The Bright Black Sea (34 page)

04

With all this, I still managed to see Lucky Laye win
several races in her quest to meet Az of the
Starsilver
on
the track keeping a close eye for that slim spaceer in black. I saw
no sign of her and began to dismiss my original fears.

The final race of the Lucky Star with Lucky Laye at
the controls was set for the day before the missiles were to
arrive. Everyone was present except Dyn, who insisted on taking the
watch and Min, of course. There was no longer any pretext – it was
the Az Binric vs “Lucky” Molaye Merlun, Captain Artha Villiant vs
Wil Litang and the
Starsilver
vs the
Lost Star
.
Everyone else on the track was just extras. It was a boisterous and
intense rivalry, but Artha and I worked to make it as good natured
as possible with credits on the line. It helped that nothing we'd
done prior to getting Molaye into the upper division had affected
Az or the
Starsilver
combine in the least. Plus having
reached this final race meant giving up the Lucky Laye game so that
everything was above board. Artha and I settled on the formal wager
between the ships, the loser to pay for the
victory feast
after the race, and the two crews sat next to each other in the
stands to watch the big race and hurl fairly good natured taunts at
each other.

Not being familiar with buggy racing, the finer parts
of the race escaped me. If you'd ask anyone else aboard, except
Dyn, they'd be able to give you a much fuller account. What I can
say is that there was some concern on the
Starsilver
's team
that the pack would attempt to exact a little revenge on Az by fair
or foul means. (Though I don't think there are actually any foul
means, at least none were ever pointed out to me.) He solved that
problem by taking the lead within seconds of the start and staying
well ahead of the pack. Molaye had to work her way through, but did
so quite deftly, so that by the half way point, it was just their
two buggies leading the pack, which constituted the real race. They
were always within a buggy length or two of each other, the lead
changing several times, and as they rounded the final bend in a
cloud of dust, they were dead even. Then, just before the finish
line, the buggies edged together and hit, sending both swerving,
Molaye's buggy swinging 180 degrees around locked on the frame of
Az's machine. A second later they skidded across the finish line,
Az's buggy pushing the Lucky Star just ahead as he tried to swerve
his buggy around, so that Molaye crossed the finish line first,
though facing backwards and being pushed by Az's buggy. She was
declared the winner –arriving backwards was apparently neither dust
nor gas when it comes to winning in crater buggy racing. The
situation threatened to turn ugly as our growling teams made their
way to the garage, only to find Az and Molaye laughing like
lifelong pals. The trick of locking a buggy to the forward bumper
just before the finish line is as old as the moons in buggy racing
but Az had been caught by surprise – his competitors to date were
not of that caliber. I had to admire him, he could've been angry
and sulky, but instead was delighted to see it done so deftly, even
if he was the victim. The attitude of the drivers quickly spread to
the rest of their crews, and we had a fine feast afterwards on the
Starsilver
's credit. (Artha insisted, though I offered to
share the cost since the
Starsilver
crew was a bit poorer...
But , they'd not have to face Lucky Laye again.)

The next day, day 18 in Sanre-tay Anchorage, &
Kin armory boat came alongside and we spent the better part of it
carefully transferring the nuclear laser armed missiles back and
forth from our magazine to the & Kin boat. That evening I went
down to PortCity one last time to spend my final evening with my
friend Leafa.

01

The gangway may have swung and creaked a bit when I
slipped the gig to the dock's capture clamp. I was in too much of a
hurry to care. This time.

'You're back early,' said Vynnia who'd stepped out of
the bridge and was watching as I swung onto the bridge deck.
'Something wrong?'

'No,' I said absently, adding as I stepped into my
office. 'I need to do some work.'

Which made no sense, but my mind was racing. Leafa
had passed along some gossip she'd just heard from a client, A gift
of the Neb, if true. But I needed more than a rumor told by a
companion, to act. I had to work it out...

An hour later I stepped on to the bridge and said,
'Would you please call up the Myzar Drift chart that contains the
drift planet Zilantre? I asked Vynnia, as Riv wandered in dressed
in pajamas and slippers.

