Spinward Fringe Broadcast 7: Framework

by Randolph Lalonde

  “Still, I don’t see anyone else tagging Ronin’s quotes,” Joyboy shot back.

  “High points for you, then,” Megan, said, clapping him on the shoulder.

  “Do you want to listen?” Stephanie offered, pointing to her ear. “She’s actually settling in and getting social.”

  “I’m good,” Minh answered. Listening to Ashley turn down several men, and who knew what else, as she lounged by the bar wasn’t his idea of fun. “I’m sure she’s safe in your hands.”

  “If I weren’t hearing it for myself I wouldn’t believe it,” Jake said. “She’s had two drinks and she’s scanned four comms. Three were unencrypted. It’s intimidating.”

  “Tell me about it,” Minh-Chu agreed.

  “I have an idea,” Jake said. “Why don’t we Minh you next time. What do you think, Steph?”

  Stephanie looked Minh-Chu up and down, joined by Agameg. “Yeah,” she said thoughtfully. “Put him in a casual vacsuit - maybe a spray on - and I could definitely see him pulling.”

  “That’s not funny,” Minh-Chu retorted, laughing nervously. “We wore spray-ons when we were in training. There’s nowhere to hide in one of those. I’d have to borrow that mini-dress so I could have a shred of modesty left.” The tables exploded at the notion.

  Thankfully, turning away barroom callers came to an end when Ashley started simply talking to different people around her. Most of the chummy patrons were men, but a few women were glad to share a few drinks and company. It was slower going, but she managed to download the contents of six more comm units.

  “So, Ronin,” said Joyboy. “I’ve looked at all the training briefs you put together about privateering. You ever do caravan busting?”

  “Caravan busting?” Minh asked. “Never heard of it.”

  “Some of it’s a lot like taking down-“

  “Showing superiority,” Minh corrected. “We’re not looking to destroy our targets.”

  “Right, but yeah, some of the tactics in your briefs are a lot like caravan busting. Something I got to do a few times for the Dens.”

  “That wasn’t in your records,” Minh replied with interest.

  “Well, I was just another hired hand for the Den family. Nothing exciting, just flew an old Arrest Mark Nine Patrol Fighter and played harasser.”

  “It’s still experience,” Minh said. Joyboy wasn’t the most socially graceful person he’d ever met, but he was a good pilot. It was too bad he would be reassigning him when they returned to Tamber. “Think you could put some info together about your caravan breaking days?”

  Joyboy seemed genuinely surprised, then smiled slowly. “Yeah, if you think it’ll help.”

  “It could. Just send it to me first. I’ll have to make sure what we use fits into our current strategies.”

  “Thanks,” Joyboy said. “Oh, and I was wondering about something, but I hope you don’t think I’m dense for asking.”

  “There are no stupid questions,” Minh replied, hoping Joyboy wouldn’t prove him wrong in front of tables full of crewmembers.

  “Well, I know materializers are expensive, but the Order of Eden just swallowed up Regent Galactic, and that’s a huge corp with tons of cash. They could afford to build as many materializers as they want.”

  “Yeah,” broke in Pisser. “Why ship all this stuff from their main worlds?”

  Minh-Chu thought for a moment and was about to answer when Agameg offered an explanation instead. “Quality, quantity, cost, and efficiency,” Agameg said. “When we were defending the Trition, a lot of us were using rifles that were assembled with parts from materializers. While they were nice and light, they weren’t as durable and they started falling apart after three or so hours of intensive use.”

  “Yup,” agreed one of the Warlord Marines. “The flash shielding and my muzzle were toast on my pulse rifle after the first day. We had to wrap the open chamber with torn up strips from vacsuits to stop them from interfering with the comms.”

  “Exactly,” Agameg said. “Some of the best food I’ve had comes from materializers too, but that eats up so much power and water that it’s less expensive and more efficient to grow or ship food in whenever you can.”

  “What about our medical materializers?” asked Joyboy, pointing to his bulky military grade arm unit.

  “They use water and recycled solid waste from your vacsuit with bulk matter in a small compartment, otherwise these things wouldn’t be able to fabricate much of anything,” said one of the marines behind him. “Read the bloody manual, it’s right there.”

  “Sorry, I’ve been busy learning about my Uriel starfighter,” Joyboy shot back. “Didn’t have much time to watch a series of docs about my C and C.”

