The Bright Black Sea (105 page)

'They tried to kill her?'

'And failed. A St Bleyth assassin ambushed her on the
Yacht Club tarmac one evening, with a gang of wharf rats in tow. I
happened to be with her at the time. Tallith was hit three times,
but just managed to survive because she was wearing several layers
of armored clothing. And there's been several more attempts to get
at her since . Anyway, as I said, she slipped off, in an eight box
drift trader more than five years ago and I haven't a word from her
since . If she's in contact with Kardea, Kardea hasn't passed
anything along to me.'

He considered that grimly. 'I told her to stay with
Jelter on Kimsai. She'd have been perfectly safe there. But I
hadn't expected them to try to kill her so soon after the first
attempt. Really, it's her older sister, Olaeytha who is next in
line... Bloody black Neb,' he muttered and rattled off a string of
oaths... 'So she's in the drifts. Alone?'

I shook my head, 'She's with Tenry, Vynnia and a
Patrol agent. Some sort of semi-official intelligence operation
with enough freedom to allow her to chase the answers to her
questions. She may occasionally communicate with Kardea, but I
can't say for certain. You'd just have leave some sort of radio
packet with Kardea and wait.'

'I can't risk waiting much longer. I've waited too
long as it is. I'll just have to go with a regency,' he muttered to
himself, after a short internal debate.

'Right,' he added, standing straighter and looking
down at me. 'You're under my orders now, Litang. I need my ship.
And since it's in orbit, I'll have to take it back without
consulting my niece. So if you've any cargo, turn it back in. I'm
not taking No for an answer this time.'

I stared at him. 'Under your orders? You're not the
owner any more. If you want me to do anything, you'll have to
contact Min and have Min tell me what to do.'

'The ship is mine, Litang. It was to be Talley's only
after I'm dead. And I'm not dead.'

'You are, according to the Ministry of Death. And the
ship is Tallith Min's, as Guild records will show. Dead or alive,
you've no claim to the
Starry Shore
. So I've no intention of
sailing under your orders. I've a nice, profitable run and I'll
answer only to my owner.'

'I think not. Trust me, you're not in a position to
refuse.'

'I believe I am. I suspect that neither of us is in a
position to stir up trouble. St Bleyth has ears everywhere in these
drifts. Our only real security is secrecy. I, however, am free to
run long and far. You know your position better than I, but I'm
afraid you'll just have to find yourself another ship to charter.
I'm not going off on some wild expedition with you.'

He glared at me. 'I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll
buy it, even if it is mine. Honor served. I'll give you an
excellent price. You can buy another one in Amdia to replace
it.'

'How can I sell Tallith's ship, even if I wanted to?
It's not mine to sell. The owner would have to sign off on the
deal, so you'd save no time at all.'

'This is the drifts. We don't need the Guild red
tape. I'll give you a CreditToken payable to Talley that you can
deposit for her. The Guild record doesn't need to reflect the
change since we'll be sailing in the drifts. I can't be fairer than
that. Talley and I can settle things between us later.'

I shook my head, 'No. Sorry. I've neither the
authority nor desire to sell you the ship. And I'm not going off on
some charter in a futile endeavor to regain some lost drift world
throne.' In my heart,
she
was mine.

'What do you know about that?'

'Nothing really. Just putting a few pieces together
to make a guess. I suspect you've been trying and failing for the
better part of a century. It's a lost cause, and I've no intention
of getting my ship or crew involved with a long ago lost
cause.'

'I don't want you or your crew. I'm going to pay them
off. All I want is my ship.'

'I can't agree to that. Contact Min and have her
instruct me.'

'Listen carefully, Litang. As I just pointed out,
this isn't the Unity. It's my ship, and I'm taking possession of
it. I'll buy it, or I'll just take it. One way or another, I'll
have it. If you agree to sell, I'll pay off the crew and everything
will go nice and smoothly. But if you refuse, I'll take more direct
measures. We can do this the easy way, or we can do this the hard
way,' he added grimly.

