Opening Moves (61 page)

Tarek yawned and blinked his eyes to keep them from falling shut. “Put 'im on speakers.”

Their Tuathaan translator gave him the thumbs up.

A second later the strangely vibrating voice of a native of Tanith echoed through the ship's crammed bridge.

“This is the Tanith Space Guild ops center,” a voice almost as dark as Llyr's stated. “Glad to have you here with us. At this time we cannot approve your request for an extended stay in our orbital dockyards.”

Alexej cursed silently. The sentiment was reflected on the others' faces.

“It's not a matter of the parts your engineer specified you would need. We can get those for you, if you want. However, as you can see we're handling a lot more traffic than usual and are booked for months in advance, which means we cannot service you directly.” The operator sounded pleased. His guild was probably raking in the dough of a lifetime. “There is, however, an alternative the Guild can offer you.”

That got Tarek's attention. “Ops center, this is the captain of the IRON MAIDEN. Please elaborate.”

“Gladly.” It sounded like the purr of a very pleased cat. “The Guild can lease you a pair of autonomous industrial maintenance and repair bots. They're programmed with a wide variety of service tools and can analyze and repair most common damage on their own. It won't replace a full stint in our docks, but it should fix your most grievous concerns.”

Tarek looked around the bridge and met expectant faces. “Alexej?”

The huge pilot shrugged. “Better than nothing. It's a small miracle she held out as long as she did. As beat up as she is, a small fix is better than no fix any day.”

“
How much, Ops?”

“
Twenty thousand per day...”

Rául cursed and even Annie stiffened.

“...per bot.”

“
You've got to be kidding me!” Tarek blurted out, the fatigue he felt having seriously shortened his fuse. “For forty thousand creds I can probably
buy
a used one!”

The man on the other end of the line was unfazed by Tarek's outburst. “Given that it'd have to be registered with the Guild to be permitted to operate in this system I'd say that's rather unlikely. You may try to find one, but I wouldn't waste my time if I were you. The moment we analyzed the trend of shipping and the most likely needs arising from it the Guild bought all repair bots and drones in the system. So, it's your choice: take it or leave it.”

Tarek was sure that the picture of the Guild's 'Most smug employee of the month' showed the other man's face. Worst of all, they didn't have much of a choice. The MAIDEN needed repairs, badly. She wouldn't make it back into the fold and back home if they didn't get her fixed again. “Deal,” he snapped. “But we want a free load of reaction mass with those bots.”

There was a slight pause on the other end of the line. “Fine, you'll get it. I've scheduled an orbital tanker to rendezvous with you. Dispatching drones now. Have a nice day.”

The connection shut down and Tarek sighed and rubbed his eyes. “All right, ladies and gents, I hereby order you all to get a good night of sleep before we do anything else. You all need it, and more importantly, you all deserve it.”

“
I don't know, “ Rául said hesitantly, “but shouldn't we start working as soon as these bots are here? They do cost an awful amount of money, you know.”

“
Wiring up the power grid is a complicated job,” Tarek said calmly. “I'd rather have Alexej and Annie well rested before they tackle it, bots or not. Anyway, after all we've been through I doubt another forty thousand creds are going to break our backs. We'll need to buy the parts for the repairs first, and something tells me we won't be getting the best deal if we do this through the Guild.”

“
Sure it'll be the best deal. For the Guild, that is,” Llyr remarked jovially. According to the Tuathaan, the closest thing to the Guild was the Mob, if the Mob had business cards and functioned as a mix between a cartel and a labor union.

Tarek ran a hand through his curly hair and yawned. “If you say so. Any recommendations regarding where to buy parts?”

“I've never actually been to Tanith before, but in light of the situation I'd say we'll be better off if we ignore the orbitals. With that much traffic coming through here, especially from the war zones, their stocks'll either be depleted or seriously overpriced,” Llyr mused.

“
Bloody vultures,” Rául muttered sourly.