'What's the blasted fire drill for, Wil. I'm supposed
to be fueling this packet tomorrow. I need my sleep.'

'Never mind. We'll cancel it,' I replied, as the
others I'd signaled – Rafe, Tenry, and Illy hurried in, looking at
me with some concern. 'I think I've some good news, a hot tip on a
cargo and I want a charter proposal in hand by tomorrow morning.
Vyn, have you found the drift planet Zilantre?'

'You've found a cargo, Willy!' exclaimed a shocked
Rafe .

'Well, my friend, Leafa may've and she very kindly
tipped me off.'

'Your companion? I've been beaten by a companion!'
wailed Rafe. 'Just shove me out the air lock now...'

'Later Rafe,' I said absently. I turned to the rest.
'As you probably know I'd a date with Leafa this evening. Knowing
that we'd been looking for an outbound cargo she told me right off
that she'd just heard a rumor, a very solid rumor, of a rush cargo
for Zilantre and wondered if I was interested. I told her in no
uncertain terms I was. She wouldn't reveal the source of the rumor,
but from the amount of detail she provided, it had to be one of her
earlier clients who's directly involved, so it's likely only hours
old. Ah, there's Zilantre which is, according to
MoTan's Drift
World Guide
, a full sized drift world, commercially developed
as a gateway world to that sector of the Myzar Drift.'

'Fully terraformed, with three small ignited moons.
Non-Unity Standard, but with a large Chartered Trading Company
presence with the Patrol policing its approaches. It's a major
supply port for a wide swath of the Myzar and fringe Inner Drifts,'
added Vynnia scanning the planet's chart entry.

'Right. Leafa said that things have gotten rather hot
deeper in the Myzar – some sort of organized raiding or a drift war
brewing between the various drift powers and Chartered Trading
Companies. Raids on mines and mineral refineries have become
commonplace. The companies affected have responded by placing
orders for additional guard ships and patrol frigates,' I began.
'I've spent the last hour verifying this information from shipping
and mining reports and it all checks out.

'Now, according to Leafa, two sales agents of the
Isleta Interstellar Boatbuilders, based on two different planets in
the Aticor system, both sold the same four Centurion Sentinel V
guard boats available in the Aticor system, to a different mining
concern for delivery to Zilantre. The sales contracts were signed
only hours apart as were the purchase orders. And just to make it
interesting, the first contract signed was the second to file the
purchase order. Of course when this was discovered, a day later
when the radio-packets arrived at Isleta's Aticor headquarters,
there was a bit of panic, but they realized that the home office
and shipyards, which happens to be here on Lontria, had just
finished shaking down a series of six newly built Centurion
Sentinel Vs, and the delivery window – 190 days – would allow these
boats to be shipped direct from Sanre-tay to Zilantre just within
the delivery window.

'At least that's what Aticor Sales thought, and let
the contract cancel dates pass while sending the order for the
extra four ships on to the home office, blithely unaware of the
effects our trade melt down was having on interstellar shipping
schedules. Leafa said the order radio-packet arrived today, three
days after the departure of the Tri-System Interstellar cargo liner
Zephyr – the line that Isleta usually ships with. The next
Tri-System ship is not due to arrive for another month, and even if
it sails within a week or so of arrival – which is unlikely – it
would only get the boats to Aticor in a about 165 days from now and
it's still a fifty to sixty day passage from Aticor to Zilantre
pushing out the best delivery time to over 215 days, assuming a
quick turn around time in LaTrina transferring the boats to a
Zilantre freighter. There are five scheduled liners leaving within
the next 30 days bound for the Aticor system, but only one sailing
for LaTrina, and it's smaller and slower than the Tri-System ships,
so they're unlikely to trim too many days off that delivery time.
Isleta doesn't want to lose the sale or their customers by scaling
back the orders, nor do they want to lose their profit with the
failure to deliver penalties. You can see the potential in this for
us. I'm pretty sure we can deliver these four boats directly to
Zilantre within the 170 days we'd likely have if we push it. But we
must act fast to make that date and head off any competitor...

'But can we carry them?' asked Riv.

