Finally, Kas could turn his attention to the tramp. It would take thousands of kilometers for Starhopper to slow and vector back toward the other ship and more than an hour before they could come alongside.
Kas sighed. “Well. Does anyone have any suggestions concerning what we do about the tramp and her crew?”
Rom scowled. “Strictly speaking, we should finish what the Glories started. Otherwise, our cover is blown completely.”
Kas nodded. “That’s what I mean. They have to know we’re armed and that we destroyed that corvette. I doubt they’ll believe it just happened to blow up at the moment we came barreling in on it.”
Gran was looking as unhappy as Kas felt. “Uh, they might not have seen anything, sir. Remember, that second missile was aimed at their sensor array; and it was fired before we were in detection range.”
“But it was a miss,” Tera put in. “We don’t know if it took out all their sensors.”
Kas sighed again. “All right, I see three alternatives. But I’m not sure we can live with two of them.” He raised a finger. “First, we can finish what the Glories started and destroy the ship.” He held up a hand to forestall the angry replies. “I’m sure that’s what Imperial Intelligence would tell us to do.”
He held up another finger. “Second, we can just leave them here and boost out. Chances are they haven’t seen us and are sitting over there wondering when the Glories are coming. Of course, their drive coils are destroyed, so unless someone else happened by they’d just drift here forever. With their sensor array damaged, they may not even be able to get an SOS beacon working. But,” he continued, "We don't know what sensors they have that are still functional. They may have seen everything."
He raised a third finger. “Finally, we can say to hell with Imperial Intelligence and follow our natural inclinations to rescue them.” Again he raised a hand to forestall interruptions. “Unfortunately, that one leads to complications. If we just pick them up and drop them at our next recal stop several things will happen, all bad. First, the authorities are going to want details about this Glory ‘pirate’ — and they’re going to want to ask us some hard questions.”
“Second, that tramp skipper is going to mention that the Glories talked about a battle cruiser. We do not want planetary authorities thinking about us and battle cruisers at the same time.
“Finally, even if they did let us leave, it wouldn’t be for days or weeks. If they figured out who we were, we might never leave.”
“There might be another option.” The quiet voice belonged to Tera. All heads turned toward the Astrogator.
“We won’t be grounding again until we’re on the way back,” she continued. “We could bring them aboard and pop them into cold storage until we get to the Rekesh.”
Gran shook his head. “I wish we could, Tera,” he replied. “But we don’t have any empty cold sleep units. We’d have to revive other crew.”
Kas was also shaking his head. “And we don’t have cover documents for anyone but us,” he continued.
Tera shrugged. “Maybe, but I’ll bet that the people on that ship have all the identification they’ll need.”
“I hadn’t thought about that,” Kas admitted. “We could rescue those people, pop them into cold storage, and the people we revive could use their ID’s and the tramp’s ship’s papers.”
Gran breathed a sigh of relief. “It sounds better to me than turning the lasers on them, sir. I’m not sure I could do it.”
Kas shook his head. “Me, either. All right, we bring them aboard. Once they’re aboard we’ll try to remember people in cold sleep that might fit their identification.” He tossed Rom a key. “Rom, get a hand weapon out of the weapons locker. They may not be exactly willing to climb into those cabinets.”
As they approached the tramp it was obvious that she was in serious trouble. As expected, her drive coils had been rendered unusable by the Glory’s missile. The near-miss on her sensor array had even more serious consequences. It appeared that all of the tramp’s sensors and antennas had indeed been destroyed, but more important, a deep gash in the hull was leaking a white cloud of air and water vapor.
As Rom maneuvered Starhopper alongside the tramp, he asked, “Should I grapple her airlock-to-airlock?”
Kas shook his head. “If all their sensors are out, I wouldn’t put it past them to short their fusactor and blow their own ship, if they thought they could take that Glory with them. No,” he continued, “stand off a bit. Edro, you’re our comm expert. D’you think you can work out a way to talk to them?”
