by Jim Rudnick
"We welcome you to the Gerent Northos Phtuki and his abode. Please follow us—and please do not wander off," she said. Tall woman, about fifty, Tanner thought. Slim, she was in a sort of jumpsuit-type of uniform—they all were and the shockingly bright salmon color was very bright.
He nodded and they fell in line, surrounded by the complete group, and he wondered how anyone would ever “wander off” from such a phalanx of aides. He didn't have to think much on that, as moments later the group passed through the next interior archway, straight through another long room with little in the way of art or furniture. Probably the cost of the doors, he thought. Bram sniggered and Tanner attempted to remember that he was here on official business.
As they moved through the third room, they veered off to one side and then through the double doors into what could be called a meeting room. There were three side tables, and he and his crewmen were directed to take one of the side tables. Already seated, directly across from him, was the Lady St. August, and she smiled broadly at him as he and his crew sat.
No sooner than they were comfortable, then from the far side of the room, another interior doorway, the gerent himself followed by a handful of underlings entered and took their place at the head of the table.
One of those underlings remained standing and spoke to the assembly. "Welcome to the palace of Northos Phtuki, the gerent of KappaD. Before the gerent addresses you, I am to recognize that attending this meeting are the Lady St. August and her retinue and Captain Tanner Scott of the Barony Navy ship, the Atlas. At the head table, you will find the gerent, of course, his minister of state, his minister of the interior, and his minister of RIM Council business too. We welcome you all," the man said and sat down.
Meeting of the minions instantly came to mind, but Tanner smiled even more broadly.
"Our task today," the gerent started out with, "is to consider what we know, that we are sure of—so that we can send the Council the information from being 'on the spot' as they say, for them to consider this refugee claim."
He continued to sit and then looked at what appeared to be an Agenda. One that was not in front of us, Tanner thought, and then he turned to bow his head to the Lady St. August.
"Ma’am, would you like to start us off, as you were the initial RIM Confederacy first contact with this group?"
She smiled back at the gerent, and like him, did not rise to speak. Royals, it appeared, did not need to rise to be recognized, Tanner saw.
"Yes, Gerent Phtuki, I would be glad to give this some background. My ship, the I, was en route from Duos to KappaD, when we were hailed via Ansible by this group. We had swung below the actual border of the Confederacy, by a couple of lights to see the nebula—let's call it a small side trip as I so do love this nebula and its swirling. We had barely moved out of light-speed to impulse power and were angling to get the right view of the nebula against the star fields, and suddenly the Ansible emergency beacon was detected. My captain—an excellent officer I would add—jumped to get bearings and find the beacon, when the hailing changed to full voice and video and the captain—Rossum, I believe—came on screen."
She looked down at what must be her notes on her tablet and then that beautiful face turned back to face the gerent.
"She explained that they had just had a death due to alien technology on Memories and were asking for help ASAP. There was little else to go on, and once my captain determined that the area was secure—no incoming adversaries or threats—we then entered the nebula itself. Now the Sterling is a frigate, but has some modifications too, but we went very, very slowly to the coordinates given to our helm, and after what must have been about a half a day, the nebula ahead parted and a huge expanse of open space lay ahead, encircled completely though by the nebula. Helm did immediately confirm that this was the planet Memories, though it'd been reported to be 'missing or hidden' for hundreds of years. We moved up on the Scavenger and after determining that the ship was space-worthy, we locked them with ... with—"
An aide leaned over and whispered something in her ear, and she nodded quickly.
"Sorry, yes, with a tractor beam that we locked and we jumped right from there to FTL and KappaD.
She went on but didn't refer to her notes anymore, Tanner noted.
"We did—well, our captain, rightfully so, scanned Memories as much as he could in the five minutes we were enveloped in the nebula too, and those items are available, of course, for further study and reflection."
She leaned back then for a moment and then leaned into the conversation.