  “Pilots,” commented a second marine, a woman with a shaved head.

  “Easy,” Minh-Chu warned quietly. “Same side.”

  “Next round’s on you Chavez,” Stephanie told her bald marine.

  “Yes, Ma’am,” Chavez acknowledged.

  “Right,” Agameg continued. “Does that answer your questions?”

  “I guess,” Joyboy answered. “To be honest, before I was on the Triton I think I’d seen one materializer in my entire life. Used to break down all the time, too.”

  “Yup.” Minh-Chu nodded. “Materializers do that a lot. Anything that turns energy or raw materials into something else is bound to.”

  “I hope we get a whole hold full on this trip, though,” Pisser said. “If I have to eat untextured forma again, I might go on a hunger strike. It’s like eating flavoured clay.”

  “I know-“ Joyboy started, but was interrupted by a commotion at the door. Tables and chairs were moved, several people stood so they could see outside and there were sporadic cheers.

  Guards in heavy blue and red armour bearing long rifles held across their chests marched in. Their helmets weren’t solid, but built in overlapping segments like the rest of their protective gear. Two slanted, dark red lenses made each guard look deadly serious. Among their ranks were a few workers in vacsuits pushing crates stacked on struggling hovercarts. At the rear swaggered a man with short cropped, light brown hair in a long blue and red coat with two more guards at each side. He wore the same hard-shelled, segmented armour under his coat only he carried his helmet in the crook of his arm. A Postal Service flag marked his shoulders, and his cuffs were marked with the gold bars of captain.

  Stephanie perked up in Frost’s lap. He nearly spilled his beer mid-journey to his mouth.

  “It’s Berkovitz!” she said.

  “I thought you knew we’d be meeting him here,” Jake said as he and the rest of the table took a better look.

  “I thought he’d send a messenger,” Stephanie said. “That sidearm’s new.”

  “So’s the shield belt,” Agameg added. “Good to see he’s taking precautions.”

  The column of guards and their line of fifteen one-metre cube crates stacked three high neared the bar. “Company halt!” barked Captain Berkovitz. “Delivery for Culus Disas!”

  A visi with erratically moving yellow and dark green colouring came out from the rear of the bar. The waiters and tenders stopped what they were doing and watched as their boss stopped to stand in front of Captain Berkovitz, who held up his hand in front of the man’s face. A beam from his palm scanned the receiver, then Captain Berkovitz nodded. “So delivered!” he announced.

  Culus Disas handed him two pocket sized, locked cases as his staff went to work opening the cases. Inside were branded boxes of spirits and delicacies that no one recognized. Captain Berkovitz handed the cases he’d been given by Culus to a guard, who nodded then led most of his comrades out of the establishment in a double column.

  Accompanied by four of his guards, Captain Berkovitz turned to the tables occupied by the Warlord crew and grinned in their direction. He made it halfway before Ashley rushed over and collided with him, squealing with delight. He made the rest of the way with her under his arm. “Look who I found,” he announced as he presented As
hley, who gave him a final squeeze before letting go.

  Minh watched as Stephanie gave him a hug, then Frost, Jake, and Agameg all took turns shaking his hand. “And this is Wing Commander Minh-Chu Buu, call sign Ronin,” Jake introduced. Minh stood and shook the newcomer’s hand.

  “Good to meet you,” Captain Berkovitz said. He looked over his shoulder to his four guards. “At ease. Have a drink and sit nearby. Stay away from the heavy narcos.”

  They removed their helmets and started for the bar.

  A chair was dragged over for the newcomer along with an extra table for his guards. Captain Berkovitz took a seat.

  Instead of finding a seat for herself, Ashley dropped into Minh’s lap, much to his surprise. She opened his bomber jacket and slipped her arm around his back. “Okay if I hide in here?” she asked, her face less than a finger’s breadth away. “I got a little more popular than expected.”

  “A little shell shocked, Ash?” Stephanie asked.

  “You know, it was easy after the first one,” Ashley replied quietly. She pulled Minh’s arm around her waist and he was happy to oblige. Her dark eyes looked around the large bar room then back to Stephanie. “I’ll do that again, if we’re hard up for a target, but maybe in a smaller place next time.”

