Kohn went back to his chair. As I raised my right hand to my aching head to wipe off the sweat on my forehead, I noted the ring’s stone had changed color to a dull, green glow. I blinked my eyes, looked at it again, and then dismissed it with a shrug. There wasn’t anything I could do about it.
I closed my eyes and once again felt Warp. Only it was more intense, more vivid, more real, than I had ever felt before. It was a raging morass of colors to my left where the whirlpool was building. I let the drive comp kick in the engines to steer us past the edge of the whirlpool to the outer rim of the First Sphere.
At the edges of Spheres, even Warp becomes skewed and stretched as it’s sucked through the points the Spheres have in common. There are only a few for each section of Warp, and when you’re changing Spheres, it’s more than a little dangerous. I could feel the currents getting stronger as more and more of the fabric of Warp was forced through the small points into the Second Sphere. The points were the only legal pathways between the Spheres.
I gently, softly, eased the Kraftwerk into the middle of the current building up around us, so we wouldn’t be unlucky enough to smash against the side of the tunnel that led from the First Sphere to the Second Sphere.
The colors of Warp were smearing together, and gradually merging. The bright, bright colors became a sludge brown in the middle of the corridor, and the tunnel was throwing us around a good bit. I kept us straight, though. I could almost tell when an odd current was going to wash against us, and I was automatically compensating. I’m a good pilot, but it was the first time we made it through a Point without at least one, nasty scare.
“That was the best you’ve ever done,” Kohn congratulated me when we were in the Second Sphere.
I’d already programmed the Warp coordinates for Shadow in the drive comp that Kohn had given me earlier. We’d have to be alert, however, to see if the whirlpool in the First Sphere had mucked things up in the Second Sphere. It wouldn’t have been a problem if the whirlpool hadn’t been so close to one of the points. There wasn’t any way to tell, except, of course, to go through the Sphere.
“I know,” I acknowledged. “How are the police doing?”
“I’m not sure,” Kohn answered. “They followed us off Green, but I don’t know if their pilots followed us through the Points.”
“They’re good,” I said. “I imagine they did. Perhaps they’re taking the slow way through the Points.”
“Could be,” he agreed.
“I wonder how hard it will be to find a cargo load to Steel?” I mumbled to myself.
“What?” Kohn asked as he looked up from the monitors. “Oh, I don’t imagine it’ll be too hard.”
“I don’t know,” I muttered.
Luckily, the Second Sphere was still relatively free of the mess building up in the First Sphere, so we didn’t have to detour through the Third Sphere when we reached the Triffid Nebulae. I dropped us out of Warp for a time to show Renate just how beautiful Free Space can be, but she wasn’t really that impressed. She was getting to be a little irritable, and I guessed the drug from the knockout gun was wearing off. When it totally wore off, she’d be really cranky and would have to be handled carefully. The body always overcompensates the other way when drugs wear out. I knew first hand about knock-out guns. They’re not fun.
Shadow was a gorgeous world from orbit. It was mainly ocean, more so than Terra or Blue. The ocean was a little deeper than most because the seas were a deep purple. It was a cloudless day on the light side of the globe, so we coasted, waiting for clearance. I hoped they would hurry since the police had already picked up our trail again. I knew they would be on us soon because their ships were faster than ours. If we could land, however, they wouldn’t dare follow. Runner Worlds only allow those people who have direct business with them to land. I was sure the police would try to convince the people on Shadow we were dangerous criminals, but since it concerned Firelight and not them, too bad. If we got down, the police would stay in orbit, or if they tried to land, they’d be blasted out of existence. At least, I hoped they wouldn’t be too stupid. That policy was the one good thing about Runner Worlds I liked. It was about the only thing on Shadow that I did like.
The pad area was stark and in the middle of nowhere. The nearby city was merely there because the paperwork and the transfer of funds had to be close to the ships. Central regulations. There were about three Union ships on pads, and only one other maverick. I guessed Kohn had been lucky to get us the cargo to the planet, after all. We could at least hope for a good deal and a fair price.
