“Let me know when you’re aboard,” I said.
“Copy,” Roby replied and closed the comm.
“I feel like we’re over our heads with these Pogona,” Marny said. “Jala is more of a player than she’s let on. There’s no way she didn’t know that Tulvar was stationed at Fan Zuri. It took preparation to have those breathing masks ready. I searched the replication logs, she manufactured them the day after she came aboard.”
“Do you think she’s trying to hurt us?”
“That’s the problem, Cap. I have no idea. Why is she on our ship? How did you hear she was willing to accompany us to Tanwar?”
“Who initiated the conversation, you mean?” I asked.
“Right.”
“I remember telling Hog we were looking for someone who knew Nijjar space,” I said. “I assumed he reached out to Koosha, since I received a message from Ameek shortly after that.”
“Did you follow up with Hog?”
I shook my head. “How would Koosha and Jala have known about our trip otherwise?”
“Not sure. Maybe I’m just being paranoid,” Marny said. “We need to be careful.”
I wasn’t sure what to do with Marny’s concern and allowed myself to be dragged back into the mundane tasks of readying Intrepid for the next and final leg of our trip. I’d spoken briefly with Tutt. The final leg through the Tanwar gate and on to the orbital platform of Mannat would be the least dangerous of our trip. Both endpoints of the wormhole were patrolled and tribal conflicts were highly discouraged.
“Can you believe this?” I asked, looking at the report Tutt had posted to the escort service feed. “Frakking Tutt is hanging the destruction of Singh and deaths of Captain Boparai and his son on us.”
“Asshat,” Tabby said, not paying a lot of attention.
“Seriously, if he’d paid attention to what I told him, we had a chance.”
“Can’t you respond?” Tabby asked.
“And say what?”
Tabby shrugged. “Tag it with a data-stream of Tutt refusing to follow your direction and what he said about Boparai not being part of the convoy and how we should leave him behind.”
“Cap, there’s no arguing with people like this. If you wrestle with a pig, you both end up muddy and only the pig is happy," Marny said. “Take the high road and respond with how the convoy had broken apart due to mechanical failure during combat and that you regret we were unable to save Singh before it fell prey to an aggressive attack.”
Tabby sighed. “At least mention we took out the ships that attacked.”
The last leg of our trip through the Tanwar system was every bit as uneventful as Tutt had predicted. Just out of the gate, there’d been tension when we’d picked up a Nijjar patrol’s attention and been followed. The ships were reminiscent of Mars Protectorate, gleaming white and bristling with radio antennae and weaponry. Fortunately, they decided we weren’t interesting and after three tense hours, returned to their duties.
When we were finally on approach to planet Kushala, I'd reached the limit of my patience in hearing nothing from Anino and reached out, using the quantum crystal he provided. "Anino, this is Intrepid. Over,"
I waited a few minutes as was customary, and called a second time. Before I could call a third time, Anino responded. "Go ahead, Hoffen."
"We're on approach to Tanwar. I need a sit-rep," I said. "Tell me you're holding back information about Jonathan."
"There's been no word from Jonathan or Munay. I fear the worst." His voice was tired. "Admiral Sterra called off the other ships. It's a stupid move, but things are chaotic in-system here. She's worried that it's bad optics to be focused on problems in another galaxy."
"What do you mean, chaotic?"
"Earth's governments are failing. The Kroerak planted eggs everywhere and we’re having trouble with Kroerak spawn. It's a mess."
"What about the selich root? That should keep the spawn away," I said.
"There are too many factions; they're causing trouble with distribution and there’s a rumor about selich resistance. Look, is this what you want to talk about?" Anino asked, growing impatient.
"I'm transmitting a still image of the Kroerak vessel," I said. "It appears the picture was recorded in the Adit Pah system. Jester Ripples is trying to pin down an exact location and date."
"Give me the entire file," Anino said, perking up. "I don't care if it takes ten hours to transmit. And Hoffen …"
"Yeah?" I asked.
