Privateer Tales 3: Parley

by Jamie McFarlane

  There were massive piles of ore on both sides of the rock and I estimated they were close to sixty percent full. It would take an empty M-Corp freighter with a whole lot of cargo sections to haul that much ore off. Our three strings were capable of hauling seven point five kilo tonnes back to Mars. We wouldn’t be making much of a dent in the pile.

  I was still on the comm with Ada when we got close. Nick, Marny and Tali had joined me on the bridge to get a good look at our new surroundings.

  “That’s a whole lotta ore, Ada,” I said.

  “Never seen it so full before. Most of the times we’ve been here they’re scraping up a pile for us.”

  “That’s gotta be hard on the miners,” I said. On Colony 40 we’d go four to six months between pickups from M-Corp and we’d always be running short of funds when they finally arrived. We knew a lot of the less fortunate miners who would be well on their way to broke, hanging on by a thread, waiting for the freighter to arrive. If what Ada was saying was true, people here might be getting fairly desperate.

  Ada slid her freighter’s barge string neatly up to a large buoy that was flashing red. Her orientation was perpendicular with the asteroid. A handler would come along later and connect the barge’s gravity generators to hold the loads down. While sailing, the freighter was able to feed most of its energy, caused by acceleration, back into the barge’s gravity system and keep the loads in place.

  Once in position, Ada dropped the tongue and slipped the tug away from the barges.

  “Let’s get some go-go juice,” she said.

  “Go-go juice? Hah. I’m on your six,” I said.

  “Try to keep up…”

  Ada spun the now freed tug in place and rocketed away from our position. I thought about chasing her for a moment when I heard …

  “Full load of passengers, Cap,” Marny warned.

  Frak. I dutifully rolled Sterra's Gift around in a slow arc and followed after the fleeing Adela Chen.

  “Roger that,” I said. “This one goes to you, Ada Chen.”

  “Aww, don’t be a sore loser.”

  The closer we got to the main station of Jeratorn, the more obvious its design, or lack thereof. The three large cylindrical structures were obviously patched together sections, having been built up over the years. I’d received a berth assignment that was several spots away from where the Adela Chen would be docked. I wondered why they’d split us up like that and hoped it wasn’t due to poor maintenance.

  “Marny, would you see if Lieutenant Loo needs any help getting off the ship?”

  “Aye.”

  “Ada, are you topping off with O2 crystals also?”

  “I’m in pretty good shape, only about twenty percent down. You might want to check prices.”

  I punched up the station’s price list and discovered she was right. O2 was outrageously priced, as was fuel. I felt fortunate that Nick had negotiated to have the Navy pay our fuel bill, although our account would get hit pretty hard in the meanwhile.

  “You’re right Ada, thanks for pointing that out. Let’s hold off on the O2 for now.”

  “Okay, give me another twenty minutes.”

  “Cap.” Marny’s voice came over the bridge’s speakers.

  “What’s up, Marny?”

  “Loo’s gone. I knocked on her door and when she didn’t answer, I opened it and she’d cleared out.”

  “That’s strange. Any ideas on how she left?”

  “No, let me see what I can find out.”

  “Let’s leave it alone for the moment. We should probably talk about how we want to do shore leave first.”

  “Aye. I’ll be right there.” Marny must have already been in the hallway because she requested entry a moment later.

  “How do you want to do this?” I asked. Tali and Nick were both on the bridge, but this was clearly Marny’s responsibility and I wasn’t about to undermine her authority.

  “We’ll have to do this in shifts. It’s a pretty easy split. Two from Sterra's Gift and one from Adela Chen. And … Since everyone’s on comm right now, I’ll go over the rules. First, stay out of confrontations, I don’t need to be getting anyone out of the brig. Second, first names only and no titles. There’re no rules about weapons here, but be discrete about it. A flechette is a good choice if you’re going to carry, since killing a local is generally a good way to get locked up. Remember, in the eyes of the local law, locals never start anything …”

  “Good info. You have shift rosters picked out?” I asked.