“
A few months ago we'd easily have made the same deals,” Annie calmly pointed out. She had a knack for cutting right to the truth.

Their navigator opened his mouth for an angry retort but Tarek talked right over him. He was tired, he was starting to feel the first tendrils of a headache and he was in absolutely no mood to witness one of the frequent arguments Rául was so talented in starting. “You think we'll be luckier down on the ground?”

The Tuathaan shrugged. “Simple logic dictates that there'll be dealerships down there, as well as scrapyards we could easily find salvageable parts from. We might have to travel around a bit, but since we're not in a hurry the lower prices to be found planet side should offset the running costs of these bots,” he grinned. “And I'd be glad to stretch my legs.”

“
Short as they are,” Alexej chuckled.”

“
All right, that's settled. Now off to yer bunks!”

Feet shuffled as the MAIDEN's crew left the bridge and made their way to their quarters. Very slowly. Even Rául, despite his earlier comments, barely kept his eyes open. Tarek nearly stumbled into his small cabin littered with memorabilia and photos pinned to the walls before he collapsed on his bunk. With a grunt he pulled a sheet over him before a dreamless sleep finally overwhelmed him.

* * * * * * *

“
Tanash Kutur Spaceport, this is shuttle IM-001 requesting permission to land,” Llyr spoke surprisingly softly into his headset as the delta-winged small craft descended through thin layers of clouds and raced high above the rolling lilac plains of Tanith's main continent. Deep below the waters of wide rivers and the shores of oceans glistened in the sunlight.

“
IM-001, this is TK port authority, you are cleared for landing in box alpha alpha two six fiver. Welcome to Tanith.”

Tanash Kutur, meaning 'red jewel on hillside' in the originally dominant language on Tanith, soon came into view as the MAIDEN's parasite craft decelerated from hypersonic flight. A vast metropolis with spiraling round towers at its center and endless refineries and factory complexes on the outskirts it had barely any features that distinguished it from a hundred other towns on just as many planets. Brightly colored rectangular spots were strewn across the city, and there was a strange lack of green – or, in this case, lilac –  inside the city's boundaries.

“Rául, we're going to land in a few minutes. I want you to keep manning the MAIDEN's bridge. Keep an eye on the sensors and on the comm chatter. Call me paranoid, but after Senfina and Akvô I'm in no mood to be surprised again. Remember, that leaves you in charge of the ship! You think you can handle it?”

“
Yeah, I think so,” Rául answered. “You can trust me, skipper.”

“
Good. Take it easy, champ. Alexej, Annie?”

“
We're listening,” Annie said.

“
You keep an eye on those bots. Call me when you've got any news regarding the spares we need.”

The Guild's two repair bots had arrived a few hours after the crew had come out of their beds again, yawning for coffee and breakfast. Tarek quickly had had to revise his initial position on the costs of those things. Each was a cube as large as a two story house, a central frame from which a multitude of sub-units could be detached to lift, weld, enter narrow spaces, rearrange and repair damage. Each also came with a full diagnostics suite. With their help the MAIDEN probably still wouldn't be as good as new, but capable as those systems were, they sure would be able to get her space-worthy again soon.

“Roger that, boss. Enjoy your stay.”

Tanash Kutur's spaceport spread out over several dozen square kilometers and was as crowded, if not even more so, as the orbitals, with untold numbers of small craft circling above in waiting patterns.

“How did you get us a hangar in that crowd?” Tarek wondered.

“
Turns out the controller's a Tuathaan expat from my clan,” Llyr chuckled. “Luck. Sometimes it's just good, old fashioned luck.”

The battered and well used shuttle descended farther down, decelerating with controlled bursts of its maneuvering thrusters until the ports' automated docking controls took over. It was a basic Alcarro-Northrop design capable of hauling passengers or a few tons of cargo if need be. Usually the IRON MAIDEN collected cargo directly from the orbitals, either by stowing them inside or by taking on additional modules suited for the job at hand. As such they normally had no need to go and pick up cargo from the surface.

