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Space pirates must save the universe with help from the daughter of the last living AI... |
 The sky should have been blue. The clouds should have been white. But the world was no longer so plain. A sheet of dark clouds covered the blue mattress of the sky, and a storm brewed in Earth's bed. Once upon a time, rain in the Toiyabe Range of Nevada would have been a welcome and rare thing. But the war had permanently altered Earth's environment on a global scale, and acid rain came as the newest unwelcome guest to the area. Julius Verndock lowered his gaze to the horizon. In the distance, mountains rose up, threatening to pierce the sheet of clouds—almost daring to tear open the fabric and allow the rain to gush out. Julius stood near the edge of a mountain peak a few meters from his home. An isolated area, only military personnel and their families lived nearby. The overlook allowed Julius a view of the military base below, which housed the Covert Space Operations Wing—better known as CSOW—of the UEP Military. The base, Julius knew by heart, occupied an area six by four kilometers. A cubical force field surrounded it, and a guarded check-in area secured the lone entrance. On each of the four corners of the force field sat remnants of an unfinished anti-air missile defense system. Inside the perimeter, hangars lined up on one side, with barracks and other operational buildings opposite them. Erected onto an old airstrip, landing platforms stood with parked space fighters. The base's hangars housed military spacecraft capable of making trips into outer space at a moment's notice. Julius knew that the hangars also even protected some of the new intergalactic craft, equipped with gravitational generators making them able to jump instantly to anywhere in charted space. Up until recently, the base operated with minimal staff and little activity, but when the war with Majesty—the A.I. Mind—erupted, that all changed. Julius and his younger brother Daryl were forced to move here when the base reactivated. Having been a member of CSOW for years, Julius had grown used to having to pick up and move on short notice, but the timing of this transfer proved more difficult. Just a few weeks earlier, their mother had died in a hovercar accident. And with their father disappearing years ago—Daryl never even knew him—Julius was the twelve-year-old's guardian and only immediate family. Frowning at the harsh reality of the memories, Julius turned to see Daryl walking out to stand by him. Neither said anything as they both stood and observed the base below. After a few minutes, Julius felt a cold slap of moisture-soaked wind. He suppressed a shiver and looked up. The skies would unleash their toxic rain soon, so he figured it would probably be better to take Daryl inside before it started. "C'mon," he said, motioning for Daryl to follow him. But as he turned to head back, Julius noticed a sudden bustle of activity at the base. People scattered like ants in all directions, and dozens of personnel began spilling out of the barracks. Taking a step closer to the edge, Julius leaned forward to get a better look. Something was happening—something really big. A second later, the sound of the air raid siren confirmed it. "Sir, look!" Daryl said, pointing. "I see it," Julius said. "Something's wrong down there. Look, I need to go check it out, so you go inside." "No, not that!" Daryl said, pointing upward at the sky. "Up there! Look!" Julius looked up. In the sky above the base, a hazy stream of red and violet clouds began to appear. As the clouds swirled downward in curving motions, it coalesced to form what looked like a colorful tornado—heading straight at the base. Julius caught his breath and his heart felt like it stopped. Holy shit ... He knew exactly what they were looking at. "Get out of here, Daryl!" Julius yelled. "Get away now! And stay away from any buildings! Get behind a boulder or something ... and don't come back until the clouds are gone. Understood?" Eyes wide, Daryl nodded, then turned and ran off. Hopping from rock to rock, Julius descended from the peak to ground level. At the base of the slope, he leapt to the ground, barely noticing the dust he kicked up as he landed. As he stopped himself from losing his balance, Julius looked toward the base. The vaporous kaleidoscope of clouds still clawed its way from the sky toward its target—and any moment now, it would touch down. Julius darted toward the base. As he raced forward, he observed other CSOW pilots boarding their spacecraft. With each step, Julius heard in his eardrums the sound of his heartbeat reverberating in unison with his boots pounding on the ground. To his dread, the cloud of nanobots reached the base before he made it there. Slicing through the force field as though it didn't exist, the gases poured against the ground and bounced off, splashing up in swirling