  “Nope, that’s your job.”

  “Four hour shifts?” I asked.

  “I’d go three hours for tonight. That’d put us on a shift change about 1900 so everyone can have a chance at the local cuisine.”

  “Let me see about lining up the stevedores and I’ll get you a shift roster.”

  “Aye.”

  “Anyone have any questions? Nick, how’re we doing on O2 crystals?”

  “Completely full. The algae system, if anything, is over producing.”

  “Any chance you want to sell some of it?” I asked. “The O2 prices are sky high here.”

  “I’ll look at it,” he said.

  “On my way to the dock, Liam,” Ada said over the still open comm.

  “Roger that. We’ll head over and get fueled up now.”

  Display navigation to Jeratorn fuel station. I pulled Sterra's Gift out of the berth slowly and navigated there. It was on one end of the largest of the three habitation complexes. I was shocked by the fuel prices and made a mental note to make sure to take that into consideration on any deal that, in the future, looked too good to be true.

  The excitement of the station approach had dwindled and I found myself on the bridge, alone, once again. People were getting ready for shore leave.

  I had three different receivers for the load aboard the ship. Send notification to shipping recipients of our arrival in station. Request windows of when they’d like to receive delivery.

  The fuel hadn’t even been completely transferred to the ship when the first response arrived.

  Captain Liam. We’d like to arrange for immediate delivery. Will you accept? Beth Anne Hollise.

  Before I could respond, I had an incoming hail.

  “I’m going to have to drop our comm, Ada.”

  “Okay, ping me when you figure out shore leave.”

  “I will, I’ll try to get it going soon.”

  “No worries.” Ada terminated communication.

  Accept hail.

  “Captain. Gerald Beutler, and I just received your notification. I’ve got the local stevedores standing by, are you in a position to offload now?”

  “Just taking on some fuel. We’re in berth fourteen and should be back in twenty minutes, give or take.”

  “Great. See you there.”

  “Marny, can you join me on the bridge?”

  “Be right there, Cap.” It took her a little longer this time, but she joined me just as I was signing off on the fuel bill. We’d never paid anywhere near that price for fuel.

  “How can I help?” Marny asked.

  “We have stevedores waiting for us back in the berth for an immediate offload. I think we’ll be getting to this right away.”

  “Aye, aye. I’ll suit up.”

  I sailed Sterra's Gift slowly up toward the berth and returned the first call. Establish communication with Beth Anne Hollise.

  “Captain, great, you got my message. We’ve been waiting for your arrival and we’d like to offload right away. Can you help with that?”

  “Stevedores are already on their way. If you clear it with them, we can deliver your load too.”

  “Thank you, Captain. I’ll give them a buzz right now.”

  I almost expected the third shipper to ping me before I slipped back into our berth, since the first two had been so quick on the draw. Generally, protocol called for a prompt receipt of goods, but I’d been told that a two or three hour window was pretty common.

  Th
e berth we were in had no working bay door which meant we’d be in vacuum. The bay was set to .6 gravity which was standard for most space stations. Any less than that was harmful to the human body over long periods of time.

  Marny met me at the airlock wearing her armored vac-suit and carrying a heavy blaster rifle. She handed me a holster with a blaster in it.

  “I thought you said flechettes.”

  “Not when we’re offloading cargo. Never know who might be lurking around.”

  We stepped out of the ship and I noticed that Marny had the lights up all around the ship. Sterra's Gift gleamed in the light, having just received fresh paint. I almost choked up looking at her - I was so proud of our ship.

  A man stepped out from next to the airlock and walked up to me.

  “Ready to get going, Captain?” he asked.

  “Mind if I scan your ident?”

  “Not how we do it out here,” he said.

  “It is today.” Marny looked as intimidating as always.

  “You really want to do this?” he asked. “I can make this go fast or slow.”