'The last pirate who offered me that option got a
belly full of missiles, Vinden,' I replied, painfully rising to my
feet to face him down. The two big men who'd been lounging against
the office walls, stood straighter as well. I didn't care. 'I've
heard your proposal, so now you can listen to mine. I've been
sailing the drifts too long for that threat to lift. Trust me,
we're not naïve, we can and will defend ourselves against anything
you can throw against us, with or without me. Contact Min & Co
and leave a message for Tallith. That's all you can do. Now, I'll
be going as soon as you pass over my com link and sissy behind
you,' I added holding out my hand.

If he was impressed, he didn't show it. He grinned
and slowly shook his head. 'You don't know who you're dealing with.
I haven't survived this long by letting a Unity Standard jacked up
first mate call the tunes.'

'Like it or not, I'm calling them, and since I hold
the
Starry Shore
, you'll dance to them. You haven't a
choice.'

'I don't need you Litang,' he said quietly – his cold
eyes said a bit more. 'I can deal with your first mate, just as
easily.'

'Good luck with that,' I replied, with a laugh,
holding his gaze. 'She's more than competent to deal with the likes
of you. She's a moon-born drift pirate...'

We glared at each other for a few seconds more,
before he shrugged. 'Right. I'll get my people in position to play
this either way and will be back shortly to get your final word,'
he said and stalked out.

The com link and sissy were still sitting on the far
edge of the desk. I glanced at the guards. They avoided my eyes,
looking anywhere but at the little darter – but with, shall we say,
a hopeful smirk. I decided not to play their game. Not yet, anyway,
and turned, stepping around the chair to the office window
overlooking the dim-lit warehouse.

I could see them watching me in the reflection of the
clearsteel, now hoping I'd make a break for the door. Standing
around was no doubt getting boring, but I still had no intention of
making them happy.

The window looked out on a large, dim-lit warehouse.
In its dim expanse were four, well, let's simply call them vessels,
though which medium they were designed to sail on or in was not
immediately apparent. They were already crated in open-framed
shipping containers, ready for transport. The two largest vessels,
which could've been 40 meters in length, a dozen wide, stood a bit
higher than the office widow – say fifteen meters. They were shaped
more or less like ocean vessels – with a flat bottomed hull and a
wedge shaped prow, slightly rounded sides that tapered back to two
short, stout wings or fins as well as vertical tail. The upper half
of the hull was divided into three deck houses, the middle one a
deck higher than the other two. Open decks, covered by gratings,
separated the three deckhouses. They didn't look like any type of
ship I'd ever seen. I didn't see any method of propulsion, but the
after wings looked incomplete. The two other vessels were smaller –
perhaps 15 meters in length with rounded fuselages and stubby wings
and enclosed propellers and brought to mind the strange vessel we
have in no. 4 hold – the one that Riv said wasn't a zep gondola.
They looked to be some sort of aquatic submarines, since they
seemed heavy built to be airships, and sported no rocket engines
that I could see. Still, there are many different types of worlds,
perhaps they could be used, somehow, in some low gee drift world.
In the end, I gave up and considered more pressing matters, like
what could I do, if my shipmates couldn't reach me.

And what if they tried... Vinden was never a fool,
and given the persistence of his enemies, this facility would
likely be very secure. Perhaps a St Bleyth stealth might slip in
unnoticed, but would my crew be able to pull that off? The more I
thought, the more I hoped they wouldn't try. Indeed, I could just
sell the ship to Vinden, and let him pay off my crew. Botts could
remain hidden onboard, and with its ability to control the ship's
systems, disable Vinden's crew, the pirate way, using the
environmental system, allowing us to retake the ship. We'd just
dump Vinden's crew and be on our way. It looked to be the simplest,
safest way to deal with Vinden. I ran over every angle of it, and I
couldn't find a flaw.

'Call Vinden. Tell him I've decided to sell him the
ship,' I said turning to the two guards.

'You can tell him yourself. He'll be back shortly,'
replied one of them.

And, as if on cue, the door whooshed open beside me.
I turned, expecting to see Vinden, but instead, saw a tall figure
in a long wet coat with a leering dead face under a wide brimmed
hat.

'Neb!' I exclaimed, but had the presence of mind to
drop to the floor.

The darter fight, such as it was, was over in a
second, with the two guards collapsing to the floor. From my
position on the floor, I recognized the white foot-pads.

'Botts! What are you doing here?' I exclaimed, rather
mindlessly. 'And were'd you get that mask?'

