Home: Interstellar: Merchant Princess (18 page)

So, has anyone been to 5B3 since the probe
?

“Jump in ten minutes,” she heard on the intercom system.

She walked back to her cabin. After taking the nutria-pack and boost, she reviewed her other messages, including one from Teddy.

Meriel, impressive work on the nav program and congrats to Pilot Smith.

However, scenarios you provided only exclude the possibilities of coordinating from a different station and random encounters.

To meet within the duration available (2:48), the two ships would need to a) coordinate their jumps, b) leave from the same point at about the same time, and c) jump short before the sphere gets too large. Meeting is conceivable, but too improbable unless the two ships coordinated intentionally. This data means someone on the
Princess
crew must have programmed nav with the same jump coordinates. Sorry.

I provided similar information to the court ten years ago, and unfortunately, they concluded that the meeting was intentional and coordinated, not what I intended or what you intend now.

Jeremy stopped by, and he offered this: There is no technical difference between someone forcing you to go somewhere, or you agreeing to go there. You end up at the same place. However, there is a big difference in culpability for what happens when you get there. Focus on means and motive.

LU, T

Meriel mentally appended Jeremy’s guidance to include, “Send money.”

Crap
, she thought.
Nick needs to find something more on the sim-chip, or we won’t have enough to reopen the bidding
.

“Reply,” Meriel said. “Teddy, what if the traitor is nav, not a crewman? What if nav got infected somehow? Send.”

And Meriel knew how: an aggressive virus in the cargo manifest, a manifest they would review before every jump.

“Transcribe message to Jeremy Bell. Begin. Jeremy, please be alert for information from Nick Zanek regarding mil-tech virus found on Esther Hope’s sim-chip in cargo manifest at the time of the
Princess
attack. Means and motive may be there. Send.” And she made sure not to disclose how that miracle had occurred.

Another message had come in from Nick with just a GRL. Meriel pulled up the link:

“Improbability of Nav-RR9I Complicity in Ship Disappearances.”

Interstellar Journal of Navigation
. ET/2174:26

Theodore Duncan, et al.

Abstract: The frequency of ship disappearances per light year traveled is gratefully low. However, the disappearances are much higher than predicted by analysis of the reliability and failure modes of current generation of nav systems (Nav-RR9I) and the ships themselves. This paper reviews the state of the art, estimates the anticipated disappearances due to ship infrastructure failures, and speculates on other causes of ship disappearances.

That was written in 2174—years before the
Princess
attack,
Meriel thought.
Teddy proved the ships did not disappear by accident but did not know the cause. But I know that pirates tried to kill the
Princess
. Maybe there are more pirate attacks than anyone knows about.

***

Cookie scooped up the poker chips on the table and added them to his pile. “You’re slipping, John,” he said. “I’ve got nothing showing to your pair, and you didn’t bluff.”

John looked at Cookie from across the table and blinked.

Socket collected the cards and began to shuffle. “Ante up,” she said.

Cookie reached over to Lev whose head lay on the table next to him. He grabbed Lev by the hair and lifted his head off the table, but Lev just drooled from a slack mouth and snored. “He’s out this hand,” Cookie said and laid Lev’s head back on the table.

Socket threw a few chips into the pile and hit John on the shoulder. “Ante,” she said, and John pushed too many chips into the pile.

“He’s loaded, Socket,” Cookie said.

“Shush,” Socket said. “His money is still good.”

“You’d take advantage of a drunk?”

“This is poker, Sergeant,” she said. “He’s still awake and sitting at the table. We’ll leave him his pants.” She hit John again. “So where’s Meriel?”

“Busy,” John said with a frown. His head bobbed, and he blinked slowly.

“I thought you guys had a thing,” Socket said.

“Work in progress,” John said and wobbled in his chair.

“You oddballs are meant for each other,” Socket said. “You’re the only spacers I know who don’t like station sleepovers.”

John sighed. “She’s always busy trying to get her kids together on the same ship.” He slammed his drink on the table. “Damn,” he said, “I want someone like her, someone true.”

“Jeez, John. You’re gonna drown in your own BS,” Socket said. “She’s young and hot. Don’t confuse yourself.”

“All spacers are hot,” John said and grinned at Socket. “This one’s got a purpose. She’s giving everything she’s got for the kids from the
Princess
. Can you imagine being loved like that?”

