Running With Argentine (16 page)

Platform
12

"Guildsman Martin!"
Argentine said into the video feed.

"I truly appreciate you taking the time for my call. I
need to ask for your help…"

"I know exactly why you called, Captain
Argentine," said the smiling image of the guildsman.

"You do?"

"Of course I do."

Still smiling, he continued, "I've been in this
business a long time, Captain. But I must say, you not only move fast but also
seem a bit impatient. I’ve barely finished confirming the job posting. As a
matter of fact, I was just getting ready to call you."

Now Argentine was totally lost, but he somehow didn't think
it would be politic to show his confusion…

"Go on," he said.

"As you obviously know, a long-haul job came in just
this morning. It's a load of raw ore and what makes it unique is that there's a
bonus attached to the contract for any processing that gets done en-route. They
also made it clear that they're not going to require that the guild insure the
load."

After waiting for Argentine's reaction and getting none, he
continued, "The contract also stipulates that the shipper will be sending
a passenger to accompany the load…

"A passenger that happens to be qualified in the
engineering of ore processing."

"That's… convenient," Argentine mused. "Ah,
and the issue of the flag?"

After a stretched out moment of silence the guildsman said,
"When the contract order first came in I thought of you. So, of course, I
checked again just to make sure and
lo and behold
… The flag is gone.

"But, of course, you knew that…" he finished with
a knowing smile.

“So, Captain. Can we start loading your cargo?"

ΔΔΔ

"The cargo
hatches are sealed," Chief West announced to the bridge.

The load of ore wasn't small, but it fit nicely in four of
the Pelican’s six freight bays.

"What now?" asked Barry.

"We wait for our passenger," Argentine said.

A view of the now nearly empty docking gate occupied the
viewing screen in front of the Captain’s Bench as well as the screens at the
other various bridge stations. Everyone was anxious.

Like all of the platform's open spaces, their terminal
gate’s lighting was dim when it was after hours and not being used.

It made for an eerie view.

Rory was in engineering and the lieutenant had Gossip double
checking cargo security and load distribution.

That left the five of them on the bridge… with not much to
do.

"Barry, you're ready to get us out of here,
right?"

"You’re bloody right I am! I've been updating orbital
traffic every five minutes."

"Sami?"

"I've got us plotted all the way through to the first
skip point, First," she responded.

Argentine looked at the chief…

"The ship’s been ready to go since this morning,"
he responded

Before he could even ask, Lieutenant Stark said, "I've
got Gossip checking the load metrics for the third time."

After a few more moments of silence…

"So what do we know about this ore processing
engineer?" the chief asked.

Argentine just shrugged.

Barry finally spoke up, "Still no ideas on how we got
our flag removed?"

Since it wasn't a subject Argentine really wanted to talk
about, he just grunted.

"I think everyone's being silly," Sami spoke up.

"Oh right, you don't think we should be just a bit knocked
off kilter by the anonymous activities of some fairy godmother?" Barry
rebuked.

Argentine looked up sternly. He was starting to get used to
Barry's ways, but he didn't like anyone taking that tone with Sami.

"Who else would have the ability to hack into the
Police Enforcer’s database and clear our flag?" she insisted.

"And why would she do that?" asked the chief.

"I don't know. Maybe she wants to leave Asperia?"

"This is where she was trying to get to…"
Argentine reminded them.

"And we're supposed to believe it's just a coincidence
that a long-haul load that's perfectly tailored for us pops up at the same
time?" Barry asked.

"Or," the lieutenant spoke up. "It could be
that some very powerful people needed to move a passenger from one system to
another and the cargo is just a cover."

"I don't think that's very likely, is it?"

He shrugged, "We saw a lot of crazy deceptions in the
People's Republic."

"But why us?" Barry insisted.

"Well, it could be for the very same reasons that the
police are suspicious of us… We're not well known around here and they might
prefer to have a ship that isn't necessarily on the level anyway."

"Well, I suppose we'll find out soon enough," said
the chief.

Barry went back to drumming his fingers on the console in front
of him.

Suddenly, Sami broke the silence by saying, "Hey,
someone's coming!"

They all focused on their screens as their passenger
approached.

"It's too dark; I can't see the color of her
hair…"

"Are you sure it's a
her
? She walks like a
man."

As a figure came closer the hair color resolved to be dark
brown or black.

And it was definitely a man. He stopped in front of the
closed boarding hatch.

In a slightly raised voice he said, "I know you can
hear me. I'm your processing engineer; are you going to let me in?"

Argentine didn't realize how heavily he was frowning until
he heard a familiar female voice behind him say, "Well, don't you think
you ought to open the door?"

If anyone would've been watching, they might have noticed
Argentine’s frown transition to a slight smile…

ΔΔΔ

Mandi walked onto
the bridge, followed closely by Gossip.

“What the…” Lieutenant Stark exclaimed and then looked
sharply at the crewman.

Gossip held his arms out, palms forward, and shrugged.

“Oh, don’t blame him,” Mandi admonished. “He hasn’t done
anything wrong.”

“That still doesn’t explain how you got on-board!” the
lieutenant protested.

When Gossip started using his hands to pantomime an answer,
Mandi rolled her eyes and said, “That’ll take forever. I’ll explain… I came
aboard in a sealed survival container that just happened to be buried in a
bunch of unprocessed ore.”

Gossip nodded his agreement as Mandi changed her focus to
Argentine…

"It would probably be a good idea to let Professor
Sullivan in, and you might want to think about breaking orbit as fast as you
can...

“Oh, and… Surprise!”

Departing
Asperia

"Do you
ever get the feeling we've let things spiral out of control?" the chief
asked.

"Ohhh yeah," Argentine responded. "Of course,
that would be assuming we ever had control of
things
in the first
place."