"The thing of it is, when we got to high orbit here over KappaD, I did speak to this Captain Rossum. And what—well, in all honesty, what worried me was her face and her voice—even over the Ansible discussion, she showed something when she talked about what had happened on Memories. Rather, what had not happened perhaps might be better. All I know is—she is scared of what they found on that planet. And as she phrased it in that first talk, she wanted to ensure that her people are safe—hence, the need to protect them via the RIM refugee claims. It was she that picked the Barony, by the way, though to be honest, we are a very popular choice," she added, and Tanner knew some marketing speak when he heard it.
The gerent seemed to be digesting this, and slowly, so they waited. Moments later, he looked at his assembled ministers. "State—your comments, please?"
"Yes, Gerent. Anyone can apply for refugee status from the RIM Confederacy itself, or in this case, through the Confederacy directly to a full member, the Barony. Statutes exist that back this claim up; oh, there are some hurdles and points of perhaps some contention, but this will probably end up with the RIM gaining new citizens, this Roma group." He sat and Tanner was not the only one who noticed that he too must have Gallipedia'd them as well.
That aide again rose and looked at Tanner. "Did the captain of the Atlas have anything to add, here and now?"
Tanner rose to answer, of course, like all non-Royals did.
"I know even less than the people here, but there is one small thing. At the end of the meeting in the port drill hall, Captain Rossum approached me, called my by name, and asked if we could arrange to meet privately. Further, she also Ansibled me earlier today, and we have scheduled that meeting for tomorrow in the morning. Do I have permission to attend that meeting, on behalf of the Barony Navy?" he asked very politely.
The gerent waved at his minister of state.
"Do you have any idea as to why you were chosen to do this out of the billions here on the RIM, Captain? And further, why they 'knew' about you enough to look up your name and some background material as well, it seems?" the minister said. His tone was probing but not snarky, Tanner thought, and he was about to answer when the Lady St. August interrupted.
"Minister, as the leading Navy officer here—in fact in the Barony itself, I fully support our captain doing somewhat undercover work, if you will. We would like him to attend that meeting, and perhaps we can reconvene once he returns to add even more data to that 'on the spot' report we need to send to the RIM Confederacy Council." While she had been talking to the minister, her eyes were on the gerent.
They all sat still for a few minutes until the gerent seemed to have made a decision.
"Agreed, Lady. Captain Scott is to go to meet with these Romas and then report back—in fact, let's make it a working lunch for tomorrow, shall we? Good," he said as he then rose and he and his ministers all left the room quickly.
Tanner rose as did his crew, and while they went to the double doors, he went across the intermediate space to meet Helena in person.
He smiled at her and noted how beautiful her makeup was today. Her hair—but he grabbed hold of that thought and reined it in.
"Lady St. August, thank you for your support on this upcoming meeting. I think it might bear fruit for us—the Barony, I mean."
She cocked her head at him and smiled back just a little.
"Is there a Barony captain who might like another dinner on the Sterling perhaps? Or shoul
d we go into the capital and see if we can find a decent restaurant here on the planet?" That tight-fitting bodice rose and swelled with each breath, and he grinned back at her now fully.
"Yes, Ma’am—and if the restaurant choice is yours, Ma’am, then might I be allowed to buy the dinner and wine?" he said.
She nodded. "Lots of wine, I think"—she grinned right back—"and I'll have an aide make us a reservation at the best place in town. Will you come to the Sterling, say, at eighteen hundred hours? We can find our way from there," she said and smiled one more time. She turned back to him. "In case I forget this later—I did want you to know that the captain was scared of something—very much as scared as one can be—about whatever happened on Memories. File that away for tomorrow, perhaps," she finished and twirled on her heel and was gone.
Indeed ... Tanner thought, I just wonder what that was …
#####
"Slow and steady, Helm," the XO said as the Atlas shuttlecraft approached the Scavenger up in high orbit above KappaD.
"Loop, Sir," Kondo asked the captain, and Tanner nodded back to him, and Bram and Science Officer Sheldon, who were along for the trip, centered their gazes at the big front view-screen of the shuttle.