Edro flushed, but he nodded. He ducked through the bridge hatch and headed for the airlock to suit up.
They watched as the little man jumped expertly across the ten-meter gap between the ships, and landed gracefully a meter from the ruined antenna array. He knelt and fumbled at his suit for a moment, then devoted several minutes’ attention to the stub of one of the ruined antennas.
“Uhhh, Captain,” finally came from Kas’ com in Edro’s self-conscious mutter, “I’ve got comm with them. Think you’d better talk to ‘em.”
Kas grinned, “All right, Edro,” he replied, “Connect me now. Hello, is anyone there? This is Captain Kas Preslin of the Free Trader Starhopper. The pirate is gone.”
The voice that answered him was clearly the one he’d heard arguing with the Glory, though it was muffled. Apparently she was suited. “Well, you sure don’t sound like a Glory! Good thing you called; we had a dead man switch connected to our fusactor.”
He chuckled. “That’s why we called first. I hate just dropping in on people- there can so many unpleasant surprises!”
“Well,” she replied, “now that the conventions are dealt with, who visits who?”
Kas chuckled again. “Why not come on over here, and we’ll discuss our options.”
“Options? Oh, well…” Kas could practically hear her shrug.
Rom nudged Starhopper within two meters of the ship, whose scarred antirad bore the name Lady Jane. Within moments, two suited figures jumped across the gap. Kas and Rom were waiting as the inner lock door cycled.
The suits, one tall, one medium, stepped through the lock. Both people reached up and released their helmet catches. The tall one was a thin, bald, middle-aged man. It was his companion, however that grabbed Kas’ attention.
She was obviously the woman who’d been talking to the Glory; but in person she was much more striking. Even the short spacer’s cut couldn’t conceal the fullness of her auburn hair. It framed her rather angular face perfectly. Actually, he mused, it wasn’t that she was extraordinarily beautiful. Her short, pug nose and freckles made her look like a juvenile tomboy, in fact. But those full lips and sparkling blue eyes somehow riveted his attention. The grin she flashed him was all tomboy, as well. “Captain Preslin?” she inquired, “I’m Jane Grey, owner and skipper of the Lady Jane.” She hesitated as if expecting a comment, then continued, “This is Lar Tennig, my Engineer, First Mate, and Comm Officer.”
The tall man slipped off his suit’s gauntlet and proffered a hand. “What,” Kas asked with a smile, “Not Purser?” A grin spread over the bald man’s skull-like face. “Nossir,” he replied in a pleasant baritone, “Nobody but the Lady here handles the money end!”
They chatted inconsequentially as the two unsuited, then Kas invited them to his cabin. Rom followed.
Unsuited, Jane Grey was some 150 centimeters tall, and massed about 50 kilos. That 50 kilos, Kas thought, was distributed in a disturbingly attractive fashion. He was trying to figure out why he found this woman so damned attractive, and he wasn’t having much luck. Her body was well-curved, without evident tendency toward fat, but it wasn’t spectacularly so. Her breasts, though full, weren’t unusually large, nor did she flaunt them. So, why was he responding so strongly to her?
“Well,” she said once they were all seated in Kas’ cabin, “Now that we’re all comfy, would you mind telling us who the devil you are, where you came from, and what happened to that damned Glory?”
Kas licked his lips. This was going to really strain his cover story. “Well, as I mentioned, we’re Starhopper, out of Prime, chartered to ferry colonists to a planet called Turow’s World. That’s a new colony being established by Farterra.”
He shrugged. “As for that other ship, all I know is that our sensors detected two flashes, and when we closed to investigate, we detected two ships close aboard. We hailed, but suddenly one of the ships boosted out max.” He shook his head. “He must have thought we were someone else. When we got closer, we could see the damage to your ship, and decided to check for survivors.” He frowned. “You say that pirate was a Glory?”
