"Nick, I'll get back to you on the bond. I'd like to see if I can get a load from Léger to Gros that's worth our trip," I said.
***
I received word back from Jake that he was indeed interested in a delivery to Nuage Gros. Overall, Léger's primary exports to Gros were items they manufactured from raw materials gathered from the Grünholz city of Nannandry. Nannandry was unaffiliated with Oberrhein and, more importantly, it was located directly beneath Léger Nuage.
We purchased a fifty thousand credit bond from a reputable bond holder on Curie. There wasn't enough material to completely fill the hold, but after fuel, we would clear four thousand credits and I nearly had a return trip that would be just as profitable.
It was a ten day trip from Terminal Seven to Grünholz, just about the same amount of time as it took to travel to Descartes. We were careful with our burn plans, as fuel was taking a significant amount of our budget. I missed the days back on Mars when fuel consumption didn't matter as much.
I preferred to be in the chair when we arrived at port and this trip was no different. As we approached Nuage airspace, I hailed the automated system.
"Incoming hail, Nuage Air Defense," the AI informed me.
Accept hail. "Captain Hoffen, Hotspur. Go ahead," I said.
"Liam Hoffen, Captain Gray here, we're in the area and going to do a flyby," he said.
"Greetings, Captain Gray. Any issues we need to be aware of?" I asked.
"Nothing critical," he said. "We're working on an elevated security condition and require visual inspection of all ships entering our airspace."
"Roger that, Captain," I said. "Did you get my invite?"
"That I did. Any chance you're bringing your crew along?" he asked.
"We're a thirsty bunch. If you're up for it, it'll probably be the entire group," I said. "Are you able to share what the security condition is about?"
"We've had unregistered warships in the area. It happens from time to time, we just like to keep everyone honest," he said.
"Small cruisers?" I asked.
"Could have been. We didn't get detailed sensors on them, but we believe it was a pair of ships in the three to six hundred tonne range. Transponders were not operable," he said.
I saw a squadron of the bright yellow atmospheric ships sail up on our position. The five ships were flying in a wedge formation.
"I see you off my starboard," I said.
"Your ship does not register well with our sensors. I'm not sure we'd be able to see you at all if your transponder was turned off," he said.
"Old blockade runner. She's built for stealth," I said.
Illuminate all bulkhead lights, I directed.
"Thank you, Captain Hoffen. We have what we need. We'll see you in a couple of days on Gros," he said.
The squadron turned tightly and swept across the bow of Hotspur.
"What was that?" Tabby asked, sliding into the starboard pilot's chair.
"That was Luc Gray. I think we're on for drinks," I said.
"He came all the way out here to tell you that?"
I shook my head. "No, apparently they've had unidentified ships in their airspace and are doing visual flybys for all contacts."
"Think it was Oberrhein?" She asked.
"Sounded like. Not sure why they'd come through unidentified though. Oberrhein has a treaty with Nuage."
"I bet he'll tell us more over drinks," she said.
"He wanted to know if you and the rest of the crew would be there," I said.
She winked at me. "I'll wear the red dress."
"Ada's right. You are naughty."
"Don't you forget it."
The approach to Léger was just as beautiful the second time. The gleaming white city sat nestled on a thick blanket of gray clouds. Lightening flashed below, illuminating a storm on the planet's surface.
We lined up on our docking bay and I allowed the ship to negotiate the landing. It didn't feel like home yet, but it was familiar and I was grateful for that.
"How many hours are we down for, Cap?" Marny asked. We'd gathered on the bridge.
"Fourteen," I said. "Are we keeping a watch?"
"Negative, Cap. Léger has given us full access to this bay. The only other ships allowed have long established relationships with Léger. We'll run a security program and keep things locked up," she said.
"It's 1800 local. We can't load until 0600 tomorrow. Tabby and I are going to grab a meal at Lena's Diner. Anyone care to join us?" I said.
