Inadvertent Adventures

by Jones, Loren K.

  “Olaf, get us out of here,” Captain Denise said and the ship immediately shoved away from the GMM dock.

  The commercial space port called NHSP-1 was almost as old as the Jolly Jane, and just as shabby. Dozens of small freighters like the Jane were nestled into her ports like suckling piglets against a sow. Captain Denise’s first concern was fuel, and shook her head as sixty-thousand credits worth of fuel flowed into their tanks. Then she registered with the local shipping companies and sat back to wait.

  “This is the worst part, Silver,” she commented as she signed for a day’s fees at the port. “Every day we stay here costs us five hundred credits. That’s why we fuel up first thing. We can always leave if there isn’t a cargo here, but there are ships that have been seized because they couldn’t move or pay.”

  “Yes, Ma’am. I request permission to go look around. Pick up some ship’s coveralls that fit right. Eat someone else’s cooking.” He paused and smiled shyly. “Maybe find a—a friend.”

  She smiled at him and said, “Check your friend’s health certificate first, Silver. I won’t have any diseases on my ship and I will leave you here.” Then she waved him on his way as she went back into the ship.

  Silver walked through the port slowly, admiring the old artwork that had once decorated the walls of the passageways. It was shabby and faded, but there was enough left to show what it had once been like.

  Ports like this one were ubiquitous throughout the Confederacy. Too old for the new ships, but too valuable to scrap, they handled a large portion of any planet’s extra-system commerce. Especially the commerce between lonely spacers and those who gave them comfort for a price.

  Silver found a likely looking bar and went in. It was drab, dark, and smelled of things best left uninvestigated. Just like home. He took a seat at the bar and got the bartender’s attention. “Mulligan’s Revenge,” he said and put his chip in the slot. “Ten credits,” the man said, and Silver pushed the buttons. A large glass of dark amber liquid rose in front of him and he took it quickly. A long sip later he set it down. “Ah, it’s been too long.”

  “That long in space?” a female voice asked, and he turned to find a woman on the seat next to him.

  “Yes,” he replied. “Can I buy you…?” he motioned toward the bar, but the woman chuckled.

  “I’m not for sale, but the rent’s reasonable.” She smiled what might once have been a winning smile, but that was years ago. “Let’s find someplace more private.”

  “Can I see your slip?” Silver asked, and she pulled a standard health certificate out of her cleavage. He saw the date-stamp was only three days old and nodded.

  The woman led him out of the bar and spin-ward around the station, then into an elevator. “I have a cubby on the ‘E’ ring,” she said, snuggling close to Silver and using her hands to get him excited.

  The bell for the ‘E’ ring rang and Silver looked toward the doors. When they opened the first thing he saw was a CSS-SN Admiral’s uniform. Then he saw the admiral’s face. “Ann?” he asked.

  The admiral looked at him and blanched. She whispered, “Sterling?” then her eyes rolled back.

  Silver lunged forward to catch her as the bar girl screamed. Two CSS Marines who were behind the admiral saw a stranger lunge at her as she fell back and immediately reacted. Trained reflexes drove iron hard fists down onto Silver’s head.

  Unconsciousness was the immediate result. The admiral hit the deck hard and was also rendered unconscious.

  *

  Silver came to his senses slowly, knowing something bad had happened again, but unable to remember what. Then the man in the chair beside his bed spoke. “You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say, do, or otherwise communicate can and will be used against you at your trial. You have the right to an advocate during questioning. Why did you attack Admiral Stevenson?”

  “I didn’t attack Ann. Did you say Stevenson?”

  “Admiral Annette Stevenson, as if you didn’t know. You attacked her as soon as the elevator doors opened.”

  Silver shook his head. “I didn’t attack her. She was about to faint, and I was trying to catch her.”

  “That’s not what the Marines who brought you in said,” the man snapped and Silver looked closely at his face.

  “You always were an ass, Hartley,” he moaned as he sat up.

  “You will address me as Captain Hartley.”

  “You’re an ass, Kennet Hartley. A pretentious, pompous, self-centered, self-righteous ass.” Silver sat up and rubbed his sore head. “Damn Marines.”

