by Greg Chase
2
The trip out to Hidalgo—the centaur planet that served as Ramon Mondrain’s pirate outpost—proved uneventful, for a welcome change. Jess unbuckled the restraining harness and prepared for the disorienting vacuum chute that would whisk her from spaceship to planet.
The pirate captain had an air of command that put Jess at ease. “If you’re serious about joining us pirates, we have some things to discuss. It’s a conversation that would be better in private, but anytime a smuggler—even this smuggler—asks you to his place, you’d better be on your guard.”
Jess had already made the mistake of trusting the space renegades once, but Ramon had taken her and Sam’s abduction personally. Hidalgo was his territory, and he took pride in knowing the inner dealings that took place on his outpost. He’d more than paid off that debt, however, in helping Sam find the Board of Shadows’ hidden planet. “I’ll need your help and advice. My life’s already in your hands.”
Ramon’s smile looked to hold all the agendas and schemes he kept secret. “I have a place on the outskirts of town.”
As he escorted her down the grimy, poorly lit streets filled with unsavory characters lurking in the shadows, she tried to see the outpost as her home. If it wasn’t this pirate lair, it’d be one that was very similar. She was known here. More than one drunken fool shouted out his appreciation for the increased business the pirates had experienced due to the Tobes of Jupiter’s newfound freedom. They knew and admired Jess on Hidalgo, and that could prove useful. But was it a legacy she wished to embrace, or would a fresh start make unifying the freedom-loving adventurers easier? Pirates weren’t known for their interplanetary cooperation. So being too firmly aligned with this one would come at a price.
The seedy bars slowly gave way to shops selling all manner of contraband items a pirate might need for her illegal activities, absconded from moons surrounding Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus. Jess rubbed at the space leathers that kept her safe. They’d need replacing soon. Accessing her money on Earth would raise red flags throughout the solar system. She still had money left from her time serving drinks at speakeasy parties, but she’d hoped to use that money for purchasing more inventory. And how was she to find a ship and captain she could trust? So many questions filled her mind that she hadn’t noticed Ramon had taken her down an even darker side street.
The rich smell of exotic meats, collected from faraway outposts, filled the air. Jess sniffed at the small food vendors’ open fires. It had been days since she’d eaten a proper meal. “What’s your take on the food options out here—anything I should avoid?”
Ramon motioned her toward an old woman who was flipping skewers of meat on a grate above glowing charcoal. “Agnes, you have any of that Pandorian wolf left?”
The woman leaned back on her wooden stool to grab a well-smoked steak with her bony fingers and wrapped it in a large, leathery leaf. “You may be the only one who likes it. Sure you don’t want me to put in some cow meat for your woman?”
Jess had trouble differentiating the various smells, but as Ramon accepted the wolf meat, she knew it wouldn’t be to her liking. “I’ll trust your judgment, but if the cow is safe, I think that might be easier on my stomach.”
“Suit yourself.” He motioned toward the meat on the fire. “Give me one of those too.”
The old woman’s eyes looked gray in the pale light as they turned to Jess. “Wise choice.”
Jess had to grip the stick firmly in her hand as she tugged a bite of meat off the skewer with her teeth. Her first impression was that the leathers she wore might have been tenderer, but as her jaw forced her teeth into the tough sinews, the flavors of the spiced meat filled her mouth.
“Lesson number one: if it sounds like it came from Earth, it’s going to be tough as hell and probably barely edible. They cover up any off flavors with spices, so the less you taste of the meat, the more likely it’s been sitting around for a while.”
She spit out the mouthful into a nearby pile of trash. “Now you tell me.”
“Nothing out here will kill you. There just aren’t the germs and bacteria to worry about like on Earth. The smaller shops, like Agnes’s, usually go through their food quickly, so her offerings tend to be fresher—depending on their sources. Look for food that specifies where it comes from. When she says ‘cow,’ it could be damn near anything from anywhere. I once saw an entire space rat being roasted on a fire, and the guy called it ‘cow.’”
