by J. P. Larson
“What about the repairs you said you would need?” Pamela looked concerned.
“I took on more fuel, and the engines will hold until Ms. Danforth can look at them. I want her opinion before I spend a ton of money.”
The two finished dinner and headed for the ship. Halfway there, Pamela grabbed Alex’s arm.
The two hurried to the ship. Alex ran to the cockpit to request clearance. “Grab the necklace!” he told Pamela.
Alex was talking to the station by the time Pamela arrived. Without a word, she set the necklace in place. He felt the familiar weight settling into position. He also felt a faint echo in his mind.
“I don’t care if there are other ships waiting to leave,” Alex told the station chief. “We’ve had difficulties with one of your new arrivals, and I just want to get out of your system before there are more problems.”
That did the trick. “Swanson’s Pride, number two for departure,” the radio spoke back.
“Roger, Station. Disconnecting umbilicals. We’ll be out of here as quickly as safety permits. We’ll be outbound to Dawson’s Star.”
* * *
“Pamela, you have five minutes to write a letter to your mother telling her what’s going on. I have a few things to add to the bottom of it.”
Pamela disappeared into her cabin while Alex continued the undocking procedures. When station cleared them for launch, Alex quickly but carefully moved the Pride out of the station and began heading out system.
“I need that letter, Pamela,” Alex told her over the intercom.
Alex pulled the letter out of the communications computer, read it quickly, then added a note to the bottom.
Ms. Grey:
My parents live on Random Walk. Their names are Julie and Arthur Swanson. If we clear ourselves of the current difficulties, we expect to arrive at Dawson’s Star in time for our scheduled rendezvous with Jane’s Gift. If we are late, Captain Dawson may want to ask my father about Uncle Pete. She may also want to tell him we are going to do our best to rise above the problem. Captain Dawson has a small token that will ensure my father of her good will.
Your obedient son-in-law,
Alexander Grey
Pamela had arrived and was reading over his shoulder. Alex turned to her. “Will I offend your mother?”
“Not unduly. Change it to ‘Your obedient son’. How are you going to send it.”
Alex made the changes then called Rollo.
“What do you want, Swanson? The data arrived safely, didn’t it?”
“I have a favor to ask, Rollo.” Alex quickly outlined the situation. “Can you get the letter posted with someone we can actually trust?”
“You’ll owe me.”
“So will Ms. Grey. We’re good people to have owing you favors, assuming we get out of the current difficulties.”
“I’ll make sure your letter arrives, Swanson. Make sure you’re alive to repay your debts.”
Alex transmitted the letter to Rollo. “Thanks, Rollo. And say hello to your mother for me.”
Rollo smiled. “God speed, Alex.”
The communications screen went blank, and Alex turned to Pamela. “We’re going to short jump on a route to Dawson’s Star. I only want to travel in that direction for about two hours or so. Can you check the route for us? And what’s the ship back at station doing?”
“I’ll do this from my cabin,” Pamela told him, turning away. “I hope their arrival here was just because they needed to go somewhere, not because they’re chasing us.”
“Me, too. I don’t want to think about what they’re after if they’re willing to try this hard.”
The Pride was far enough from the station for Alex to begin using main thrusters. Space stations don’t appreciate ships engaging hyper engines within a thousand klicks, so Alex figured Pamela would have plenty of time to do her scans. In the meantime, Alex began entering navigation data into the computers. If they didn’t encounter any company within the first few hours of entering hyperspace, he figured they could get to Green Skies unmolested.
Alex thought for a minute then switched to the master computer console. He entered the security control setup and started making a few changes then fired up a program he had written long ago, entering some parameters. Finally, he wrote a different ending to the letter for Pamela’s mother and fed it to the computers, then recorded a visual message besides.
His preparations complete and the ship on auto pilot, Alex decided a cup of tea would be nice. He headed for the galley, brewed a pot, then took it back to the cockpit with him along with a spare cup in case Pamela resurfaced from her scans.
An hour later, Alex was getting nervous. He called Rolling World station. “Would you mind if we engaged hyper a bit early?”
The station master didn’t look pleased, but the request wasn’t that uncommon, and the Pride was a small ship.
“At your convenience, Pride,” came the response.
“Ms. Grey, I would like to hyper at your convenience.” Alex announced over the intercom. He set the computer to repeat the request every two minutes. Eventually, Pamela would surface enough to notice.
It only took three repeats before Alex heard the cabin door open and felt Pamela at his back.
“They’re still trying to clean up their credit problems, and space in front of us is clear for at least a couple of hours.”