'Well, I'm working with the dimensions of the
Centurion Sentinel V itself, 44 meters by 11 meters without weapon
pods or any indication of crate or carriage size. I'd think they'd
keep the crate size to a minimum to save on shipping costs so we
should be able to load all four by unshipping the hold partition
between 2 & 3. A Neb-blasted job, but we've done it before. Of
course we'll need the shipping dimensions and the number of
auxiliary containers to be certain, but assuming everything fits,
including extra fuel, the fact that we can offer direct service to
Zilantre, and meet the promised delivery date with some to spare
should give us a good chance of landing this charter.. What we need
now is hard facts. I want to be at Isleta's doors tomorrow morning
with a detailed proposal in hand.

'Right, Rafe, use the ship's office and find out
everything you can about how they ship these boats – all the
shipping specs, size, tonnage, axillary shipments, the works. And
if you can, how much they pay to the lines to ship them as
well.'

'I'll try, Wil, but I have to say, being beaten to a
cargo by a companion does not bode well for my efforts. I'm getting
too old for this...'

'I've no doubt you can do it, Rafe,' I assured him,
too wrapped up in the prospect of a cargo to banter. 'Now, Ten, I'd
appreciate it if you'd track down these hot spots of trouble. I'm
presuming they're inwards of Zilantre, but let's make sure before
we plot our course. Vyn and Illy, would you come up with a course
for Zilantre? Riv and I will do some rough estimates to see what
we'll need for fuel capacity to make Zilantre in 160 – 165 days
with a roughly estimated cargo figure. We'll use my office, feed us
the refined info as you develop it. And feel free to poke holes in
this plan, I'm doing this all on lift off, so please tell me if I'm
missing something.'

We went to work. Rafe dug up information on the
shipment specs and prices I needed, no doubt right from the Isleta
Interstellar files. Illy and Vyn came up with a tentative plot that
would take us along the Azminn to Aticor space lane and through the
Helgot Drift at the Anjur Passage, where we'd need to make an
almost 90 degree course change away from Aticor to steer for
Zilantre along a spur of the Helgot Drift, a passage of 111 aus. We
had survey charts of the course, several thousand years out of
date, and a few more Guild records of ships making this passage,
but few ships from Azminn sailed for Zilantre. LaTrina in the
Aticor system was the main port of departure and arrival from
Zilantre. Still, there seemed nothing too alarming in the charts or
Guild Records. Our tentative course looked to be between 164 and
169 days. Assuming we landed the charter, we'd likely have just
over 175 depending on how fast they could prepare the ships for
shipping. It seemed a fair margin of error, but the Neb can play
its tricks, especially in and around the drifts.

Combining this course with Rafe's cargo data, Riv and
I came up with a rough cargo sketch and fuel budget that would
require 30 auxiliary fuel tanks that would have to be stored in no.
1 hold. If we could get Isleta's standard shipping rate, we'd be
able to earn a very nice profit. Even at current rates, we'd come
out well on the right side of the balance, but given the
alternative, I was pretty sure they'd be happy to settle for the
standard rates. It was late by the time we finished our work.

Vynnia looked in as I summoning the energy to peel
myself off the desk chair and slip though the door-panel of my
sleeping quarters and to my hammock for a two hour nap.

'Are you going to consult Talley?'

I shrugged wearily. 'What do you think?' I asked
spreading the fingers of my hands that were holding my eyes in and
head up.

'It's not my position to say. I was just wondering in
light of our previous conversation.'

'I've the authority to sign the contract without her,
but yes, I'll invite her along after I grab some sleep. It must be
the middle of the night where she is, and we've five hours before
the Isleta office opens in Verde Vale. I'll be up in two hours and
call her. I'd like her along – I've seen her sales skills, she
makes an impression. Maybe this will change her mind. We can hope
anyway.'

'Yes. Perhaps it will. I'd best get some sleep as
well.'

'Right. Thanks for all your work and by all means get
some sleep – take four. I'll send Molaye down to pick up Min if she
decides to join us. If we land this contract, we'll be facing a
very hectic week...