"Is this truly feasible, Merik?"
"Time will tell..."
IRRESISTIBLE OFFER
Radium Sea, Planet Curie, Tipperary Star System
The cylindrical submersible docked aft-first onto the armored side of the domed structure. The subtle whirring of motors was the only noise we heard as a heavy door slid out of view, exposing the pressure barrier to the interior of the station.
Anino and the rest of my crew awaited Marny and my return in a well-lit and otherwise empty room. One look at Tabby's face and I knew she was as angry as I was.
"That was some kick-ass teamwork out there!" Anino said as we passed through the pressure barrier.
I took three quick strides through the barrier, picked the teenager up by his suit and pushed him against the wall. A blaster charging behind me was followed by the sound of two more revving up.
"You risked my entire crew out there. Explain to me why I shouldn't knock your teeth into the back of your neck?"
"Mr. Hoffen, I beg of you! Place Master Anino on the floor and step back, or I'll be forced to respond," Jonathan said from behind me.
"You so much as move a muscle, Jonathan, and I'll drop you where you stand," Tabby growled. Her blaster was in my peripheral vision and leveled at Jonathan.
"Oh frak me, a Mexican standoff. Could this day get any better?" Anino squeaked. "Jonathan, put down your weapon. I'm at no risk here. Hoffen is making a point. He's establishing a pecking order."
"Master Anino, I believe he intends to do you harm," Jonathan said.
"What kind of sick shit are you?" I asked, letting Anino slide to the floor.
"Well, now we're getting somewhere," Anino said, standing back up and brushing non-existent dust from his knees. The teenager was a head shorter than me.
"We're out of here, Anino. We don't need whatever work you have for us. I need to trust my business partners," I said. "Jonathan, you promised to return us to the surface if I requested. Are you as good as your word?"
"I am, Captain Hoffen," he replied.
"Wait. Don't you want to hear what the big deal is?" Anino asked.
"No, you sick little bastard. No job is worth dying for," I said.
"Well, that's the rub, really, isn't it?" Anino asked.
It was such a strange thing to say I couldn't help myself but to ask, "What are you talking about?"
"You said no job is worth dying for and yet it always comes down to that for you and your crew," he said.
"I don't know what you're on about, but we're out of here. Nick, do you know where the suits are that we came in?"
"Down the hall, Liam. We're not far from the main room," he said.
"Lead on," I said.
Anino smiled and shrugged his shoulders, apparently content to follow us into the main room.
Lower armor plating. Dim interior lighting.
We all stopped moving for a moment as the metallic dome retracted into the floor. Beneath the metal was a thick layer of armor-glass. When fully retracted, the entire twenty meter tall structure was completely translucent down to the last two meters where it appeared we were embedded into the floor of the sea. The interior lights had dimmed and glowing strips along the floors and walls provided a small amount of light.
Outside, the feeding frenzy had dissipated, although a number of larger fish were lazily gliding around, looking for scraps that might have been missed in the milieu. It was hard not to be mesmerized by the huge variety of sea life the light of the dome illuminated.
"How far down are we?" Ada asked.
"Ninety-two meters," Anino said, his quiet voice easy to hear in the silence that had settled over us.
"Why weren't we crushed by the water when we exited the dome?" Marny asked.
"The suits can handle a lot more than that. To be honest, I'm not sure a Sephelodon could crush the armor, so you probably weren't in any real danger," he said.
"Drop it, Anino. We're not buying what you're selling," Tabby spat. She wasn't giving in so easily.
"Tell me, Hoffen. Why did you risk your entire crew for the crew of Cape of Good Hope?"
It was a sore subject, which shouldn't have surprised me. I was growing to like this Anino kid less with every moment I was around him. We'd watched an entire shipload of people fall out of the TransLoc fold-space wave and be lost in the deep dark of space. To be honest, being torn apart by the forces of fold-space was the best case scenario. The worst case would be that the Cape of Good Hope had remained intact and been dropped into the deep dark of space somewhere. The people onboard would have starved to death, too far from any planet or civilization where they could re-fuel, repair or restock.
