Privateer Tales 3: Parley

by Jamie McFarlane

  “Like I’d have said no.” I rolled my eyes and gave him a grin.

  “Yup. They also added a bunch of armor too. Want to see the rest of it?” he asked.

  “Sure do.”

  “Follow me.” Nick led us forward past the armory and stepped in the door labelled BR-1 on the starboard side. It was the room I used since Marny and Nick had taken to using the captain’s quarters.

  “Marny and I talked about it and are moving over here,” he said.

  The room had been neatly upgraded. The original bunk beds had been removed. The far side of the room had a wider bed raised up to about a meter and a half off of the floor. Underneath were deep cabinets and lockers. On the near side was a small round table with two chairs next to it.

  “You’re moving out? This’d work fine for me.”

  “Doesn’t make sense. The captain’s quarters are a working room in a ship. It’s where we should be having conferences and strategy meetings,” Nick said.

  “Hmm, I suppose. But you’re just as much an owner of this as I am.”

  “It’s not about that. We need to have no confusion about the pecking order on the ship.”

  “Well. It looks nice. I don’t suppose it’s a big step down.”

  “Nope. Better mattress than you have.”

  “Anything else?”

  “Not really.” Nick exited and headed aft.

  I showed Tabby the captain’s quarters. The door was right next to the closed door of the bridge. To say that nothing had been changed wasn’t entirely true. It was true that no new features had been added, but carpet had been replaced, everything was spotlessly clean, and the couch and table had been updated.

  “Want to sleep here tonight?” I asked Tabby.

  “You sleeping on the couch?” she fired back.

  “Whatever you want.”

  She slapped my shoulder playfully. “I’m sure we could work something out.”

  “Cap, chandlery delivery is here early, we’ll be unloaded in less than ten.” Marny’s voice came over the sound system in the room.

  “How’re you talking over the speakers in the room?” I asked.

  “Nick turned it on. Use the person’s name first when you talk, AI figures out if it’s a communication and pipes it to where the person is.”

  “That’s handy.” I purposefully didn’t use her name, I wanted to see if it would be smart enough to recognize we were still in conversation.

  “Some people don’t like it, especially if they talk to themselves,” Marny quipped.

  I led Tabby out of my newly renovated quarters and forward to the bridge. Just like my quarters, the bridge didn’t sport a new configuration but everything sparkled like it had just been manufactured. The carpet was either new or just cleaned and all of the paint was fresh.

  “Pretty,” Tabby said with genuine affection.

  “Didn’t always look this way. Navy really set us up nice on this.”

  “Cap, we’re clear.”

  “Thanks Marny. Nick can you start a pre-sail check?”

  “Yup. We’re green.”

  “Grab a chair.” Tabby was about to sit in one of the rear stations. “No, grab the starboard pilot’s chair. Nick’s most likely going to be hanging out in the engine room.

  “Yup.” Nick’s voice offered over the room’s sound system.

  Set course for Puskar Stellar Terminal Five. Negotiate landing.

  “You’re not going to sail her?” Tabby asked, just a little offended.

  “Trust me, you’ll understand.” We were currently pointed directly at the terminal. Sterra's Gift started slowly backing out of the slip and our view of the shipyard grew. We rotated and suddenly hundreds of ships came into our immediate view. The ships were travelling in all directions and at varying speeds.

  “Frak. That’s insane.”

  “Piloting through that is doable, but you’ve got to follow the navigation plan pretty strictly. Too much of a pain, in my opinion.”

  I’d also never entered the gravity of a planet before in a ship, so today was going to be a new experience. The terminal where we would load cargo was on the surface, in an un-enhanced area of gravity on Mars - which meant it was .38 gravity. I wasn’t about to try my hand at a landing maneuver there either. The AI navigator neatly lined us up and set us down in a bay. We came to rest on our landing skids.

  I sent a ping to Tali to let her know we’d landed. I immediately heard back that she was nearby and would be over within thirty minutes. I then popped the exterior ramp and lowered the cargo bay lifts. The loads I’d signed up for would fill both of our cargo holds, but leave the one remaining bunk room empty.