Socket looked down. “Yeah, I had that once,” she said quietly and dealt the three of them the first hole card in a round of five card stud.

“Keep at it. She’ll come around,” Cookie said.

John continued as if he had not heard, “And she has this dream of a place out there she calls Home.” He raised his arm in the air and seemed to point to something outside the porthole.

“That old myth?” Socket said.

John smiled. “Yeah, but I know something she’d love to…” he started to say, but his eyes closed, and his arm drooped slowly to his side. His head fell back, and he started to snore.

Cookie bet and frowned when Socket took a few chips from John and threw them into the pile. They continued with two more rounds of betting on two up cards.

“You ever had someone like that?” Socket asked.

“Like what?” Cookie asked.

“Someone true who loved you completely and only you.”

Cookie nodded. “For a while.” He put his hole card back on the table and leaned back with his hands behind his head. “She was like a comet that blew through my life and lit me up like a star. Made me feel like a teenager.”

“What happened?”

Cookie took a drink. “She followed her orbit back to the stars. I just couldn’t hold on to her. You met her.”

Socket smiled. “Really? The blonde?” she said, and Cookie nodded. “You old fart,” she said. “You find a love like that again, and it’ll burn you to a cinder.”

“So what?” he said. “And what about you?”

“Coulda’ been,” Socket said. “His ship disappeared on a long haul to Seiyei station. It was a humanitarian run to an asteroid colony. Never heard from.”

“Accident?”

Socket shrugged. “No one knows.” She looked at her hole card, and her face softened. “They sent me his medal.”

Cookie watched her and the reflection of the cabin lights in her eyes.

“Yeah,” he said. “You compare everyone to him.”

Socket stared at her card and bit her lip.

“But you’d do it all again,” he said and patted her hand. “Regardless of how it ends.”

Socket smiled a big smile. “In a heartbeat,” she said with a sigh and dealt the fourth card to each of them face up. She pushed some chips into the pile and added a few more from John’s pile. “John raises,” she said.

Cookie threw some chips into the pile. “I know she likes him,” he said. “Maybe she really loves him.”

“You’re a romantic, Sergeant,” Socket said and dealt the fifth card face down. “She’s a spacer.”

Cookie looked at his cards and frowned. “Yeah, I know. But I can hope,” he said. “They look good together.” He sighed and flipped his hole cards face up on the table. “Fold.”

“She’s gonna break his heart,” Socket said.

“That’s what hearts are for,” he said.

Socket nodded and threw a few more chips onto the stack.

“Jump in ten minutes,” they heard on the intercom.

Cookie took the same chips from John’s pile without looking at John’s cards. “He calls.”

Socket turned over her cards to show two pair, jacks over tens. Cookie turned over John’s cards to expose three fours, the winning hand.

“Damn. You can’t bluff a sleeping man,” she said.

Cookie pushed the stack over onto John’s pile, and Socket rolled her eyes at him and shook her head.

“He’s just a lucky guy,” Cookie said. “Both of them are.”

“How can you say that? She lost her ship and her family, and John’s kids don’t have a mom.”

“It’s their hearts, lass,” he said.

Socket nodded and looked at Cookie and smiled.

***

The nondescript man surprised the two security guards when he entered their office.

“Hey, bozo,” said a guard with a black eye and a bandage on his nose. “You’re not supposed to be in here.”

“I see that you took the antidote in time, Bob,” the nondescript man said.

Bob lost his smirk. “Yeah, so what’s it to you?”

“Yes, what is it to me,” the nondescript man said with a smile. “You failed. The attempt at the café was clumsy. Did you know there was a combat marine at that table?” he asked and pulled out the fleschette pistol from the holster in the small of his back.

“Uh-huh,” Bob said. “I didn’t see you trying to help.”

“You were instructed to contact me first.”

Bob’s partner elbowed him to silence.

The nondescript man turned around to lock the door. He touched a button on his link, and the security console went dark. Bob lunged for the nondescript man but staggered backward and fell on his back, gasping for breath, a circular pattern of red dots flowed together on his chest. Bob’s partner hit the red security-breach alarm button repeatedly, but it did nothing. He then ran for the backdoor and found it locked.

“That will not help,” the nondescript man said. He proceeded with his task, knowing that no one outside the security office would hear the screams of the watchers.

Meriel checked her messages inbound to the Wolf system after synch with the comm beacon, hoping to hear from her friends and worried about Harry’s birthday party, which would take place later that day.

