In Ashes Born (A Seeker's Tale From The Golden Age Of The Solar Clipper Book 1) (22 page)

“We replaced most of them. Nobody wanted to sit on it.”

“I can’t imagine why,” he said.

“Sticks to your shipsuit,” I said.

“I really would have preferred not to imagine why.”

“You brought me along because I know what’s in there, didn’t you?”

“I brought you along because I need a captain to fly it.”

“Well, sure, but there are a lot of captains you could have gotten.”

“Really? Name one.”

I opened my tablet and scanned the jobs boards for senior officers. “Well, here’s Delman. I know him. He’s rated on Barbells.”

“He any good?”

“Probably not.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Christine Maloney fired him from DST.”

He stopped walking to peer at my tablet. “Does it say that?”

“You kidding? They don’t put that stuff in public files.”

“How do you know then?”

“Because—if you remember my file?”

“Oh, yeah,” he said. “Christine Maloney flew with you on the
Iris
.”

“Uh, huh. And she cleaned house when she got control of the company. Delman’s out. A couple of the senior captains were allowed to retire.” I shrugged. “There was something about the cargo handlers that I didn’t really follow, and at least one inspection official is now directing traffic on-planet.”

Pip frowned at me. “You really haven’t changed much. Trouble just falls out of your pockets and lands on everybody around you.”

“Stand close,” I said.

“So it’ll fall on me?” he asked, his eyes bulging and his voice practically squeaking.

“No. So you can stay inside the radius of danger.”

He laughed. “All right, fine, but you see what I mean. That’s not a long list of available captains.”

“Yeah. It’s a lot sparser than I’d have expected. I wonder where they’re all working.”

“Given what you’ve said? For Christine Maloney. Somebody had to replace all the people she booted out.”

“Possible. I hadn’t really thought of it.”

“Where would you be working if you still worked?” Pip asked.

I shrugged. “I really don’t know. That’s why I went to Port Newmar.”

He chuckled. “And now you’re back here.”

“Small universe,” I said.

“So true.”

Pip led the way back to the lift and punched the button for the oh-one deck.

“Where are we going?”

“Traffic office.”

“Why?”

“They’ve got all the ship assignments.”

“You thinking you’ll sneak aboard?”

He shook his head. “I’m hoping to get a guided tour.”

“From whom?”

“The caretaker.”

He had a point. A ship like the
Chernyakova
couldn’t be left unattended very long. Too much could go wrong that might damage the ship or the orbital.

“Might work.”

“I still have a few racks of Clipper Ship left. Just a friendly thank-you from a grateful relative of the dearly departed.”

“You’d impersonate a grieving relative?”

“I’d impersonate Alys Giggone if I thought it would help.”

“You don’t have her legs. What do you expect to find out?” I asked. “I can tell you what shape the ship was in when I left it.”

He stopped in the middle of the passageway. “Can you tell me if anything’s been taken off while it’s been here?”

“No.”

He shrugged and continued on his way.

We found the Traffic Control Office hidden behind a sign clearly labeled as Traffic Control Office. Pip pushed through the door and walked up to the counter.

A skinny blonde in an admin jumpsuit stood behind the counter, peering into a computer terminal. “Yeah?” she asked without looking up.

“I’m looking for a ship,” Pip said.

“Did you check the docks?” she asked. “Maybe your other pants? Where did you see it last?”

“Last time I saw it it was leaking atmosphere and bleeding fuel all over the deck in the maintenance bay.”

She looked up in shock. “What?”

“Well, hello. Now that I have your attention. I’m looking for the
Chernyakova
. Can you tell me where to find it?”

She shot him a sour look. “You and twenty other people. I’ll tell you what I told them. It’s in a secure parking orbit under guard about twenty-five kilometers away.”

“Perfect,” Pip said and nodded. “Thank you so much.”

Her jaw dropped but she wasn’t able to recover before Pip led me out of the office.