  “You may find that your attitude is insupportable in your present circumstances. You are charged with attacking Admiral Stevenson. Your actions were recorded and will be displayed at your trial. Now I ask you again: Why did you attack Admiral Stevenson?”

  “That will be all, Captain. I’m quite all right,” a woman’s voice said and Captain Hartley snapped to his feet.

  “Admiral, you shouldn’t be up! This man’s assault was…”

  “…Not an assault at all, Ken. I simply fainted when I saw him.”

  The captain looked at the admiral and shook his head. “But Ma’am, the Marines said…”

  “The Marines were mistaken. It was just a shock to see my dead ex-husband-”

  “Ex-husband? But I thought—Sterling?” he asked, finally looking closely at the man sitting on the bed.

  “Yeah, Ken, it’s me.”

  “But you’re—”

  “Long story, Ken.”

  “Release him at once,” the admiral commanded, and two Navy Masters-At-Arms moved forward to obey her order. “Come with me, Sterling. You have some explaining to do.”

  Silver ran his tongue around the inside of his teeth and said, “Yes, Ma’am,” as he followed her out of the brig. The admiral was silent as she led him down corridors that were far too ship-shape to be on NHSP-1. He didn’t need to ask where he was. The layout of a CSS-SN Carrier was all too familiar to him. A Marine saw them coming and opened the door she was guarding, before stepping aside. When they had passed she shut the door and returned to attention.

  Admiral Stevenson turned and looked at Silver, then slapped his face as hard as she could. She shouted, “I cried for three days when they said you were dead, you bastard!” Tears welled in her eyes as she stepped back with both fists clenched at her sides. “You didn’t change your beneficiary! They tracked me down. They chased me to Columbia, to the Army-Navy game! They told me that you’d been killed in an airfoil accident and that I was still your beneficiary! I had to sign for the million credits because you left no other heirs and now your credit chip was keyed to me and I was told that I owed some scumbag named Pahna Mah two million credits and—” She broke down then and walked into his open arms.

  Silver held his ex-wife as she cried, caressing her back and making soothing noises. Wow she’s really upset. I should have sent her a message. She finally calmed down and he eased his hold on her. “Ann, it was all a lie. Pahna Mah is a cheat and a liar. I beat his crooked games on the Flaming ‘O’, so he beat me and made me disappear. I was sold into servitude on a small freighter instead of killed, and he took my chip to get his money back. I guess the Bank of New Switzerland wouldn’t break the encoding for him.”

  “Sterling, why didn’t you…”

  “Because I’m dead, Ann. They cultured enough DNA to satisfy an inquest and proved I died. You know how hard it would be to prove that they were crooks and it was all their doing. I’d probably be charged with fraud for faking my own death. At the very least they would accuse me of being a clone or a construct. I have no desire to suffer through the tests that they would do to prove it. I have a new, sort-of legal identity now. Sterling Albert Stevenson died on Hobson’s, and Silver Llewellyn Garand was born.”

  Ann looked into his eyes for a moment. “You could have sent me a message. I guess that explains a few things, like how your credit chip ended up with thirty million credits on it. So, what am I
supposed to do with you now?” she asked as she stepped away from him.

  “I’m the navigator on a good little ship. Really little.” He grinned and chuckled. “The captain put up a thousand credits to keep me alive, and I’m inclined to stay with her and her crew for a while.”

  “What about Pahna Mah and his bill? I can’t just ignore it.”

  Silver smiled and Annette stepped back a little. It was a truly evil smile. “Do you know where that geek Lohseph Carinvanter is?”

  “You mean my Chief of Intelligence?” she asked with a hint of a smile.

  Silver chuckled. “Go see Pahna Mah, but take Lo with you. If I could beat the cheat, Lo should have no trouble at all. With that proof you should be able to put him out of business.”

  “And what about you?” she asked, caressing his reddened cheek softly.

  “I’ll ride this out wherever it takes me. Tell your mother I said hello when you see her. Unless you already told her I was dead. Then it might be just a little weird.”

