Profit & Peril

by Charissa Dufour

  Jack reached out his hand, and Oden gripped it tightly.

  “Glad to, sir.”

  “Captain to the bridge,” came a frantic call over the comm. system.

  Jack turned and raced up the stairs, followed by Kat, Oden, and Bit. They reached the bridge. Bit skidded to a halt. Spread across the forward displays was the largest ship Bit had ever seen. It didn’t take Bit long to recognize it as a military vessel.

  She glanced at Jack, her stomach clenching as she saw the fear and uncertainty in his eyes.

  “Looks like it’s us against the world again,” Jack mumbled to himself.

  The others glanced at him in confusion, but Bit understood.

  “Have they made contact yet?” Jack asked, stepping forward.

  “No,” replied Calen just as the comm. beeped; Calen reached for the handheld device. “This is the Lenore designation 2517. Is there a problem?”

  “Lenore 2517. This is EINS Odyssey. You are ordered to disengage your engines and prepare to be boarded.”

  Jack reached for the handheld device, taking it from Calen. “This is Captain Jack Macleef of the Lenore. What seems to be the problem?”

  “Lenore, disengage your engines and prepare to be boarded.”

  Jack rolled his eyes. “Typical governmental ship. Talkin’ to a bloody mouth piece. He can’t say anything other than what he’s been cleared to say.”

  “And you all wonder why I haven’t taken a plush government contract,” Oden mumbled.

  “Go ahead and shut down the engines, Calen.”

  “Did he say EINS?” Bit asked. “What does that mean?”

  “Earth Interstellar Naval Ship.”

  “That’s what I thought. Cap, we’re at least ten days out from Mars…” Bit trailed off as the others began to frown; they knew where she was heading with her questions.

  “You think they’re out of jurisdiction?” Kat asked.

  “Seems like it,” replied Jack. He switched the comm. device to ship wide. “Every one, this is your captain speaking. We are being halted by a governmental vessel and will be boarded. Remember the rules,” he added cryptically.

  It took Bit a moment to realize Jack was reminding them not to spill the beans, so to speak. The military ship, whether out of jurisdiction or not, could still confiscate their cargo.

  “All crew to the hatch,” Jack continued into the comm. device before tossing it onto the comm. station controls. “You ready, Calen?”

  The second pilot examined his sensors. “Yes, they’re docked. Engines are down.”

  Jack opened a compartment under the comm. device, retrieving a packet of documents, and led them out of the bridge. The small group joined the others in the central area next to the aft hatch. Each one looked just as nervous as Bit felt. As an indentured servant, she had enjoyed plenty of run-ins with the government, each more painful than the last.

  “Jack,” she whispered, tugging on his sleeve. “They can’t confiscate me… can they?”

  Jack frowned down at her. “No. At least they shouldn’t be able to. But a rogue ship outside of their jurisdiction… it’s hard to say. Just stick with me.”

  Bit nodded just as the hatch opened and a flood of armed soldiers swarmed the small space, fanning out to check the corners. Like the others, Bit raised her arms in submission. More guards poured out of the airlock than Bit thought it could hold, finally releasing an officer.

  “I’m Commander Asher. We have reason to believe this ship is being used for smuggling. Each of you will be detained while we do a routine inspection of the ship. Which of you is the captain?”

  “I am, and I have my documentation.”

  Jack weaved down to where Commander Asher stood and handed him an aged binder. The commander flipped it open and quickly scanned the first page.

  “We will now begin transferring you over to the Odyssey in batches.”

  “Okay, you, you, and you,” one of the soldiers said, pointing to Reese, Randal, and Blaine. “Follow us.”

  The three crewmembers followed two soldiers into the airlock and disappeared. The next group to shift through the airlock included the three engineers, along with two more soldiers. Finally, a soldier pointed at Oden, Calen, and Bit. Bit walked down the steps from the bridge and joined the men in the airlock. Panic began to threaten her as memories of the last time she had been taken by soldiers. She had gotten lost on an errand and her owner had assumed she had run away. The results had not been enjoyable.

