by Greg Chase
Rhea materialized in the corner of the cabin. Sam looked at her with pleading eyes. “Tell me my not confronting all the Tobes on Taygete did some good. Tell me that by only meeting with one member of their population, who doesn’t believe in me anyway, there’s one moon we’ve visited that does not have a religion with my name on it.”
Rhea shook her head. “Sorry, the absence of god only made this more of a religion based on faith than firsthand contact. And it’s not like Achim was much help defusing that impression. Your bringing someone back from a fate worse than death isn’t likely to go unnoticed.”
Sam wanted to cry in frustration as he closed his eyes. “Peachy. Just peachy.”
17
Alphonse adjusted the ship’s controls in his familiar pretakeoff procedure.
“Where to this time, Captain?” Sam asked.
Alphonse didn’t turn from his duties. “Hidalgo, a centaur planet. We’re in luck as its orbit puts it just beyond Jupiter right now. There’s always a need for food synthesizers out there, so I should do well with the ones we picked up on Taygete.”
Sam smiled. “A pirate planet?”
The captain nodded without taking his eyes off the controls.
Jess took Sam by the hand and led him back to the main cabin. “It’ll be nice to be back among the pirates. Not that they’re a particularly talkative bunch, but at least they’re not likely to worship you.”
“You know, there was a time I’d have taken that comment as a jab.”
Jess snuggled tight to his side for the quick hop away from the moons in Jupiter’s gravitational pull. “Maybe we’d have been better as pirates—wandering the solar system, stealing from the rich and doing what we could for the poor, never hanging around one place for too long. Sounds like a pretty good lifestyle right now.”
Sam nodded with his head against hers. “Probably would’ve suited us both better than this ill-advised adventure, but I think there are enough pirates already. As Alphonse would be quick to point out, we wouldn’t be much good at it. Reading someone’s hidden agenda was never one of my strong points.”
It took Sam a couple of minutes to process what he was seeing. Hidalgo was less a planet than a rock-based landing port. Long metal tentacles stretched out from the planet with spaceships docked at the ends. From space, it looked like some kind of crazy monstrous flower made up of spare machine parts. Sam couldn’t watch as Alphonse put the ship into a side-drift maneuver to dock between two pirate freighters.
The captain hadn’t looked up from his controls during the entire trip. “The airlock will deliver you down to the planet. It’s mostly bars and places to eat. It may be a little cliché, but this place is all about making contacts, so finding something to drink is just a given. We won’t be here long. I need to off-load the food synthesizers and make a connection for our next stop.”
The airlock had one large lever marked “land” and “port.” Sam threw the lever to Land, and the result made him think of an old waterslide his grandparents took him to as a child. He and Jess shot down the tube at a speed that made him wonder how they’d manage a soft landing. The low gravity of the asteroid-turned-spaceport made landing less of an issue than bouncing once they were ejected from the chute. Fortunately, the whole planet was encased in a large, transparent sphere like some geological sample.
Sam pulled the cowl of his space jacket over his head as they entered the bar, but he was a moment too late to remain unnoticed.
Luther Montoya shot from a chair along the far wall and nearly knocked Sam off his feet. “There’s the couple of the hour. Come have a drink with me and my mates. They’re all gonna want to meet you. Not one of them believes my role in your story.”
The pirate captain who’d originally delivered them to the first moon of Jupiter and later helped with Jess’s infiltration of Jupiter One-One-Four was a level beyond drunk but oddly functional. He smiled broadly at a table full of rough-looking characters. “Told ya I knew them.”
The rest of the pirates remained quiet but eyed Sam in a way that made him check his pocket for the money he’d stashed. He and Jess picked seats at the far end of the table, hoping not to seem rude.
Once Luther returned to the large drinking vessel, another pirate sat down next to Sam. “Can’t thank you enough for what you’re doing on those moons.”
Jess smiled but looked confused as she snuggled up close to Sam. “Has it made a difference? I know you’re closer to… our mutual friends out here. But I’m somewhat surprised you’d notice any effect on the pirate outposts.”
The pirate shook his head in confusion. “My Tobey, you mean? Can’t imagine why he’d give a microchip about what you’re doing.”
Sam scratched his head. “Maybe you have us confused with someone else.”
The pirate leaned back and gave Sam an appraising glare. “No, that’s you, all right. No glow, but I guess you need to be around Jupiter for that.”
Sam hadn’t noticed the change in his appearance. As he examined his hand, he smiled to see perfectly average flesh tone. With the lower network connection to the Moons of Jupiter this far out in space, his skin was returning to normal, which made him feel more human.
The pirate then turned to leer at Jess. “And if he’s the strange fellow who can’t keep his CE to himself, that means you’re the one who snuck onto the old solar-array satellite.”
Jess nodded.
The pirate nodded in return. “Then you’re the one to thank.”
“For what?” Jess asked.
The big man had an even bigger laugh. “You really don’t get it, do you? That new network means we can communicate with anyone we want—no big corporation listening in. We can do business again, honest-to-God illicit smuggling among the moons of Jupiter. We have spies who let us know where’s safe, what’s good to snag off their measly little hunks of rock, who to watch out for, on and on. You two are heroes around these parts. It wasn’t even this good before they threw the switch.”
