Ghost Stories
“Chan slow
down!” Exclaimed a portly man as he trotted along a corridor of the busy
“Why William
Lemont, I haven’t see you since that dust up at Lang Jiang’s
To his credit
Lemont only blushed red as opposed to the deep crimson shade he used to reach
whenever the term Lang Jiang’s
“Now Chan, you know that wasn’t either my doings or my fault. The bachelor party for Jason got out of control when the twins took a liking to the best man. I barely escaped the fire and Lang Jiang hasn’t spoken to me since. I miss that old reprobate.”
“Okay, okay,
you win; I only mention it as I know I can get you to blush whenever I do.”
”Well it’s not every day a man of
my girth has to crawl out of the second floor of a burning building, wearing a
hastily acquired and strategically tied kimono. Now how about we move on to the
present mei mei. I hear you are
hiring.”
“You know you are the only person in the ‘Verse I let call me that don’t you? Not even my real brothers can refer to me as ‘little sister’ even though they are my older brothers.”
“I consider it both a term of endearment and an extreme honor that I am afforded the privilege.”
“You’ll have to
remind me why I allow you that privilege again?”
”Why it’s my sparkling personality my dear soon to be captain.”
Chan lost her battle not to laugh and William joined her for several priceless moments before the big man turned solemn again.
“I’m serious Chan, you want a crew, I want to be on it, and I’ve got the coin to pay my freight, even if I might be packing a bit more freight than the average bear.” He added as he rubbed his vast belly and leered lasciviously.
Chan punched him in the shoulder for all the effect it had before trusting herself to maintain a serious face and reply. “Seriously William, I thought you had a gig?”
“I do, but bouncing isn’t a job in the Black and you know I have the soul of a spacer. I’ll take what work as I can find, but given half a choice, I want to be on a ship and given half of a half’s choice I want to be on yours.”
“William you have the soul of Henry the Eighth, but I also know I couldn’t ask for a better man on my crew. The job of First Mate is yours if you can front your share. I hate to have to resort to offering shares in the ‘Ghost, but you know my situation and I’ve had to make some choices I don’t like. Between you and me, I really need someone I know I can trust on board.”
“How much exactly is my share Chan? I’ve got some money saved, but I can’t buy your boat for you.”
Chan’s eyes flashed for a moment and she took a deep breath before replying with a heavy sigh. “Used to be a time I would have slapped you cross-eyed for saying that, but times have gotten hard enough that I can’t be anywhere near as choosey as I would like, but then again, you are a bit different, you are an old friend that I can be honest with. Walk with me William, the ship’s not far.”
“Certainly mei mei.” William replied with a soft voice knowing his friend was talking about something that was a source of deep pain for her.
The two walked in silence for a while as Chan gathered her thoughts, finally tossing her head as if to chase away the last of her doubts before beginning to speak.
“I knew I was talking a chance when I saw that old Firefly sitting in the scrapper’s yard, but she was sound and despite what happened to Lattimer and her former crew, I knew she would treat me right. And she has, it was my crew that was the problem. We ran the Black for two years before we ran into a bad patch. Them as were in my crew at the time got to talking that it was the ghost of Harold Lattimer himself that was acting as our Jonah. Seemed like there was nothing I could do to break that run of bad luck and keep us in coin, finally we set down here on Verbena eight months ago with a busted compression coil and empty pockets. The crew was nice and all, being stand up enough to tell me to my face that they’d had enough and were shipping out as best as they could with other ships.
“I leveraged every friend I know. I even contacted some of my old Browncoat ‘buddies.’ Those as would even talk to me were of no help and I’ve been stuck here in Kennewick ever since, spending good credits on docking fees and going nowhere about as fast as an Alliance bureaucrat. Since I was alone and had the run of the ship, I could have nice long conversations with our merciful Buddha and finally he sent me an epiphany so pure I could only shake my head as to why I couldn’t see it in the first place. William, what is the root of unhappiness?”
The big man blinked taken by surprise by the non sequitur question before replying with the central core answer known to all Buddhists. “Desire mei mei.”
“Exactly William, I was so deeply focusing on what I, and my damn pride wanted, I couldn’t see I had the answer all along. Do you remember an old poem from Earth-That-Was about no one being an island?”
“My, but you have had time to think Chan. I haven’t heard a quote from the meditations of John Donne in a long time.”
“Yeah well, eight months will do that to you. Anyway, my point was I was trying to be an island, trying to do everything on my own to suit my own prideful desire to be a one woman show. Once I figured out I had a resource others would desire I had a means to resolve my problem. Here she is William, the one and only Lattimer’s Ghost.”
The would-be First Mate joined Chan in smiling from ear to ear as they arrived at the docking port and they got a good look at the parked standard Firefly-Class Mid-Bulk transport. William took his time looking the ship over as Chan stood to one side to give him the time and space to thoroughly examine what would become his home.
“Beautiful as you are mei mei, but I do have a question.
“What’s that?”
“I have to ask, why does the hull have that brassy color? Typically Fireflies look more gunmetal gray.”
“Ah, yes, I looked into that ‘cause I was curious my own self. The ‘Ghost was one of the very last ships off the line and the contractor supplying the hull plates, knowing the Firefly contact was about to go south, left the builder hanging to pursue other deals that would last longer. The shipyard had to scramble to find a source for hull plates that could meet standards and were forced to settle for a supplier that used a different alloy that contained more copper, the reason for that, I could never find out.”
“Simple enough, makes her look more unique than the average Firefly, I like it. Now that I see exactly what this resource you had is first hand, how much will it cost me to quench my own problems with personal desire and to get myself back into karmic balance?”
“Four hundred credits.”
“Ah…um…wow, I knew I was a man of many passions, but I didn’t know I had so much desire residing in this fine frame of mine.” William replied as he stood hands deep in his pockets and rocking back and forth from his heels to the balls of his feet, deep in thought as he wrestled with the decision. “You have any other investors?”
“I’ve got a pilot and a mechanic solid. I’ve got a line on a medic that’s not as solid, but it’d be a shame not to have one considering the full infirmary. I’ve had several other offers, but not fully sure on any of them, you know folk.”
“Well, you’ve got a First Mate solid as well. I just need to tell my current employer to gen hou zi bi diu shi[1]. I’ll be back in two hours.”
Chan smiled and hugged the big man fiercely. “I knew I could count on you William. Now git! I’ve got captain like things to get done.”
“What sort of things?”
“Mainly making sure I get that medic before she gets away and seeing if I can squeeze out any other serious crew. Things will be a mite tight if we only have five. If I can firm up seven, we’ll have enough capital to keep us flying.”
“See you soon mei mei.”
“I’ll be here.”
True to his word, Lemont walked up the cargo ramp of the Lattimer’s Ghost two hours later. He had a large duffle bag on his shoulder and was pulling a hand-truck stacked with boxes behind him. As he entered the ship he was met by a small man.
“Who are you and why are you on my ship?”
William looked the scrawny guardian up and down before replying with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “I’m the first mate and who might you be?”
“Crap! The Captain said she went and hired a first mate, I just didn’t know she hired so much first mate.” The man guffawed for a moment until he suddenly found himself dangling off the deck in one meaty fist and staring at the other meaty fist drawn back and ready to strike.
“Okay slick, you’ve used your freebie, next ‘fat’ joke and whatever you do, we’ll get another one. Now I asked you a question, who might you be?”
“P-P-Put me down you big…uh…Sir. I’m Sylvester Marsh the pilot!”
Before William could respond, Chan Juan and another man entered the cargo bay from the rear entrance.
“Marsh, that mouth of yours is going to get you in trouble one day. You should consider yourself lucky that William Lemont is a kind hearted individual. Since you two have had a chance to meet, I’ll introduce you to Willis Thorton, he’s our mechanic. Oh and put Mr. Marsh down. Despite his mouth, he really is a good pilot. Or at least that’s what he likes to tell everyone.”
“Are you sure he’s old enough to have a license captain?” William said as he lowered first his fist and then the pilot. “He barely looks old enough to be on his first joy ride in a hover car.”
“Trust me William, I ran the license six times and called the flight academy. Young Marsh here was first in his class.”
“You’re the captain.” He replied as he turned to shake Thorton’s hand. “Sorry about the little display, it is nice to meet you, both of you actually.”
”It is a pleasure to be working for you Mr. Lemont.” Willis said with a stiff formality.
“None of that fancified stuff young feller. Please call me William, but never call me Bill. I never liked being associated with a notice of debt.”
“William it shall be then. I must take my leave of you good people. I’ve got some more tuning to do to be certain we are ready for when we are given the order to go.” Nodding to each member present, the intense mechanic turned and headed for the engine room. William watched him leave and turned to Chan with a raised eyebrow.
Noticing the silent exchange, Marsh took that moment to leave as well speaking over his shoulder as he departed. “I’m ready whenever you are captain. William.”
Once they were alone Chan shook her head. “I know William, I said I had a resource that others would desire, not that I was a woman of means. I screened both of them carefully. The flight academy said Marsh was top notch in spite of his age and mouth. Thorton had the same sort of recommendations. He’s just a tad too deep into his religiosity to be quite right.”
“Chan, I know
how you’ve been struggling, we’ve known each other a long time and it was hard
for me to stand by and watch, but I knew you had to face this thing by
yourself. Now I don’t have to keep my mouth shut and you are not alone. If
these guys come with good ratings, then they know their jobs. Making them get
along and be a crew is my job. It will work out mei mei.
I’m really looking forward to it.”
Chan’s eyes twinkled as she replied. “I am too William.”
The two were interrupted by a small voice from outside.
“Uh…hello?”
“Cindy! I’m glad you decided to come by. Cindy Schultz, this is William Lemont the first mate. William, this is the medic I told you about.
“Charmed Cindy, captain said you were a top notch find.” William said while doing an admirable job of not staring at a woman that could in, best kindness, be called unattractive.
“Nice to meet you too William.” Said Cindy. “As for being top notch, well I like what I do.”
“Have you thought about my offer Cindy?” Chan asked, carefully maintaining an air of total calm and Zen-like control.
“I have captain and after considerable thought, I accept. I’m a traveling sort and I can’t stay in one place too long, having a home that travels with me appeals to me.” Replied Cindy.
“Born under a wandrin’ star Cindy?” William asked with a big smile.
“Excuse me?”
“You’ll have to forgive William he’s a font of knowledge from Earth-That-Was. I’m sure that line was a quote from some obscure poem or song.” Chan said with a knowing look that women share when they are talking about a man right in front of him.
“It was from a play actually, but you are right, I do go on at times. It’s part of my sparkling personality.”
Chan rolled her eyes in mock disgust. “Get used to hearing that one too. It’s his favorite line about himself.”
“Actually I won’t mind. Getting to know a new unit will be good for me.” Said Cindy.
“Unit?” Chan replied, obviously going on guard.
Looking over
both shoulders to make sure they were alone before replying. “I’m going to take
a guess here as not too many pro
“Well, I’d say your guess is right on track. I chose to stay out of the war, not something I’m proud of, but I don’t exactly have the shape of a soldier.” William said so smoothly that Cindy failed to notice the flash in Chan’s eyes.
“The Browncoats weren’t exactly picky about a soldier’s appearance, just as long as they made an appearance. Being there was more important than looking good.”
“Ah yes, that was so true.” Chan added with a thankful glance at William for his timely intervention to give her time to collect her thoughts.
“You were a Browncoat captain?
“Yes I was, but not a very good one. However, we are talking about today’s news and not yesterday’s news Cindy. When can you be ready?”
“Uh I have a
few loose ends in
“Three days then Cindy, I am so happy you joined us. The ‘Ghost has a full infirmary and it would have galled me to no end to lift without a medic.”
“I’ll see you out Cindy.” Said William as he led the new medic to the main hatch. “Since you were a Browncoat, you know how life is in the Black, you never know when a medic will be needed and I’ll echo the Captain’s sentiments about having you aboard.”
“Thank you William, I think I’ll be happy here.”
“It’s my job to see that you are. Bye now.”
“Bye.”
William returned to where Chan was standing with a distant look in her eye. “Mei mei, she has no way of knowing what happened. Besides, you are the captain. She’ll see that the story is a load of gos se[2].
“Yeah that it is, but I doubt if I’ll ever be able to get out from under that load of gos se William.”
“Those that know you have already figured out the truth, those that don’t know you don’t matter.”
“Still ever the gallant one I see. My hero!” Chan said as she clapped her hands and looked at her friend with fawning eyes before bursting into laughter.
“Ah that’s what I was aiming for.” William replied as he joined in the captain in a hearty laugh. “So, which way to my room?”
”Oh right, let me show you the accommodations, by the way, what’s in the boxes?”
“One guess.”
“Food.”
“You know me too well mei mei. I may love the life of a spacer, but that doesn’t mean I have to love protein packs.”
The next morning found the crew of the Lattimer’s Ghost going over the myriad of details to make sure the ship was really ready for spaceflight. It’s been said the devil is in the details, what gets left out of that simple saying is the fact that devil’s name was Murphy. Fuel, water, oxygen for life support, foodstuffs, parts, tools, calibrations, flight certifications inspections, and what seemed like a never ending list of niggling annoyances to make life more difficult than it needed to be. All of those details paled compared to the most important detail, namely finding a cargo.
“Another six waves from this Xavier nutcase. I swear that woman is going to drive me to drink.” Chan snarled as she closed the Cortex link.
“Uh, you already drink mei mei.” William offered cautiously.
“Okay to smoke then!”
“Uh, you already smoke mei mei.” William added even more cautiously.
“That’s beside the point; she’s going to make me drink and smoke more.”
“Not having met this woman, so I can’t go too far out on a limb, but are you sure she is in fact a nutcase?”
“Well, I did see this chick and let’s just say she’s not boosting on all thrusters.” Marsh added from the pilot’s seat of the bridge.
“Her coin good?” Asked William.
“Yes damn it, she’s got the coin, but I don’t want her on my crew.” An obviously and completely exasperated Chan replied.
“Okay then captain, I guess I’ll ask the obvious question…why?”
“I…uh…I…uh… Damn it William do you have to be so logical?”
“Not always, but it seems appropriate at the moment.”
“I too have seen Miss Xavier and while she strikes me as a troubled woman, I did not perceive her to be an actual threat.” Willis said joining the conversation after having heard the raised voices all the way from the cargo bay.
“No she’s not a threat, but I’m not seeing what she would add to the crew. She’s damn sure no fighter and as for her ‘technical skills’ I don’t see where we can use a computer brain trust.”
“What did her former employers say, she got any references?” William said after some thought.
“That’s the main reason I don’t trust her William, this woman doesn’t exist as far as the Cortex is concerned, she’s got names of people she’s worked for, but I couldn’t find a word on her that I could confirm. Even when she sends me a wave, they come with no header and I can’t trace them to where she sent them.” Chan replied shaking her head.
“Are you sure we can’t use skills like that? Being able to move though the Cortex without leaving a trace strikes me as a right useful talent.” Said William.
Chan took a deep breath and pinched the bridge of her nose as a headache threatened to form. “I have to admit, that could be a useful talent, but since I can’t check her background, what sort of problems is she towing behind her that we can’t see? I guess that is what my main problem is about this woman. I don’t mind a surprise, especially if it involves jewelry, candy, or something made out of lace, but you all know surprise out in the Black come in two kinds, trouble and bigger trouble.”
“Mental note to self, ‘something made out of lace’ for captain.” William said with a huge grin.
“Do not make me hurt you so bad that I will need to hire a new first mate while you recover William.”
“New mental note to self, erase previous mental note.”
“Did Miss Xavier leave you a contact address?” Willis asked. “It seems to me that while she may be an enigma, I believe she would have a function on this crew.”
“She’d be entertaining if nothing else.” Marsh chuckled as he watched the exchange while waiting for the main navigation computer to reinitialize after completing the calibration routine. “I’d like to see her in something made out of lace.”
“I’ve hired a crew of pigs. Sweet Buddha, I know I was prideful, but is this to be my lot forever and always?” Chan beseeched the silent heavens hoping for some sort of answer. “To answer your question Willis, no she never does, I’m sure she will contact me again in an hour.”
“Captain, while the rest of the crew may have certain rough edges, I do not believe you would have hired them if they were truly the pigs you speak of. As the Yin and Yang tells us, we must have balance. I believe your own refinement requires that at least part of the crew be of a more raw state to keep the crew and Feng Shui in proper harmony.” Willis said with complete sincerity.
“Willis, why didn’t you become a monk? You obviously live the life and would be worthy.” Chan replied with an honest smile.
“My parents wished this so Captain, but it seems my destiny is on a different path.”
“It is the monastery’s loss Willis.”
“You are most kind Captain.”
“Um I hate to interrupt, but I realize that not being able to check out her claims is offering a bit more trust than is common in the ‘Verse, but you yourself said she wasn’t a fighter, to my thinking, that means if she does try anything, she won’t be hard to subdue if it comes to that. I say we give her a berth and if she proves to be a problem, we buy out her share and dump her on the first planet we reach. If she tries anything, we just give her an all expenses paid close up tour of the Black without a spacesuit.” William said without a trace of humor on his face.
“That sounds like a first mate talking to me.” Chan smiled. “I think you have hit on a plan, besides, there is no doubt we can use the coin.”
“It’s settled then, now next order of business. Uh, is there a next order of business?”
“A cargo might be nice William.” Said Marsh.
“All too true Sylvester.” William replied and catching the flash in the pilot’s eyes. “Serves you right you smart ass.” He thought knowing that Marsh did not like being called by his first name.
“I’ve been stuck on this rock for eight months, and I’ve had a chance to cultivate a few contacts that should lead us to a right proper cargo.” Chan said arching her back in a full stretch as she stood up.” I’ll wait ‘til I hear from Xavier, then William and I will go out and canvass some of the local establishments for a paying cargo.”
“This should be interesting indeed.” William rubbed his hands together then turned to face the pilot. “You got that nav-computer working yet?”
“Yeah finally, the ruttin’ thing had to be wiped clean and manually reload it, but it’s as ready to fly as anything else on the ‘Ghost, that is if old Harold Lattimer gives us his blessing.”
“Don’t give me that haunted gos se.” Chan snapped. “I won’t lose another crew to fairy tales.”
“Easy Captain, I was kidding.”
“Sorry Marsh, I’m overly sensitive about the topic of the late Mister Lattimer.”
“He was a bona fide hero and whether he meant to or not, he’s left us a fine ship mei mei, we’ll make him and you proud-” William was interrupted by a tone announcing a new wave from the Cortex.
“Captain Wu, it is so nice to finally catch you at home.” A bald woman with pale white makeup and darkened eyes and lips said from the display.
“Ah Miss Xavier, sorry for the delays in returning your waves, there is so much to get ready when you are trying to get a ship registered for space worthiness.”
“I quite understand Captain. I’m actually standing at the bottom of your cargo ramp and I’d like to come aboard if that is okay with you.”
Marsh slammed the mute button before snarling “That chick is stalking you captain!”
“Please un-mute the Cortex Marsh.” Chan replied and waited the half second it took for Marsh to stare blankly at the captain and then comply.
“That would be fine Miss Xavier, welcome aboard. Well gentlemen, let’s talk to the lady”
“Lady?” Marsh muttered as he followed the rest of the crew to the cargo bay.
“Captain Wu, I am happy to finally meet you in person.” Xavier said warmly and then waited expectantly.
“Yes Miss Xavier, nice to meet you as well. I-”
“Please Captain, no need to be so formal. Xavier is all I go by, I require no honorifics.” The slight woman interrupted. “Is this the rest of the crew?”
“Yes, well almost all, our medic, a Cindy Schultz, will join us in two days.” Chan went through the formal introductions as each of the men tried hard not to stare at the would-be crew member’s unusual appearance, before they all found things to do at a glance from the captain. Chan then took the woman on a tour of the ship, returning to the cargo bay once finished.
“Captain, I know you’ve had a chance to read my proposal, do you accept?” An obviously satisfied Xavier said once the tour was over.
Chan hesitated for only a moment before replying and shaking the woman’s hand. “Yes Xavier I do.”
“I only have one question.”
”And that would be?”
“Why did you name your ship the Lattimer’s Ghost? Is this in reference to the previous owner Harold Lattimer?”
“Well that’s two questions, but they are related. You are correct this ship was originally owned by Harold Lattimer and she used to fly under the name Tantivy. This ship is actually one of the last 03 model Fireflies produced and she’s plied the spacelanes for just over twenty years. Lattimer was one of the first to join with the Independent faction and his ship was converted into a med-ship to support the war effort.
“I never met
the man, but everything I’ve ever heard points to him being a true patriot, he
kept the Tantivy close to the battle lines and brought out wounded when no one
else would even try to go get them, but the old girl here suffered for it. She
may not look like much, but she’s tough, ‘cause she was hit many times despite
a collision avoidance upgrade he put in. The Tantivy stayed flyin’ mainly due
to the sheer orneriness of the ship herself and her owner. Being so close to
the front lines, it didn’t take long before the Tantivy was flagged by the
“But the wear
and tear on the ship from her wartime exploits was something fierce and
constantly having to fly the longest courses to avoid
“The Tantivy sat in the scrapper's yard waiting to be broken up for nearly a year before I found her and despite how she looked on the outside, I knew I couldn’t just let her get broken up to make the next generation of Blue Sun razor blades, So I bought her, despite her reputation she’d picked up for ‘killing’ her crew. Hell, I know fifty people that wouldn’t be breathing if not for this here ship. I knew that rep and I didn’t need any baggage dragged along with her original name, so in a bit of gallows humor, I renamed the ship in honor of her late owner the Lattimer's Ghost.”
“I can tell you have great pride in your ship Captain, I look forward to being a part of your crew and being on a ship with an illustrious, if a tad colored background, too many things in the ‘Verse lack color. This ship shines and I like that. I’ll go get my things and be back in an hour.”
“You travel light Xavier.”
“Well the ‘Verse isn’t always a friendly place and I’ve had to make more than one quick exit, so I’ve found it’s best to be mobile.”
“We can swap quick exit stories one day. I’ve got a few of my own.”
“I look forward to it Captain.”
”Chan.”
“I...thank you Chan, see you soon.”
“See you soon.”
Chan watched the decidedly different woman walk away and began to wonder about her reasons for letting someone she knew absolutely nothing about join her crew. “I hope I haven’t become a whore to money.” She though savagely. “I know I haven’t had much choice in my crew and this choice is going to be the biggest risk since I kept my girl from the scrapper’s yard. Thank you dear Buddha for William, I couldn’t do this alone again.”
As Chan watched Xavier disappear into the crowd, she felt a presence draw next to her. She didn’t bother turning that direction as she knew who it was, why he was there, and smiled to herself at his impeccable timing.
“Ready to find us a job Captain?” William asked after a moment.
“Yes I am. As I mentioned I know a few people, we’ll start with the legit ones, and work our way down the scale.”
“Who’s at the bottom of the scale?” Said William as he checked his pistol and slipped into the folds of the back of his shirt.
“A charming
little snake named
“Oh him, mei mei, you’ve got to keep better company.”
“Yeah well the old saying is beggars can’t be choosers and just in case you haven’t noticed, we are only one step short of that status.”
“Then it’s time to take a couple steps up the ladder of success.”
“After you good
sir.” Chan replied with a sparkle in her eyes that hadn’t been there a couple
days earlier as she lit up a fresh cigarra and followed William into the busy
streets of
.
“Oh come on
“Chan there is
no doubt you could make it worth my while and I’d jump at the chance if I
thought for a second that you had the slightest intention of actually allowing
me to touch you, but we both know you won’t, so please don’t insult me.” The
oily man with a thin Fu Manchu moustache replied. “I know you Chan, but I also
know a bit about your background and the rep that bucket of bolts you fly in
has, neither is what you call stellar. I have to live here and if I give you a
lead, it’s my reputation that stands
to suffer for you and yours. That doesn’t exactly put you in the strongest
bargaining position despite, your other obvious assets.”
“Okay
“Two hundred and fifty platinum.”
”Two-…wha…Are you insane?” Chan sputtered.
“I’m certain a professional would find me so, but you asked what it would cost and two hundred and fifty in coin is my price to provide what you desire.”
“Maybe we could do you a service instead?” William asked to give Chan a chance to gather her thoughts and calm down.
“Y-Yes a service, maybe a cargo run at ten percent off?” Chan added.
“Ah Miss Wu, you then ask me to place faith in your…vessel. I would prefer not to do so. My price is my price. Have you the coin or are we finished here?”
The look that
boiled out of Chan’s eyes would have done a fine job of turning the underworld
broker into an even finer pile of ash, but Chan’s shoulders slumped as she knew
she really didn’t have the option to be choosey. She and William had spent
several hours going through every person they knew in
“
“Extortion is
such an ugly word for such a lovely woman Captain
Wu and so inaccurate in this case. An extortionist takes damaging
information and forces someone to pay them to keep quiet. I have no such
information on you and I am forcing nothing. You are asking me for information
and I am asking a price for that information, no extortion is involved.” He
replied as he gathered up the colorful notes and making them disappear into the
folds of his synth-silk robe. “The man
you wish to meet is one Patrick Hong of Dragon Flower Interplanetary. I will
send him a wave that you will be visiting him…”
“It is getting
late for proper introductions, so tell him tomorrow at ten.” William
interjected smoothly. “A proper introduction requires somewhat more formal
attire than we are currently wearing. Thank you so much for your time
“Looks like you needed some air.” He said after a few minutes.
“What I need is to strangle that hou zi de pi gu[4].”
“An admirable goal, but we got what we wanted even if it cost us a bit more than expected, but I suggest we focus our energy on getting this Mister Hong to actually hire us as his shipper. Just because we have a name it doesn’t mean we actually have the job yet. Focus mei mei, I know you know this wasn’t going to be easy.”
“It just galls
me to no end to have to drop good coin on the likes of
“It takes money to make money captain.”
“You just have to be logical don’t you?”
“It is my way more often than not.”
“I don’t know
whether to kill you or kiss you, but either way I’m glad your here dear
friend.”
”As if I would choose to be anywhere else. Now, let’s get ready for tomorrow.
When Chan and William reached the ship, they were met by Marsh who was so excited he was nearly hovering. He bolted down the cargo ramp, hit a slick spot, landed hard on his rump and slid down the ramp coming to a stop head down on his back.
“Uh hi captain.” He said sheepishly as he rolled back to his feet. “I have some good news.”
“Good news? Why am I suddenly suspicious?” She replied guardedly, but obviously trying not to laugh at the pilot’s misfortune.
“No kiddin’ cap, real honest to Buddha good news.”
“The suspense is killing us Mister Marsh, what is this news?” William chuckled.
“I’ve got someone that wants to rent one of our shuttles, long term even.”
“You rented a shuttle without talking to me first?” Chan said quietly.
“No, no, no Captain, I wouldn’t do that! But let’s face it captain, its extra money and it’s not like the shuttle is being used.” Marsh said defensively.
“So what exactly did you do?”
“Well this damn fine lookin’ woman sashays up to the ship just as hot as all get out and says she got word as we was lookin’ for crew. Well by the time I got my eyes pushed back in my skull, I managed to get her name and all and that I would let the captain know you was interested in signin’ on.”
“And what is her name?” William queried with his head to one side and a small smile trying not to dance at the corners of his mouth.
“Wong Li Ming. And trust me Cap, she lives up to the Li Ming part.”
“Okay, okay, I got it she’s one hot number, Marsh you sound like you could use a dip in the fuel tanks to cool off. This Li Ming leave a way to contact her?” Chan said wearily not really in a mood for any of her pilot’s juvenile behavior.
“That she did Cap, it’s on the Cortex and I’ll pass on the liquid hydrogen bath, I don’t mean to go on, but whoa, you just didn’t see her.”
“As you say money is money, but why does she want a shuttle and not a berth on the crew?” William added to bring the conversation back on topic. ”What sort of hand is she?”
“Said she was a gambler, likes to travel about lookin’ for the ‘hot table’ she called it. She wants a mobile home, but doesn’t quite have the coin for a small ship of her own.”
“First a ‘computer expert’ and now a gambler, add a couple circus animals and a bearded lady and we can will have our own traveling carnival. However, as you both have said money is money. I’ll give this Li Ming a call and see if she’s another problem or worth putting up with cause she’s got the coin.” At that point Chan went up the ramp and headed toward the bridge.
“Captain’s under a lot of stress isn’t she William?” Marsh asked as he watched Chan leave.
“More than you know son, more than you know.”
“Miss Wong you have a deal.” Chan beamed and shook the hand of the woman that even the captain had to admit was stunning. “Easy girl, you know it’s been too damn long when you start checking out other women, that or I’ve been around Marsh too long” She added silently.
“Most excellent, I will have my things aboard by nightfall. I am sincerely looking forward to the freedom your ship will provide.” Li Ming said with a big smile. “When will we be departing?”
“Well honestly now that we have a full crew, anytime. But two things are keeping us in place. First, our medic won’t be aboard until tomorrow and if all goes well in today’s meeting, our cargo will be aboard tomorrow as well. Once those final details are done, we can lift at any time.”
“Excellent Captain.”
“Chan.”
“Then I insist you call me Li Ming.”
“Deal. See you this evening.”
“Until then.” Li Ming then turned and exited the ship climbing into her own hover car and sped away.
“Okay you man apes she’s gone and the show is over. For the love of Murphy guys, can’t you show even a little class?” Her eyes widened when she noticed a familiar silhouette trying to remain unnoticed at the back of the cargo bay. ”Oh sweet merciful Buddha, even you William?”
“Hey that’s not fair captain to single me out. The whole crew is here.”
Chan glanced upward and sure enough, her entire crew was peeking out sheepishly from various half hidden perches. She smacked her forehead in mock frustration. “Xavier?”
“Well Marsh made such a big deal, I was curious. I’m certain this won’t be the case often, but he was right, she is a beautiful woman.” Said Xavier as she walked down the stairs to join Chan. The ship’s ‘security expert’ was now sans the gothic makeup, but sporting a day’s growth of hair on the top half of her scalp.
Chan staged whispered conspiratorially. “Please Xavier, I need you on my side at the very least, someone has got to help me balance the raging testosterone on board.” Then she made an elaborate wink.
“Oh right got ya captain, but don’t forget, when your medic joins us tomorrow, it will be estrogen that rules the roost. That will serve the knuckle draggers right smart.”
“Yes. Yes it will, but I must put off that celebration for now. William and I have serious business to do. Oh William dear?”
“Coming captain dearest.” The big man replied tugging at the neck of an obviously brand new uniform-like coat with a closed collar and joining the two women.
“Leave it alone William, you look fine. You actually clean up fairly nicely and this Patrick Hong will be impressed. He had better be given what we had to shell out to get these outfits ready by today.” Said Chan.
“It will be worth it mei mei, he’ll take one look at you in that fine captainy like uniform and you’ll have him wrapped around whatever appendage you want him wrapped around. If you say I ‘clean up fairly nicely,’ then you are a down right knock out. Miss Wong may be quite the seductress, but you won’t be getting kicked out of the bed for eating crackers anytime soon either.”
“You see how he speaks to his captain? Such disrespect, and from my first mate no less. I’m going to have to institute floggings. No wait, scratch that, the knuckle draggers will expect me to do it personally and would enjoy it. Maybe something involving a plank”
Xavier burst out laughing at this and both William and Chan joined her.
“Well we do need to be going. Xavier you keep an eye on the other two knuckle draggers, I’ll have my hands full with this one.”
Xavier sketched a mock salute. “Aye aye captain ma’am.”
“I’m counting on you Xavier. Now stand clear, this mule is a close fit for the main hatch.”
The two boarded the hover mule and waited for Xavier to get clear. Under William’s skilled hands, once clear of the main cargo bay, he pivoted smartly and the ship’s officers departed amid the whirring of gravitics and impellers.
The main office
of Dragon Flower Interplanetary was a modest, sprawling building right on the
edge of the
“Good to meet you Captain Wu and this must be Mister Lemont your first mate. I received a wave from our mutual acquaintance requesting I grant you this meeting.” Hong said in a cultured voice as he rose and warmly greeted the two spacers. “May I offer you some tea?”
