Running With Argentine (11 page)

Dreamspace

"My God! How
old
is this ship?"

"I don't really know," said Sami, somewhat
surprised.

"Well, I can't tell you how old the ship is but your
systems are at least a hundred years out of date!" Mandi declared.

The downtime for ship's personnel between star systems was
the same for everyone spiral-wide… Boring.

Argentine didn't require the bridge to be manned by more
than one person at a time for this part of the voyage…

So, Sami had decided to invite Mandi to join her on her
shift…

"Really? Seriously? That's the kind of interface you're
using for your astrogational input?"

"What's wrong with?" Sami wanted to know.

"It's barbaric! If that's what they're forcing you to
use, that means… Don't tell me you have to manually confirm feedback
commands?"

"How else would you do it?"

"Oh girl, do I have a lot to teach you."

Mandi lost herself in thought for a moment and then said,
"I've got a few ideas…"

ΔΔΔ

Argentine was
in the chief's cabin and had his feet propped up on the desk.

"This is really good," he said as he slowly
swirled the amber liquid around in the snifter.

"I'm beginning to think we've missed out on a lot of
the better things in life," the chief responded. "I picked this up on
Tiffany's planet, and they didn't even consider it to be the best of their
stock."

Argentine thought about it. Like the chief, he'd spent his
entire life in the People's Republic of Chezden. The only real contact they'd
had with outside cultures was through war or by the information disseminated by
the government.

When you're fighting an enemy in space there is not a lot of
personal contact; other than maybe gaining a little bit of technological
insight, there is not a lot you can learn about your enemy...

And trusting the government, of course, always presented its
own challenges.

"What did you think of Tiffany's planet?" he
eventually asked.

"Hmph... It's not like we spent a lot of time there,
and I had to devote a lot of it to certain priorities," the chief said
while holding up his own snifter.

Argentine contemplated it briefly. Yes, cognac is
definitely
a priority in life.

"All the same,” he said, "What were your
impressions?"

"Well, our main two experiences there are good cognac
and a crazy redhead. All in all I'd say it balances out for a fairly neutral
evaluation."

While not being able to hide his grin, he pressed on…

"But I will say this… There was something about the
place that was just… nice. It had a good feel."

"Their technology was better," Argentine mused.

"Yeah, a little bit. But it was more than that.
Everyone seemed more… Real. Or maybe I should say less constrained… Even less
paranoid. I didn't get the feeling that everyone was always looking over their
shoulder."

"Hmm, well… I didn't get the feeling that Mandi was
looking over her shoulder either, but she was sure in a hurry to get out of
there. Maybe they're just better at hiding their problems?"

"Maybe," the chief replied. "But I still think
it's more than that.

After a comfortable silence the chief continued…

"So after we drop off your girlfriend, what's the
plan?"

Before it was discovered that she was stowed away on their
ship, Argentine had made the mistake of confiding in the chief that he'd had
high hopes for the woman he'd met on Tiffany's planet.

Now that lamentation between two friends was destined to
haunt him forever. In other words, if he knew the chief, he'd never let him
live it down.

Relieved to change the subject Argentine said, "I think
we need to pull the lieutenant into this conversation, don't you?"

Without waiting for a response, he continued…

"Stark, I know you're listening… Why don't you join us?"

ΔΔΔ

Once they were
all three settled in comfortably Argentine said, "Would it do any good for
me to ask you, now that we're not a part of the People's Republic anymore, to
stop spying on us?"

"If you keep bribing me with good cognac like this you
can probably get me to do anything," he replied.

"The truth is, I think the monitoring functions are
hardwired into the security system. I suppose I could ignore it, but it will
always be keyed to notify me if certain keywords are mentioned."

"Keywords like what?" the chief asked.

"You know, standard stuff… Words like
assassination,
rebellion, fighting back, refusing orders, mutiny, my name…"

"Why am I not surprised?" the chief murmured.

"Unless your name is specifically mentioned,"
Argentine suggested. "There's no need to keep on monitoring everything
else… Don't you think?"

"Of course," he said with a small smile.

After an uncertain silence Argentine pressed on…

"At any rate, our conversation turned to what we’re
going to do next and we thought you should be part of it. Any ideas?"

After mulling it over for a moment he said, "I'm pretty
open. I wouldn't mind putting a little bit more distance between us and the
former People's Republic, but after that… Who knows?"

"The challenge is," the chief interjected.
"That we're going to have to build up some credit and hire some crew
before we can travel much further. As long as we’re dealing with places like
Tiffany's planet and, presumably Asperia, we can function undermanned for a
while. But if we have to spend any significant amount of time with less
advanced infrastructures…

"And I hate to admit it, but Barry's made all the
difference in the world."

"What about the ship's maintenance that you were so
concerned about?" Argentine asked.

"That's what I mean about staying within Asperia's
sphere of influence. Assuming we're dealing with fairly open, friendly planets
we can do all our maintenance while in dock. As long as we get it all done each
time before we head to deep space I'm comfortable – at least for a while."

"So," Argentine summarized. "Does anyone have
any problem working the Asperian space lanes long enough to build up enough
credits and reputation to hire a crew?"

