The next morning we were up early again, tearing down the industrial replicator and loading it onto the ship. By 1000 we pushed aboard the last of the O2 crystals and extra fuel. I'd never seen the hold so tightly packed. I hoped we wouldn't run into any problems on the way out. We were running heavy and if we got holed, the loss would be catastrophic.
All stations prepare for departure, I said.
Ada had requested to take the helm on the way out and I helped her through the checklist.
"Schedule-B burn?" Ada asked.
"Roger. We're in a hurry," I said.
"Ooh, I love it when we light it up," she said.
I laughed. I'd always thought of Ada as being reserved, but in the end she was just like Tabby and me. She liked to go fast and turn hard.
"Helm is yours, Captain Chen," I said.
I enjoyed sitting in the chair when either Ada or Tabby had the stick. Their skills were different. Ada was a minimalist when launching. Each move was specifically orchestrated to perfectly move the ship on exactly the right heading. Tabby loved to push the corner of every turn, eking out every meter of freedom to pile on the speed. It was difficult not to learn something from them by observing.
I faded out a little, tired from the hectic schedule of loading the ship, and was surprised to see the familiar yellow Nuage Air Defense ships as they twisted into formation to the starboard of Hotspur. I no longer thought it was coincidence that Ada had requested the helm when I caught the tail number on Captain Gray's bird.
"Hey, isn't that Luc?" Tabby asked, she was sitting on the couch of the bridge looking out through the armored glass windows.
"Weird, huh?" I said sarcastically.
If Ada heard us, she was ignoring it. I heard her chatting with Luc and then we watched as his squadron executed a perfectly synchronized roll, and headed back on their assignment.
"Alright, you little old ladies, bring it on," she said.
"What?" I asked innocently and walked back to join Tabby on the bridge.
The rest of the short trip went without incident. The Schedule-B burn rate put us in Descartes in just under seventy-two hours. I'd arranged to have the helm when we arrived and brought us in under silent running.
"Looks like a couple of folks have taken you up on your offer," Marny said as we passed under the bottom of the asteroid.
There were ten new habitation domes set up, although it was 0200 and we didn't see anyone milling about.
"Incoming hail, Loose Nuts Co-Op," the ship's AI announced.
"Hoffen, here," I said.
"Good to hear your voice, Son," Big Pete said.
"Are you in the control room at this hour?" I asked.
"Negative. We've a terminal set up in our dome. It's a little complex, you'll have to see," he said.
"Roger that. Would you rather we tie up for the night and see you all in the AM?" I asked.
"Probably best. No need to wake your mom. There's a slip open for you in the middle docking bay. We've grav generators running," he said.
"I copy. See you in the morning," I said.
As I pulled up to the large asteroid, I could see evidence of a considerable amount of work. When we'd left, there'd just been enough room for the old pirate outpost's warehouse. Now, three of the ten docking bays had been opened up and they'd strung landing lights in the center bay. I slid in and allowed Hotspur to settle.
"I'd say we get a few hours of shuteye," I said to Marny.
I'd tried to get her to sleep while I brought us home, but she wouldn't have anything to do with it. The idea of being caught flat-footed bothered her a lot and I certainly didn't mind the company.
At 0600 my comm alarm went off, waking Tabby and myself. I knew it was Dad and simply picked it up.
"You ready to get going?" he asked.
"Be right down. You have any coffee?"
"I'm in your galley, talking to Marny. She said I had to wait until six and yes, we have coffee. Your mom even made sweet rolls," he said.
We exchanged hugs and I sat in the galley while my body adjusted to being awake. The coffee and rolls helped.
"Nick says you have a full load of supplies. Good thing too, people are getting mighty nervous out here," he said.
"Did Nick fill you in on what we think is going on?"
"You mean that Oberrhein and Belirand are trying to choke out this mining colony?" he asked. I could tell he was steamed.
"We're not sure it's really Oberrhein or Belirand directly. But yeah, factions within those two," I said.