“Thank you Mister Hong that would be most gracious.” Chan replied taking her seat with the grace of a feline. “William and I as well as the whole crew of the Lattimer’s Ghost are grateful that you would see us.”
“Yes sir, we appreciate the opportunity to earn your business.” William added as he took the proffered tea in a cup of the finest bone china.
“Ah yes the Lattimer’s Ghost, I took the liberty of looking into your ship’s background before you arrived. Quite a storied career the ship has had.” Hong said after pouring tea for Chan and himself then returning to his seat. “However, the recent history has not quite been so storied. You are asking me to risk using an unproven ship to carry cargo of substantial value and with an unproven crew as well. Captain, I find myself asking the question why should I take such risks?”
Chan was thankful for the cover the tea provided as it gave her several precious seconds to collect her thoughts before she answered. “Since you have obviously done your homework I will not attempt to insult you and make any claims beyond the truth. While my current crew is new, both my first mate and I have ample experience with mid-bulk freighter operations. My pilot was rated first in his class and my mechanic has equally high recommendations from his previous employer. My medic, while not a certified doctor from an accredited medical school, she has four years of the most intensive instruction course in existence, that of battlefield medic. I know the references from Browncoat officers do not hold the same weight that they once did, my own personal experience have shown me that a good medic is better at keeping you alive than the best doctor in the ‘Verse, as they had to learn to do more with less.
“I did some research on Dragon Flower Interplanetary as well and if your company has a watchword, it is dependability. You do not strive to compete with Blue Sun in total amount of freight shipped or to best the fastest shipper either. What you guaranty your clients is that if Dragon Flower says a cargo will be on a given planet at a given time, then come the return of Earth-That-Was, you will have it there. Prior to the set of circumstances that resulted in me being stuck on Verbena, you will note that I never missed a delivery date either. I would not disrespect you or indeed myself if I wasn’t completely certain I could make the same guaranty today. My ship and my crew stand ready to meet the same standard of excellence your own company uses. I am a woman of honor and of my word, that is all I can offer as collateral that the Lattimer’s Ghost is without a doubt the ship to fulfill your contract.”
When she stopped speaking, it was clear that Hong had not expected Chan to take this particular tack with him. It was his turn to be grateful for a cup of tea to give him time to gather his thoughts. “Well Captain, you certainly speak passionately in the defense of your ship and crew. This is something I would expect and would not do business with you if you didn’t feel that way. However, almost any other captain would make the same passionate plea; tell me why should I consider you more likely to meet your obligation than any other ship of the same size?”
“I doubt if any other captain would offer their own ship as tangible collateral to back up my passionate plea.” She replied without hesitation.
This time Hong was caught by surprise, he hid it well, but a minute widening of his eyes had been caught by both William and Chan, all they could do at this point was pray that it was going to be enough to sway the businessman. They waited breathless as Hong carefully placed his tea cup on the saucer as if he no longer trusted to keep holding the delicate piece.
“Captain, you are indeed a singular woman. It is now my turn not to disrespect you and ask if you are serious. I have been in business a long time and I have a certain gift for detecting who is lying to me and who is not. I do not believe you would make such a statement and risk your way of life and the independence those that choose the tramp freighter existence treasure if you did not place such confidence both in yourself, your crew and your ship. Captain Wu, I believe we can do business.”
Chan stood to take Hong’s offered hand and let loose the breath she’d been holding with a beaming smile. “Thank you Mister Hong, I can only hope this will be the first shipment of a long term relationship between my ship and Dragon Flower Interplanetary.”
Hong laughed with genuine amusement. “One step at a time Captain, I can only take so many surprises in one day. I will have the loaders at your ship tomorrow morning. It will take them a good six hours to get the cargo secured, which will get you off planet by 1400.”
“What exactly are we transporting Sir.” William asked, finally feeling it was safe to speak.
“Two hundred
tons of mining equipment bound for
The silent assistant appeared without being summoned and led Chan and William to the foyer and graciously bid them good day.
Once back in privacy of the hover mule, Chan hugged William fiercely, perhaps trembling more than she intended before pulling back to share his huge grin. They sat there wordless until William started the mule and steered for the spaceport.
“You did it mei mei. As if there could be any doubt.” He said after awhile.
“We did it William. I wasn’t alone. You were there with me and the abilities of the rest of the crew were what sold him.”
“No we did not mei mei, it was you and your faith in us that sold him. I would never have thought to offer the ship. If you had not, he would have shown us the door empty-handed.”
“Well you know the old saying, I have got what I wished for, now it’s time to make good on having got it.”
“Don’t you go second guessing yourself, you have got us in business and we will make it happen. Your job is to stand back and look captainy now. It’s my job to make sure we are ready to lift, which will be easy as we are already ready to lift.”
“Yes we are.”
They drove the rest of the way back to the ship in silence having already said all that needed to be said.
Cindy Schulz arrived, as promised, the following day as the cargo was being loaded. She got her things moved into her cabin and then made a complete and thorough inventory of the ship’s infirmary. She took copious notes, then returned to stock items she found lacking with supplies from her own store of equipment. During this time the entire crew, after meeting her when she arrived gave her room to set up her place of business and to get settled.
As Cindy worked
though the infirmary, the loaders were making great strides with the cargo and
they were going to have the ship fully loaded an hour sooner than expected. The
rest of the crew moved through their pre-checks to be certain all was in
readiness. The quiet mechanic Willis was a whirling dervish of activity as he
brought the Lattimer’s Ghost’s power plant to full power for the first time in
eight months. Marsh was on the bridge no longer looking like a teen too young
for a learner’s permit. He was in his element and he was all business as he
completed the astrogation plot to
Xavier and Li Ming did not have a role to play in getting the ship ready, so they kept out of the way, each working on things that mattered to them. Xavier with a watercolor painting she had started on arriving on the ship and Li Ming with decorating her shuttle as her new home.
Chan tried her best to stay out of the way and ‘look captainy,’ but was not having much luck. However, every time she attempted to assist or intervene, almost like magic a towering figure would appear to shoo her away and take care of the matter. So, with nothing else to do, she lit up a cigarra and let the big man work.
William was also in his element and he was cherishing every minute of it. The near chaos of avoiding the load lifters, signing the manifest, answering six questions at once from the port functionaries, and a dozen other tasks he had to keep straight, but keep them straight he did. At 1312 hours he turned to Chan and gave her a big smile and a nod.
Chan walked over to the cargo bay intercom and toggled the switch. “All hands this is the captain speaking. The cargo bay is secured and we have been given clearance to lift. Thank you for your amazing work today and prepare for atmospheric maneuvering. Marsh, take us up.”
The response from the ship was a solid, smooth, and comfortable rise in the hum from the engine room. The barely audible roar of the engines picked up as Marsh fed them power and then the event they all had been waiting for, the vibration of the ship breaking contact with Verbena. Climbing smoothly, the Lattimer’s Ghost cleanly soared through the afternoon sky and soon the curvature of the planet was visible to the entire crew, except for Willis still tending the engine room, on the bridge who had gathered to watch. Only a few minutes later the blue skies of Verbena faded to the endless Black of the ‘Verse. They were on their way and the crew broke out into a cheer.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been happier to leave a place in my life.” Chan beamed so obviously thrilled that she nearly glowed.
“Second star on the right and straight on ‘til dawn.” William mumbled from the back of the bridge.
“What was that William?” Li Ming asked.
“Oh nothing really, a line from a children’s book is all.” He replied a touch of color on his cheeks.
“A children’s book?” Marsh sniggered from the controls.
“Yes a children’s book from Earth-That-Was. Now how about you concentrate on driving this thing Sylvester?” William snapped back and taking some guilty pleasure in seeing the pilot’s ears color slightly at the dig.
“Now children, you behave or Momma Captain will send you both to your rooms without supper.” Chan said tapping her foot and failing miserably at looking stern. When that failed to have the effect she was looking for she added. “I know missing out on protein packs isn’t much of a threat, but I am instituting a new Lattimer’s Ghost tradition called the ‘Lift Day Feast.’ So long as we sail the ‘Verse together, on the day we depart a planet, we will go all out with real food that we purchase fresh on the planet we depart from. I took the liberty while the cargo was being loaded to do the purchasing and tonight we will kickoff the new tradition. I will even prepare the meal this time. Dinner will be a 2000 and you will all dress well. Nothing formal or anything that pretentious, but not greasy coveralls either. Any questions?”
There were none
and the crew began to break up, either returning to their duties or cabins. The
Lattimer’s Ghost cruised blissfully on until Marsh ignited the
Promptly at 2000 hours, Chan entered the dining area with her masterpiece, she never tried to claim being a great cook or even a good cook really, just that she could cook. The meal was a simple sort of stir-fry made with chicken and fresh vegetables on real rice. She placed the meal in the center of the table and smiled approvingly at the crew’s attempts to dress for the occasion. Even Marsh found a shirt with a collar and had combed his unruly hair. Xavier, while still only sporting a couple days growth of hair, didn’t have on any garish makeup or eye inserts. Chan regarded her with her head canted to one side and “Damn she’s actually nice looking once you clean her up.” Chan took her seat at the head of the table after pouring a serving of wine for each member of the crew in whatever drinking vessel they happened to be using. She raised her glass expectantly and the rest of the crew followed suite. “Ladies and gentlemen, I hear by inaugurate the first ‘Lift Day Feast’ and offer the simple wish that this be the first of many.”
“Hear! Hear!” William seconded, and was echoed by the rest of the crew.
“It’s good to be back flyin’ after so long on the ground.” Chan commented her spacer’s patois beginning to loosen by a combination of being back in the Black and wine. “Please everyone, dig in!”
That was all that was needed to start a frenzied round of serving, slapped hands, and just short of a free-for-all as everyone reached for something at the same time. Chan didn’t try to control the flow of the meal, except for occasional flinty stares at Marsh when he got too grabby with the food. The crew laughed, talked, ate, and far too soon, given what a meal like this went for, the food was gone and at everyone pushed back from the table to enjoy the simple sensation of being full and not being full of protein packs.
Chan’s timing was perfect as she sensed the mood of her crew and knew it was time to say something before they started to either feel uncomfortable in the silence or decide it was time to go before getting stuck with doing the dishes.
“Thank you all for making this new tradition a success. Now, rather than scurry away to sleep off this fine meal, I’ll open the table for them as want to speak as much or as little as they would like. Since I cooked this time, I won’t go first. Anyone got words?”
“I do.” Li Ming said immediately. “I know that my skill set is not of direct use in actually keeping the ship flying, so it means a lot to me to a be a part of this crew. I like to thank everyone for making me feel so welcome.”
“I will echo that what Li Ming said.” Cindy added. “I haven’t felt this welcome since my last unit. Captain, you really know how to make a body feel wanted.”
“Anyone else?” Chan asked. There were none so she continued. “A good ship is only half of the equation everyone. Flyin’ certainly takes a good ship, but as I can tell you first hand, if you don’t have a crew to turn the ship into a home, it’s just a big empty house going no where fast. Now since everyone is starting to look a tad on the sleepy side from the feast, I’ll make everyone’s attempts to avoid doing the dishes easier. William, my dear friend, you will have the honors tonight.”
“Why did I know that was coming?”
“Because you know me too damn well. Besides a connoisseur of fine food such as you knows how much work goes into a good meal.”
“Ah well hoist on my own petard as it were. I humbly submit to my fate.” He stood and began to clear the table.
Before everyone could clear out, Chan’s voice sliced though the clatter of the plates and sliding of chairs. “One critical thing to remember is that I will not be the cook for every feast and William will not be the one who clears every time either. We will share the responsibilities. If you absolutely can’t cook, then you will pick up more of the clean up burdens.”
A chorus of ‘yes captain’ was the response and everyone headed their different ways, but still with animate chatter as they left. Chan smiled as she watched William make quick work of clearing the table.
“I think this is going to work this time.” She said finally.
“You only made one mistake with your first crew mei mei.” William replied, studiously washing the dishes.
“Only one? It seemed like it was mostly big mistakes tied together with an occasional smaller mistake.”
“Those were just incidental to the one mistake.”
“Okay William, enough of being coy, what is this one mistake then?”
“You didn’t have me as your first mate the first time.” He replied with a booming laugh.
Chan couldn’t help but join in as in her heart she knew this to be true. “I really shouldn’t encourage that ego of yours, but I really also couldn’t ask for a better first mate.”
“Just remember
that come pay day, now go on and get some sleep. You’ve been running too long
without enough sleep and there’s nothing to do now, but wait to get to
“I think I will take you up on that. I will lay claim to certain excess of fatigue. Good night William.”
“Good night mei mei.”
Chan walked slowly to her cabin reveling in the thrum of the engine, the vibration though the soles of her boots and the smell of a ship under pulse drive. She reached her cabin and managed to kick her boots off before sitting on her bunk. Getting her boots off proved to be a good thing as she was asleep before she could turn out the light.
Chapter Two
It turned out
the highlight of the five day trip was the Lift Day Feast as the rest of the
voyage was about as incident free as was possible. The crew played cards, ate,
slept, talked, walked, but the Lattimer’s Ghost proved to be every bit as ready
as her crew thought she was. Eventually a tone from the navigation array told
Marsh that they had reached
“You do enjoy flying don’t you Marsh?” Li Ming asked as she entered the bridge aware, yet unaware of her lithe movements that accentuated every curve even when she wasn’t trying.
“I um, yeah I do. Please don’t give me the usual answer of ‘you mean last week?’ when I tell you I’ve wanted to be a pilot since I was a kid.”
“You asked to be called Marsh and I have honored your wishes, I think I can manage at least some decorum when it comes to not exploit something I can tell obviously makes you extremely uncomfortable. People make assumption based on my appearance all the time and I can certainly relate to not be taken seriously based on something as random as appearance.”
“Remind me never to play Tall Card with you; you actually said that with a straight face.”
“I wouldn’t be much of a gambler if I couldn’t keep a straight face and know a thing or two about Tall Card.”
Before Marsh could reply, the ship pitched sharply toward the planet as it hit a downdraft. Li Ming was tossed forward and managed to catch the back of the pilot’s seat, this brought her in very close proximity to Marsh. When he caught a whiff of her perfume and could feel something extremely soft pressed against his shoulder, the ship pitched down even sharper as he fought for control and to concentrate.
“MARSH!!! What in the gou cao de[5] hell do you think you are doing?” Chan thundered over the intercom. I’d prefer not to have our first run end with us as a smoking crater. It’s not good for repeat business!”
“I’m on it Cap! Just ran into some…er…stronger than expected wind sheer, I’ve got it now.” And true to his words the Lattimer’s Ghost stopped her precipitous dive and leveled out. As soon as the deck was level enough, Li Ming pulled herself over to the co-pilot’s seat and chuckled despite herself.
“Discretely handled Marsh, I shall from now on endeavor not to be on the bridge during re-entry. The last thing we need is for me to cause you additional wind sheer while you are trying to land.”
“Ah Li Ming, you know you are welcome, I just didn’t expect you to hit me with your…er never mind. Trust me, I enjoyed the experience, just caught me at a bad moment.” Then he began to guffaw in side splitting laughter. The ship vibrated a bit in time with his laughing, but he kept the ship flying straight and level toward the crude landing field he could see in the distance.
“What is so bloody funny Marsh?” Chan barked as she stormed onto the bridge, William, and Xavier right behind her.
“I’m sorry captain, the fault is mine. I should not be regaling our pilot with my tales of the gambling circuit while he is trying to do his job. The bridge is suddenly crowded, and I have no place here. I will return to my shuttle. “As she stood she shot Marsh a sly wink, making him start to laugh again. She deftly exited the bridge before she could be asked to explain.
“Oh great my pilot turns out to be a comedian. You know William that traveling carnival we talked about is starting to sound more plausible every day.” Chan snapped her eyes flashing.
“You might be on to something captain. As long as we kept the overhead down, we could eke out a few extra credits every run as the ship was being loaded and unload.” The first mate replied his own eyes twinkling with amusement.”
“William I hate you right now.”
“No you don’t”
“I don’t? Why not?”
“My sparkling personality.
“Wo de ma he ta de feng kuang de wai sheng dou[6]! I am going to have to kill you one day when I’m not quite so busy running this soon to be five ring circus.” Chan snapped back, but could not sustain her anger in the face of William crossing his eyes at her. She snorted a short laugh and smacked him backhanded on the shoulder. “What ever am I to do with you?”
“I suggest you make your way to the cargo bay with me so we can meet the manager of the mine. We have arrived.” William replied looking out the viewports as Marsh flared for a landing in the gathering twilight.
“Can I tag
along?” Xavier asked from the corner of the bridge where she’d been quietly
observing the entire exchange between the other crew members. “I’ve never been
to
“Uh, oh hell, why not?” Chan replied
with only the slightest of hesitations. “Might as well see how we operate so we
can see if you can find a way to assist with our normal operations. You don’t
happen to know how to juggle do you?” They all got a big laugh out of that one,
save for Marsh, and were still chuckling as they exited the bridge.
To say the mining operation’s landing facilities were sparse was like saying things were tough on the Rim. Consisting of only a bare spot on the top of a mesa for a landing field, three wind worn buildings, and a wind powered water tower the facilities did not promise much of a chance of relaxing off ship. The way things looked, it was much more likely that the crew would have to fend off miners looking for a chance to relax on the ship.
Once the ship powered down, William hit the control that lowered the main cargo ramp. Chan Juan, William, Cindy, and Xavier were met by a blast of warm dry wind, but at least it was a change from the scrubbed faintly smelling of hydraulic fluid air of the ship No one met them as they exited the ship, so they made their way toward the building with a faded sign that said operations. On entering, they found a scruffy looking unshaven man with blood shot eyes attempting to rise from behind a desk with a nameplate that said manager.
“Well now
comp’ny that be somethin’ we don’t get much round here. I’m Grady Smith welcome
to the hou zi de pi gu[7]
of
“Why certainly Mister Smith, as you say time is money, we can actually go look for those missing miners now if you like.” Chan replied her eyebrows creased in concern.
“Oh no, no, none o’ that, first jus’ call me Grady and more important, it’s too dangerous at night with the wind comin’ up. Mornings good enough, that way a couple o’ my men can go wid you an’ show you the way.”
“It’s easy to see why you’re the boss Grady, Dragon Flower’s been good to us so we’ll be glad to help.” William added.
“You all are good folk…uh, one more thing. Again, seein’ as we are a small facility, would y’all mind stayin’ aboard your own fine vessel? We are a might short on space fer visitors is all.”
“That’s what we had planned on
Grady. No offense, but we could tell as we made our approach you would be shy
on accommodations.”
Grady laughed at this and ran his
hand across his scalp again and then shook his head. “Yeah the commode-dations
ain’t much, but you know times is rough, so you take the jobs as what you can
find. My men will be ‘round bout seven to head out. That okay wid you?”
“Certainly, wouldn’t want to waste the daylight, we’ll see you in the morning Grady.” Chan said and headed for the ship, the others trotting to catch up. As they walked, Cindy tried to say something, but was hushed by Chan until they were back aboard their ship. William, Cindy, and Chan stopped at the top of the ramp to confer as Xavier excused herself and headed toward her cabin.
“Cap, I don’t believe a ruttin’ word that hun dan said. See, I’ve got a bit of training on stress response indicators in med school and that guy was lying from the moment his pie hole opened.” Cindy said forcefully as soon as the cargo ramp closed.
“I know Cindy, thanks for just confirming what I-“
A piercing scream from the rear of the cargo bay interrupted and the three raced toward the sound with weapons at the ready, they found the enigmatic Xavier kneeling over a bedraggled barely conscious man. Cindy moved next to the man to check him out.
“William grab his legs and help me get him to the infirmary!” She barked.
Moving quickly they got him to the diagnostic table. Once there, the wild-eyed man grabbed Cindy’s arm as she passed the med scanner over him “The w-w-warehouse.” He managed to croak before blacking out. Cindy used every trick she knew to save the man, but it was too late. He died without regaining consciousness.
By this time the entire crew was waiting in the common room for news on their visitor. One look from Cindy told them how things had gone without a word being spoken.
“What killed him?” Chan asked quietly.
“Extreme dehydration and exposure, according to the med scanner read outs, he never really had a chance. Damn my first patient and I lose him.”
“Cindy, going by what you have already said, he didn’t have a chance, you can only save those who are meant to be saved.” Willis said somberly. “It obviously was not his destiny to survive.”
“Yeah, but destiny can go get bent. I hate losing.” The medic said in complete frustration.
“Did he say anything else?” William asked.
“No, he was pretty far gone. It was amazing he lived long enough to say anything at all.”
“Well we know the manager is lying out his pi gu, we’ve got a dead man, and we know that something is going on in the warehouse. Oh and our cargo is late. I’m sure the missing miners are tied into this thing too.” Chan said her eyebrows creased in actual concern this time.
“Why is this our problem?” Marsh growled. “Our job is to drop and pick up not solve ruttin’ mysteries.”
“In case you hadn’t noticed sunshine, we can’t ‘pick up’ if our cargo isn’t here and in case you have forgotten, we have a dead man in the infirmary!” Cindy uncharacteristically barked, her left hand unconsciously fingering a brass Yin-Yang symbol she wore constantly on her belt.
“Wouldn’t be dead if you were a better doc.”
Despite William’s attempt to stop her, Cindy was across the common room faster than anyone would have believed. This included Marsh, as he didn’t even have a chance to stand before Cindy backhanded him with a blow that reverberated off the walls. His head snapped back and the next thing he knew he was flat on his back with the medic raining blows on him in a battle he was losing to block. How much more damage she would have done was unknown as both William and Willis grabbed the flailing fury the medic had turned into and pulled her off the battered pilot.
Marsh crawled to his feet, his lips and nose bleeding, and with one eye that was showing every signs of developing into a classic shiner by morning. He glared at Cindy, but the heat of the glare was weakened by his disheveled appearance and some doubts as to whether he could actually take the still fuming medic.
“Miss Schultz!” Chan thundered.
Cindy’s head snapped toward the captain’s voice and their eyes locked.
“Have you taken leave of your senses?” Chan asked softly. Soft enough that William moved to stand between the two women, knowing what the captain’s tone of voice portended.
“I…damn it captain, I’m a good medic! That guy was a basket case. A full Core system trauma team and center wouldn’t have been able to save him.”
“I didn’t ask about your medical qualifications or the dead man’s condition, I asked if you had taken leave of your senses.”
Finally Cindy stopped struggling and her shoulders sagged. “No ma’am, I…I’m just sensitive about my medical skills being called into question. Especially by a punk kid that hasn’t seen what I’ve seen.”
“PUNK KID?” Marsh roared taking a step forward, a move that faltered with a withering glance from Chan.
“Marsh, shut up. You are damn lucky these two gentlemen stepped in and saved your life as I’m certain Miss Schultz here would have hurt you. Seeing as how she is our medic, you might want to take that into consideration next time you deliberately choose to piss her off.”
“You can let her go now gentlemen. I think the crisis has passed. Thank you for saving our pilot’s life. Miss Schultz, because you were the wounded party in this sorry exchange, I will not restrict you to quarters this time. However, if there is a next time you and I will have words, dong ma[8]?”
“Yes ma’am.” Cindy replied dejectedly.
“Okay, now that we’ve moved past the internal issues, we are still faced with what is going on in the warehouse, where are the miners, and where is our cargo?” Chan said returning the conversation back to the topic at hand.
“Only one way to find out ma’am, a recon.” Cindy said with conviction, finding her confidence with a topic she knew. “I’ve got some experience in that area.”
“I do as well; we had the same teacher Cindy and I’m not mad anymore, you don’t have to call me ma’am. I saw two guards in front of the warehouse. William, I’ll want you along as well.”
“I’m not exactly built for stealth missions.” The big man replied. ”We’ll need an effective diversion if you expect me to sneak past those guards.”
“I volunteer.” A voice from the rear of the common room said. Everyone turned to face the up to this point silent Li Ming.
“This isn’t exactly your forte Li Ming, or are there skills beyond gambler in your repertoire?”
Chan asked eyeing the young woman intently.
“Yes I have skills you have yet to see madam captain.” She replied mischievously. “But in this case, you are asking for someone to do something that isn’t all that different from what I’ve had a certain talent for my whole life, distracting a man, or in this case men. This is a skill I have used to great effect while at the gaming table.” She almost purred and luxuriantly stretched, more than demonstrating exactly what she meant.
“Uh well yes, that would certainly distract me.” William managed to reply after a pause.
“Men.” Chan said looking upward for strength momentarily before continuing. “Okay we have our distraction and our muscle. Xavier, you think you are up for something outside of your comfort zone as well?”
“M-Me? I…um…as what?” The computer expert stammered.
“I don’t know what we will find in that warehouse, but I know someone that is clever with a computer would be an asset at a time such as now. So are you game?”
It was clear that Xavier was not all that game, but she also knew she wanted a place on the crew and turning down her first chance to help wasn’t the best way to fit in. She nervously scratched the side of her head, feeling the stubble where she had stopped shaving.
“Um, you know I’m not really a fighter, don’t you?” She replied finally.
“William and I are, and Cindy has already proved she is as well.” This earned Chan a sharp look from Marsh, but he chose discretion and remained silent. “The three of us will handle any fighting that might occur. Your job is what you do best; you just won’t be doing it from the comfort of your cabin for a change.”
“I’m in, when do we go?”
Chan glanced out the viewports above the common room and saw that it was now fully dark outside before she replied. “An hour. We will need to get suited up in case there is trouble. Marsh and Willis will stay on the ‘Ghost and keep her ready for a fast break just in case things go completely south.”
The common room emptied quickly as the crew split up to make their preparations. Marsh lingered as he went to the cold storage unit to gingerly apply some ice to the worst of the damage on his face. As he cleaned up the now clotting blood, he had time to think to himself. “That ugly heifer is going to pay for that one. I know I didn’t get to fight in the war, but I’m not some punk kid. Made me look like a hou zi in front of the whole crew too. Yeah, me and that unsightly wench will have a round two, one of these days, and next time, it won’t be me that is surprised.”
Wong Li Ming left the ship exactly an hour later. The chill night prevented her from wearing any of her most effective outfits, but she managed to find something she was sure would do the job. Exiting the side hatch rather than the main cargo ramp in a pair of form fitting slacks and a light coat, that managed to show off enough of her curves to do the job she planned, she walked over to the warehouse and the two guards. The two men immediately noticed her approach and straightened up, making the attempt to try and look professional. Li Ming noticed this and flashed them a brilliant smile.
“Not really a night to be outside is it fellahs?”
“N-No, them as what lives in the desert has to take what is dealt them.” The brighter of the two managed to reply. Neither man even tried to pretend they were doing anything but thinking about the things they would like to be doing if they were inside at the moment. Li Ming knew this and worked the two men like fiddles, she’d laugh at the right times, kidded, flirted, and played the two men against each other. She quickly knew that she couldn’t go inside the warehouse ‘cause o’ orders’ but that things were picking up and they might even be expanding soon. The gambler continued to dance her dance and was exactly the diversion the rest of the crew needed to easily reach the side of the warehouse undetected and as Chan had expected, there was a side door.
“Okay William, work your magic.” Chan said softly, but before the first mate could comply. Xavier answered.
“Let me, a lock is a lock whether it is physical, electronic, or virtual.” She said sliding a pick out of her coat pocket and into the lock.
She worked for a few seconds while the others stood waiting collectively holding their breath and not even knowing they were. She pulled on the handle and the door creaked open. This time even Xavier held her breath, but the wind was enough to drown out that slight noise. The four intruders slipped inside the warehouse, with Cindy closing the door behind them.
Once their eyes adjusted to the gloomy, poorly lit interior, they were immediately struck by two things. First, there were several dozen large crates all stamped “Dragon Flower” stacked floor to ceiling along one wall. And second, and even more interesting, there was an obviously non-Alliance patrol boat with heavy scoring on the hull that could only have come from heavy weapon’s fire.
“Ta ma de.[9]” Chan whispered in awe. “William, guard the airlock, we need to find out exactly who these gao yang zhong de gu yang[10] are. Cindy and Xavier follow me.” Chan didn’t wait to see if her orders were being followed as she crept silently into the damaged patrol boat. The ship seemed deserted and they were able to locate a computer terminal. Still showing signs of being out of her element, Xavier nonetheless effortlessly hacked into the system.
“So who are these guys Xavier?” Chan asked when she saw their resident hacker gain access.
“Pirates
captain. Looks like they might have had some
“Okay, now we know the who. You got a why they are still here? Pirates don’t usually hang around on planet for long.”
“That damage we saw on the way in has fried their pulse drive. They need parts they don’t have, so it looks like they set down here waiting for a pigeon to hijack, for parts or if the damage turns out to be too bad, to take the pigeon’s ship.”
“Well I’m not going to be anyone’s pigeon. You have any idea who shot them up.?”
“Looks like it was a pigeon.” Xavier said after a few keystrokes.
“Come again?” A confused Chan replied.
“The pirates
tried to intercept a large freighter shortly after it departed
“Damn, that means the only actual guy who works here that we met was the dead guy in the infirmary. Poor hun dan.” Cindy added fiercely. “Cap, that guy died of exposure, that means he was dumped out in the desert somewhere and some how had the stones to walk back here. There may be other survivors captain, if there are, they won’t last long out there in the deep desert.”
“Okay Xavier, shut it down and make it look like you were never here, we need to get back to the ship and make a plan.” Chan snapped; her jaw tight and fire in her eyes.”
“In and out without a trace is my specialty Cap.” Xavier replied shutting down the terminal. “I’ll keep that in mind, let’s go!”
The infiltrators returned to their ship undetected and after Li Ming returned to the ship, none the worse for her encounter with the two guards, the entire crew reconvened in the common room. Chan relayed the information that Xavier had discovered, including the probability of survivors in the desert.
“I know this is our first flight together and I don’t know most of you as much as I’d like. But seeing as how we really don’t have a choice, we’ve got to do something to shut these pirates down. Anyone got words?” Chan said.
“Normally, I’d say the miner’s problem is their problem, but seein’ as how we won’t get paid if we don’t do something, then I don’t see as we have much choice.” Marsh replied, but it was all too clear what his feelings were about getting involved.
“We do not have a choice captain. These men have already caused the death of the freighter crew, at least one man on planet, and probably many more. How can we help?” Willis said with a fierceness totally out of character for the normally placid mechanic.
“Anyone else?” Chan asked, her eyes sweeping around the room.
“Just who does what?” William replied, when no one else did.
“Okay, I’m going to make some decisions based off what I know about your backgrounds and impressions made since we left Verbena. Marsh, you will do what you do best and stand by to pull us out if things go south. Xavier, since you said you aren’t a fighter, you stay on the ship as there’s to be gunplay. Not sure if you can help Marsh or not, if not, no one will say anything if you keep to your cabin.”
Xavier nodded and Chan continued. “William, you and Cindy will have to take down those two guarding the warehouse and get those big doors open and do it quietly.”
“Willis and I will take the Raven. I know she’s busted up, but her atmo drive should be functional, if it’s not, then that’s were you come in Willis. We will need that ship’s guns to take these hun dan cowards and I’ll do the flyin’ to do it.”
“What do you want me to do captain?” Li Ming asked when it became clear the captain wasn’t going to hand her a role.
“Well I figured the diversion thing wouldn’t work twice. Damn good work in keeping them busy the first time, but you go back over there and this time words ain’t gonna help you. I’ve met these types before, you end up over there and they are going to expect…things. I’m not about to put you in that position.”
“Actually captain, I was thinking of your position.”
“Excuse me?” Chan asked incredulous.
“What I mean captain is I join Mister Thorton in taking the pirate’s ship. I’m a fair pilot or I wouldn’t be living in a shuttle. That would free up your fighting skills for where they are most needed.”
“Well that is an idea. You think you have the stomach for spillin’ blood of folk you don’t know?” Chan asked pointedly her eyes lancing into Li Ming’s like that of a cobra.
“Despite my fragile appearance, I am neither fragile nor afraid. My line of work requires courage and I have had to shed more than my share of blood. Yes, I can spill the blood of them that call themselves men by leaving other men to die in the desert just because they want some parts.”
