“Aye, captain, keeping it all well within the limits for a Karthanian.”
“Elfi, keep your ears open and record all comm traffic. SHIP, help her, please.”
“Already on it, captain, search patterns for pirate name activity and transmissions that offer Union mil-tech are in effect.”
I acknowledged with a nod. “Narth and Shea, make sure you don’t use any active scanner beams we are not supposed to have.”
“We adjusted our active sensors to match our disguise.”
Har-Hi handed me a PDD in clipboard mode. “Arrival at Sin 4 or not, it is 09:00 Union time and that means you have to sign the daily order sheet, captain. Only with your signature can I process them.”
“Where is Ms. O’Connell? Is that not her duty?”
“Her duty, yes, but since you decided to pull two shifts and throw my carefully arranged shift schedule in chaos, I have to do it. She is sleeping most likely.”
I blinked. “I just wanted to be on the bridge myself when we arrived. I somehow hoped never to set foot on Sin 4 again and yet here we are.”
Shea sighed at that. “I can’t help but think the same way, and this dirt ball is supposed to be my home.”
I said, “Your home is where you make it and not where fate put you when you were born. At least we arrived in a nice ship this time, and I am not bound and can go to the bathroom anytime I want.”
Everyone looked at me and I added, “Well, the first time I arrived here, I was tied up and I needed to go to the bathroom really bad. It’s not a story I should tell you all, but not being able to go can be really painful.”
Har-Hi said, “No one is laughing, captain. This makes your accomplishment to escape barefoot and without any resources even more amazing. You didn’t go into great details when you told us how you escaped your tormentor, but I can imagine it was much more difficult than you let on.”
“Maybe I’ll tell you one day. Right now, we’ve got a job to do and, as we are the first Federation ship, at least as far as we know, entering this system, we might as well collect some data and upgrade our catalogs and information on this system.”
The Golden One came onto the bridge and SHIP said to me, “I asked Sobody to the bridge to help Elfi with the comm traffic analysis.”
“It’s all good, SHIP. I think we have thrown regulation 563.43 B out the window quite a while ago regarding proper bridge conduct. Besides, you are not just the AI. You do carry rank and you are an officer.”
Har-Hi could not help himself. “That regulation with many of the other regulations. Not that I am complaining or anything.”
Sobody looked over to the busy science console. “Captain, we are supposed to be pirates! Pirates don’t survey, measure, and explore.”
I smiled. “Not to worry, Ancient Merchant. We won’t launch any probes or send survey teams to the other planets.”
Har-Hi, who stood with crossed arms next to my seat, instead of sitting in his designated chair, also watching the science crew do their job, turned to the Golden and said, “Even you might be surprised at the data we can collect just with our sensors. I doubt there is another species that elevated scientific sensor analysis to such a level as the Union.”
Sobody agreed. “This is one of the reasons I am such a fan of the Terrans and the Union, Mr. Hi.”
Shea looked at her readouts and reported, “None of the other planets are used or occupied as far as I can tell; there are no energy signatures or material concentrations that would suggest artificial manipulation or presence. Yet it appears that there are several candidates with promising mineral and metal riches.”
Har-Hi said, “Crooks don’t mine and those who do want to mine have the fruits of their labor stolen or taken away. So, I guess that is the reason no one is mining out here.”
She nodded and returned to looking at her readouts. I knew her well enough that I could tell by her body language she had found something, so I asked, “Lt. Schwartz, is there anything I should know about?”
“No, captain, it is not anything that would affect us or the mission in any way. The sun is a Spectral Type O2 and—” She stopped in midsentence and kept looking at her readouts. She turned. “It is my home system, captain, but I never had the chance to scan our sun before. This star is unstable, and I am running a simulation through SHIP right now. A nova eruption is likely to occur within the next two or three hundred years. I am certain it is caused by natural effects.”
“It won’t affect our mission, because I hope we all will be somewhere else by then. Maybe the situation will have changed by then and the Wurgus solar engineers could stabilize that sun.”
Narth was also busy on his console and said, “Captain, there is a lot of traffic in this system, and I am detecting weapon fire at nine different locations within the system. Mao analyzed the conflicts and concluded that none of the fights are connected.”
Mao did not take his eyes off his readouts and confirmed what Narth had said.
“Narth, send me the scanner data but I can’t see any correlation between any of these shoot-outs. It also appears no capital ships are involved. Weapon energies exchanged are consistent with armed system shuttles and the like.”
Shea said, “That is normal. There is only one law here, the law of the stronger. There are always quarrels and fights anywhere on or around Sin 4.”
I leaned back. “Har-Hi, sound battle stations anyway. I like to be ready.”
“Aye, captain! General quarters!”
We reached the planet without any incidents, and Shaka took us into a standard orbit around the garden world known as SIN 4.
It had only two continents and several large islands. The rest was ocean. Even from space, the upper continent didn’t look very inviting. Most of it seemed gray and looked dirty. There was visible pollution oozing from one of the large islands in a gray smear across the greenish oceans.
“So how do we land?” I asked. “Did anyone hail us?” This question I directed to Elfi.
