13 Degrees of Separation (89 page)

The aide diverted his eyes as his boss zipped up his pants
and then settled. “And next time knock you moron,” the Governor growled. He was
a charismatic man, which was why he'd gotten the Governorship. But he was a
puppet, a puppet without a master. With the speaker dead Walker was turning
into a bull, finally finding his power and using it aggressively. Sometimes too
aggressively, it was costing him in the polls.

Scandals were another problem. The Governor's wife was
barely speaking to him in private, though she had a polite face on in public.
The fact that she didn't stay in the growing capital colony and instead made
the rounds of the system as his proxy had been noted by some in the media.

“Sorry sir,” the aide said gulping. “But this is
important.”

“It'd better be,” the Governor growled.

“It is sir. There's another ship coming in, a delivery to
the Navy from the admiral. We just got word from our source in administration.”

“Interesting. A delivery?” Walker asked, netting his
fingers together on his desk. He rocked side to side slowly. "Do we have a
copy of the manifest?" The lackey shook his head. "Right," the
governor said pursing his lips. “Irons again? He sent that other one back on
Destiny. We never did get a piece of that.”

“Yes sir. I mean, no sir. No we didn't.” He knew certain
industrial parties weren't happy about being kept out of the spoils. They were
financing the Governor's reelection campaign.

“Well, this time Logan's not getting it. Call the ship.
Order them to divert to the capital,” he growled. “Make sure they don't contact
the Navy again. Don't give them any wiggle room. We'll see what that pissant
Logan says when we take the shipment and tell him to piss off.” he growled with
a wolfish smile.

...*...*...*...*...

A day out from the yard they received a signal. Rodrick
scowled and then headed to the Captain's quarters. He hesitated to knock for
just a moment, then frowned and did so.

There wasn't a response for a long moment. Then he heard
the Captain swear just as he raised his fist to knock harder. “Who is it?” the
Captain growled.

“Rodrick sir. Message from the system Governor,” the
communication's officer replied professionally.

“Really?” the Captain could be heard getting up and then
the hatch clanged as he undogged it and opened it. “Let me see it,” the Captain
said, taking the tablet.

Rodrick handed it over with a quick glance. The Captain had
been in bed, he had an aged tank top on and boxers. Boxers with yellow happy
faces all over them. He stood there stiffly as the Captain scanned the message.

“I'm a little confused,” the Captain finally admitted.
“Didn't the admiral send us to the Navy yard?”

“Yes sir.”

“And he's the paying customer. Or will be paying when we
make delivery. Who is this Governor Walker? And what does he have to do with it
all?” he asked. According to the message Governor Walker was ordering them to
change course to the capital colony that was currently under construction on
the other side of the local star. There they were to make delivery. They were
not to discuss it with anyone including the Navy.

“I'm not sure sir...” Rodrick said, but there was a hint of
speculation in his voice. The Captain's eyes darted to him briefly.

“But I'm sure you guessed?”

“I think Walker was involved in chasing Irons out sir. He's
after whatever the package is. He's trying to jack the delivery.”

“Really. I'm wondering that myself. I noticed he didn't say
anything about compensation. Just that it was an order.”

“Yes sir.”

“Call the Navy. Get them involved in this. I don't like
this Walker's attitude. He may be Governor of the system, but this is my ship
and we make delivery.”

“Yes sir,” Rodrick said grinning.

“If the Governor insists, tell him to talk to the Navy.”

“Aye sir,” Rodrick replied, taking the message tablet back.

“Anything else?”

“No sir. Sorry to interrupt your sleep,” the
communication's tech replied.

“I'll get over it. Get back to your post.”

“Aye sir,” the communication's tech said snapping to
attention. The Captain eyed the snap and snorted. Everyone was snapping too and
had an extra spring in their step ever since they'd arrived. He didn't mind it,
it meant morale was good. Rodrick turned and the Captain closed the hatch.

...*...*...*...*...

Commander Logan looked up as his yeoman came in. “Sir,
we're getting a hail from that ship coming in.”

“Ship?” Logan asked, raising an eyebrow. He was aged,
incredibly aged, but still fit and mentally able. But controlling the naval
presence in the system was taxing him more and more.

“The Mariah's Mischief,” Yeoman Liam Burkov answered. He
was the third shift Yeoman on duty.

“Another health and welfare check?” Horatio asked. They'd
had a lot of them lately. He didn't mind, helping them out made the ships not
only safer, but helped spread good will. Besides, it gave the intel shop a
picture of things going on in the sector abroad when they accessed the ship's
computers.

“No sir. Delivery. From the admiral,” the yeoman replied.

Logan frowned, sitting up straight. “And why am I just
hearing about it now?” He demanded, voice cooling.

Liam winced. “I'm not sure sir. I'm guessing the original
messages may have gone astray. At any rate they just sent in a call, apparently
Governor Walker is ordering them to deliver their cargo to him and
not
to the Navy. They sent a message asking for confirmation.”

“And how did he hear about this when I didn't?” the
Commander asked as he opened the file with his implants. There was an
attachment, the original message from Governor Walker and a second attachment,
this one from the Admiral. It was brief, just a pass with a scrambled file.
Decrypting the file gave him a list of inventory as well as a note that the
crew was going to hand deliver a personal message to him.

He scanned both messages briefly again and then scowled.
Someone somewhere had kept him out of the loop. Possibly deliberately. He
didn't like that. He liked it even less that Walker had been involved. That
same someone may have slipped the good Governor the news of the load.

“Send a signal to the Mariah's Mischief, they are to deliver
the cargo to its intended destination and that we'll deal with the Governor.”

“The Governor isn't going to like that sir,” the yeoman
said cautiously.