“Did you have enough time to be thorough, Ms. Grey?”
“Yes, Captain. Quite.”
“Swanson’s Pride engaging hyper,” Alex announced both to Pamela and to Rolling World station. He punched some buttons, and the ship traversed into hyperspace again. Alex checked the gauges, then turned around to look at Pamela. “Stay out of my mind. Let’s grab a bite to eat and go talk.”
The two of them headed to the galley. Alex carried his now empty tea pot and the two cups. He set up about brewing another pot before sitting down with Pamela.
“I’m going to ask you something startling. I’m warning you so you won’t accidentally peek to see why I’m asking. Okay?” She nodded. “If I want to hide something from you, what can I do? I just need to hide it enough you won’t stumble across it. What you don’t know, you can’t give up.”
“If you don’t think about it, and we don’t talk about it, I would have to go looking.”
“I’m not sure I can help thinking about it.”
“Do you not want me to know, or do you want me to have the details wrong?”
“If someone scans you, and you suspect I’ve been misleading you, will they know?”
“Only if they’re very good and you don’t give me any real reason for my suspicions.”
Alex bega
n smiling. “Misdirection would be quite appropriate.”
“Well, that’s easy, then. Whenever you think about this little topic you don’t want to tell me about, try to include the misdirections in your thoughts. If you can delude yourself a little, and I don’t make any attempts to dig deeper, I’ll just see what you want me to see.” She paused, then looked stern. “But I don’t expect you to make a habit of this, Alex.”
“No, Pamela. Of course not.” He smiled at her.
“I’ll tell you something else. If your little game adds to our danger, make sure I don’t find out. I won’t be able to help but go digging for the truth.”
“I’ve taken out a little insurance, Pamela, to ensure our safety, not compromise it.”
“Okay. Do you want to tell me your plan for getting to Green Skies?”
“Two hours is a nice even length for a short jump, wouldn’t you say?” Pamela nodded. “So we’ll travel on our current path for one hour and forty two minutes. We’ll drop out of hyper briefly, then reset along a path straight up before heading to Green Skies.”
“Up? There’s no up in space.”
“Take a peek, then. Easier to show you that way.”
Alex envisioned their route and felt Pamela’s light tickle.
“That should work,” she told him after a moment.
“How come I can feel you when you do that? Captain Dawson said I wouldn’t feel her when we were in the same room.”
“I’m being polite.”
“Well, it feels kind of… nice.”
Pamela smiled. “Thank you, Alex. One of the advantages of being married to a witch?”
Alex felt his heart skip a beat. Oh, fudge! He started doing calculus problems again. Pamela looked at him with concern then started laughing.
“It’s not funny, Pamela,” he told her.
“Sure it is. You’re making mistakes. Didn’t you ever learn to add?”
Alex looked at her, decided maybe it was a little funny, and smiled. “The tea is ready, and I think I heard the oven ding.”
“I’ll get it,” Pamela offered with a laugh. “You just sit there and fix your addition errors.”
* * *
An hour later, they were both crowded into the cockpit again. Alex had the chair, and Pamela stood behind him with her hands on his shoulders. She was scanning the immediate space on all sides of them as their drop from hyper approached.
Alex patted her hand and the two of them watched as the navigation computer dropped them from hyperspace, reoriented the ship, then restarted the hyper drive. Pamela started her scan again while Alex watched the gauges.
“It’s a lot easier to scan in that direction,” she told him. “A lot less clutter.”
“Done already?”
“Only about a half a day out.”
“Far enough. This isn’t a standard route. They won’t be waiting for us. It’s just too random.”
Pamela looked down at the gauges in front of Alex. “We’re burning fuel again.”
“Better safe than sorry. I don’t think pursuit is going to be an issue.”
“Now what, Captain?”
Alex felt the stress in his shoulders and back. “Now, Ms. Grey, I am going to spend a long time in the workout room. You are welcome to join me or do whatever else you would like to do. We’ll be at Green Skies in eight days.”
“It takes Jane’s Gift twelve by the direct route. I like your ship, Captain.”
Incarceration
“Twelve hours to Green Skies, Ms. Grey,” Alex announced over the ship’s intercom. He didn’t get a response, so he set up the recording and relaxed in his chair for a while.
Alex sat bolt upright in his chair.
Alex started reviewing his options. If it’s just the two, he can outrun them. Head straight for Dawson’s Star. He had enough fuel and supplies, but probably not at the current fuel burn rate.
Alex heard Pamela behind him then her hands fell to his shoulders. “I’ll do my best to protect you, Alex.”