patterns. They then organized themselves, coalescing into a compact, round ball of gas. The ball glowed a bright yellow and the air around it seemed to shimmer and blur. The world seemed to slow down as Julius kept moving forward. Everything in that moment seemed to go silent. He could not even hear his heartbeat anymore. Then the flash of light came. Julius felt the impact hit him, followed by the deafening sound of the explosion. He stumbled toward the ground, ears ringing as he fell. Somehow, he managed to break the fall with his hands. Sand and wind slapped against him from the explosion, and he held his eyes shut for a moment. Blinking them open, he looked up at the aftermath of the attack. Where the command center had once stood, the nanocloud now hovered, seemingly gloating over the building's dead skeleton. Julius' heart sank: hundreds of servicemen typically worked in that building. The cloud still resembled a compact ball of light. But now, its colors stopped cycling and it settled into a solid orange color. To Julius, it looked like a sun setting over the base. For a fleeting moment, he felt a strange peace come over him as he stood up and stared at it, almost in a trance. The nanocloud began to grow and its form became vaporous again. Its shape changed, and it soon towered over the base structures. No longer an orange ball of gas, it now looked like a mountain of raging fire. The area around it began to haze from the heat it gave off. Then, from the fire, flaming tentacles reached out and began striking at anything near it. The tentacles lashed out at the barracks, the spacecraft, machinery, and even the fleeing men. Still standing in a daze, Julius watched the terrified expression of one man as he tried to flee. The fire swatted him and his body became engulfed in the flames, consuming him. Within the flames, Julius could make out the man's silhouette dropping to the ground. Once the tentacle finished its deadly arc, Julius could see the remains of the man: a flaming black corpse. Blinking several times more, then shaking his head, Julius snapped himself out of his shock and scrambled forward, running toward the chaos—he had to help. If he could find the electro-magnetic pulse generator, maybe—a big maybe—he could save the rest of the base. As he breached the base perimeter, mobs of enlisted men fled past him. Recognizing one of the serviceman, Julius grabbed him by the arm. The man—Higgins—looked at him, his eyes wide. "Julius!" Higgins shouted. "Oh my God, man! Run, man! Run!" he said, trying to break free from Julius' grip. "Wait!" Julius grabbed both his arms and shook him. "The EMP generator, where is it? What building is it?" The man looked around the base, his eyes confused and still apparently lost in the visions of death. Julius shook him again. "The EMP!" Julius said. "Uh ... EMP ... uh, Hangar 12," Higgins said, then hesitated. "Maybe 13 ... I don't know. Now let me go!" He broke free of Julius' grip and ran off. Julius made his way to the base entrance checkpoint. The force field grid was off, either damaged by the attack—or deactivated purposely. He ran through the checkpoint and into the center of the base. Ahead of him a curtain of black smoke draped itself over most everything. He saw no other servicemen at this point, although the smell of burned flesh seemed to indicate that some had fallen nearby. The air raid siren had gone dead. The occasional sound of crashing metal replaced it, with the crackling of fire filling any silent gaps. As he cleared the black curtain, Julius got a good view of the nanobot cloud. Still some distance away, it floated over the airstrip near the hangars. Its lashing tentacles sliced through one of the hangar doors on the far end, tearing a hole into it. Julius ducked down behind the wall of one of the hangars. Hangar 12 and 13 sat farther down, closer to the nanobot cloud. He sneaked behind the line of hangars, using the walls to stay out of sight. With no rear entrances for the hangars, Julius would have to find a way to the front when he got to 12 and 13. On top of that, the hangar numbers weren't indicated in the back, so he counted them off as he passed each one. As he finished counting off the twelfth, Julius heard the sound of a Z-4 fighter lifting off on the other side the hangar. He dared a look between hangars to see what was happening. It appeared that one of the other CSOW pilots had managed to take off in a Z-4. Julius watched the fighter circle the nanobot cloud. The menace tried to swat the fighter with a fire tentacle, but the pilot dodged it. Then the fighter pierced through the air, a sonic boom sounding off as it disappeared into the sky. Julius could make out the Z-4's silhouette in the clouds as it circled around and around for an attack. Feeling a surge of pride in his fellow pilot, Julius wished he could join him. The pilot probably flew without missiles, but he wasn't completely unarmed. The