'I've come to collect you,' it replied drily. 'The
mask was a quick print job. Not too lifelike, I must admit. We'll
have time to talk later. Now we must hurry, I fear the darter shots
may have triggered alarms.'

'Damn,' I said, rising to my feet. I swiped my com
link and sissy off the desk and jammed them into my pocket.
'Whatever happens, you need to get back aboard the ship. Abandon me
if you must.'

'Follow me, Captain. Everything in hand and if all
goes as planned, we'll be aboard ship within the hour,' and added
with an exuberance that had me once more doubting its class 8
claim, 'This is just like old times with "Villain" Viseor!'

We bolted out of the office and flew down the stairs
to the warehouse floor. 'This way, sir!' Botts said and was off
running between the strange vessels, the tails of its long coat
flowing behind it. I took off after it. Ravin is a small planet
with only a .4 gee gravity, so I hadn't worn an exoskeleton down
for what I thought would be a brief visit – a decision I now
regretted.

'This is a remote warehouse, at the edge of the
compound. There's a door at the far end. Once through it, steer for
the wall. I'll jump to the top and drop a line to haul you up and
over. Beyond the wall is a deep woods. I'll carry you to the
waiting flier, we will make much better time that way,' it said
conversationally as we raced for the far wall.

'How'd you get in?' I panted.

'This building is part of a zep factory compound with
a showroom for its products in another building. We arrived by a
rented flier with Molaye and Kie pretending to be shopping for a
zep. While they looked at zeps in the showroom, I broached the
security system, and borrowing a transport robot's ID, followed
your tracker's signal through the compound to this building without
tripping any alarms. Security is elaborate for humans intruders,
but rather lax for machines. They never knew anything was amiss
until I fired my darters and they're only beginning to respond now.
We should have plenty of time to make our escape before they mount
an effective response. Molaye and Kie have already lifted and will
be waiting for us to rendezvous in the woods.'

'Right,' I panted as Botts put on a final spot of
speed, sprinting ahead to a small door set in the tall warehouse
wall. It had it swinging open as I panted up.

'Fifty yards to the wall,' it announced brightly.
'Then over and we're clear.'

Gravity is never kind to spaceers, so I saved my
breath and plunged out into the rain.

It was cool, grey and misting. Ahead was a five meter
high concrete wall, and beyond, a black woods wrapped in mist. Once
again Botts raced ahead, and, in a single leap, scrambled to the
top of the wall. It deftly unwrapped a rope from under its coat and
dropped a line down to the ground as I pulled, up, legs aching,
gasping for breath.

'Put your foot in the loop and hold on. Tell me when
you've got a good grip.'

I slipped the loop over my boot, and grabbing hold of
the line with one hand. 'Heave away,' I said, looking up, using the
other hand to fend off the wall a bit.

Botts, bracing itself over the far end, pulled me up,
scraping here and there along the wall, seemingly effortlessly, to
a point were I could grasp the top of the wall and pull myself up
the rest of the way.

'Over the side, I will lower you down,' it said.

So I turned and swung my legs over, and started
dropping, the line breaking my fall. I reached the wet bracken and
called up. 'I'm down.'

'Aye,' it said, and leaped lightly down beside
me.

'On my back, Captain. I can make much better time
than you. Time is of the essence.'

I did't argue. I could hear the muffled roar of
several fliers approaching. On my own, I'd not be able to do much
more than a walk. I wrapped my arms around its neck and jumped up,
wrapping my legs around its waist. It tucked its arms under my legs
lifting them out of its legs' way. 'Hold on tight, it'll be rough
going.'

We took off, bouncing into the deep pine and fern
forest. It was rough going. I was sopping wet in the first thirty
seconds,but they built robots tough, back in the old days – all
D-matter construction with powerful bio-designed engines to drive
its limbs – so I was a minor burden as Botts raced through the
deep, damp shadows of the green-black pines, the tall pale ferns
swooshing past us, in a spray of cold mist. Above the tree tops, I
could hear the roar of two fliers weaving back and forth,
searching. They may've had thermal sensors and radar, but even so,
with the dense tree cover, they'd have to be right on top of us to
get a read, and indeed, after several minutes, we left them behind
us.