Her eyes were narrowed. “Uh huh. Look, Captain. I know you’ve saved our lives, and we’re grateful. But that Glory left us deaf, dumb and blind, not stupid. Please don’t pee on my boots and try to tell me it’s raining. Rank tabs or not, that Glory was at least a Swordtan in their Lord’s Host. Now, the Glories are a lot of things, but they’re not cowards, and they’re not stupid enough to confuse a DIN-Class with a battle cruiser!” She shook her head. “No, somehow you managed to run off or destroy that bastard. I don’t know how and I don’t really care. I’m just glad you did.”
She sat forward, resting her elbows on Kas's desk. “While you were talking I was thinking. You’re the ship that bastard was really after, aren’t you? What are you, some kind of spy or something? And what’s this crap about a battle cruiser?”
Kas took a deep breath. “Whew! That’s some imagination you’ve got there! Would you like me to show you the three hundred fifty cold sleep cabinets in our hold?”
She shook her head impatiently. “Please, Captain! Look, we’re wasting time. If you’re spooks, you can’t tell us anything but your cover story, even if that story becomes absurd. By the way, whoever put together your cover story was working from out-of-date information. Farterra isn’t colonizing anything. For the past three years they’ve been having money problems, and for the last eighteen months they’ve been in an economic depression. Last I heard, there were food riots on Newhome.”
She shot him a piercing glance. “On the other hand, spooks would have either finished us off or left us to rot. That means you’re not professional agents. Military, maybe? You shouldn’t have rescued us, should you? And now, you’re having a hell of a time deciding what to do with us.”
Kas shifted uncomfortably. In less than five minutes, this woman had completely exposed their identity and indicated that she suspected that their mission concerned a battle cruiser! She was right; he was beginning to regret rescuing them. Rom, in the corner of the room, apparently shared his concern. The needler he’d taken from the weapons locker was in his hand. Kas tried to remind himself of what was at stake — war or peace throughout known space. He tried to harden himself to signal Rom to open fire.
But he had to explore all the options first. They were no threat in cold sleep, and by the time they were revived the mission would be over. Unfortunately, her easy penetration of Starhopper ’s identity indicated that there might be other problems.
He took another deep breath, let it out in a huge sigh. “All right. You’re too close for comfort. We’re not spooks. We’re Imperial Fleet. We’re on an undercover mission. We can’t afford to have that mission compromised. We had, of course, discussed destroying your ship or leaving you here. But we were able to come up with an alternative. We really do have three hundred fifty cold sleep cabinets in the hold. We’re going to revive two of the occupants that can use your identities, and put you into cold sleep to replace them. You won’t be harmed, and you’ll be revived and released as soon as we complete the mission.”
She shook her head. “Won’t work.” Lar Tennig was also shaking his head.
“Look, Captain,” Kas replied in a nettled tone, “We’re trying to find a way to save your lives! It’s not too late to put you back aboard your ship, you know. Now, why won’t it work?”
“Because of something you couldn’t possibly know, Captain,” she replied. “I was born in space. My parents were traders as well. Most of the customs agents in this sector have known me since I was a babe in arms. They’ve watched me grow up. They know me and I know them. If a stranger suddenly shows up at any system in this sector trying to impersonate me, they’ll be locked up or dead before they can get a word out — and there will be some very hard questions asked!”
Lar Tennig spoke up. “She’s telling the truth, Captain. Everybody in the sector knows Lady Jane! Hell, she’s had that nickname since she was a kid. It’s probably the only joke that’s understood in every system in the sector.”
Kas frowned, and Jane Grey explained. “When I was a kid, oh, ten or twelve standard, I guess, I read this book about Old Earth. I dunno if it was true or not, but this book said that there was this place on Old Earth called Angle Land, or something like that. Anyway, it seems that there was a king named Henry Vee — something, and his queen was named Lady Jane Grey. Her name was even spelled the same as mine. She was young too, and she was only the queen for a few weeks, and then she was killed. It's a great tragic story.”