  “Bit, you okay?” Oden asked.

  Bit looked up at him, aware that her face showed her anxiety. She nodded.

  “Don’t worry, Bit. It won’t take long. We’ll be back on the Lenore before you know it.”

  Bit’s eyes shot to the soldiers standing beside them. They looked bored more than anything—as though what Oden said made no difference to them. She forced herself to nod when she realized Oden was waiting for a response.

  Outside the airlock, more soldiers waited. One stepped forward and clamped restraints on Bit’s wrists. Bit flung a desperate look at Oden and Calen, who were also having restraints applied to their wrists.

  “It’s okay, Bit. They’re gonna separate us now, but they’ll take good care of you,” Calen said, stepping in as Oden was dragged away.

  “What’s her problem?” asked Calen’s soldier.

  “She’s an indentured servant. She’s afraid you’re gonna confiscate her along with our cargo.”

  Bit glared at him, her anger masking her fear.

  “You’re an I.S.?”

  Bit nodded. “Yes, sir.”

  “You’re number?” he asked as he pulled a miniature pad from a pouch in his trousers.

  Bit raised her bound hands and pulled her shirt aside to reveal the number tattooed to her shoulder. The soldier noted the number on his pad before putting it away. He nudged her down the hall in the opposite direction as Oden and Calen.

  Bit finally took in her surroundings. They were in a wide corridor with sterile-looking walls of glossy metal. The floor, made of the same material as the walls, clanged beneath their feet. At first, Bit didn’t see any doors. Slowly, she realized the doors looked just like the wall panels.

  Her escort stopped her after a couple confusing turns, depressing a release panel. The door slid open, hissing with its smooth movement. The soldier nudged her into the small room. A single table of the same material as the walls sat in the center, a chair on either side.

  “Sit. Wait,” ordered the soldier.

  The soldier closed the door behind her. Bit glanced around the room for a moment, quickly realizing there was nothing to look at. She took a seat in the far chair and waited.

  And waited.

  Finally, the door slid open and Commander Asher stepped in, taking the seat across from her. “And you are Larissa Earnest?”

  Bit nodded, trying not to cringe at the legal name she hadn’t used in years.

  “And your debt was transferred to Calen Macleef, then Jack Macleef back in October of last year?”

  She nodded again.

  “That’s a lot of transition for you. Want to tell me how that all came about?”

  Bit chewed on her bottom lip for a moment before speaking. “My debt was lost in a game of poker.”

  “What?” the commander asked, finally looking up from his pad.

  “James Asselstine owned my debt. He was playing poker with Calen in Johannesburg, and didn’t have anything to meet Calen’s bet…” Bit shrugged, “so I was put on the table. Not literally, of course.”

  “Of course,” said the commander with a small grin.

  Bit suspected he was teasing her, but her nerves kept her from laughing.

  “Now, why the change from Calen Macleef to Jack Macleef, the captain of your ship.”

  Bit shrugged again. “You just answered your own question.”

  “Humor me.”

  “Jack’s the captain of the ship and the owner of the company. It makes sense for him to own my debt… it
’s a lot of debt.”

  Commander Asher looked down at his pad, his eyebrows raising until his forehead crinkled. “So it is. How’d someone as young as you acquire so much of debt?”

  Bit lowered her eyes. She had no desire to dig it all up again. Nor did she want to tell this stranger her darkest secrets. “Most of it is my dad’s debt. He sold my sister and me to the banks.”

  The commander scanned his pad again. “It shows your sister is dead.”

  Bit nodded, clenching her teeth together. “Yes, sir. I took on half her debt, the other half going to her offspring.”

  “Where is this offspring?”

  Bit felt tears press against her eyes. “I don’t know.”

  “And your father?”