“Tell me. Do you have any interesting offensive capabilities I should know about?”
“Yes. Unfortunately, I can’t use them and protect you at the same time.”
“I have my own protections. And won’t the necklace prevent a mind attack?”
“If she wants to hurt you, she can hurt you. Just like it’s not there. Unless she’s really good, she can’t go poking through your thoughts, but she can kill you. The necklace is there to protect my secrets, not your life.”
Alex turned to the navigation computer. He told it to drop from hyperspace at its soonest convenience. He turned around, and Pamela backed out of his way as he got up and headed for his cabin. He came back out and handed Pamela the pistol, secreting the two knives for himself.
“Do you know how to use that?”
“I can’t let you throw your life away for me, Alex,” she told him.
“They aren’t going to use me to control you, Pamela. And I don’t have any reason to believe they won’t kill me, anyway.”
“I’ll protect you.”
“How?”
Pamela envisioned a bank then envisioned gold moving from the bank to the ships.
“Sorry, Pamela. I don’t work that way. Furthermore, this isn’t about money. It can’t be. They’re spending far too much effort on this. You’ve annoyed someone, and they’re out for revenge. I can imagine how they’re going to get it.”
“No, Alex. My mother is the Prime Minister on Dawson’s Star. This isn’t about revenge, it’s about blackmail.”
“The Prime Minister?” Pamela nodded. Alex looked at her for a moment, but decided the irony could wait. “Well, I don’t work that way, either. Let’s go have a nice cup of tea, shall we?”
* * *
It took two hours for the ships to close on their position. Alex ignored their radio hails. Instead, he had a nice dinner, then spent a few minutes alone in his cabin.
Emerging, he found Pamela. “Been in contact with our friends?”
“Alex, please put these on.” She held out the bracelets. He had been wearing the necklace, but not the bracelets.
“Why?”
“If we’re going to die, wear them for me. If we aren’t, then wear them as a symbol.”
Alex looked at her then held out his wrists. Pamela wrapped a bracelet around each.
“They’ve agreed not to harm us, Alex. There’s a little issue they want Mother’s cooperation on, then they’ll let us go.”
“I think I’ll make my own chances. You can surrender if you want to. Hide in your cabin until it’s over.”
“Alex, they know my mother would hunt them to the end of their days if they killed me. But she’ll let them have this point and go after them harder on the next one, as long as they let us go.”
Alex ignored her and strode off to the airlock. Pamela followed him.
“You can hide in your cabin,” he told her.
Alex looked out the window. T
he military cutter had finished docking, and he could see several individuals in the other ship’s airlock.
“If you’re not going to use it, why don’t you give me the pistol back? Then leave before it gets messy.”
“I can’t let you do this, Alex. You’re my responsibility.”
“Ms. Grey, you will either pull that pistol and defend yourself, or you will give it to me and go to your cabin. That is a direct order. We’re not in DS space, and that’s not a DS military vessel. My ship, by your rules.”
Pamela looked at him sadly. “Alex, you will stop being so willful and surrender to these people. I promise I will protect you, Husband.”
“You have a direct order, Ms. Grey.” Alex turned his back on her and watched the men in the other ship opening his outer airlock door. They weren’t very polite about it.
“Oh, Alex,” Pamela said softly. “I’m sorry.”
Alex felt Pamela’s mind enter his.
* * *
Pamela sighed then opened the inner airlock door for the waiting men. She stared into the muzzles of a half dozen assault rifles.
“Oh, don’t point those at her,” said a woman’s voice from behind the group of men. “If she does anything you don’t like, just shoot him. I don’t believe we’re going to have any problems.”
Some of the men, but not all, redirected their aim. The woman in back stepped around everyone and came to stand over Alex’s prone body.
“Offworlder men can be so willful. Why did you ever marry one, Pam?”
“It seemed like a good idea at the time, Diane. My mother is never going to agree to your plan.”
“Not for you she wouldn’t, but she takes her responsibilities very seriously.” Diane bent down and fingered the necklace around Alex’s neck, then noted the bracelets. “She’ll protect her daughter’s husband. It was nice of you to dress him properly for us. We saw he wasn’t wearing these at Rolling World.”
Diane straightened up. “I’ll take the pistol, Pam. And I’ll even let you take his knives away and hand them to me. I wouldn’t think of doing anything to dishonor your fine husband by searching him myself.”
Pamela slowly removed the pistol from her jacket pocket, handed it butt first to Diane, then retrieved Alex’s knives. Diane pocketed the items. “Captain, I believe this ship is yours now. We should politely escort our guests to their quarters.”