“Well,” she continued, “You know how kids that age are. I decided that I would now be called ‘Lady’ Jane Grey. My parents thought it was funny to go along with me. So, now everyone in the sector knows me by that name. And I can guarantee that you won’t make it past your first recal if someone tries to impersonate me.”
Kas’ frown had deepened. He sighed. “What you’ve told me only makes the decision harder. I guess the only thing we can do is put you back aboard your ship with supplies for several months and hope that no one finds you in time to interfere with our mission!”
Lady Jane leaned forward again, causing serious distractions for Kas. “Hold on a minute, Captain. Even if we’re found I’m not thrilled about sitting on a dead ship for months. Maybe we can work something out. You’re Impies, right? Well, we’re Alliance citizens. Tell us about your mission, and if it’s no threat to the Alliance, maybe we can help.”
Kas grinned. “You’re a trader, all right. And an excellent negotiator. But this isn’t a trade negotiation. I know this sounds melodramatic, but the future of mankind will be affected by the success or failure of our mission.”
She answered his grin with one of her own. “You’re right. It sounds too melodramatic to be true. But I keep remembering that it was important enough for the Empire to send a Fleet crew out here with another three hundred in cold sleep, and for the Glory to send out ships pretending to be pirates.”
“Captain!” Rom interrupted, “I’m sorry sir,” he continued, “but security…”
Kas waved a hand in dismissal. “Security be damned,” he replied. “The main reason we’re out here playing spook is because everyone in the sector already knows about it. I can’t see that it can do much damage to talk about the mission at this point.”
He turned back to his visitors. “An Empire battle cruiser went missing out near the edge of known space just over a century ago. Well, she’s been found. She’s intact, with her plague beacon running. The point is that she’s a complete, intact battle cruiser. That means she’s fully armed, including two planet busters.”
“Unfortunately, the people that found her talked to people all the way back in to the Empire. So, not only the Empire, but the Alliance, the Glory and about half the independents are out looking for her. We happen to think that the best thing that could happen would be for the Empire to reclaim her; but I’m not sure the Alliance would agree.”
“What I think we can agree on is that if the Glory or one of the nastier independents gets a fully operational battle cruiser, it could upset the balance of power throughout known space.” He shrugged. “It sounds melodramatic, but you could say that we’re trying to prevent an interstellar war.”
His guests exchanged glances. “Well,” Jane said at last, “We know how badly the Glory wants her.” She grimaced and shivered. “I was just imagining that Swordtan in command of a battle cruiser instead of a corvette.” She looked thoughtful. “Look, Captain. As we’ve mentioned, we’re known in every system in this part of space. We can help you.”
Kas chuckled. “I doubt it. Oh, we could use your undoubtedly complete knowledge of this sector, but I don’t think we need someone to shout “Impie spy!” at our next recal stop.”
She frowned. “We wouldn’t do that.”
Kas shrugged. “But we can’t take the chance that you would. No, I’m afraid we’ll just have to maroon you for a while.”
She sighed in exasperation. “Look, Captain, I can understand your lack of trust. All you know about us is that we’re Alliance citizens who spend all our time among the independents. But that battle cruiser is a threat to the independents, the Alliance, hell, everybody! Just the thought of planet busters in the hands of the Glory is enough to make me want to help you. Having them in Empire hands is far better than having them drifting around out here unclaimed.”
Kas started to reply, but she continued, “All right. We’ll give our word that we won’t betray you, even to the Alliance, and that we’ll do anything we can to help you get that damned thing back to the Empire!” The bald man beside her nodded, his face grim.
Again Kas started to reply. This time it was Rom who interrupted. “Don’t do it, Captain,” he said. “It’s an unjustified risk!”
Kas turned to him. “Rom, you’ve been crewing on traders for five years now. Tell me what you know about a trader’s word.”