Ahead on the bulkhead-to-bulkhead bridge view-screen, the ship slowly grew larger as the pilot took her to starboard to do a loop all around the ship before docking in the now wide-open landing port. Such a loop didn’t take long as the ship was only about three hundred feet in length.
It did look like a cat's breakfast and all that this old saw entailed, Tanner thought. It was grubby looking on the outside of the hull. Panels of different colored steel alloys had been mismatched and welded where they'd been needed, he supposed. Two of the arrays off the keel area looked like some kind of Rube Goldberg type of contrivance—probably worked but oh so frumpish and ratty looking. Bare wires ran free at one end, he noted, so he wondered exactly what kind of ship could countenance that kind of engineering, but he gave up thinking on that.
As the shuttle curled around to port, the full engines and their exhaust funnels could be studied, and he was happy to see they at least looked ship-shape. Turning still to port, and coming up the ship's starboard side, there were several of those outer hulls welded in mismatches as well as he noted a section that was force field blue. Mostly waiting to get some repairs, he thought, as the shuttle turned to port and crossed over the bow of the Scavenger.
The area looked clean, which was good. The bridge, which was always expected to be at the top of the front of any ship, had huge windows, and they were filled with the hustle and bustle of a ship, he saw. Some faces turned to watch their shuttle, and he could see one of them was seated in the bridge center seat, the captain’s chair, he figured, and that face followed them all across the bow.
"Take us in please, pilot," he said to Lieutenant Jenkins, and the shuttle quickly picked up some speed and again turned to port to enter the wide-open landing bay. Settling in was a simple task for the helm, and moments later the force field snapped up behind them to seal off the bay and re-pressurize the bay with air.
"Right, with me," Tanner said, and he quickly stepped out through the still opening shuttlecraft landing ramp and strode down to the deck below.
Ahead of him was a small receiving party of only two, both males he thought. One stepped forward a small half step, tapped his hammer and cogs icon on his vest, and smiled at Tanner.
"Sir, Chief Mate Guari Rossum here, and we'd like to thank you for the visit to the Scavenger."
He was about Tanner's height of almost six feet, about the same weight too, yet his hair was a deep brown and his eyes brown as well. Wearing an armless vest of some kind of studded leather, with that hammer and cogs icon as a centered crest on same, his arms were well muscled, Tanner noted. A short dagger was at the belt, and his boots were soft leather again with all those studs, silver he thought maybe.
"I am pleased to be invited, Chief Mate. So ... where to now?"
"Bridge first, to our captain, Sir," he said and he turned away, led the way out of the bay to a long central corridor, and turned to port as they went toward the bow of the ship.
"I see," the XO said to the chief, "that your ship, like our own, is a lateral deck layout instead of the stacked deck like most others. Might I inquire why that might be—as it's quite outside the norm?"
"Yes, Sir, we do know that too—but as we fought for this ship well inwards almost two hundred years ago, it was this layout that we then built ourselves. She had little in the way of interior decks or corridors, so we decided then that the lateral mode would work best for us, Sir, ”the chief replied as they continued to go down the corridor.
"Fought for—would that be as in war, Chief? A war of some kind or type—and do I also get the sense that you—the Vitsa, I believe you call it—were successful, Chief?" Kondo probed a bit further.
The chief nodded. "Aye, Sir, it was a war—very small, mind you, and we were not as successful as we'd have liked—well, our Vitsa and some others too. We took this ship as the spoils of war, and she's been a fine ship for all of us ever since—the Scavenger is our home."
Not a lot of information there, Tanner thought and made a mental note to check where and when that conflict had happened. It might give them more information about the refugee back story.
As they continued, sometimes they passed open doorways they looked into. One seemed to have a classroom setting with two dozen children ensconced in their desks with a teacher holding up her tablet. Another doorway was a lunchroom, Tanner guessed, with some people taking an early lunch meal, and he had no idea as to what on their trays was food, as nothing was recognizable. Another one to ponder.