Z-4 fighter had EMP beam cannons on it, but they had short range. The pilot would need to strafe close to the target to be effective. If he landed a good enough shot, he might be able to send it into retreat. As Julius considered all of this, the nanobot cloud began to position itself in preparation for the oncoming attack. It stopped lancing out at the base and held still, waiting for the fighter. Although the cloud had no facial expressions to read, Julius somehow sensed that it now gave its full attention to the incoming fighter. Not hesitating to take advantage of the diversion, Julius sprinted forward to the front of Hangar 12, sneaking inside without a second look. The hangar looked untouched by the attack. Boxes and crates sat piled against the walls inside of the hangar. Toward the back, Julius could see some machinery. He made his way toward it, hearing the echo of his footsteps inside. When he reached the back, he inspected the machinery. This was not the EMP equipment, he was in the wrong hangar. Frowning, he hoped that the equipment really was in Hangar 13. Julius crept back to the front of the hangar. Peering out, he saw no sign of the nanobot cloud. He looked up at the sky—no fighter either. He wondered if perhaps the pilot had scared it away. Not waiting to find out, Julius darted to the next hangar. Once inside, he sensed something different about this hangar. Like the last one, crates sat stacked against the side walls, but this time in the back he could see some familiar machinery. As he ran through the hangar, Julius caught sight of some movement beyond the machinery. "Who's there?" he called, slowing his pace. Several faces popped up from behind crates. When they saw him approach, their eyes grew wide and they ducked back out of sight. "It's okay, people," Julius said. "It's just me." As the echo of his last word reverberated inside the hangar, he felt an eerie sensation—like a million ants crawling up and down his body. Then his ears rang with a crackling sound, like fire and electricity intertwined. Not turning around, Julius dropped his gaze to the floor and saw his shadow stretching out before him. Oh hell ... He spun around and came face-to-face with it: the nanobot cloud. All of Julius' senses felt assaulted at once. The cloud towered above him like a mountain of energy, fire, and electricity—a cacophony of ethereal energies swirling in a deep broth. His skin crawled, and his hair actually stood on end. Even the air seemed charged by its presence, and Julius noticed the unmistakable scent of ozone. Looking up, Julius saw that the top of the thing nearly touched the ceiling of the hangar. It appeared as if it looked down at him, carrying its tentacles of fire and energy above him as it now approached. Julius stood his ground for a moment, taking in what he saw. He had never been so close to this thing before. As he looked inside the streams of energy that seemed to course through its veins like blood, he could almost sense a pair of eyes looking at him. He stared back at those unseen eyes, at the intelligence hidden within the cloud of energy and fire, and he projected his hate for the thing. Hating it for the pain and suffering that his comrades had endured, and for the tens of thousands who had already died fighting it. At the same time, though, he felt a sense of awe—at its beauty, its sheer power, the superior intelligence that he knew controlled it. He felt himself almost relax, becoming passive. Something so exotic and intelligent could not possibly be so evil. But as it crept closer to him, its fire tentacles raised high, Julius snapped out of his reverie. He backed away inch by inch. He knew it could kill him at any moment, but its tentacles did not strike him. Instead, it stared at him as he kept his gaze on it—and in that moment, he knew that it understood that he was not afraid of it. "Go ahead," Julius shouted. "Do it!" Behind him, he could hear the sound of machinery activating. Suddenly, the cloud thrust its fire tentacles toward Julius. A flash of white light reflected off of the walls around him and a thunderclap resounded. He looked at the cloud and could see it dissolve from its menacing fiery form to formlessness. And just as its tentacles reached out to touch him, they dissolved. The pulsating energy winked out and the whole thing seemed to disintegrate before his eyes. A thin wisp of smoke evaporated into the air—and all that remained was a ring of fire burning on the floor. From behind, a group of men rushed forward with fire extinguishers. Julius stared at the dying flames expectantly, but he could not sense that intelligence anymore; this was just ordinary fire. Soon, the flames were out, erasing all traces of the thing. But then Julius saw something. He looked down between his boots. A small flame flickered from the remains of the tentacle that had reached for him. Grimacing, and feeling a sense of satisfaction, he stepped