  “I’ll take her with me to the Flaming ‘O’ and let her gamble a little. With Lo at her side. Once she breaks the bank, I’ll expose the crooked games. And Willy will be in close orbit in case they decide to try anything.”

  Silver stepped forward and hugged her tightly. “I’ve missed you, Ann. And I’m sorry I made you cry, but since Mom died I really don’t have any other heirs. I should be getting back to my ship before my new captain decides I deserted—or got shanghaied again.”

  “What about your chip?”

  “Keep it. Or give it away. It’s keyed to you now, so it’s yours to do with as you please.” He grinned. “Let your mom use it when she goes gambling. If Pahna Mah sees that much money he’ll come begging her to play his games.”

  She chuckled and nodded, then led him back through her ship. If anyone thought it was odd that the straight-laced, hard-as-nails Admiral Stevenson was walking through the corridors of her flagship cuddling under the arm of a strange man, none of them had the guts to say so. Not to her face at least.

  Admiral Stevenson accompanied Silver back to NHSP-1 aboard her launch, but left him at the airlock. “I have to go to Hobson’s Planet to pay back Pahna Mah. Stay out of trouble for a while, and stay alive. I don’t want to cry over you again.”

  “Goodbye, Ann. I’ll watch for you at our ports. Maybe we can have dinner sometime.”

  Silver watched as the hatch closed and the launch boosted away from the port, then turned and started finding his way back to the Jolly Jane. Captain Denise met him as soon as he reported aboard.

  “I was informed that you had been arrested for assaulting a Navy admiral and were being held without bond. How the hell did you get released?” she demanded.

  “It was all a misunderstanding, Captain. Just a misunderstanding.” He collapsed at his station and called up an external view of the area. There, shrunken by the distance, was the CSS William the Conqueror, CVH-672, surrounded by her consorts. Even as they watched, she got underway, boosting hard away from New Hispaniola with her supporting units chasing her tail.

  Silver chuckled. “It looks like Ann is in a hurry to go see someone about an unpaid debt. I don’t think he’s going to like the payment.”

  “Who?” Captain Denise asked.

  “Rear Admiral Annette Fairmont Stevenson. My ex-wife,” he replied, then stood and looked around. “Whose turn is it to cook? I’m hungry.”

  Chapter 5

  THE BLACK SHIP HUNG AGAINST THE star-studded glory of the Milky Way, waiting. Their message drop was late, and the captain was beginning to get nervous.

  “Hyper transit, Sir,” the sensor operator reported.

  “Incoming scrambled transmission,” the communication officer reported just a moment later.

  “Hyper transit again, Sir. They’re gone.”

  “Decode the message, Coms. Let’s see what our lords and masters have to say.”

  The audio message began playing just a moment later. “Captain Harris, I wish to congratulate you. You had almost succeeded in getting the shipment of platinum from Germanicus when a tramp freighter showed up and chased you away. I must applaud your sense of self-preservation. Oh, we understand about the game they played with their communications suite and the false transponder code. Everyone, especially GMM, is having a good long laugh at your expense. Now get your sorry ass to LaFontain and wait. We will send the mighty warship Jolly Jane to you. Do try not to let them trick you again. Destroy them and their ship. And don’t bother with the cargo. It won’t be worth the crates it’s shipped in.”

  The message ended and everyone turned their eyes to their captain. “A freighter? A miserable little tramp freighter? We mistook a tramp freighter for a heavy cruiser? Nav, plot a course to LaFontain. Weapons Officer, I want maximum power to the weapons as soon as that ship appears. This time it’s personal, and I’m going to enjoy it.”

  The men and women of the raider hurried to do their captain’s bidding. They felt just as humiliated as he did by the Jolly Jane’s trick and were out for revenge. Six hours later the black ship blinked into hyper.

  *

  Captain Denise wrangled a deal to haul a cargo to New Britannia. It was small and low value, as usual, but it would pay their fuel and a small profit, which beat sitting at NHSP-1 paying for air.