The beautiful Saran woman answered, “There is lots of activity on all channels, but no one is taking any interest in us, sir.”
Narth checked his scanners and said, “No one has even noticed us.”
Shea said, “We simply land. There are a few spaceports but there is no active landing control. I suggest we land at the Gorotolah. It is the largest spaceport on the southernmost edge of the continent.”
She waved her hands over the main viewer and magnified a section of the planet below and pointed at an area. I was certain it was the same spaceport I had been before, as it had the ocean close by.
Shaka was under his Virtu Helmet but unlike most other Virtu Helmsmen, he always paid attention to what happened on the bridge and participated in our conversations. “I am on ship vision and can see it. There are other ships as well.”
I smiled at Shea. “Shaka, take us down there and put us as far away from the other ships as possible. Mao, keep our shields active. Narth, double check the Janus system.”
We landed on the same cracked and crumbling Duro-Crete field I had been on before. I recognized the tall Duro-Crete wall in the distance, but most of the skeleton and spider-infested terminal was gone, and there was still a crater where the SII ship had blasted one of the spaceport’s turrets away.
To my utter surprise, I recognized the now completely salvaged and butchered hulk of the Karthanian courier ship that I had arrived with on Sin 4 not so long ago. It was nothing more than a twisted wreck, but I recognized its hull shape.
Nothing much had changed; there were the same garbage fires, piles of waste, and filth.
Shaka took off his helmet and shook his head, looking at the main viewer. “Good lord, what a dump. If this is such a lawless place, who actually built this spaceport? It looks like it was a well-planned facility once.”
I looked into the direction of our geek squad and said, “Good question.”
It was Sobody who had the answer, as neither Shea nor Narth seemed to know.
>
“It is a little-known side note of Galactic History. After the first signing of the Accord for Universal Peace, the Nioban, who hosted the conference and were known as the most peaceful and neutral society, did not want to have any more meetings on their world. The Nioban home world had become known as the Planet of Peace and had been the meeting place of choice long before the rise of the Union.
“So, without having a meeting place anyone could agree on, the Big Four looked for another place.
“This world was considered and the Karthanian, smelling the opportunity to do business with the Big Four, built this spaceport, the terminal, and the original city. It never happened. The Nioban changed their mind and openly invited everyone to use their world for such purposes again.
“The Karthanians abandoned the world and, since it was now in Freespace and had a city and spaceport for the taking, it didn’t take long for pirates and similar vermin to find this place. Syndicate families developed and it all turned into the Sin 4 we all know today.”
Shea said, “Not that anyone had the right to take this world, as it has a sentient native population.”
Elfi said, “Someone did notice us, and we are being hailed.”
I settled back down in my seat and put on my mask. “I am ready, put it on.”
The being appeared to have features of both the Oghar and the Shiss and looked quite frightening. “We are calling the Silver Streak.”
I said, “Looks like you got our attention. Speak up, what is it you want?”
“We know who you are, Captain Velvet, your reputation travels faster than your ship.”
“This is indeed Captain Black Velvet of the Silver Streak. Whom do I have the dubious honor to talk with?”
His voice sounded rough and somewhat high-pitched and I could hear other voices in the background. “Captain Velvet, you are talking to the Gorotolah Spaceport Protection Agency. We’ve heard of you and your ship and we know you are a successful pirate. We are very happy you choose to land at our port. However, this is a dangerous place and we can only guarantee your safety for 20,000 polo coins, or goods of similar value. If you decide not to pay or to leave, we are forced to use our big DE guns on you. We have two large DE turrets aimed directly at you. You have exactly 20 minutes to comply. A group of our associates will approach in a floater and expect payment to be transferred.”
Mao manipulated the main viewer and magnified a set of buildings across the landing field. Indeed, there was a bunker-like building with a force field surrounding it and a set of DE turrets on top aiming at us. Mao said, “Captain, those pea shooters won’t even dent our armor without shields. They don’t have anything big enough to put us in any real danger.”
Har-Hi agreed. “They are bluffing and hope we don’t know, but there aren’t any weapons big enough that can be used on a planet and seriously harm a ship of our size, even if we really were a Karthanian Freighter with original shields. Any weapon big enough to crack our shields would seriously damage a huge area around us. Not to mention the possible loss of contamination to the anti-matter of our fuel. Half the continent would be liquified. This isn’t a Poodle.”
I nodded. “Elfi, can you pinpoint the location of the transmission?”
She moved her hands over her console. “Yes, captain, I have localized it to that transmitter array over there.”
I pointed at the turrets. “Mao, fire our simulated Froth Caster and place a five-gram TL bomb right where that transmission originates. That should do as payment.”
From the outside, it looked as if our Nul turret fired, the translocator load invisible and undetectable.
The result was more than I expected. The five-gram antimatter exploded and obliterated not only the bunker and the building with the transmitter but the entire building complex with a tremendous fire cloud.
Har-Hi coughed into his fist and rubbed his fingernails on his jacket. “I don’t think this is what they had in mind when they asked for goods of similar value, captain.”
Shea shrugged. “I doubt anyone will notice and I expect others will take their place and try a similar scam in a few months.”
