NASTRAGULL: Pirates (31 page)

"Sorry, sir," Alec said sheepishly. "I've never seen anything like this before."

"Eh, you'll get used to it. Once you spend a little time in a place like this, you'll be amazed by how much it shrinks on you, and it won't be long before you miss the wide-open spaces of your homeworld—or any habitable world, for that matter."

Alec and Behl took a pneumatic train to a lower level, then disembarked. Alec was taken aback yet again when he looked up and saw clouds floating in the artificial sky. After a long moment, Behl nudged him. "Something, ain't it? Those are real, by the way. The place is so big it has its own weather. Even rains sometimes."

Shaking his head, Alec followed the Captain over to a pair of conservatively dressed beings who Behl introduced as Lady Fuzza and Captain Zlo of Marengo, the capital of the interstellar nation that styled itself the Sun Empire.

"I was taught that Marengo was populated by Oman-descended peoples," Alec said quietly to Behl, while greeting Lady Fuzza. This lady was by no means Oman or near-Oman, and she didn't have the appearance of a transgenic, either; like her companion, she had a crest of bright feathers, no obvious ears, and her skin resembled gray peach-fuzz. Lady Fuzza heard his less-than subtle remark, but seemed not to be bothered by it; indeed, she tossed her head back and laughed.

"Don't believe everything you hear, my noble little Oman," she said warmly. "There are so many different species on Marengo. We've been a multi-species society ever since the Long War and the expansion that followed. It's just that our...chief exports tend to be omanoid. You Omans and your descendant races are so very adaptable."

"Please, milady, forgive my ignorance; I hope I haven't offended you."

Again Lady Fuzza threw her head back and laughed, then reached out with an elongated arm and squeezed his shoulder. "My dear, no one is offended. It takes much more than that to offend old Lady Fuzza. Now tell me, young master Horn, what do you know of Marengan craftsmanship insofar as ship design is concerned?"

"Not much," Alec admitted.

The Lady nodded and made a grand gesture; the air before them immediately shimmered, revealing the frigate that he had admired from the observation port back on Star-Dice. It was sleek, black, and aerodynamically designed, proving it was as much at home in an atmosphere as in deep space. At a distance, it had seemed a bit fragile, even spidery; it seemed very much otherwise now, hovering with a deadly grace that caused Alec to take a sharp breath. Up close, it seemed enormous.

They all moved onto a nearby hover pad, which took them up and around the ship while Lady Fuzza and Captain Zlo extolled its virtues. Alec listened with only one ear, content to drink in the sight of the extraordinary vessel. Behl interrupted them over and over again with sharp questions, but both of the Marengans were happy to respond to everything he asked.

Eventually they stopped near the bridge, and Captain Zlo said, "As you may know, we Marengans aren't particularly sentimental, so we never gave this ship a name; it retains its original designation of
K-13
. This ship is one out of six hundred once commissioned in the Marengo fleet. Because we recently upgraded our navy to the latest generation of warships, they have all been decommissioned, and now civilians may own them. Everything is more or less standard. Well, standard as we are used to on Marengo; I believe most other cultures would find them luxurious. Of course, we have up-graded all living quarters to civilian tastes."

Behl asked, "Any cloaking device?"

"No, no cloaking device. As I'm sure you know, cloaking devices are illegal for civilians to own in most sectors. What you saw here was furnished by the station. However, the ship does have an excellent stealth system; this class was built more for scouting than combat."

"Now, let us take a look inside," said Lady Fuzza. She directed the hover plate to land at its original position beside the frigate.

The
K-13
stood on five huge landing struts. When Lady Fuzza gestured next, a vertical crack appeared on the fore side of one of the legs, streaming white light. Panels slid aside to reveal a cramped lift, which took them up into the ship's interior.

