13 Degrees of Separation (8 page)

<===^===>

The Captain wasn't happy about the price gouging but she
bought some fuel when Vanessa insisted they needed a face saving gesture. “All
right, fine, but only a couple tons to get over their pride,” she grumbled.

Since they weren't buying in bulk the water works attempted
to charge them the same price for ten tons as they would for an entire load.
Vanessa balked at that. She met with the local waterman and the Mayor who was
trying to portray himself in the role of a neutral arbiter. She of course knew
better, the locals were in it together to try to fleece the ship for as much as
they could get away with.

“Look, I'll tell it to you straight. You're prices are too
high.”

“We are it.”

“For others yes. For Io 11 our ship, no,” the Purser
laughed, silently blessing the Admiral and the engineers for their efforts.
“Our ship has been restored, we can go several jumps without refueling now.”

That tidbit got their attention.

“You're bluffing,” the waterman said, scowling.

“No, I'm not. But we decided to go one better, we are in
the process of setting up an automated gas giant refinery in the atmosphere of
this system's gas giant. Which means technically we don't need fuel from you at
all, as long as we're willing to wait for it to come. I'm throwing you a bone
here, helping you out. We could just call it a day and wait it out in orbit
until the fuel is ready.”

“So why don't you?”

“Because I thought it over and I decided I'm not going to
be as big a bitch as I want to be. It's fun, but not as fun as I thought it
was. Look, I know your economy is dependent on the boost ships like us give
when we pass through. Fine, I can see it intellectually, but I think you are
being short sighted.”

“Short...” He frowned ferociously.

She wasn't sure how much was getting through, he was
focusing on the insults and not on what she was trying to get across. She
sighed patiently. “Look, let's take a break,” she said. “Tempers are getting a
little hot under the collar and I need a drink of water,” she said, waving a
hand in a fanning motion.

The Mayor nodded, bending over to murmur something to the
waterman. The waterman nodded grudgingly.

Vanessa snorted softly. She knew the trick they had in mind
as well. Get someone filled up on water then let nature take its course. The
water would hit the victim's bladder and after a couple of hours the pressure
would get to the point where they would agree to anything in order to get away
and go pee. It wasn't going to happen though, she only took a couple sips and
then called the ship. She put her Bluetooth in her ear so she'd have half
privacy, then turned and went over to the window to look out below and shield her
side from the two natives.

“How is it going?” The Captain asked through the link.

“About what I expected,” she murmured. “They're being an
ass, even when I'm trying to be helpful.”

“Oh lovely.”

“Give them what they want,” Faith said.

“You...” Vanessa sputtered.

“Seriously. Think about it. We're trading goods that we've
made from materials in this solar system for water. It was almost a scam if you
think about it,” Faith said, reminding her.

“It's the principle of the whole thing!” Vanessa growled,
not about to give away the entire cargo.

“So? We'll get it back. Give my people a week and we'll
double it. Triple it maybe.” The Purser was amused by their enthusiasm.

“So, what you're telling me is we really don't need
anything at all? What about fresh vegetables and fruit?” Vanessa said, loudly
enough for the two natives to hear. She heard them stop talking and turn her
way. She turned, hiding a slight smile. “Okay, no, I'll see what I can do
Captain,” she said before the Captain could say anything more. “Out here,” she
said, disengaging the link and then removing her ear piece. “Sorry gentlemen,
where were we?” she asked, smiling sweetly.

<===^===>

They left New Haven orbit with enough fuel to fill their
tanks along with tons of fresh vegetables and fruit. The Purser had even
wrangled pieces of equipment from the natives. In exchange they had signed over
the title to the gas giant refinery and built some infrastructure to support
it.

The delay had allowed the crew to take a few steps further
along with their plan to build a second ship. By the time they exited the
system for Airea 3 a third of their holds were stuffed with generic parts or
structural components. The engineers wrangled over the plans constantly at
every opportunity. The young AI Io pointed out some of the issues with building
parts. They had some from before the admiral left. The Captain had also left a
hidden stockpile of parts in B448c

<===^===>

Two days after entering the hyperspace slip stream Jennie
woke to abdominal pain. She had to pee, but before she could fluid of a
different sort gushed from her. Her water broke as she tried to climb out of
bed. Shandra helped her to sickbay where she gave birth an hour later to two
beautiful girls.

The Captain checked in on the growing family the next morning.
“And life finds a way,” she said softly, her usual gruff voice muffled by the
mask she wore. She stroked the soft hair on one little girl's head. She smiled
when the baby yawned, then tried to insert her tiny pink fist into her mouth.

“With a little help,” Shandra replied with a smile. She'd
hated having to leave Jennie to take her shift but Jennie had insisted. At
least Kensi had covered for her until the twins had made their appearance.
Seeing the first crown was something she was never going to forget. Her or
Mindy. The teen had nearly fainted.

“They're beautiful,” the Captain murmured.

“Thank you Captain, we aim to please,” Clarissa said,
grinning in triumph.

Airea 3:

The planet was quite pretty, a series of mountain and
jungle towns scattered over the small islands that dotted the planet. The
planet was well known for trading gold, platinum, silver, and jungle products
to passing ships.

There was one remaining city floating in the western sea.
The city was badly decayed by age and exposure to the salt water environment,
it had a small caretaker crew. They traded goods with the city for filtered sea
water.

Through a bit of luck and a certain chatterbox, they found
out about sleepers in the city who were awoken to care for its fuel supply and
dying power plants. Faith gave the mayor and city authorities the admiral's
flash sticks and information, including blueprints for his simple gas giant
refinery.