  “I don’t know. Haven’t seen him since I was five. I don’t even remember what he looks like.”

  “And the Lenore, how do you feel about living on a freighter?”

  Bit frowned. Where is he going with this? “I like it, sir. They’re good to me, especially compared to past owners I’ve had.”

  “But you’d rather be free.”

  Bit’s frown deepened. “Wouldn’t you?”

  Commander Asher smiled. “I suppose so. What if I said I could get you released from the I.S. program, your debts annulled?”

  “I’d say ‘what do you want in return?’”

  “Smart girl. What’s in the cargo hold?”

  “Isn’t it…ummm… like parts for ships, or something like that? I’m not exactly on the top of the list for knowing what’s going on.”

  “That’s the rumor. But I think it’s something else.”

  Bit’s eyes shifted from side to side as though she was missing something vital. “Have you tried opening the crates and looking?”

  The commander gave her a tight-lipped grin. “Waiting on the warrant. We’ll get to that.”

  “What I think is strange though, Commander… I mean, if I’m allowed to speak freely, that is?”

  “Of course.”

  “This is an Earth ship. It stands to reason that being this far away from Earth puts you way out of your jurisdiction.”

  Asher stared at her, his eyes lids narrowing. “So much for getting free of your debt.”

  Bit stared back. “You never could have given me that.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Oden slouched back in his chair, his fingers twined behind his head. He forced himself to daydream to keep himself relaxed. If he let himself think of Bit and the rest of the crew, he would begin to panic. Bit was strong, she could take care of herself, and she didn’t take crap from no one.

  A smile spread across his features just as the door to his little cubicle opened and the officer from before stepped in.

  “What do you have to smile about?” he asked as he took a seat across from Oden.

  “I was just thinking of Bit taking you on in an interrogation.”

  “Bit?”

  “Our indentured. It’s a nickname. So, have you had the pleasure of talking to her yet?”

  Commander Asher’s lips thinned for a second before a forced smile spread across his features. “She’s an interesting young lady.”

  “Ha!” Oden laughed. “You’re too kind, Commander. ‘Interesting’ is the politest description of Bit I’ve ever heard.”

  “You like her.”

  Oden’s laughter stopped. “Everyone on the crew likes Bit. She makes herself likeable.”

  “That’s one way of putting it. I see on your file that you were the second pilot until recently.”

  Oden nodded, doing his best to ooze confidence, a confidence he didn’t feel.

  “And you were the top of your class in flight school. Graduated first with some of the best marks that particular school had ever seen.”

  Oden gave him a cocky grin.

  “So why in the world are you working for a near bankrupt freighter company?”

  Oden’s grin faltered. “I prefer it.”

  “And what would you say if I drafted you into the Interstellar Navy?”

  He forced the grin back onto his features as butterflies assaulted his stomach. “If you know my marks from school, then you also have the rest of my records, and you know the navy would never take me.”

  It was a gamble. Oden had no way of knowing how much the commander knew of conscript laws or Interstellar Naval standards, but he suspected the man was more knowledgeable about interstellar merchant laws. Technically he could be conscripted, and technically he could join the navy himself, but only in desperate times or with stellar letters of recommendation. His past eliminated that possibility and protected him from it all at the same time.

  The commander kept the same expression plastered to his face as he lowered his eyes and examined his pad. “You’re first pilot now?”

  “That’s correct.”

  “And where are you heading.”

  “Nye Space Station.”

  “And then?”

  “Don’t know. Probably Mars.”

  “If I’m not mistaken, you just came from Mars, where you docked for a number of days.”

  “That’s correct.”

  “So why go back to Mars if you were just there?”

  “You’ve never been a freighter before, have you?”

  “No. Are you going to answer my question?”

  Oden let out a long sigh. “A freighter goes where the work leads him. We go back and forth across the galaxy all the time. If one job takes us to Ceres and the next one to Venus, we don’t complain about retracing our steps. We do the job.”