on the flickering flame with his boot. "That was very brave of you, Captain." Julius whirled around at the sound of a familiar a voice: the words had come from a man whom Julius assumed was now lying dead in the rubble of the Command Center. But there stood General Harving, the base commander. So ... Julius thought, his mind spinning. If Harving's alive ... Either they knew the attack was coming ... or it was just blind luck that the general survived the onslaught. Julius chose to accept the latter. Almost in a daze of swirling thoughts, Julius realized he should have saluted the general, but Harving didn't seem to mind. "You led it straight to us," Harving said, taking a step toward Julius. "Without your initiative, we would never have been close enough to use the EMP generator. The base owes you." Julius said nothing, only nodding. Yes, he had done it all right. But when he'd yelled, "Do it!" he was talking to the A.I., not the personnel behind him—whom he didn't even know were in a position to activate the machinery. Once again, he had accepted his fate—yet apparently fate had other ideas for him. "When you're done here, Captain," Harving said, "I want you to come see me. I'd like to have a talk with you about some opportunities that have recently come up." The general walked away, leaving Julius in his reverie. A second later, another man walked up and stood next to Julius—the man's long hair gave him away as one of the civilian scientists. "It doesn't feel like it's gone," Julius said, mostly to himself. "That's because it's not," the scientist said. "There's millions of them on the ground there in front of you. You can't see them, but they're there, just waiting to get back in contact with Majesty. We'll be scooping them up and destroying most of them. It will take that bitch a while to make replacements." Julius turned to him. "Bitch?" "Oh yeah," the scientist said. "It's a bitch all right. I mean, didn't this whole thing start because she wanted to have a 'baby'?" the scientist asked, making little quote marks in the air with his fingers on the last word. Saying nothing, Julius turned away from the man and walked out of the hangar. He looked up into the sky. Beneath the sheet of black clouds, he could make out the remnants of the nanobots slithering their way back into space. Around him, several pilots were hopping into their fighters to pursue them. Wishing he could join them, Julius knew that his priority lay elsewhere. He looked toward his home on the distant peak, his thoughts turning quickly to Daryl. He left the base and sprinted to it. But with each successive footfall, he felt lighter, almost weightless—until suddenly he felt like he was flying through air ... ******  Julius jumped up from his bunk, trying to blink away the dream. But as he rubbed his eyes, the stark images surfaced like fossils dug up from an ancient past. It had been over a hundred years since his days in CSOW—since the days of the war. Had it all really happened the way it did in the dream? He got out of bed and walked to his desk. From inside a drawer, he pulled out a digital organizer pad—old technology, yes, but still serving the purpose of storage for old photos. Julius thumbed through the images, finding old ones from his days back at CSOW. Pictures of the hangars, the spacecraft, the aftermath of the attack ... long-lost details that matched his dream all too well. Why dream about it now? he wondered. He had no reason to think about those days—a forgotten past that nobody cared about, especially him. Knowing he'd never fall back asleep, Julius put the pad away and got dressed. He needed to get out and clear his mind, which meant a walk to the observation lounge, the best place for his own personal escape into solitude and reflection. He left his quarters and began walking down the corridor when he felt a vibration in his earlobe. He finger-tapped the skull earring that served as a communication device. A small holographic projection appeared in front of him. The face that materialized was a woman with short-cropped hair. Her lively green eyes seemed to contradict her plain-faced features, something that Julius always appreciated about her looks. "Yes, Laina?" Julius said, recognizing a hint of irritation in his own voice. "Did I interrupt anything?" Laina said. "I was headed to the observation lounge. Why?" "Oh, nothing. When you have a chance, come by my quarters. We need to talk about some personnel issues." "Personnel?" Julius snorted. "Maybe you should be talking to the personnel director. Though, I hear he is quite busy these days filling out exit paperwork, so you may need to schedule an appointment with his stalwart assistant." "Sarcasm noted," Laina said, rolling her eyes. "Seriously, though, we need to talk about these unruly pirates that you call a crew." "Careful, Laina. You might hurt someone's feelings talking about our employees like that." "Hurt feelings? On