"You have to find Jonathan," he said. "If reports of selich resistance in some of the bugs here are real, Earth may still be lost. If Earth falls, it’s just a matter of time for the rest of the worlds they’ve infected. They have to be stopped."
“Roby and Jester Ripples request permission to enter the bridge,” Ada said.
“Granted,” I replied mechanically, still reeling from Anino’s dire warning.
Predictably, activity on the bridge intensified as we’d passed to within half a million kilometers of Kushala, the capital planet of Nijjar government. With a population exceeding thirty billion, Kushala was nearly as dense as Earth had been before the Kroerak attack and five times more populated than the much smaller Mars. Even at long distance, the number of ships in the area grew more quickly than I expected, until I realized that Tutt had us lined up to pass within fifty thousand kilometers of Kushala’s only moon.
“All hands. We’ll need everyone at general stations,” I announced and turned over the helm to Ada.
“Incoming hail, Aantal Tutt,” Ada announced a few minutes later as I gazed out at ships of every possible shape and size buzzing around the heavily populated moon.
“Hoffen,” I snapped. I’d run out of the capacity to be anything beyond civil.
Tutt’s face appeared on the screen where, uncharacteristically, he was smiling. “No need to be so glum, Captain Hoffen. I’d say for your first trip through the Dark Corridor, you performed admirably. Our losses were low and our profits will be high. It’s a good day to be alive.”
I studied the Pogona’s face, just to make sure I was actually talking with the same annoying grub I’d been forced to live with for the last forty days.
“I see you were willing to blame Intrepid for the loss of Singh and Captain Boparai,” I said.
“You should not dwell on your failures, Captain,” Tutt said. “Boparai knew the risks of traveling in dangerous territory with a ship that was poorly maintained. It was unfortunate, if not predictable. I’m transferring the final credits now, although I wondered if perhaps you would take a ten percent reduction. With this consideration, I imagine I could modify my report if you find it so distressing.”
I gestured so the conversation was private and routed through my earwig. “Tutt, that’s a new low. You’re negotiating on how you’ll report on our reputation? How can traders trust what’s said if you’re willing to manipulate it?”
“Every good trader knows how to read between the lines, Captain. I’m surprised you don’t know this.”
“Seems like if everyone can read between the lines, I probably don’t need your help,” I said.
“Come now, you know as well as I do you’ll lose possible contracts if you have a poor rating. Five thousand credits. It’s as low as I’ll go.”
“Don’t you dare,” Tabby said, looking over her shoulder. She couldn’t hear Tutt’s side of the conversation, but must have read my body language as I considered what he was saying.
“Seems that our aggressive counter-attack cost the convoy at least three hours,” I said. “I’d be willing to forgo twenty-five hundred credits to put aside any hard feelings.”
Tutt smiled more broadly and nodded his head. I hated giving in to the man, but he was right. Reputation was critical at this point and rolling around in the slop with him wasn’t going to do us any good.
“Thirty-five hundred and I believe we will have reached an understanding.”
“Three thousand,” I said.
“Done.”
>
My AI chimed. An updated contract had been transmitted, along with a copy of a new posting to the services portal showing a glowing review. Without giving myself further time to wallow, I signed the contract, sending it back.
“A pleasure working with you, Captain Hoffen. If you’ll be in the area for a few days, I’ll be putting together a return trip. I’d love to have you along.”
“Safe travels, Tutt.” I closed comms.
“You gave him three thousand,” Tabby said. “What kind of shite is that?”
“I can live with it,” I said. “Ada, do you want to find us a slip?”
“How long are we staying?”
“No idea,” I said. “Let’s get refueled and take a thirty-six-hour leave. Warn people not to be out of comm range or more than thirty minutes away. I want to be able to take off if we get word on that Kroerak ship.”
She turned to begin handling my orders.
“Marny, can you get Jala and Arijeet fully checked out? Jala informed me this is terminus for the two of them.”
“What happened to going back to Zuri and her husband, Cap?”