She motioned toward the Pandorian wolf. “That smelled pretty pungent.”
He ripped off a section with his fingers and handed it to her. “It smells like meat, not spice. It’s been aged but not overly processed. Plus, I know the smuggler who brought it out here. You’ll learn.”
At least she was able to chew the morsel, but her throat wasn’t too accepting of the strange texture and taste. No wonder everyone drinks with their meals.
He pointed toward a towering black structure so tall it touched the transparent dome that covered all of Hidalgo. “That’s my place. I can keep watch on the whole outpost from up there.”
Jess wondered what activities were so clandestine that they took place on the other side of the small planet, out of Ramon’s watchful presence.
The ground-floor entrance looked much the way all the other doorways looked, shadowy and mysterious. But as Jess entered the well-lit foyer, the wealth of the pirate leader came into better perspective. Cleanliness wasn’t a term she’d used since she and Sam had left Earth over two years ago. Stranger still was to see the modern walls encompassing computer screens that displayed vistas from foreign worlds. The red sands and light-green trees that surrounded a deep-blue lake could only be from Mars, but the range of towering mountain peaks covered in snow that jutted up from an emerald-green sea was not a place she’d encountered. She moved in closer to the image to watch the wind whisk the frozen white ice off the rocky heights.
“That’s Titania. It’s a moon circling Uranus. I met the love of my life skiing down the face of that mountain. I’d wager you won’t find a pirate out here who doesn’t wish he were somewhere else. For me, that’d be a little cottage in that hamlet next to the fiord snuggled up under Oberon ox skins with my dark-skinned beauty. But that was a lifetime ago.”
Jess continued looking at the scene, but her imagination took her somewhere else—a warm, crystal-blue lake with a waterfall at the far side, her young daughters swimming naked with the other children of the village, and Sam laughing and happy. She’d never been one for melancholy daydreaming, but her life on Chariklo would always be the most contented one she could imagine.
Ramon put his hand to her back and directed her to the ornate elevator. “The guest room’s upstairs. I’ve got a little surprise for you. The other pirates and I took up a collection.”
Pirate surprises weren’t always something she looked forward to, but then again, these people had access to things she could only dream about, even with her vast wealth.
As the elevator doors opened to the luxurious suite, she saw a bed covered in the most well-made space attire she could imagine.
“We couldn’t have you pillaging the Moons of Jupiter in those ratty space leathers. My pirate outpost has a reputation to uphold.” Ramon started on the far side of the bed with what looked like a wispy sleeping garment. “These are called silks. They’re made from actual Earth silk interwoven with computer filaments.”
Jess fondly remembered her dressing closet in the Rendition penthouse. One section was filled with silk dresses. Even for the wife of Rendition’s owner, the gowns had been hard to come by. “They’re lovely.” She ran her hand along the smooth fabric.
“They’re also practical. This inner garment replaces all those miniature sensors that bond to your skin in normal space leathers. No longer will you have to peel off the uncomfortable protection to see deathly white skin. These silks work like exfoliates and computer sensors while feeling like a lover’s gentle caress about your body—all in one gossamer covering
.”
He moved slightly farther down the bed to garments Jess recognized, though no set of space leathers she’d worn had the high-end look and feel of pirate leathers. “From the outside, these are meant to look well-worn. No one wants to be seen in brand-new leathers. All of us have our own preferences when it comes to protective wear. The outer layer of these is made from Oberon oxen, an animal whose fine hair can be woven into blankets so soft any woman would long to strip off her clothes just to feel the sensation across every inch of her skin, but whose hides can make a garment impervious to all but the most skilled of knifemen.”
Jess handled the heavy leather with a synthetic, computer-controlled lining. To her surprise, it was remarkably flexible—not something she’d experienced even in her worn-out, tattered leathers. Though they were made to synch up with any figure, she couldn’t help noticing this particular outfit had the curves and projections designed for a woman’s body. Her eyes drifted to the next set of garments. “What are those?”