this rusty old barge? I doubt it. The only hurt feelings you'll find are the ones at the pleasure ports we leave behind." Julius frowned at that comment and the memory it dredged up. On their last shore leave near a pleasure station around Mars, one of his crew had raped a woman. The bridge crew had intercepted the complaint from the station to patrolling UEP Enforcement in time to recall the crew and manage a hasty escape. Julius never found out who the guilty party was, but if he did, he would bring back the time-honored tradition of keelhauling. "Fine. I'll be by later," Julius said, cutting the connection with a tap of the ear-link. Julius continued his way to the observation lounge. As he walked the once heavily traveled corridors, he was reminded how much his ship now showed its age. The previously polished walls had deteriorated into stained and scratched surfaces. Without sufficient crew to assign to the arduous task of cleaning her up, the Sea Wolf had been neglected. If the ship were still a part of the United Earth Parliament Navy, it would have been scuttled in a space junkyard somewhere. The Sea Wolf was older than Julius himself, he mused—long past her prime, when she did battle against the Martian Confederacy Navy in the first post-A.I. war. Now, the ship was probably the last of its kind ... just like her captain, he thought as he continued down a curving corridor. Nevertheless, it was his ship—well, his and Laina's anyway. Slowing his pace, Julius shook his head. Crew morale was another problem. Due to their last failed engagement, they'd lost a good portion of their crew because of attrition and desertion. They were also without dedicated pilots for their Z-40 fighters; crewmembers would be doubling as fighter pilots along with fulfilling their other vital roles, leaving the Sea Wolf terribly inefficient during a prolonged engagement. Perhaps he and Laina could bounce some ideas off each other to help with these problems. Maybe that's what she wanted to talk about, he thought as he picked up his pace again. Julius, though, came to a sudden stop at a corridor junction when he noticed a pungent, sulfuric odor in the air. He looked down the corridor and noticed a crew member working on a section of wall. "What are you working on, spacer?" Julius said. Startled, the crewman looked up and dropped something. He made a sloppy salute, coinciding with the reverberation of his tools clattering against the floor. "Yes, sir! I ... umm," he stammered. "I'm working on the irrigation system, sir!" Julius saluted back and deliberately looked at the man's rank insignia: Junior Repair Technician, Spaceman Recruit. "Where's the rest of your outfit, spacer?" Julius asked. "I lost the last hand, sir—so, well, I have to clean this up alone. I think the rest are still playing cards in the recreation lounge." Julius frowned. He wasn't sure whether he should reprimand the others for leaving this recruit to do their job, or commend them for working a new recruit to the bone; it did build character in them, after all. "Very well, carry on," he said. Julius moved down the hall and sniffed the air again. "I want this fixed and the smell gone by tomorrow, spacer." Julius entered the observation lounge at the end of the corridor. As usual, he had the room to himself. The rear bulkhead had a set of tables and a drink dispenser alongside it. Transparent metal walls wrapped around the lounge, giving a breathtaking view of the stars and asteroids. Julius touched a panel on the wall that activated the image magnification. A holographic projection appeared, covering the walls with a collage of images showing cosmic objects of interest. He moved to the side of the lounge that seemed to give the best view, letting his gaze take in the sight of the quiet companions that stared back at him from the other side of the metal walls. In one of the images, he could see colorful gases painting the canvas of space with their hazy strokes of bright red and blue swirls. The stars along the edges of the nebula, drowned in its luminescence, faded into tiny speckles within its colorful fabric. To Julius, the nebula's beauty paled in comparison to the other spectacle on display: two asteroids on an apparent collision course. Like billiards set in motion on a galactic pool table, the two boulders hurtled through space at each other with fierce conviction. Julius admired the two great behemoths—both determined to destroy the other, both unwilling to back away from their inevitable collision. The stubbornness within the two rocks mirrored something in himself. For some, finding traits in others that mirrored their own tended to make one resent the other; but not Julius—he had no regrets, no reservations about what he was. Julius understood that he lived in the shadows, the fringes of modern civilization: a place few dared to visit and even fewer dared to live. He saw a bit of himself in everything around him