  “You okay?” Minh-Chu whispered in her ear. “Is there anything I can do?”

  Ashley regarded him with a smile, her dark brown eyes so close he thought he would fall in. “You’re doin’ it,” she whispered.

  “If you don’t mind me saying,” Agameg said as he poured Captain Berkovitz a tall pint. The ale didn’t have any evidence of alcohol in the flavour, so Minh assumed it had some other enhancement additive. “The two of you look very compatible now that I see you together.” Minh flushed, and as he looked at the issyrian - his eyes matching the shape of his mouth as he smiled at them - he noticed that Ashley was blushing as well.

  “What about us, Aggie?” asked Stephanie from where she sat in Frost’s lap. It was a rare playful moment.

  Agameg finished sitting down, looked at her and Frost with a cocked head then took a sip from his sake. The reaction caused a ripple of laughter around the table. “Compatibility isn’t always obvious,” Agameg said hurriedly, trying to control any damage he could have done. “There are a lot of factors, I was just considering-“

  “It’s okay,” Ashley soothed. “They’re kind of a freak collision, hard to call for anybody.”

  Captain Berkovitz nodded. “I know I wouldn’t have put you two together,” he added. “But it looks good from here.”

  “Thank you, Allan,” Stephanie said.

  “Not much else has changed,” Captain Berkovitz said, looking around the tables. “A few new faces, some pretty professional gear, but it’s good to see most of the gang’s still here.”

  “That’s something that changed then came back around,” Jake corrected. “A lot’s happened since you hired us on Spula. The Samson’s running with a full crew, in pretty bad shape on the inside, but she’s a fighting ship now, and she’s called the Warlord.”

  “Privateering?” Captain Berkovitz asked quietly.

  “Piracy, actually. Only against Order of Eden allies, though,” Jake replied to Captain Berkovitz quietly. “I’m surprised the GPC is still running, especially out this far. Last I saw you, the Sinjin was headed for the core worlds.”

  “The Galactic Postal Service went offline about two months ago,” Berkovitz explained. “Last thing I got were the ownership codes for the Sinjin and an official message telling me the ship was mine. Things were getting really good right up until the virus hit. We made it to the Core Worlds, settled on Emmaus. Got to spend the better part of a year there, too. Bought a nice place in New Wynne, managed to go on shorter runs, spent more time with Suzanne and the kids.”

  “How are they?” asked Ashley timidly. Minh could tell she was bracing herself against the worst.

  “They’re good,” Captain Berkovitz said, brightening at the mention of his family. “Going a little stir crazy stuck aboard the Sinjin full time. Suzanne misses her garden. She’s trying to make something grow in a corner of a cargo hold, but it’s not the same.”

  “How’d you end up all the way out here?” Frost asked.

  “The Core Worlds are deadly. Worse than the outer sectors,” Captain Berkovitz said. “I barely got my people off-world, and we spent a month rescuing my crew’s surviving families. After a near miss with a few Eden ships, we set our heading for the fringe and didn’t look back. The Core Worlds are as good as gone. There aren’t enough EMP’s in the galaxy to clear out the infected AIs. If there’s going to be a core to human civilization, it’s out here.”

  “Dangerous place to play courier,” Jake said. “There have got to be a couple dozen captains marking your ship for capture while you sit here.”

  “I’m not worried. First thing I do when I come out of a wormhole is send every ship in the area a message with our service list. I bet half the captains in this port have registered their ships with us so they can pick up messages from info drones. Besides, the visi have my back. Anyone takes a shot at me and they’ll have a Junglaz battle cruiser after them.”

  “Now that’s cover,” Frost said. “I guess they get their deliveries free.”

  “Nope, fifteen percent discount,” Captain Berkovitz said with a smile. “If you thought shipping rates were high before the virus hit, you should see them now. The most dangerous thing we do now is recover cargo from sorting and storage facilities. After the Holocaust Virus the security doesn’t even recognize us, so it feels like all-out war when we take on a group of security bots.”

  “So you’re finishing deliveries from before the fall?” Stephanie asked.

  “Not for free,” Captain Berkovitz said. “Someone pays us to retrieve something that was on its way to them and we find out which depot or ship it was on. If it’s in reach, we go get it. I’ve hired a couple of honest captains to do some of the work for me, but finding an honest ship is next to impossible these days.”

