Mantis immediately sounded several proximity alarms and issued warnings to pull up.
Ximon yanked the controls hard to the right and applied maximum thrust to get them pointed away from the moon and give them the necessary speed to pull away from it in time. They were all slammed into their seats by the sudden, violent, and shifting G forces.
“Mantis, where in the hell are we at?” Ximon yelled. “Shao, what else is out there?” Ximon drove the controls hard and was finally able to get the nose pointed away from the moon and the planet.
At that moment, they received a message, “UI vessel, UI vessel. This is Quruduo Control. State your business or you will be fired upon.”
“Quruduo Control, this is the KSS Mantis. We just jumped in to visit Qurusetia for a short vacation. Our jump appears to have been far off.”
“Clear out of this space lane and request approach. You almost killed yourself and our mining outpost.”
“Roger, pulling away. Will check systems and request proper approach.
Elsbeth came on the ship’s line, obviously angry. “What the hell, Ximon? Are you trying to kill us with that flailing around? And I’ve got warnings from the jump drive.”
Mantis said, “Captain, I have confirmed that this is the Qurusetia, but we are almost 0.3 AU from the intended point. It would appear that we have mis-jumped and have only narrowly missed collision with the planet’s second moon.”
Shao stared intently at her screens. “Ximon, there is a sizable colony or base on that moon and we about collided with some kind of mining outpost. This area of space has a considerable number of ships and shuttles in operation as we are near a primary approach lane.”
Ximon continued to put distance between them, the moon, and the planet. As he did so, he caught his breath. “Elsbeth, what you got back there?”
“As I said, you’ve done something to the jump drive again, but I ain’t going to get out of my seat to investigate further until you stop flying like a madman!”
“It’s all good now. Nothing but smooth sailing.”
“Great. Then, we’ll take a look, but warn us if you plan to hit any suns or anything.”
Ximon took a few deep breathes and then radioed, “Qurusetia Control, this is the KSS Mantis. Requesting approach to Quru City and landing pad for repairs and rest.”
They replied simply, “Standby.” Then after a pause, “Come to 137.9 by 165.”
“Roger.”
A few minutes later, they came back on, “Roger. You have been sent a vector to pad PYV in the Tretia Field. You can conduct repairs or get maintenance there. Standby for incoming from Quru Customs on 893.3.”
After getting coordinate, Ximon had a charming discussion with a bored and slow customs official as they approached. Ximon had to send images of their cargo hold, with closeups of all the containers. At the end they were told that an inspector would arrive at the landing pad within an hour after they landed. They were to be present and cooperate.
All this reminded Ximon why he wasn’t always too anxious to land on every planet they came past—with civilization came bureaucrats and taxes.
Ximon set Mantis down in some relief and joined Raiza in the galley to get a snack while waiting. He almost immediately got an indicator on his tablet that Elsbeth was opening engine housings and the cargo bay.
Raiza asked, “Ximon, should I, or we, go attempt to assist Elsbeth?”
“No, she’ll be spitting mad until she figures out what it is, and we’d likely be in the way. She’ll request our help when she’s ready to accept it.”
He got a message from Customs giving an ETA of fifteen minutes for the inspector. He informed Elsbeth and Peter that he’d need Peter in the cargo bay before heading down there himself. As he was leaving the galley, he asked Raiza, “Dear, could you put together a few snacks and drinks and bring them to the cargo bay. A happy inspector is a slightly less troublesome inspector.”
As Ximon waited for the inspector, he got a message from the Office of the Tretia Field Coordinator, reading, “Welcome Mantis. We understand you need repairs. Please, let us know if you need assistance or parts.”
Ximon scanned his screens and then replied. “Thank you, Coordinator. We are still assessing but will let you know if we do. Thanks again.”
Ximon stepped outside to wait. The heat hit him first, hot dry air that nearly scorched the skin. It reminded him of an ancient joke told amongst scouts sent to hot, desolate places. One scout would say, “Man, it’s hot!” to which the other would reply, “Yeah, but it’s a dry heat.” To this, the first would reply, “Yeah, like an oven.”
Mantis was in an area of dispersed landing pads, about a third of which held some kind of ship or shuttle, some of them well-nigh ancient. This area was drab tan and brown. However, there were some small, green mountains to the west and what he took to be the center of the city to the south, fairly green and with some rather tall buildings. A large body of water glistened off to the southeast. Only a few scattered buildings stretched out to the north.
Great, Ximon thought. They’ve put us at about the farthest point from anything. I feel so welcome.
The inspectors pulled up in a ground car about ten minutes late. A thin man and a heavyset woman in drab grey uniforms got out. The man carried a small computer and had two cameras on straps around his neck. The woman held a radio, and both had some kind of small club on their belts.
Ximon greeted them warmly and escorted them up the ramp to the cargo bay. Peter and Raiza were both waiting there. Raiza smiled her dazzling smile, welcomed them and offered them a drink and small sandwiches.
The woman, whose name tag read ‘Gresha’ said, “Don’t mind if I do.” She took a small plate, a couple sandwiches, and a drink. The man likewise grabbed a few sandwiches.