“Okay then Li Ming, I’ll take you at your word. Its 1930 now, we will strike at 0100. We go in loaded for bear and we shoot them as what ain’t us. I want these guys to bleed. Anyone got questions?”
The silence told her there were none, so the meeting broke up. With some five hours before the raid, each member of the crew went about preparing for battle in the way that worked for them. Marsh took a nap. Willis burned some incense, prayed, and meditated. Cindy brought out a bewildering array of good luck charms and set them in a specific order as carefully as she checked her weapons and donned her body armor. William cleaned and inspected every one of his weapons, then also got some sleep. Chan also checked her weapons, prayed, then went down to the cargo bay for a smoke. She was never good about sleeping before a fight and she secretly envied those that could. At 0030, the rest of the strike force found her in the cargo bay, where she was policing up the butts of the cigarras she’d finished as she waited.
“Okay crew, we go in quiet. Getting the ship moving and those doors open are critical. If the plan goes to da bian[11], beat feet back to the ship and we run. We can scan for the guys in the desert and pick them up in the morning. Won’t get us paid, but it will be the right thing to do.”
“We’ll get it done captain.” William added, racking the slide of his shotgun.
“Then let’s do this.” Chan replied and headed out the hatch.
The five raiders moved out noiselessly into the night. Each member was well armed with Chan, William, and Li Ming sporting shotguns and side arms, Cindy a sub-machine gun with a sidearm, and even the pacifistic Willis had a pistol holstered on his hip. In addition, everyone but Willis was wearing body armor with ceramic plates in case opposition turned out to be stronger than planned. It turned out this last part was a good thing, because even though they had a good plan, no plan survives contact with lady luck.
The group split into two elements to approach their assigned targets. Li Ming took point as the two neared the side of the warehouse. Before she could reach the door, she heard a muffled thump behind her and immediately rolled into the deepest shadows she could find. She peered toward the direction of the sound, certain she wouldn’t be able to hear anything due to the way her heart was pounding in her ears. She saw Willis had tripped over something and was trying to crawl closer to the building. The withering curse she thought stopped in mid word as she clearly heard footsteps approaching.
“God and all his apostles curse all clumsy mechanics forever!” She thought and melted deeper into the shadows. She spotted one of the guards closing in what she assumed the man thought was stealthily, but to Li Ming he sounded like a wounded water buffalo. Gathering herself she prepared a warm welcome for the lead footed guard.
“Ta ma de!” Chan snarled to herself when she saw that the guards were alerted by something and one split off to investigate.
“At least the hun dan are too stupid to stay together and call for help. William I-” She stopped as she saw her first mate step in some sort of animal caused hole and go down hard and loud. She and Cindy barely had time to take cover as the second guard snapped his head toward them, quickly followed by the rifle he was carrying snapping into firing position.
As Chan and Cindy faced off against the guard at the front of the warehouse, Li Ming, never willing to admit a lack of talent at anything she did, slithered next to one of the guards as silent as a shadow. Never seeing the hidden gambler, she lashed out with her brass knuckles and had the man down before he even knew she was there.
“Come on you ungainly goon, before the rest of the pirates can figure out what is going on.” Li Ming hissed, certain that they were about to be discovered.
Willis didn’t bother to reply, but when they reached the faint light near the side door, Li Ming could tell he was blushing at his mistake. “It will be okay Willis, just keep focus and we will be fine.”
BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!
“Move Willis NOW!” Li Ming shouted, pushing the mechanic ahead of her and toward the loading ramp of the patrol boat.
Outside, at the front of the warehouse, gunfire shattered the desert night as Chan and Cindy opened fire before the guard could fire on William. The man went down hard, but the damage was done. The roar of gunfire in the otherwise silent night was more than enough to alert the rest of the pirates. As shouts of confusion broke out across the compound, William managed to get back to his feet, limping heavily from his fall and scrambled to pull the heavy main doors of the warehouse open.
“Cindy, cover the barracks, I’ve got our backs” Chan barked, her eyes sweeping the area for trouble she knew was heading their way.
“You got it captain! I’m on it.” Cindy replied, the bloodthirsty twinkle in her eyes not visible to the captain. “You bet I got this Cap.” She purred as she idly stroked her night battle good luck talisman absently.
William tossed a jaunty salute at Li Ming from across the warehouse as he managed to get the first of the huge doors open and as she followed close on Willis’ heels up the patrol boat’s ramp. She managed a distracted half wave as she disappeared into the crippled Raven.
“Gorram stupid gopher thing, damn near broke my ankle.” He snarled as a twinge of agony shot up his leg slowing his progress in opening the doors. “Just hang in there a little while longer ankle and I’ll fix you some comfort brownies for abusing you like this.”
“We got company!” Chan shouted, sighting in on the first of the pirates to boil out of the barracks.
“I see them Cap. Let them get a little closer!” Cindy shouted back, the gleam in her eye becoming feral as she too sighted in.
The two men charged forward and there was a thunderous exchange of fire. Chan drilled one man with her first shot and paid the price of shooting first when the second sent a well aimed burst her way that slammed her to the ground fighting to stay conscious. Cindy let loose with a blood curdling battle cry as she also let loose with a long burst into the second pirate cutting him down instantly. Cindy rolled to her feet lithely and was to Chan before the man hit the ground.
“Wo de ma[12]! Damn it! Damn it! Damn it! That bloody hurts!” Chan wheezed as Cindy rolled her over. “G-G-Good thing w-we wore armor, eh Cindy?”
“Ren ci de Fo zu![13] You are alive!” Cindy yelped in surprise and joy.
“Oh yeah, I-I’m alive, but I know that’s going to leave a mark. Help me up.” Chan replied, trying to lurch to her feet, pressing a hand to her side over the dent in her armor.
“We need to get you back to the ship Cap and let me check you out.” Cindy frowned in response.
“Jian ta de guay[14] Cindy, we’ve still got a job to do, just going to have to do it a different way, hurry, there’s more coming. Quick to the Raven, we’ve got to make our stand there!” She glanced over her shoulder and saw that William had managed to get the second warehouse door open. Before she could say another word William appeared at her side, his own pain forgotten as he glanced at Cindy, at her silent nod, he grabbed Chan and effortlessly and tossed her over his shoulder. Making his way toward the ship faster than someone his size had a right to move. Cindy back peddled behind them, laying down a near continuous stream of fire and keeping the pirates at bay long enough for everyone to board the Raven safely.
“William put me down or so help me I will shoot you gorram idiot!” Chan raged at her burly first mate to no effect until he had the airlock sealed, when he finally put her down. “You ever do that again and I will find a way to hurt you!”
“Yeah whatever, what’s the new plan?” He replied oblivious to her fury.
She was too mad to even try to respond, choosing to savagely snatch her ship linked comm from her belt. “Li Ming, Willis where are you?”
“Bridge.” Li Ming responded instantly.
“Engineering, captain.” Willis added half a second later. Pulse drive is out, but atmospheric drive is coming online now.
Chan sighed in relief, relief tinged by a stitch in her bruised side. “Thanks to a merciful Buddha, I thought we’d screwed this up badly.”
“You mean you thought ‘I’ screwed this up badly.” William replied bitterly.
“Damn it William, don’t you go to pieces on me. Da bian happens, you weren’t the only one to make noise. Someone else alerted those guards, someone not you! Now we need to get this bucket moving if the rest of the plan is going to work.” She keyed her comm again. ”Marsh?”
“Here captain.” Came the immediate response.
“Get the ‘Ghost moving. The plan hasn’t gone south yet, but it ain’t goin’ smooth either.
“Actually I’m already airborne. As soon as I heard the gunplay I knew it was time to be somewhere else.”
“Damn Marsh, good thinking. I’m going to have to remind myself to take you more seriously, good work!”
“Just earning my keep. You gonna get that lump of gos se flyin’?
“You bet, William and I are on our way to the bridge to help Li Ming. We’ll be airborne in a minute.”
“See you there!”
“That boy might just turn out okay after all.” Chan smiled and turned toward the bridge.
“I’m going to see what sort of infirmary this thing has, I still need to tend to that wound captain whether you like it or not.” Cindy said before Chan could go.
“First my first mate and now my medic, I certainly know how to pick a mutinous crew.” Chan groused good-naturedly. “Okay, okay, got it, jeez, catch up to me on the bridge.” Chan added quickly when she saw the obvious heat in Cindy’s eyes.
The three split up, with Cindy heading aftward and the other two moving forward.
“William, go on ahead, I’ll catch up. Much as I hate to admit it, Cindy is right, I’m hurt and I can’t keep up with you.” Chan said after only a few seconds of trying to match William’s long strides.
“I can suggest an alternate means of transportation, but I don’t want to get shot for suggesting it.”
“No damn it, you don’t need to carry me. Just go on ahead. How can I look all captainy like you suggest if I’m carried to the bridge like a sack of rice?”
“Okay mei mei, I’ll go ahead so you can join us as a captain is supposed to, all leisurely and dignified like.”
“Thank you William. For everything.” Chan said quietly, her eyes speaking volumes.
“Just part of the job description captain.” He laughed and resumed his rapid pace for the bridge.
“Chan waited a moment until he was out of sight before following and muttering to no one. “This ship is too damn big.”
“Willis can you do anything to speed up the start sequence?” Li Ming said, toggling the intercom to the mechanic in the engine room.
“I am endeavoring to do just that Miss Wong, patience please.” He replied, calm as ever, despite attempting to hurry a process on an engine he’d never seen before.
“Okay Willis, let me know when we are ready. Li Ming out.”
“He really is a good mechanic you know.” A voice said.
“You know you shouldn’t try sneaking up on a heavily armed woman William.”
“You can’t fool me Li Ming you knew I was coming two decks back. I’m not what you call stealthy to begin with, especially with this ankle of mine at the moment.”
“Yes I did hear you coming, but what happened to your ankle?”
“A damn gopher or something. I stepped in a hole while trying to sneak up on the warehouse, that’s what started all the shooting. Feel like a damn fool.”
“Ah well, don’t be too hard on yourself, Willis tripped over something and fell also. I guess we aren’t exactly commandos are we?”
“No you got me there. How is the start up going?”
“Willis is actually working miracles. This ship hasn’t been at full power since it set down four days ago. He has a cold unfamiliar engine already past the ignition sequence and we will be airborne faster than I would have thought possible.”
“Then I guess we take his suggestion and be patient.”
Chan had stopped next to a ladder that led upward to the bridge deck. Her side was hurting more than she let on and the ladders were worse than walking. She had paused to gather herself when a hatch behind her opened. She wheeled around and found a dumbfounded pirate standing there. It was hard to say who was more surprised, but Chan recovered first and snapped her shotgun into firing position.
The pirate scrabbling for his pistol saw his death in the unknown woman’s eyes and to his credit, he stood his ground meeting his death squarely. Until fate stepped in for the second time in less than a second, when Chan pulled the trigger and nothing happened. Both swore savagely and went for their pistols.
Regardless of her injury and body armor, Chan’s pistol cleared the holster first and bucked three times. The pirate managed one shot, but it went straight into the deck. Chan’s shots suffered no such fate, each slamming into the pirate’s chest with a vengeance. As the man slid down the bulkhead to join the pistol that clattered from lifeless fingers, Chan had her comm out and barking orders.
“William, we got rats!” She didn’t wait for a reply as she grabbed her shotgun from where she dropped it during the draw down with the pirate. She carefully cycled the action to clear it, then moved slowly back down the corridor the pirate came from, toward the rest of the crew quarters. No sooner as she entered the hatch, she ran into a second pirate, this time her shotgun operated perfectly and the second pirate hit the deck without being able to fire a shot. Chan, William and Cindy carefully swept the ship and verified that there weren’t any more surprises onboard.
“Okay Cap, follow me to the infirmary.” Cindy said cornering Chan before she could get away.
“Not now Cindy I-” Chan started.
“No your not. You can hear the engines firing up now. Li Ming and Willis have everything under control and William will make sure they cover anything they might have missed. This won’t take long Chan Juan, please?”
“She is right mei mei. William added.
“Yeah, that’s the damn thing about it. She is, my side hurts like a gao yang zhong de gu yang[15].”
“Keep me informed if anything changes William.” Chan added over her shoulder as she followed Cindy toward the infirmary.
“Dang ran[16] Captain. You get better.” He replied and headed for the bridge.
By the time William reached the bridge, the patrol boat was beginning to move. As he dropped into the co-pilot’s seat, Li Ming skillfully steered the Raven out of the warehouse.
“Perfect timing William, you want to do the honors?” She asked, nodding toward the weapon’s console.
“Oh you bet!” He clapped his hands in glee and sighted in on the group of pirates scrambling to get out of the way of the thundering patrol boat. A few brave or foolish souls actually tried to fire back, but this only made things easier for William as he raked the compound with the twin autocannon of the Raven.
Once Li Ming had the ship clear of the hanger, she swung around to give the first mate full freedom of fire, which he took to with wild abandon. The night was lit up by artificial lightning as the deadly duo made strafing pass after strafing pass.
“One more?” Li Ming asked after their third run.
“No looks quiet down there.” William answered as he frowned into the targeting scanners. “I think that’s that.” He added smugly.
“Well it better be, you two were having entirely too much fun.” Chan said from the hatch leading to the bridge. “Cindy had a devil of a time getting me fixed up with the way you’ve been dancing this lumbering hulk around.”
“This ship is actually quite maneuverable for its size Captain. You got a new name picked out for her yet?” Li Ming said as she brought the Raven in for a landing.
“A name? Like I’d give up on the ship I have now. Besides, no gorram way in life the Feds would let an ex-Browncoat keep a ship like this. You in contact with Marsh?”
“Sure thing Captain.” Li Ming toggled a switch and nodded to Chan.
“Marsh you still in one piece?” Asked Chan.
“Me and Xavier are right cozy Cap. Not like those ta shi suo you di yu de biao de ma[17] down there even had anti-ship weapons or time to think about us with all that ruckus you were stirring up. I’ll be down in second.” Marsh said sardonically, then put word to deed and brought the Lattimer’s Ghost in to a landing with his typical flourish.
The crew swept from one end of the mining compound to the other and into every room of every building with weapons at the ready, but the weapons turned out to be an unnecessary, precaution, William and Li Ming had been far too thorough. They found five wounded and one completely terrorized pirate among bodies strewn where they fell. Cindy patched up the battered survivors with what little medical supplies remained on the Raven. As Cindy worked on saving the wounded, Chan and William sat the one unwounded pirate down for a little chat.
“Okay slick, here’s how it is. Either you tell us where you dumped the people who worked here or my big friend here makes your life a whole lot worse than it is right now. Going by how you managed to keep yourself intact while all the fire and brimstone was raining down, I’m going to take a guess that you aren’t much into pain. My friend William here is a master of making little hunks of gos se like you hurt, so where are the workers and we leave you breathing, play tough guy and you will bleed. So what is it?”
The pirate tried to put up a front, but when William made a show of placing brass knuckles on both hands, he wilted about as fast as Chan thought he would. “Okay, okay, we took them out in the desert. I can show you in the morning.”
“Actually twinkles, you will take us now. Those folk have been out there for going on five days now. Your ship has got some real fancified sensors and all, I’m certain the thermal imagers will find those folk right fine. William will you escort this…this…thing to the Raven?”
“With pleasure Captain.” With that he snatched the cowering ex-pirate and dragged him by the ankles to his ship.
Once they had a basic heading from their captive, the Raven’s superior sensors found where the workers had been abandoned in less than half an hour. Cindy was the first off the patrol boat as it flared for landing still under Li Ming’s control. Except for Marsh who stayed with the Lattimer’s Ghost and Chan who was guarding the wounded prisoners, the rest of the crew was on the rescue mission. William, Xavier, and Willis were only steps behind their medic to assist the ragged figures huddled in the sand.
“Is that all Cindy?” Willis asked, even his calm demeanor shaken by what they had found. “Is there any chance we missed anyone?”
“I’m sorry, but that’s all of them Willis. I found the manning roster in the operations office and they are all accounted for.” She replied, frustrated and weary after nearly two hours in the desert and just before they boarded the Raven to return to the landing field. “Only four made it.”
“Out of twenty!” He hissed in palpable anger. “These…these…he chu sheng a jiao de zang hu[18] deserve the hangman’s noose they have coming!”
Cindy was taken aback by the quiet mechanic’s surprising anger he had always seemed so unflappable. “Willis, this is a terrible thing these folk have had done to them, but why are you taking this so personally?”
Willis blinked as if realizing his state of mind for the first time, then blushed furiously. “Thank you Miss Schultz, the Yang had taken hold and your graceful Yin has brought me back into balance. Let us return to our ship and find out what the captain has planned.”
She paused to let her eyes sweep the barren horizon one last time before nodding agreement. “Yes, let’s get out of here.”
When Li Ming brought the Raven in for a landing back at the crude starport, she could see Xavier waving at her as she set the battered patrol boat down. Once everything was powered down, the full crew of the Lattimer’s Ghost gathered in the cargo bay.
“I was able to reach the local sheriff’s office in Green Dale. They are on the way. They have a hover car, so it will be about three hours before they can get here. Everyone grab a shovel, we’ve got enough dark and early morning to get these folk a proper burial. The survivors?”
“They are really bad off, but I won’t lose any captain. Not again.” Cindy replied fiercely.
“Then we’ll tend to those that are past being hurt any more. Let’s get to it, we don’t want to still be doing this when the sun’s up.”
The crew of the Lattimer’s Ghost was relaxing in the common room, when the sheriff’s ramshackle hover car arrived. Three deeply tanned men and one woman piled out and met the crew in the cargo bay.
“Morning all, Sheriff Bruce Poe. Which one of ya’ll is the captain?” A stocky light-skinned black man asked.
“That would be me.” Chan Juan said offering her hand to the lawman.
“Going by what I hear, we are much obliged to you and yours.” He replied as he returned the courtesy firmly.
“Not for me to say sheriff, we saw a situation that needed some action and took it.”
“Still not many as would put their own at risk for them as they don’t know.”
“Can’t lie to you ya sheriff, we had some money issues if we didn’t do something.”
“Can’t fault you there either, times are hard all round the ‘Verse for them as choose not to be all citified in the Core. Well, enough jawbonin’, where are the living dead?”
“I like the way you think sheriff.” Chan chuckled. “May I introduce my crew?”
“I’d like that.”
Introductions were made all around and the sheriff took charge of the six prisoners, locking them in the brig of their own ship with two of his deputies to keep them there. He went over to visit with the four survivors and then paid his respects to the dead. As the survivors were being transferred to the barracks, one of the men regained consciousness. Under Cindy’s very close observation, the man was able to back up most of the story as related by Chan. The Raven’s log added in some of the blanks, and the one uninjured pirate filled in the rest.
With the story confirmed, Sheriff Poe gave Chan permission to unload the mining gear and load up the Dragon Flower crates. Since the crew was working on intuition on how to operate the heavy cargo loading gear, it took nearly five days to get their ship loaded and unloaded. During that time, the four survivors improved enough for the Sheriff to depart with his prisoners, using the Raven to take them to Green Dale.
“Well Chan Juan, these piles of da bian are properly bound by law and will be at the end of a rope before dark. Thank you again captain. You and yours are stand up folk and you have a place to stay if you ever visit Green Dale.”
“I’ll keep that in mind Bruce, as you said a few days ago, times are hard all over the ‘Verse. Friends anywhere are better than coin in the bank.”
With one last handshake, they parted and Chan stepped back to give the Raven room to lift without getting sandblasted. She watched until the ship was out of sight and returned to her own. As soon as she was aboard, she closed the cargo ramp and hit the intercom.
“Marsh, get us back to Verbena. We will be hard pressed to make it due to the loading delay, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to be late with our first run, extenuating circumstances or not.”
“I’m on it Captain, I got the course laid in, but the only way we’ll make it is with a hard burn.”
“Willis?” She asked.
“We are ready for hard burn at any time.” He replied.
“Then at your discretion Mister Marsh, but keep us in one piece, I don’t want a lift off like our arrival.”
“Li Ming is not on the bridge Cap, this lift off will be as smooth as Sihnon silk” Marsh laughed.
Chan toggled the intercom to the off position and headed for her cabin. “For a man shorter than I am, that boy has got ego enough for six or seven heads. But, I’ve got to give him his due, the boy can fly.” She thought walking slowly up the stairs to the upper deck. “I think I’m going to…oh crap! Almost forgot!” Chan moved to another intercom and this time toggled for ‘Ship-Wide’ before speaking. “Before any of you get too comfortable, I remind you, this is lift day. We still have some fairly fresh food on board and while this visit was a bit longer than we planned and with too many detours, we will despite all that keep to ship traditions. See you all in the dining room at 2000.”
Despite being tired and not having the freshest food for the feast William jumped in and actually managed to turn out a top notch meal right at 2000 hours per captain’s orders. There were a few grumbles when Chan first made her announcement, but those were beyond forgotten once everyone had the chance to dig in.
Li Ming set a new standard for the Lift Day Feast by breaking out a bottle of real premium whiskey that she had been keeping for a special day at the end of the meal. “I didn’t say much at the first Feast, but this time I’ve got words.” She said as she poured everyone a shot. “But this time I figure that we are no longer strangers. I like to think that we are now friends that have risked all and shed blood together. Even though it was what I was hoping, in the process of earning our cargo, we have become a crew. Cheers!”
“CHEERS!” The crew replied in unison, with even the Lattimer’s Ghost joining in the occasion when the vibration her engines changed pitch for a second in time to the crew’s reply.
Marsh’s course
and the hard burn shaved nearly thirty-six hours off the return trip and though
it was closer than Chan liked, the Lattimer’s Ghost touched down at the
On arrival, Chan and Cindy were shown directly to the outer office of Patrick Hong. They had to wait some twenty minutes before Hong’s assistant escorted them into the main office, poured tea, and then at a nod from Hong, silently withdrew, closing the doors behind him.
“Captain Wu and unless I miss my guess, ship’s medic Cindy Schulz, it is good to see you.” He smiled genuinely. “And while a tad closer to the upper end of the time limit than I would have liked to see, within the stipulations of the contract.”
“Mister Hong I-” Chan started, but stopped when Hong held up a hand.
“No need to
explain Captain. I got a long wave from a Sheriff Poe from the city of
“The contract is ironclad in reference to the possibility of earning a bonus for delivering the cargo ahead of schedule. This you have failed to do, so my hands are tied in regards to the bonus.”
Chan didn’t risk herself to speak at this point; her emotions had gone through to many ups and downs during Hong’s monolog. She had felt dread, surprise, elation, disappointment and now she was creeping toward anger as she thought Hong was being tight fisted after all they had been though. She was struggling so much to keep her temper in check that she almost missed the last part of what Hong was saying.
“-And therefore, with my discretionary funds I am awarding you a meritorious bonus of five hundred credits for services rendered well above and beyond the requirements of the standard service contract. Congratulations Captain to you and your crew.”
Chan barely remembered standing to shake Hong’s hand, collecting the unexpected windfall and woodenly exiting the Dragon Flower building, it wasn’t until Cindy got her into the hover car that time, sound, and Chan reintegrated with the rest of the ‘Verse.
“Well ta ma de.” She muttered at last, and then beamed from ear to ear, not saying a word as Cindy drove them back to the ship.
Chapter Three
“All hands this is your pilot speaking, prep for lift, grab something hard or soft as floats your goat and we’re Greenleaf bound.” Marsh said in his typical sardonic fashion as he applied full power to the Lattimer’s Ghost and with great flare, broke atmosphere and headed for the Black.
The ship and crew had finally gotten another cargo out of Patrick Hong and the chance to earn some coin after a full week on Verbena. The down side of the run was that Dragon Flower did not have a return cargo, this was only a one way run, but Chan had great hopes of finding something for the return trip. It had cost too much, taken too long, and they had too good a history to stray too far from Verbena and Patrick Hong, thus returning to Verbena wasn’t a question of if, but when.
The Lattimer’s Ghost lifted cleanly despite being packed with a full 400 tons of cargo. The Dragon Flower company, in addition to mining equipment, also exported agricultural equipment and this was what was filling every inch of the ship’s cargo bays. Combined with the length of the trip, a full ten days, even with no return cargo guaranteed, this run was going to be lucrative and the entire crew was in an upbeat mood. The crew was especially looking forward to the Lift Day Feast, as William had announced with great fanfare the day before they were due to depart that he would take the meal preparation on as his special duty.
Using some of
the money from the bonus earned on
“William you have far out done yourself.” Chan beamed as she took in the feast spread out the length of the dining table. “I wanted a nice meal with fresh food on lift day; the feast part was just so much jabber. You have actually gone and made this a meal to fit the title feast.”
“Well I got to thinking that even though I knew you didn’t actually mean a feast, I figure why shouldn’t we actually have a feast? I figure we work hard and one good meal every few weeks isn’t much to ask.” William replied as he carved the spiced ham that was the centerpiece of the meal.
“I for one commend you and thank you for your efforts William. This is as fine a meal as I have seen aboard ship and, trust me, that includes several liners.” Li Ming added.
“Yeah Will’o, good eats.” Marsh garbled around a mouthful of ham.
William spared the pilot a hot retort at the new nickname he was trying to stick him with, figuring it was meant as a compliment.
“I have to agree.” Cindy said as she reached some a bowl of rice. As she did, she knocked over the salt shaker and without conscious thought, picked up the shaker and tossed some over her left shoulder. None of the crew paid this much attention, but when she began obsessively wiping her chopsticks after every bite that anyone said anything.
“Why in the south side of Sihnon are you doing that?” Marsh finally asked.
“Warding evil spirits.” She replied with complete sincerity.
For several seconds there was silence at the table except for the clicking sounds of Cindy’s own chopsticks. Li Ming recovered first and would not let the medic’s idiosyncrasies cast a wet blanket on a ship tradition. “So Chan, why did Patrick hold out so long before setting up this run?” She asked changing the topic smoothly.
“Ah…Greenleaf
is ah…somewhat of a new market for Dragon Flower, they don’t have an existing
long term contract with Greenleaf like they do with
“Nothing sweeter than a steady cargo run.” William added. “Well nothing sweeter than a fine bottle of Miss Wong’s whiskey.”
“Fishing for an accompaniment for this fine meal William my friend?”
“Dang ran.” The first mate responded instantly.
“Well this meal certainly deserves it, so you have managed to talk your way into my larders.” Li Ming answered. She excused herself and headed for her shuttle for the bottle.
“I’d like to talk my way into her…OW! You kicked my knee!” Marsh began and stopped suddenly.
“I’ll kick more than that if you say anything to ruin lift day you ma de pi gu.” Chan snapped back hotly.
“Sorry ma’am.”
“Good enough. Now remember this is a festive occasion.”
“That it is.” Willis added. “This is always such a happy day.”
“Happy enough to join us in a drink Willis?” Chan asked slyly.
“Uh…well…um…I really shouldn’t” The mechanic managed to stammer.
“Oh why not Willis? I’m certain Buddha will forgive you.” Li Ming said as she returned to her seat with two bottles of whiskey.
“Oh my, whatever do you have planned Li Ming?” Chan asked with a gleam in her eyes.
“Me have a plan? You wound me captain you wound me. I figure it is a ten day trip to Greenleaf and so long as the ‘Ghost’s collision avoidance program stays sober I figure we can enjoy ourselves.” The gambler replied demurely
“Well plan or no plan, I’m going to savor your fine gifts.” Realizing the possible double entendre, William fixed Marsh with a baleful stare to prevent any possible repeat of the pilot’s earlier gaffe. Regardless of his efforts, it was too late and the entire table burst out laughing. William flushed all the way up to the ears, but could not resist joining in the merriment.
In fact it was indeed a good thing that the Lattimer’s Ghost’s collision avoidance program stayed sober as the entire crew had quite a bit more merriment than intended.
The next morning, the merriment caught up with them as each crew member blinked awake and found themselves in unaccustomed places or in states they usually didn’t sleep in. Willis was the least affected as he had managed to avoid most of the refills the other’s savored, but he woke up on the couch in the crew lounge with a pounding headache. Xavier woke up sprawled on the dining table, the left side of her face dimpled by the table cloth pattern.
Chan somehow found herself in the infirmary on the main operating table, completely clueless as to how she got there or why she would go there in the first place. William found himself in his room, but stark naked on the floor in a puddle of clothes. Li Ming awoke on the bridge with a crook in her neck from being huddled up in the seat for what must have been most of the night.
Each member of the crew wore a sheepish look as they tried to make bloodshot eyes focus and abused muscles move. Marsh tried three times to order his still asleep left arm to move and when this failed, he managed to force, what felt like sandblasted eyes open and realized he wasn’t alone. He turned his head slightly praying he’d got as lucky as he hoped he had and could not believe what he was seeing.
“How in the south side of Sihnon did you get in my room?” He exclaimed and managed to pull his arm free.
“Look around sweety, you are in my room.” Cindy purred like a cat toying with a mouse.
“I…I…Oh gos se! He managed at last as he fumbled around for his clothes. “You took advantage of me!”
“You bet I did hon, and given half a chance I’ll do it again, but don’t get indignant with me, it’s not like you didn’t take advantage of me as well. Look Marsh, I’m not looking for strings or anything other than what it was. I needed release and so did you. I know I’m nothing to look at under the best of circumstances, so I know what I look like now. I don’t even like seeing me with a hang over and a raging case of bed head. You can grab your clothes and go with no questions or expectations, but Li Ming is not in your league, so anytime you need to grapple, I’m here to grapple with. I may not be pleasin’ to the eye, but I know how to please a man. You just try and remember that and you might decide I’m not so bad after all.
“Look Cindy…I…well…um, well what I do remember was it was good, so maybe I’ll take you up on that, now you have any idea where my pants are?”
Cindy pointed upwards and there were Marsh’s pants caught in a life support vent, both burst out laughing and they were still laughing when Marsh slipped out of her quarters and back to his own. Aside from an arched eyebrow, Willis neither said nor asked anything for which, Marsh was extremely grateful
Marsh was lucky
that Willis was not a gossip, but even though a Firefly-class mid-bulk
freighter was a fairly large ship, there was no way their little tryst could
remain secret for long. Much merriment was made at Marsh’s and Cindy’s expense,
but given where the rest of the crew found themselves on the morning after the
lift day feast, they couldn’t delve too deeply into the pilot’s and medic’s
actions without calling attention to themselves, so the matter was allowed to
quietly drop. Not surprisingly the aftermath of the feast was the
“Thanks for
riding shotgun with me Li Ming. These Greenleafers don’t have much of a sense
of humor when it comes to drifting out of your assigned landing vector and an
extra set of hands is always welcome.” Marsh said, his eyes never leaving the
heads up display showing the approach to the landing field at Longbranch the
capitol of Hu Shen Fu
“You can blame the value of the pharmaceuticals that this place exports and the resulting problems with smugglers for the strict approach rules, but I don’t mind helping at all Sylvester, I enjoy the opportunity to hone my piloting skills. I consider myself a decent shuttle pilot, but I can use the practice with flying the ‘Ghost, even if all I’m doing is watching you do the actual work.” Li Ming replied from the co-pilot’s seat.
“I’ll never know why I let you call me by my first name; my mother doesn’t even call me anything but Marsh.”
“I’m sure it’s because you think you might get as lucky with me as you did with Cindy.” Li Ming laughed, but it was in jest and the pilot knew it.
“Yeah well, a guy can dream can’t he?”
“That he can my friend that he can.”
“You two are
about to make me gag.” Chan said from the doorway. “Considering your ‘unique’
entrance to
“Hey Cap, that’s not fair, Li Ming distracted me with her-“
“Assets!” Li Ming interjected.
“Uh…right her
assets over
“Okay, as long as you have a plan, you’ll have to excuse me for wanting to protect my investment.”
“Oh sure Cap, I understand, we are in the glide path, on final approach, and shiny.”
“Captain I have a wave coming in.” Said Li Ming.
“I’ll take it over here.” Chan responded as she walked over to a terminal, her eyebrows knit together in curiosity.
“Captain Wu.”
“Captain, I am Chang Wen Shen, you will come to my office as soon as your ship lands. Here are the coordinates, please to not delay.”