Rom shifted uncomfortably. “A trader would die to keep his word. He knows that if he breaks it no one will ever do business with him again.” He shrugged. “I still say it’s an unjustified risk. We should put them back aboard their ship and boost max away from here.”
“He’s right, you know,” Kas said to the woman. “It is an unjustified risk. I have no right to jeopardize the mission for a pretty face.”
She grinned. “Pretty? Not in this universe!” Then she sobered. “Look, Captain. I ought to let you maroon us. We already know quite enough to blow your mission. We know your ship’s name and we know that you were here. You also let slip that you started from Prime. It wouldn’t be too hard to reconstruct your course data, project it forward, and get a pretty good idea where you’re heading.”
“But I don’t want to blow your mission. I want that damned battle cruiser safely back under Empire control. Oh, I won’t try to tell you that I wouldn’t rather see it in Alliance hands. But it does belong to the Empire, you’re the ones that know where it is, and you’ve got a crew for it already aboard.”
Kas looked doubtful, and she continued, “All right, I’ll prove my good intentions. You think that marooning us would be an effective way to isolate us for awhile. You’re wrong. This is a busy recal point. In fact, the Senegalese have been talking about putting a customs post here. It would be a few days at most before we were rescued. If we wanted to blow your cover, all we’d have to do is let you listen to your man here and maroon us, then contact the Alliance embassy on New Senegal when we were rescued in a few days.” she shrugged. “You see? I’m putting myself at risk just to tell you that. You could decide to kill us and destroy the Lady. But I don’t think you will. At least, I hope you won’t.” The bald man at her side nodded enthusiastically. “Me too!” he replied, glaring at the woman.
Kas released pent-up breath with a whoosh. “You have no idea how glad I am to hear you say that. You’ve just saved your lives. I figured the Glory would only have enough ships to picket the main recal points. That, plus the fact that we were both transiting it at the same time, told me that you’d be picked up quickly. That left me only two choices: trust you, or put you back aboard your ship and then blast her to emm-cee-squared. I was desperately hoping you’d come up with some way to let me trust you.”
Her eyes narrowed and her face darkened. “You mean that all this time you knew you couldn’t just maroon us? That every time you talked about marooning, you were really talking about killing us?”
Kas nodded. She jumped to her feet, her flush deepening. “Why, you revolving sonofabitch! You… you… unprintable bastard!” She seemed about to continue when Lar Tennig put his hand on her arm. “Lady,” he said quietly, “It might not be diplomatic to insult a man with reason and means to kill you!”
She stopped, mouth open. Her gaze moved from Lar to Kas, then back. The flush began fading from her cheeks. Suddenly she smiled and then giggled. Finally she collapsed back into her chair, roaring with laughter. Lar joined her a moment later and Kas broke down at nearly the same time. The three of them dissolved in gales of laughter as the almost palpable tension dissipated. Rom sat quietly, a smile lighting even his dour features.
Finally, they began to compose themselves. “What’s a ‘revolving sonofabitch’?” Kas asked. “I’ve been called names by experts, but I’ve never heard that one.”
She stifled a laugh. “A revolving sonofabitch is a sonofabitch any way you look at him,” she managed to get out before being once again carried off by gales of laughter. Kas, Lar and even Rom joined her. Kas managed to choke out some comment about ‘revolutions’, sending them all back into paroxysms of laughter. It was a good start for what Kas hoped would be an effective partnership, and not one of betrayal.
Before they boosted for the jump point Edro went over to the Lady Jane to erase the communications recordings involving Starhopper. He also gathered personal belongings for their new recruits. Neither Jane nor Lar suggested that they be allowed to return to their ship for that purpose; this partnership was too new and too fragile to permit that. As soon as Edro returned, they boosted for the jump point at max acceleration. The Lady Jane remained behind, of course.
“Y’know,” Lar observed, “By the time we get back here we’re liable to be a space legend; ‘ Lady Jane, ghost ship of the Hatchell system’. Found drifting with her drive coils and sensor array damaged, but no sign of the crew.”