They ate in relatives silence, but the woman said to the man, “Ted, now this is nice. Ain’t often you see proper respect for the law. That’s what I’m always sayin’ people don’t have proper respect for the law. I’m real glad you folks do.” They wolfed down the rest of their sandwiches and then the woman said to Ximon, “Now, why don’t you tell us what you’ve got here, Captain.”
“Certainly.” He pointed to a large row of crates and the sensors systems they had recovered. “This over here is property of the Kremniy Republic. The large items were recovered from an outpost in the Darcy system that had to be evacuated. The rest are gifts and research items from the Onzarhat system to the Republic. We are returning it all to the KSF station on Xalanan.”
She pursed her lips and looked a bit skeptical. “Property of the Republic, you say. We’re a long way from the Republic.”
“Yes, ma’am. It’s been a long road.” He showed her their activation orders for Onzarhat and numerous other messages to make it look as official as possible. It was an attempt to ‘baffle them with BS’ and it seemed to work. They appeared to accept the Republic property as somewhat separate.
He then quickly pointed to the other crates. “And over here we have items that belong to the ship. These items are trade goods. We may trade some of them here on Qurusetia if that’s possible. If not, we will take them off the planet with us.”
Gresha considered this and the crates around the bay. “Trade goods, eh? Ted, take a picture of all that Republic stuff, camera one.”
He complied while Gresha had Ximon and Peter open all the crates in the trade goods area.
Ted joined them and photographed the contents of each, once on each camera. He also took some notes on the computer as Gresha instructed.
She was quite interested in everything, especially the gold, gems, and alcohol. She made quite a few remarks about how interesting all the items were as they went down the line.
The whole process took about forty-five minutes. When they were done, Ted and Gresha conferred around Ted’s computer screen and spoke in whispers. Ted made some adjustments as they did so.
Gresha turned to Ximon and smiled. “Now, Captain, would you like to use
the standard, long-form process or the expedited process?”
Ximon looked honestly confused. “I’m afraid I’m not familiar with the alternatives. We didn’t note that in the literature.”
Gresha put on a kindly, explanatory face, like a kindly teacher. “Oh, it’s quite new. I’ll check on getting that updated. Anyway, come look at this.”
Ted had his laptop sitting on a large crate and Gresha motioned Ximon to review with them.
She continued, “Now under the standard process, this form, along with the pictures from camera one, is what will be submitted to the assessors. They’ll take a few days to do their figuring and then they’ll send you a bill. There’s a lot of variables, but the taxes can be pretty steep, especially on luxury items like some of what you got here. See?”
She had Ted push a button on the computer to change screens. “Now under the expedited process, here’s what we do. We submit this form, with the pictures from camera two, to the most efficient assessor in the office. They’ll figure and send you a ‘more appropriate’ bill. The unique thing is that we take a sample of most of the items for focused testing. It expedites the whole process and probably saves you some money.”
Ximon looked at the form and noted that every weight and every estimated count was much lower. The form also made no mention of the Republic items.
Gresha pointed at a few fields on the screen. “Also, under the expedited process, we don’t have to include your Republic stuff here. No telling what the assessors would make of that in the long process nor how long it would take.”
Ximon clearly understood that the expedited process was basically a bribe to underreport, certainly something he’d seen before.
Ximon looked completely innocent. “How much of a sample are we talking about?”
“Well, as you might understand that varies with the commodity.” Gresha said, “Some take more testing than others. It’s rarely much.”
“Naturally. I think we’ll go with the expedited process. I don’t want to consume any more of your valuable time or that of your assessors than necessary.”
Gresha turned to Ted again and nodded. “See, what was I saying? Proper respect for the law. Ted, ensure camera one is clean and put all that in the car.”
She smiled and took another sandwich.
Ted quickly returned with two sizable shopping bags.
Gresha motioned toward the nearby crates. “Now, we’ll just get those samples and get out of your way.”
They walked down the row of crates and again looked in each one. The took at least a bit out of each one. They each took a handful of gold and a handful of gems. When they came to the alcohol, they took several bottles of that, leaving Mantis with relatively little.
Gresha said, “Well, thank you folks. We appreciate your cooperation in aiding Qurusetia Customs. We’ll get your forms all expedited and you should receive a bill from the assessors tomorrow. Now, you folks have a good day.”
With that she grabbed another sandwich, smiled, and led Ted away.
When they were gone, Peter said, “Is that a typical customs process? That was not how I understood it from my logistics training.”
Ximon patted him on the shoulder. “That’s not the legal process, Peter, but it’s certainly not uncommon. Those inspectors just took a sizable bribe to under report what we have to the assessors. I’ve seen a lot of variants to this over the years.”
Raiza said, “But, Ximon. Isn’t that a violation of local law?”
“Yes, it is. But it became clear that if we didn’t go the ‘expedited’ route, they were going to report things such that it took days, we’d probably have to argue with the assessors about the Republic stuff and we might wind up owing a lot more money. If they build in this kind of graft into their process, it’s often best to use it.”
“But is it not true that some cities or states conduct ‘sting’ operations where they intentionally see if people will break the law, then arrest them?” Peter asked.
