Birthright: Battle for the Confederation- Pursuit (20 page)

"Ok," he said simply. 
"Thanks for the update.  You know we appreciate your hard work down here. 
Just let us know if you need anything."

"Snagging an asteroid or two for
metals wouldn't hurt, I suppose," the chief suggested.

"That would be nice, I agree,"
Loren admitted.  "I wouldn't expect that sort of thing until after we
leave Faaria, though.  We'll be there in about fourteen more hours; we had to
make some course changes to do our best to avoid more Primans."

"Yes," agreed the chief,
"let's keep avoiding them, please."

Loren returned to the bridge and found
Captain Elco hard at work at his console.  He offered the chief's report and
sat down at his own station to make some entries himself.

Elco turned to Loren and gave him a
conspiratorial look.  "Loren," he began in a quiet tone, "when
we get to Faaria, we're going to try to pick up where we left off.  You're
going to take your team to the surface and go find us some AIs.  But when
you're down there, I want you to use a private comm device and make a call to a
friend of yours."

Loren quickly put the pieces together. 
"My friend with the past shrouded in mystery who happens to be babysitting
another mutual friend?"

"Exactly.  Get in contact with
Garrett Drayven, and keep it off the books.  Here's what I want you to ask."

The Solar Venturer completed her transit
to Callidor without incident.  Web and Halley made it a point to be seen
together some more as well, and when they both put in for roster spots to run
surface relays, nobody was surprised.

A handful of crew were milling around the
main cargo control center as they went through the process of uncoupling pods
and maneuvering them for delivery.  Some jetted off under their own power for
waiting cargo haulers in close proximity.  Others floated off to the queue for
inter-orbit trans-shipping.  And a handful held close station to the Venturer
while she powered up her two orbit-to-surface haulers.  They were ugly, beastly
looking ships; a small crew compartment with a framework that held two pods in
tandem followed by a bank of six huge engines.  The undercarriage was all
repulsor and supplementary lift engines as well, since the idea was to drop
cargo right off at the delivery stations which often tended to be on rooftops
or other confined spaces.

Halley was in one now, preflighting the
cockpit as Web ran one last check of the cargo manifest on his data pad while
standing next to the ship.

"Lucky you two managed to get on the
flight schedule together, eh?" asked Lodoc of Web in an unusually good
manner.  The grizzled old engineer gave Web a look that was somewhere between
suspicious and something else, Web realized.  Maybe envy?

"Well," Web said easily with a
faintest of grins, "someone with my computer skills should be able to
maneuver myself onto the same flight crew as her, wouldn't you think?" 

"And since you'll be part of the
ground crew that's supervising ten pods over five round trips to the same drop
point, you'll have plenty of time to get to know each other."

"That's the idea, I hope," Web
replied, trying to play up the puppy love routine he'd been showing for the
crew's benefit.

"Interesting woman like her,
though," Lodoc continued, "maybe she's had all the adventure she
hopes to find with a bunch of old freight dogs like us.  Maybe you'll get
bored, too."

"I have to admit, being a Fixer was
less dangerous than being part of this crew for the last few days, what with
rampaging pirates and all."

Lodoc seemed to ponder that for a minute,
then started to say something but stopped as another pair of crewmembers walked
by and into the airlock.

"All I'm saying is, a woman like
that gets it in her mind that it's time to move on, a guy like you would be
left with a choice to make in regards to whether to stay and finish out his
contract here or see where she's willing to take you."

Web looked at Lodoc out of the corner of
his eye but said nothing.

"And if such an offer were to be
made," Lodoc finished, "I think a guy like you would be pretty dim to
not drop what you're doing and follow her to wherever she was headed.  Might
even be people on the ship that would wish you two well and not notice your
failure to return for a while."

Web smiled but quickly wiped it off his
face.  Apparently Lodoc was warming up to them after all.  Well, probably just
Halley, but if Web was her choice maybe the engineer thought that it meant he
wasn't that bad, either.  He did some quick calculations about where the
Venturer was headed next and what her itinerary was before replying.

"If that were the case, there would
probably be a nice bar tab waiting for someone who looks a lot like you at the
orbital station bar above Dekhana when the Solar Venturer got there in a couple
days."

Lodoc nodded sagely.  "Well then, I
hope for both of these hypothetical people that things go that route.  Good journey,"
he said by way of departure, then turned to head down the corridor back into
the cargo center, leaving Web standing by the docking hatch with his thoughts.

Web finished up his manifest, entered the
hauler and quickly ran across Halley. 

"I think Lodoc just talked me into
bribing him into not noticing us taking our leave of the crew once we get to
the surface."

Halley looked a little surprised but hid
it well.  "That man's full of surprises."

"I think he has a bit of a crush on
you as well," Web ventured.

"You don't need to challenge him to
a duel or anything, right?"

"No, but I do need to fix him up
with a big bar tab at the main tavern on the orbital station above Dekhana by
the time Venturer gets there."

"Good choice.  You can try expensing
that when we get back," Halley warned as she put her hand on his shoulder
before she turned to get back to work, "but I have a feeling nobody's
going to reimburse you."

Avenger made orbit over Faaria on her
revised schedule.  There had been one Priman cruiser prowling the reaches out
of the system's sovereign boundaries, and Lieutenant Caho had been quick to
point out a half dozen Faarian warships shadowing it well inside their system
limits.  The planet was part of a moderately powerful alliance and was apparently
not going to pass up a chance to show that they were capable of defending
themselves.  She did pass on the disturbing news that there was traffic between
the two forces, however, on what looked like civilian and diplomatic
frequencies.  It made Elco wonder if the Primans intended to play the
fake-treaty game in places other than the Confederation.  That would be
something Admiral Bak wouldn't enjoy hearing.