Jane grinned. “Not really. Oh, maybe for awhile. But as soon as the authorities see our com tapes they’re going to be more concerned with the Glory. They’ll probably assume that Glory bastard grabbed us. It could cause a helluva stink, though.”
Rom was still unhappy about trusting the newcomers, but as soon as they’d jumped, Kas called Jane and Lar to the bridge. “Our next recal point is a system called ‘Homesite’. What can you tell me about it?”
Jane shrugged. “Not much there. Its only claim to fame is that it’s the only privately-owned planet in known space. It was some tycoon’s great idea. He bought the rights to the only terrestrial planet in the system from the government of Singh about twenty years ago. I hear it pretty much wiped him out, but he had this hare-brained idea that a privately-owned colony, operated for profit, would be more efficient than colonies with more typical governments.
“So he bought the planet, set up a shuttle service to Singh, and started trying to sell land. As I understand it, he planned to market his land in other systems once Homesite started to pay off. Only thing was it never did pay off until the heavy industries moved in. No laws or oversight, of course, so they could operate pretty much as they pleased. For the past twenty years they’ve been raping the planet’s resources, polluting the air and water, and just generally running the place into the ground.
“About the only people there now are a couple hundred thousand employees of one or another mining, smelting or processing companies. We’ve made a pretty good profit there a few times, though. Not enough people to attract most of the larger traders, so us little guys can run a load of luxuries in there, and make a pretty nice bundle.” She shrugged. “You won’t have to worry about customs there. No import restrictions, so no smuggling.”
Kas nodded. “Good. After D’Jellabah and Hatchell I could stand a little boredom!” He told her about their experience at D’Jellabah. He didn’t spare himself and confessed to his errors in dealing with the dealers and chandlers.
She chuckled. “Don’t worry about it. Oh, in most systems, you’d have attracted lots of attention. But on D’Jellabah you were just another unbeliever, and all unbelievers are crazy or stupid. Or both. They’ve got a weird version of Islam going on there, and it’s starting to hurt their economy. Did you notice that the port field was surrounded by a fifteen-meter wall?”
He nodded. “Sure. But I didn’t want to ask about it. I was afraid they had some sort of insurrection going on, and would get suspicious.”
She shook her head. “Nope. It’s to keep from offending the godly by exposing them to the fact that there are other inhabited worlds that don’t share their religious quirks. The shipping agents, factors, dealers and chandlers are permitted to deal with visitors, of course. But visitors are not permitted to leave the port field.
“They’re getting almost as hard to deal with as the Glory, and their balance of trade is starting to show it. A few more years of this religious fanaticism and they won’t have to worry about contamination by unbelievers — nobody will go there to trade.” She shrugged. “Anyway, that’s why the customs inspection was such a pain in the ass. Oh, they were looking for contraband, all right, but mostly they were interested in anything that might contaminate the godly. If they’d found anything they considered ‘blasphemous’, you wouldn’t have left there alive.”
He looked at her curiously. “How do you know what they consider ‘blasphemous’?”
She shrugged. “You don’t. Even more conventional Islamic believers have trouble figuring out D’Jellabah’s religious quirks. So you take your chances. And fewer and fewer traders are willing to take that risk. It’s a lot easier to just skip D’Jellabah and trade elsewhere.”
Kas nodded. “I noticed that there weren’t many ships at the port.”
She chuckled again. “And there won’t be, until D’Jellabah learns to share the universe with people of other beliefs.”
Kas found himself spending more and more time with Lady Jane. Even the seemingly endless series of Jasc games with Gran became less frequent.
Their conversations became the highlight of Kas’ days. Somehow they never seemed to run out of topics, or become bored with each other. Kas found himself getting up in the morning anticipating their chats, and saying good night only reluctantly.
But Lady Jane was wrong about Homesite. Almost as soon as they’d completed emergence from jump, Rom announced the presence of a ship, and moments later Edro reported that they were being hailed.