"Bunch of crap. If it were North Americans or Mars, we'd own up to it," he said.
"Like we did in the Amazon?" Marny asked with an arched eyebrow.
"Not our finest moment, but you know I'm right," he said.
"You're right of course, Pete, but even in the Amazon, it took someone to out those corporate asshats who started it all," she said.
Marny was the only person in the world who could talk to my dad that way and get away with it unscathed. I'd sure have loved to know what they talked about when they were alone.
"So what are we going to do?" he asked.
"We need to drop this load and get back to Grünholz," I said. "We're going to meet with King Kostov from Oberrhein. If it's going to be a long road, we'll need credits. The only way we're going to get those is if we start producing something that someone other than Belirand will buy."
"Like what?"
"Ingots, preferably steel and sheet materials," I said. "If I had nano-crystalized steel I could sell every ounce of it at five times what you'd expect. Silver, gold, platinum, rhodium are all on the table too. Nobody can process ore, but anything else and we're good to go."
"Just like Mr. James relayed it," Dad said. "Well, let's get it all unloaded. I'll give Muir a call."
"I thought he was a loner," I said.
"He is. Doesn't mean he's ready to roll over and die though. You just need to know how to talk to him."
"What about that harness we used to transport the barge though the TransLoc Gate. Seems to me you could sell that," Mom said.
"Isn't that Belirand's?" Tabby asked. She cut off her words as they came out. "Frak, yeah. I'll take Ada over and we'll cut it up. It's got to have seven or eight thousand credits worth of nano-steel."
"Try twenty-five thousand, Tabbs," I said. "There's a huge shortage of the stuff. Closest manufacturer is off-planet Curie and apparently it's just a small operation."
"Damn, I wish we'd set up for that," Pete said.
"One thing at a time, Dad," I said. "You get me some steel ingots and I'll turn 'em into credits faster than you can stamp 'em out."
"I'll take you up on that. We've a shite-tonne of ore stored up," he said.
Unloading was always easier than loading and this trip wasn't any different. Dad knew right where he wanted everything and he ordered us around like a drill sergeant. By 1100 the hold was empty and Nick and Marny were setting up our two replicators in the warehouse. I joined Ada and Tabby and we set about cutting up the nano-crystalized steel I-Beams and loading them into the hold.
When we finally sat down for dinner, we were all exhausted.
"What else do we need to do?" I asked, leaning back in my chair.
"I don't mean to beat this drum too hard, but we need to get this thing with Oberrhein resolved. You come back in two weeks and we'll have a stack of ingots for you to sell. But, that's just a bandage on the problem. People need to be able to trade their ore," Dad said.
"Any reason not to take off first thing?" I asked.
"Nope," Nick answered.
"Pete, will you take care of installing that security door on the control room?" Marny asked.
"Aye. Muir and I will put that top of the list," he said.
"One last thing," Nick said. "An explosive disarming bot is being manufactured on the replicator right now, should be done first thing in the morning. You might want to drop it off on your claim some time."
"Fantastic," Dad said.
<
br /> TRUST IS EARNED
We loaded extra fuel into the hold and burned hard back to Grünholz. I'd never met King Durko Kostov, but if rumors were to be believed, being late wasn't the first impression we wanted to make.
On the way, I searched for a load from Léger to Nannandry and ended up finding a small one that would clear a thousand credits. It wasn't much, but would pay for fuel to the planet and a little more.
Incoming hail, Celina Dontal.
I was surprised by her call as we'd just let her know that we'd be stopping through for dinner. It was a nice perk of having let her burn through our replicator supplies that we pretty much had a free meal every time we were in port and would for the foreseeable future.
"What's up, Lena?" I asked.
"We've an emergency, Liam, how close to the city are you?" she asked.
"Two minutes, if we pick up the pace," I said.
"There's a boy climbing on the outside of the city, he could be in trouble," she said.
"Roger that. What's going on?"