Luther roused himself from his drunken state. “You’ve got our support. Whatever you need, I’m your captain.” He landed facedown on the table, spilling the remainder of his drink.
The pirate next to Luther laughed. “Forgive my friend. He’s been a little boisterous about his role in your success, but he’s not wrong about one thing. You do have our support. Use the freedom network to contact a Tobey you trust. Have them get in touch with any of us, and we’ll be at your service faster than you can blink. But while you’re here, consider yourself my guests. Just give anyone my name, Ramon Mondrain, and they’ll take good care of you. I’m as close to being in charge of this rock as anyone will admit.”
“There is something you might be able to do for us,” Sam said. “It’s been some time since we’ve talked to our daughters on Earth. I know communication out here is still patchy, but is there any way to establish a link?”
The leader of the pirates shook his head in sorrow. “Your freedom network lets us talk to the Moons of Jupiter. But that amazing woman next to you only made network contact with Earth by using some magic on that old solar-array satellite that we still can’t figure out.”
Jess nodded as she looked down at the table. “I’m afraid that was a one-time situation. I only wish I could help you figure out how to duplicate the connection.”
“We’ll do what we can to get word to Earth that you’re still alive. Hopefully, next time we meet I’ll have something more encouraging.”
Three drinks arrived from the bar without anyone having ordered them. Ramon lifted his newly filled glass. “A toast to Sam and Jess, liberators of the economically repressed.”
The whole bar shouted an encouraging response, though Sam thought in their inebriated state, they might have saluted anyone who was buying.
He enjoyed a sip of the concoction, which—considering his location—proved remarkably tasty. “So we’ve helped you conduct your illegal affairs. Has any of this done any good for the general populations of the moons?”
Ramon lowered his head conspiratorially, making his eyes appear much darker. “Best not refer to our activities in such a derogatory manner. We may be pirates, but we do have our honor. What’s illegal to some is fighting against corporate repression to others.”
Sam raised his hand. “I meant no offense. The Tobes, Tobeys to you, have been giving me a rather mixed response down there. I was just hoping to hear some good news.”
Ramon’s bright smile contrasted with the room’s dark shadows, making it appear more sinister than expected. “I just call them Tobeys to piss off my assistant. He’s a good kid but too serious.”
“What’s his name?” Jess asked.
“Tobias.” Ramon laughed at his own inside joke. “That’s why it’s funny. He refuses to let me call him Tobey, so I refer to all of his kind as Tobeys. We do have to find our entertainment where we can out here.”
Jess’s strained laugh made the hairs on the back of Sam’s neck stand on end. She never was very good at hiding her true emotions. “I am curious about Sam’s question, though. You’re probably in a better position than most to know how things are going for the human population on the moons.”
Ramon looked at Jess from under his thick eyebrows. “Things were never good, not even before they threw the switch. No question, though—it was worse after the network took control. No one seemed to notice or care. I doubt even the people of Earth paid much attention. Why should they? So long as business was being conducted smoothly to everyone’s benefit, no one really wanted to know how it was being accomplished. But disrupt that flow of money, and God himself comes out here.”
Sam felt the blood drain from his face. “I would appreciate it if you didn’t refer to me that way.”
Ramon furrowed his brow. “What way?”
“I’m not God,” Sam said. “Just a guy trying to make sense out of life.”
Ramon snickered. “I wasn’t referring to you. But that is kind of funny. Just because you built a hidden network hardly makes you a god—a hero maybe, but not a god.”
Sam shot a look at Jess, who took over. “Sorry, Ramon. Like Sam said, he’s been getting some strange responses from the Tobes we’ve been dealing with out here. What did you mean about ‘God himself’ coming out here?”
Ramon shook his head. “Guess you might not know. It’s been kept pretty secret. Good business for us often means bad business for the corporate moons, especially the big ones. We make our living off knowing who’s who and what’s what. More than a couple of board members, big shots from the big moons, have been snooping around out here over the last couple of days. We’re the closest pirate outpost, but not being a part of the Moons of Jupiter makes us what you might consider neutral—at least when it comes to their inner workings and what they call government. Anytime we see more than two of them together, we get antsy—like God himself was checking up on us or planning something sinister.”
Sam folded his arms on the table to lean in toward Ramon. “They’ve been meeting out here. Why?”
Ramon gave Sam a sympathetic smile. “You think they want their business listened in on any more than the Tobeys? They meet out here, and who’s to know?”
“Must be something pretty big,” Jess said.
Ramon’s serious voice, though quiet, had a way of cutting through the ambient conversations. “It’s not surprising to find one or even two board members on this outpost. Hidalgo is part of a group of centaur planets that follow along in Jupiter’s orbit. They make convenient places for clandestine meetings. Things happen out on some of those planets that aren’t discussed in polite conversation, even among pirates. But to find so many high-ranking people out here at the same time is more than a little unusual.”
Sam remembered Leviathan’s rescue missions, meant to save as many small outposts as possible once the Moons flipped the switch, but there were always people who couldn’t be reached or refused to leave—societies the pirates supposedly later rescued, for a price. And where those people eventually found themselves could only be left to speculation. Slavery, actual human slavery, had been their most likely destiny.