And just as abruptly as the message started, it was over.
“Who was-?” Marsh started.
“I don’t know. I’m looking him up now. O zhe zhen shi ge kuai le de jin zhan[19]…” Chan replied after a quick consult of the Cortex.
“Who is this hun dan?” Marsh asked.
“Why Mister Chang is none other than the Baron Administrator responsible for regulation of interplanetary commercial operations on Greenleaf.”
“And why exactly would he be interested in us?” Li Ming asked suspicion creeping into her voice.
“At this point you two know as much as I do. To my knowledge we have broken no laws and we are carrying a completely legal bonded cargo. I don’t know why the senior noble for this hemisphere would want to talk to me. I guess we’ll find out as soon as we land.”
“Then here’s your chance to find out Cap, as here we are.” Marsh said as he flared for landing on the designated platform and bringing the Lattimer’s Ghost in for a picture perfect touch down.
Chan activated the intercom. “Cindy, will you oversee the offload? William and I have an appointment with the nobility of Greenleaf. Li Ming, please help Cindy mind the store while we figure what burr the baron has up his pi gu.”
“Certainly Captain, good luck.”
Chan headed for the cargo bay to meet William. He was standing there with an enigmatic smile on his lips. “I must say Captain, you are moving up in the world. Usually you at least make planet fall before being called on the carpet.”
“Hysterical William, God only knows how much da bian we’re in and you want to try and start a new career as a comedian, and if you say ‘It’s part of my sparkling personality.’ I am going to kill you where you stand.”
“Pace mei mei I give.” He raised his hands in mock surrender.
“William, you know anything I need to know?”
“Chan, now you know me better, if I did I would tell anything I knew about anything that would get us in a bind. I’ll drive; it will give you some time to gather your thoughts.”
“Good idea.”
The two got in the hover car and drove immediately to the coordinates provided by Chang. This proved to be a towering edifice that was a flawless replica of a classic Ming Dynasty temple given over to use as an office building. It was clearly designed to awe and impress anyone that had to do business there that didn’t work there. Finding a place to park, they entered the building a found a pleasant man at the counter that directed them to the main hearing hall.
“This whole set up is starting to smell worse every step we take mei mei.”
“Tell me something I don’t know, but given the surface to space weaponry this planet packs, I doubt if Marsh could get us off planet in one piece. Like it or not, we are in this for the full measure.”
On reaching the ornate doors that led to their destination, Chan took a deep breath and entered, her shoulders square and her jaw set. William’s posture also bespoke calm and the right to be in this place regardless of the situation.
“Captain Wu Chan Juan and First Mate William Lemont of the Firefly-class freighter Lattimer’s Ghost, formally known as the Tantivy.” A crimson bedecked herald spoke in a deep, clear, stentorian voice as the two entered the vast hearing hall.
The lavish hearing hall bespoke the wealth and power and was also designed to intimidate with fine tapestries featuring Earth-That-Was scenes, polished woods, and the high court room-like judge’s bench with five members that appeared almost like some sort of avenging tribunal. The three men and two women on the high bench looked serene, but they also did not show any hint of friendliness either.
“Captain Wu, I am Baron Chang Wen Shen. I know you are curious why I called you here, so I will not waste time and will get right to the point. In the past ten weeks several Greenleaf merchant vessels have been attacked, each has had their entire crew killed, but only part of their cargoes stolen, namely a mildly narcotic product called Highleaf. This is a luxury trade item that to the locals of Greenleaf is no more troublesome than a glass of wine. It is exported for its potent medicinal properties however, to people not from Greenleaf this same product, when processed to that end it becomes a powerful, dangerous, and addictive drug.
“Evidence recovered from the drifting ships implies renegade Independents have resorted to piracy to fund anti-Alliance activities. Our local patrol has been unable to capture these attackers as they attack precisely and with great speed. Since you Captain were once a member of the Independents movement. Regardless of your current standing with them, it is only fitting that you and your crew be the bait to stop this menace. Since you might feel this is our problem and not yours, I have been informed that your ship does not currently have a cargo at the moment and my sources also tell me that your ship is due for its flight worthiness inspection; maybe my good captain you would be willing to help?”
Never noted for being unable to read between the lines and facing the five grim visages of what was for all intents and purposes actually a tribunal, Chan was very quickly able to figure which way this situation would play out if she did anything other than agree.
“Baron Chang, my ship is at your disposal.”
“Excellent Captain, since I also happen to know the local Dragon Flower Interplanetary representative personally, I will see that the offloading is expedited. By the time you return to your ship, your business with Dragon Flower will have concluded. I will have the bait cargo in place and they will load immediately once your cargo bay is open. Thank you for your assistance in this matter Captain, I am glad you have chosen to see…reason. So many freighter captains choose a more unpleasant course of action.
“The willow learns to sway with the wind Baron.”
“Indeed it does Captain. Since you have been so accommodating, I will return the favor. I will send a wave with all the accumulated data we have on these bandits to this point. Hopefully it will assist you.”
“Thank you Baron.”
On a nod from Chang, it was clear the meeting was over, so Chan and William took their leave as quickly as propriety would allow. They waited until they were in the hover car and halfway to the ship before trusting themselves to speak.
“Well that guy was a prince among men mei mei. If you had said no, what do you think he would have done?”
“He would have started with impounding the ship and then working his way through any number of infractions until we saw reason. You know how ‘unpleasant ‘we freighter captains can be and sometimes a gentleman has to be equally unpleasant to get his point across.”
“We are so boned.”
“Among other things, but boned pretty much sums it up.”
“We’ll make it happen Captain.”
“I have no doubt. I just really hate being strapped over a barrel I didn’t choose to be strapped over.”
“You ask to be strapped over barrels?”
“Be zui[20] William and drive.”
On return to the ship, Chan found that Chang was correct about the Dragon Flower cargo being already offloaded. As they entered the ship, Cindy handed her the small sack that held their payment for the trip. The trucks with the decoy cargo were arriving and Chan figured that going by how efficient Chang’s people had already proven themselves to be, they could figure out how to get the load in place without any help from the crew. She then called everyone to the dining room to break the news of the change in plans.
“Well this isn’t something I like, but we don’t have much choice. Seems some hijackers have been stealing cargo from the locals. Ex-Browncoat hijackers.” Chan said, her eyes sweeping each member of the crew. “The locals have taken exception to this, and have hired us to act as bait to drop the heavy end of the hammer on these hun dan pirates.”
“You took on a merc job Captain?” Asked Marsh.
“No I didn’t, we got shanghaied into this one, and the less said about it the better. Thing is, we have roughly as long as it takes the locals to load the ship to prepare for this job. The local chieftain has sent us a wave with all the information on the pirates he’s got. Xavier, this is where you get to shine. I need you to look through what they have, then see if you can find out what they don’t have, and even more importantly, what they have, but didn’t tell us.
Marsh and Willis, I need you to check everything you can think of, we will be facing an armed ship and we need every ounce of speed and maneuverability you can wring out of the old girl. Cindy, Li Ming, we will start doing a pre-combat checks on every weapon we have and maybe see if we can rig up a couple surprises. People I figure we have five hours max before we have to lift. We will only have time to restock the ship’s fuel, infirmary, and larder before taking off for Persephone. Dong ma?”
“Understood Captain, we’ll give them sons of whores a welcome they will never forget.” Cindy replied and by silent agreement everyone started moving to their assigned tasks, but as they moved out, no one had noticed how Li Ming’s eyes had widened when she heard the name Persephone.
When Xavier got a look at the wave from Chang she found that information on the raiders was scarce, the only real information they has was that the pirates approached fast, fired a warning shot, then if the ship didn’t heave to a second shot would disable the target’s drive. This was followed by a broadcast that no one would be harmed if they cooperated however, once the crew was rounded up, they were executed. In addition to their tactics Chang attached a message to Captain Wu that added that every ship ambushed occurred near Boros and was either inbound or outbound from Persephone. One final note in the briefing included that Persephone also happens to be home of a business rival to the Chang’s. It is possible that these rivals – the Hans – are just using Independent faction veterans as muscle to organize the raids.
Knowing that any information would be useful, plus she just happened to like poking around in files that others took pains to keep secret, Xavier tapped into the local Cortex to see if she could find a pattern to the attacks. She immediately was able to figure out that there could only be one ship making the attacks as there were a couple of noticeable gaps in the raid pattern; indicating this single ship was out being serviced or was disposing of already captured cargo. Digging deeper, Xavier was able to find that because of formal flight plans, import/export formalities, and warehouse contracting, there were dozens of possible sources for a leak.
Since a single source didn’t present itself, once she found out from Xavier about this possible lead, Captain Wu went through every step in the Chang shipping SOP to make certain that wherever the leak was located, they would get the word this time also. To this end, the loading was done in broad daylight with heavy noticeable security that drew much attention, while not disguising the contents of what was being loaded from anyone in the area that took the time to look. The decoy cargo was powerful bait consisting of 350 tons of other valuable medicines and a staggering 50 tons of Highleaf.
In order to survive, Chan and crew would have to meet the boarders with blinding violence and attempt a counter boarding if at all possible. After their quick meeting, Chan directed a couple special changes as the cargo was being loaded that would channel any movement by the boarders and give the crew several well protected hiding places. Once the cargo was fully loaded, there was little else left to do beyond closing the cargo ramp and depart.
“I tell you William, I’m thinking the Captain sticking to the Lift-Day Feast is a great idea. No need to let a minor thing like being sent on a suicide mission cast a pall on a good meal.” Xavier said while she peeled potatoes for the meal in the galley.
“Well I’m sure there’s meant to be a compliment in their somewhere Xavier.” The first mate replied jovially as he stirred a sauce pan. “I’m just glad I had enough time to get the fixins’ for the meal. We were a mite rushed to leave you might say.”
“That’s putting it mildly, that Chang character was pretty insistent that we get in the Black and off his world before we stunk up the place.”
“A noble of grace, his fine nose not so ready, we are much too crude.”
“A haiku William? I’m impressed.”
“I um, I didn’t think you’d recognize my doggerel.”
“I did study art on Sihnon you know, I just concentrated on painting, but the academy was very thorough about making sure we were shown a wide variety of art forms, including some rather bizarre Earth-That-Was styles. I was particularly taken with the works of Picasso.”
“
“Yes! I remember that one, but I was never clear on the context.”
“It was an anti-war protest decrying the bombardment of civilians.”
“Nuclear?”
“No, no, no! The first nuclear attack wasn’t until about ten years later.”
“Striking painting for a non-nuclear bombardment.”
“All of Picasso’s works are striking.”
“William you have the heart of a dreamer, Earth-That-Was art, history, poetry, cooking, I think the old term was Renaissance man.”
“Xavier, if I thought for a second you were yanking my chain, I’d have you chin deep in the reclamation tanks. I…I…know I’m not all that pleasing to look at, so I have tried to learn as much about beautiful things as I can. It’s sort of a compensation to my way of thinking.”
“Well you keep it up. I didn’t think anyone, ‘cept maybe Li Ming might know anything about art, so maybe we can talk some times.”
“You my green haired vixen have a deal. Now scoot, too many cooks spoil the broth and all that. I have cooking to do.”
Xavier ran a hand through her short hair pulled into the beginnings of a scalp lock. “I would like that. You’ve piqued my curiosity on Picasso now. I’m going to hit the Cortex to see what I can learn. See you at 2000 hours.” She wink lasciviously and headed back to her cabin.
William watched her leave, his own curiosity piqued at the mystery woman. “That girl is a wild card. I am glad of her though. She makes life interesting.” He thought and then turned back to his primary task of making sure the feast would live up to its name again.
In what all hoped would be a harbinger of good luck, William’s meal turned out better than ever. However, due to the threat posed by the raiders, Li Ming kept her larder holding the whiskey bottles firmly closed. The lack of adult libation aside, it was obvious that William had uncovered a heretofore unrealized talent as a chef. The crew made the very most of the meal and time together and simply chose to live for the moment and enjoy each other’s company, and in so doing, they passed being strangers, and they even passed being on the same crew, they were on their way to becoming a family, a dysfunctional family maybe, but a family nonetheless.
Marsh plotted the standard course for Persephone taking into account the points of intercept of the previous attacks from Chang’s data. He carefully set a course that would take the ship though the area of primary intercept on a roundabout path while not being obvious about it. The meandering course would make a five day trip stretch to eight days, but he hoped it would give them the best chance of attracting the pirates on the first try. No one wanted to have to make a second run with a bull’s eye on their back. Six days into the trip, Marsh picked up the signature of a ship closing fast.
“All hands look alive, we have company!” Marsh barked over the intercom. “Man your battle stations! Stand by to repel boarders!”
“You could sound like you weren’t enjoying this so much you know? This is serious stuff” Xavier said as she dropped into her ‘battle station’ in the co-pilot’s seat after making sure the bridge was fully sealed. Their part of the battle, if everything went according to the plan, would be waged from where they were right now.
“Yeah I know,
but no need to be all doom and gloom about it. This is more of trouble than
that mess on
Marsh howled and skewed the ship away from what he hoped was the pirate’s signature warning shot. He showed off his piloting skills by not only completely avoiding the inbound missile’s blast radius, he made it look like it was a random course change and not an alerted target. Playing his part to the hilt, Marsh brought the ship to a halt, powering down the drive and waiting for the raiders to dock. The comm screeched with the also signature ‘heave to and prepared to be boarded line’ from the pirate vessel.
“Here’s where they give us we won’t be harmed if we cooperate line.” He stage whispered to Xavier and right on cue the message followed and he grabbed the microphone to reply. “Message received and understood. We are unarmed. Please do not fire, we have children aboard.”
“Children?” Xavier asked when Marsh hung up.
“Made us sound more pathetic and less likely to fight. Might work, might not. I figure we are deep enough in it now that it can’t hurt.”
“Sounds plausible, now excuse me, I’ve got some mischief to do.”
Down in the cargo bay, Captain Wu, wearing full body armor under a deliberately bulky set of coveralls and with a hidden pistol would greet the boarders and play the role of a terrified and helpless woman. As Chan kept the pirates believing they were in control, William, Cindy, Li Ming, and Willis, all also in full armor, waited in the ambush positions hidden in the cargo bay. The plan called for Chan to calmly agree to the boarder’s demands and lead them into the rest of the shooter’s kill zone.
“Okay Miss Wu Chan Juan, don’t over do it. These are only men, they expect me to be a helpless woman, so be a helpless woman.” Chan thought to herself as she stood by the controls and waited for the airlock to cycle. However as she thought about helpless women, her mind strayed to the security cam captures of the dead on the other ships already attacked by the pirates and she began to seethe inside. Something about meeting killers of children set Chan’s blood to boiling and rather than the smooth lie to relax the eight boarders that was part of the plan, she snarled, “He Chu Sheng Za Jiao De Zang Hud[21]!” drew her pistol and opened fire.
Chan’s unexpected move threw the ambush into chaos as she was in the boarder’s firing zone, but only half of the boarders were in the crew’s kill zone, this left Chan facing four boarders that only she could fight.
After milliseconds of confusion, a storm of confused fire from both sides erupted. The first person to actually fire was Li Ming who put two shotgun rounds into her target’s chest. His body armor saved his life, but the two powerful hits hammered the man unconscious. Chan’s surprise that started the wild melee pumped three fanned pistol rounds into a second boarder and like Li Ming’s target, went down unconscious. Cindy fired a SMG burst that clipped another boarder in an aimed shot to the head that left the man so stunned he couldn’t return fire. Both Willis and William fired on the last man in their kill zone, but the terrified pirate dodged out of the way. With two of the eight boarders down, things were looking good for the crew of the Ghost, despite the premature start of the firing.
Li Ming fired two more shots at the man Cindy hit and the massive systemic shock was more than enough to kill the man. The surprised boarders finally began returning fire with one of the goons taking a shot at Li Ming for causing so much havoc, but the nimble gambler managed to dodge out of the way, just barely, but enough to stay in the fight.
“CAPTAIN ROLL LEFT!” William barked as he charged from his hiding place with his rifle blazing to protect Chan.
The First Mate’s fire hit one of the goons trying to fire on Chan, slamming the pirate back against the bulkhead. A second pirate sprang to the defense of his comrade and took William under fire for interfering, but drawing the fire away from Chan. Despite his bulk, the big man rolled out of the way, giving Chan the chance to return the favor with two headshots that reduced the number of boarders by half.
Cindy and a boarder exchanged fire that left the boarder stunned. The one goon still hiding in the airlock hit Chan solidly in the chest before the crew could press home the attack. However, her body armor deflected the shot, leaving her staggered, but not taking her out of the fight. Li Ming fired the instant before the boarder that had already taken her under fire, driving him back before he could fire again. Chan shot the man that hit her also preventing him from firing again.
Willis, hampered by his own unwillingness to kill attempted several shots aimed at boarders weapons, but not being the greatest shot, missed completely. To his credit, he could claim forcing boarders back and allowing the others to do the more effective shooting.
Another pirate hiding in the airlock hit William with a rifle burst that sent the big man crashing to the deck unconscious, only saved by his armor. Li Ming responded with two lightning fast shots at two boarders with one man dodging, while the second man – the one who shot William – slumping to the deck, dead before he hit the ground. A boarder fired on Li Ming at the same instant Chan fired at the boarder shooting at Li Ming. The gambler was hit by one round before the raider’s weapon jammed, but she too was saved by her armor. Chan’s shot killed the man that shot Li Ming. With only two raiders still standing, they had reached their breaking point and turned to run. The one pirate still in the airlock bolted before anyone could stop him. The last pirate either was either made of sterner stuff or realized he couldn’t escape, swung his rifle at Chan, but a perfectly aimed burst from Cindy split the man’s skull, killing him instantly.
“WILLIAM!” Chan cried out as she, and then Cindy, who arrived a second after the captain, rolled her first mate over. “Don’t you dare die on me!”
“I’ve got him Captain!” Cindy said tersely and checking his injuries. “You make sure those cowardly lumps of niu shi[22] don’t get away!”
Chan looked like she would refuse to move for a second, but when Willis arrived to help Cindy move William she nodded and ran to assist Li Ming who was covering the airlock. She did however move slower than normal as she favored her left side that had taken the hit.
“You know Chan you have got to stop doing that.” Li Ming said as she felt Chan’s presence next to her.
“Stop doing what?”
“Getting shot, it can’t be pleasant.”
Chan regarded the gambler with a look that might have killed, until she realized Li Ming was pulling her leg. “I…uh…I’ll work on that bao bei[23].”
“Why Captain, I didn’t know you cared.”
“Li Ming, do you want to find out how unpleasant being shot is first hand?”
“I’ll pass.”
“I thought as much, but thanks for caring.”
“Anytime, but may I make a suggestion Captain?”
“Of course.”
“Next time we have an ambush set up, stick to the plan, might cut down that attraction lead seems to have for you.”
At this point Chan’s cheeks colored slightly and she grinned sheepishly. “Yeah, I did kind of throw a monkey wrench in the plan with that move didn’t I?”
“You did, but things have worked out. William will be okay. It didn’t look good, but he took that burst in the armor and he’s strong. He’ll be fine.”
“Yeah, he’s a regular grav tank. The hardest part will be getting him out of the armor.” Chan’s brow creased in worry, but she shook it off.
While Chan and Li Ming covered the airlock, Xavier sprung the mischief she had started as soon as the pirate’s ship docked. Hacking into the hijacker’s airlock controls; she got the Lattimer’s Ghost free of the pirate ship. As soon as the Cortex panel beeped she snapped a single word at Marsh.
“Now!”
“I’m on it!” He replied and slammed full power to the ship’s maneuver drive and bolted for the Boros asteroid belt.
Caught completely by surprise, the pirates failed to react before the Lattimer’s Ghost got a large head start on them. Beyond furious at the casualties inflicted by what was supposed to be another easy target, the raiders immediately prepared to blast these upstarts as an object lesson.
“You better be as good as you say you are, cause I’m reading a fire control array trying to lock onto us. You’ve got less than five seconds before we have a missile making all sorts of unpleasantness for us.”
“Trust me.”
“Don’t you think we all already are?”
“Just watch and learn.”
Marsh kept up his evasive course toward the Boros asteroid belt just in case, but when the pirates finally locked on and attempted to open fire on the rapidly retreating Lattimer’s Ghost, just as she knew it would, Xavier’s second electronic surprise struck. The fire command initiated a carefully crafted virus program that sent a powerful electromagnetic surge through the pirate’s ship. The pirate’s ship was bathed in a coruscating nimbus of blue lightning and the resulting overload fried the control systems of the hijacker’s just as they entered the asteroid belt.
Marsh’s attention was tied up with avoiding asteroids himself and so he quickly lost track of the pursuers. When there was a brilliant flash behind him, he brought the ship around after he was certain that there were no missiles in the area and when he reached the location of the flash, he found that the pirates had met with an asteroid at a high enough speed, all that was left was a very deep smoking crater.
“This is the point where you say ‘thank you Xavier.’” She smiled smugly with her arms folded across her chest and her head canted to one side.
“You got lucky and you know it.”
“Well you are partially right. I thought the overload would just disable their ship the added fireworks were a bonus. Not that I think anyone minds. The ‘Verse is a better place without people like that.”
“I agree. Great job Xavier, I’m glad whatever you want to call it brought you to us.” Chan said as she entered the bridge. She looked out the viewport and nodded at the rapidly cooling new crater on the asteroid. “I was dreading boarding their ship. This is our home and we had the advantage, counter-boarding would have been on their turf and would have lead to all sorts of hurt. As it is we got lucky. Only William and I took hits and Cindy has seen to that.”
“You were hit Cap?” Marsh asked with a surprising amount of concern.
“Trust me, I’ve seen and had far worse, so has William. We’ll both live and thanks to Xavier here, we did it with a minimum of fuss, how much longer to Persephone?”
“Forty hours and its pay day Cap.”
“We earned it Marsh, I’ll leave you to the flyin’ and I’m going to take me a couple of strong painkillers and get some sleep.”
“Say hi to the big guy for me Captain.” Xavier added and then stood with a long stretch. “On second thought, I’ll swing by the infirmary myself and see how he is doing. Night Captain.”
Chan tossed her a wave over her shoulder and gingerly made it down the ladder to her cabin. She carefully got herself undressed and into her bunk after following though with taking the painkillers. “I am getting entirely too old for all this excitement.” She thought as she lay still for a moment and tried to find a position that didn’t hurt so much, then after a few seconds just as the medication took hold, she thought as she drifted to sleep. “Oh hell Chan, you know you loved every second of it.”
“So how is he doing?” Xavier asked as she entered the infirmary, watching Cindy observing scanner readouts.
“He’s doing pretty well all things considered but, even the best body armor can only stop so much kinetic energy. He’s got three cracked ribs and a bruised lung, but going by the readouts, it looks like he’ll outlive all of us.”
“Well that’s good to hear. I’m going to turn in Cindy you look like you need some rest too.”
“I’ll turn in as soon as I check on the two survivors. The other five ‘passengers’ will keep.”
“We should space the lot, bunch of low life baby killers.”
“I agree, but you know the Captain, she won’t go that route unless they cause trouble, then they will get a nice walk in the Black. That crate Willis welded them in will keep them nice and tight until we can give them to Chang’s men.”
“How are you going to check on them in a welded case?”
“I’ll rattle the cage if they jump they are still alive, if they don’t well, then we will be certain they won’t cause trouble.”
“Crude but effective. Night.”
“Night.”
Continuing on to Persephone, the ship touched down exactly forty hours later. They were met by three of Baron Chang’s representatives and half a dozen large trucks at the Eavesdown dock.
“Captain Wu? I am Artemis Taylor. I will take charge of the shipment and the additional ‘cargo’ in your possession.” The tallest of the three men said as they walked up the cargo ramp.
“Mister Taylor, you are more than welcome to them. Would you like some refreshments? We can talk more privately in the ship’s lounge.” Chan replied amiably, the rest of the crew at her back, except for Li Ming who complained before landing that she wasn’t feeling well and had stayed on her shuttle.
“No thank you Captain. I will remain here and will depart as soon as I’m certain the work crew has things under control.”
“Okay then, I guess if you don’t mind handing the money over in public, neither do I.”
“I’m sorry
Captain, there has been a misunderstanding.”
The temperature
in the cargo bay dropped to near Kelvin levels as Chan’s smile faded and her
arm twitched toward her side arm. The only thing that saved
“No mei mei, let me talk from here.” He said calmly, but holding her arm in a grip of iron until she nodded and relaxed.
“Mister Taylor, exactly when did this deputizing occur? We were not informed and you will understand why things are as tense as they are at the moment.” William continues smoothly as if a bloodletting had not just been narrowly averted.
“I regret the oversight Mister Lemont. Baron Chang’s wave arrived yesterday. Deputizing auxiliaries takes the entire High Council and they did not meet until four days after you left. The time lag for the wave to reach Persephone being what it is, the message did not arrive until ten hours ago.”
“I see.” William said icily. “And what does an auxiliary have to do to be paid?”
“You would have to provide direct evidence that the pirates in question were not actually pro-Independent rogues as is the case. Do you have such evidence?”
“Ben tian sheng de yi dui rou![24]” Chan snarled viciously. “You know we don’t have any ‘such evidence.’ You know very well their ship is a crater on one of the asteroids of Boros and the wang bad an de biao zi[25] we captured dead or alive didn’t have anything on them that says they was anything but ex-Browncoats. You better consider yourself damn lucky William chose to save your life today, you might not get so lucky next time. Now you will get off my ship or I think it will be William that decides to take it into his head to shoot you this time.”
“Now Cap-“
“You might want to listen to the lady you hun dan. She said git!” Marsh said with a growl.
“We’ll find a
cargo some how Chan. Persephone is busy place.” Cindy said softly after
“Yes we will Cindy. Yes we will.” Chan replied through a tight jaw. “You can damn sure bet we will, just damn sure bet we’ll find something.”
Chapter Four
“Hey Li Ming, we made planetfall ten hours ago and you’re still here, what is going on?” Asked Marsh the small statured pilot of the Lattimer’s Ghost and finest in the ‘Verse if you let him talk about it, which he would if given even the slightest encouragement.
“Uh…well this may be a bit difficult for a guy to understand, but now that we are back on solid ground and water isn’t a premium, I’ve got to wash my hair.” Replied the stunning Wong Li Ming. “You know sometimes a girl just has to take time to spoil herself. Gambling isn’t everything you know.”
“Well you got the ‘a bit difficult for a guy to understand’ part right. You usually have your shuttle in atmo before the ‘Ghost is after that “hot table” you are always going on about. Are you sure you’re feeling okay? You’re the one that calls herself a gambler and it is how you make you living, so now you are telling me gambling isn’t everything?”
“Yeah well, since you are a guy, you don’t have to understand about a woman’s hygienic needs. Now you go find some trouble to get into like a good little Troglodyte and try not to drag your knuckles so much when you do.” She quipped then continued up the stairs toward the shuttle she called home.
Marsh paused on the landing and admired her shapely form as she departed. He sighed and shook his head before heading down the main boarding ramp to catch up to Cindy Schultz the ship’s medic, who was every bit as unattractive as Li Ming was beautiful and Xavier, the ship’s odd duck computer and security systems expert.
“You know one of these days she’s going to catch you checking out her p gu.” Said Xavier.
“We’ll it’s her fault you know.”
“Her fault?” snorted Cindy. “Okay go ahead and explain to me how it’s her fault you are always checking her out.”
“Well if she didn’t look so damn fine, I’d be looking at someone else. Besides she knows I’m checking her out. Chicks always know, especially the fine ones.”
Cindy rolled her eyes then looked at Xavier. “Tell me again why I bother? He’s a typical guy, born to be a pig and here I am trying to make a silk purse out of him.”
“You have always enjoyed a challenge I guess.” Replied Xavier, admiring her reflection in the window of the shop selling what the owners proudly proclaimed were antiques. She could be considered attractive, but her current appearance seemed to be constructed to make that as hard to detect as possible. Maybe it was the hair shaved high and tight leaving a purple scalp lock, or possibly the inserts that made her eyes seem like completely green mirrors, but the most unusual thing was the bone that pierced her nose, almost like she was trying to pay homage to some aborigine from Earth-That-Was. She turned from the window and tilted her head to one side, which she did unconsciously whenever she was thinking though something.
“No challenge isn’t the word, conundrum is more the word you are looking for.”
“Conundrum?” Both Cindy and Marsh replied simultaneously.
“Yes it is a conundrum how they could shave an orangutan, teach it to talk and let it call itself a pilot.”
Cindy burst out laughing as Marsh sputtered trying to come up with a suitable reply, but was so taken by surprise that he couldn’t.
Xavier gently placed her hand on his shoulder and smiled sincerely. “It’s okay big fellah, your secret is safe with me. Don’t get upset. Last thing we need is for you to revert to your roots and have you gen hou zi bi diu shi[26] like you used to do back in the jungle before the big bad men came to shave you.”
At this point it was difficult to tell who was redder, Marsh from his crewmate’s stinging rejoinders or Cindy from laughing so hard. Cindy at this point had tears in her eyes and was holding her sides as she guffawed from Xavier’s pointed comments.
“Let’s go, we have work to do.” The flustered Marsh finally managed to growl as he strode away from the ship and into the Eavesdown Dock proper. Xavier took the still laughing Cindy by the arm and pulled her along so the two women could catch up with their much-abused friend.
Several blocks from the Eavesdown Docks, Captain Wu Chan Juan sat with her corpulent first mate William Lamont sharing a beer and trying to not look so depressed.
“We’ve only been on planet ten hours Chan, no need to act like we haven’t got a friend in the ‘Verse you know.” The big man said around the Bao[27] he was stuffing into his mouth.
“William, we have to plan our cargoes well in advance if we are to keep that Bao you love so much flowing.” She replied with a frown.
“Never mind about me being a Bao connoisseur mei mei. This is the biggest port we’ve been to since the ‘Ghost took to the Black again and we will find something.”
Chan smiled and giggled in a most un-captain-like manner. “Never ending appetite and never ending optimism. I really don’t know what I’d do without you my friend. The ‘Verse would be an empty place without you here to keep me sane.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment and once I’m finished with this.” Indicating the third generous serving of Bao he was demolishing. “Let’s see if Frankie-the-Hand knows if anyone needs something shipped.”
“Frankie-the-Hand! I thought you didn’t like him.”
“I don’t have to like him to carry
merchandise for him.”
”William you are incorrigible.”
”It’s my nicest feature…no second nicest.”
“Okay I’ll bite.” Chan said supplying the obvious straight line.”
“Why my sparkling personality mei mei.”
”Who would have
thought a secondary waste reclamation access terminal would have level five
encryption?” Xavier muttered into her sake at the dockside bar Marsh,
Cindy, and she had found after her failed attempt to hack into the local Cortex
restricted database. “This isn’t the Core, it’s a bloody border world! The
bloody
“Well on Persephone, apparently they do.” Cindy replied, getting a bit fed up with her crewmate’s whining. “You gave it your best shot and it didn’t work. The Captain will find something; she knows a lot of people in a lot of places. Something will break our way.”
“That would be nice for a change.” Marsh muttered. “Luck hasn’t exactly been breaking our way ever since Greenleaf.”
“Let’s not go down that road either. I’m going to get another drink. You want one?” Cindy said over her shoulder as she headed for the bar.
“Sure thing, if you’re buyin’, I’ll have some of the good stuff.” Marsh replied and rubbed his hands in anticipation.
“Nothing for me thanks.” Xavier called out to her comrade at the bar, before dropping her voice so that only Willis could hear as she continued. “Last thing I need is a depressant right now.”
“Oh give it a rest already sweetcakes. Remember Cindy is a medic. A good stiff drink is just what the doctor is ordering.”
On reaching the bar Cindy signaled the bartender and as she pulled the necessary bills from her wallet, she noticed the large, and obviously well in his cups, man down the bar staring at her.
“Damn iff’n I ain’t been from one end of the ‘Verse to th’ tother and I’ll be dipped if you ain’t about the most powerfully ugly woman I’ve ever seen. A man would have to be ten days past desperate before he’d try grapplin’ wid the likes o’ you.” He then chortled merrily at his own witticism.