“The
Governor
can go piss up a rope. This is Navy
business, which I will point out to him. Get that message off, I'll record one
for Walker. And Liam,” he said as the yeoman started to turn. “Don't worry
about it. We're Navy. We're not here to kiss his ass, we're here to keep the
people and infrastructure safe. Now get, I'll deal with him,” he said. “And clear
my schedule for when this ship comes in. I want to meet them personally,” he
said.

Liam nodded. “Aye sir.”

“Dismissed.”

...*...*...*...*...

There was a small tinkling sound in the great spacious
office. The Governor looked up with a patented frown of disapproval. Finally he
oriented on the sound and stabbed a finger on the blinking yellow button.

“Yes? What is it?” he demanded. Ever since the last
interruption he was irritable as all hell. He needed that daily servicing to
take the edge off his temper. Getting interrupted like that had shortened his
fuse quite a bit.

“Sir, the ship isn't changing course,” the aide replied.

The Governor scowled. He sometimes regretted never getting
implants. He just couldn't see trusting himself to that bitch Thornby. She'd
kill him, he just knew it. Make it look like an accident. He shivered. No, he'd
have to make do without.

But there were times like now that he was okay with not
having them. He'd been going over the construction plans for the capital
colony. There was a lot of graft and back biting involved, the entire project
was giving him a headache and costing more than he'd planned. Even his usual
cut seemed to be excessive now.

“And we've just received a message from Commander Logan.”

“I thought I told you to tell that ship they were done with
dealing with the Navy?”

“Apparently they ignored it sir,” the aide said, sweating
profusely. “Do you want the message from the Commander?”

“I doubt it's worth listening to. Give me the bottom line.”

“Um, quote, Mind your own damn business, this is Navy
business, unquote sir.”

“Right,” the Governor smiled thinly and then shrugged. He
wasn't getting any further with this project. Time to cut his losses. “Fine
then, they won this round.”

“Sir.”

“No response, just go back to business as normal.”

“Yes sir.”

“If it's from the admiral we know his general location. Get
the mercenaries moving now. Get with the source, find out any intelligence on
the admiral's location and pass it on to their ship. Get that ship moving now.”

“Yes sir,” the aide replied. The Governor and his
supporters had paid a small fortune to hire a small converted yacht and
assemble a mercenary crew. Well, the Pyrax taxpayers had, all the credits used
had been skimmed from various accounts for the system.

“Get them moving now. I want them briefed before they jump
and have that same brief on my desk by that time too. Tell them they can pick
up the trail in Gaston but get Irons and get him back here or don't come back.”

“Yes sir. Very good sir,” the aide said as the Governor
stabbed down on the off button.

“And that's that,” the Governor said softly. He hit the
button again. “Tracy, get in here, it's time you finished what you started
earlier,” he snarled. “And you'd better do a better job this time,” he growled.

...*...*...*...*...

Commander Logan himself came on board to accept the
delivery of the shipped materials and offer to pay for future transport
services. The Captain heard he was coming and rushed down to meet him.

“It's good to see you again Horatio. Excuse me, Commander,”
the Captain said, shaking hands with the old man. Horatio Logan was an
institution, a rock in the Pyrax system. He seemed better, less stooped over
with the heavy burden of living so many years. There was fresh fire there in
his eyes, fire of purpose he realized. “And it's good to see you out of the
depths of the station,” he said smiling.

“Captain I'm trying to place you...” Logan frowned as they
disengaged the hand shake.

The Captain smiled and put his hands up. “It's not
surprising Commander, it's been over 20 plus years since we last crossed paths.
I was a teen the last time we were in the system. My parents arranged a tour of
your engineering department.”

“Ah,” Logan replied nodding. “There were a lot of tours,”
he said. He glanced to the passengers who were reporting to the yeoman nearby.
The yeoman looked around, oriented on his HUD and then pointed to a Lieutenant
with a clipboard near the hatch. The passengers nodded and headed to them.
Logan noted each was dressed in a cadet uniform. Interesting, he thought.

“By a lot of ships,” the Captain said chuckling. Logan
returned his attention to the Captain. “Keeping track of people you met briefly
once, I know,” he said chuckling. “Though you did make an impression on me,” he
said.

“Well, that's all good then,” Logan replied with a chuckle.
He looked over to Knuyuk and his tablet. The Veraxin handed it over to Logan
who downloaded the files and then handed it back. “Thank you,” he said.

“That was quick,” the Veraxin replied.

“We have the files the admiral sent. I used my implants to
download that,” Logan replied, nodding to the tablet.

“Oh,” the Veraxin replied, signaling second level
confusion.

“I'm a sleeper. Or was,” Logan replied with a shrug.

“I remember the story,” the Captain replied with a smile.
“I was pretty enamored to meet you. But I remembered you as enlisted?” he
asked.

Logan shrugged. “The admiral mustanged me to officer. He
needed people with experience.”

“Ah,” the Captain replied with a knowing nod. “I see.”

“If I may be so bold, what have we brought you?” the
Veraxin chittered, indicating the cargo being off loaded.

“Classified. I can tell you they aren't weapons or
replicators though,” Logan replied with a smile. “We need them.”

“You'd think you've got all you need,” the Veraxin cargo
master said, indicating the yard.

“Yeah well,” Logan said, looked over shoulder. “I'm not
going into detail's it's...”

“Classified,” the Veraxin chittered.

Horatio smiled slightly. “Yes, sorry. I'm glad you
understand though. We don't want the pirates to know. So we'll delete your
image files of our yard too. Again, sorry.”

“It's okay since you are overhauling our ship,” the Captain
replied grudgingly.