Elco asked Loren to meet him in the C3
briefing room before the XO headed to the surface.  When the captain got there,
Loren was already sitting at the port side briefing table going over plans and
logistics.  Elco took a seat and poured himself a glass of water from the
carafe sitting in the center.

"Almost ready?" Elco asked. 
Loren nodded as he finished up some notes, then set the data pad down.   

"All set, Captain," he
replied.  "We have an arrival slot in an hour.  All our transports have
been destroyed, though, so we're going to have to take a Prowler, which means
we'll have to land at a military base for a dropoff and have the Prowler return
to Avenger.  Not a big deal, just extra time spent on paperwork, declarations,
and introductions before we can leave.  Then we'll get a place and start
following up on the leads the admiral left us for the place; two groups, both
very ardent supporters of AI rights, some of the loudest in this part of the
galaxy.  We just have to find out if they know anything of value or if they're
simply enthusiastic fans.  And then I need to make that call to Garrett, of course."

"Excellent.  You'll also be happy to
know the Faarians recognize our Confederation credit line and will be refueling
us and subcontracting out some minor repairs.  Chief Fyr was thrilled to let
them rebuild environmental units so his people could work on other
projects."

"I can imagine.  Well, wish us luck.
Maybe this place will actually produce something useful."

"They've approved you as our
emissary, Representative," Captain Vol said in a pleased tone.  Vigilance
had beaten Avenger to the Faaria system and made an official petition for
diplomatic status so they could open discussions with the collective that
Faaria was a member of.  While his orders didn't technically forbid him from
engaging in diplomatic relations with local systems, it wasn't exactly
encouraged.  However, after talking with Representative Ravine, they both
agreed it was a step worth taking, and she had applauded his initiative.  Now
he could send a small team to the surface.  A few cosmetic disguise kits and
his people would be able to pass for locals and attempt to track and perhaps
kill the Avenger crew that would be headed to the surface.

"I'll keep them wrapped up in
meaningless talk as long as you need, Captain," she purred.  "Now you
will have your chance to deal with Avenger on your terms."

"Cory," Merritt urged from the
corridor.  "You coming out anytime soon?"  He was standing outside
her squadron ready room, something that was almost unheard of these days since
she'd really never used her office for much more than storage space.  They
always slept in her quarters, but in the day or so between escaping the Caradan
system and getting here he'd hardly seen her.  She had grudgingly gone to see
Dr. Elrad, the chief medical officer of Avenger, about her EVA, but she'd disappeared
after that.  He didn't think much of it at first; being the CAG meant she had a
ton of responsibilities, but after deciding to bring her a meal he realized she
wasn't anywhere to be found.  He'd run into her in the officer's mess; the Aft
Quarter dining hall was still open to space, though apparently the damage
control crews promised to have it ready to use again in a day.

They'd had a silent meal during which she
didn't talk much.  He figured she was just tired, but when they'd parted
afterwards she seemed more distracted than anything.  She was an independent,
confident person, and Merritt knew enough to not push her for anything yet, but
she was obviously letting something drag her down.  He just wished she would
tell him what, though he had a damn good idea; it was the fact that she kept
surviving. 

He'd watched her take chances, always
confident in her ability to pull through and make the right call.  She'd had
some amazing results, but along the way had lost more than her normal share of
squadron pilots.  There was never any problem filling the billets; there were
actually enough requests for transfer in to fill up the squadron a dozen times
over.  The problem was that not all of them had her luck.  Every squadron has
one or two charmed pilots, those that seem to always make it back by the skin
of their teeth.  Cory never paid it much mind, but had to realize over time
that the rest of her pilots weren't as lucky as she was.

Now Merritt feared it was taking its
toll.  She'd been quiet, trying to avoid contact with people, even him.  Of all
people on the ship, she had to know that he would listen and try to the best of
his ability to understand, but he knew to not press the issue.  Still, he
wished she wouldn't hide.

"I'll be a few minutes yet," she
replied over the intercom.  "You can head on without me.  I won't be
long."

"If you're sure," he said
slowly.  "If you change your mind or want some company, let me know,
ok?"

"Will do," came the neutral
voice over the intercom.  "Thanks."

Merritt arrived in the hangar bay and saw
Loren preflighting the Prowler. 

"You sure you remember how to do
that?" Merritt asked good-naturedly.  "Want me to read you a
checklist or something?"

"I want you to go get me some
stim-caf," Loren said with a smile.  "We're good to go, though, so as
soon as Cory gets here we'll be on the way." He looked around before
returning his gaze to Merritt.  "She's usually the first one here.  What's
the hold-up?"

Merritt paused, not sure how to answer. 
For most people on the ship, it would be none of their business.  As their XO,
Loren could down-check Cory if he felt she was not going to be able to do her
job, but Merritt also knew that as their friend he would want to help.

"I think this last round of losses
is really hitting her," Merritt said softly, glancing around to make sure
nobody was close enough to hear.  "I just think she's taking it personal
all of a sudden.  She's been pretty quiet since we got back."

Loren just nodded.  "I'm glad you
told me," he started.  "We'll keep an eye on her, ok?  She can still
keep up, right?"

Merritt nodded.  "I don't think it's
a permanent funk, and once we get going she'll have other things to occupy
her.  It's probably best if we keep active.  I know it doesn't fix the problem
but it will hopefully keep her from fixating on it."