"No, but how are we going to do that?” the lieutenant
asked. "Our best way to earn money is prospecting ore, but we don't have a
geologist. And until we prospect more ore, we don't have the money to hire one.
Am I missing something?"

"That's another argument for spending some time here
before we move on," Argentine said. "I think Mandi was being honest
when she outlined the steps necessary to build up a credible reputation. We'll
have to start off small, hauling non-priority goods and the like, but if we can
prove our reliability there's always a need for dependable freight
haulers."

"Did I just hear you say you thought Mandi was being…
honest?" the chief asked in mock astonishment.

Argentine couldn't help but notice that the lieutenant was
frowning slightly.

"Yeah, well… maybe. I guess we'll find out."

Leaving
Dreamspace

"And then
what did you say?" an almost breathless Sami asked.

"I told him if he wanted me he was going to have to do
more than just stand up to the enforcers!" Mandi replied.

"What did he do then?"

"I'm not sure. He walked off and I never saw him
again."

"Ahhhh, and he was your first love… That must've been
terrible."

"It was…" And then after a moment, "But it's
the smartest thing he could've done! I'm afraid I would've ruined him!"

They were both giggling so hard that Sami almost rolled off
her bed.

They had both decided to have a, G
irls’ Night Out
.
But since there wasn't really any place to go to, they'd had their dinner in
Sami's small cabin.

Eventually, Mandi spoke up…

"So what's the deal between you and the captain?"
she asked.

"He's no captain," she said, still giggling
slightly.

"He's our First… You're the only one he let's call him
Captain."

Dawning realization passed over Mandi.

"If he's your First Officer, then where is your
Captain?"

"A long ways back that away," Sami giggled and
hooked her thumb over her shoulder.

"That sounds like a heckuva story…"

"Oh, it is…" Sami said with wide eyes.

ΔΔΔ

"I can't
believe you're letting her have the bloody run of the ship!" Barry
declared.

He'd more or less barged in on the meeting between
Argentine, the chief, and Lieutenant Stark.

The three men glanced at each other.

"And just what would you suggest?" the chief
asked.

"I don't know… Tie her up somewhere? She's a bloody
hacker! There's no telling what she's done to our ship's systems… If you think
I'm gonna serve on a ship that's all buggered…"

"Listen up, Barry," Argentine interrupted.
"As much as we all enjoy listening to your
bloody
rants, I have to
be on the bridge in a few minutes so I'm gonna cut you off short…

"What specifically is it you're afraid she'll do? Do
you think she's going to blow up the ship here in deep space?"

After a moment Barry said, "No, she'd have bugger all
if she did that… But once we make port and she leaves the ship I’ll wager she’s
left behind enough backdoors that the Queen herself could find her way in.
That’s bollocks!”

"She's already done that," the chief said.

"Eh, what? You know about it?"

"How do you think she got on the ship in the first
place?"

"And how do you think she was hiding her energy usage
in the shuttle?" the lieutenant spoke up.

"We really are buggered…"

"Look, Barry. Once we reach Asperia if you want to
leave the crew you're free to do so. I'm not going to stop you," said
Argentine.

"But we’ll dump the ship's operating system and reboot
with the archived version. It's kept in the Captain's safe and even Mandi can't
hack a non-electronic system."

Barry was obviously realizing that they were ahead of him on
this…

"Of course," the lieutenant added. "If she
hacked in once there's probably nothing to stop her from hacking in again…
Unless we don't give her any reason to."

"Our best course of action," Argentine said.
"Is to drop her off at Asperia and let her go her own way… No hard
feelings…

"So I don't need you messing it up by making a big
fuss! Get it?

"If you still want to leave us when we reach Asperia
you're welcome to. Just do it after she's left the ship – for your sake and
ours."

"So all of you… You already had this figured out?"

When no one responded Barry turned, and scratching his head,
slowly walked back out of the room.

ΔΔΔ

"Why is
she here?" Argentine asked of no one in particular as he walked onto the
bridge.

They had dropped back into real space and were spiraling
down into the Asperia system's gravity well.

"I thought she could help us out on the communications
console… If that's okay," said Sami.

"And just how would she know to operate our
communications console?"

"This old thing?" Mandi said. "I think any
five-year-old could pick it up pretty quickly."

When Argentine did not respond Sami spoke up, "It turns
out that she, uh… Does have some experience."

Argentine stopped inspecting his screen and turned to look
directly at Mandi…

"And just how, when she lived her whole life on
Tiffany's Planet, would she get that experience?"

"It's a really boring story, Captain. It would take a
long time to explain and right now you need my help. Can we just leave it at
that?"

Argentine knew that since their approach was canted off from
the elliptic of the system's plane, they wouldn't be traveling near any of the
outer planets.

"Our approach is going to give us plenty of time,
Mandi. So I'm all ears.”

For the first time any of them had seen, Mandi had a
slightly frustrated look on her face…

"Well, I
was
born on Tiffany's planet. I just
didn't grow up there…"

In the moments right before Mandi began telling her story
Sami could be heard to murmur, "She's the only one he let's call him Captain."