“After we visited Thuga on Pooni, she indicated they would be staying on planet Kushala. She seemed happy about it.”
For a few minutes after passing the moon, traffic seemed to abate and the bustle of ships slowed. As we approached one of three public space stations orbiting Mannat, however, the pace and volume of the ships increased dramatically, reminding me of my first visit to Puskar Stellar.
“You good, Ada?” I asked, standing.
“We’re a hundred twenty meters long and as narrow as a teenage boy,” Ada said. “This is nothing compared to pushing a barge over Mars.”
“Teenage boy?” Tabby asked, tilting her head and raising an eyebrow. “Why Ms. Chen, what bilge water has entered your mouth? How long has it been?”
“Stop it, you fiend,” Ada said. “It’s not like there are lovely men at every station in these parts.”
“I hear Pogona men are quite compatible,” Tabby said.
I shook my head and worked my way to the bridge door, opening it and stepping through.
“How would you even know that?” Ada asked, adopting a scandalized tone.
Tabby grabbed my elbow to propel me off the bridge and turned back with a grin. “I’ll send you the lowdown.”
“Is that a real thing?” I asked as we turned the corner to the wardroom where we found Arijeet and Jala standing next to the bags they’d brought along. “Ready to go?” I was more than willing to change the subject.
“We are, Captain Liam,” Jala said.
“Marny get you checked out?” Tabby asked. My AI brought up a display in response to her question. Marny had indeed signed off on their bags and departure.
“She was very efficient,” Jala answered. “Will we utilize station services to visit Mannat?” My best translation of her question was whether we would utilize the shuttle services between the surface and the station we’d docked at.
“What’s your recommendation?” I asked. “I had thought to take George.”
“This is a reasonable course of action,” she said. “I hate to ask such a question, but do you have clothing that is not skin tight? You will draw attention to yourselves on the surface in those suits.”
Tabby and I exchanged a look. We’d picked up festive clothing a while back on one of the cloud cities, Nuage Gros. The clothing was colorful and loose fitting. It was a simple matter to grab the bag that held our civvies (as we called them) and bring them along.
“Good call,” I said. “Intrepid will be docked shortly; we should get going.”
The four of us walked aft and down the ramp that led into the secondary cargo hold. A few minutes later I felt Intrepid’s magnetic mooring lines deploy. The sound was subtle, but if you were expecting it, identifiable.
“That’s our cue,” Tabby said, nodding to the hatch in the hold’s deck.
With reduced gravity, it was an easy transition from Intrepid into George. Arijeet stumbled in the changing gravity and had to rely on Jala to keep him steady. I wasn’t particularly surprised to find she was comfortable outside of a ship.
“Someone’s been cleaning up in here,” Tabby said as we worked our way through the airlocks. She was right, not only was the trash gone, it looked like one of Intrepid’s cleaning bots had been set loose and gotten several layers of grime removed.
George was a twenty-meter long cutter, making it smaller than our first, Sterra’s Gift. It was capable of hauling a hundred fifty cubic meters of cargo and after a trip to the chandler, could sleep four comfortably - more if hot-bunking. Perhaps the biggest limitation was the ship’s lack of strong inertial systems. I’d been at Intrepid’s helm when we chased down Fred and I couldn’t imagine what the pirates had suffered while trying to evade us. George’s single, forward-facing turret mounted above the ship had significant freedom of movement, but virtually no visibility beneath. These ships had not been designed to be sailed alone, at least anywhere hostilities might be likely.
“Liam,” Ada broke through my thoughts.
Tabby and I were working through a pre-sail checklist that Roby had built and Ada had approved.
“Go ahead, Ada,” I said.
“Intrepid is at rest. You are clear for separation,” she said. “Stay out of trouble, okay?”
“We’ll do our best,” I said. “Can you pull the clamps?”
There’s always tension between two objects that are joined artificially in zero-g. Without friction to hold against the force caused by these objects, they drift apart almost immediately when freed. I watched through George’s cockpit as Intrepid appeared to fall away from us.