The chief had to concede that he had a point.

He'd followed Argentine back to his cabin after Mandi had
made her surprise entrance.

Surprisingly, Argentine had kept his cool. He'd simply told
Sami and Barry to get them out of there and then left the bridge.

They knew each other well enough that very little needed to
be said. They were obviously in way over their heads and there was a ton of
stuff going on – and they had no clue what most of it was.

It was a good time to just sit back, reassess, think things
through, and not let everyone on the crew see how worried you were.

In some ways, it felt like just yesterday that they'd
decided to make their break. In other ways, it felt like the People's Republic
of Chezden was years behind them. Either way, the six weeks that the ship's
chronometer insisted on didn't feel like reality...

Chief West was a practical man.

His pappy had never raised him to think life was fair, so
he'd never really gone through a disillusionment stage in his life. He'd also
grown up knowing that concepts such as patriotism and loyalty to the state were
simply tools that others employed for manipulation - and the chief wasn’t
raised to let himself be manipulated either.

That didn't mean he was a rebel; On the contrary, he found
it
much
more advantageous to let others underestimate him.

He did have his own moral code, so he wouldn't go out of his
way to hurt others, but his highest loyalty was reserved for he and his –
himself and those few around him for whom he felt an affection and loyalty.

A psychologist would have described him as having a
tribalist mentality. The chief didn't know that – and he wouldn't have cared
anyway.

He'd spent sixteen years in the People's Republic of Chezden
Navy before being assigned to the P.R.S. Pelican.

It was an okay ship, as ships went… It was old and
constantly breaking down, but that was par for the course. What made the
Pelican special wasn't the ship itself. It was the people that served on her.

He had finally found a ship whose command was the perfect
mix of arrogance, incompetence, ambivalence, and plain stupidity such to allow
him to build his own fiefdom and keep his life comfortable.

He’d been concerned at first when a new First Officer had
been assigned, but he’d soon realized that Argentine viewed the world the same
way he did… Or, at least, close enough.

The chief wasn't an overly emotional person; he wasn't like
Argentine hiding a soft touch behind a gruff exterior…

Still, he carried an almost parental affection for his
assistant Rory, and more recently, Sami.

He'd first met Rory years before they were both assigned to
the Pelican. Kind of like Argentine had done with Sami; he'd taken Rory under
his wing. As awkward as the boy was socially, the chief had recognized his
mechanical brilliance right away.

It wouldn't be fair to say that the chief wasn't a hard
worker, as long as you understand that the grease under your fingernails type
of work isn't what he focuses on.

Whether it was electrical systems, mechanical systems,
quantum systems (which is what the Dreamspace motors were based upon), supply
systems, or logistical systems (or any other systems made up of people) the
chief was a genius.

Paired up with Rory's mechanical aptitude they were a
powerful force for the benefit of whoever commanded their loyalty. Of course,
the chief had never met any ship's captain or political officer that was worthy
of that loyalty…

Over the years there had been more than one personnel
officer that had stupidly tried to split them up and assign them to different
ships. With decades of making connections in the Navy's logistical corps,
however, it had been easy to make sure that the idiot’s entire unit was
transferred to the front lines… To get some real fighting experience… Assigned
to outposts or ships that tragically were only supplied with practice
ammunition… And whose entire food supply consisted of Jell-O.

That had only happened twice before the Navy's Office of
Personnel Management had coincidentally decided to leave him and Rory alone.

But now, the People's Republic of Chezden was long gone… Or
at least he assumed it was. In many ways, making a run for it was taking a huge
step backwards from the lifestyle he’d created for himself.

He knew that Argentine and several of the others were simply
looking for a safe place to build a life. They wouldn't mind making a little
money first so it could be a comfortable life, but crewing a ship and growing
old in space probably wasn't at the top of their list of priorities.

He and Rory, on the other hand, wanted… What?

The truth was, Rory would probably be happy as long as they
stayed together and he had interesting things to work on… So it wasn't cruel
for the chief to take on the responsibility of directing both their futures.
But… What did they want?

The idea of living a life in space didn't bother the chief
in the least. As long as he could have his cognac, good conversation, and other
creature comforts, plying the space lanes seemed as good a life as any. At
least there would always be new places to see…

But he had to face the fact that it would also be a
dangerous life.

The chief wasn't a coward; he wasn't overly afraid of
anything and, as long as he could live with himself afterward, he wasn't one to
shy away from violence.

But the reality was that if you kept moving around you would
inevitably run into someone with a bigger gun, a faster ship, or (heaven
forbid) a higher purpose.

So… What to do?

For now, the priority was clear; they needed to keep
running.

But, hopefully, sooner rather than later they were going to
have to figure these things out. He hoped that Argentine would stay laser
focused and not get distracted on chasing that dream of his, because he was
probably the only person that could keep them together long enough to earn any
kind of credits via legitimate work…

And he had a hard time visualizing the Pelican as a pirate
ship.

ΔΔΔ

Suddenly
Argentine broke the silence between them. Apparently he’d come to some kind of
decision.

 He reached up and activated the intercom…

"Sami, I went all senior crew to meet me in the ship's
mess in ten minutes. Make sure that Mandi and her professor friend are there
too."

They'd brought the professor aboard, undocked, and were now
accelerating up the Asperian gravity well.

The chief knew that Mandi was trouble. He'd half expected
her to show up again simply because she
was
trouble.

When the solitary figure had first approached the ship from
the darkened terminal, he had gotten his hopes up.

The stranger was obviously male.

But then just as quickly, those same hopes had been dashed
when she'd walked onto the bridge.

Not everyone, however, had been sad to see her.

Before he'd followed Argentine he'd watched Sami let out a
squeal and run over to give Mandi a big hug.

Trouble.

This could only lead to trouble…

The ten minutes were up.