Cindy had heard that sort of comment far too many times to let the opinions of a drunk ruffle her, so she simply paid the bartender for the two drinks, and was turning back toward her table, when she heard the sound of a chair sliding back,
“No Marsh dammit, no! He’s not worth it!” Cindy shouted as she moved to block the small man’s deliberate advance on the drunk.
“Yeah Marsh, have your drink, like you said, it’s just what the doctor ordered.” Xavier added as she pulled on his arm trying to get him to stop his advance.
“This won’t take a minute hon, you can have my drink with Cindy.” He replied calmly and deftly slipped out of Xavier’s grasp and around Cindy’s attempt to block his progress.
About this time, the drunk became aware that someone was standing in his light. He looked up blearily at the obstruction. “You got a problem little man?” He growled.
“Yeah. As a matter of fact I do. Since, by your own appearance, despite your claims of extensive travel to the contrary, you are obviously not a man of the world. So, I guess it falls to me to teach you some manners.”
The drunk broke into a horselaugh at the thought of a man 80 pounds lighter teaching him any sort of lesson and stood up, to his credit, he even managed not to sway as he did, but he also showed that he was about eight inches taller than Marsh as well.
“You seriously think you can teach me anything?” He said.
“Even if no one else has tried, I’m going to, as damn if it isn’t time for someone to pound something into that rock you call a head.” Marsh replied evenly.
“Why you little Feng le[28] twit!” The big man snarled as he drew back his meaty fist.
However, the much more agile and much more sober pilot anticipated just such a move and landed a one-two punch with blinding speed striking the drunk on both sides of his nose before he could even draw his fist all the way back, the sudden spurt of blood announcing that the nose was also well and truly broken.
Blinded by fury and pain, the drunk flailed ineffectively, allowing the nimble Marsh to duck under the wild swings and deliver another one-two combination to the drunk’s gut. Despite his small size, these second blows caused the air to explode out of the drunk’s lungs, leaving him gasping like a fish out of water. Sidestepping to the drunk’s left, Marsh drove an elbow to the kidney actually forced the half-mad bigger man to his knees. A final flat palm to the drunk’s nose was enough to send him crashing to the floor with a mighty thud.
“As to actually learning something from this lesson will be shown if you keep a civil tongue about you next time you think you’ve thought of something clever.” An only slightly winded Marsh commented as he gave a chagrined wave to the bartender. “Yeah I know, it’s time for us to go. For your trouble.” He added as he flipped a ten platinum coin to cover for the disruption he’d caused.
“You do know you didn’t have to do that.” Cindy said as they headed back toward their ship. “I’ve heard that sort of thing before and I do know how to handle myself with his sort.”
“Actually I did have to do that. Even if you aren’t the most beautiful thing in the ‘Verse, who in the south side of Sihnon does he think he is to call attention to it.”
“Well, as hard as this is to believe, I actually think he’s got a valid point this time.” Cindy replied, her face creased in thought.
“It seems our shaved orangutan is more of a conundrum than we thought. He almost seemed human for a second there.” Xavier said shaking her head in disbelief.
“Yeah I’m a real credit to my new species. Ook ook ook.”
And this time all three of them shared in the laugh.
“Do you think I laid it on too thick this time William?” Chan Juan asked while they waited at a traffic light to cross the street.
“Well, I was about to hand you a trowel, but no, I think you did what you had to do to get Frankie-the-Hand to tell you about that cargo he was obviously saving for someone else. The bigger problem is we have to wait four days before the shipper has his cargo ready to go. That’s four days for something to develop you know how I hate developments.” The first mate replied after taking a moment to think about the morning’s meeting with the unseemly Frankie-the-Hand.
Chan Juan shivered for a second before she continued speaking and continued walking when the light changed. “Yes, but damn it all, now we owe that…that… Damn what did they call that long, thin, sneaky, little mammal critter on Earth-That-Was?
“A weasel?” Offered William.
“Thinner than that, but you are on the right track.”
“A ferret?”
“Yes that’s it! A ferret, I tell you I’m glad the life support unit on those things failed during the trip to the ‘Verse. I don’t think it was any loss they didn’t make it here. Can you imagine what it would be like to have more of them around than that hou zi de pi gu Frankie-the-Ferret running around?”
“You have a point, but it couldn’t be helped. Frankie wouldn’t budge and offering to transport a single load of cargo at standard rates, but with no questions at a later date was the only way to get him to spill. You know I never liked him, but we aren’t in the position to be too picky right now.”
“Don’t I know it! Those hun dan “nobles” of Greenleaf really left us strapped over a barrel. I know you’ve got some money stashed, as do I, but that won’t keep us in fuel, parts, and protein packs for long and I’ll be a purple pig in a pink tutu before I let the ‘Ghost get stranded somewhere again. I got lucky getting the crew I got, considering how choosy I couldn’t be. I won’t go for outside partners that aren’t onboard and a part of the crew.”
“As well you shouldn’t. I wouldn’t
fly under a captain or owner that won’t risk being in the Black themselves.
It’s the primary reason I signed on to fly with you mei mei, no, that
would be the second reason.”
”You just can’t stop having me play
the straight-man can you? Okay what would be the first reason you choose to fly
with me?”
“Why your sparkling personality mei mei.”
As the rest of the crew went about trying to locate a job that would keep them in fuel, parts, and protein packs, the ship’s mechanic Willis Thorton was in his beloved engine room tinkering. He had picked up several new parts for the Lattimer’s Ghost and was in the process of installing them to keep the ship that was fifteen years older than he was in top running condition. Technically, he was also watching the ship, but with his head and shoulders buried in the life support access panel, he wasn’t really able to fulfill that part of his watch very well.
This preoccupation was a happy coincidence for the three beefy men that were at that moment slipping up the ramp of the ‘Ghost. Despite being in a fairly busy area, the three men remained unseen and even if Willis was watching carefully, there was little guarantee he would have seen them enter. They were that good. Moving silently, they quickly made sure the cargo bay was clear before moving up the stairs to the upper deck. Skill is only half of a professional’s make up. The second and equally, if not more, important part was luck. As the lead intruder crept up the stairs, an empty can of peaches left carelessly on the landing found its way under his foot. The man slipped, but his training kept him from falling. His training could not however, keep the can from falling to the floor of the cargo bay.
“Da xiang bao zha shi de la du zi[29]!” Willis thundered as the wrench he was using slipped off the nut causing him to bark the skin on his knuckles. “Sweet merciful Buddha, forgive my outburst, the fault was mine.” The deeply religious Willis said contritely before returning to his task, unbeknownst to the pious mechanic, his outburst just so happened to mask the faint sound of a can rattling around in the cargo bay.
Clunk-ting-ting-rattle-rattle-clunk came the sound from the cargo bay and Li Ming, already wired for reasons known only to her, reacted immediately. She rolled up from her comfortable sofa, drawing her pistol in a smooth motion, and moved to peer cautiously from her shuttle.
“Ta ma de.” She muttered as she saw the three men on the stairs. “Never let it be said Darius Nightblade is a man of patience. At least he didn’t send the hun dan that hung me over the balcony.”
Li Ming moved quickly and silently along the mid-level catwalk above the cargo bay until she melted into the shadows at the corner that led to the top of the stairs the three intruders would reach when they started moving again. Dropping prone, she waited in ambush.
The three men froze in absolute silence for over a minute waiting to see if the clattering can had given them away. When no sign of detection presented itself, they began moving again, this time carefully checking each step for debris.
When the men reached the catwalk, Li Ming took a deep breath and then let half of it out as she sighted in on the lead intruder. She gently squeezed the trigger, just as she was taught so many years ago, and heard the hammer strike home on a dud round. The click of the hammer almost reverberated in the resounding silence of the cargo bay. In that next split second of time, it was impossible to figure out who was more surprised, Li Ming or the intruders.
Li Ming however, recovered first with a withering curse as she threw down the jammed pistol and raced for her shuttle. The three hired guns were very good at their profession and responded milliseconds behind their target by drawing their weapons and letting loose with a fusillade of fire at the wildly dodging gambler.
“Wo de ma![30]” Willis exclaimed as he heard the unmistakable sound of gunfire exploding on the ship. He all but vaulted off the deck and raced for his quarters to arm himself, but as always, he was torn when it came to doing violence to others, despite the provocation. “Merciful Buddha, please guide me, do I take up arms or call for help? I know violence is not your way, but I cannot abandon my friend and home to robbers.” If Buddha or anyone else had an answer, he was going to have to reach his quarters before he received that guidance.
Whether it was her gambler’s luck or simply fate, one of the gunmen’s pistols also jammed reducing the amount of fire coming her way, and Li Ming was almost to safety when she felt the branding iron hot slug graze across her left arm.
“Gorram it that hurts, you ruttin’ Ben tian sheng de yi dui rou[31]!” Li Ming snarled as she dove into the shuttle, trying to ignore the blood on her arm as she scrambled for another weapon. “And I really liked this outfit too. I am really going to have to find a way to make Nightblade pay for this.”
She pulled her pump action out from its hiding place and racked the slide, taking special care to make sure the round slammed home in the chamber. Once ready, she took up position covering the entry to the shuttle.
The roaring flash of a shotgun set on full choke met the first gunman through the hatch. He took the entire load of buckshot in the chest and was both blasted backward out of the shuttle and out of the fight. The man following on his heels spun out of the way of his crippled comrade and took cover on the far side of the entry to the shuttle, waiting for the third man to clear his jammed pistol. Thinking quickly, he fished in his pocket coming up with a handful of coins for the surprise he had cooked up for the unexpectedly difficult mark cowering inside the shuttle. The third man reached the other side of the hatch and nodded at the hand signals from the second man that he was ready.
Willis dropped down the hatch to his quarters and drew his pistol, his eyes flashing wildly at what he knew he had to do. He started up the ladder and prepared to come to Li Ming’s assistance.
The second gunman threw in the hand full of coins, dropped to the floor, rolled into the center of the shuttle, and looked for his target, his partner providing high cover to his low. What he saw was an object arcing out from behind the plush sofa across the shuttle. His eyes went wide when it registered what he’d seen, but being fully prone, he could not move quickly enough before the object detonated.
“Tian xiao de![32]” A stunned Willis muttered when he heard the explosion below deck. “No, no, no, no, this is too much! Dearest Buddha, please show our sister Li Ming your mercy. I must get help to avenge her death.” And the sobbing mechanic changed directions for the bridge.
Peering out of the shuttle, the very much alive Li Ming saw that her flashbang had it’s intended results, better than intended actually with one of the gunmen unconscious and the second one nearly so, his eyes rolling around in his head like marbles. Kicking his weapon away, Li Ming calmly waited for the man to regain his senses so they could have a little chat.
When Willis sent out his frantic call of the ship being under attack and Li Ming being murdered, the rest of the crew of the ‘Ghost raced back at top speed, their movement coordinated by their ship-linked handsets. All five of the off ship crew formed up and advanced on the ‘Ghost in a regular skirmish line fully prepared to do violence to them as what had hurt theirs. What they found was a bit different than they expected.
Reality found them face to face with Li Ming with a bandaged arm and Willis dumping the last of three bodies off the ship. They stood there open-mouthed for a second before Captain Wu lanced Li Ming with a basilisk-like glare.
“Okay, I won’t say I’m unhappy to find you still breathing, but as soon as we get this ship sealed, you are going to explain yourself. And I better like the explaining or we are going to revisit our arrangement.”
Li Ming only nodded glumly, then assisted in getting the ship sealed and a watch set. This took less than five minutes to accomplish, and then everyone gathered on the bridge, so Marsh could hear and still keep an eye on the security monitors.
“I had hoped by not leaving the ship, I could remain undetected, but I guess that was just me counting on wishful thinking. First, I owe all of you an apology for not admitting my situation and trusting you with that information.” Li Ming began, her voice starting out shaky, but becoming firmer as she found her focus.
“Three years ago I had a disagreement with a casino owner here on Persephone. His name is Darius Nightblade and he seemed to think he deserved more than the standard 60/40 split house gamblers get when they work an establishment. He wanted 70% of the take instead of the 40% due him. He told me this when I had some five thousand credits in front of me. I told him that I wouldn’t work under those conditions and I would cash out and leave. He said, yes you will, but maybe not in the manner you think you will.
“I didn’t like how that sounded one bit, but before I could make my move, I was surrounded by half a dozen leg-breakers and next thing I know I am on my way to his private office. Nightblade’s casino is quite the top-drawer establishment. You can see it in that monitor right there.”
The crew turned to see where she was pointing and could clearly see the sweeping hundred-story tower in the distance. She waited until everyone was looking at her before she continued.
“His office is in the penthouse. He had already had his goons divest me of my money, derringer, and brass knuckles, so things were not looking good for Mama Wong’s little girl Li Ming at all. Things were about to get a lot worse. Nightblade tells me that he’s got everyone at the table ready to swear I’d lost big that night and was looking distraught about it, so distraught that they were concerned about my well being. He really wasn’t in a mood to talk, so he just snapped his fingers like he was in some stupid holo-vid or something and his goons had me hanging upside down from his balcony.
“I have never been so scared in my life. I was certain that was it for me. Fortunately, I had one last ace in the hole. I had a flashbang specially made to look a hair comb. All I had to do to activate it was snap it and throw it. The dress I was wearing that night included a long, and fortunately strong, silk belt. Below me I could see a decorative cornice and while Nightblade went on and on about teaching the others a lesson, no one was keeping an eye on me. I guess they figured I wasn’t in a position to influence things. Well, long story short, the flashbang and the silk belt lassoing the cornice escape trick worked. I was able to get out of the casino before Nightblade could seal the place off, but he’s wanted to finish that night’s business ever since. I’ve kept either to the Rim or the Core worlds since then. I had hoped that having to visit Persephone on the ‘Ghost would never come up.”
The heat in Chan Juan’s gaze was down from basilisk-like to merely starving tiger-like when Li Ming finished speaking. She stood and paced a bit before her hand lashed out to slap Li Ming with a solid open-handed blow. Li Ming managed to keep her feet, but only just.
“That was for putting me and mine at risk without letting me know. I can’t abide a chicken-headed woman and that is the last time you get to be one on my ship, dong ma?”
Li Ming nodded as she rubbed the cheek Chan Juan had slapped, but both were red when you added the shame she felt from the trouble her actions had already caused and for not trusting Chan when she should have.
“Captain, the easiest way to solve something that is obviously my problem is for me to go. You can’t lift until the cargo is loaded and that won’t be for four days. On the other hand, if it’s one thing Persephone has in abundance, its transports heading off world. Just give me an hour to pack and I can be off world in an hour and a half.” Li Ming said, not knowing that her left cheek was beginning to show the outline of a handprint.
“Woman I told you that you don’t get to be a chicken-head on my ship again. Regardless of you having handed this crew a helping of something we wouldn’t step in, you are still a member of this crew and you will not dance out of here to get yourself hung from someplace without a cornice and a fancy silk belt. All we have to do is stand our ground for four days and then we can fast burn off this rock.” Chan Juan all but snarled back.
“Four days? Are you insane? You won’t be able to hold off Nightblade and his goons for four days! I was gone for three years and he had hired guns after me in less than twelve hours. Now think about how much hurt he could call up in four days? I’ll just start packing the essentials. You can sell the rest of my stuff to help cover the jam I’ve put you in.”
“Li Ming if you don’t sit down, I’m going to knock you down.”
“Chan I will not let you hit me again.”
As was typical for his nature, it was the gentle Willis that spoke next. “Ladies please, taking the frustrations of the moment out on each other will benefit no one except perhaps this Mister Nightblade. Maybe the solution, much like the Yin and Yang of the Buddha, lies with the combination of your ideas. Honorable Captain, you wish to stay the four days until the cargo is loaded, a wise choice that benefits the whole crew. Honorable Miss Wong, you wish to spare the rest of the crew any danger by departing immediately, a noble decision that again benefits the rest of the crew, but not yourself. The answer is simple. We do both.”
“Willis what in the south side of Sihnon are you talking about? We obviously cannot do both. They’re exact opposed ideas.” Marsh snapped impatiently.
“There you are wrong my hot-headed young friend. Miss Wong can depart immediately in the shuttle that is her home to wait for us on the outskirts of the system for four days until we can rejoin with her with the loaded Lattimer’s Ghost.” Willis smiled.
“Well damn, the little git actually has a keeper of an idea there.” Marsh smiled and slapped Willis on the back.
“Now wait a damn minute! Last time I checked, I was the gorram captain of this gorram ship!” Chan Juan thundered. William opened his mouth to speak, but Chan silenced him with a glare. “Okay, I’ll fess up to getting a mite too worked up about the situation we find ourselves in, but once again our sage mechanic has brokered out a reasonable idea that keeps Li Ming’s naughty bits out of the fire and lets us get the cargo I had to offer more than I care to think about loaded. Since there is nothing else to talk about, we got us a shuttle to prep for immediate departure. Get to it people.”
The crew split up to get to their duty stations with Chan Juan following Li Ming up to her shuttle.
“What you want to take another swing at me?” Li Ming stood just inside the shuttle facing the captain with her hands on her hips.
“No actually I don’t. I trust the first one got the point across.”
“That it surely did.” The taller woman nodded subconsciously rubbing her still stinging cheek
“This Nightblade character as much bad news as you said?’
”Probably worse. I can only tell what he was like three years ago and I didn’t know him all that well. You are all going to have to watch your backs even after I go. He will know you know where I went and I have no doubts he will use whichever of you he can get his hands on to get to me.”
“You let me worry about that. As of now, the crew is restricted to the ship and we will set a bridge watch to make sure no one else tries to sneak aboard. I’ll have William with me tomorrow when we meet with the shipper to nail down the contract and we’ll be in constant contact via handsets. The second shuttle will be prepped for a fast extraction. There won’t be any trouble, except for them as what brings it.”
“Thank you Chan Juan. I don’t deserve a friend like you.”
”Friend? Hell ‘you don’t deserve a captain like me, but you got me nonetheless.” And for the first time since Li Ming finished her story, Chan Juan smiled.
“Damn you for trying to make me cry woman.” Li Ming sniffed. “And here it is you that told me I couldn’t be a ‘chicken-head’ any more.”
The two women hugged tightly for a moment, then Chan stepped back smiling. “I’ll go then. You’ve got a course to input and the last thing you need is me making you be a chicken-head again.”
“Watch yourself Chan Juan.”
”You too Li Ming.”
Li Ming’s shuttle broke free of the atmosphere less than ten minutes later.
The next day, Chan Juan and William left the Lattimer’s Ghost for their meeting with their shipper wearing body armor and carefully concealed pistols. As they departed the ship, Chan Juan looked back to make sure the ship was properly secured and what she saw made her blood boil. Her snarl was so guttural that it brought William around clawing for his pistol.
“Ta ma de!” He
said as he saw what had made his captain so furious.
Chan raged as she read the ‘She’s not worth it!’ graffiti scrawled all over the lower hull. “That hun dan has the nerve to deface my ship and try and tell me the value of one of my crew. I’ll kill him.”
She managed to
take a step toward the tall tower Li Ming had pointed out before William
enfolded her in his huge frame. “Mei mei no we can’t! He has too much
protection for you to fight them yourself and the
Slowly Chan Juan uncoiled and her breathing evened out. She reached into her coat and William prepared to grab her again in case she came out with her pistol, but instead she had her ship-linked handset.
“Thorton! You’ve got work to do on the lower hull. Marsh and Xavier, you’ve got to rework the monitors for wider coverage and it all better be done by the time we get back. Come on William” She pocketed her handset and marched resolutely for the Eavesdown Docks, thankfully away from the direction of Nightblade’s tower.
The damage to the Lattimer’s Ghost was trivial vandalism with no harm done to any of the ship’s systems. A deeply embarrassed Marsh, who had taken lead during the watch, helped Willis use a rented ultrasound scrubber to quickly remove the markings from the hull.
Xavier was just as embarrassed as Marsh as she was the one who set up the ‘Ghost’s surveillance package and somehow, someone had hacked her system. Knowing the captain was not in the mood for excuses, she had only used their last names, she only did that when she didn’t trust herself to keep her temper in check, they tripled the surveillance coverage by the time Captain Wu and William returned.
The second Marsh spotted them he went to greet them, but his hand stalled halfway to the handset. The captain’s clipped pace told him everything he needed to know.
“Marsh, get my ship in the Black we are leaving!” Chan Juan barked as she stormed onto the ship. The pilot didn’t ask any questions, he didn’t need to. He completed his stalled grab for the handset and contacted Approach Control for departure instructions.
Cindy, who was on watch, was fully armed and armored, waited until the captain blew past on her way to the bridge before she cornered William.
“Damn, and I thought she was mad when she left. What’s up?”
“The shipper cancelled on us.”
“What? Why?”
“Good questions both, but don’t ask me to answer them. Going by his attitude, it was a kindness that he even let us meet with him. We walked in all friendly and professional like good businessmen, damn but you would have been proud of the captain the way she suppressed her fury for that meeting. Anyway, we went in expecting to put the contract to paper and we met a wall of ice instead. Mister Davies said it had come to his attention that our ship had Browncoat leanings and with him being a decorated former member of the Alliance Navy would have no truck with them as what fought against him and his men. We could see ourselves out.”
“He didn’t.”
“Damn all if he
didn’t. Wasn’t a thing we could say. All we could do was see ourselves out.”
”Then why were you gone so long, that “meeting” couldn’t have lasted five
minutes.”
”It was 90 seconds, but you have a point. We spent the last five hours talking to every person we knew and them as what know the people we know. Most wouldn’t even talk to us, those that would told us we an odor to us so bad we might as well be fishmongers what only worked with ten day old fish. Wasn’t much point in beating a dead horse into bones, so we came back here. I’ve never seen Chan so mad before.
“The final straw was when those three local toughs that tried to stop us from getting back here. They stepped up all bold and bluster, but one gander at the look in the captain’s eyes was enough to get them to high tail it. Seems this Nightblade fellah has riled up all forms of local talent against us. I tell you it would be a kindness if you could slip something into her coffee tonight so she might sleep.”
”William! You know I can’t do that! Why the very thought of it.”
“Aye Cindy I know you can’t, but it worries me to see her so worked up. You know how she is when it comes to taking care of her crew and this ship. She blames herself for taking that Dragon Flower cargo to Greenleaf that has us in the position we’re in.”
”That’s wasn’t the way of it.” A soft voice came from behind them said.
“You’ve been
practicing on your creepin’ skills Xavier girl. I didn’t hear you that time.”
”Sorry William, that wasn’t my intent.”
“I know it, cause you’d be hanging by that pretty purple scalp lock of yours from the main airlock if it was. But back to the topic at hand, no it wasn’t the way of it, but nothing in the ‘Verse will make the captain see it any other way.”
“So where are we going?” Asked Cindy.
“Only place that makes sense to the captain. First, we marry up with Li Ming second, we’re Verbena bound. Captain was stuck there a long time and has lots of friends there, unless of course the Nightblade fellah has a longer reach than that.”
Whether that was true or not, only time would tell.
Chapter Five
“I understand Frankie you have a reputation to maintain. You try and stay on top of the dirt and if things change you can send me a wave.”
“Yeah Chan, I’ll do that.” The unscrupulous trader closed the connection without bothering to say goodbye.
“Seemed to be in a hurry to get off the Cortex in case someone might hear who he was talking to and some of our stink might rub off on him.” William commented dryly.
“Yeah seemed that way, William, I am beginning to think that going to Verbena would be a waste of time and fuel. No one wants to even admit they know us.”
“Yeah, we seem to have found a way to rile the entire ‘Verse at us. At least if you want to make things difficult, you might as well do a good job of it I figger.” Marsh added.
“Thing is we don’t want to make things difficult, at least not this difficult. Li Ming, you think this Nightblade character of yours has the sort of pull to make the welcome mat get rolled up and the ‘do not disturb’ sign hung out?”
Li Ming was quiet for a moment, lost in bad memories before she replied. “Honestly Chan, I wouldn’t have thought so. He’s got enough juice on Persephone as you witnessed, but to reach all the way out to Verbena and squash everyone from Patrick Hong to Frankie the Hand? No, I don’t believe it.”
“Marsh, what are we closest too?” Chan asked suddenly.
“Um…hang on a
second…that would be…
“Then change
heading to
“
“Small fry like us have a better chance of being able to talk a deal out of a Rim operation than the Border Planets. I don’t have a direct plan as of yet, but we won’t waste as much fuel on the trip and who knows, maybe the stink hasn’t reached this far.”
“Have you given any thought to a Salver’s License?” Willis asked quietly.
“Junk dealers? No it hadn’t entered my mind. Picking over the bones of dead ships and hauling scrap doesn’t quite have an appeal to me.” Chan replied pensively.
“Job’s a job Captain.” William said.
“Well I’ll tell you what. If we can’t make anything pan out with normal work, I’m not so proud that I’ll let us all starve, I went through something like that once and it ain’t gonna happen again. If movin’ garbage from one end of the ‘Verse to the other is what is payin’ then that is what we will do. Now that that is settled, Marsh how long before we get there?”
“Just under ten hours Cap.”
“Wake me when we get there.” Chan replied over her shoulder as she left the bridge.
“Will do Cap.” Marsh replied, but waited until Chan was out of sight before turning to the first mate and asking. “So do you think we will find anything?”
“Going by how
things have been,
“Oh great, just what I need as a title, garbage scow pilot.”
“You afraid driving a garbage scow, if it comes to that, is going to hurt your pilot rep or something?” William chuckled.
“What do you know about it? We pilots live and die off of bein’ the hottest stick on the hottest ship. A Firefly isn’t exactly the hottest ship to begin with, a garbage hauler Firefly is going to get me into a lot of fights.”
“As if you need encouragement to get into a fight.” William snorted.
“Why more fights Marsh?” Willis asked. “Like our esteemed first mate says, you seem to get in enough of those. Your Yang needs more Yin.”
Marsh looked hard at his room mate before replying. “Well I say your Yin needs more Yang. Opinions and five silvers will get you a Fruity Oaty bar.”
“You avoid the question my friend?”
Marsh sighed when he saw the look on Willis’ face as he knew the mechanic would not let the topic go once he went all religious on him. “I’d get in more fights because I know some one would try and cut the ‘Ghost down for bein’ a garbage hauler and I’ll be triple dipped in da bian before I’ll let anyone bad mouth my ship.”
“Noble intent, less noble execution.”
“Yeah well, nobility don’t account for much. Look what the hun dan Baron Chang did to us and he’s a high-falutin’ lord and all.”
“He has you there Willis.” William nodded.
“I must agree, Lord Chang’s actions were without honor.”
“Yeah and why we will end up hauling other people’s go se, and I will end up in more fights, dong ma?”
“Dong ma!” Willis replied with a smile knowing that while he had not changed Marsh’s mind, he had got his point across, which was the most you could hope for most of the time with the hot-headed pilot.
The Lattimer’s
Ghost settled in on the landing pad of the still battle scarred port with a
sigh as the power cycled down and the cargo ramp began to lower.
“Okay everyone, you know the drill.” Chan began briskly. “Cindy, William, and I will see if we can stir up a job. Willis and Marsh, I know you bugged me enough about the care and feeding the ‘Ghost needs, so you finally have the time to get to it. Xavier, you sure you don’t want to join us on the town?”
“Well, I’ve got that watercolor I’m working on and I’d really like to finish it today. How about I comm you when I’m done and we can meet somewhere?”
“Works for me, okay, let’s make this happen people your Captain needs a new pair of shoes.”
“Isn’t that Li Ming’s line?” Marsh asked rhetorically.
“Don’t you have work to do?” Chan countered.
Marsh paused before he replied, obviously deciding that no good would come of the tack he was considering and simply remained silent and nodded.
“Okay, now that we all have our responsibilities, let’s get to it.” Chan bobbed her head once to indicate the discussion was over.
The meeting broke up and everyone turned to their assigned tasks. Chan and William got into the hover car to see if they could make contact with a reputable or even less than reputable middle man that might have a cargo.
Cindy went solo in the hover mule to see if she could luck up on any ex-Browncoats that might owe her a favor. It pained Cindy to have to be the go between for anything involving the Independents, but with Chan not being all that welcome due to some event she hadn’t yet shared with Cindy, it fell to the medic to make the attempt.
Willis headed
for his home away from home in the engine room to make some repairs that could
only be done when the engine was shut down. The long push from Persephone and
then out to
“You know Willsie, you should really listen to some of my advice for a change. I listen to yours, why can’t you at least try some of mine?”
“Mainly due to the issue I would have with having to explain to the Captain why she needs to come to the local jail with bail money.”
“The Captain has never had to bail me out!”
“It is only a matter of time. You need-“
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, I need more Yin. Let’s just get this drive motivator aligned. Hand me the power socket wrench.”
“Dang ran.” Willis replied, using his foot to slide the requested tool to Marsh while keeping his attention fixed on the fine adjustment to the starboard power coupling he was making.
As the rest of the crew worked on their assigned tasks Xavier was busy gathering up and organizing her sophisticated electronic gear. When she first went to her cabin, she did a few brush strokes on the watercolor she had started earlier, but she did not have any intent to actually do any serious painting. What she needed was an excuse not to be around the others. She had a plan and she needed time and space to make it work. After she was certain she had her gear carefully concealed, she slipped silently out of her cabin and, after ensuring there was no one to see her, she silently left the ship in search of a quiet place to conduct her business.
She walked
along the streets of
Slipping past the standard login procedures with long practiced ease, she was quickly deeper into the system than the terminal was ever meant to allow. Her fingers danced lightly across the keyboard, only slowing to plug in various adaptors to the homemade by-pass she had inserted into the terminal’s access port. She very quickly had the information she was looking for
“Shen sheng de gao wan[33] an
assayer’s office! That means cash on hand, oh yes United Reclamation will make
quite the pay out whether they know it or not.” With the layout of the office
downloaded into her portable, she disconnected from the terminal and once she
had her gear secreted again, moved away from the terminal and back onto the
streets of
“You know this lack of improvement in our situation is beginning to wear on my nerves mei mei. I mean how many times can we hit a planet and run into a brick wall?”
“I’ll confess
it grates on the ego to find no one will talk to you, but then again,
“Okay, I guess that means I have to play the ‘bad Fed’ in this little dialog. Okay. Yeah, but you could say we are all dressed up with no where to go. As it is, the pickings for the Lift-day Feast are going to be slimmer than befits the title ‘feast.’”
“We’ve only been here a day, let’s give it another day of pounding the pavement and then we can look into Willis’ idea. Work is work and sweet merciful Buddha knows, there is enough junk in the ‘Verse that it would be steady work.”
“Truer words were never spoken on that point mei mei, you up for a game of Tall Card?”
“Sure, why not? Li Ming doesn’t have the market cornered on turning cards.” Chan walked over to the intercom as William dug out the cards. “All hands, if you are interested. William and I are started up a friendly game of Tall Card, ya’ll are welcome to join us in the dining room.”
Chan hung up and waited a few minutes to see if anyone would join them. Sure enough, she heard footsteps approaching and Willis joined them at the table.
“It will only be me joining you this evening. Marsh and Cindy are…occupied and it seems Xavier is deep into her painting.”
“At it again are they? You have to give it to them for sheer perseverance William.” Chan chuckled.
“It is amazing, but they are young enough, no reason to be jealous.” William winked to Willis behind Chan’s back.
“Jealous!” She shot back hotly, then seeing William’s barely restrained smile, she pursed her lips in chagrin. “Droll William, very droll, however, I wager it’s be a longer time since you last grappled, then for me.”
“Ooh, are you going to kiss and tell mei mei?” William replied a wicked gleam twinkling in his eyes.
“William you are still incorrigible.”
“It’s just a single facet of my sparkling personality. Now deal the cards.”
“Done and done.”
The card
players laughed, joked, drank, and played for many hours before finally turning
in near
Silent as a ghost within a ghost, Xavier soundlessly exited her cabin and reached the belly hatch of the ship. Again using her handcrafted by-pass circuit cards and her inside knowledge of the ship’s security protocol that she herself had designed, she easily over rode the security system and exited the ship.