  Captain Denise waited until they were in hyper before distributing the profits from their last job. “The three days we spent cooling our heels waiting for a cargo didn’t hurt us much. We still managed two hundred and thirty-eight thousand credits, so we each receive twenty-three thousand eight hundred credits. I made the transfers before we departed.”

  Silver cleared his throat. “Ma’am, I meant to ask before, but why does the ship get half?”

  “The ship gets half so we don’t have to pay for repairs,” Will answered for her. “Ship’s account pays for repairs and spare parts. She’s a sweet old gal, but she does break down occasionally. This way she gets a refit every year or two so we don’t get stranded someplace.”

  Silver nodded his understanding and retired to his quarters. He had a lot to think about. Not including his winnings at the ‘Flaming ‘O’ Lounge’, he had more in the bank than he’d ever had before. More importantly, he knew Ann still loved him. That much was obvious. He started laughing softly to himself. Pahna Mah was about to learn a hard lesson about how vengeful Ann could be.

  New Britannia was one of the oldest worlds in the Confederacy. It had been settled directly from Earth, only the third such colony established after the development of the hyperspace drive. As such, it was also one of the most developed of the colony worlds and was home base of operations for many of the big multi-system conglomerates.

  The Jolly Jane was directed to Space Port Wales, Dock Sixty-Three. The shipment of routine documents for the Amberson Cartel was delivered and quickly replaced by a larger shipment of non-standard machine parts for their asteroid mining operation in the LaFontain System. Captain Denise smiled as she received the shipment and signed for it, but let her smile fade as soon as the lock was secure.

  “Crap. Another null-profit run to the back of nowhere,” she snarled as she turned to face her crew.

  “Not null-profit, Captain. Nothing to brag about, maybe, but we cleared twelve thousand credits on the paperwork, and we’ll clear more this time.” Olaf smiled at her and finally received a grudging nod.

  “Maybe so, Olaf. I had just hoped for better.”

  The little ship dove through the nebulous region known as hyperspace for twenty-six days ship time and emerged near the star LaFontain. They had been in system bound for three hours before they were hailed.

  “Space vessel Jolly Jane, surrender at once. Cut thrust and maintain your vector,” an unidentified voice said through the radio.

  “Identify. By what right do you intercept this vessel?” Captain Denise immediately replied, all the while gesturing for Silver to find them a vector out of there.

  “Who we are is of no importance. It is
who you are, and who you claim to be, that is. Did you really think you could get away with pretending to be a CSS Navy vessel?” the voice asked.

  “I have a visual on them, Captain,” Olaf said, transferring his screen to the captain’s. “Black ship, no markings. It matches the signature of the raider in Germanicus.”

  “We need to get the hell out of here,” Silver said as he looked around. “Best vector I can give us is three-seven-three by seven-nine-one. It’ll take us to New Tasmania. I figure we can jump again from there, Captain.”

  “Olaf,” she began, but he was already working.

  “Course set.”

  “Maximum acceleration. How long will it take them to follow us?” she asked, wanting an answer but dreading it at the same time.

  “If they match what they showed us in Germanicus, we’ll make hyper just half an hour before they do,” Silver reported.

  “So long as we don’t get shot in the ass while we’re running,” Olaf muttered, but received no reply.

  The Jolly Jane ducked into hyperspace and sped toward New Tasmania. It was only a three day trip, and Captain Denise gave her orders as soon as they emerged. “Best course to Nova Norway, don’t wait for an order,” she snapped. The little vessel slewed sideways in space as her hyper drive clawed at the fabric of space and time.

  The raider burst out of hyper almost on top of them and went burning by at nearly twenty percent of the speed of light. “He’s in a hurry, isn’t he?” Olaf laughed as they dove back into hyperspace.

  “He saw us go, and our vector. He’ll follow again,” Silver said as he looked over his shoulder.

  “I know. Use your last fix and recalculate for the trip to Lung Chin. It should be very close to our current course.” Captain Denise smiled as she sat back in her chair.

  Silver turned around and started plotting the course. It was indeed very close to their course, only three degrees negative against the galactic disk. “Course is laid in, Captain. If it’s not too much to ask, what are you planning?”