  A ping from the stevedores told me we should be ready to load within the hour. Those guys could get their noses out of joint, so I’d been careful to inform them of our progress.

  Tabby and I sat on the lower step of the ramp chatting while we waited. After about twenty minutes, a cab set down several meters off the bow of the ship. I immediately recognized the small black-suited figure of Tali emerge from the cab.

  “That’s my crew interview,” I said.

  “Her?” Tabby said as Tali pulled her long black hair out of her face. “What kind of crew do you need?”

  “Security.” I tried to play it straight. I could see where this was going.

  “And she’s what you think of when you look for security?”

  Tali walked over toward us with a smile on her face. “Greetings, Captain.” She held her hand out to shake. “Tell me this isn’t Tabby Masters?”

  “Uh, yes, sure is.” I responded.

  Tali held her hand out to Tabby. “Tali Liszt. Honored to meet you, Miss Masters. Quite a feat you pulled off on Colony 40.”

  “Uh, thanks.” It wasn’t very often that Tabby was caught off guard.

  “Don’t be so surprised. I’m in the business, what you all pulled off was big news in my circles. Liam says you’re over at the Academy. Good memories over there for me.”

  “Are you an officer?”

  “Special forces, retired.”

  “Oh, it’s a pleasure to meet you, ma’am.”

  “I had that coming, but let’s not do that? I know what they tell you, but just between us it’s Tali, okay?”

  Tabby smiled, “Gotcha, thanks.”

  “Nick, Marny, care to join us in my quarters? Tali’s here.”

  I led Tali and Tabby up the stairs and back to my quarters. Nick and Marny were already seated on the couch.

  Secure ship.

  “I got your NDA, Tali, so we should be able to talk freely.”

  “Is it okay for me to be here?” Tabby asked.

  “Yup,” Nick didn't skip a beat.

  Tali started right in. “You said you weren’t really looking for crew and things might get dicey. What are you looking for?”

  “Navy’s being real tight lipped about this. The mission was explained to us very simply. Transportation to Jeratorn for one of their undercover operatives and then extraction of same operative with a package. Mission could require light fire support.”

  “What does light fire support mean?” she asked.

  “Well we’re getting mixed messages about that. The operative thinks there could be as many as fifty enemy agents on the station, but isn’t particularly sure. The operative also believes she will either be successful or dead, no in-between.”

  “Cheery sort,” Marny offered.

  “Yeah, no kidding,” I said.

  “What else do you have?”

  “A bunch of chatter that makes us believe something bigger is happening.” I said.

  “And his gut,” Nick gave me a sideways glance.

  “What kind of chatter?" She gave me a small nod. "And, I don’t easily dismiss gut feelings. Our brains are pretty amazing at sorting out information.”

  “Getting loads to Jeratorn is ridiculously easy and the money is probably double what I’d expect. Everyone is looking for high bonds, like they don’t expect us
to come back. When I researched their ore storage, it looks like they’re busting at the seams. Feels a lot like it did on Colony 40 right before M-Corp would show up with their giant freighter and buy up everything.”

  “You think the Navy is trying to head off an attack?”

  “Colony 40’s station administrator just transferred over to Jeratorn. Coincidence?”

  “Is he the package?” Tali asked.

  “Rather not say,” I replied.

  “What are you paying?”

  Nick pinched at his vision and flicked something at her. “That’s our crew budget. I’ll throw in my personal share of the freighter’s load.” He pinched a second figure and tossed it to her.

  “Nick ...” I tried to stop him.

  “I got us into this and I want to give us the best shot I can.”

  Tali looked at Nick and then to me. “Ben’s out, but Jordy’s in. I don’t mean to be condescending, but it’s a little short.”

  “I was afraid of that,” Nick said.

  “What if I throw in my share of the freighter?” I asked.