They landed in their assigned hangar bay and left the shuttle once the heat buildup from their engines had dissipated. A transparent roof slid shut over them and they made their way through customs. The locals of Tanith were smaller than the average human, and more slender, with thick eyebrows and low, protruding jaw bones giving them a squat appearance despite their slender frames. A single customs' officer stood in a booth next to a scanner and pointed wordlessly at a touch screen.

Tarek leaned closer and tried for a moment to make sense of the wildly different scripts displayed on it. It was a language menu. Using the scroll bar on the right side – some user interfaces just were universal – he sifted through the list until he found the entry for Interlingo and activated it with a push.

Inside the booth the officer began to talk, and his words were automatically translated into Interlingo on screen. It was the same formulaic phrases minus one or two local qualifiers one would get to hear on every planet or colony. For a moment Tarek wondered if there was some kind of secret interstellar customs' agents' union that came up with the procedures. Then they were through. Llyr's various knives strapped to a leather chest harness went through without any complaints. They were a cultural thing and prized personal possessions, and bladed weapons could be bought literally at any corner after all. Firearms were something entirely different, but then, neither Tarek nor Llyr carried any.

Tanash Kutur Spaceport was as crowded as any terminal Tarek had ever seen. Members of every space faring race he knew and probably a few he had never heard of pushed themselves through throngs of people, all going about their business, if a bit too hectic for his taste.

“Stick close to me. As far as foreign languages go most of these people will only speak Érenni or Komerco,” Llyr said as he pushed himself through the shifting crowds. “They probably won't know much Interlingo, or even humans in general. The Komerco are a different matter. Most of them should be fluent in the language.”

Komerco brains were wired differently and had a different chemistry. They had a natural knack for adapting and analyzing speech patterns that allowed them to easily learn new languages and often gain full fluency indistinguishable from native speakers within less than two years.

“Pretty busy station,” Tarek yelled at Llyr.

The Tuathaan shrugged uncomfortably. “Busier than usual. Something's off.”

He was right, Tarek realized on second view. Many of the people moving through the space port had a harried look to them, as if they had to consciously stop themselves from looking back over their shoulders. As if they feared something would pounce on them if they didn't keep their guard up. Large screens adorned the walls of the port, showing arrivals and departures as well as news footage. Every twenty seconds or so a dull gong sounded and an announcement was read in a different language. Hanging from the ceiling in a triangular configuration, the central screens caught his attention as he tried to keep up with his Tuathaan companion. Despite his smaller height the sturdy slab of muscles he had no problems shoveling himself a path through the crowd. The last announcement – in Rasenni, if he wasn't mistaken – was about to end and he pushed for the exit when the gong sounded again and the voice began anew.

This time it was in Interlingo.

The following is a joint statement of the foreign ministries of the North American Union, the Pacific Rim Alliance and the Euromediterranean Confederacy. In light of the expanding hostilities all persons holding the citizenship of each nation are advised to prepare for temporary evacuation. Details can be attained via your local authorities or accredited consulates of the three signatories of this declaration. Do not panic. This is a precautionary move to ensure your safety. Thank you.

A hand grabbed his arm and harshly yanked him away. “I told you to stick close to me,” Llyr growled. “If you get lost here you're screwed. And I'm not your mom holding your hand. Let's get an air car. I've got us some addresses we'll need to visit, and it's gonna take us some time to visit 'em all.”

Tarek followed him but his thoughts were stuck with the announcement. Merciful Allah, if even all three big players at home thought it a prudent move to evacuate expats and citizens almost a hundred light-years away from the frontlines...! Just what the hell had they gotten themselves into? He had been prepared to spend weeks at Tanith to recuperate and get the MAIDEN back in shape, but the atmosphere down here had shaken him again. It was better to be about it.