Forty minutes later we stepped off the elevator on Level 24. We followed the smell of coffee and the sounds of people talking.
"Will you look at that," Marny said.
A sign that read 'Lena's Diner' hung above the opening to a very busy restaurant. It was the same sign our industrial replicator had been working on several weeks ago, only now it was lit with bright neon tube lights. Lena had mentioned she was doing a retro theme and that the coral and sea foam colors she'd chosen would make sense when I saw them. I had to admit that it was quite a look and certainly grabbed my attention.
I caught Jack's eye as he entered the area behind the counter from the kitchen. He smiled, dropped off the two plates he was carrying and wiped his hands on a towel he had hanging from his belt. He placed his hand on Celina's shoulder and pointed at us.
"Come on in," she said.
After we'd greeted each other, Celina pointed to a corner booth along the wall that was deep enough for all of us. Her restaurant was more than half full, but there were only a few choices left for such a big group.
"Looks like you're doing well," I said.
"The response is better than I could have hoped for. I told Jake you were here. He said you should stop over after you've eaten," she said.
I could see what people liked about her diner. The food was fresh and she and Jenny worked the crowd with a friendly patter. In the end, I supposed that was what people wanted from a restaurant.
Jake's bar, now named Startron Lounge, wasn't anywhere near as busy when we finally made it there at 2300, after closing down Lena's Diner.
"What brings you through Léger?" Jake asked.
"Yeah, you've been kind of tight lipped about that," Celina said.
I looked around the bar. A couple of other tables had some late night drinkers, but they were well out of earshot.
"Your place was pretty busy, Lena" I said. "I don't mind sharing, but I was waiting for a little more privacy."
It was well after 0100 the next morning by the time we'd explained what we'd been through.
"If you get me access to the Karelia, I bet I can prove her involvement in the destruction of Cape of Good Hope. There's no way they can erase what they did," Jake said.
"I need two favors," I said.
"Didn't you hear? That's my new job," he said. "What kind of favors do you need?"
I laughed. The real Jake Berandor had finally emerged.
"Information. We need to know who was on the Cape and if there'd be any reason for the Emre brothers to kill them."
"Not sure if I can help with a motive, but the information shouldn't be too hard to come by. What else?" he asked.
"They booby-trapped Big Pete's habitation dome. We need something to disarm their explosives,"
"Do you have any information on the trigger?" he asked.
"We have the information we gathered from Hotspur. It's almost completely visual," I said. "We were running silent at the time."
"Depends on how sophisticated the explosives are. It'll probably be enough," he said.
"How much?" I asked.
"For what?"
"All of it. Your help getting the information out of the Karelia, the information about the crew of the Cape and the explosives disarmament." I said.
"Well, I'm just getting started so I'm running a special. Cost plus fifty percent for the information and the explosives work. You get me access to the Karelia and I'll do that for free. I'm not a total rogue," he said.
; "Yet." I added to punctuate his declaration.
He nodded with a wry grin. "Agreed."
LIPSTICK ON A BULLDOG
0600 came too early. One of our customers had requested to load first thing and I wasn't about to turn them down. I had intended to load on my own, but I found Marny in the galley with her running clothes on.
"I'm loading some crates this morning. I don't think we'll get in your way, though," I said.
"I'm running outside today," she said.
"Where?"
"Level-15 has a track around the outside. It's open to the public," she said.
"Sign me up next time," I said. "I've downloaded a new prosthetic for running."
"I wondered when you'd start branching out. Your combat prosthetic is good all-round, but nothing beats a task specific tool. When's your next load after this one?" she asked.
"0830. For some reason the Parton Mill likes to start early," I said.
"What are they shipping?"
"Nothing special, just flour. Someone grows wheat in a bubble farm on the surface. The bubbles are all about keeping the rain off the plants and amplifying the effects of light that makes it through the clouds. Apparently, the star has really great light for growing plants. More intensity in the visible range than the Sun," I said.