I got up from the seat. “Let’s have a conference in the den to figure out what we need to do and how we are going to do it.”
***
Har-Hi, once again standing rather than sitting like most of us, said, “There are three reasons why we came here. Number one is to find the Terran weapons dealer and shut him down. Number two is to find out where the Sinister Alliance is meeting and what they are planning. Number three on our list of things to do is to identify all pirates and freelancers that are on the wanted list of Union Police, with special focus on the Red Dragon.”
“To accomplish this, I would like to deploy one of our Intel specialists. If that is permitted. He was added to our crew while we were at the NAVINT sun base. His skills and abilities are especially suited for this.”
“I guess I should read your daily reports more closely. Who is it?”
“Lieutenant Senhadjii. he is attached to our S-2 department and yes it might be a good thing if you read my reports in more detail.”
“I will do that in the future and since I trust your judgement, I approve the deployment of this specialist. Keep me informed please.”
He nodded and I turned to the big Saturnian. “Mr. Neugruber, you wanted to be next.”
Hans expanded the size of high-resolution pictures. “These are the ships that share the landing area with us right now. All three are operated by notorious outlaws and pirates. I prepared dossiers on each of them from the data we have available. As for the mil-tech dealer, I would like to go into the city and gather some intel on that.”
Hans managed to look embarrassed. “I am not on Sin 4 for the first time either and I have some contacts and a reputation here, even though I am supposed to be dead.”
I said, “Not that I want to sound nosy or anything like that, but could you be a tad more specific?”
He looked down on the table surface. “Before I joined the Fleet, I was fighting for money in one of the big arenas here. Nothing to be proud of, but back then I was a young punk with no brain and expensive taste.”
“You?” I asked. Hans was always so correct and straight.
He grinned sheepishly. “Yeah, me. I was known as the Terror Hammer and fought in the top league. I still have some connections here. Golden said he would come along as well.”
“I can’t simply allow you go outside, Mr. Merchant. It is very dangerous out there and how would they react to the Merchant of Merchants being here?”
He smiled. “You worry too much, captain. Cateria will do some plastic surgery again and add the ugly branding of the Expelled on my head. Besides, even we Golden have a hard time telling us apart. To any stranger, we look very much alike.” He then looked up to Hans and said, “I think I could help out there more than I can here. Sin 4 is a rotten place but it runs on money and business and that’s what I know best.”
I sighed. “You know how to make a point but be careful and stay with Hans.”
Shea said, “I would like to go to the temple and get a few things.”
“How will you get there safely?”
“I’ll call the temple and have them pick me up.”
Elfi was next. “SHIP and I decoded a message sent from one of the pirate ships out there. The ship identified as the Merchant’s Sorrow, commanded by Sodex the Wild. He was contacted by the Red Dragon. The message tells Sodex that the Red Dragon will be here in seven days to participate in the semi-annual pirates’ market.”
I acknowledged her report and said to Hans and Sobody, “Well, we are here for at least that long, so you may go and do your intel-gathering, but keep in touch and report as often as you can.”
Sobody and Hans agreed to do that.
Now it was Narth who got up and I said to him, “Don’t tell me you, too, have been on Sin 4 before as well.”
He shook his shrouded head. “Not in a corporeal sense,
no, but I did share some of your experiences while you were here. I changed from a sitting position to a standing one, as it seems that is what the others do when reporting.”
“All right then, what is it you want to report, Mr. Narth?”
I am addressing you in my capacity as OPS officer and it is part of my duty and my department to allocate resources and delegate projects. The OPS department is often called the XO’s—”
I interrupted him, “Not that I mind a refresher course about what OPS is but I am sure you had another reason for getting up, right?”
He said, “Oh, yes, of course. I have a request from Ensign Dien Tallow.”
I actually remembered the name from some list I signed or maybe it was someone I greeted. “I think I heard the name, and I believe it is someone in our science department. Is he from Sin 4?”
“No, captain, but as you correctly remembered, he is a member of our science department. He is quite a brilliant and talented scientist with Sociology, Xeno Archeology, Biology, Microbiology and Xeno Entomology as his main fields of expertise. He had an interesting proposal and suggestion.”
Narth waved the man over. He was Human and one of those who would not stand out in a crowd of one. He looked older than most ensigns but then he had gone the Science Corps route and they often tended to be older. He saluted me and he managed to make a military greeting look shy and weak. I told him that no one had to salute here in the Pirate’s Den and encouraged him to simply tell us his suggestion.
He said, “Captain, we are the first Union ship on Sin 4 and I heard we might have a few days’ time, so I would like to propose we survey the planet. I am aware of our mission but I think we can do it while hidden and not be obvious. The southern continent and some of the islands, and especially Trash Island, are of particular interest to me.”
Yeoman O’Connell had appeared behind me in her usual quiet way and held a mug of coffee before me. I was so getting used to her punctuality that I grabbed the mug before I even acknowledged and thanked her.
To the scientist, I said, “I am not opposed to your idea, but we do have a cover to maintain.”
Eric Olafson Series Boxed Set: Books 1 - 7 Page 109