"Don't listen to him, Cap. He's messing with your head," Marny said.
"What? It's a fair question. I did pay you fifty-thousand credits, just so we could talk," he said.
"You're an ass," Ada said. Her response was surprising, as she typically didn't have a bad thing to say about anyone. "Having money doesn't give you the right to mess with people's lives."
"Come on, Hoffen. I'll drop it if you answer," he said.
"Fine. It's something you wouldn't understand, Anino. It was a matter of honor. Moderate risk to the lives of my crew versus certain death for Cape of Good Hope's crew. The only thing I regret is not starting earlier. If I had, we might have been successful," I said.
I peeled the grav-suit off, hung it on a hook and started pulling on my vac-suit.
"You had to know there was a possibility of someone getting hurt when you took on those pirates back at Colony-40," Anino said, looking at my prosthetic foot.
"This?" I asked, waving my hand across my foot. "Good trade, I'd say. Those pirates would have just kept killing my friends and family if we hadn't done something."
"How do you know so much about us?" Tabby asked.
"Information is easy to come by, Masters. You know what's hard to find?"
"Rich assholes who like to frak with people?" she fired back.
"No, those are a dime-a-dozen," he agreed.
Tabby growled. "I know, I just wanted to call you an asshole again."
Anino chuckled. "Point Masters," he said under his breath.
"What'd you say?" Tabby asked. Both Nick and I stopped what we were doing and looked at him. Anino had used a phrase that was unique to our small group.
"You heard me. And, you're right. I'm a rich asshole who's been snooping on you," he said.
"What's hard to find, Anino?" Nick cut to the chase.
"A crew with honor," he said.
"Too bad this crew isn't available." Tabby hissed, walking from behind the visual screen of the locker room. She dropped her grav-suit on the ground, communicating as much disdain as possible with that single gesture.
"So you've said. But what if I said I could retrieve Cape of Good Hope?"
"They're long dead. We saw them break up and fall out of fold-space," Nick said.
"You sure that's what you remember?" he asked.
"Their starboard engine was sheared off by contacting the edge of the fold-space bubble." I still replayed the sequence in my mind's eye in quiet moments.
"Haven't you wondered why LeGrande turned out of the wave and accelerated?"
"She didn't want the debris of her ship to cause any more casualties," I said.
"Want to ask her yourself?" he asked.
"Are you nuts?"
"Probably."
"Show us," Nick said.
"You can't be taking this jerk seriously," Tabby said.
I'd finished pulling on my suit and turned to look her in the eyes. "I have to see for myself," I said.
She gave me the grim smile I'd come to understand as grudging acceptance and nodded.
The five of us followed Anino to his work area.
"Pardon the mess. I'm working on many different projects."
Indeed what looked like complete chaos from across the room actually had some organization to it.
"I can't turn up the lights with
the dome unshielded. It freaks out my neighbors and they'll hurt themselves," he said as he pulled a crystal about the size of the end of my thumb from a delicate three-point cradle mounted in an array of a hundred similar crystals.
"Is that…," Nick sputtered. "How could you…"
"Perceptive questions, both. Yes. This is a quantum communication crystal. Its mate resides aboard Cape of Good Hope. As for how, when money is no object, things once thought impossible to acquire are not so difficult."
"You're saying you can raise Captain LeGrande with that crystal?" I asked, my heart hammering in my chest.
"Surely, you've had enough experience with these quantum crystals to know the answer to your own question," he said. "That's not the really interesting part of this conversation."
"Liam. He has a jump ship," Nick said. "This is a rescue mission."
"Jupiter and Mars!" Anino clapped his hands together, gently holding the crystal between his thumb and forefinger. "How I miss working with other brilliant minds. So, are you in?"
Tabby fidgeted next to me. She didn't trust Anino, but knew he was dangling the ultimate carrot.
"Why do you need us? Why wouldn't Belirand mount up and fetch them?" Marny asked.
