The Stars Came Back (32 page)

Kaushik: Holy… That’s a
lot
of weaponry.

Helton: Yeah, it
would
be kind of hard to take them out now, if they are all like that. Are they?

Ship AI: (OC) There is much speculation, but few hard data
points.

Helton: I’d have thought they might have built in some sort of recognition system, so that they would “know” their guys in case the password got lost.

Ship AI: (OC) That would be difficult.

Allonia: Well, if they were
also making clones and genetically engineered soldiers, couldn’t they do something with that?

Ship AI: (OC) Guessing the right genetic code would be somewhere on the order of one in four to the billionth power.

Helton: And if they shoot before you get a chance to get scanned, you’d have to know the code before you got there. Right, a tough problem indeed.

Allonia: So that was the “challenge” they asked about? Looking for a code? But how would you tell them your genetic code by voice? You coul
dn’t tell them the whole thing; it’d take years! Maybe they are looking for just a little-bitty part of it? Coded somehow?

Ship AI: (OC, normal male voice, gradually becoming more mechanical) That is an interesting guess…
Galt actinide Charlie turtle adenine thymine thymine adenine guanine adenine cytosine thymine.
Idem
. Cladistic Profiler.
Forte
.

Helton:
What was that?

Ship AI: (OC, normal male voice)
Nothing. Minor subroutine glitch. A recently noted pattern was continued unexpectedly. Internal data possibly affecting optimal path selection protocols. Further testing will be needed at another location. No significance at the moment.

Helton nods in acknowledgment
.

Cooper: OK, everything seems to check out. We can make a small jump to cut about half the normal-space flight time, then take an easy path in, slightly more than a day conventional.

Helton: Good, good. Anywhere close to the robo-moon?

Cooper: No, well clear of it
.

Helton: All righty, then. Let’s make another little hop, unless someone has a problem. (
Into mic) Any problems to report, now’s the time.

They are rewarded by a few moments
of silence.

Helton: Can you use the pair of Sokolovs here? We can test them a bit, too.

Cooper: Should work… Yes, adds about… sixteen seconds on this jump. An hour conventional.

Helton:
(Nods) Double check with Stenson and spin ‘em up.

FADE TO BLACK

Taking Delivery

FADE IN

EXT - DAY - Space near Emirate II

Tajemnica
arcs across space lit by Geminorum in the distance, headed for the nearby planet. It is a vivid mix of blue seas, greens, tans, with a goodly scattering of clouds. They pass an orbiting space-dock with numerous attached ships. Most are small private craft, some are larger liners and cargo ships, including the liner on which Helton met Bipasha.

CUT TO

INT - DAY
- Lag’s cabin

Lag
sits at a desk. On the screen in front of him is the Chief Flight Engineer Lag met at the dinner table the same night he met Helton.

Flight Engineer: B
est hire I’ve had in a while. Knows his stuff and is learning our particulars fast. The arm re-gen is going well; gives the doc something to do other than band-aid little old ladies.

Lag: Glad to hear it,
always a pleasure to help good people out. Now, about that custom manufacturing shop you recommended to Stenson on Geminorum -

DISSOLVE TO

INT - DAY
-
Tajemnica
Bridge

Helton, Cooper, Lag, Kaushik, Bipasha

Lag stands in the doorway at a casual parade rest. The others are standing at their stations, walking slowly on their treadmills.

Lag: We’ll need to be careful. They got
really lucky on the terraforming, and pulled through the Dark well, but this is a real know-‘n-blow system now, so-

Bipasha: A what?

Cooper: ”Know and Blow;” where everything happens because of who you know, or who you blow, bribe, have leverage on, or family name. It’ll be easier if you and Allonia stay aboard until it’s all squared away; you can go ashore on Geminorum or New Texas. Allonia knocking off the wrong favorite nephew who thought she was cute and tried to take a free sample could be awkward.

Helton: And I’d hate to think what would happen if they tried that with Harbin’s niece.

Lag: Quite.

Bipasha and Allonia exchange a knowing
, disgusted glance.

Kaushik:
How much bribery
did
you account for in the contract?

Helton: Never been here
. None at all, I’m afraid.

Lag: Ouch. Well, then, be careful. They can be some
very
friendly folks when there is no business at stake, or if you get introduced by the right person, but they
always
put family and tribe first in business dealings. Finding out who you’ll be dealing with and what sort of skeletons they have in various closets would be time well spent.

Bipasha: Lovely. Just lovely. Guess I’ll get on that as soon as we know.

DISSOLVE TO

EXT - EVENING - Airspace above the Dangerous Materials Storage area

O
n a dry, rocky plain, a set of numbered buildings are arranged in a wide rectangle with roads to and away from the facility, and between the buildings. Next to each one are variously sized landing pads. Building 6 has one of the larger pads.
Tajemnica
glides carefully down next to the building in the fading light and settles smoothly, one end toward the building’s main door.

CUT TO

INT -
NIGHT - Cargo bay

View
looks out the aft cargo bay door. The inside sliding doors are open as the ramp lowers, revealing Helton, Lag, Harbin, and Kaushik silhouetted against the brightly lit interior of the warehouse. All are heavily armed and the three Plataeans are wearing armor. Inside is a surprisingly busy warehouse, with numerous people, forklifts of various sorts and sizes, and many large pallet loads of metal and plastic crates. As the ramp hits ground, and the bottom angle ramp flips out to get clear to the surface, the Warehouse Master (male, swarthy, greasy, bad teeth, soft looking, overweight but not obese, immaculately dressed but sleazy) heads up the ramp to greet them.

