Awakening sf-2 Read online

  They came to the end of the hall and got into an express car. The doors closed and they began to move. “Captain I was thi-” she started to say but was cut off as the car accelerated to over a two kilometres an hour in under four seconds. The inertial dampeners built into the car prevented them from getting tossed around, but she was still surprised by the quick acceleration.

  “You were thinking?” Captain Valance asked with a smile.

  “I was wondering if I could get certified. I think I'm ready and there are some ports I can't pilot through without my certs. This way you'll never have to take the controls or give me your certification number to use.”

  “I'll vouch for your flight time. I'm pretty sure we can get you in for testing somewhere.”

  “It doesn't have to be right away or anything.”

  The express car came to a slow stop. The Captain lead the way out and down the hall. “I'll see when the center opens here. The Samson took a lot of damage, so we'll be docked for at least a twenty four.”

  “Here? You mean I could get certified right away?”

  “I can't see why not, this is a capitol world. You just have to promise me something.” They came around the corner into a Port Authority Seizure and Confiscation storage bay. There were at least three dozen vessels up to two hundred fifty meters in length. They were docked to the sides and ceiling and set down on the deck far below. “Promise me you're not going to sign up with another crew or buy your own ship and start your own operation.”

  Ashley's jaw dropped. The ships in that bay were all in great shape. Some showed signs that there had been major repairs done, but she would happily fly anything there. “Don't worry, I'll stick around,” she quietly reassured.

  “Good, because I'll really need you. I'm still not sure what we'll be doing, but I'll need a good pilot.” Captain turned and walked to one of the nearby airlocks.

  She ran to catch up as he walked inside. “You're not sure where we're going? I thought we'd be following leads to your daughter.”

  “We are going to head in that direction, but that lead is a year and a half old. We'd also have to go through Regent Galactic territory. Not a great plan, especially after paying for repairs out of pocket.”

  They stepped through the interior doors into a shuttle made for over twenty passengers. It was empty except for a woman in a white uniform marked with a high rank insignia. “Good morning Captain Valance, the Minister is expecting you.”

  “Good morning Lieutenant Commander. It's just the two of us, so we're ready whenever you are.”

  “Good, if you'll have a seat we'll be off.”

  Captain Valance sat down in the middle of the cabin and Ashley sat beside him to strap in. “So we're picking up work here?”

  “I'm cashing in a favour. I need a better lead and he might just have one.”

  “What kind of Minister is he?”

  “He's the Minister of Trade. I don't like dealing with politicians, but like he said, the Samson is popular right now. Normally that's bad in our line of work, maybe we can turn it around.”

  “You'll find a way.”

  The shuttle disconnected from its moorings and got underway. They emerged from a bay on the side and began accelerating towards the nearby planet of Seneschal. The massive blue planet was to their right, they could see it through the transparent metal window running the length of the shuttle.

  “There's that hurricane the Minister was talking about,” Ashley commented. “It's huge.”

  “Looks like it covers at least ten percent of the surface.”

  “Can their cities survive that?”

  “They don't have to,” Jake said as the pointed towards the horizon of the large blue world.

  After a few more seconds Ashley saw them. Hundreds of massive ships in a tight orbital group. There were lights from small shuttles and larger transports moving back and forth between them. Some looked more like massive fish than ships, others had long keels and upper decks that looked like they were normally wide open to atmosphere. “They just pull up and go into orbit?”

  Jake nodded. “When things calm down or their break wall field reduces the severity of the storm they just go back to the planet surface.”

  They were among the massive city ships moments later and she admired their gracefully curved hulls, the thousands of lights coming on as early risers greeted the morning. She couldn't make it out before, but only half the ships were white or grey. The rest were vibrant colours, some were even shaded as a gradient from light to dark, top to bottom. “They're beautiful.”

  The transport turned around and they started decelerating. Moments later they were inside another, much smaller launch bay and the sounds of the airlock sealing to a boarding tunnel rang throughout the shuttle.

  “We are secure and you may disembark,” announced the shuttle Captain over the interior speaker system.

  They unbuckled and Ashley lead the way through the airlock. As soon as she came through the interior door she stopped. “Wow,” was all she said.

  The foyer was ten meters by ten meters with a black floor etched in gold radial patterns. The walls had inlaid wooden scrollwork and there was a silver chandelier drifting lazily from one corner to another.

  “Good morning,” said an older looking fellow. He was in an intricate deep blue and green robe. It was tied at the waist with a white sash. “If I had known Jake was bringing someone special I would have told the servants to have a more elaborate breakfast ready.” He walked straight to Ashley, took her hand, bent down on one knee and gently touched the back of her fingers to his forehead. He remained that way for a moment then looked her in the eyes with a great big smile. “A local tradition, it would take far too long to explain but it would be impolite to go without demonstrating. I'm Trade Minister Lorne.”

  “Um, Pilot Ashley Lamport,” she said, blushing.