But even a wild orgy on some hidden outpost filled with human sex slaves wouldn’t explain a group of officials straying so far from their creature comforts.
Jess looked at Ramon. “Why do you think they were out here?”
Ramon gave her a knowing smile. “They didn’t want our friends the Tobeys listening in, that’s for sure. And they hoped to be free of the Moons of Jupiter constitution—any business that happens on any of the moons falls under those rules of conduct. Beyond that, even my fellow pirates won’t tell. We know some of us were approached, but about what no one is saying. It’s not like any respectable pirate would want to admit having anything to do with those thieves. We do what we do, but we’re honest about it.”
Sam leaned in even closer. “As the leader of this outpost, you must have some idea. I can appreciate that information is valuable if we’ve crossed beyond the line of casual conversation.”
Ramon enjoyed his drink. “Money’s not the issue, my friend. The safety of my own hide and the continued commerce of this outpost are, however, big issues. Whatever they were up to wasn’t good. And out here, that’s saying something.”
Sam took Jess by the hand as they headed back to the shuttle for the night. “At least the pirates like us. If we get into too much trouble—”
But he didn’t get to finish his thought.
Blackness surrounded Sam as unseen hands pulled the fabric bag over his head and down his body. He could hear Jess struggling against the same treatment. Ropes secured the restraint before he had a chance to reason out a response to the abduction.
Jess screamed, but the suction around Sam’s body indicated they’d just been shoved into a tube to be shot out to a waiting space vessel. No one would have heard her. What little gravity there’d been on the small planet let go of his body as they were sucked from planet to docking port.
He tumbled into a confined space as he squirmed against the ropes. They hadn’t been gagged. “Jess, are you okay out there?”
A similarly restrained body came to rest against his. “Yes, I’m okay. What’s happening?”
He struggled with the possibilities. Anywhere else in the solar system, he’d have been able to mentally find help, but maybe that was the whole point. “I don’t know. But I’m thinking this is no random abduction.”
Jess’s voice came out as a shaky whisper. “Do you think Ramon was trying to warn us that this might be some plot by the Moons’ Board of Shadows?”
Sam let out a long sigh. He really needed to listen better—to what people said but even more to what they didn’t say. “That’d be my guess. They didn’t kill us, which would have been easy enough. Whatever they want, I guess we’ll find out soon enough.”
Jess’s voice came out in a nervous laugh. “Maybe they just want our money.”
Unfortunately, Sam highly doubted that, but what he feared more than their demands was where they might be headed.
“Is there a Tobe on board?” Jess asked.
She always seemed to be one step ahead of him. Sam closed his eyes, hoping to calm his fears. Even the most secretive of his creation couldn’t hide from him for long, but all he got back from his mental quest was black reflection.
Sam explored the body bag as best he could. “I think this fabric must somehow have me isolated from any possible connection. Someone’s done their homework.”
Jess’s foot hit his, then he could hear it explore its surroundings. “Do you think that’s why they haven’t they taken us out of these bags?”
“Probably.” He tried to identify any distinguishing sensations from the shuttle or its crew: smells, the feeling of the floor, the size of the ship based on how far he’d rolled, and any familiar sounds. But he was badly out of practice using his senses.
The pirates were far from united on anything, let alone their impression of him, but to abduct a guest of an outp
ost leader took some kind of gall. It had to be a secret association made up of the Moons’ boards of directors. Which meant all their makeshift cover stories had been discovered.
The bag next to him rolled even closer. Jess’s head pressed close to his ear. “I think it’s Alphonse.”
18
The captain’s familiar voice filtered through from outside the restraining cloth bag. “Yes, it’s me. I’m surprised it took you that long to figure it out.”
Jess squirmed away from Sam toward the voice. “Then why not let us out of these restraints, and where’s Rhea?”
Alphonse’s voice held only the slightest regret. “We’re still inside the range of that connection in Sam’s head. At least that’s what they tell me. Once I deliver you, I’ll let you out. As for Rhea and Ronny, there are some powerful people who figured out how to keep those two on Hidalgo. They’ll be safe enough, but the people who want to meet you don’t want any of your friends butting in.”
Sam rolled against the wall. “Why?”
“Why did I agree to abduct you?” Alphonse asked. “I told you, I’m not in the slave trade. I have my morals, such as they are. I’ve listened to enough of your arguments, and what you’re proposing just sounds too much like slavery for me. Slavery under the guise of religion, sure, but then isn’t that the ultimate goal of all religions—to enslave their followers one way or another? I won’t be a part of it. And I did warn you.”
Sam struggled against the bindings, wishing he could face the pirate directly. “You know us better than that. Even if I was to have some misguided idea about using the Tobe population for my own ends, do you really think Jess would allow it?”
Sam could hear Alphonse take a seat. “You’re both very nice people, and I hate doing this. But things are getting out of hand. Near as I can tell, the Board of Shadows doesn’t know about your position with the Tobes. They do know about the freedom network. I think that’s what this is about, but it’s not like I’m in on anything.”