"There's more in play here than you know. If they retrieve Captain LeGrande and crew, they'd have to admit they could have recovered every other past failed mission," he said.
"So they let LeGrande and crew die to push off liability for previous missions?" Nick asked. "That's crazy. Their liability is growing, in that case. Belirand could pay the crew off and make them sign confidentiality agreements."
"You're right," Anino agreed. "It's bigger than that. Belirand has lots of reasons not to retrieve that crew."
"That doesn't explain why you need us," Marny pushed. "You can hire crew all day long. All this talk about honor and team work - there's something else going on. What aren't you telling us?"
"Belirand," Ada said. "It's all the failed missions from the past. Public outcry would be outrageous."
"You're right and they'd do anything to keep that secret, Chen. And, I mean anything." Anino bowed his head and looked up again, right into my eyes.
"I don't understand. It was Belirand who put us in contact with you," I said.
"Apparently, you haven't spent much time around a bureaucratic organization," Anino said. "Left hand rarely knows what the right is doing. It's not like the people I bribe go bragging to their bosses about our arrangement," he said.
"You sure you want to get mixed up in this, Cap?" Marny asked.
"I don't know that I can walk away if there's any chance to save LeGrande and her crew," I said, slowly scanning the faces around me.
"What about our ships and cargo? Isn't the co-op depending on us?" Ada asked.
"You're right, we'd need to make a return trip with our load," I said.
"Seriously?" Anino asked.
"What'd you expect? We have people who depend on us. We can't just disappear on them. We've frak-tonnes of ore that need to be delivered to the Terminal Seven project. Perhaps you've forgotten what it's like to work for a living, but we haven't," I said.
"You're thinking too small, Hoffen. Hold on, let me see what I can do," he said and started punching on a virtual keyboard and swiping objects around on a virtual display only he could see.
"I've just purchased a segmented hauler, right here on Curie, for a million credits. I'll lease it to Loose Nuts for a hundred thousand credits annually. I can have it delivered to Descartes. Will that do?" he asked, flicking a contract at Nick.
"A million credits?" Nick asked. "No, that won't do. We've a line on a hauler, we just need to take a look at it."
"Fairy Tits! Think bigger, James. This thing'll haul more ore than your damn colony can mine in a year," he said.
"Cancel your deal. Apparently, you haven't spent a lot of time trying to make a mining operation work. A hauler that size burns too much fuel and we'd go broke. If you want to speed us along, lend me that million credits at five percent annually and I'll make the rest work," Nick said.
"Five percent? Are you nuts, nobody lends at that rate," Anino said.
"Today, you do," Nick said. In that moment, I felt a surge of pride.
It was almost surreal watching the teenage Anino stare Nick down in a battle of wills.
"Given your net worth and daily income, you've just spent more than a million credits arguing with me. Care to make it two?" Nick asked.
"Ugh, fine. Take the million credits, I don't care," Anino said, waving his hand in dismissal
"We don't mind working for it." Nick swiped an agreement from his HUD and tossed it at Anino.
Anino swished his hand across a virtual signature block and flicked it back.
"If you're all done hugging it out. I need to hear LeGrande's voice before I'm on board," Tabby said.
"Ever the skeptic, Masters. At least that's something I can understand," Anino said.
He dropped the crystal he'd been holding into a receiver on one of his many, cluttered work surfaces.
Hail Cape of Good Hope.
After a few minutes a woman's voice replied. "Anino, is that you?"
It was the voice that haunted my nightmares.
"It is, Katherine. I think I've found our crew," he said, his voice softer than it had been.
"You shouldn't take this risk, Phillippe. You'll be starting a war you can't hope to win," she said.
"Wouldn't be the first time. What's your sit-rep?"
"It's pretty dire. Our O2 scrubbers are fouled and operating at forty percent. We've had to start burning the O2 crystals. We still have food and the water reclaimers are still operational."
"How much time, Katherine?" Anino asked.