The refinery idea worked through the channels up to the
planetary leaders. They called Io and commissioned the ship to build one. They
did so, and built a simple drone and inflatable habitat in orbit as well.

Diedra's small craft crew, made primarily of Hibiki and
Dorah, got involved in a bar fight.  They bonded to an ancient Veraxin who came
to their rescue. The Veraxin had an old shuttle they repaired together while on
leave. Hibiki snuck parts down from the replicator for them. The C'ck clan was
quite grateful for the efforts on their behalf.

“And just what do you think you're doing?” Io asked when
she caught up with him.

“Please, I'm trying to help some fellow spacers. Don't get
me in trouble with the Captain!” Hibiki said.

“Spacers? It's Vanessa you have more to worry about you
know young man,” the AI said.

“Look, he's an old guy. A really old guy. From the
Admiral's time. He helped Dorah and I out in a bar fight and well...” He
shrugged helplessly.

“You and miss Dita? The two of you fell for a sob story?”

“No he's really old. Very old! He's also got implants too,
and an artificial leg. He's a bit senile, but a nice fellow. The C'ck clan.
He's C'ck himself.”

“Ah.” The Io looked thoughtful.

“He was in the Navy. An officer at one time,” the lad said.

The AI frowned and then nodded slowly. “Very well, carry
on,” the AI said, winking out. Hibiki couldn't believe his good fortune. He
wasn't going to question it, so he made it a point that this would be the last
'donation.'

The Veraxin C'ck was from the admiral's time, but had only
risen to the rank of first Lieutenant before he had been injured and then given
a medical discharge.

The two humans spoke to him of the admiral, which amused
the Veraxin family until they realized Irons was a real person. C'ck spoke of
Irons as well, but he was a bit senile though. His clan took charge of the
shuttle. The humans were a bit put out over how they treated the 'old coot', it
bordered on elder abuse. C'ck may be a bit senile and slow, but he still had
most of his faculties and his wealth of experience and knowledge should be
respected and treasured. They were tempted to offer the old Veraxin a berth on
Io but he headed them off, quietly clicking that his home was with his clan.

Io received her share of fuel. For the first time in months
she had full tanks, tanks filled with Hydrogen and Helium 3, not sea water.

<===^===>

They passed through a series of empty systems between
Aieria 3 and New Brunswick. None of them had ever rated a name apparently,
since there was only a small brown dwarf or empty space in each of the systems.
They passed Himalaya and entered New Brunswick's orbit two years to the day
since they had left Pyrax.

New Brunswick:

New Brunswick however turned out to be a bust. Ten years
prior the planet's population had been decimated by a plague. Now the survivors
were barely scraping by. Where once there had been thousands, now only a paltry
two hundred remained on the entire planet, scattered all over the main
continent. Since the system was so far off the beaten path, in a cul-de-sac, it
was most likely going to die on the vine in the next century or so.

Still Clarissa and Mindy passed on all the medical
knowledge and equipment they could, then Tara and Faith passed on what the
admiral had left. In a rare show of humanitarianism Vanessa allowed them to
give away a small replicator and solar panels to the last town.

“We can always come back for it later,” Vanessa said
diffidently. The Captain frowned, but then shrugged.

<===^===>

They refueled in the system and took on a dozen passengers.
Most planned to debark at Nightingale. They passed through the chain of empty
systems quickly, scanning each system carefully in case of ambush. Nothing was
there so they moved on with a sense of relief.

Nightingale:

When they entered Nightingale Hibiki underwent a bit of a
shift. The boy had finally aged and matured enough to accept Dorah's advances,
or she'd finally worn down the last of his defenses. Bets had been taken, the
Captain was rather smug that she had won the pool. Of course she had helped the
betting along, making a few subtle suggestions to the Dita girl to help the
poor girl fulfill her crush. It was time the two got over it, it was a
distraction she no longer wished to hear about after all.

“By the time you two get around to popping grandkids I'll
be back in my wheel chair,” she'd grumbled to Dorah who had giggled with her
hand over her face.

Dorah had seduced the lad by locking him in a shuttle with
a picnic basket. Of course the girl had helped herself along by doing a slow
strip tease after she had handcuffed the lad. The aphrodisiac the Captain had
slipped into their meal had been wasted, nature, or at least Dorah had gotten
what it had always wanted.

Hibiki had grudgingly settled in as Dorah's domestic
partner as they crossed the system to the planet. He flat out refused to take
her last name Dita however. Nightingale was quite a beautiful world, one with a
ten percent axial tilt and very mild weather. It had a pretty good population
measuring in the low millions.

Most of their passengers were grateful to get out of the
sterile confines of the ship and to solid ground. They immediately faded into
the native population with only a small thanks to the crew for the transport.

Hibiki was the pilot on duty when the Captain and Purser
went planetside to make their usual trade. For once she wasn't sure what she was
getting into, since they technically didn't need fuel. She did like the idea of
the power that position allowed her to have.

The Planetary authorities were smug at first, they had
assumed the ship needed fuel. They named a rather outrageous fee per kilo instead
of the normal fee per fluid ounce of water. And not even purified water at
that. “And there's no need to try to negotiate, that number is firm. So you can
take it or leave it.”

Vanessa looked at her partner. They had been long time
lovers and partners in this endeavor. She had gotten some work done after the
Captain had, but not nearly as much. She had kept in shape, and besides, she
was ten years younger. The Captain shrugged ever so slightly under her shawl.
Her eyes twinkled in mischief. “Um...” Vanessa said.

“No negotiating on the price. So, how much do you need?
Your usual?” the water man said, holding up a pen and smirking. “Times are
tough, we've had to adapt. You'll take it or leave it.”