"Learn something every day. How about I'll help you load the flour and then we can run together?"
"I'd like that."
I had to use a new armored vac-suit, as mine had been lost with the Adela Chen. It adjusted to my body as I pulled it on. The fitting process was disconcerting, but fortunately it didn't last long. I strapped a heavy flechette to my chest, grabbed a transparent reading pad and brought up the bill of goods we'd be loading. It looked like four tonnes of flour and a tonne of something I didn't recognize. I looked it up and discovered it was basically sugar extracted from what the original settlers of Grünholz called a syrup tree.
Marny, who had also changed into an armored vac-suit, joined me at the end of the cargo bay as we dropped the loading ramp.
An elegant older woman with blonde hair pinned up in a bun behind her head approached us from the elevator shaft. She wasn't dressed in the same loose clothing we'd come to expect from the Nuagians.
"Mr. Hoffen?" she asked in a higher, lyrical voice.
"You must be Ms. Parton," I said. "You're right on time."
"I apologize for the hour, but it's a baker's life to be up early in the morning. I'm afraid it has rubbed off on my business transactions as well," she said.
"No apology necessary. The life of a spacer is filled with shifts at all hours. I believe you have six tonnes of baking ingredients for Nuage Gros," I said. I held my tablet out and she obliged by tapping it with her own. My program struggled to work with the unusually formatted data, but it eventually found what it was looking for.
I looked around, wondering when the stevedore rep might show up.
"Is there a problem, Captain?" she asked.
"No, I was just expecting to see the stevedore representative," I said.
"Oh, we don't always use them here. You have access to a stevedore robot on this level. Here, I'll show you. I'd forgotten you aren't local," she said.
I found it only a little embarrassing that she had to show me how to call up the stevedore bots. They were the smaller units Nick had arranged to use when we'd first arrived. Getting our own bot was a detail I needed to take care of, as the station charged us a small fee to use theirs.
Once moving, the bots loaded the crates in fifteen minutes.
"Do you mind if I ask you a question, Ms. Parton?"
"Dorothy, please," she said.
"How do you ship your grain up from Grünholz? We might have occasion to visit the surface," I said.
"We have a contract with the grower. But, I'd be willing to put you in contact with them. I'm sure they'd like an alternative shipper," she said.
"Much appreciated."
"Ready for that run?" Marny asked after we were alone again.
"Sure am."
We quickly changed, me into a suit liner and Marny into shorts and a loose top. An hour later, I was sweating profusely and perversely appreciated that Marny was just as winded.
I woke Tabby after a shower and enlisted her help in loading Jake's beer and preparing for the other vendors I'd contracted with. We had a tight schedule, mostly because the city was well set up for delivering crates. Initially, I'd been concerned about being able to organize so many individual contracts, but the crates and their representatives showed up precisely on schedule and we finished loading by 1030.
"All hands prepare for departure," I said. "All stations check in."
"You mind if I take this?" I asked.
"All yours," Tabby replied.
I gently nudged Hotspur out of the docking bay. The strength of the wind was more than I'd expected, but I adjusted and allowed the ship to fall into the clouds. The view was exhilarating as we accelerated. I pushed forward on the stick to increase our thrust and felt the stubby wings catch the air. I pulled back on the flight stick to trade some of our speed for elevation. I had minimal experience in atmosphere and it was always fun to play around with something new. I tipped the stick over and barrel rolled. In space, it wasn't much of a maneuver, but with wind beneath the wings it was thrilling.
"That's all, Nick," I said, leveling out our flight.
"Thanks," he grunted. I knew his hands had been gripping the side of his station, knuckles bare from exertion.
By staying within the atmosphere, we avoided the fuel expense of exit and re-entry. If not for the rush of wind past our cockpit, I'd have felt we were just crawling along. Unlike sailing in vacuum, while in atmosphere, we had to keep a small amount of thrust going to continue at the same speed. It was only a four hour trip to Nuage Gros.