Ramon smiled with pride as he lifted the heavy breastplate for her inspection. “Leathers will only get you so far. They’ll protect you if you’re sucked out into space unexpectedly and take care of all your body’s needs. But any pirate expecting to last more than a month among the scum of the solar system needs something a little more protective. These are called kozane. The small scales that make up the garments slip easily past one another, so the covering is more versatile than it looks. Each one is a small computer. This outfit will stop a lasgun, enhance your muscles, provide you with computer imagery regarding your opponent and, most of all, tell other pirates who you are. They were designed after ancient Japanize Samurai warrior armor. These are lighter and simpler in design, of course, but each set is unique.”
Jess ran her hand over the hard scales. They didn’t feel like the fish they’d caught in the lake on Chariklo but more like some ancient desert lizard. With its straight shoulders, barbed black scales tinged in gold, red underlayer, and well-defined womanly curves, the garment wasn’t meant to be inconspicuous. “It makes a statement.”
Ramon slid his thumbs up along the neck guard. Instantly, a full helmet took shape out of the scaly neck brace. The face mask rippled as though viewed through water. “You can program in any face you wish. In fact, most of the kozane can be modified to suit your tastes. It’s also impervious to network spying, so you can travel in as much anonymity as you wish. I don’t typically wear mine around Hidalgo. As head of this outpost, I’m expected to be accessible. It doesn’t look good for me to always appear ready for battle. You can bet I put mine on, however, when I’m negotiating with smugglers I don’t know. Just don’t go thinking you’re impervious to danger in one of these. They’ll stop a lasgun, but a blaster will still cut a hole the size of your fist in it.”
The pirate set the heavy garment down and picked up two boxes beside the bed. “Which brings us to our final items.” He opened the first precision-made, ornate wooden box and pulled forth a chrome-plated lasgun. “This isn’t like anything you may have seen on Earth. These aren’t Tobe controlled. What you aim at and shoot, you hit. There’s no computer program analyzing if you’re going to accidentally hit someone you don’t mean to. Tobes can’t even handle these weapons as they’re not made of modern material. These are pretty much as illegal as they get.”
He opened the second box, revealing a far more deadly weapon. “And this is a blaster. It operates using electromagnetic vibrations. On a planet with atmosphere, you’ll hear the sonic boom, but in space, there’ll be nothing—no bright light, no sound, just destruction. So long as you’re behind one of these, you won’t notice it going off, but anyone within a sixty-degree arc in front will end up with ringing in their ears for days. And any person or thing directly in front will be vaporized, even Tobes—the shockwave knocks out every form of communication—so you’ll want to be sure of what you’re doing before you fire one.”
Two black-leather belts crisscrossed down to holsters for the weapons. “That’s quite the outfit, Ramon.” Jess had seen all manner of dress, from the stitched-up space garb people hobbled together on abandoned outposts to high-end Martian wraps so sheer they highlighted rather than hid the naked bodies underneath. “I’m not even sure how to put all this on.”
He grabbed a bottle of lotion off the end table next to the bed. “There’s a ritual we have out here. If a pirate is lucky enough to have a sexual or romantic partner, that person performs the dressing. If not, there are places a pirate might go to hire the service. It’s less sexual than superstitious. Many of us believe having someone layer the garments on is an act of separating the soul from the duties we all must perform. It’s as much about protecting who we are as keeping us from physical harm. The first step is to take a long, hot bath to clean away the past. This lotion helps the silks bond to the skin, so make sure you rub it on every inch of yourself. As for the dressing, I’d be honored if you’d allow me the privilege. But if you’d prefer someone of your gender, I can arrange an armor geisha to come by when you’re ready.”
Modesty had never been something Jess had suffered from. “I can’t think of anyone I’d rather have dress me than you.”