  “Let’s be clear on what the roles are. Jordy and I will work with you. When it comes to field work we don't take orders from anyone. You can ask us to get something done and we’ll do the best we can. I promise, our best is pretty good. On the ship, we’ll respect your authority. I’m not saying this to be a prick, I just want to make sure we’re clear.”

  “Crystal,” I said. “So you’ll take it?”

  “We’re in,” Tali replied.

  “We sail at 1700 tomorrow from Coolidge Shipyard.”

  “Jordy’s in the cab with our gear.”

  CONVOY

  “Tali, you and Jordy will be in BR-3 tonight. Sorry for the close quarters.”

  “Wouldn’t have expected any different,” Tali said.

  “You can keep your gear in your room or if you want, I can give you access to the armory. If you wouldn’t mind, I’d like to review our stock with you. I still have access to the Navy’s quartermaster if we’re missing anything.” Marny stood up, clearly looking to get moving.

  Tali stood with her. “If you want to help, we’ve got a pretty decent stack of gear.”

  “I’ll help,” Tabby offered.

  I watched as the three of them disappeared from the room.

  My HUD flashed an incoming comm request.

  “Hoffen,” I answered.

  “Lou Buggentower, Stevedore’s Union. We’re outside ready to load. Are you good to go?”

  “I’ll be right out.” I walked down the hallway quickly and passed through the airlock.

  A stout man in a white uniform handed me his credentials. I scanned them with my HUD. They checked out.

  “Love these little cutters. Don’t take but a few minutes to load. Even faster to unload. Anything going in the bunk rooms?” He asked.

  “No it should all fit in the cargo holds.”

  “That it will. Any special weight distribution?”

  “We’re pretty even. Ideally, heaviest on the inside about half way up. More forward than aft. Is that doable?”

  “Whatever you like. It’s not a very heavy load, so it won’t matter a lot,” he said.

  I should have thought about that. I knew where I wanted the weight, but didn’t think about the fact that the mass/volume ratio was low. He could load it any way he wanted and we wouldn’t feel it on the ship. I felt like a newbie, which of course I was.

  “You got a tablet you’re crossing these off on?” he asked.

  “Sorry, I’m pretty new to this, why would I do that?” He’d already outed me as a newbie, I might as well not add on.

  “Heh, you are a greenie, then. Captains like to keep track of what they’re loading and match it up with the manifest. That way if anyone says they didn’t deliver a crate, you can prove if you got it all or not.”

  “Frak, that makes sense,” I said.

  “Record it with your HUD. Make sure you catch every crate’s serial number. You can go over it once you’re sailing.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Buggentower,” I said.

  “No problem. Everybody has a first day.”

  Sterra's Gift – 001, he said. “It’ll come up right there.” He pointed to what looked like a MAG-L track ten meters away from Sterra's Gift. A flatbed train, forty meters long, filled with crates of different sizes slid along the track and stopped in line with the ship.

  Two squat robots rose up off the far end, flew up next to the crates, and slid long metallic fingers under them. In concert, the bots lifted, using arc-jets similar to what our suits used and flew to us at a break-neck pace. Lou looked at his tablet and over to the containers and checked off the two serial numbers. I recorded it. I could see how a tablet that was running the same software he was running would make this quite a bit easier. Half an hour after we started, the cargo holds were both completely loaded.

  “That’s it, Captain Hoffen. Thumbprint here?”

  I pressed my thumb onto his tablet. “Thank you, Mr. Buggentower.”

  “Call me Lou.” He offered his hand and we shook. “Safe passage to you,” he said over his shoulder.

  Retract, pressurize, and seal cargo holds. In tandem, the elevators lifted back into the ship.

  “Nick, prepare for departure.”

  “Aye, Captain.”

  I smiled. Marny was rubbing off on him. I found Tabby on the ship helping reorganize the armory. I thought about asking what was up, but I really didn’t care. I looked back to the galley and saw Jordy sitting on a chair drinking a cup of something.

  I walked back to him with my hand out. “Welcome aboard, Mr. Kelti. I know I speak for the rest of the crew when I say we’re glad to have you aboard.”