“Yes, some do, and it is important to be careful of that. However, I was quite confident that these two were truly trying to get money. Additionally, Mantis, and you, have recorded the entire encounter. If I was arrested, a court looking at those videos could see that I didn’t offer them anything—they took stuff. Also, I could argue that I was simply foolish and thought their proposal a legitimate transaction. It might work or it might not, but unless their system is totally corrupt, they’d have to worry about it.”
Ximon poked his head in Engineering to see how Elsbeth was doing. She was covered in quite a bit of grime and not really happy, but she didn’t immediately bite his head off.
“So, how does it look?”
“Well, it’s not as bad as it could be,” Elsbeth said. “It doesn’t look like we’ve destroyed any jump coils. But we’ve got things gunked up by using too much unrefined fuel from skimming everything we come near.”
“Aren’t the filters and such supposed to take care of that?”
“In theory, but there’s a limit and we’ve been doing a lot lately. Also, as we’ve seen before, these jump coils are somewhat sensitive. So, they got an irregular flow due to gunk in the fuel system and one or more of them ‘hiccupped.’ We’re just lucky we didn’t misjump into the planet, sun, or whatever. We’re going to have to be more careful. More than anything else, that means more work for me.”
Ximon nodded. “I see. What’s the fix?”
“Well, the best fix would be for us to not use unrefined fuel all day, every day. Barring that seeming improbability, we’re going to have to stock more filters and Peter and I are going to have to change them more frequently. Additionally, as of right now, Peter and I are going to have to pretty much take apart and clean the whole fuel system.”
“How can the rest of us help?”
“While I would enjoy seeing you covered in fuel and fluids at the moment, I’m not sure y’all would help.” She paused. “Actually, y’all could help. When we take this all apart, y’all could clean components, then we’ll put them back in. That might help.”
“Well, what’s the overall plan of attack?”
“I was actually just going to ask you the plan. I’d like to propose that we sit this aside for right now, I get cleaned up, and we head into the city. Then we could tackle this, say, day after tomorrow. Peter would also like to spend the better part of a day reorganizing the whole cargo bay.”
Knowing what her answer would be, Ximon asked, “Are you sure you don’t want to just have this Field Coordinator send some guys over to repair it?”
Elsbeth showed her derision with a sneer. “Fat lot of help that’d be. I’d have to babysit so they didn’t blow up the ship in the process and then I’d probably have to redo a bunch of their work. Not a lot of help. If we had a respected shipyard, it might be worth taking it in, but I don’t think you’d like the bill.”
“Okay, well, I offered. Let’s do that and spend the night in town. We also need to check on transportation to and from town, whether we need local money, etc.”
“You might also see if there’s someplace nicer” Elsbeth said, “and within twenty kilometers of the city, that we could move Mantis to.”
“Yep, I was planning to do that.”
Ximon told the crew and they were all glad to have a little break. He then checked on transportation. They had no robocabs in Qurusetia and cabs would be unreliable and outrageously expensive on the outskirts of town. However, there was a tram stop just over one kilometer away.
They all got ready, sealed Mantis up tight, and headed to town. Everyone looked fairly nice. No one particularly appreciated the walk to the tram in the heat. They were literally at the ‘end of the line’ for the tram—the very last stop on the line.
The actual city was quite nice, much greener, and more populated than where they had been sent. They had a nice dinner and Ximon arranged rooms in a nice hotel. Then Ximon and Raiza went shopping while Elsbeth, Peter, and Shao went to one or more bars.
Ximon and Raiza took the tram back, got Mantis, and landed at the new place. Ximon told the crew and they were glad it was easier to get back to the clubs.
However, Ximon set a strict 1000 start time for the work the next day. Ximon was pleased to see they all made it, though Elsbeth and Shao both looked haggard and tired.
The work did consume the better part of the day, got them all filthy and required Ximon or Shao to make several trips to get parts and supplies. However, it seemed to go well and Elsbeth felt everything would be okay. The next day she was going to tune the jump coils to ensure that everything was fine.
Peter’s reorganization of the cargo bay was also a joint effort and went well. They still had a lot of stuff, but they could find things again. They were better prepared if they encountered more inspectors too, and they could use the fuel bladders when they needed to on their way home.
After all the work, Ximon gave everyone a few solid days off, which everyone enjoyed.
He and Raiza managed to exchange some of the trade goods for some supplies they needed and enough money to pay the assessor bill when it came. They also carefully traded some of the gold and gems and got what Mantis said was a reasonable price.
Ximon even splurged on a supply of nice, clean, fully refined fuel for their first jump.
When all was ready, they took off and Ximon headed for a very safe jump distance. Since this was being their first use of the new drive core, he was not inclined to take chances. Once they got there, he almost hesitantly initiated the jump to the system 754-390 in the Aluderus Sector. All indications were that the jump went well.
The jump entailed more relaxation and more work on all their projects. Elsbeth and Mantis figured out how to access more data and Mantis and Euclidia had made considerable progress on the written language. Elsbeth and Peter continued their experiments on the alien escape pod. Raiza tried different kind of analyses on the samples she had taken from all the aliens.
Far Mantis Page 17