  “We can talk about that,” Jake said, raising his glass.

  “Definitely,” Captain Berkovitz replied. “So, what’s the story with the Warlord? You guys look like you’re in one piece, except for Frost here. Part of him scans new.”

  “Had a run in with an Eden bot, nasty buggers,” Frost said. “Had a new leg grown from the shin down.”

  “We’re settling on Tamber, in the Rega Gain System. If you’re looking for a place to set down, we’re colonizing an island in the tropical region there.”

  “You’re kidding,” Captain Berkovitz said. The GPC guards - two female and two male - who were just sitting down with their drinks stopped, shocked and hopeful. “Jake, I don’t know what to say.”

  “Allan, the first time you paid me I was down to nine crew and had about twenty credits,” Jake said. “You saved my ass then and threw me work whenever I was in range for over three years, work I never regretted doing. It’s the least I could do, especially if you’ve got kids in tow.”

  “I have a daughter,” said one of the guards. “Garnet here has a husband and two kids.”

  Captain Berkovitz glanced at them and they quietly took their seats at the table and quieted down. “Jake,” he said quietly. “I’ll have to talk to my people about this, and take a look at the place, but what you’re offering,” he shook his head, “it’s a godsend.”

  “It’s not without strings,” Jake said quietly. “You’ve seen more inhabited worlds and ships than anyone I’ve met. We’re scraping for intel. We’re in Hodria Port because you told us about it. If it weren’t for your tip, we’d be going on the word of a new partner, a very new partner. Honestly, if it weren’t for our Ashley here, we’d be following people around in cloaksuits trying to scan their comms for leads for hours. At worst, we’d have to tag a ship blind and try to take it down without knowing what or who’s aboard.”

  Minh-Chu felt Ashley straighten in his lap. “You’re welcome, Captain,” she s
aid quietly with a satisfied grin.

  “You’re getting a share hike for this run,” Jake whispered back before looking back to Captain Berkovitz. “Still, out of all the intel she just gathered, we’ve only got one solid lead, but with your charts and anything you’ve got stored in memory from passive navigational scans, we’ll actually have some real information.”

  Allan smiled broadly. “You’re dealing with the Carthans on Tamber, right?”

  “My people are,” Jake said. “We have a negotiating team.”

  “Must be a good one if they let you settle on a terraformed moon, or you had something big to trade.”

  “Huge,” Frost said. “Captured battle cruiser.”

  “What?” Allan said. “I’ve been hearing a lot about you - mostly through the Order of Eden broadcasts - but nothing about a captured battle cruiser. You didn’t take it with the Warlord, did you?”

  “Hell no,” Frost said with a chuckle. “Longer story there. Our operation has gotten a wee bit bigger since we last shared a course.”

  “It must have,” Captain Berkovitz said. “All right, I have a run to Schengal Three, it’ll take me about six days to finish that and get to Tamber. Send me information about this colony. If it’s as good as it sounds, then I’ll transfer a copy of everything in my data core. That includes a few hypertransmitter hacks my comms genius programmed for getting into Regent Galactic message systems.”

  “Now, how did you break their rolling encryptions?” asked Pisser. “It’s impossible.”

  “Let’s just say everything I was delivering for Regent Galactic got lost when the virus hit,” Captain Berkovitz said.

  “So you used their hardware to make some kind of emulator that makes it look like your ship is just another hypertransmitter or something?”

  “Or something,” Berkovitz replied. “Let’s just leave it at that.”

  “Just so you don’t get your hopes up too high,” Jake said. “Don’t expect to see anything but jungle, sand, and a few old bunkers there. The people I’m in with just secured ownership right before we left.”

  “I don’t mind,” Captain Berkovitz said. “If it’s protected by the Carthan fleet, and it’s big enough for the families that are stuck aboard the Sinjin, then I’m in.” He worked at a few controls on the inside of his gauntlet’s wrist for a moment. “Here, this is all the data we have on this solar system along with a list of all the shipping companies working for Regent Galactic. It should make picking targets easier.” The light-hearted expression on Captain Berkovitz’s face darkened as he looked at the comm screen on the inside of his wrist. “I’ve got a priority navigational update here,” he said, looking to Captain Valent. “Tamber is under attack by a primary Order of Eden fleet. The Rega Gain system is marked as a war zone.”