The Customs Agent, another colonel, was massive and incredibly handsome. Renate fell in love with him in three seconds. A normal enough condition for her age.
“And who are the castings for, good sirs?” he asked.
His nametag listed him as Breeker.
“Well, Colonel Breeker, the invoice says it is for the Scull Corporation,” Kohn explained. “All is in good order.”
“I should hope so,” Breeker said. He snapped his ice- blue eyes around the cabin. He was about six feet four, 240 pounds of solid muscle, and stuffy. His uniform was bulky, but it still revealed he was all muscle. He had a square chin, blonde hair, and perfect teeth. He made me itch. “We shall have to check with the Invoice comp,” he said. “It should only take a few moments, good sirs, and Lady.” He nodded to Renate, and she blushed.
She had told him she was our niece, and had come on board because she wanted to study Warp, and regulations prevented her from doing that as a passenger on a Union Transport. She was correct about that, but there are a few research vessels that are specially designed for the scientific study of Warp. Of course, since the colonel was from a Runner World, I doubted if he read anything that wasn’t officially approved by the Board of the Righteous, or whatever they had on Shadow.
It was nice, for a change, not to have to bribe a Customs Agent, but I still got a feeling he didn’t quite approve of Renate being on board such a ship with two such obvious rough types. I could understand his feelings, since, even though she was wearing a jumpsuit, it was obvious she didn’t belong on the Kraftwerk.
The comp check wasn’t very long, and soon enough, the Cargo Handlers were next to us, unloading the castings. Kohn had asked the colonel where the export invoices were placed, so he could get us a cargo off world. The colonel had been very polite, and had told him to report to the Coordinating Terminal, in the Administration Building. I winced when I heard that. Whenever you have to deal with bureaucrats, religious fanatics or otherwise, you’re going to be wasting a lot of time just filling out forms and standing in long, slow-moving lines. If you’re lucky enough to get the proper forms to fill out in the first place.
“Why don’t you take Renate out sightseeing?” Kohn suggested to me after the colonel had signed and sealed all our paperwork and had left.
I sighed. Why not? I didn’t think I wanted to be cooped up in the ship with her if the drug was starting to wear off, as it would be doing any time now. Renate would be very cranky, and just sitting around would be the worst thing we could be doing as she got back to normal.
“What do you say?” I asked Renate.
“Sure, why not?” she said with a slight shrug.
The city was designed with complete logic. It was on a grid pattern, no building was over three stories tall, though many had floors beneath the streets, and the streets themselves were designed for public transport only. The loaders and the like had a special underground traffic lane. Very nice. Very neat. Lots of open parks and things. And it was very pretty, but . . . dull!
Renate was very impressed with it. She said the main city on Steel was the capital, Steel (very original planet, I thought to myself). It was a typical city, with lots of dirt, people, and tall buildings. I don’t mind cities that much, if they have a life of their own, but this city was dead, it was nothing. I finally got tired of wandering downtown with all the office buildings and asked the next person I met where the stores were.
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“Stores, sir?” the man I had stopped asked blankly. He was wearing a one-piece suit of beige color and had a badge on his left breast: Thompkins was written on the brown badge in white.
“You know, the places where you buy things,” I said.
He looked at me hard, and finally noticed the star- burst on my breast pocket. “Oh, you are from Off World,” he said with a smile.
“I’m from Steel,” Renate blurted.
“Steel?” the man was puzzled. “A horrible name for a place of residence.” He turned his watery, blue eyes to me. “Don’t you agree, sir?”
“Any planet is no place to live,” I said, feeling slightly out of sorts with this man’s wide-eyed, innocent stare. “I prefer Warp.”
“As well you should,” he said. “The places you seek are on the sixth level. They are run by our Off Worlders for pleasure. Ask any comp unit in any liftor. Good day to you both.” He didn’t wait for my “thank you” but promptly walked away.