"Tough to explain the whole thing. He was being chased by thugs, we think he's going to try to climb the outer wall on the star-side," she said.
"Understood, we're almost there."
I pushed forward on the thrust stick and swooped around the city. The entire crew had heard the exchange and were standing by for action.
"Tabbs, grab your AGBs and head back to the hatch, we might have an emergency EVA," I said.
"Copy that," she said and jumped up, heading back to our quarters.
"Marny, Nick, can we get detailed plans?" I asked.
"Mr. Hoffen, it's Jenny," a new voice said. "I put a tracking beacon on my friend. I'm sending the registration."
"I've got it," Nick said.
Add Jenny Dontal to bridge comm.
"He's outside, right now," Jenny said. It was unnecessary information as we could see a blinking blip on the holographic image of the city.
Engage targeting reticle on tracked object, I said.
Just as we should have had view of him, the blinking signal disappeared back into the safety of the city.
"He's safe," I said. "He made it inside."
"No! You don't understand," Jenny said. "They're chasing him and they're going to hurt him. They already killed another boy."
"Who, Jenny? Who's doing this," my mind raced, could Petar be behind this? What could he gain from it?
"She's a slaver, trying to take him back to Nannandry," Jenny said.
I winced. Jenny had once been taken as a slave and I knew this added a level of urgency to the situation.
"Who is she?"
"I don't know. Priloe's from Nannandry, but he's been hiding here with his little sister and the bad woman is trying to force him to go back. She's very dangerous," she said.
"Okay. We'll do the best we can," I said. "Where's he going?"
The tracked signal had moved back into the center at the highest level of the city and with no other destination, I could only continue to circle around or head back to the public landing.
"He's headed for the pod-ball court," she said.
"I'm not sure what we can do."
"It's at the top, please, Mr. Hoffen. What if he goes outside again?" she said.
I didn't think it was very likely, but I wasn't going to ignore her since he'd already been outside at least once. As dangerous as it was, I knew anything was possible when you were being chased.
I pulled back on the stick and sailed up toward the top of the city.
Just as we arrived, I saw with horror the glass of the top room blowing straight up. There must be a substantial pressure differential between the interior space and the exterior.
"Frak. Tabbs, someone blew the glass out. We might need that EVA," I said.
"I've got it, Hoffen. Just get me close enough," she said.
"Can you talk to him, Jenny?"
"I am. He knows you're there."
I hit the emergency override and dropped the cargo bay loading ramp. Tabby would have a difficult enough time negotiating the city's gravity and gusty winds, I wanted to give her the largest return landing zone possible.
I heard Marny jump onto the lift, executing an emergency drop onto the Berth Deck. No doubt she wanted to make sure she was on hand if Tabby needed her.
"I'm off," Tabby said.
I watched Tabby's flight on the vid screen as she sailed between the ship and the top of the city, smacking into a small boy, wrapping him up with a single arm and spinning around, back toward the ship.
"She's got him!" Jenny cried.
I swung the aft end of the ship to line up as closely as possible with Tabby's return arc. She flew back into the wide open bay and landed easily.
"We're in, Love," Tabby said over the comm.
I directed the ship to close the cargo hold and turned my focus on getting us back to our landing bay. Before I knew it, I heard Tabby approaching from behind.
"Nicely done, Tabbs. I couldn't have done it better myself," I said.
"Captain Liam Hoffen, meet Priloe," Tabby said.
I turned, not expecting to see the boy standing directly behind my chair.
"Good to meet you, Priloe. Just a second and I'll get us landed."
"I agree," Tabby said.
"On what?"
"You definitely couldn't have done that better."
Upon landing we were met by a worried group of people. Jenny was holding a small girl who reached for the boy when we got close.
As we walked back to the diner, they excitedly replayed the events. Apparently, Jenny had been right. Some woman had tried to abduct Priloe and his sister. In the process, the abductor had killed one of Priloe's friends from Nannandry and nearly succeeded in killing Priloe.