  “My pleasure, Captain. If you’d asked me on Friday morning if I’d be sitting on a cutter headed into space the next day, I’d have bet everything I had you were wrong. But here I sit. Where’s Ada?”

  “She’s on our freighter. Accompany me to the bridge? We’re about to get underway.”

  “Certainly.”

  “I recall Tali referred to you as a combat medic. Have you had a chance to look at our supplies?”

  “Not yet.”

  “Would you mind checking it out? I think we’ve got a good supply, but we’re no experts.”

  “Happy to.”

  “All sections, check in. Status for immediate departure.”

  Nick and Marny replied in turn. “Green.”

  All ship announcement. “We’re about to get underway for a shakedown cruise. If anyone needs anything on Puskar Stellar, this’d be the time to mention it. Otherwise, you might consider grabbing a chair. We won’t be exceeding 1.5 gravity, but sometimes the transition is a little rough.”

  “Mr. Kelti, if you’d like to join me in the co-pilot's chair we can talk while we get going.”

  “Can do, Captain,” he said.

  Plot course. Triangulate our current position with Coolidge shipyard, at a distance of one-hundred thousand kilometers. Four hour transit.

  The course wasn’t much to look at and I saw that the burn plan was well within our normal rate.

  Execute plan.

  I was enthralled with how the ship interacted with the planet. The arc-jets lifted us and we slowly accelerated forward while rotating the nose of the ship skyward. As a spacer, I had no real affinity to the idea of ‘up.’ The ship’s gravity system was still pulling me to the floor, so to me, it didn’t seem like anything had changed. I looked over to Jordy to continue our conversation and was surprised to see him with his head back in the seat and his fingers gripping the armrests with what appeared to be a death grip. He was obviously having trouble with the ship being perpendicular to the surface.

  “If you close your eyes, it’ll just feel like a heavy gravity environment.” I was trying to be helpful.

  “I’m not a big fan of takeoff,” Jordy said. He willfully loosened his grip.

  “I was thinking we need a second on Ada’s freighter, A
dela Chen. How do you and Tali work?”

  “She does all of our tactical planning, but I can guarantee she’ll want someone on both ships if she’s got any hand in security.”

  “Marny does our security. You suppose they’ve already worked this out?”

  “That’s not the question, the question is when they’re going to tell us.”

  We both laughed.

  Ice vapor rolled off the outside of the ship as we pierced through the upper atmosphere. What a rush. Escaping the atmosphere of a planet was just something you didn’t experience if you spent all of your time in space.

  Jordy’s discomfort seemed to lessen as the effects of the atmosphere stopped jostling the ship. It made me think that he’d spent a good deal of time in space and the black blanket around the ship was easing his anxieties.

  “How does your team work? Do you have specialties?” I was hoping to take his mind off of the things that were bothering him.

  “Tali’s always the tip of the spear. She likes to be first in. Most of the time she just drops ‘em and leaves ‘em for me to patch up. Jammin’s all about the heavy stuff. If we need to blow it up, knock it down, or make a general mess, he’s the guy. I’m the long range guy. Part of being special-forces is being good at all of it, though.”

  “You guys were pretty impressive at the training facility.”

  “Thanks. We’ve been doing it long enough, we better be. Jammin’s still pissed you got him. I told him how you set him up and it pissed him off even more.”

  “Is that why he didn’t come along?”

  “Nah, he doesn’t like to go off-planet.”

  “You boys playing nice up here?” I heard Tali’s voice and looked around to see her standing at the door.

  “Come on in,” I said. “Just grab any seat. We’re not real formal.”

  “Marny told me you’d say that but she’s trying to instill more discipline. Permission to enter the bridge?”

  “Permission granted,” I responded. “I think, technically, I was okay with ‘come on in,’ though.”

  “Maybe.” She looked amused. “Jordy pinged me and said you wanted to talk about assignments. What’s up?”

  I gave Jordy a single raised eyebrow. At least I knew where I stood.