Ahead, a solid bulkhead ended the corridor at the front of the ship, so the chief turned to his right, went through an open doorway, and they entered the bridge.
There were a few chairs, with no one in any, he noted. Where the helm station would be on the Atlas, there was a comparable spot with a female sitting and doing some kind of console work. There was no Ansible station, no Adept officer, and no VIP station, though there were a couple of chairs at consoles, and he couldn't figure out the function of those consoles.
There was no Science station, no Tactical station, and no Wing or Marine station either. The captain’s chair held the captain who stood and turned to greet them.
"Captain Scott and guests—you are all so very welcome aboard the Scavenger. Our chief got you here to begin, and we are so very happy to have you aboard," she said, and she touched the hammer and cogs icon on her breastplate. Today her coal-black hair was in some kind of a pulled back and tied motif, and those green eyes were still big, open, and expressive, Tanner thought.
He stepped forward and held out his hand to offer to shake her own—and then stopped as a klaxon sounded. AI he thought as he froze in that position, and Captain Rossum waved her hand and the klaxon stopped immediately.
"Sorry, Captain Scott—the Scavenger's AI will not allow anyone to get within arm’s length of the captain—well, other than those that have been listed as able to do so, which is a very short list. But I've just turned it off for now—I believe you wanted to 'shake hands’ it is called by your people?" she said as she took a half step ahead, grasped his hand, and shook it sideways.
He smiled, held her hand firmly for a moment, and then shook her hand in an up and down movement so she got the drift of how to do the shaking part.
She smiled at him and nodded.
"Thank you, Captain, and yes, I appreciate the quick lesson too! Chief?"
The chief mate approached and touched his vest hammer and cogs icon. Must be how they salute, and Tanner filed that one away too.
"Captain?" he inquired.
"Take our guests on a full ship-wide tour. Everything and anything they want to see, show them—except for our secure vaults, at this point. Full family sections too, if they'd like, and I expect you back in about, say, an hour. Dismissed," she said and turned to resume her
captain’s chair.
Probably loaded down with damn reports, Tanner thought and smiled at the universal captain’s lament.
The chief led the way, and they went back down the same corridor at first. Next, they went up a stairwell two decks to the topmost deck and then out on another long corridor. Unlike most ships, the Atlas visitors noted that these areas that normally held the usual crew quarters instead were all metalworking shops and labs and foundries; the functions of normal ship upkeep and maintenance and support.
"Chief, might I ask why these decks, normally used for crew accommodations and the like, are housing instead ship maintenance shops?" Tanner inquired.
"Um ... yes ... well, the answer to that lies with what our people, the Roma people, value above all—our families. So we put them and, in fact, all of our living spaces at the core of the ship. Within the normal twenty-five foot disintegration depth of an energy pulse weapon, as you know, all is destroyed. Hence, our switch of our people for these shops and labs," he finished off. His tone indicated he felt their way was the only way.
Another piece of the back-story puzzle, Tanner thought and double-checked that his wrist PDA was still set to record.
As they walked down the long corridor, the chief took them into any of the shops and labs they looked into with any interest.
In one lab doorway, Tanner stopped short and cocked his head. The chief noticed and took them into the lab, and they wandered up and down the lab tables as crew there worked on whatever it was they were doing.
Tanner stopped by a crewman who was working on a tablet-sized piece of ore.
"Chief, what is this crewman working on?" he said as the hairs on the back of his neck were slowly standing up.
"This is Hawsepiper Beati Counts, one of our junior crewmen, who appears to be analyzing this sample ore … Hawsepiper?" the chief questioned.
"Sir, yes, Sir. We picked this up a few months back, and I'm only now getting around to making some simple tests. As you know, Sir, we test for only the basics—further study is beyond our capabilities here, so when we find something interesting, we pay for full analysis here on KappaD," the crewman answered.