Kas frowned. “What kind of ship?”
“Empire-pattern corvette,” Rom reported.
“She says she’s the Singh system ship Shiva, Captain,” Edro added. “They demand to speak with our Captain.”
Kas looked at Lady Jane, standing beside his command chair. She shrugged and spread her open palms. “I dunno, Captain,” she responded to his unasked question. “They’ve never had customs here before much less picket ships. I think you’d better answer them. There must be something wrong.”
“Yar,” Rom put in sourly, “They’re lookin’ for a battle cruiser.”
Kas shrugged. “Maybe,” he replied. “Edro, put them on the main screen.”
The man who appeared was dark, with a large, thin nose. He wore some sort of cloth wrapped around his head to form a large helmet-shaped headpiece.
“Who are you and what are you doing here?” he demanded without preamble.
Kas had opened his mouth to speak when Lady Jane cut in. “Raj? Is that you? What’re you doing sitting on your ass out here? I thought you had some cushy posting on Singh!”
The man had noticed her as soon as Lady Jane spoke and relaxed slightly. He shook his head as she finished. “The question is, what’re you doing out here?” he replied. “You wouldn’t be planning to sneak in on the night side and pick up a load of thorium, now, would you?”She laughed aloud. “In this bucket? DIN-classes are good for a lot of things, Raj, but sneaking isn’t one of them! Naw,” she continued in a careless tone, “this is just a recal stop. Don’t tell me somebody’s finally figured out how to make smuggling profitable at Homesite?”
The man grinned. “Yah. Seems somebody’s been stealing heavy elements from the processing plants, and smuggling them off-planet. The Magnates contracted with the government of Singh to put a stop to it.” He shrugged. “And what’s the prettiest trader in the sector doing aboard a DIN-class, and not in the Captain’s chair?”
She shrugged again. “Captain Preslin here got himself a charter to run a bunch of cold-sleep colonists out to the rim. The Lady Jane ’s laid up for awhile, so I contracted to be kind of a local guide.” She grinned mischievously. “You know the weird things you local-system chairwarmers can dream up to harass us poor, innocent spacers.”
The man laughed aloud. “‘Poor’ and ‘innocent’ are not words that I would associate with you, Lady Jane.”
She shook her head in mock sadness. “And I thought we were friends,” she replied. “Captain Kas Preslin, this is Raj Brahamaputra. He’s an Ensign or something in Singh’s Navy. Raj, this is Captain Kas Preslin. Kas is an Impie trader tryin’ to make his way through the independents without getting’ himself killed.”
The man nodded, glaring at Jane. “That’s Commander, not Ensign, as you well know, Jane. If it weren’t for the fact that Captain Preslin is a stranger out here, I’d come over there and paddle your backside for you!”
She stuck out her tongue. “You’d better bring a working party if you want to try!” She struggled to keep a straight face, but finally broke into a smile. “Seriously Raj,” she continued, “Why don’t you come on over, and we’ll have a cup of caf and get caught up.”
The man answered her smile with one of his own. “I’d love to, Lady, but duty, duty. Uh,” he added, his smile fading, “You’re not going anywhere near the planet, are you?”
Kas shook his head. “No, sir,” he replied before Jane could speak. “This is just a recal stop as Lady Jane said. If you’d like to escort us to the jump point…”
Raj was shaking his head. “Sorry. We got a tip that a pickup was scheduled about now. I can’t leave this point. I’ll squirt a message ahead to the ship picketing the other jump point, so they don’t give you trouble. But keep well clear of the inner planets. I’m not the only surprise in the system.”
Kas assured the man that they’d stay well away from the inner planets and then signed off, as the communications time lag was becoming a problem. They began driving toward the other jump point in the system. Finally, Tera completed her computations and Rom set up their course to enter the jump point at the proper angle to take them to their next destination. There was another ship picketing the other jump point, but it didn’t even bother establishing communication. Evidently Lady Jane’s friend had been as good as his word. They jumped.