Not unexpectedly, the airspace around the Nuage capital grew progressively busier as we approached. It was nothing like Mars, but we counted several dozen ships of differing sizes and shapes by the time we arrived.
Nuage Gros was breathtaking in its size. In pure volume, it was ten times the size of Léger. Much different than Léger, it also had what I could only describe as thin outrigger towers. The outriggers were only thirty meters across, two hundred meters tall, and hung from the sides of the main city by catwalks at several levels.
"Just when you think you've seen it all," Tabby said.
"It's gorgeous," Ada said. She'd knelt between the two pilot's chairs and was looking out the armored glass. "You know they have really great shopping here, too."
"Like what?" Tabby asked.
"Are you kidding? Clothing, of course. This nation was founded by the French," Ada said.
I looked from Ada to Tabby. Shopping? I had no idea what they were on about.
"I'm going to need some credits, Liam," Tabby said.
"I heard that," Nick said. He was seated at the couch working through something on a reading pad. "I've paid out everyone's share of our delivery to Terminal Seven and rented a suite in the Star-Side tower."
A notification showed up on my HUD. Nick had created an account for me with the Nuage banking system and had a pending deposit of fifteen thousand credits. I acknowledged receipt and authorized creation of the account. Nick had explained earlier that he needed to distribute money proportionally depending on how much of the corporation each of us owned. At the completion of each trip, he wanted to pay out some of our earnings.
"Thanks, Nick," Ada said. "I think it's more than it should be."
"You're welcome. And no, it's exactly what you're due for a captain's share. I also paid out a small dividend since we're all new in the system," he said. "It's nice to have money in the accounts."
"Now I'm going shopping for sure," Tabby said. "And you're coming with us, Liam. Marny, are you guys in?"
"We might tag along for a while, but I'm not looking for anything new right now," she said.
"Humor us?" Ada asked.
I could hear Nick and M
arny whispering and finally Marny answered meekly. "Sure. I'm game."
Notify Nuage Air Defense of our arrival and request landing permission and navigation path to Level-42 loading bay 4205, I directed.
A notification popped up on my forward vid-screen and the familiar blue contrail of a navigation path appeared on my HUD.
Engage auto-pilot.
Our approach to Gros took us to the opposite side, giving us a great view of the entire city. Like Léger, the docking bay didn't have a lot of vertical clearance for Hotspur and I allowed the auto-pilot to bring us in. I didn't mind flying us out, but we had to back in and that maneuver would have caused me a good deal of stress.
"We won't need everyone to help unload. I'll stay back, I just need one more," I said.
"I'll stay, Cap," Marny offered, probably too quickly.
"You're not getting out of shopping that easily, Marny. Nick can take Ada and me over to the hotel. We'll wait for you there," Tabby said.
Marny wasn't a complainer, but I heard her groan quietly as the ship came to rest in our designated loading bay.
We only had a quarter of our hold filled. But on short notice it was a nice pickup. We'd met a number of potential new customers in Léger and we'd meet just as many on this side. I'd keep track of their names and make sure to inform them when we'd be coming through in the future.
Marny and I switched into our standard armored vac-suits and by the time we'd lowered the loading ramp, two of our eight vendors were already present. They seemed to enjoy talking with each other and I had to wait until they finished to actually get started.
"You appear to be expecting trouble, my young friends," a short, older woman said. She was dressed in the expected loose Nuagian clothing, albeit her preferences tended toward a more conservative color palette. She introduced herself as Sophie Fillium.
"Liam Hoffen. We're new to the system and not entirely sure what to expect," I said.
"Don't listen to her. She's just disappointed you're not wearing those tight fitting suits like your friends." Her companion stepped forward, offering his hand. "Personally, I like the enhanced look of your muscles beneath all that armor."
Buccaneers (Privateer Tales Book 8) Page 21