  “Hey look, we’re not trying to be pricks here. We just don’t know you. How about first round’s on me?”

  The man looked at Marny then over to me. “Okay, top-shelf though.” I wondered if he shook everyone down like this. It wasn’t strictly legal to gift a stevedore, but I figured a friendly drink could be considered a social gesture. He held his identity up for me to scan. Richard Horten. It was legit enough.

  “Who do you have first?” I asked.

  “Gerald Buetler,” he said. “He’s all fired up, too.”

  I’d found the program that linked to the stevedore’s inventory checklists and had loaded it on my tablet. I chose Buetler’s shipment and the list of crates displayed on my tablet. I sent the information over to Horten's tablet and instructed the ship to lower the two cargo bay elevators. Thirty minutes later Buetler’s load had been removed from the ship.

  “Have you heard from Hollise?” I asked Horten.

  “She’s coming through the airlock now,” he said. “We’ll deliver the crates to her right here and she’ll have her staff move them out.”

  I loaded Beth Anne Hollise’s manifest onto the tablet. There were forty-two crates, all listed as restaurant supplies.

  Marny intercepted the approaching female figure and scanned the ident in her outstretched hand. I was accustomed to seeing women in tight vac-suits but Beth Anne momentarily distracted me with her generous curves. Extra body weight was a personal decision and easily removed with med patches. Beth Anne had clearly made some personal choices.

  “Beth Anne.” She held her hand out to me, knuckles up.

  “Liam.” I took her limp hand and shook it the best I could. She smiled accommodatingly, as if we were sharing an inside joke.

  “If you’ll allow it, I’d like to offload next to the airlock and have my boys move the crates on down to the bar. Would that be okay with y’all?”

  “How long will it take to clear the bay?” Marny asked.

  Without looking to Marny, Beth Anne answered with a reassuring smile, “No more than forty minutes or an hour.”

  It was difficult to not be drawn in by her. I wasn’t excited about tying up the bay like that, but as long as they stayed away from the ship we’d be okay.

  “I don’t see why that’d be a problem. Marny?”

  “That’s fine, Cap. Just need to stay away from the ship.”

  “Oh, certainly,” Beth Anne answered.

  “Let’s get this done,” Stevedore Horten broke in.

  An annoyed look passed over Beth Anne’s face for a moment, then her smile returned, causing me to question what I’d seen. I suspected that she had to deal with Richard Horten regularly.

  I flicked my fingers across the top of my reading pad, sending the manifest to Horten’s tablet.

  “Where do you want ‘em?” I looked to Beth Anne.

  “Mr. Horten knows where. Isn’t that right, Dick?”

  “It’s Richard and yes, I know where.”

  Even with the constant heat provided by my vac-suit, it felt chilly in the docking bay all of a sudden. I was relieved to see the now familiar shape of the unloading robot arrive between Richard and me.

  “I’ll leave you boys to it. Liam … until we meet again.” She gave me a generous smile and sauntered off.

  “Word of advice,” Morten said. “Stay clear of that one.”

  “Just here for a delivery, Mr. Morten. We don’t need any drama.”

  “Just saying.”

  “Appreciate it. I’ve got R-201 on that one, you good?” I made a slightly exaggerated press on my reading pad showing I’d marked off the crate being patiently carried by the forklift robot. Richard shook his head with knowing disapproval and also checked off the crate. The unloading went very quickly since the robots only had to fly a short distance.

  When the last of Beth Anne’s forty-two crates were finally unloaded, I turned to Horten. “I’ve got one more load for T. Merrish, but I haven’t heard from them yet. I imagine we’ll see you later.”

  “Hang on, I can get him on the comm. I don’t want to have to come back.”

  I could see him talking behind his face shield and then I received a ping. I pulled up my comm and saw that Horten had been successful and T. Merrish had given permission to have his load delivered to a secure bay nearby. In the end, we were at it for a total of ninety minutes, but all the deliveries were complete and money transfers were in progress.