Like with any
large city, the streets of
“Damn it Bravo team I said fall back! We can’t
hold and if you keep your asses exposed like that, we won’t be able to cover
your retreat. NOW MOVE!” The comm crackled and even though the transmission had
a tinny quality caused by all the jamming, the Major’s orders were crystal
clear.
“Understood sir!” Senior Sergeant Jack
Taylor replied, despite hating to give up ground that cost so much, but trying
to hold this ground would cost them even more. The
“Eight. Goddammit, I came in here with
thirty!” He sighed with a fatigue that was more than just exhaustion it also
carried the weight of those losses and the waves he would have to send later.
“Okay Bravo team, you heard the orders, we have to pull back. Jensen, Fong,
Jiang, and O’Roarke, you will take point and clear us a path back to the second
platoon. Check your targets before you fire. I know killin’ purplebellies is
what this whole op is supposed to be about, but there are friendlies strung out
and scattered between us and the second and I don’t want any more Browncoats to
die as don’t have to. Wilson and Steiner, you two are rearguard. Anything
behind us is a Fed, kill ’em. Me and Wong will help Schultz move Frost. Move
out!”
The four soldiers designated as point, moved
out in pairs, carefully covering each other and opening the path that would
lead them to safety.
“Sarge! Of course it is. He’s hit pretty
bad, but he will make it if we get him to a real doc.” Medical Specialist
Schultz replied sharply, surprised the sergeant would even ask her such a
question.
“Okay then, Wong grab his legs and I’ll get
his shoulders. Schultz, you stand close cover. Wilson and Steiner will be too
busy covering the rear to see the flanks.”
“Got it Sarge!” Schultz replied as she
limbered her aid bag and unlimbered her submachine gun.
The rest of the survivors of Bravo team
began to move across the broken terrain. They had moved less than a third of
the way when the already chaotic battleground was pierced by a bloodcurdling
scream behind them that cut off in mid-point with a terrifying finality. A
shock wave from a powerful explosion washed over them as they hit the ground
just in time. Schultz was up first firing a nearly continuous stream of fire at
the wildly firing figures advancing on them. Taylor and Wong recovered almost
as quickly and their fire added to Schultz’s to desperately drive back the
advancing
A lone outline stumbled out of the chaos and
all three weapons swung that way, until they saw the apparition firing back
towards the heaviest of the
“Wong you’ll have to leave Frost, Schultz
you go with him. I’ll cover you.”
“Sergeant Taylor we can’t leave Frost, he
won’t make it if you do!” Schultz protested.
“Don’t argue with me Specialist! None of you
will make it if you try to take him. GO!”
Before Schultz could reply, Wong bolted into
the dark, not having to be told twice to flee the insanity that was about to
engulf them all.
“Sarge please let me try!” Schultz said as
she lifted the wounded Frost onto her shoulder.
“Schultz I said-” Whatever the sergeant was
going to say was silenced by a high pitched whine that increased in pitch as it
got closer.
“SEEKER!”
“M-m-my…g-god, so m-m-much b-blood!” She
sputtered as she hacked her lungs clear. She slowly managed to get her eyes
open and nearly retched again when she saw the source of the blood. Sergeant
Taylor’s headless body lay across hers’ and what was left of Frost, who
couldn’t really be recognized as human any more. Pinned by the weight of the
two men she began to scream.
Cindy bolted up from the torment with a real scream and Marsh pulled her close, having been through this before.
“The dream?”
“D-dang ran. It’s always the same. I will never be free of Du-Khang, never.” She shuddered violently, the sweat still beading on her brow and breasts.
“I was too young to have been a Browncoat, so I can’t begin to know how it was, but that was then and this is now. I’m not good with words, but you survived then, maybe if you talk it through how you did that, it might get you from the then to the now?”
“T-talk? You? Mostly, it’s ‘Hey Cindy, you in a grapplin’ mood?’ Since when do you care enough to try and talk?” Cindy spat.
“Hey, don’t take it out on me. I wasn’t there and I don’t have to help. You think I like bein’ shook out of a good sleep by some battle I wasn’t at, but you keep rattlin’ around that skull of yours?”
“I thought you wanted to be a Browncoat?”
“I…what?”
“Sorry, bad joke. I guess I can’t find the right words either tonight.”
“Yeah, doesn’t seem like a night for words.”
“One thing you can do and won’t take no words at all.”
“Yeah?”
“Hold me.”
Since she’d already given him leave to bypass words, Marsh pulled her close and stroked her hair softly until the troubled woman managed to fall back asleep.
“It’s a good thing she’s as good as she said
she was in the grapplin’ department or I’d have to give a pass on spendin’ time
with a lose cannon like this.” He thought cynically. “But even a pig like me don’t like seein’ anyone suffer like this. The
‘Verse might have shown me a kindness I didn’t know by havin’ me be too young
to have been in the U-war. Damn Feds anyway, bunch of hun dan meddlers.
Marsh waited until he was sure Cindy was really asleep, before carefully tucking her in and settling back in close to her for what he hoped was the rest of the night.
“I have news on the quarry sir.” The superbly dressed administrative assistant said, handing over the hard copy of the latest wave.
“Go on, you know I don’t like it when you get all melodramatic on me.” The man replied tersely, but with a raised eyebrow that belied his gruff response.
“They’ve been
reported on
“Well it looks like the boss’ plan is working. They must be getting desperate to try to break into the salver’s market.”
“Did the boss say why he wants so much pressure on such a small operation?”
“The boss shares why he does some things with me, but not everything. This one he is playing close to the vest, but it has to have roots in these guys breaking up the Highleaf hijackings.”
“Seems a little petty.”
“I will forget you said that, so unless you have more to report, you can go now.” The man said coldly.
“No sir.” The assistant replied meekly knowing she’d overstepped her bounds. She withdrew without another word.
The man watched her leave, both to admire her shapely form and to ponder if he gave her too much freedom to speak. “Regardless of her obvious physical charms, she is a good assistant. I’ll give her the cold shoulder for the rest of the day and she’ll get the hint. He thought. “I can’t have an assistant that can think too much on her own. The last thing I need is for any of the bigwigs to get wind of some of the ops I’ve got going on the side. Yes, the cold shoulder will be all it takes.”
At that point the man returned to his terminal and the latest project the boss had sent him via the network of secure couriers and cutouts they used to communicate.
“Phase two ready.” Was all the message said. Considering the hell phase one was doing to these pathetic little people, he shuddered to think what phase two could entail.
With a final click of the last tumbler, the floor safe opened and Xavier smiled broadly when she saw the strong box inside. “Almost to the payoff girl almost to the take.” She whispered and nearly laughed at the simple mechanical lock on the strong box, which she picked with almost contemptuous ease.
Her broad smile
became feral when she saw the good sized coin purse sitting on top of the even
larger stack of credit notes inside the
strong box. She reached in and lifted out the coin purse. As she did there was
a loud snap as some mechanical device under the notes was freed by the moving
of the heavier coins.
“Zhe shi shen me lan dongxi?[34]” Was all she had time to say as she looked at the crude wood and spring loaded metal object with wire leads leading to the bottom of the strongbox before an ear-splitting alarm sounded and portcullis-like gates slammed down across the doors and grates sealed the windows of the assay office.
“I’m humped, I am so bloody humped!” She croaked, looking about frantically for a means of escape. “If only I could signal the ship. I could…wait!”
Her mind changing gears as her eyes fell on the circuit cards still lying next to the terminal she’d hacked. She grabbed her micro-transmitter she used to listen to the local police band to keep track if any alerts were raised while she worked. She certainly heard those alerts now and while she knew the micro-transmitter didn’t have the range to reach the ship; it wouldn’t take much modification to change that. Her hands flew as she started working on the impromptu construction “Infinity’s left nut, please give me enough time.”
“Oh gos se NOW what?” Marsh grumbled as he started awake again.
“It was the Cortex.” Cindy replied standing naked before the terminal in her cabin.
“A wave? Who the hell would be sending a wave at…” He paused to look at his chrono. “0330?”
“Xavier. Wo de tian a[35], she’d gotten herself arrested!”
“WHAT? How?”
“Don’t ask me. All it says is she got pinched and something about United Reclamation. Toss me my pants.”
Marsh did so without thought as he pulled on his own. They exited Cindy’s cabin and nearly ran into Willis, who had also clearly just gotten out of bed.
“Xavier’s been arrested!” Marsh and Willis said simultaneously and then blinked at each other in confusion.
“Get out of the way you two, no time for a parrot show!” Cindy snarled and raced to the Captain’s cabin. Not standing on protocol, she opened the door and dropped into the cabin unannounced and pulled up with her hands raised.
“That is a damn good way to get yourself killed Cindy. And with you shot, who would patch you up?”
“Xavier is in trouble! Pinched by the locals, didn’t you hear the Cortex squeal?”
“Damn I’m getting slow in my old age.” Chan growled savagely, rolling out of bed and to her terminal. She hit playback and watched in silence.
The attention squawk repeated followed by a voice only message in Xavier’s voice. “Help! I’ve been pinched! United Reclama…”
“I’m going to kill her. Resurrect her and kill her again.” Chan spoke with a quavering in her voice that conveyed her anger better than any overt display could hope to show.
“Wake everyone! We have got to get her back so I can kill her.”
Cindy barked up the ladder to Marsh and within three minutes, the entire crew had mustered in the dining room with all thoughts of sleep gone from their eyes.
“What do we know Captain?” William asked.
“Willis checked the Cortex a little deeper than I would have given him credit for knowing how to do and all we know is ‘An unidentified female had been arrested by the local police for breaking and entering at the United Reclamation office.’” Chan closed her eyes and let loose with a stream of inventive invective curses that went on for an impressive length of time. None of the crew spoke or even moved until she finally stopped cursing, pausing for both breath and to collect her thoughts.
William broke
the silence, figuring he was closest to the captain and could judge when it was
best to risk her increasing fury. “I don’t know much about Xavier, not like any
of us do, but I’m quite sure the comment about her parents and the
“You do know I can hurt you right?” Chan managed after a long pause, but her voice lacked the heat that would have indicated she was serious.
“I have no doubts, but I would counter that you will probably wait until we’ve rescued our wayward duck before you do.”
“You always do try to fill those inside straights don’t you? Okay, tantrum over and the Captain is back. Options?”
“The good news is the report said the locals have her. If she was pinched by the Feds, our only choice would be to post bail.”
“That and the fact we are on the Rim.” Cindy added. “A Core world would be a hopeless situation and depending on the Border planets, that would be just as bad. I think we can spring her.”
“And how will you accomplish this magical feat pray tell?” Chan asked sardonically still too angry to think as clearly as she would prefer.
“I think I have a plan fitting of the great Houdini himself.” William chortled and clapped his hands together.
“Guessing this Mister Houdini is an Earth-That-Was magician or something to that effect, I would hear this plan of yours Mister Lemont.” Willis smiled his eyes agleam at the possibilities the master of the temple would no doubt find appalling that his star pupil would so readily wish to take part in so willingly.
“You are correct Willis, but Houdini was an Earth-That-Was ‘escape artist’ renowned for his ability to get out of chains, handcuffs, and locked rooms. The plan is a bit complicated and will take some fabricating, but it can be done.”
“We don’t have time for theatrics William, spill the plan.” Chan said flatly.
“Actually theatrics plays a part in this plan, a big part in fact…”
An hour later, the crew was moving into position for Operation Houdini, split into four elements and using all three of the ship’s hover vehicles. Walking slowly down the street toward the police precinct holding Xavier, William waited until he heard the single beep in his micro-transmitter that let him know that everyone else was in position, before he nodded once to himself and fully committed himself to his part of the plan.
“I say! I do say! Where is the man in charge of this constabulary?” A large man, dressed in the current high fashion, but slightly disheveled, blustered as he stormed up to the desk of the duty office.
“Excuse me sir? I’m Officer Ward, how may I assist you?”
“How ‘can he assist me’ he asks. I am beset by ruffians while on a nightly constitution and I am asked ‘how can I be assisted.’ No wonder I was accosted! I want to speak to the police chief, sheriff, or the chief inspector, or whatever his bloody title may be.”
“Uh sir, please calm down and lower your voice. Please give me a few details and I will see to it that you are assisted, Mister…?”
“Douhini. Thaddeus Throckmorton Douhini. And I said I want to speak to the man in charge, which you are most manifestly not!”
As Officer Ward attempted to get any worthwhile information from the agitated man in front of him, he noticed the arrival of the cleaning crew on one of his monitors, but failed to notice the cleaning crew had arrived an hour early and in a different vehicle than normal. He just punched the ‘Admit’ button and tried once again to get Douhini to speak in a coherent fashion, but the man was so upset now that he was fanning himself with a perfumed handkerchief that stank to high heavens.
Cindy and Willis breathed a silent prayer in thanks as the service entrance opened and they entered the building carrying cleaning equipment in from large hover mule, they made a show of doing all the proper tasks a night cleaning crew would do. Ward, managed to spare a glance at the monitors every once in awhile as he painstakingly took Douhini’s statement on the alleged assault to make sure the cleaners were doing their jobs right. However, Douhini histrionics were starting to give him a headache, especially when the exasperating man realized he got the ‘ruffians’ description wrong and had to start all over again.
“Okay Mister Douhini, let’s start from the top and give me the description of the first man again…”
“Man? You mean Vandal, Visigoth, Mongol, Viking…”
“MISTER Douhini, the first man’s description please! If you don’t help me get this right, we won’t be able to apprehend the miscreants.” Ward said through gritted teeth. “Oh hell now this ma de pi gu[36] has got me talking that way.” He thought and gave up on trying to multitask and just hoped the cleaning crew remembered to put enough paper towels in the men’s room.
Cindy noted that the camera that had followed them when they first entered hadn’t moved for over two minutes and nodded to Willis to make his break. She began an elaborate monolog that made it seem as if she was talking to her partner that was just out of frame.
“Ren de Fe zu[37]
guide me this day and forgive my transgression against the duly appointed law
of this world.” Willis whispered quietly in supplication as he approached the
women’s wing of the building. Luckily for him and less fortunate for the
“I’m here.” A voice he instantly recognized came from the right side cell. “I heard footsteps and since it was a bit early for the morning meal. It meant you guys had got my message.”
“Xavier.” He whispered. “I am…pleased to see you. A warning though, the Captain will be less pleased.”
“I’ll take my chances.”
“I will too.” A second voice interrupted. “Hurry up young feller, you don’t have all night.”
“Meet Betty Li, my ‘roommate’ I had hoped she would be a sounder sleeper.”
“Not a useful trait in jail bao bei. Now hurry slick, as I said before, we don’t have all night.”
“Right.” Willis replied and pulled the large tube of Scrapper’s Gel from a side pocket of his cleaning crew uniform. He ran a small bead near the deadbolt and stepped back to let the strong compound do its work.
“Miss Li, have you considered that it was the nature of the Yin and Yang to require balance in all things?”
“Excuse me?”
“I see that you have some…experience with the darker side of life, maybe it is time for you to experience the other side of what the ‘Verse has to offer…” By the time he finished speaking the woman was so confused by the unexpected sermon that she didn’t know if it would be better off to stay in the cell or being associated with this strange man and his equally odd cell mate. By the time the Scrapper’s Gel had worked its way through the deadbolt, she had her decision and ultimately decided that would probably be best to stay put.
“One of these days you are going to have to tell me how you managed to do that.” Xavier said looking at the mechanic with a new found curiosity.
“I simply showed Miss Li there were many paths and that it might be better for her to pick one that did not include going with us.”
“Okay, I’ll accept that for now. What is the rest of the plan?”
Willis stopped suddenly and pointed upward.
“What the fire escape?”
“Exactly so.”
“Uh wait a moment then. There is a terminal behind you, no point in having something so mundane as the fire alarm give away your plan.”
“The plan is William’s in truth.”
“I seem to have underestimated both of you on how devious you can be.”
“We all learn something every day.”
“Ain’t that the truth! There fire alarm is shut down.”
“Hurry then, Mister Marsh awaits.”
“Thanks Willis.”
“You are most welcome Miss Xavier.”
Neither wasted time on words they didn’t have time for. Willis raced back to where he had left Cindy and Xavier bolted up the ladder and onto the roof.
“It’s about time.” Marsh hissed from the small hover mule he’d somehow piloted onto the roof of the jail. “Get on hot stuff, we gotta wait for our cue before we can go and if you ain’t ready, you will be on your own this time.”
“No need to tell me twice.” She replied and climbed onto the hover mule and tried to guess just exactly what this cue could be.
“Well I can see I will get no satisfaction from this constabulary office. I will have to file a formal complaint at the next Federal facility I see. You have not done any great service to your profession this morning Officer Ward, your name and that of your police chief will figure prominently in my report.” William said with great drama as he and Ward stood next to the door.
“I’m certain it will Mister Douhini. The report you have given me will certainly be on the top of the blotter report. It certainly is one of the longest I have ever taken. I…excuse me. I have to let the cleaning crew out.” Ward said as he noticed a blue light flashing on his desk. He buzzed the crew out then returned to Douhini.
“I am sorry you are unhappy.”
“Unhappy doesn’t begin to cover it, but I have wasted enough of my time. Good morrow to you sirrah!”
Chan saw William exit the building and gunned the hover to maximum speed, ready to play her part in the passion play of her long time friend’s design.
Douhini exited the building with an amazing amount of flourish and Ward breathed a deep sigh of relief. He watched the bizarre man reach the bottom of the stairs and shook his head in amazement. As he started to turn toward his desk, he dropped to the floor in well trained reflex as the already crazy night took a turn toward the insane.
Shots ripped the silence and bullets hit the front of the building, spattering off the stone façade. Ward clawed for his side arm and saw Douhini belie his size and bolted down the street faster than he would have thought possible. Screaming at the top of his lungs that he was being murdered, that part Ward had discovered did not surprise him. The man’s ability to talk would be more than legend and any amount of noise he could make didn’t surprise Ward at all.
This line of thought was just one of the things that hammered through the police officer’s mind as he freed his side arm and hit the panic alarm that would lock down the station and summon every cop within five miles. Ward just didn’t see how the night could get any crazier.
“That would be the cue!” Marsh shouted and gunned the hover mule for all it was worth. It might not be the Lattimer’s Ghost, but Marsh was comfortable with anything that moved under its own power. Xavier closed her eyes and by sheer force of will managed not to scream as the vehicle went off the side of the three story building. Marsh however, made the hover mule do things she didn’t think possible and rather than end up a bloody puddle, they dropped in a series of what she could best describe as semi-controlled crashes down to the street and raced away into the night.
“You shot me!” William bellowed as he ran up and jumped into the hover car Chan had stopped just out of sight of the police station.
“I’m sorry it had to have been a ricochet, I didn’t shoot anywhere near you! Besides it’s only a graze!” Chan countered and rapidly accelerated back to maximum speed.
“Gorram it Chan, graze or not it hurts!”
“Cindy will see to it, now try and calm down William. I am sorry you know.”
“I know mei mei, just that this wasn’t part of the plan.”
“It was a good plan and I was happy to be a part of it, now bi zui so I can drive.”
En route to the ship, she saw police cars both wheeled and hover screaming toward the police station, just as Cindy had said they would in response to gunfire aimed at the station. The risk of the few shots, despite what had happened to William, more than paid for itself by clearing the path back to the ship as the police responded to the wrong problem.
Cindy and Willis were the first ones back and with Willis’ instructions, they had the ship well on the way through the power up cycle by the time Marsh and Xavier arrived. Marsh bolted for the bridge as soon as the gravitics shut down, leaving Xavier to get the hover mule parked. She had just locked the mule in place, when the hover car pulled up the ramp and into the cargo bay with the last of the crew. No sooner had Chan hit the close button for the ramp and Marsh had the ship moving.
“William, have Cindy see to your arm. Xavier, you will go the dining room now. I will be there shortly and you better have answers.” Chan pivoted without waiting for a reply and taking the stairs to the bridge two at a time was quickly out of sight.
William looked at Xavier with a sad face, but didn’t say anything as he passed her on his way to the infirmary. She couldn’t meet even that simple gaze and silently headed for the dining room and a confrontation she would give all the credits on Londinum to avoid.
“Course Captain?” Marsh asked as unobtrusively as possible.
“Whitefall. Didn’t find anything here, not like we had time to do so, but a friend of a friend said there was work on Whitefall in a town called Durango. Send a wave to Li Ming and tell her to meet us there. As soon as you have the course locked in. Join us in the dining room.”
“Sure thing Cap.”
Marsh entered the dining room and wished he could go back to the bridge. The tension was so thick, he wasn’t sure he could cross the room without bolt cutters. He took his seat and knew he was happy that it wasn’t him on the firing line for a change.
As soon as the pilot sat down, Chan turned to Xavier. “Give me a reason why I shouldn’t toss you out the airlock right now?”
“I don’t have one Captain and even if I could think of one, I wouldn’t use it.”
This was not the answer she was expecting and it served to calm Chan down. “Why?”
Xavier surprised Chan and indeed the whole crew by bursting into tears. “I wanted to help!” She all but wailed. “I-I-I thought I could hit the assayer’s office and be back on the ship with a fat load of credits without any one being the wiser.”
“Then what the hell went wrong?”
Some yu ben de[38] wood and spring loaded metal contraption I had never seen before set off that gao yang zhong de gu yang[39] alarm.”
“What did this thing look like Xavier?” William asked, his curiosity getting the better of him.
“The wood was about four inches long and two wide. The spring held a square shaped metal bar. The weight of the coins held a trigger that kept the spring open, when I lifted the bag, the spring snapped the thing closed and completed the alarm circuit. It must be something new.”
“No nian qing de[40] it is something old, something very, very old. It is an Earth-That-Was device called a ‘mouse trap.’ Believe it or not, homes going back for centuries before the Exodus were often plagued by vermin in the form of mice. They got into food and even caused diseases. The mouse trap would hold some sort of food bait on that trigger and when the mouse moved the bait, the bar snapped shut and killed the mouse.”
“You mean Earth-That-Was had a problem with white laboratory mice?” Cindy asked incredulously.
“They weren’t always white and they weren’t always in labs Cindy. I’ve never seen a mouse trap outside a history book, but it looks like the good and smart people of United Reclamation had a different sort of mouse in mind, but it worked as well as the old ones did for what they wanted it to do. Some Salver probably found one on some hulk and the assayer found a way to put it to use, banking on that no one of this day and age would know anything about them. I say it worked well.”
“History lesson aside Xavier you have managed to make a nuisance of yourself to me in my eyes and there has to be a reckoning.” Chan scowled, bringing the discussion back under control. “You are no longer a member of this crew.”
Xavier couldn’t hold back her gasp, but managed to remain silent.
“You are restricted to quarters until further notice and will take your meals in your cabin until such time as I deem you have earned a place on the crew again, if ever. Until you hear me say otherwise you are now just a paying passenger. Dong ma?”
“Yes ma’am.”
“Then we are done here. You can all go.”
The crew left the dining room in silence and even the Lattimer’s Ghost seemed to be running quieter than normal as if she realized the gravity of the situation aboard her.
Chapter Six
“So when was our last payin’ gig? It’s been awhile and I’m gettin’ a mite fuzzy on when we last made any coin.” Marsh asked as the Lattimer’s Ghost approached the moon Whitefall.
“Our last cargo
for hire was from Verbena to Greenleaf arriving
“Only two weeks? Damn I would have sworn it’s been longer than that, I guess ‘cause we got less than twenty-four hours downtime on the last two planets we were on. We’ve really got to work on our bein’ sociable skills, this having to depart without getting to see the sights is starting to make me feel unwanted.”
“I shall remain unconvinced on that last statement Mister Marsh.
“What are you sayin’ Thorton?”
“I simply state an observed fact. Not being on a planet means we are in the Black. You adore flying and thus your claim to be unhappy with being off world is an unconvincing statement based on the observed data.”
“Now don’t go getting’ all logical on me. A man has needs he can only find off ship and no I don’t just mean grapplin’! I like seeing the insides of a drinking establishment, or a game of chance with someone I can rook for some coin, or anything other than just the insides of this here fine vessel of ours.”
“I can concur that downtime is good for the ship as it seems for the pilot. The Black is not a forgiving medium and the ship requires service that can only be done while she’s on the ground. I too would like more time to do my work. The ‘Ghost is in fine condition for her age, but for all that I care for her, she is an older vessel and needs more care than one of the newer models.”
Almost in response to this comment, the ship emitted a long rippling shudder that could not be completely attributed to entering the atmosphere of Whitefall
“I think you hurt her feelings.” Marsh chuckled. “You know how women can be when you bring up their age. There, there honey, the bad man didn’t mean it.” He added and lovingly rubbed the console.
“You know very well that was just a ripple in the ionosphere.”
“For all that religiosity you got, you sure need to work on your women skills Willis. The ‘Ghost is a grand lady and you must remember to treat her like such. Cause there is two things that will get you on the skids real quick with women and ships. They are all vain and they all strike back at them as what doesn’t give them their due.”
“I believe the quote you are butchering is ‘Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned’ my young friend.” A familiar voice rumbled from the rear of the cabin.
“What quote? I was just talkin’ from my own dealings with wimmings.”
“I might have known. You have the soul of a heathen Sylvester.” William said rolling his eyes.
Marsh frowned again at the use of his first
name, but remained silent. He brought the ship down and landed near the town of
“Now that we are on the ground, I will return to my realm and see what I can do to keep this ‘grand lady’ in top condition. Marsh, Mister Lemont.” Willis nodded to each man and then departed the bridge, passing Chan and Cindy in the corridor, nodding to each of them as well, but not slowing.
“What was that shudder during re-entry Marsh?” Chan asked.
Unable to contain himself, the pilot began to laugh uproariously.
“Has he gone space happy? Cindy, you better prep for surgery, brain replacement surgery.”
“Aye, aye Captain, one minor surgery to replace the pilot’s brain coming right up. Would you like me to add a personality and some dignity to go with it?
“Actually Mister Marsh here was having a profound conversation with our mechanic on how to treat a lady.”
“I don’t even want to know what our resident flying shaved orangutan could possibly think about women.” Cindy said shaking her head.
“You seem to like me well enough.” Marsh shot back.
“Oh I like you well enough in that one department, but as for what I think of the rest of you, well there is a lady present.” Cindy replied pulling herself up to her full height and managing to seem dignified despite the topic at hand.
Chan burst into laughter herself at that point and even Marsh had to join in, in the much needed chance to release tension.
“I guess its time to meet this contact of ours. I wish I knew this guy better, but it was the best I could do given the time we had.” Chan said at last, a frown briefly crossing her brow.
“I believe she really was trying to help Captain. No need to revisit an old sore.” William said gently having caught the frown and knowing what it meant.
“Don’t you think I know she meant well! If she hadn’t Whitefall would be her new home.“ Chan replied darkly.
“Ouch that’s harsh Captain.” Cindy winced. “Whitefall ain’t a place to call a home.”
Chan eyed the other woman hard, but just nodded.
“Well rather than think about what has happened, lets look to what we can make happen now.” William said with conviction.
“Ever the optimist as always William, but I agree. Let’s go meet this Mister Elam and see if we can come to an arrangement. We have got to get out in front of this wave of bad luck we’ve been caught up in and start changing the odds to our favor. Speaking of odds, when will Li Ming be here?”
“Just under two hours according to her last wave.” William answered.
“I think she’ll
like this place. Coin to be had from people that are not ready from someone
like her, might make up for her having to bail out on that ‘hot table’ of hers
she had on
The Lucky Deuce Hotel was an homage to an Earth-That-Was Wild West frontier inn, at least the floor plan and layout was the same; the rest was as close as Whitefall could manage given the meager resources of the moon. Except for Willis who was, as usual, tinkering in the engine room, Li Ming who had yet to arrive, and Xavier who was restricted to quarters, the rest of the crew strolled into the hotel to meet with their contact Otis Elam. Half a dozen listless men lingered around the bar, while two men and a woman played cards at a corner table. Glancing around the room, the crew quickly came to the conclusion that it was going to be a long day.
A young woman in a form fitting dress walked down the stairs with a man at least twice her age and when he saw her, the bartender nodded toward the obvious visitors. Her smile already brilliant, brightened and after steering the older man towards the bar, she approached the five crew members with an exaggerated motion in her hips.
“Hello boys and
ladies. I’m Chiffon and I run the Lucky Deuce. We got anything a traveler could
want in the way of pleasure. We got women, drink, cards, food, and just about
anything else that can be had for a price. Welcome to
On noticing Cindy’s jaw tighten, Chiffon didn’t miss a beat. “Hey hon, didn’t mean to crowd your territory, but me and my girls mean to please and that includes servicing a woman’s needs if you happen to go for that sort of thing.”
“Actually we are looking for Otis Elam.” Chan interrupted before things had a chance to take a bad turn.
“Well why didn’t say you knew that old coot! I’ll get him for ya. Why don’t ya’ll have a seat and make yourself to home and see if you see anything you might like.”
Chiffon headed toward a door that was partially hidden by the stairs with her distinctive sway and shouted upstairs. As she knocked on the door, three more women also in form fitting outfits slinked down the stairs.
“Ladies, how about we give it a rest until the sun goes down. We’ve got to attend to business of a different sort right now.” William smiled, obviously enjoying the show, but knowing that the good times would have to wait until later.
As if on cue, Chiffon returned on the arm of a tall, thin man in his mid-fifties, grizzled, but well dressed. She gave the man a peck on the cheek, then went back up stairs.
“Welcome,
welcome, welcome, I’m
“Why Miss Schultz, I’d about ready to say you’re getting’ attached.”
“Marsh, shut up and buy me a drink while you are ahead.”
“Uh…right.”
Marsh sidled up to the bar and waved to the bartender.
“Quite a woman you got there or should I say quite a woman that’s got you?”
“Unless you have a really good dental plan friend, you will probably want to just give me two glasses of Ng Gaa Pei[41] and everybody gets to keep chewing with the same teeth their maker gave them.” Marsh growled low.
For a moment the bartended looked at the small man before deciding not to press the issue. Handing over the two drinks, he took the pilot’s coins and returned to his conversation with the old man that had come down the stairs with Chiffon.
“I can take care of myself you know Cindy, I’ve had to do so for a long time.” Marsh grumbled as he sat down and slid a drink over to his companion.
“Yeah I know you can, and I know up front I told you we were just going to keep things simple, but it just set my gut on fire to have those pretty things staring at you like you was a walking coin purse. If they was looking at you I might not have got so riled, but even if I do think of you as a shaved monkey most of the time, you are a friend and I’d do the same thing for them as well.”
“I thought you thought of me as a shaved orangutan. I don’t think I’m ready to slide down the evolutionary scale.”
“Keep working on it Sylvie and maybe you’ll make it all the way up to chimpanzee!”
Both burst into
laughter and the tension between them melted, now all they had to do was wait
and see if the deal went well with
“Let me get this straight, you want us to smuggle firecrackers?” Chan blinked in amazement.
“Just so Captain, Whitefall ain’t got much, but we do got sulpher springs, a lot of cattle and enough trees to make enough black powder to make the best damn fireworks in the ‘Verse. Ariel, like most Core worlds, has a big appetite for the pretties Whitefall makes. Thing is, the making of the fireworks is easy, getting all them yu ben de[42] permits to ship the stuff legally is hard. Damn hard. I’ve got fifty tons of Whitefall’s Finest, that’s a ‘Verse wide know brand you know, but I don’t have a proper license. What I do have to make the trip worth your trouble is enough raw Ytterbium to fill the rest of your hold so as the Feds won’t find the real deal. So what I am offering is a full load with a premium rate to make it sweet. You know how much coin we are talking here?”
“That would be 3,750 in platinum.” Chan responded immediately.
“I don’t know
about you, but that is a lot of money on Whitefall, seems like you might live
in style for some time with that sort of coin. I can give you a third up front
and the rest on delivery, assuming of course you can get past the Feds.”
“I will have to talk to my mechanic on exactly hold to store the load so the Feds can’t find anything, but you have a deal Otis.” Chan said as she shook the man’s hand.
