'll just kill him there. And since it's a pretty obvious that we're never going to have any dealings with him again, I can't see that letting him live will cause us any problems.”

  Her face said she was unconvinced, but she merely shrugged, muttered “You're the Captain,” and finished climbing into the ship.

  It took off almost instantly, and Cole was left alone on the roof with the unconscious Euphrates Djinn. He spent a few minutes studying the brilliantly reflective rings swirling slowly across the night sky. Then Djinn began groaning, and he turned his attention to the rotund fence.

  “Welcome back,” he said.

  “Where are we?”

  “On your roof.”

  “My roof?” said Djinn groggily. After a moment he looked around. “Where's my ship?”

  “My friend borrowed it,” answered Cole. “She'll be back with a bigger one, and you can reclaim it at the spaceport.”

  “You'll never see her again,” predicted Djinn. “Take me back down and return my book, and I'll give you safe passage off the planet.”

  “Possibly you mean it,” said Cole. “But I have more faith in her word than in yours.”

  “Then you're still a dead man, and all you've done is given me a stiff neck and a headache.”

  “We've also stolen your book and your ship,” said Cole. “They may be small accomplishments, but they're ours.”

  “Spare me your humor,” said Djinn, blinking his eyes and rubbing his neck. “By now my men are searching the house and combing the grounds, looking for you.”

  “Too bad the secret airlift won't open for them,” said Cole.

  “There are other ways to reach the roof, and other ways to kill you,” promised Djinn. He touched his neck gingerly and winced. “What the hell are you doing out here anyway? Why aren't you blowing up military bases all over the Republic? After all, they're the ones who want you dead.”

  “Being a pirate pays better than being a revolutionary,” answered Cole. “And you live longer.”

  “Some do. You won't.”

  “Let's hope you're wrong,” said Cole. “Because I have no intention of dying alone.”

  A minute later he saw a low-flying ship approaching Djinn's estate. As it drew nearer, there were shouts from the interior of the house, and he
could hear windows opening and men moving beyond his range of vision.

  The ship came to a stop about twenty feet above the roof and hovered, motionless. A hatch opened and a ladder swung down. An instant later Val climbed down the first few steps.

  “Get moving!” she yelled. “The winds could blow the ship beyond the roof any minute.”

  Cole took a step toward the ladder and the corpulent Djinn hurled himself at him, knocking him down.

  “I've got him up here on the roof!” Djinn shouted into the night. “Get your asses up here quick!”

  Two men pulled themselves up over the edge of the roof, about forty feet away from where Djinn and Cole were thrashing about. Val aimed the ceramic pistol and fired off two shots. The first missed. The second hit one of the men and exploded on contact. She quickly aimed at the other man and fired again, and he, too, vanished in a small explosion.

  Three more men appeared at various spots along the roof's edge, and Cole realized that he still had the extra clips for the gun in his pocket. Val hurled herself down on top of Djinn, who collapsed like a balloon losing air. A quick kick to his head put him back in dreamland.

  “Get up the ladder and steady the ship!” said Val.

  “What about you?” asked Cole, climbing to his feet.

  “This is what you brought me along for, remember?”

  Cole realized that arguing would just waste time, so he raced to the ladder. It was beyond his reach, but the lighter gravity allowed him to leap up and grab hold of it. He started climbing as the three men charged the Valkyrie.

  She reached into the top of her boot, right where Cole had seen her place the gemstones a few minutes earlier, and withdrew a pair of knives. A second later one was embedded in one of the men's throats, and the other had buried itself deep in a second man's chest.

  “Where the hell did you get those?” yelled Cole as he neared the top of the ladder.

  “Ship's galley!” she said with a laugh, then turned her attention to the third man, who either had no weapons or felt no need of them. He charged her, and got a swift, fifty-foot flight to the ground for his trouble.

  Two more men appeared. Val dove behind the body of the first man she'd killed, appropriated his pulse gun, and fired at the two. One shot hit dead center between the first man's eyes; the other tore off the second man's leg, and he tottered and fell off the roof.