“I didn’t like him,” Renate said.
“I don’t know,” I said. “It seems like he was on something. Some sort of mind drug.”
“I thought you said Runner Worlds didn’t like things like that,” she replied.
“Maybe their religion has something to do with mind drugs,” I said.
She made a face at my suggestion.
We stumbled along for a time and found a liftor, and went down to the sixth level. When the doors of the liftor opened, the noise hit us first, then the heat, then the smells.
It was steamy hot, similar to the atmosphere on Green, though more intense, since it was in an enclosed space. The entire area was more like a huge corridor, filled with shops. There were the exotic smells of spices and drugs and liquors that I’ve come to recognize as meaning The Strip. I was slightly surprised, but happy, nonetheless, to discover such a “den of evil,” as the fools on Savior had called them on a Runner World. The huge hall was slightly dark, with the main lighting coming from red globes hung outside of most of the shops, and their bright signs. I had quite a few credits on me, so I set off at a brisk pace, looking for a nice bar to enter.
The noise was intense and I could barely make myself understood to Renate. The sounds were blends of blaring music, loud laughter and talk, and machinery. But the place wasn’t filled with people, though I did notice there were speakers wherever I looked. The sound of crowds was being provided for us.
I ran into a few Union goons, staggering along, singing their damn songs about how they’re the best of everything. I ignored them, and they ignored us, though a few did give Renate a second glance.
We were going through the door of a nice enough bar when it happened. A Union man staggered out of the bar, took one look at me, and spat on my boots. I noted instantly that he was a FreeBorn and relaxed, since, as weird as it is, such a thing is a compliment to them. I have never taken to that gesture, but the FreeBorn are tough. I smiled and returned the FreeBorn salute: I placed my hand over my heart and bowed slightly.
Renate screamed in outrage and kicked him between the legs before we entered the bar. He shrieked and fell to the floor, howling with pain and non-comprehension. As he fell, three more FreeBorn came out of the bar, too one look at their fallen Brother of the Spirit, and at me. It was enough for them, and as I was opening my mouth to explain, the tallest of the three smashed me in the face.
I went down with blood flooding my chin, but I knew I had no quarrel with them. Even though I couldn’t see, and I was barely conscious, I had enough sense not to react and go into the fight mode.
“Field!” I shouted. I held my face in my hands, and my words came out muffled. “Field in Strength, Field in Glory!”
One of the standing FreeBorn asked me the question, “What do you know of the Field?”
“I know of the One, and the Two, and the Three,” I recited. “I know of the Green Field, and the Brown Field, and the Field of FreeBorn, which is harsh, for the One wish the FreeBorn to be the Warriors of the Two.”
“Speak,” one of the FreeBorn said.
The purple haze blurring my vision and the watering of my eyes didn’t help, but I managed to look up at the three standing Brethern. One of them was holding Renate, who was struggling and cursing quite fluently, though softly. My belt beeped.
“It is the matter of the young one,” I said. I was trying to get all the intonation and proper sentence structure correct, though it’s difficult to do in GalSpeech. “She did not know of the salute, and of the Way of the Three.”
“Perhaps,” the tallest of the three said.
I glanced up again when I had rubbed the tears from my eyes. Surprisingly, my nose didn’t hurt at all, though I knew it should be hurting like all the Seven Hells were in my sinus cavities. Shock. I also noted the leader of the Brethern was female.
She said, “Let the words of our Fallen Brother help
you.”
‘‘He . . . speaks . . . true!” the man on the ground managed to gasp out. He was still in agony, but the Brethern are known for overcoming their pain when it concerns the Way of the Three.
The leader said, “Such is the Word.” She frowned at Renate. “You should educate the Young One, sir. And quickly, lest you and she suffer the Fate of the Fallen.”
“Aye,” I said, “such is my next course in the Way of the Three.”
The female and her companions helped their stricken Brother to his feet and walked away without a sound. The noise of the corridor would have drowned out any of their words, anyway. I struggled to my feet and reached into my back pocket for my handkerchief. I wiped the blood from my face as Renate glared at the Brethern, still breathing hard.