  “How's Elise?” Jake asked with a wry grin.

  “Oh, she's fine, still sleeping,” the Minister let Ashley's hand go slowly and turned towards the stairs at the end of the foyer. “I get the feeling you're here on business.”

  “I wish I had time for something else, but I'm back on the run.”

  “Some things never change. Can we talk openly in front of your pilot?” Asked the Minister as they walked through the interior doors. They were as ornately carved as the walls, but Ashley could see the decor just covered several centimetres of hardened metal.

  He didn't wait for the Captain to answer, but turned to her, flashing a grin. “We can talk in front of you, right?” he looked back to Jake. “She seems smart enough to keep this meeting to herself. I'd like her to stay,” his attention bounced back to her. “You should stay, have some fruit.”

  “I trust Ashley with my ship, so I'd trust her with anything that comes up here,” Captain Valance confirmed calmly. The Minister's excitable demeanour didn't phase him in the least.

  “Well, I do have some news for you. Regent Galactic has put an open bounty on your head.”

  The sitting room was a little more intimate. There were four thickly padded sofas in the middle of the room set up in a square. Along the walls there were chairs and three side boards with different beverages and snacks. Small bowls of fresh fruit were placed around the room. She followed Jake's lead and sat down beside him on one of the dark brown sofas.

  Minister Lorne picked up one of four bowls of yellow and green melon slices and added a dollop of white cream on top. She did the same and just listened as she ate small bites.

  “How much is this bounty?” Asked Jake.

  “Only five hundred thousand, but the word is they have a specialist on it.”

  “The word? I know Regent doesn't exactly let rumours out.”

  “All right, I checked with Intelligence before you arrived. We don't know anything about him yet, sorry. Reminds me of you when we first met.”

  “Hopefully he's not as good.”

  “Here's hoping,” he turned to her for a moment, his demeanou
r instantly becoming more pleasant. “How's the melon? I like it this sweet, not everyone does.”

  “It's very good, thank you,” Ashley said, holding her hand up over her mouth as she talked around a bite.

  “I expected more trouble from Regent Galactic. I cost them a lot of credits.” Jake continued.

  “I'll say. I don't think they'll be short on subjects to experiment on though. Our intelligence shows that there are a lot of ships just like the one you took out. I'm sorry we can't go after them, they're not a priority right now.”

  Ashley stopped eating, lowering the bowl down to her lap. Not a priority. The phrase rang in her ears.

  Jake only nodded. “How is the war going?”

  “Badly. We're not losing on all fronts, but our territory is shrinking. Regent Galactic is starting to cut off our main supply lines.”

  “Do you know where their supply lines are?” Jake asked.

  The Minister stopped and stared at him for a moment. “You're looking to do some damage,” he said with the beginning of a smile on his face.

  “I'm looking to trade services.”

  “Now things are getting interesting,” he hastily put his bowl down and rubbed his hands together while sitting up on the edge of his seat. “Captain Valance is asking for something.”

  “I need help finding my daughter. It's been a year and a half since she last contacted us and I didn't get the message then.”

  “What can you give me?”

  “All the information is right here,” Jake said as he put a small gold coloured centimetre by centimetre chip on the table.

  “What are you offering in return?”

  “I'll sign as a privateer with your government.”

  “Do it publicly. If you record what you're doing and we broadcast it over our networks, it'll bolster morale. We could quadruple our force of privateers in weeks.”

  “I don't work that way.”

  “Oh come on. You made Regent Galactic look like evil incarnate with your last capture, why not sign the contract in public and maybe say a few words? Then we can put recorders on your crew, you won't even know they're there, and make it a real show. Like a regular thing on the Newsnets, maybe even do a few live Holocasts.”

  “I'm not going to let you record everything we do and put people on my ship.”

  “All right, fine. No people on your ship but there's gotta be a way we can get you and your crew on camera,” he brought his hands up in the shape of a frame, squaring Ashley's face for a moment as though looking at her through a screen, “in three dimensions or two dimensions, you've probably got enough beauties and beasts in your crew to make some real drama in the dead times and a few mad minutes when the action is on. Toss me a line here Jake, let's make this war popular!”

  “I might be able to send you something but I'm not going to let you just jack in and record everything I do. You're not linking to us to any networks. We're not going to become some kind of reality programming. I can't have someone in the way or a link someone can trace. If I'm going to hit and run or capture cargo for you I have to do it unfettered.”

  “All right, let's lay it out then. We sign you on as a privateer, you get your repairs for cost and labour. You'll also keep forty percent of what you capture.”

  “I won't do it for less than seventy percent untaxed, and repairs when we pull into port. I'll also send you footage you can use while your intelligence network digs up information on my daughter.”

  “You'll do one recruitment spot and give us twenty hours of action footage within two months. If the rest of your crew could do something like a confessional type interview that would just wrap it all up nicely.”

  “No confessional interviews.”

  “Fine, we'll make something up,” he looked to Ashley and winked. “Unless you want to provide some details.”