Warehouse Master: Welcome to Emirate! So
delighted to see you have come to remove this headache for us!

He
lton: Glad to see you are ready; a lot to do. Surprised it’s down here, not in orbit. Loading would be much easier there.

Warehouse Master: (
Shrugging) I don’t ask questions, I just put things where they tell me. Shall we get started now? Your contract did stipulate machine loading, did it not?

Lag and Harbin exchange glances.
The warehouse master looks around the interior of the ship with a concerned look on his face.

Warehouse Master: Will it all
fit in here? And this looks like an old ship. Is it rated to haul this much mass?

Helton: I think it will, if we pack it tight and standard packaging
is used. We ran the loading calcs on the run in and it should be fine if we follow the load plan. Mass ratings are OK, too.

Warehouse Master: (
Frowning) I don’t know. We were not expecting to be loading on a ship like this. Well, let’s see how the first pallet loads. What would you like first?

Helton: The 120mm canister rounds.

Warehouse Master taps away on his tablet, and he turns and waves to a driver on a forklift. The Filipino-looking driver scoops up a pallet and heads over. As he gets close to the ramp, it becomes obvious that even tipped all the way up, the ramp angle is far too sharp to drive over. They all turn to look into the warehouse. All of the material-moving equipment is similar, just different sizes. Everyone gets an “oh, shit” sort of expression with brows furrowed and pained frowns.

Warehouse Master: (
overtly obsequious, but with a devious glint) Oh, I’m
very
sorry. It looks like we will have to move it by hand. That might take a while. My humblest apologies, handling that much material might be rather expensive.

Helton: Can an empty forklift get up the ramp?

Warehouse Master: We can see.

He steps over next to the forklift driver.

Warehouse Master: Drop the pallet there and just see if you can get on board.

The forklift driver sets the pallet down, raises the forks, and drives up the ramp carefully, then spins
easily around with plenty of room.

Warehouse Master: I guess we will only have to hand carry it up the ramp. Again, deepest apologies that this will take so long.

The side hatches above the ramp area open and a pair of the multi-joint mechanical arms unfold, now with simple forklift attachments. One reaches down, delicately scoops up the pallet, and with a slight whine of high-speed hydraulics, gracefully hoists it up and deposits it neatly next to the waiting forklift at the top of the ramp. The forks go back down to a waiting position.

Warehouse Master:
(Momentarily annoyed before plastering on a false smile) Oh, very good, most convenient! That will help.

Helton: (
Aside to Lag) May be quirky, but
damn
if the AI doesn’t know when shit’s gotta happen. (Louder, to Warehouse Master) So, if we can get three more forklifts up here the rest can start lining up the pallets in stack order, and we can move this along.

Warehouse Master:
That many at once will not be safe. Only one aboard at a time would be better.

Helton: Are
you saying your drivers are incompetent?

Warehouse Master: (
Indignant) Oh, they are the best!

Helton:
(Firmly) Then we have enough room here for four.

Warehouse Master looks indecisive for a moment, then with a few vicious stabs at his tablet, three more forklifts head fo
r the ramp, each carrying a heavily loaded pallet. They get close to the ramp, and Warehouse Master vigorously signals them to stop.

Warehouse Master: Take it BACK!

The forklift driver waves to the screen that flips down from the roll cage on his forklift. He points to the pallet on his forklift and waves at the screen diagram.

Forklift driver1: This says this one goes next.

Warehouse Master: Well
I
didn’t call for it!

A handheld scanner with a screen on the back drops down
next to Helton on a coiled cable. He looks up a little surprised, then grabs it and aims it at the pallet. He glances over at a bulkhead mounted screen, then at the scanner readout.

Helto
n: Yup, that’s next.

Helton waves to the forklift driver to drop his load and
drive up the ramp. Lag, Harbin, Kaushik stand aside, the Warehouse Master fumes, and the drivers start up the ramp. At the top, they spin around, have their pallet immediately placed on their forks, and they head off, back to the stacking point their computer screens show them.

DISSOLVE TO

INT - NIGHT
- Cargo bay

B
ack wall is stacked to the rafters with pallets of ammo. Two pairs of forklifts move back and forth from stacking spot to ramp where the mechanical arms are unloading the line of forklifts coming from the warehouse. Helton takes a break from watching progress and walks to a wall mounted com.

Helton: (
Into com unit) Bipasha, any skeletons yet?

Bipasha
: (OC) Nothing big. Lots of minor sketchy stuff but nothing to make him stop trying to squeeze you. His older brother is an environmental law judge. Cousin is a mayor. Uncle is captain of a light cruiser, the
HMS Hussein
. Dad is a low-level admin on the far side. Two wives, but that’s legal here. Not sure who he pissed off to get posted here, but…

Helton: Well, keep me informed of anything new.

Bipasha: (OC) Will do.

Helton: How much cash do we have on hand?

Bipasha: (OC) You are not going to pay him off, are you? I mean, he might get around to asking for more than we have.

Helton: How much?

Bipasha: (OC) Ummm… about eighteen thousand.

Helton: Should be enough.
Ask Allonia to count it all out into a bunch of packets of five hundred, and keep looking for dirt or connections. Out.