  “Thank you, Mr. Horten. I appreciate you expediting that last load for us.”

  “Don’t forget about that round,” he said.

  “I’ll ping you when we get our schedule figured out.” I answered. Horten stalked off without saying anything else.

  Beth Anne’s crew had reduced the pile of crates to about half and it was clear they’d be done within half an hour.

  “Any reason not to start shore leave now?” I asked.

  “No, I’ve got the sensor strips watching the bay. We should be fine.” Marny patted the ship.

  We walked up the ramp to the airlock and cycled through.

  Send message to both ships, public address. “First leave is Nick, Marny and Jordy - and you’re free to go. Please be back by 1930.”

  Unloading had taken longer (of course) than I’d planned for and leave was only going to be two and a half hours. It would give each shift time to have dinner at one of the two restaurant / bars in the station. Once we had regular crew I’d need to get better at this or I’d have a mutiny to deal with.

  I might as well see about return loads for Sterra's Gift. I wasn’t sure when we’d be taking off, but I’d give myself some leeway.

  Open TradeNet search, Jeratorn to Mars, target arrival twenty to thirty days from today.

  There was a long list of possible return loads. The most profitable being more than a dozen people who were looking to relocate. We weren’t set up for passengers, so I filtered them out. The cargo transfers weren’t as profitable as we’d seen coming here, but I could easily fill the hold if I was willing to put up a three hundred thousand credit bond.

  I eliminated the most egregious late delivery penalties and finally settled on a single shipper. Qiu had given me a four to ten day window for departure and it was a two week trip if we kept company with the Adela Chen. On the outside, it would take us twenty five days. We’d start picking up penalties on day twenty-eight, giving us an additional three days of buffer. By day forty, we’d lose all profit on the deal.

  I signed it and arranged to load at 0800 tomorrow. What’s the worst that could happen?

  THE WELDED TONGUE

  Nick and Marny were in high spirits when they returned. Apparently, the two of them and Jordy had enjoyed themselves at Patrick’s Pub.

  “You might try the other place,” Marny said. “The beer was good but the food was all rehydrated ration packs.”

  Open comm with Ada. “You want to join me?”
/>
  “Wouldn’t miss it. Meet in the hallway in five?”

  “Roger that.”

  I found Tali sitting at the table in the galley. “Join me and Ada for dinner?”

  “I thought you’d never ask.” Tali stood up and walked out with me. I’d grabbed a hip holster and put one of the flechette pistols in it. It felt provocative, but I’d had enough problems in the past to warrant being prepared.

  Tali and I met Ada in the hallway.

  “Any recommendations on dinner?” I asked.

  “Welded Tongue is probably the best,” Ada answered.

  “That’s a weird name,” I said.

  “You’ll see.”

  We walked down the hallway about a hundred meters to an air lock and cycled through it. We were in an L-2 space so I relaxed the rigid helmet from around my head. Tali and Ada followed suit.

  Ada led us through a few more airlocks. The general condition of the station wasn’t excellent, but it looked better than I’d expected from the exterior. The hallways were clean and the airlocks mostly free of grime. It seemed like a good sign that upkeep was occurring.

  The name of the bar became obvious when we arrived. Above the doorway to the entry was the metal replica of a human tongue as if it had been sticking out of someone’s mouth. It was indeed welded to the station above the wide double doors.

  Being the middle of the week, I didn’t expect any place to be too lively. The noise coming through the doors made me question if that was a reasonable assessment. If the room was capable of holding a hundred and fifty people I’d have guessed that at last a hundred of them were here right now. We had to push our way through the crowd to find a table in the back.

  There was a live performance on the stage and we were as far away from it as you could get in this fairly small bar. They were playing an odd assortment of instruments, most of which I didn’t recognize, and they didn’t sound too bad.

  I was about to send a ping to Richard Horten when I noticed he was sitting at the bar staring at me.

  “I’ll be right back, I need to do something,” I said to Tali and Ada.