“Well, now what?” I asked. “You’re not planning on going out there, I hope?”

“Goodness. Why would I do that?”

“I’m still trying to figure out why you want to see the inside.”

“Damage control?”

I gave him my best evil eye.

“I want to make sure the computer systems are intact,” he said. “I don’t really need to get inside for that.”

“Really? How are you going to find out?”

“Simple. Ask the people who know.”

He led the way to the lift and we dropped down to the oh-two deck. It took him a couple of laps around the station but he finally settled on a disreputable-looking hole in the wall with a shaped neon cocktail glass and a flashing “Breakall Brewery” sign above the door.

He stopped outside and looked at me and then down at himself. “We’re a little overdressed, but it’ll do.” He loosened the collar on his tunic and ruffled the snow-white hair on his head, leaving it stuck out in several directions. “I’ll talk. You watch.”

“What am I watching for?”

“Somebody watching us.”

“Won’t that be everybody in there?”

“No. The regulars will keep their heads down and their thumbs in their pockets.”

“Then who ...?”

“Just keep your eyes open, all right?” He sighed and staggered into the door, bouncing it off its stops on the inside. He sauntered into the bar as if he were the new owner come to kick butts and forget names.

I followed him before the door could close all the way and watched him weave ever so gracefully through most of the small tables on his way to the bar. He only bumped a couple, the residents grabbing for their drinks and giving him the stink eye.

“Watch it, buddy,” one said. That was about it.

I followed him, shrugging in apology to any of the fine folks up to their armpits in the sour-smelling swill that apparently passed for beer. I sidled up to the bar alongside him, leaning over as if to speak to him so I could look down the bar at the dark corners in the far end of the room.

“What ya want?” The gruff voice sounded more bored than hostile.

“Clipper Ship Lager?” Pip asked, hope bright in his voice.

“Pfft,” the barkeep said.

“What’s on draft then?” Pip asked.

“We got beer. Cheap beer and cheaper beer. Unless you’d like to sample one of our fine vintage wines or perhaps a single-malt scotch.”

The guy on the other side of Pip giggled at this. It wasn’t actually a very joyful sound, but I counted his amusement as being in our favor. The only person in the bar who seemed to be paying any attention to us, other than the giggler beside Pip, sat near the door with his back against the wall. He must have watched us walk in; he’d certainly watch us walk out.

Assuming we actually walked out and weren’t thrown—or carried.

“In that case, I’ll have a glass of cheaper beer,” Pip said, making a hash of the word glass so it sounded more like “glash.”

“You?”

It took me a second to realize he’d spoken to me. “Nothing for me. I’ll just pour my friend out when he’s done,” I said.

The barkeep shrugged and slapped a bottle of beer on the counter. “Five credits,” he said.

“I thought you said it was cheaper beer.”

“It is. The other is six.”

“Classy,” Pip said and fumbled something out of his tunic pocket, clattering it on the bar where the barkeep scooped it up, looked at the face of it, and threw it into a bucket under the bar. It clattered when it hit.

Pip upended the bottle, swallowing twice before slapping the bottle down on the counter again. “Yeah. That’s cheaper.” He left the beer on the counter and headed for the door.

“Hey, don’t you want your bottle?” the barkeep said.

“Naw. Let the next guy piss in it,” he said and sailed out the way he’d come. He turned to starboard and stepped pretty lively. I had to jog to keep up.

“All right, what was that about?”

“I was looking for the caretakers. Nobody in there in a shipsuit. Did you see anybody watching us?”

“The guy sitting just inside the door.”

“Beefy guy? Big gut?”

“Yeah.”

Pip sighed. “Just the bouncer. We’ll have to look harder.”

“Why don’t we just take it easy until the auction?”

“I’m bored.”

“You’re bored?”

He shrugged. “I’ve got a low threshold, what can I say.”

“I’ve got another couple racks of Clipper Ship,” I said.