here, from the beauty of the distant nebula to the cold stone within the asteroids. He loved space and he felt like an integral part of it. Space was his ocean and the cold dark of infinity suited him. It was a place he could live and share with the quiet companions of asteroids and debris. These companions did not speak, but he could hear them nonetheless; they had stories to tell. Stories of the millions of years they witnessed as they drifted in the void. They witnessed the expansion of mankind into the universe, the countless wars that ensued, and the one big war that nearly ended it all. He was not there for those millions of years, but he had been there for the past 150 or so, and he did have a central role in the great wars of that time—days long past where unsung heroes fought and died. He looked down at himself with satisfaction; he certainly did not look over 150 years old. The marvels of anti-aging technology gave him the body of someone in his thirties; a final parting gift for humanity from Majesty before its ultimate demise at the hands of the United Earth Parliament. Blinking, Julius returned his attention to the show taking place in front of him. The two great asteroids now met head on, their impact sending fragments of themselves hurling in every direction. The anticipation of the explosion was overshadowed by its disappointing conclusion. Julius frowned. The silence of the collision was always unsatisfying. Although he had seen the spectacle many times before, he always hoped to hear a great boom that would somehow defy the fundamental laws of space. He watched the fragments dissipate, spreading out to join the smaller crowds of rock that floated in the dense field of space junk. Disappointed, Julius left the observation lounge behind and headed to the nearest elevator. Once inside he spoke a command to the elevator panel. "Deck Nine." He waited to hear the sound of the magnetic clamps releasing and the elevator moving, but nothing happened. "Deck Niiinnne," he enunciated. Nothing happened. Aggravated, he opened up the panel and punched in the deck number. He could hear the clamps release and the elevator moved. He was glad Laina was not there to chastise him about the condition of the ship. The elevator doors soon parted and he stepped out. Deck Nine comprised the senior officer quarters, including his own. He walked to the end of the corridor where Laina's quarters were and entered. Laina, a creature of comfort, had the most luxurious suite in the ship. It occupied a space that once comprised several crew quarters; walls had been knocked down in order to provide her the necessary space that she claimed to need. "What took you so long? Trouble with the elevators, huh?" Laina was seated in a plush couch surrounded by similar couches and chairs, and a small table. Julius gazed around the suite. Aside from being somewhat extravagant, the thing someone would notice the most was the various pieces of artwork; some on the walls, others strewn about the floor waiting for a place to be hung. "No, I just took my time so that I could irritate you more." Laina gave him a bemused look. "Fascinating. I would almost think you were joking with me, Julius. The years of working with me are finally getting through that emotionless, military exterior of yours." "I wouldn't count on that; there does have to be some semblance of discipline and order on this ship. And it is certainly not going to be taken seriously if it comes from you. No offense." Laina shrugged indifferently. "You be the brawn, Julius. I'll continue to be the beauty and the brains." Not in the mood for verbal fencing, Julius found a couch opposite Laina's and plowed himself into it. He looked around at the paintings that hung from the wall; one caught his eye. It was a portrait of a heavy cruiser, looking very much like the Sea Wolf. The ship in it had the same saucer-like construction and tube-shaped secondary hull perched on top. A pair of large accelerated proton cannons were visible, along with other weapon emplacements along its cylindrical bow. But the thing that stood out the most from the portrait was a colorful band of gas that appeared to be slicing through the ship's hull; the source of the gas could not be seen. "Is that one new?" he said. Laina followed his gaze. "Oh, yes, and that's a real picture not a drawing. Something I picked up from an associate of mine who deals in war memorabilia. It is an old and very rare piece actually. The ship is the UES California. The picture was taken from one of its accompanying ships before it got away. The swirls of gas are nanobot clouds ripping through the hull; remarkable scene that must have been. I thought the colorful explosions were pretty." Julius stood up to make a closer inspection of it. He studied the image intently, tracing the swirls of nanobots in his mind. They reminded him of the beautiful nebula he had witnessed earlier in the observation