A city security officer was waiting for us when we arrived back at Lena's Diner and Celina peeled off to speak with her. I could read their body language and was relieved that the conversation seemed to be going in the direction that Lena wanted. Finally, they parted and Lena rejoined us with a smile.
"Everything okay?" Jenny asked.
"Yes. We have some legal hoops to get through and we'll need to see what Priloe would like to do, but they're not going to send him back to Grünholz," she said. "Now, I believe we've a ship-load of people who need a good meal. Jenny, why don't you show Priloe how to make up some of that meatloaf we had today. Jack, would you set the big table and put out some of that Blue Brenton Ale we just got in?"
Jenny put the small girl down and the three ran back into the kitchen. Apparently, they had all become friends at some point. Lena bent over to pick up the small girl who'd become fascinated, staring at Marny.
"I think you have a fan," Lena said, looking over at Marny. "Her name is Milenette."
Marny didn't miss a beat and held her arms out. Milenette turned back, suddenly shy, burying her head in Lena's shoulder. Lena wasn't fooled, however, and coaxed the small girl into Marny's arms. I wasn't entirely surprised to see that Marny had an easy way about her with the girl.
In short order, the table was set and steaming food delivered.
"Priloe, what would you like to be when you grow up?" Tabby asked between bites.
Priloe had a difficult time keeping his eyes from Tabby and I knew she recognized the attention. I chuckled to myself as I considered what I'd have thought, at his age, if someone who looked like Tabby had rescued me.
"I don't know," he said, clearly uncomfortable being the center of her attention.
"Don't know, or don't want to say? Everyone has dreams," she said.
"You'll think it's stupid," he said. It had the effect of quieting the table which made him look down, into his lap.
"Not if you don't," she said. "Try me. If I laugh, you can punch me in the shoulder as hard as you want."
He looked up, startled. "I would never."
Tabby smiled at him. It was a smile I loved receiving. She didn't look away and after a few minutes Priloe realized he wasn't getting out of t
he conversation.
"I want to live in the stars. Somewhere where there's no stupid rain and people are nice," he said.
"Maybe someday you can come visit our station in the Descartes asteroid belt," she said.
"Really?"
"It's not ready for visitors right now, but someday it will," she said.
I caught Celina stifling a yawn and realized she probably had an early morning in front of her.
"You've gone above and beyond, tonight. Thanks for dinner, Lena. We've an early morning tomorrow and I bet you do too," I said. "Could you send the bill for dinner to me and we'll get out of your hair?"
"Not sure I feel good about billing you after what you did today," she said. "Besides, you still have credit for the materials we burned on the replicator."
"How's your cash flow?" Nick asked.
"I won't lie, it's tight right now. We've expanded quickly and had lots of one-time expenses," she said.
"Send him the bill. We don't need to be paid back on the materials immediately. We can settle up over time," Nick said.
She looked sheepish when she responded. "Well … okay, it would help," she said.
"How are those carvings doing?" I asked.
"Really well. I only have ten left. We sold twenty in the first day," she said.
"What are you selling them for?"
"Started at ten credits, raised them to forty on day two and then sixty on day three," she said. "Seems like sixty is the right price, since we're still selling them. Can you get more?"
"Sure. I'll let the artist know we're interested," I said.
We helped clean up the table and headed back to the ship.
"Did you find a buyer for the nano-steel?" Nick asked as we arrived at Hotspur.
"No. I thought we'd offload it into the warehouse," I said. "We've a small load for Nannandry, but I'd rather not drag that steel all over."
"We can do that now," Marny said.
"Sure. I'll grab the grav-sleds," I said.
I had no desire to deal with it right then, but it would allow us to sleep in the next morning and I was all about that. I'd contacted Ambassador Turnigy earlier in the evening. We were to meet him on the Nannandry landing strip at 1400 the next day.
Buccaneers (Privateer Tales Book 8) Page 29