“No, you don’t.”

“Sure, I do.”

“The ones you had stashed under your bunk?” he asked. “When was the last time you saw them?”

“Couple of days.”

“Those are empty.”

“You took them?”

“I think of it more as ‘trading my empties for full ones.’ Why? Were you going to drink them?”

“No, but that’s not the point.”

He laughed and clapped me on the shoulder. “I’ll replace them.”

“With what?”

“With more Clipper Ship. What else?” He shrugged.

“I thought you were out.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. You’re the one who’s out,” he said. “I still have a pallet-load in the hold.”

“You have a pallet of it? Why didn’t you say something?”

“I did. Back on Port Newmar but you forgot. You made such a nice, considerate gesture by bringing a trunk full of it for me. Who am I to argue with such generosity?”

I didn’t know if I should laugh or slug him.

“So? Wanna beer?” He headed back toward the ship. “I need to think about this a little more, and a decent beer would help wash away the foul taste.”

“You are crazy, you know,” I said to his back.

“Maybe, but get used to it.”

I jogged a couple of steps to catch up with him. “Get used to it?”

“Yep. I may be crazy but as long as you’re employed by Phoenix Freight, I’m your boss.” He grinned.

I laughed and then slugged him in the arm.

Chapter Twenty-Two
Breakall Orbital:
2374, August 2

Pip gave Roland a couple of days’ liberty so we had the ship to ourselves. I was a little worried that Pip might be considering a boarding raid on the
Chernyakova,
but he settled into the galley with a kilogram of bacon, several large potatoes, a couple of onions, and a dozen eggs.

I sat at the table and watched him peel the potatoes. “What are you doing? Still working on Frank’s Finest?”

“Yeah. Cooking helps me think.”

I chuckled to myself. “At least it covers the burning smell.”

He glanced at me. “That the best you can do?”

“On one cup of coffee? Yes.”

“Drink up, the day is young even if you’re not anymore.”

“And you complain about me?”

He shrugged and grinned. “I’m trying to figure out why they parked the ship off station.”

“Keep people from breaking in?” I asked.

His paring knife paused for a moment before he shook his head. “That’s possible, but it seems like overkill. With the ship in a parking orbit, they need at least a skeleton crew aboard. Docked, they only need a fire watch caretaker and an occasional visit from an engineer to make sure the scrubbers are working. Everything else is shore power.”

“Unless it’s not manned.”

He glanced at me again. “It’s manned.”

“You sound sure.”

“I am.”

“Why?”

“If it wasn’t manned, it would have been stolen by now. It’s too valuable to be sitting out there by itself.”

“What makes it so valuable?”

“I’ll tell you when we get it. Hell, I’ll show you when we get it.”

“If we get it.”

“We’ll get it.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“Because the auction failed twice.”

“I don’t see the connection.”

“You will,” he said. He paused in his peeling and looked at me. “I need to play this close for now, Ish. I could be wrong and I’m chasing lightning. If I’m right, that ship is worth way more than a billion credits.”

“What if it’s not?” I asked.

“Not what? Worth more than a billion credits?”

“No. What if it’s not parked in orbit somewhere.”

“Wouldn’t somebody have noticed?”

“Depends on who was looking,” I said. “Wanna make a bet?”

He finished peeling his potatoes and went to work on the onions. “What kinda bet?”

“Let’s go up and run some short-range scanner tests.”

“Tests?”

“Yeah, we’re not supposed to fire up scanners this close to the station, but low-power maintenance testing is allowed with station approval.”

“Can we get approval?”

“You’re the owner of record, aren’t you?”

“Yes.”

I opened my tablet and logged into the ShipNet. A few screens brought me to the maintenance menus. I filled out a few fields and held it out for Pip. “Thumb this.”

He leaned over to peer at it. “I didn’t realize Roland gave you full access.”

“He didn’t. I know how you think. When he gave me the guest password, I guessed the system one.”