lounge. "They were taken by surprise," Julius said. "The nanobots had morphed into the form of a large, adrift asteroid. The California had no idea how close the threat was until it was too late. The ship, along with all hands, was destroyed. The rest of the task force barely managed to get away. They had to unleash an EMP burst. It was a full rout." Laina made a face. "Then I guess you know the story." "It was a historic defeat," Julius said matter-of-factly. "Oh. Well, the truth is, it looked so much like the Sea Wolf that I just had to have it." Julius frowned and returned to the couch. "You mentioned a personnel problem, Laina?" he said as he dropped himself onto the couch again. A noticeable creak could be heard from the impact. Julius could see Laina wince. "Yes," Laina said. "I put the word out that we're looking for more spacers to crew this flying hubcap of yours. Naturally, no one was interested. But I received word from one of my associates on Mars that a joint UEP and Martian Enforcement sting has apprehended one of our competitors ... Stromond—you remember him right? His compound was raided and assets seized. Of course, many of his former employees got away. Word has it they're hiding out somewhere on Deimos-1. I'm thinking it would be a good idea to recruit them before an ambitious bug crawls up their ass and they decide to go into business for themselves." "So they finally got Stromond, huh? Can't say I'm all that surprised. He was taking too many chances with that drug operation. Dealing in Elation has a bad habit of pissing off the UEP. You know that's the third major Elation operation they shutdown this year?" She nodded. "Yes, so I've heard. Good thing we don't deal in it—and we never will. You'll be surprised to hear, though, that it wasn't any brilliant work from UEP Enforcement that got him in the end. Apparently, he was turned in by one of his own. What a shocker—pirates are usually such an honorable and trustworthy bunch." "Really?" Julius said. "And why would we want to recruit a bunch of potential traitors?" "Oh, don't worry, yourself. I know who was really behind the tipoff, and he's not associated with this group. These ruffians we're meeting are desperate for a new home; I've been in contact with them already." "Well, it sounds like you've already made up your mind about taking them aboard." Laina raised an eyebrow. "You know how hard it is to get people willing to admit to pirate experience? Not something you find on a resume, Julius." "Oh, so we're pirates again now. I thought we were a company with paid employees." "Yes," Laina said. "Highly overpaid employees. But whatever—it's not easy to get people who know the drill. Especially after that last bout we had against the UEP. Word does spread, you know?" "Look, if you bothered to keep score, you would notice that the UEP is way behind in the game. Mistakes will happen, but we survive." "Oh, calm down. What we lost is a drop in the bucket; both in profits and lives. If you ask me, we lost the worse half of the crew anyway—we're better off without them." "Maybe," Julius said, "but we're also running on a skeleton crew, and we have no dedicated pilots." "Both problems will soon be corrected, once we hire this bunch on Deimos-1." Julius leaned forward— she got his attention. "Are you saying they're pilots? You didn't mention that." "Well, I just did. And we need them," Laina said. "What we also need," Julius said, "is a morale boost. After we pick up these recruits, we should put in at New Las Vegas. It's far enough from UEP influence that no one would be looking for us there. We could park the Sea Wolf near it and send shuttles to Deimos-1. From there, if all is good, they could take the public shuttles off that rock to the Martian resort." "They? You're not going?" "No. Who could I trust to make sure the remaining crew doesn't run off with the ship?" Laina looked stunned. "You don't really think they'd do that, do you?" "Don't think so, but you want to chance it? I think the shore leave will help our morale problem. If for nothing else, then by the time they're done gambling away their credits, they'll have no choice but to stick it out with us for lack of money." Laina smiled. "Now that's smart thinking." She leaned back in her chair and looked up at the ceiling with a dreamy look. "New Las Vegas. I haven't been there in a long, long time. You know, last time I was there, I met this wonderful man from Europa while playing poker. He was tall and handsome and ..." Her voice trailed off. Julius stood up and began to leave the room. "Hey, where you going?" she asked. "I'm going to take my shuttle and do a flyby of Deimos-1. I'm not taking the Sea Wolf near it for nothing." "I see. I'll send their files over to your shuttle. I guess you don't trust my contacts, huh?" "You know the answer to that," Julius said as he headed out the door. |
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