At twenty meters, the traffic was quite a bit easier to consider. I’d spent most of my youth dodging asteroids and making as much trouble as possible with mining sleds. I lit George’s engines, shoved the throttle stick forward and gently rolled away from the station toward Kushala.
“We’re receiving a turret lockdown request from Mannat,” Tabby said, accepting the lockdown.
“Copy.”
“Jala, any recommendations on how to get to Koosha Central?”
“You should not make such characterizations once we arrive,” Jala said, stiffening. “Pogona find centralized government to be offensive.”
“Wouldn’t that make Nijjar offensive?”
“Nijjar is necessary so that we have bargaining power with other species,” Jala said. “It has no capacity to rule tribes. Nijjar itself is a collection of tribal leaders who agree, principally, on how to interact with others.”
“My mistake,” I said, not particularly interested in getting into why I felt her argument basically defined centralized government. “Do you have a preferred navigation path and do we need to let anyone know we’re coming?”
Jala flicked a route to me and I plugged it in. The Koosha tribal region was roughly a hundred thousand square kilometers of mountainous, desert terrain. A small sliver of the territory joined with the massive city, Mannat.
“I would see to the task of announcing our arrival, if this is acceptable,” Jala said.
“I think that’s best.”
As expected, George complained raucously upon entry into Kushala’s atmosphere. Fortunately, the shaking and bouncing stopped after a few minutes and I leveled out our flight, synchronizing with Jala’s navigation plan.
It was hard to miss the city of Mannat, even though we had to land two hundred kilometers northeast of the main population. It was a modern city and packed with millions of people. Skyscrapers reached high into the city and small craft buzzed like swarms of angry insects as they moved from one location to the next.
“What are those?” Tabby asked as two atmospheric vessels approached. We’d just crossed into Koosha territory when they appeared on our sensors. “Get a load of that.” She hadn’t paused to hear an explanation and instead zoomed in on one of the two.
The vessels that approached were open-air
, with minimal air-foils and a single, medium-sized turret mounted on its top deck. A smoking power plant sat dead center on the twelve by four-meter rectangular deck. Waist-high wooden sides with gunnels along the top looked to be the only safety for crew and I shuddered to think what would happen if the ship canted to the side. A crew complement of six hardy sailors all manned different stations.
“We’re being hailed, Liam,” Tabby said.
“Go ahead,” I answered.
“You have entered Koosha tribal district.” The voice belonged to a young male. “Turn back or you will be fired upon.”
“Would you allow me?” Jala asked.
I looked to Tabby who shrugged. “Sure, all yours.”
“Glider rats, you will escort this great ship George to the tents of Anghad of Koosha. Our great one knows of my arrival and will place your chests beneath the skeg and drive your drift boards into the cliffs if you do not.”
“You should not speak this way,” the young male voice replied. Even I could tell he’d lost most of his bluster. “Who is it that would speak for Anghad of Koosha?”
“It is I, Jala, fourth daughter of Anghad, who brings glory and riches to Koosha today.”
Chapter 25
Efreet
“Thuga warned that my fourth daughter, who was given to Liam Hoffen by Ameek of Koosha, traveled to me with an angry warrior princess,” Anghad said. “Am I to believe this wisp cowed the mighty Thuga?”
The Koosha settlement was like nothing I’d previously experienced. Thousands of wide cloth tents sat beneath bright blue skies that spread across the red sands of a valley resting between two mountains. We were at an elevation several thousand meters above Kushala’s seas and the crisp air smelled faintly of pines that grew defiantly in the harsh environment.
The three of us had been escorted from a rocky landing pad by a group of ten beige-robed male Pogona. We’d left Arijeet aboard George, not sure what we were getting into. The leader of the group had not greeted us as much as he’d placed an ornately inscribed, curved sword over his heart, bowed and then turned, walking away from the ship. On Jala’s urging, we followed, only to be flanked on both sides by his similarly armed men.
Corsair Menace (Privateer Tales Book 12) Page 30