  Jake sighed. “So I keep seventy percent of everything, repairs at material costs and you look for my daughter using your intelligence network. I'll need some experienced volunteers, whatever information you have on Regent Galactic's trade routes and supply lines. In return you get footage,”

  “Two hours of action footage, eighteen hours of coverage.” Interrupted the excited Minister.

  “okay, two hours of action footage and a recruitment spot within the space of two months and you can use the footage of us walking through your lovely facilities on the way here as coverage.”

  “Fine. Do we have a deal Captain?”

  “See what you can dig up on my daughter before my ship is repaired. If you find something I don't already know then we have a deal. I'll only sign with someone from the Defence Ministry though. I won't have you back this only to find out it gets kicked at the last minute,” Jake said, extending his hand.

  The Minister was positively grinning as he slipped his clean, soft, manicured hand into the Captain's black armoured grip. “The hero of the Thadd system officially on our side. They'll have to approve it. This'll go over like bang! In the press,” he exclaimed excitedly.

  Too Easy

  The ride back was quiet. Captain Valance wasn't brooding, that wasn't the word. He was pensive. She tried not to look at him. Thankfully the view outside was amazing. Ashley could see the hurricane meeting the electromagnetic break wall. Before it was mostly circular, a gathering of clouds around a dark center. As she looked on the hurricane was taking on an oval shape and wisps of white clouds were starting to break free.

  “How long do you think it'll last?” She asked.

  “The war?”

  “Um, sure.”

  “They've been fighting for almost ten years. Regent Galactic is engaged with this government and another super corporation, it'll go on until they win. A few more years maybe.”

  “So these people aren't going to win?”

  “We haven't been in this area of space for more than a few months, but is there anywhere you haven't seen a Regent logo? They're in every port.”

  She thought for a moment. It was true, she even liked a few of the shops Regent Galactic owned, particularly Fresh N' Green and Spacerwares. Then again, everyone loved Spacerwares.

  “They're desperate. This idea of using me as the poster boy to their privateer recruiting initiative is the kind of thing a government low on options resorts to.”

  “Could it work?” She stared out the starboard side view as the last of the massive ships were disappearing from view.

  “It's a long shot. I've never heard of it working before. The best thing about having a lot of privateers in your system is that when you surrender and the war has come to an end, a lot of the privateers just don't stop. Get enough privateers and you end up with either a great big mess or an easy rebellion.”

  “So even if they surrender the fight might not be over.”

  “That's right. The Trade Minister would move on though. He'll have an easy time making a place for himself somewhere else in the Galaxy if he becomes known as the man who put a successful privateering effort together. I just hope he keeps to his end of the bargain.”

  He didn't say anything else the entire way back to the windowed hall overlooking the Samson.

  She couldn't stand it anymore. “So we're going to be privateers?” She still couldn't believe it even though the Samson had done privateering before. Stephanie was the only one left aboard who had been around back then and she talked about how much money they made, how exciting it was, but she often acknowledged that they lost a lot of people, took a lot of risks.

  He stopped and turned to face her. His expression was serious but not at all intimidating. “As soon as we get our letter of marque. He has to pass it by the Minister of Defence's office and who knows who else.” He took her shoulders in his hands. It was hard not to remember Silver's accusation that she was some kind of surrogate daughter. “It'll be dangerous for everyone. You don't have to stay on if you don't want to. I'll make sure you get certified so you can find work.”

  She couldn't believe what he was saying. It was alwa
ys a little different between them. He always treated her with a little more consideration, had a little more patience for her and when no one was around he seemed kinder, more at ease. “I don't want to leave. I owe you too much.”

  “You don't owe me a thing. You don't owe anyone.”

  “Do you want me to stay on?” She asked before thinking. If he didn't want her along she didn't want to know.

  “Of course I do. I just don't want you to feel trapped. As long as you're on the Samson you're in just as much danger as I am. Finding work on another ship would be easier.”

  “I know, but the easiest road isn't always the right one. I've talked to people who helped with the people in the cargo train. They told me what it was like back there. If we can do something to damage Regent Galactic I want to be there, they have it coming.”

  Captain Valance smiled and let her shoulders go. He turned and walked a little further down the hall to the broadest window overlooking the Samson. He leaned on the railing and watched the repair crews working on the large breach in the rear dorsal section.

  She walked over and leaned on the railing beside him. “Do I remind you of your daughter?”

  If he was surprised by the question he didn't let on. “I don't know her. I've only seen her on one holographic security recording.” They looked on as the workers pulled an older piece of hull plating free and a disposal robot collected it. “If I could choose a daughter out of the people I've met over these last few years, it would be you.”

  She looked at him for a moment. He had really said it. It didn't look like he was kidding either. Tears started to well up, she turned away. Where did this come from? There was joy but it came with a kind of pain. The person standing beside her was like the Captain she had known, only there was a human side he was sharing that seemed to emerge more and more.