Kas breathed a huge sigh of relief. “Lady,” he said, “Thank you. You’re as good as your word. A single word to your friend Raj and we’d have been dead. His approach angle wouldn’t have let our weapons bear.”
She shrugged. “I’m a trader, and I gave my word.” She took a deep breath, causing serious distractions for Kas. “Where to next, Captain?”
“A place called Cytan. You know it?”
She nodded. “Yep. Poor system. Somehow, they’ve never managed to make the system a success on almost any level. They don’t even have an orbital port. If you’re not planning to ground you probably won’t even be questioned, much less searched. They don’t have any ships at all, just a few gunboats with no interstellar capability.”
This time, Jane was correct. They weren’t even questioned as they recalibrated and drove for their next jump point.
As soon as they were safely in jump, Kas called Lady Jane and Lar Tennig to the bridge. “I just want to warn you,” he began. “We have three more recal stops to make and two of them are in the Alliance.”
Jane frowned. “You mean this ship of yours is in Alliance space? If I’d known that, I might not have given my word.”
Kas shook his head. “No, actually it’s in a system just outside Alliance space. But to get there we have to pass through Alliance space. Otherwise, we’d have to detour through unexplored space and it would take at least six more jumps. We can’t afford the time penalty.” He frowned, his eyes narrowing.
“Don’t pay any attention to her, Captain,” Lar put in. “She suffers from a severe case of foot-in-mouth disease. We won’t betray our word, or you, just because we’re in Alliance space. So,” he added with elaborate casualness, “What’s the first stop?”
Kas stared at Lady Jane for a moment. Finally, she nodded, and he shrugged. “Our next recal is at a system called ‘M’Keba’. Do you have any information about it that we can use?”
Jane shrugged. “Just a general hint. In the Alliance, don’t try to bribe customs agents. Not that they’re not as bribable as any other customs agents, but the Alliance had a big scandal a year or so ago. Some customs agents ignoring a kidnap-and-slavery ring. So for now, you’re better off not trying. You don’t want to attract attention, and you might just get some fool that wants to show how virtuous he is by turning you in for attempted bribery.”
Kas nodded. “Hear that, Rom? We play it straight in the Alliance. No bribe attempts.” Rom nodded wordlessly. He was scowling at the traders in suspicion. He obviously still did not trust the two Alleys.
Kas and Jane’s interminable conversations resumed, and became increasingly intimate. It surprised no one but the two of them when they one day found themselves waking in the same bunk after a night of passionate lovemaking.
Kas seemed dazed. He was having trouble dealing with the concept that this exciting creature could be as interested in him as he was in her.
Lady Jane, on the other hand, was cheerful and seemed happy. She annoyed Rom with her smiles, jokes and contented humming.
Kas was still trying to analyze his feelings when they emerged in the M’Keba system. The jump point wasn’t picketed, but almost as soon as they emerged they detected a customs cutter heading in their direction and Toj called on the ship’s intercom.
“Cap’n!” the usually unflappable engineer reported, “Th’ damned alarm went off. T’was the Alliance as bugged us!”
Kas thought fast. “Thanks, Toj. Now tear that damned thing apart. If they search us we don’t want them finding and recognizing it.” He turned to the others on the bridge. “All right. These are the people that bugged us. Now in theory, since they’re not getting their alarm signal, they should assume we’re not the ones they’re after. But we take no chances. Play it straight and play it for all you’re worth. They’ll be suspicious of any ship coming from the Empire, even without the damned alarm.” He whirled to confront the traders. “Here’s where we find out for sure how good your word is.”
Both Jane and Lar nodded soberly. Rom was less than successful in concealing the needler he still carried.
They were hailed and ordered to prepare for boarding. Kas told Rom to bring the ship’s papers and accompany him to the main personnel lock.