  “But why not arrange your flight plan where you don’t have to go back and forth?”

  Oden shrugged. “Could be anything. Our cargo won’t hold both loads. The client didn’t know they needed something taken to the other end of the galaxy. The cargo hadn’t been manufactured yet. Who knows? We just do as we’re told.”

  “And what are you carrying now?”

  “Cap said we were taking parts of some sort.”

  “Parts? Can’t be more specific?”

  “I’m just the pilot, man. I don’t memorize the manifests. You want to know the weight of the cargo, its dimensions, and the counterweight needed. That… well, I’m your man.”

  “Very helpful,” grumbled the commander as he climbed to his feet and left the room.

  Jack paced within the confines of the little interrogation room. The minutes ticked by, each one making him more frantic. How long does it take to get to the captain? Jack wondered as he realized they were likely saving him for last.

  His frantic energy shifted and he began to worry about his crew. What sort of interrogation tactics does a rogue naval ship use?

  Before he could think of an answer, the officer from before stepped into his little box. “Captain Macleef, I believe. Please sit.”

  Jack begrudgingly obeyed.

  “I didn’t think Manitowocs still flew.”

  “I think the Lenore may be the last of her kind.”

  The commander nodded. “Why fly such an old ship?”

  “I can’t bloody afford to buy a new one.”

  Asher smirked. “Fair enough. You have quite an interesting crew. An indentured servant, a pilot with a record, the grumpiest engineer I’ve ever met… and yet they are all loyal to you.”

  Jack matched him smirk for smirk, doing his best to hide the shock of Oden’s past—it had to be Oden, he would know if Calen had a criminal background. “They’re as unique as they come,” he said, further hiding the knots forming in his gut.

  “So tell me, why do you employ a pilot with a record?”

  “You clearly haven’t seen him fly.”

  “But he was second pilot up until recently.”

  “Yes, my brother was first pilot. A little nepotism never hurt anyone. But then Oden proved his worth and got promoted.”

  “Bet you brother didn’t like that.”

  Jack shrugged. “He lived.”

  “Tell me about Randal Treventhan.” />
  “What about him?”

  “He was in the military.”

  “Yes, that’s correct.”

  “Do you know why he left the army?”

  “Let me guess, dishonorably discharged?” Jack asked in return; that would just top off his day.

  “No. His wife died while he was deployed.”

  Jack just stared at the commander, doing his best to hide the tightening in his chest. It explained so much about Randal.

  “That’s too bad,” Jack finally said. “You’re point?”

  “He’s the head of your security team, correct?”

  “Correct.”

  “And you think a man that unstable is the safest option for your security team?”

  “Like Oden, you clearly haven’t seen him in action. He’s probably the most stable member of my crew.”

  “I see.”

  Jack rolled his eyes, ignoring the commanders attempt to unnerve him. All this new information could be dealt with later.

  “And why do you feel the need for a security team?”

  “Most freighters have security teams.”

  “Not ones as small as Macleef Shipping.”

  “Do you know of any other one-ship companies besides mine?”

  The commander shook his head.

  “That’s because they didn’t think they needed a security team. You know I’ve been attacked by pirates two times in just the last two weeks.”

  “And what does your security team do?”

  Jack stared at him for a second. “They fight them off.”

  “You mean the pirates board your ship… your dinky, antiquated Manitowoc.”

  Jack gave him a nod. “Even antiquated Manitowocs can hold valuable merchandise.”

  “Such as?”

  “Well, we’ve transported animal embryos to Mars for MGC. Those had an impressive price tag.”

  “And now?”

  “Boring old parts for the space station.”

  “Just parts.”

  “Were you hoping for more?” Jack asked.

  “You sure that’s what you’re carrying?”

  Jack gave him a look. “I haven’t opened the crates myself. They’re not my property, but that’s what the manifest says. And I’ve worked with Stellar Repair before with no problems. Are you searching my ship?”