“Wonderful Chan Juan, wonderful. I tell you what, how about your whole crew spends the night here in the Lucky Deuce? We got everything a spacer wants to have a good time, my treat for the rooms. Any deals you work with the ladies, well that would be up to you and Chiffon.”
“Can’t say no to an offer like that Otis, I’ll let the rest of the crew know.” Chan replied.
“Jian ta de gui[43], I
want to be there to break the news!”
“You are most
generous Otis. I haven’t slept off ship in quite awhile now.” William added as
he too shook
The three went
back into the main room and
Chan led the way over to the table where Marsh and Cindy were looking expectantly at their captain as she approached.
“Made a deal Cap?” Marsh asked with a broad smile.
“Good one too Marsh, but I’ll let Otis tell you.
“Marsh did ya say?”
“Yeah I’m the pilot and this here is Cindy our medic.”
“Well nice to meet both of ya’ll. You guys are going to be haulin’ a boatload of cargo for a boatload of coin and I am in an expansive mood. I wanted to invite you and the lady here to spend the night on a real bed, with real food, and good drink here at the Lucky Deuce.”
“Um…thanks.” Was all Marsh managed to reply with a slight frown.
“He’s not much for words, most are too difficult for him most of the time, but thank you much Mister Elam.” Cindy said quickly, covering for the taciturn pilot.
The party was in full swing by the time Li Ming docked her shuttle and Willis was waiting when she exited. “Where is everyone?”
“The Lucky Deuce Hotel. A deal has been made and apparently our contact is an effusive sort. Everyone is invited to spend the night on his coin. I was told to tell you they gamble there.”
“Do they now?” Li Ming replied with an exquisitely arched eyebrow. “Then perhaps I will enjoy meeting this…” She trailed off with the obvious question.
“Mister Otis Elam is our benefactor. I was waiting until you arrived before joining in the festivities. Mister Elam is most insistent that we all join him. The deal is evidently quite good for us and extremely good for him and he wishes to make the most of the new opportunity.”
“Well let’s go see what the Lucky Deuce and Mister Elam has to offer.”
They exited the ship and Willis activated the security protocols on the way out. Waiting until the cargo ramp closed, they then steered for the source of the loudest noise and brightest lights in the fading Whitefall twilight.
“Li Ming! Get your fine frame over here!” Marsh bellowed from the poker table he was at to be heard above the din of all the merry making. Cindy was at the same table and concentrating deeply on her cards. Both Willis and Li Ming worked their way over to the table where the two crew and two other men were just finishing a hand with Marsh taking the pot.
“Here, you can have my place Li Ming, this is Dagwood,” Marsh waved his hand to indicate the taller of the two men. “And this here is Blondie, he don’t talk much. I’ve had my fill of poker tonight and I’m going back to the ship.” He finished by collecting a few coins, tossing back his drink, and standing.
“Hey now Marsh, quitting so soon?” Dagwood asked. “Awful early to be calling it quits.”
“Nice try fellers, but with that last hand I’ve broke even, so you can’t say I’m walking away with your money. Guess I’m just not in the mood for all the hoopla. Li Ming here, though she might be able to keep you entertained.” The pilot said with finality.
Blondie and Dagwood both looked the stunning Li Ming up and down, but only Dagwood spoke. “Oh I’m sure she can. Care to deal hon?”
“Well, that depends on what game is this? I’m more used to Tall Card.” Li Ming replied playing the role of the ingénue for all it was worth.
“Oh we’ll be glad to teach ya, Blondie and me that is, you too eh Cindy?”
“Yeah me too. What about you Willis, you in?” Cindy asked
“Certainly.” The quiet mechanic took the seat vacated by Marsh to keep the two women sitting together and on the opposite side of the table from the two questionable men.
“You are?” Cindy asked in surprise.
“The source of unhappiness is desire Miss Cindy. I desire nothing, but to learn how this game is played. Since my intentions are not to win, it is not at odds with my beliefs.” Willis replied with a big smile.
“Well, if Willis can learn how to play, so can I.” Li Ming added sitting down next to Cindy and sketching a small nod to the mechanic, knowing why he picked the seat he had chosen. “Now can you go over the rules of this picker-“
“Poker.” Blondie replied with a slight frown.
“Oh right poker…”
Marsh slipped away from the table while the two suckers were trying to explain the rules without drooling over Li Ming, knowing that she would see to it that they learned a lesion from her about cards and the way of the ‘Verse at the same time.
“And just where are you going?” William asked with a slight slur.
“Back to the ship, so who is your friend?” Marsh answered, looking with slight interest at the statuesque woman on the First Mate’s arm.
“Why this here is Annie, but neither is she little or an orphan. I won’t get into the image that Blondie and Dagwood bring to mind.” William replied and then burst into a fit of laughter.
“What’s so funny?”
“Oh why do I bother you Philistine, I should have known you’d not know anything about classic comic strip characters.”
“What’s a comic strip?”
“Go back to the ship Marsh, it would take too long and the lady here is clamoring for my attention.” William sniffed and allowed himself to lead toward the stairs.
Chan watched the exchange and despite the noise of the crowd, heard enough to catch the gist of what was going on. Forced to choose which of the men to intercept, there wasn’t a moment of hesitation. “William, I believe you are drunk.”
“Well it wouldn’t be the first time mei mei, is something wrong?”
“Not exactly, wrong but seeing as how you are a bit impaired and not thinking with the head you usually think with, so I am just going to ask a single question. Are you sure this is what you really want?”
“It’s not like a guy like me has many options mei mei and…damn it Chan why shouldn’t I?”
“Yeah sister, William here is a big boy. He knows the real thing when he sees it.” Annie all but growled.
Chan flashed a brilliant smile at the woman that did not reach her eyes and took two deep breaths before she answered. “Since this is Mister Elam’s party and I don’t what to cause a stir that might upset all the fun, but if you really like your face the way it is currently arranged, you will stay out of this conversation.”
The tall woman released her hold on William’s arm, pulling off her earrings and stepping out of her heels as she did. “You think I am afraid of a woman a foot shorter than I am? I’ve knocked more than one cow hand on their pi gu and you won’t be the first woman I’ve done the same to.”
“Annie, you would be making a mistake if you so much as raise a hand to my Captain. As she said, this isn’t your conversation and if you think the Captain hasn’t knocked a woman a foot taller than her on their pi gu before, then you might have found yourself in a situation you are not ready for. Why don’t you go have a drink and I’ll join you later?”
The dance hall girl looked from Chan, to William, back to Chan, and then stepped back into her heels before making her way to the bar without glancing back.
“I’m sorry William, I really didn’t mean for that to happen. I know it’s been awhile for you, it’s probably been longer for me, but well…you deserve better.” Chan said sheepishly and looking embarrassed.
“No Chan you were right. I let the whiskey do the thinking and you were there to be my conscience for a change. I guess I owe you one.”
“William, you silly man, if we are going to start keeping track of who owes who when it comes to being the voice of reason, I’ll end up the first mate and you will be the captain.”
“No mei mei, I like things the way they are. What do you think got into Marsh? Usually he’d be hanging from the chandelier by now?”
“Oh who knows? At least we won’t have to baby sit him all night, hoping that cruiser sized mouth of his didn’t overload his rowboat ass and lead to trouble. This is a sweet deal William and I don’t want anything to make it go south. I’m almost tempted to say it’s too good a deal. What do you think?”
“Well it is an
unusually good deal, so that makes it automatically suspicious in my book, but
I usually get a bad news vibe I’m around a rum character and I’m not getting
that from
“Then we are in William. My thoughts were pretty much like yours, as is what is turning out to be your lot in life, and I just needed to hear someone else go through the process and end up in the same place I did. Now, enough of this business stuff. Let’s have some fun! And if that happens to include…” Chan nodded her chin in Annie’s direction, who was at the bar sulking. “Then by all means you do so.”
“Actually mei mei, I have had enough time to rethink that course of action and if this run goes as well as it seems like it should, I think I may partake of two of her ilk on the Ariel end. After all, I’ll be a man of means then, and coin has a way of talking far more eloquently than I.” William beamed.
“You are into your cups William as no coin, and damn few people are more eloquent than you and you know it. Now, let’s see how Li Ming is doing.”
Marsh punched in the code to disarm the security on the ship, boarded and then reactivated the system. He stood in the cargo bay his head canted to one side listening to see if anything was out of place. Not even sure himself why he was so keyed up. Not sensing anything out of place, he decided to check on one thing before turning in. The ship’s resident passenger was standing next to her easel when he entered her cabin.
“Hey Xavier. How you holding up?”
“Not like you care all that much, but I’ve been in worse situations.”
“Yeah, me too, but anyway, I thought I’d see if you were okay.”
“More like you thought you’d check up on me. No I’m not going to go on any solo run or try to kill you all in your sleep.”
“Well since your mood is for gos se, I’m going to go.”
“My mood is for gos se? Exactly what mood do you expect me to be in? I tried to help the yu ben de[44] captain and crew and get all but banished for my efforts. You want me to pretend that everything is shiny and that I like being subject to being dumped on any qiang bao hou zi de[45] pit of the captain’s choosing if she takes it into her head I’m not living up to her new and unknown standards of behavior?”
“Okay, okay, I got it. I’ll leave you with your pictures and stuff. Night.”
Xavier stood stock still in anger as the door closed and Marsh left. She was so tense, that she heard her paintbrush crack in her hand and managed to relax before it broke. Not being allowed off ship meant the art supplies she had on hand would have to last and she didn’t have brushes to sacrifice to pique. She didn’t have the paint either and that was the only reason she hadn’t thrown any at Marsh. That and it really wasn’t his fault the captain had exiled her and it was her own actions that led to her current status. Xavier might not be able to tell the whole truth to anyone she knew, but she made up for that character flaw by being brutally truthful to herself. She forced herself to unwind and returned to her painting. As it had always been, it was her only escape from when the ‘Verse got too rough and she was particularly proud of this one. “My best yet.” She murmured and let her mind drift.
After the vandalism on Persephone the new security package Xavier created was set up to sound an alarm if anyone approached within ten meters of the hull or attempted to enter any hatch without entering a passcode. However, the protocols did not include if a hover vehicle approached from above and didn’t touch the hull. The two men on the hover mule slipped a hose into the life support intake vents that were open because the ship was on planet and not sealed. One of the men turned a valve on a tank in the back of the mule and a gas silently began to enter the ship Neither Xavier or Marsh realized anything was amiss even as they crumpled to the deck.
The next thing Li Ming was aware of was the sun beating down on the left side of her face. She didn’t try to open her eyes as she knew it wasn’t going to be pleasant. “Sweet merciful Buddha that was a long night.” She thought groggily and tried to think if there was a reason she needed to be awake at that moment. Li Ming lay there and made her mind piece together the likely chain of events. “Too much to drink? No doubt. Slept in long enough for the sun to reach her bed? Obviously.” That started a whole new train of thought as she tried to remember the last time she was awoken by real sunlight on her face while in a real bed. She was still laying there when she became aware of a rising amount of noise outside. “Voices. Loud Voices. Loud angry voices!” That last thought cut through the lingering fog and her eyes snapped wide open with the thought. She rolled to her feet and with her back flat against the wall, slid next to the window and quickly peeked out the window.
“Ta ma de!” She hissed when she saw the mob outside. “No good will come of this. Looks like it’s time to go.” Li Ming muttered and began pulling on her boots. She was still working the laces when there was a pounding on her door. Grabbing her derringer smoothly, she sidled up to the door.
“Li Ming wake up, big trouble outside!” Came the strained if comforting sound of William’s voice.
“I noticed.”
She replied tersely as she unlocked the door and followed the big man down to
the Presidential suite that
“You’re the last one up.” Chan’s voice came sharply as she entered the big room where the crew had gathered. “Not a good trait to be a heavy sleeper on a Rim world.”
“I’ll work on it. But I got a glance outside and my sleeping habits have got to be the least of our worries. Now what’s the deal?”
“I take it you haven’t looked out any windows other than your own?” Cindy snapped as she almost ritualistically caressed her Magnum-Arms automatic.
“No why would I?” Li Ming snapped back, irritated by the medic’s tone.
“Both of you relax!” Chan snarled to head off any further comment. “Cindy is right about looking out the window, not that you would have had a reason. It seems one of the local girls managed to get herself dead. The hun dan that did it thought it would improve the hotel’s décor to have her hanging outside the window next to William’s room.
“WHAT?” Li Ming shouted as she leapt to her feet and looked out the window. When she pulled her head back in her face was drained of color. “Tian xiao de[46]! Isn’t that…?”
“Yes it was the woman I was speaking to last night. Her name was Annie.” William said softly.
“And they think you did that?”
“The short answer is yes.” Chan replied flatly.
“More men in those black dusters are showing up Captain.” Willis said from his lookout post. “There has to be more than two dozen of them now. They have the whole place completely surrounded.”
“The Black Dusters!” Li Ming growled. “Dagwood mentioned them last night. Some sort of vigilante group that’s been pushing into town for the last couple of months.”
“That would be them. Seems like they think they are the local law and they want William’s hide for murder. Probably all of us for accessories going by how mobs like these guys think.” Chan growled as she paced the room.
“The ship?” Li Ming asked.
“No response on any channel. We are on our own with two choices yield or fight.” Chan replied with a hard stare. “You have any weapons?”
“My derringer and a pair of brass knuckles.”
“That gives us a total of four pistols and one hand-to-hand weapon, not exactly an even match against better than two dozen thugs with long guns.”
“Captain, it would be folly to try to fight. Survival is now paramount.” Willis said solemnly. “Logic would dictate we yield now for a chance to change the situation later.”
“These Black
Duster types are not about logic Willis, but as much as it galls my very soul,
fighting would only result in a bloodbath…ours. Added to the fact the ship
isn’t responding, even if we pulled off the miracle of escaping this hotel
alive, the Duster’s have to have taken the ship, so we have no where to run to
even if we could break out. I haven’t felt this helpless since word reached my
unit about the surrender at
Cindy winced at
the mention of the battle that ended the Independent’s attempt to remain free
of the
“’Want to’ no, but seems like we don’t have a choice. We have to lay down arms and do as Willis suggested, survive for now with the hope of turning the tables later.”
Chan put deed to word and removed her gun belt. On seeing their captain disarming, first William, Li Ming, and finally Cindy followed suit and also disarmed. Turning to Chan the rest of the crew waited for her next move.
“Now we walk downstairs slowly with hands up and making no fast moves, we might, with an emphasis on the ‘might’ part, see the rest of the day. Willis hand me that sheet and that coat rack, I need to make a truce flag.”
“Dang ran Captain.”
Once the make shift surrender flag was put together, Chan led the crew slowly downstairs. The group was met by several heavily armed men all wearing the expected black dusters that were the vigilante’s trademark.
“Any funny stuff and you die where you stand ya murderin’ jackals!” The front man barked, the sweat on his brow revealing his nervousness.
“No funny stuff here, Mister…?” Chan asked politely.
“
“Lead on McDuff.” Chan snarled back.
The crew was thoroughly and in the case of Li Ming and Chan, overly, searched for any form of weapons, then bound and taken to the local jail. As they were tossed in the one large cell, they found Xavier and Marsh already waiting for them. After making sure that the group was solidly secure the vigilantes filed out and let the door upstairs slam loudly.
“Well now I know why you didn’t respond to the comm.” Chan said wryly as she watched Marsh lurch drunkenly to his feet.
“I-I-It’s…n-n-not…w-what i-it looks l-like Cap.” The pilot managed to slur.
“M-Marsh is right Captain, w-we were gassed.” Xavier added, also slurring, but not quite as much.
“Gassed?” William blinked in dismay.
“I-I may have stuttered, b-but I know what happened. Must have tanked it right in the life support intake vent, we were down before we knew what h-hit us.”
“Damn, you think it’s Nightblade Li Ming?” Chan asked.
“I can’t believe he’s tied up with these dusters, not his style to use people he doesn’t employ directly and I don’t see him having this kind of reach”
“Then it looks like we have royally bent somebody’s shaft out of alignment. I hate being in the dark and…” Chan broke off and looked around the cell. She noted there was only a bucket of water, a block of moldy protein, and a second bucket for the aftermath of the first two items. She shuddered as she realized this was the extent of their accommodations. “Sweet merciful Buddha, this is going to suck.”
The only thing Chan didn’t know was how badly.
“Chunk of protein Xavier?” Marsh asked wearily, not really expecting an answer.
“God no, that crap was already moldy three days ago and it hasn’t improved with age.” She replied trying not to even look at the crew’s only source of food. “I can’t for the life of me understand how you can stand that gos se.”
“Let it go Xavier, no need to go down the ‘how can you eat that’ road again.” William grumbled.
“Shush up! I hear something.” Li Ming hissed trying to concentrate.
Despite the screaming urge to want to ask what the gambler heard, the rest of the crew managed to remain silent until they all heard the clank of metal on metal as a grappling hook snagged the bars of their cell.
“Get back!” Chan had time to snarl and everyone had just enough time to get away from the window as a sharp cry came from outside.
“Heeeeeyah burros estupidos[47]!”
The snap of a riata was followed by the whinnying of horses and the sharper crack of the bars breaking free of the brick and crumbling mortar of the cell.
“Get moving amigas y amigoas[48] unless you happen to like la casa de infierno[49]!” A Hispanic man with a gravelly voice rumbled as he stuck his head in through the still billowing dust cloud.
“Isidro Benevidez! How is it you are here?” Willis gasped.
“For once, no time for talk mi amigo, save the questions for later. The Black Dusters may be as stupid as a bag of hammers, but even they will respond to as much noise as we have just made!”
“You heard the man move!” Chan barked and bolted up and out of the cell.
Not about to miss their Deliverance the crew scrambled madly for freedom. Outside they found Benevidez and half a dozen other men had, in addition to the two powerful draft horses that had pulled the bars from the cell, enough riding horses waiting for everyone. Three of the men assisted those of the escapees that needed help getting mounted and as soon as the last person was in the saddle, the entire group thundered into the dark, with Benevidez’ companions taking up rear guard and flanking positions around the as yet unarmed crew. Riding hard they could just faintly hear the sounds of an alarm being raised as they crested a ridge and rode out of sight.
Spurring her mount to draw next to Benevidez, who not only rode a large stallion, skillfully led the draft horses behind him, Chan had to holler to be heard above the din of the pounding hooves. “We need to talk!” She roared.
“Not a problem, now that we are out of sight, that cowardly excuse of a sheriff will not try to follow us until dawn.” He replied and then emitted a piercing whistle as he reined in his horse patting the stallion’s neck as they came to an abrupt halt. “Okay señorita, what are these words you have that couldn’t wait?”
Taken by surprise
by the sudden halt all but their rescuers had difficulty in coming to a stop so
quickly. William’s mount, seemingly more skittish than the rest pulled up so
short that the first mate was thrown, but despite his size, the big man snapped
into a combat tuck and rolled right back onto his feet. Even in the dim light
reflected from
“S-sorry, it’s been a long time since I’ve ridden. That won’t happen again.” William muttered and grabbed his mount’s reins firmly, making it clear that regardless of the previous mishap that he was in charge.
“Well first of all thank you Mister Benevidez and Willis would you care to explain?” Chan asked with an arched eyebrow and also drawing attention away from her friend’s discomfort.
“Certainly
ma’am. Isidro and I met three years ago while we were studying on Hera, we took
to talking between classes and he became a member of my temple. We keep in
touch by wave whenever we can. When we arrived on
“I arrived right after you were thrown in that pit of a jail. As soon as I heard that mi amigo Willis Thorton was being held by those worthless Dusters, I gathered as many of my best compadres as I could find on short notice and rode as fast as I could. It was those Dusters what framed you and there’s more going on that you don’t know, stuff that reaches way beyond a backwater like Whitefall. I can let you know more once we reach my ranch in San Melas.”
“Actually I think I have an idea.” William said, speaking for the first time since they stopped.
“Then let’s have it.” Chan replied.
“Rather than fleeing, which is what any sane group of escapees would do, since you say the sheriff will not take action and these Black Dusters are too incompetent to figure out anything complicated. Then, I propose you ride off with all these fine steeds, including this uppity filly here and make a trail the authorities can’t help but find. We in turn will sneak back into town on foot and see if we can regain control of our ship.”
“Good plan amigo, you think you can make it happen?”
William smiled and cracked his knuckles. “Don’t let my apparent lack riding skill make you think I don’t know how to deliver the goods, my friend.”
“Good enough then. You hand these Duster’s their heads and meet me in San Melas as soon as you can. I’ll let you in on the big picture when you arrive.” Benevidez smiled back.
“We will be there Mister Benevidez. We owe you much and if you can shed some light current events, performing a public service like eliminating vermin is well worth our time.” Chan added sincerely, her jaw set and her eyes hard.
“Please Amiga, call me Isidro. See you in a few days. Vámanos Muchachos[50]!” Benevidez spurred his stallion and he and his companions thundered into the night leaving a trail that no one could miss.
Marsh watched their rescuers ride off intently then turned to Willis. “What in the south side of Sihnon was that gibberish he was speaking?”
“Ah yes, he said it is an Earth-That-Was language called Spanish. The colony that Isidro was raised in still speaks it. He tried teaching me some, but I couldn’t see the use and my engineering classes really didn’t leave me much time for it.”
“We can save the history lessons for another time you two, we have work to do.” Chan chided before turning to William. “Okay, this is your idea, you got any details on how you want to make this happen?”
“Dang ran Captain, but first I need to see how well the ‘Ghost is guarded. If the Dusters are as stupid and Benevidez thinks they are, they might not even have her guarded at all. Based on their dispositions we can adjust from there.”
“Everyone ready to be sneaky?” Chan asked, the silent nodding heads was all the indication she needed and with that, she lead off to circle back to come up on their ship from the opposite direction from the decoy trail left by Benevidez.
An hour later, Chan was crawling silently though the scrub brush west of the Lattimer’s Ghost. Their initial scouting detected three Black Dusters guarding the ramp to their ship. In response, William led Cindy and Marsh in from the east, while Chan led Willis, Li Ming, and Xavier in an approach from the other side. Moving in ten foot increments and then freezing, both groups got closer to the guards than they would have though possible.
“Stupid doesn’t begin to cover these clowns.” Chan said shaking her head in amazement as the three guards talked and smoked without the slightest clue that seven desperate people were within twenty feet of them. “I’m going to have to do something to get the attention of these jing chang mei yong de[51] Dusters.”
Crawling silently as the night itself, Chan moved close to the ship’s hull and on an angle away from where the other three members of her team waited. Once in place, she trilled an absolutely perfect call of a nightingale.
As the guards pivoted toward the noise, Marsh, Willis, and Li Ming were the closest and struck as one. Li Ming drove a palm into the nose of a man only slightly taller than she was and crushed his nose. Blinded by the pain, he was unable to defend against the combination to his solar plexus that left him on the verge of blacking out. Li Ming assisted him to his breaking point by grabbing the back of his head and snapping it downward to meet the knee she drove into his face. The man gurgled once and crumpled to the ground.
Marsh’s victim was still trying to unsling his rifle when the pilot grabbed the rifle stock and pivoted it upward around the guard’s own shoulder to deliver a bone crushing blow to the man’s face that knocked the hapless duster senseless.
Willis’ foe was the farthest away when the attack started and managed to twist away from the mechanic’s initial strike, and rather than try to fight, turned to run. However, with Li Ming and Marsh anticipating that very tactic, the man ran into ran into a flurry of fists and didn’t get five feet before folding to the dirt unconscious.
The crew froze in silence save for the strangled panting of the combatants, straining their ears listening for any sign of detection. When no such indications were detected, Chan, Marsh, and William armed themselves with the Duster’s weapons.
“So far so good gang, let’s fan out and search the ship for any other guards.” Chan ordered and moved out toward the bridge, Marsh close behind and William splitting off on his own to check the engine room.
“Help me move these hun dan Dusters.” Xavier growled as she struggled pulling the legs of one of the guards.
“I have this one ladies; if you can get the others, there is some cord in the storage locket aft.” Willis responded, picking up another guard in a fireman’s carry.
Li Ming grabbed the shoulders of the man Xavier was trying to move, while the stockier Cindy was able to move the third guard on her own. The guards were quickly searched, bound, and locked in one of the aft passenger cabins. After they locked the door, they met William returning from the engine room.
“Clear.” William responded to the unasked but obvious question.
“Good. These clowns won’t be going anywhere any time soon.” Cindy said grimly.
“That’s good, cause we ain’t goin’ anywhere neither.” Marsh all but snarled.
“What now?” Li Ming winced.
“We are landlocked. We are stuck here.” Chan answered with a heavy sigh.
“I wouldn’t have believed there was enough authority on Whitefall to be able to impose a landlock.” Said William.
“Well somebody can, ‘cause somebody did. We are royally humped.” Marsh replied.
“There is some good news.” Chan said trying to lighten the mood.
“One can but beg to ask mei mei.” William smiled.
“All our gear they grabbed when we were arrested is sitting on the dining room table.”
“Be still my beating heart.” William snorted.
“I happen to be thankful for the small favor. I happen to love that little derringer and am glad it didn’t end up in one of these nia shi de du gui[52] pockets.” Li Ming added.
“Then thank the Buddha for the blessing.” Chan said coldly. “It is time however, to move to phase two.”
“Phase two?” Xavier asked.
“Clearing
It took the crew less than fifteen minutes to meet in the cargo hold ready for battle. Chan, William, Cindy, and Li Ming each wore full body armor and in addition to their sidearms, they each carried a pump-action shotgun. Marsh, despite his reputation for getting into fights, did not have armor or anything heavier than a pistol, but he made up for the weapon short coming by taking one of the captured Duster’s lever-action rifles and he was ready to do his share.
“Marsh, you think you can channel some of that fury of yours for the powers of good tonight?” Chan quipped as she made a final check of her equipment.
“You bet Cap! These Duster jokers have it comin’!”
“I concur.” A voice added from the rear of the cargo bay.
“Willis! You sure?” Li Ming replied with a start. “This isn’t exactly your forte.”
“This is also true, but this is my ship as much as all of the rest of you and if some violence is required to free her from those who have seized her illegally, then I will do what must be done to assist.”
“Me too.” A second voice replied.
Chan looked hard at Xavier as she stepped into the light. “You think you have a place in this?” She asked quietly.
“Captain, I know I made a mistake, but regardless of outcome, it was not for selfish reasons. The ‘Ghost is as Willis said, as much my ship as all of the rest of you, despite my current status. I wish to help.”
“You know how to operate that pistol of yours? You’ve never struck me as a fighter.” Chan pressed.
“I am not a good shot and no I am not a fighter. However, I am sure there will be things that need to be done in preparation that do not require an experienced fighter. I am certain I can do these sorts of things and I am determined to re-earn my place on the crew even if I can’t re-earn your trust.”
Chan looked at the younger woman hard and long before replying. “Well said missy, now let’s see if you can make good. You can help, but if you screw up neither God nor Buddha will save you from me.”
“Fair enough Captain. Now what can I do help?”
“First you can set a code lock to keep these hun dan Dusters off the ship while we are gone.”
“And second?”
“You help Marsh and Willis loading spare magazines.”
The grand clash with the Black Dusters turned out to be more of a grand anti-climax as the Dusters proved to be every bit as stupid as Benevidez thought they were. The only sentry posted was asleep at his post when the crew entered town and died in his sleep on Chan’s knife without even knowing he was in danger. With the only guard out of the picture, the crew was able to get into position near the block of buildings the Dusters had taken over. In a pathetic attempt at protecting their turf, the Dusters had lined up barrels all around their block as cover. Li Ming spotted that the barrels were whiskey barrels commandeered from the various saloons in town. The rotgut quality of the locally brewed whiskey meant the Dusters had surrounded their base in incendiaries.
The resulting
“battle” was more of an embarrassment than a fight. A single rifle shot by Chan
into the front of the main building started a stampede of Dusters into their
“fighting” positions around the block. Waiting until they were in position with
only a handful of pot shots to keep the illusion of an attack to draw as many
Dusters into the kill zone as possible, the crew waited for Chan’s next signal.
Keeping up the pretense of an all out attack until it was clear that no further
thugs would arrive, Chan then had Cindy let loose with several long bursts from
her sub-machine gun that split the barrels in several places and allowing the
highly flammable liquid to pour out. Pausing for a few seconds, William and
Chan tossed a pair of grenades and there was a massive whoosh of displaced air
and a brilliant burst of flames that lit up the night for miles. The mop up was
all too simple and by morning there wasn’t a single Black Duster left in
“It’s like this amigas y amigos you have gone and made the wrong set of bastardos mad at you. A few months back, a group of Core Worlders set up a real on the down low operation back in the hills south of here. It is supposed to be a big secret, but they hired local manual laborers and I just happened to be one of them. They paid real good to be quiet, but no amount of coin is enough to make me sell out mi amigo Willis.” Benvidez paused to exchange a smile with the mechanic before continuing. “I got a look at the main jefe[53], a real piece of work named Robert Ghallager. He is some kind of scientist sent in to set up growing Highleaf in hydroponics vats. It is Ghallager that is also the one backing the Black Dusters as well.
“As you know the Dusters are muy estúpidos[54] and they talk too much when drinking. So I picked up a piece of information a couple weeks back. Seems some do-gooders on some Firefly-class transport broke up a sweet deal they had of hijacking Highleaf straight from the source at Greenleaf. These two Dusters were going on how the ‘Corporation’ was putting the squeeze on the ones what screwed up their money maker, so it seems this here ‘Corporation’ had put out the word to poison any work these fine hard working citizens might try to find. I worked those two for the rest of the night earning enough good will by buying drinks until the spilled the name of that Firefly, which as you have probably figured out by now is your ship. So it turns out your recent turn of bad luck wasn’t an accident, it was engineered and since I knew the name of the corporation from my earlier work, the group in charge of the raiders near Greenleaf and who has made your lives miserable is none other than Blue Sun!”
The crew was completely silent, the only sound was the crackling of the logs in the fire as the sat in Benevidez’ living room near the large fireplace on the chill night, each member of the crew eyes grew harder as their friend spoke until every one of them had a gaze as hard as flint.
“Ghallager you say.” Chan said after a long silence, her flat tone made it clear it wasn’t a question. “Where do we find this hydroponics lab you mentioned?”
“I know what
you are thinking senorita, but I have
a better idea. This scientist has some kind of
“Any chance we can make a different deal with this Patience woman?” Li Ming asked.
“Patience is not a friendly woman under the best of circumstances and at the moment, she’s more ornery that usual. She wants the Dusters and Ghallager gone that is the only thing that will get her to help.”
“Why she all bent out of shape?” Marsh grumbled.
“Seems a ship captain, and more unfortunately for you a Firefly captain at that, beat her out of some platinum she didn’t want to pay about a year back, so she is not going to be willing to do any favors or special deals for anyone in a Firefly any time soon.” Benevidez chuckled. “I’ve never seen the old buzzard that mad ever, it did my heart good to see her get bearded like that.”
“Okay, so we have to destroy a train. You got any idea how to go about doing that? We only have a few shotguns, rifles, and a hand full of grenades. Not exactly the sort of firepower to stop a train.” William queried while pinching the bridge of his nose.
“Smart man amigo, I doubt if even the Blue Sun enclave has that sort of firepower. It just so happens that I actually learned some of that engineering that Mister Thorton loves so much while we were in school.” Benevidez chuckled and shot a glance over to Willis again before continuing. “I wrangled a ride on the train before it was fully operational and discovered through observation of the locomotive and talking to the engineers that if the brakes are applied with the engine locked open, the overpressure in the hydraulics will blow the train. How you make that happen is up to you, but I’m sure you smart people can handle the details, one more bit of important info is that the next run is in three days, so you better get to planning.”
“You don’t think small Isidro, I’ll give that.” Li Ming smiled.
“No I don’t bonita[55] this
is a hard place to make a home on and that Highleaf mierda only
makes it harder. Too many of the young ranch hands are getting hooked on that
poison and I want it stopped. Willis is like one of my brothers and it pains me
to have him put both his life and beliefs on the line, but this has to be done
and I know he wouldn’t be on a crew that couldn’t get it done. I’d do it
myself, but I have already put myself, my family, and my land at risk breaking
you out of jail and telling you what I know. If word got to the Duster’s or
Blue Sun they’d find me and my family picked over by coyotes, so I can’t risk
being seen or even closely associated with you regardless of how I might feel, but
if you can kill Ghallager, then it will be worth it. Now I will leave you good
folk to work out your plans as they involve your lives and I should not
influence you any more than I already have. Hasta mañana[56].” Their friend
sketched a jaunty salute and departed humming an equally upbeat tune until he
faded out of ear shot.