A long, hot jet-tub bath after months in space leathers was one of the few luxuries Jess had enjoyed since leaving Earth. She hated the damn outfits. Her one experience of having to rely on them in the emptiness of space had done nothing to ingratiate them to her. In spite of knowing how they worked—sucking her in so tight the decompression of space wouldn’t make her explode and filtering her breathing to provide her with oxygen—the near-death experience of feeling them do their job made her resent every moment spent in them. And that was pretty much all the time because her adventures kept her moving from moon to moon.
As she finished lounging in the bathwater, Jess rubbed on the soothing lotion from head to toe. The silky coating made it feel as if she was taking the bath with her as she left the tub.
True to his word, Ramon made no sexual advances as he reverently wrapped the inner silk garments around her naked body. The translucent material felt like a wispy fog that hugged every section of skin. She cringed as he lifted the leather pants from the bed. But unlike previous experiences, when she’d had to force her legs into the unyielding garments, these laced up the sides, allowing her the dignity of standing stationary as he applied the protective wear and cinched it tight. She caught him admiring her breasts under the fine silks as he wrapped the top over the front of her and swung the leather flaps around to her back. Every movement he made, every touch of his hands to her skin, even the look in his eyes spoke of ritual devotion.
The kozane was the hardest to put on. Ramon struggled with the unruly garments, which were heavy, bulky, and designed more for protection than comfort. But as he fastened the final latches, Jess saw the monitor light up in front of her eyes. It took the computer a moment to figure out her muscular structure, but once it did, the weight of the armor disappeared. She swung her arms from side to side, testing out its flexibility. She couldn’t have moved easier if she were naked.
“Catch.” She turned just in time to see the rock Ramon had lobbed in her direction. Her hand shot out in front of her face to grasp the projectile, which crumbled to dust in her fingers. “Enhanced muscle response—you’ll want to be careful if you shake someone’s hand or try to pick up a Martian fire-glass egg.”
“It’s amazing. I don’t feel any discomfort from the space leathers. If anything, my skin feels more alive.” A vast improvement from the deadening effect of every other space outfit she’d worn.
He pulled the holsters from the bed and wrapped them around her waist and legs. She could feel the kozane react to her thoughts as Ramon pulled at the straps close to her crotch. “Tomorrow, we’ll start your weapons training. Without Tobe control, you’ll want to be proficient with their use. Twist your left arm, and pull at the small handle on your wrist.”
Jess hadn’t noticed the projection, but as she moved her arm, she real
ized that was the point—the handle only presented itself if she moved in a very specific way. It took only a slight tug to make the knife blade clear her kozane sleeve. Long, thin, and gleaming in the bedroom light, the weapon looked more like a small sword than a rugged knife.
“There’s one on your right arm as well. That one’s more like a hunting knife—good for killing wild animals and survival should you get marooned somewhere. The thin sword is designed to fit between a kozane’s scales—useful if you get hurt and need to expose the area of skin in a hurry and lethal once you’re skilled enough to do battle at close range.”
Jess slipped the deadly sword back in its sleeve scabbard. “I’m not even sure how to say thank you. Even if I knew what I was looking for, I couldn’t have bought this quality of an outfit.”
Ramon crossed his arms as he looked over the finished set of protective garments. “That’s true. It took four of us hitting up our underground-craftsmen contacts around the solar system to pull that together.”
The outfit’s computer blew cool air onto her face in response to her blush. He wouldn’t take money if she offered it. He’d probably see it as an insult. But this was far beyond anything she’d expected. She had to make some reply. “Please understand that I’m not doubting your generosity, but pirates seldom do something for nothing.”
“Call it an investment.”
3
Sara bristled at having anyone, human or Tobe, looking over her shoulder. She knew Jess hadn’t meant Larry and Spike to play the role of babysitters, but it was a hard impression to shake. Accepting their help—guardianship more like it—at least gave Jess the comfort she needed to get on with her plan. The last thing Sara wanted was to have a mother figure hovering over her every action, and Jess wasn’t about to leave her daughter to the wilds of Jupiter’s moons unescorted.