"Two weeks, comfortably. After that, we'll start making tougher decisions," she said.
"Captain LeGrande, Liam Hoffen here," I said.
"Captain Hoffen. Good to hear your voice. You shouldn't let Phillippe drag you into this," she said.
"Try to stop us," I said.
"Katherine, just hold on. Help's on the way," Anino said.
"Roger that, Phillippe, LeGrande out," she said and cut the comm.
"That do it for you, Masters?" Anino asked, looking at Tabby.
She brushed a tear from her eye, tried to look casual, and failed miserably. When she didn't answer I stepped in.
"What aren't you telling us?" I asked. "Something doesn't smell right."
"Belirand will do just about anything to keep secret the fact that they can jump relatively inexpensively to just about any location within a hundred million light years," he said.
"That's crazy. Why would they need to keep that secret?" I asked.
"I can't tell you, because once I do, there'll be a price on your head," he said. "You need to understand, if you join me to go after LeGrande and crew, your lives will be changed forever."
"That sounds a little grandiose," Ada said.
"But it's not. You should know that if you accept this mission, the life you've known so far will change. Belirand is a powerful enemy," he said.
"And LeGrande and forty-four of her crew's lives hang in the balance… so no pressure?" I said.
"Life isn't fair, Hoffen. Bad people have power because no one stands up to them," he replied. "I'm asking you to sacrifice for forty-five people you've never met."
"My crew needs time to talk in private," I said.
"I haven't even made you an offer… and we'll need Hotspur," he said.
I nodded and looked around the room. "If we do this, it won't be for money."
"Don't be stupid. Name your price, I'm loaded."
"Two thousand credits a day per person, replacement insurance on Hotspur, twenty-thousand a week for the ship, and consumables," Nick said. "If we accept, there'll be organizational requirements as well."
"Done," Anino said. "I'll give you time to talk it over, but Jonathan is going to have a heart attack if I don't get that katana back from Bertrand."
"The sword?" Marny asked.
"Yup. It's a priceless Japanese relic and you took it for a swim in salt water," he said.
"Oh crap. My bad," she said, pulling the narrow bladed sword from where she'd slung it over her back.
"Not at all. You needed a weapon and your instinct caused you to grab perhaps the finest weapon ever crafted by humans." He accepted the sword with an odd little bow. "We're so impressed with our technology that we ignore the craftsmanship and skill of those who came before us.
Anino continued. "As for a place to talk, use my meditation garden over there." He pointed to a small seating group against the armored glass.
"Great. Thanks." I grabbed Tabby's hand, leading her to an overstuffed chair looking out at the sea bed. In the darkness, bioluminescent life forms stood out in stark contrast to the murky background. A sense of peace pervaded the area and it was easy to see why Anino enjoyed the spot. The five of us sat quietly for a few minutes, watching the beauty of life at a hundred meters and considering the quandary he'd presented.
I finally broke the silence. "If anyone wants to back out, I won't feel bad. We still need to get our load back to the co-op and Nuage."
"Don't look at me, Liam. I'm in," Ada said. "I can't believe Belirand would just leave them to rot."
"I didn't want to speak for you, Ada. Belirand is a powerful enemy to make," I said.
"I don't trust Anino," Tabby said.
"Something is off about him," Marny said. "I can't put my finger on it. He doesn't act like any teenager I ever met."
"Money has a way of messing with people. Can you imagine having the entire Anino fortune at your fingertips?" Nick asked.
"I suppose that could be it," she said.
"How about it, Marny? You in?" I knew the answer, but she needed to say it out loud for both of us.
"I'd never be able to live with myself if I passed on this one," she said.
"Tabbs?"
"I can't say I'm not going to rip that little pecker's heart out, but I'm in," she said. "As if I'd let you go on your own."
"Nick?"
"You think you could bump up our visit with that retiring hauler captain? Maybe we could get him to make a final run and take Sterra's Gift back with him. Is he still bonded?" Nick asked.
A Matter of Honor (Privateer Tales Book 9) Page 6