“Okay crew, we are short on options here, so anything that
doesn’t involve how to take out this train is off the table. I need to hear how
we are going to make this train job work.” Chan said concisely to forestall any
debate.
“I’ve got an option Cap.” Marsh offered
“Spill it.” Chan replied.
“I ride back to the ‘Ghost and get the hover car. That will
get us some speed and let me recon the train route. If I can find a good ridge,
I can use it to drive the hover car onto the top of the train while it is in
motion. It will give us a quick and easy access to the engine without having to
fight through guards.”
The rest of the crew blinked almost in unison at Marsh
before Cindy managed to reply. “That is a surprisingly good idea. Reckless
perhaps, but a good idea nonetheless”
“I might not know about Earth-That-Was stuff, but I do know
how to fly and I am not as stupid as the rest of you think I am.” The pilot
replied indignantly.
“I like the idea my own self, but I rather use the small
hover mule.” Said Chan.
“Marsh’s plan is not without merit, but I think we might
want to leave less to chance when it comes to boarding the train in motion. I
think we should take advantage of the fact the train has paying seats and board
as passengers. It means getting through guards, but if anything goes wrong with
the hover car, we will still have a means take over the engine, even if it is
an old fashioned Earth-That-Was style plan.” William said while pacing the
living room..
“I have to agree with Cindy and say Marsh’s plan is best.
It is an all the eggs in one basket plan, but as long as the hover car is up to
the task, there are fewer things to go wrong.” Li Ming responded after some
thought.
“I can ensure the hover car can meet the demands. In fact
I’m certain I can not only boost the anti-grav for a short jump like Marsh envisions,
but to carry three people for the trip as well.” Willis said nodding his head,
his mind obviously thinking furiously about the mechanical adjustments the
stunt would require.
“If the majority thinks the external approach is best, so
be it, but I must continue to argue for including an internal element as well.”
William insisted.
“I am going to go with William on this one. This is too
important to risk to one method of attack. Only question left is who is going
to do what?” Chan answered with a single nod that signified her decision.
“Since it is my idea and I am obviously too heavy to be on
the hover car, I volunteer to board the train.” William replied.
“You can’t go alone William, it is too dangerous to go
without someone to watch your back.” Chan countered immediately.
“Mei mei you will
not be able to accompany me as we will need a light load in the hover car and
that means you will have to go with Marsh.”
“I will go with William.” Li Ming responded. “I think I
have certain ‘assets’ that might make getting past the guards somewhat easier
without tipping our hand by having to resort to violence to do so.”
“The lady is correct.” William replied with a big smile.
“Then that means I am going with the Captain.” Cindy added
with finality. “I might not be the lightest thing on two feet, but in this
case, I think I am small enough for the task.”
“Um, I know I’m not much in a fight, but there has to be
something I can do.” Xavier said speaking for the first time.
“William and I are going to need a means to get away from
the train quicker than we can run. If you were to bring in some of these fine
horses, it would be much appreciated as due to both of our physiques, neither
William nor I care for running.” Li Ming said with a twinkle in her eye.
“Once the hover car modifications are completed I will be
free to assist Miss Xavier with this part of the plan. In this way no member of
our crew will be working alone” Willis responded.
“Okay people it looks like we got us a working plan. Willis
and Marsh will ride back to the ship tomorrow at first light. I suggest we all
get some sleep tonight as it is going to be a busy time until we meet with that
train.” Chan concluded.
The plan outlined, the crew were content to take their
Captain’s advice and broke up into males and females with each group heading to
their section of the bunk house space Benevidez had provided and one by one
quickly dropped off to sleep.
Driven by their three day deadline, the crew took to their assigned tasks with a vengeance in order to be ready in time. Marsh and Willis had the longest task with another hard ride back to the ship that took them rest of the day to reach the Lattimer’s Ghost by early that same evening. Knowing how critical the hover car would be to the entire operation, Willis worked long into the night, taking nearly five hours to carefully modify the vehicle to suit the demanding needs of the mission. Despite knowing the need for every minute of practice, the pilot and mechanic chose not to push their luck and drive back to San Melas as soon as the hover car was ready, instead waiting until morning. In addition to the much needed rest, the best part of the drive back was the chance to give the modifications a solid test and thanks to the higher speed of the hover car, they only needed an hour to reach San Melas.
Once back at the Benevidez ranch, Willis joined Xavier in practicing the riding skills they would need for their part of the plan. As the two riders honed their proficiency, Marsh used the time to get a better feel of the boosted hover car. After Marsh felt comfortable with the changes, Chan and Cindy joined him to practice boarding and disembarking under a variety of conditions and speeds. As the others worked on their part of the plan, Li Ming and William worked on their disguises and how to best conceal the weapons they would need for their close assault part of the operation. Knowing from hard experience that it was possible to practice too much, Chan called a halt to the preparations at sundown so everyone could get a good meal and a good night’s rest.
“Tickets! Tickets please!” The conductor asked as he entered the car that the two non-descript passengers were riding. William handed over the boarding passes and the conductor punched them without a second glance as he moved efficiently on with his task.
“Well that went easier than I would I thought.” Li Ming exhaled a breath she didn’t realize she was holding softly to her partner.
“Never doubted it for a second my dear. We aren’t known in these parts and no reason for them to suspect anything. I just wish we could have got a seat closer to the baggage car. There are five cars between us and were we need to be and I don’t like it one bit.”
“Allllllllllll aboooooooooooooord!” The Conductor shouted and the train began to move. Unlike the Earth-That-Was trains of old, the modern mag-lev design rapidly and smoothly accelerated and soon San Melas was lost in the distance.
“Maybe I can do something about that.” Li Ming murmured and approached the two men guarding the platform that lead to the next car.
“Good morning fellahs tell me, are you as good with those guns as you look?” She sighed with great exaggeration, which even her loosely fitting clothing accentuated her sensuality.
“Uh we…damn straight Miss.” The shorter of the two men replied.
“Ooh how fascinating. Are you two the ones in charge? That ratty old conductor doesn’t carry a gun and he was no where near as handsome.”
“Er, well we are in charge of this car Miss…uh Miss?”
“Desiree Duvalier and who might you two be?”
“I’m Pablo.”
“They call me Ham.” The second man replied, speaking for the first time, his eyes never leaving Li Ming.
“Mmmm I’d like to hear the story behind why they call you Ham. Maybe we can have a drink when we reach Corazon del Fuego?”
“I’d like that Desiree.”
“I have a better idea sweet lady, how about you tell us who’s that fat slob you are traveling with?”
“
“Uh…er…you bet Desiree. I know a couple nice places in town.”
Li Ming clapped her hands in delight. “Wonderful! I’m sure we will all have the best time.”
“It will be a night you won’t forget.” Ham replied all but drooling.
“I’m sure it will be special, but may I ask you just the tiniest favor?”
“Spill it sister.” Pablo leered.
“This car is a bit further back than I prefer to sit. Is it possible to move to the next car? I will be ever so grateful and promise to make it worth your trouble.” Li Ming purred coquettishly and batting her eyes.
“Pablo, I don’t know…”
“Shut up Ham, you want to miss out at this fine woman you go right ahead. If any one man can satisfy ya hon it will be me and me alone it seems.”
“Oh no you don’t Pablo, I know you think I’m stupid, but I know a good thing, when it’s standing in front of me!” The tall man growled.
“Okay, okay Ham, don’t go getting’ buggy! You go right ahead hon and make yourself comfortable, but Desiree?”
“Yes Pablo dear?”
“Do not get it
into that fine frame of yours to skip out on our meetin’ I can be a very ornery
man when I’m promised somethin’ and don’t get it, dong ma?”
“Oh I certainly do. See you in town.” Li Ming winked
lasciviously then turned back toward her companion. “
“Ma’am?”
“Get your plentiful pi
gu moving! These gentlemen are giving us an upgrade!”
“Yes Ma’am.” William ambled up to Li Ming playing the part
of a lackey to the hilt.
“Thank you again guys. You will both get something to
remember, I promise” She blew them both kisses then sashayed with an abundance
of hip motion onto the platform and into the next car, William tagging along
like a proper servant.
“That is one fine woman Ham.” Pablo smirked.
“She sure is. I can’t wait to get to town now.”
“Yeah you got that right.”
The guards in the next car were no smarter than the first two and using her tremendous allure to the fullest Li Ming played the role of the temptress like a pro. Long practice with using her natural beauty to take advantage of men’s lust, she worked her way forward using her charm and working her magic to get herself and William closer to the front of the train. The guards on the second car back from the baggage car, proven more resistant than the others, but a carefully placed caress was enough to work past that obstacle. After half an hour of a stunning virtuoso performance, the two of them were in the car right behind the baggage car.
Once in place, William sent a single pulse signal and the entire crew sprang into action. Chan sent a single tone reply to announce the start and this set William and Li Ming into motion. They each drew their hidden pistols and fired on one of the two guards on the car. Li Ming’s target went down immediately, shot through the heart, giving her time to rush forward as William downed his target with his second shot. William ran to the door heading away from the baggage car and used a small drop of Scrapper’s Gel to fuse the lock and prevent reinforcements from arriving from the rear of the train.
Li Ming killed the first guard from the baggage car to open the door to their car with another well placed shot and took advantage of the opening to toss in a grenade. The blast killed one guard instantly and wounded the other six. She immediately rushed to the door and killed another guard as she burst though the door of the baggage car. Moving with a feral smoothness and grace, the one woman assault felled two more guards by the time William reached the hatch. As the two entered a badly wounded man through up his arms to surrender and to make sure it wasn’t a ploy, William laid him out with a single punch. One of the two remaining guards tried to shoot William while he was occupied, but Li Ming saw the guard move and shot him down before he could fire. William no longer in a mood to take prisoners, pivoted and shot the last guard before he could shoot or surrender.
“Well that was downright exhilarating!” William exclaimed as he kicked the weapons away from the dead guard to make sure there would be no surprises.
“Yeah, good thing these Dusters are a stupid as they are or this might have been a challenge, now let’s find the hun dan in charge of these idiots!” Li Ming replied breathlessly as she slapped a fresh magazine into her pistol, her eyes sweeping the baggage cars for movement.
“Ladies first.”
“I don’t think that is necessarily the gentlemanly thing in this situation.”
“Humor me, you are by far more agile than I and I need all the help I can get.”
“Right.” Li Ming then returned to her combat stance and started moving toward the front of the baggage car.
As the two on the train fought, Marsh was fighting a battle of his own. As soon as the front of the train reached his innocuously placed guide marker, he gunned the engine as he had several dozen times before, and raced forward at full acceleration to hit the make shift ramp perfectly. Marsh’s timing and arc were flawless however, despite the all of the modifications made to the hover car and all the practice runs he’d made the day before, when the smaller vehicle hit the slipstream from the train Marsh found himself in trouble.
The hover car skidded sideways and pitched to one side alarmingly and, by pure instinct, Marsh steered into the skid while pulling back sharply on the throttle control. This straightened out the hover car, but caused the nose to pitch downward even more alarmingly that the first sideways tilt. As Marsh reached for the throttle control again, Chan lost her balance and fell forward, her hand landing on the pilot’s and driving the accelerator forward far past Marsh’s intended mark. This fluke turned out to be an incredible stroke of luck, as the already boosted thrust hit a speed not even Willis intended and made the nose of the hover car hit the slipstream at the perfect angle to bring the hover car down safely on top of the train. Chan, Cindy, and even Marsh sat white knuckled for a second as they realized how close they had come to disaster.
“Remind me to take the bus next time!” Chan yelled to be heard over the roaring of the train.
“I’ll send you the wave myself” A very chagrined Marsh replied. “Go get ‘em Cap!”
“You bet!”
The two women duck walked out across the top of the fuel tender toward the engine. Despite having practiced for this situation, the noise and vibration was far worse than either expected.
“Sweet merciful Buddha guide my path.” Chan prayed fervently as she slowly inched forward on the swaying train. She was still nearly three meters to the engine when she heard a piercing scream behind her. Wheeling about by pure instinct, she just managed to catch Cindy’s flailing arm before she went over the side.
“Jesus! Buddha! Hera! Freyda! Save me!” The medic howled in terror.
“None of them are here at the moment you stupid cow! Concentrate and help me help you!”
Cindy’s eyes locked on Chan’s and some of the terror faded replaced by anger, but most importantly, comprehension. She nodded her head and got her free arm on the railing of the tender. With a ponderous slowness the two women straining against gravity, vibration and fear managed to pull the medic onto the top of the tender. Cindy opened her mouth to speak, but Chan silenced her with a gesture and pointed toward the cab of the engine. Cindy nodded and using each other for stability, the two women managed to reach the engine.
In the baggage car, William and Li Ming advanced carefully looking for the scientist Ghallager. William thought he heard something in the latrine and after silently signaling to his partner kicked the door open to find the scientist cowering in abject terror. Frightened and pathetic, neither William nor Li Ming could find it in them to shoot the wretched man, instead choosing to seal him in the latrine with a drop of Scrapper’s Gel to fuse the lock.
On the top of the train, Cindy and Chan dropped into the cab, but as they did, one of the engineers spotted them as the shaken Cindy landed badly and made too much noise. Chan fired her shotgun twice instantly killing one man and wounding the second. As the survivor reached for the controls, Cindy fired a burst from her submachine gun and killed him before he could stop the train. With the train under control, Chan reached for her comm.
“Riders up!” She said signaling for Willis and Xavier to approach.
Cindy worked feverishly and quickly figured out how to disable the brake cut outs to bring the train to a stop while keeping full power to the engine. Cindy and Chan fairly leapt back to the hover car on a now stationary train with the warning klaxons screaming behind them, Marsh blasted free of the train at maximum speed.
Willis and Xavier bolted out of their hiding place at Chan’s signal and brought their mounts in close before the train even stopped. “Looking for a free ride big guy?” Xavier quipped as soon as she saw William.
“A gentleman never turns down a sincere offer from a lady, but right now, moving is better than talking.” He replied as he and Li Ming climbed into the saddles of the extra horses, the warning sirens from the building overload providing all the incentive they could want. All four spurred their mounts and raced away as fast as the horses could run. A few sporadic shots from a couple of the brighter Black Dusters shooting from the windows of the train, forced them to take an evasive course until the afternoon was shattered by a massive explosion.
“Jesu Christu!” William said recoiling from the blast and resulting shower of debris landing all around him and the other riders. It took several seconds for the riders to get their terrified mounts under control. When they looked back, the engine, tender, baggage car, and the first passenger car were completely destroyed with the wreckage fully engulfed in flames.
“Let it never be said we do things half-assed.” Marsh said pulling the hover car next to the mounted crew. “I’m not sure what I was expectin’, but that was awesome!”
“Friend Marsh, we did what we had to free ourselves from a situation forced upon us. Do not take pleasure at the deaths of so many!” Willis hissed in uncharacteristic anger.
“I have to agree with Willis on this one. We did a rotten job, but we shouldn’t be celebrating too much.” William nodded after a couple seconds.
“Yeah well, it was still an awesome explosion. Let’s see if Benevidez can deliver his end of the deal.” Marsh grumbled before engaging the drive of the hover car and heading toward their friend’s ranch.
“Muy bravo amigas y amigos[57] the explosion was visible for miles! I knew you could do it.” Benevidez exclaimed when the crew rode up to the ranch house. He hustled everyone into his home and broke out several bottles of wine. Once everyone, even the reluctant Willis had a glass, the rancher raised his own. “To a job that needed to be done and was done well!” He downed his glass in a single gulp and passed the bottle around so those that wanted more could refill their glasses.
“I want you to tell me everything, but first, I talked to that old bag Patience and the landlock on your ship is lifted, you can go as soon as you fill me in.”
“I’ll field this one.” William offered and launched into a highly animate description of the events of the day, supplemented by the rest of the crew when it came to the parts he hadn’t personally witnessed.
When the story was over, Benevidez wore a huge smile. “Yeah that sounds like Ghallager, sniveling little wimp. The ‘Verse is a better place without him.” He raised his palm to Willis to forestall whatever the mechanic was going to say. “I know amigo what the teachings are, but sometimes you have to do bad things to make some better things happen. Whitefall might not be much, but it is my home and getting rid of that Highleaf basura[58] is a step in the right direction.”
“This has been big fun, but I need to get to the ship and get it moving before anything else can go wrong.” Marsh said standing and heading toward the door.
“I know Whitefall isn’t for everyone and you need to get moving, but hurry back “
“I’ll go with him.” William added. “Not a good idea for anyone to be out and alone. I won’t feel safe until we are in the Black”
“Always thinking Señor William, good idea though.” Benevidez replied with a hearty laugh.
“The ‘Verse has a way of eliminating those that don’t do enough thinking. We’ll be back as soon as Marsh here can work his magic.” The first mate replied and headed out the door and boarded the waiting hover car.
Less than an hour later, the crew could hear the sweet sound of their ship approaching, everyone went outside and Marsh brought the Lattimer’s Ghost in with his typical panache. He lowered the cargo ramp, but kept the engines at full. The crew each made their goodbyes, with Benevidez pulling his friend Willis into a big bear hug before letting him go.
“Well Isidro, our ride is here, we’ve got to go.” Chan said stopping at the bottom of the ramp for one last look at the harsh landscape.
“I understand bonita, thanks again and remember, for you my friends never forget that Blue Sun has got your number. Vaya con Dios![59]”
“Gracias mi amigo.” Chan replied with a sly grin.
Benevidez’ mouth hung open for a second before letting loose with a booming laugh. “Perfecto bonita perfecto, you have made this a day to remember. Watch your backs.” He stepped back to get clear of the downdraft as the ship soared upward and then returned to stand with his wife and watch the ship disappear into the distance.
“Well I guess the first question Cap has to be where to?” Marsh asked smiling broadly at being behind the controls of a ship in the Black again.
“What’s closest?”
“Anticipating that answer, that would be Triumph.”
“How far?”
“Also anticipated and that would be 42 hours.”
“Do it.”
“Done.”
Later that evening, the crew was completing their traditional Lift day meal, albeit a sparser one than usual due to the lack of a chance to buy any fresh food, but regardless of the precise components, just being on their own ship and back in some sort of control made the meal taste better than canned food normally did.
Before the crew could leave Chan stood and cleared her throat. “I’ve got words that need to be said before you go and in front of all of you.” The crew sat up straighter all eyes riveted on the Captain as she normally was never so formal. “Even though it seems like it was a long time ago, I made a bad call and I want to both reverse that decision and apologize to the person I wronged.
“Xavier, I judged you too harshly. You got pinched while trying to change our dry spell and I thought you’d screwed up our chance for a deal on Athens and it turned out there were forces in motion that would have led us to Whitefall even if you had brought home half a million credits.
“Even though I made you an outsider, you stepped up when it came to defending and fighting for our home. You have proved yourself to be every bit as much a member of this crew as the rest of us and I hope you will forgive me.”
Xavier sat quietly her expression nearly unreadable, but the quivering of her lip. “I…uh” She started her voice cracking. “I…would be lying if I said I wasn’t surprised. Thank you Captain. I am grateful to be back as ‘crew’ instead of passenger. Thank you.”
“Well that was
another bit of good news mei mei. Now
we need to know what the plan is about the hun
dan Blue Sun he chu sheng za jiao de zang huo[60] riding our backs?”
“I don’t have
an answer to that yet Lao peng you[61]. I will have to cogitate on that and get
back to you. We can’t go against a corporation as big as Blue Sun alone and it
seems they have made us unwelcome where ever we go, but there has to be a way
to get some information on exactly who is running the Highleaf trade, so I
guess that is our first order of business. I’m sure you can guess what the
second order of business would be.”
The feral grins that swept the table was all the answer Chan needed to know she’d gotten her point across.
Chapter Seven
“Firefly-Class freighter Lattimer’s Ghost, this is Beylix approach control, you are cleared to land on pad two-seven delta.” The professional, if bored voice squawked over the ship’s communication speakers.
“Roger Beylix approach. Lattimer’s Ghost cleared to pad two-seven delta.” Marsh replied with an amused expression. After turning back to his flight controls he quipped. “You think they teach them that tone of voice in signal school?”
“Can’t be any different from how they teach civil servants how to wrinkle their nose when they look at you like they smell something they don’t like.” William answered from the co-pilot’s seat.
Marsh responded by laughing out loud. “Well what do you know? I always thought that was just me that they looked at like that!”
“Oh no my friend, that look is as ‘Verse wide as that controller’s tone of voice, and both have been skillfully crafted by generations of bureaucrats. I’m certain those idiosyncrasies survived the passage from Earth-That-Was.”
“I’ll believe you, what was isn’t as big on my list as what is, like findin’ work again.”
“I won’t dispute that with our current situation, a lesson on ancient history isn’t going to help us find the hou zi de pi gu[62] that is running the Highleaf operation of Blue Sun that has it out for us. Whoever it is has got themselves dug in deep.”
“Well Beylix is a good place to find stuff as what them as don’t want it would put it. Might take some sweet talk and some hard coin to get the right person to part with the right words, but this is good a place to look as any place in the ‘Verse. Beats Triumph by a long shot”
“That would be the dream young Marsh and why the captain chose to come here rather than the closer Triumph. Took us an extra two days to get here, so you can bet as soon as we have the cargo ramp down, we will hit the mean streets to see if we can find just the sort of person you mention.”
“So you are telling me they not only escaped, but they managed to shut down our primary Highleaf operation again in the process.” The man said in a voice approaching absolute zero and obviously not a question.
“Yes sir.” His assistant replied meekly knowing by her boss’ tone of voice that anything but a straight answer would result in her immediate termination, employment wise for certain, and literally was within the realm of the possible as she had never seen him so mad.
“How?”
“They had help getting out of the jail, but none of the surviving members of the operation knows who. The destruction of the train took out all of the senior personnel on Whitefall and a raid by locals took advantage of the disarray to destroy the growing facility. Again, there were no survivors to identify the raiders.” The assistant cringed at the man’s grimace.
“Well it would seem the boss and I have underestimated our quarry’s abilities. I’ll chalk the first set back to the pirates being surprised. They were a small crew and had gotten too cocky from too little resistance. But this Whitefall disaster is a completely different matter. Seven crew, only five at best fighters, eliminated forty-odd guards and every leader on that godforsaken moon. I will have to contact the boss and let him know that we will have to rebuild our entire operation from scratch. If I am still alive and working for Blue Sun after that conversation, I am going to devote the rest of my existence to ending the existence of the Lattimer’s Ghost and her crew” The man growled in a voice so fierce that it raised the hackles on the assistant’s neck by their complete and bone-chilling sincerity.
True to William’s word, as soon as the ship was fully powered down, everyone but Willis exited the ship to see what news or work they could find. The rest of the crew split into three teams with Chan and William, Li Ming and Xavier, and Marsh and Cindy fanning out to blanket the landing field to try and find business or info on Blue Sun.
Willis watched the others depart, sealing the ship up to perform a little maintenance and, more importantly, to provide security in case Blue Sun decided to take a more active role in the crew’s affairs. “Sweet merciful Buddha, guard over and guide your servants as they walk through the dangers of this world.” The somber mechanic prayed as the ramp closed. He turned to return to the engine room and silently added. “And letting them find any sort of honest work would be nice as well.”
“So tell me lovely ladies, why should you need to know such information? Surely there are better lines of work for women of your…talents” The oily little man crooned.
“Look Finn, all we want to know is do you, or do you not have work for us? Honest work you pile of ma da bian[63].” Li Ming replied sharply, her eyes hard.
“Oh Li Ming, you wound me.” Finn returned feigning dismay. “I am but a simple and honest businessman trying to make a living in a harsh and unforgiving ‘Verse.”
“Finn you are neither simple nor honest, but that is beside the point. I’ve got a good ship and a better crew and we just want to ‘make a living in a harsh and unforgiving ‘Verse’ as well. You got the goods or not? No need for the usual line of crap; just be square with me.”
Finn looked uncomfortable for a moment then leaned in close to Li Ming. “You didn’t hear this from me, but the word is that it’s not good for business to do business with you right now beautiful one.”
The two women exchanged a glance and Xavier nodded her head at Li Ming’s raised eyebrow before the gambler leaned in closer to Finn.
“What if we said we are not surprised to hear this news, would you be willing to tell us why doing business with us would be a problem?”
“That I have not heard.” The small man replied a little too quickly.
Li Ming responded by running her a finger gently tracing the curve of Finn’s left ear. “Come on now Finn, you’ve known me a long time, throw me a hint.” She all but purred.
Finn looked even more uncomfortable, his eyes darting to both sides and he looked over his shoulder as if someone might overhear before replying. “Blue Sun.”
“Thanks old friend, you have confirmed what we needed to know. We’ll make sure that no one sees us when we leave. You tell the misses I said hello.” Li Ming flashed a brilliant smile then motioned to Xavier to follow. The two women exited the seedy restaurant singly via the side exit before meeting back up two blocks away.
“Looks like Benevidez knew what he was talking about.” Xavier said after they had walked another two blocks.
“You have to wonder why a Corp as big as Blue Sun would take it into their head to make small fish like us sweat. We can’t be considered competition and we damn sure haven’t crowded their grip on the ‘Verse.”
“I couldn’t begin to tell you, but somehow we have and now we have to figure how to get them off our pi gu.”
“I’ve got enough problems with Nightblade, last thing I need is an even bigger fish wanting to make my life more complicated than it already is Xave. Being able to get out of the way before the da bian hit the fan has been a specialty of mine, for a long, long time, but this load is more than this one girl is willing to try and bear.”
“Captain will figure something out. If she can’t, I’ll have to come up with something.”
Li Ming stopped dead in her tracks to stare at her enigmatic partner. “You can’t be serious?”
“Why not? Just because Chan is the captain, that doesn’t give her an exclusive monopoly on ideas. My ideas have just as much merit as hers and I don’t have all the pressure on me like she does. Maybe I can see things more clearly than she can.”
“Well I will agree Chan has to be under a terrible amount of stress and I’m not going to enjoy being the one that tells her a rumor is a fact and that the biggest corporation in the ‘Verse has got it out for her.”
“Yeah, not going to be fun, but we will see what her response is before I start offering up my ideas.”
“Yes Xave, let’s just hold your ideas in reserve for now. What did your Cortex search find?”
“Nothing on Blue Sun, but that is not a surprise, I did find there is a guy paying nice coin for some sort of investigation.”
“Say what he needed figured out?”
“All the message said was ‘wanted: independent investigators to uncover mysterious occurrences during the course of business’ the name Darrin Coorvish and a contact number.”
The three teams returned to the ship with two things in common, first, as with every other planet or moon in the ‘Verse, no one had any business for them. Second, the other two teams had found the same mysterious advertisement from Darrin Coorvish that Xavier discovered earlier.
“I have to assume that any place we try to go in the whole ‘Verse has got the word not to hire us at this point. I had hoped we might be able to get in front of the message by going deeper on the Rim, but that didn’t pan out.” Chan said while pacing in the ship’s dining room to the rest of the crew that had gathered for the post landfall sweep update.
“What about this Coorvish character Cap?” Marsh asked.
“I don’t like how this ‘mysterious occurrences’ sounds. Last thing we need is to get into someone else’s problems considering our own situation.” Chan replied shaking her head. “If this thing were square, why haven’t the local talent done this investigation?”
“Not like we have anything else to do with our time Cap.” Marsh pressed.
“Well I did get the low down on what the mystery is about from a rather desperate sort of old coot for a pint of bitters Captain.” Cindy said quietly.
“Go on and spill it girl!” Chan snapped, then pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. “I’m sorry Cindy, too much thinking and not enough cigarras on my part. I didn’t mean to get all fang on you.”
“I understand captain we have had to live in interesting times for far too long. What I learned was, it seems that hunting parties go out in search in the hinterlands for an animal he called a chimper.”
“Chimper? William frowned. “He must have meant a chimpanzee.”
“The old guy said chimper, but I am sure you are right. Anyway, seems the chimpers are captured and sold on the Core as pets, apparently they are all the rage. Lately, it seems, the hunting parties have been ambushed with several wounded and a few dead. The last expedition had two dead and four severely wounded out of ten sent out. None of the locals are willing to go out anymore and this seems to be cutting into this Coorvish’s profit margin. Guess he wants to know who is putting a crimp in his chimper gig.”
Marsh rocked forward off the rear two legs of his chair and back onto all four before smacking the center of his forehead. “Da xiang bao zha shi de la du zi[64]! You can not be serious? You want to go looking for why the locals can’t find a bunch of monkeys?”
“Aw Sylvie, you don’t want to go to the family reunion or are you just ashamed to introduce me to your parents?” Cindy sniggered loudly at the pilot’s expense.
Marsh fixed the medic with a gaze hot enough to melt hull plating. “One day you are going to push that shaved orangutan thing too damn far!” He snarled throwing his cup across the room.
“Bai tuo, an jing yi dian[65]! Last thing we need is a lover’s spat children. If you can’t behave, the captain is going to send you to your rooms without supper.” William growled, fixing each with a baleful gaze to make it clear that now was not the time for joking around.
“All I ever wanted was to be free to move around the ‘Verse and make some honest coin. Did I listen to my father and join the family business? No. Did I even look at any of the men he tried to get me hitched to? No. I had to go and become the owner of a tramp freighter.” Chan said rubbing her temples in the vain attempt to make the pressure building there subside. “Sweet merciful Buddha, but all this noise is giving me a headache. Damn how could use a good drink and a good lay.” She thought to herself before rejoining the conversation, thankful as always for William’s, once again, timely intervention. “Okay crew, as the First Mate has stated, time to cut the children’s chatter and act like you belong at the adult’s table.” She paused to make sure all eyes were fixed on her before she continued. “Since we all know that no other work is going to be coming our way, William and I are going to talk to this Coorvish character and see what he is about. If he doesn’t trigger William’s hun dan detector, we are going to take this job monkeys, chimpanzees, or orangutans. Dong ma?”
A chorus of “Yes captain” brought the conversation to an end and Chan turned for the bridge. “You want to make the call or should I?” She asked over her shoulder.
“I will.” The big man answered once they were out of earshot of the rest of the crew. “You do the talking once the meet starts. Until then, you remain the aloof and enigmatic captain. Why should this one be different?”
“Because I am beginning to wonder if I know what I am doing William. I led my first crew to near bankruptcy until they bailed on me and now it looks like I am about to run my second crew down the bankruptcy road as well.”
“Dammit mei mei you know things are different this time, don’t even try to go down that path with me!” William retorted hotly.
“How are they different this time?” She replied just as hotly.
“You didn’t have my sparkling personality the first time.” He replied with a hearty laugh, his instant of anger forgotten.
Chan didn’t manage to laugh, but she did smile for the first time since making planetfall on Beylix. “Thank you William. I needed that.”
“I can think of a couple other things you need as well, but those are not my place to arrange or even really talk about mei mei.”
“One thing at a time old friend, one thing at a time.”
“It is nice to meet you Captain Wu.” Coorvish said warmly as he shook Chan’s and William’s hands, inviting them to sit and offering refreshments in the businessman’s sparse office just under an hour later. “I will be blunt captain. I haven’t had anyone take me up on my offer in over a week, so it was a pleasant surprise to get your wave. I will also be straight to the point on what you want to know most. I propose a week long tracked ATVs safari into the outback. You must bring own weapons and supplies for a pay rate of five platinum per day per person for a total of 35 platinum each. The area in question is a heavily forested one and our task will be to find out who is making and to suppress the attacks on the hunters. Are you still interested?”
“Will we be to report to you while we are out checking on what is bushwhacking your hunters?” She replied.
“I should say so, I am going as well. I will have my own personal bodyguards and vehicle. I am not the sort that stays in the rear with the gear once I know there is trouble afoot. Your team will be fully a