From Harry: I’m here. The crew kids are ready to go. Call us when you’re on your way.

LU!

Yikes, I forgot to ask how many kids Harry invited
.
I hope they don’t empty the bank account
. This was all on the
Princess
corporate account, of course. That’s what Meriel called her savings account. It was minimal by any standard, but she needed to do this for Harry.

From Anita: My ship docked at mining asteroid X44t…

Right, just a few hours away.

…and I took a shuttle to Enterprise. Just docked. I hope I didn’t miss Harry’s party. Give me a call, and we can pick him up. A

What a wonderful surprise!
Meriel thought.
Harry will be thrilled
.

A text from Nick interrupted Meriel’s musing about the party. She leaned back to read it on her visor.

m, if you are alive to read this, you’ve not attempted to read the encrypted files, and your ship has not jumped into a star. that’s good. reply to confirm you’re still breathing.

virus is mil-tech. very aggressive. your bracelet link is a zombie, and i mulched it. the next time you turned it on, it would have taken over whatever computing power it could command to communicate with its handler, whoever that is. virus will continue replicating until it gets a signal from the handler, and then it will die. but until then, its first priority is to do the virus’s bidding, whatever that is.

ok, so what’s on the manifest? i copied it here, by hand, thank you very much—text only, no code, no metadata, and without the virus. maybe you can figure it out. the item that triggered the virus is on the bottom of the list.

m, this is a military id code by its structure. that
xe
prefix is mil-spec r&d. to know more, you need r&d need-to-know clearance, likely
secret
at some level. i know this is not your business, but it is mine. i would strongly advise you
not
to search for these numbers, as they may trigger unwanted attention. when I write “strongly advise,” i mean do not do this unless you are ready to give up your life or your freedom. i am not ready to do either just yet and therefore decline this adventure.

Well, Nick’s being dramatic
, she thought.

if you are in the mood, please tell me who decided to add mil r&d to your cargo.

oh, and attached another vid i think you’ll like. you told me about what happened that day.

Meriel looked at the IDs from the manifest and noted the xeM446 prefix, but caution stopped her from querying while on the
Tiger
.

The icon for the attached vid showed a picture of Elizabeth and Meriel, each snuggled into one of their father’s arms. Meriel clicked on the icon to play and turned up the volume to hear his snoring.

***

When Elizabeth had just turned nine, she had finally grown tall enough, and Meriel and Tommy Spurell took her to the dinosaur park simulator. It was all fun, and they kept a running score for evading the carnivores—surviving even their allotted half hour was a challenge. They had to make weapons and a first-aid kit from raw materials scattered throughout the simulator so they could protect or save themselves. They did not know it yet, but people could “die” in the game by getting eaten, injured severely, or poisoned by snakes or bugs. They would not really die, of course, but the game would eject them. She and Tommy had not died before. They were too fast and stupid to get caught, so they did not know.

That day with Liz, a raptor family chased them, and Liz could not find a tree to climb fast enough. She froze. Tommy and Meriel jumped in front to help her, and the raptors got all three them. The game ejected them, but the ejection point dropped them away from where their parents were waiting. Meriel thought she knew how to get back but got them lost instead. Park security found them and took them to the lost and found, exhausted. Liz just held her hand and did not let go.

Tommy thought it was all a great adventure, but Meriel panicked that they might cause the ship to miss its departure window. That could mean penalties for late arrival and destroy their margins, maybe even delay the entire circuit.

In the lost and found, kids from white-zone made fun of them, especially Liz because she was small. Tommy was ready to defend her, but Liz punched one of the bullies in the nose and made him cry. Just then, Dad arrived to pick them up. He saw Liz standing with her fists on her hips and glaring at the bullies, and Meriel and Tommy squared off on each flank.

Dad had smiled broadly, never saying a word about them getting lost, and took them for ice cream with the other kids as though nothing had happened. But Mom’s eyes were red and puffy.

Meriel’s father never left them that day. The early ejection from the dino-simulator gave them lots of time so that the
Princess
was not at risk of missing her departure window.

After dropping off Tommy, they went to their parent’s cabin, and Meriel and Elizabeth told them every detail of their exciting day. There, they fell asleep in their father’s arms.

Watching the vid, Meriel knew why she always felt peaceful when she heard a man snoring.