“I didn’t know you could move that fast,” I said.
“He spat on your shoes,” she said, her voice quavering with suppressed and unvented rage. “And you didn’t do anything!”
“Yes, he did spit on my shoes,” I agreed. “But to his kind, that was a high compliment.”
“What kind?” she asked.
“That’s the question you should have asked before you kicked him,” I said. “If you had, you would have found out about the FreeBorn, and I wouldn’t have a bloody nose.”
“How was I to know?” she asked. She glared at me. She didn’t seem to care that I had a busted nose.
“That’s one thing you’ve got to remember when you’re on the Strip. There are lots of people who have vastly different ways of expressing their respect, or their hatred and contempt for you. The FreeBorn consider the offering of money the ultimate of high insults, and they will kill for such an insult. There are lots of people wandering around who have incredibly different culture patterns than anything you’ve ever heard before.”
“I don’t know if I like it here,” Renate said. “Let’s leave.”
“We’ve got cargo,” I said. “Kohn’s beeped me. But I want a drink first, okay?”
She shrugged and came with me.
After the drink, I felt better. I excused myself, after paying for another round of drinks, and went to the bathroom to wipe the blood off my face. After washing my face, I examined my nose. I could see it healing rapidly, and I knew the ring was doing it.
The trip back to the ship was maddening. Renate was cranky and irritable. We passed by a clothing shop, and she demanded I buy her some clothing. I agreed, and it took her over an hour to choose a suit. I hated it. It was dark green with a deep cut neckline. It was similar to the jumpsuit she’d been wearing, but it was made of much thinner material, and with the new boots she bought, she looked like a hooker from one of the bars. I imagined her father would flip when he saw it.
As we neared the liftor, we met the man who’d given us the directions. I was polite and said hello.
“I don’t know you, creep!” he snarled at me. He shoved me aside, and walked down the street, glaring at everything.
I shook my head and walked on. I knew better than to try to mess with a native. It’s a good way to wind up dead.
Kohn looked very pleased with himself when we came aboard.
“What’d we get?” I asked.
“Full price,” he said with a smile. “Not only that, we’ve got a load of Medicals for Steel!”
“Medicals?” I asked, stunned. And to Steel, too? It was almost too good to be true. In fact, as I thought about it, it was too good to be true.
“I don’t want to go back,” Renate said before I could ask Kohn anything.
We both turned to her. “What do you mean you don’t want to go back?” we both asked.
“Just what I said,” she answered. “I don’t want to go back. I’m having fun with you guys.”
I shook my head. “Whether you like it or not, you’re going. We’ve already signed the contract, and that’s that.” I didn’t give her much thought and turned back to Kohn. “How did you get the Medicals?”
“I’m not going, and you can’t make me,” she snapped.
I sighed and turned to her again. She had a petulant, spoiled-little-girl pout creasing her lips. I wished I had a knock-out gun, but I didn’t. I merely reached out, gripped her arms, and told Kohn to get the extra chair out. It slid from its compartment, and we strapped her in. She screamed, shrieked, and cursed at us while we made sure she was strapped in tightly. We walked to the control cabin to shut out her noise.
“She’s a real pest,” I said. “Almost got me killed on the Strip.”
“Actually, that’s not really a Strip,” Kohn said. “But I’ll explain that later. I got the Medicals because the Union Ship got a shipload of FUNN. This is the planet that manufactures it.”
“No wonder,” I whispered. FUNN was the strongest legal drug in the Spheres. It induces instant euphoria, and it leaves no after effects. There are no withdrawal symptoms. FUNN is very expensive, and if the Union Ship had gotten a full load, a shipment of Medicals would be small change compared to the profit they’d make on just a crate of FUNN. It still wasn’t right, though, because the Union could just bring in another ship and take the Medicals, too. Or could they?
The Space Mavericks Page 10