Over the next few hours, Alec and Behl were shown all the ship's copious amenities, and Alec was struck by how fondly both Lady Fuzza and Zlo spoke of the
K-13
, despite the famous Marengan lack of sentimentality. It was clear that they loved the ship, and Alec wondered why they wanted to sell it. When he asked them that point blank, both sighed deeply. They looked at each other, and for the first time there was apprehension in their eyes. After a long moment, Lady Fuzza said quietly, "We have no choice. My Captain and I have been waiting here for our contracted cargo, two hundred tons of crystal-silver, for months now. We put almost everything we owned into that order, and already had several buyers lined up, at an colossal potential profit."

Zlo confirmed, "The profit would have been more than enough for us to pay off our loans on this ship and order our next cargo. After that, it would have been all profit. But our cargo never showed up. The cargo ship apparently was destroyed or taken by pirates." 

Alec and Behl glanced at each other; neither said a word.

Behl quickly changed the subject. "Crystal-silver. That's why one of the cargo holds was built with extra radiation protection."

"Indeed, and of course we installed plenty of extra defenses to protect our cargo," added Lady Fuzza with pride. She smiled, a bit sadly. "Unfortunately, we did not bother to insure the full value of the cargo, given the lack of piracy and natural hazards in this sector. But if you purchase the
K-13
, gentlemen, we will have enough to pay off our debt and to purchase tickets back to Marengo, and from there I don't know what will happen. There will be a few upset investors to deal with, of course, but I expect we can handle that when the time comes."

"What will happen to your crew?" Alec asked.

Captain Zlo shrugged. "They will travel back with us, of course. We owe them that much."

Behl kindly asked for a moment alone, and gestured to Alec to follow him to the other side of the cargo hold they were in. Lady Fuzza and Captain Zlo withdrew to the corridor outside, making no obvious attempts to listen in on their conversation. After a moment of muted argument, Alec and Behl stepped out into the corridor where Lady Fuzza and her Captain awaited them. "I have a suggestion," said Alec, and then reconsidered. "Or better, let's call it a business proposition."

Both the Marengans looked at him with a mixture of suspicion and interest.

"Milady, you're asking one hundred million credits for the
K-13
as is, correct?" She nodded, whereupon Alec played one of the hole cards Behl had furnished him with: "You realize, of course, that it is possible to find a similar vessel of this class for less than half that price, brand new. In fact, it is not very difficult."

Lady Fuzza seemed about to interrupt; but when Alec noticed this, he made a small motion with his hand, and Lady Fuzza allowed him to continue. "Though I doubt that there are any more of these Marengan ships for sale in this sector."

Alec paused to allow Lady Fuzza to speak. "We won't sell for any less, and we have had several buyers looking at her already."

"And a few more after you," Captain Zlo cut in.

Alec smiled as he said, "But here's what I'll do. I'll pay you two hundred million credits. One hundred million up front, and another one hundred million once we're done with the ship, one standard year from now." He grinned at their astonished expressions and he continued, "And to top it off, you can take back your ship at that time—or whatever's left of her."

The first of the two Marengans to regain his composure was Zlo. "What's the catch? We won't do anything illegal."

Lady Fuzza peered at Alec through slitted eyes as she echoed, "Yes, what is the catch? For that price, you can buy a full-sized cruiser."

"That's not what I want. I want your cargo frigate. I need something small and fast, with a high carrying capacity. Most cargo ships aren't built for long-haul intergalactic travel the way this one is, and certainly don't have the arms and armor the
K-13
does. I also want to hire your crew for the duration. It will be dangerous work, and the pay will be commensurate." Alec took a deep breath, placed his hands behind his back, and began pacing the deck in front of Lady Fuzza and Captain Zlo.

Behl paid them no attention; he was looking over various aspects of the ship, making rough measurements and entering data on a clipboard comp.

After a long moment of pacing, Alec came to a decision. He looked up at the Marengans and stated, "We are going hunting."

"Explain," the Lady snapped.

"Hunting for what?" asked Captain Zlo simultaneously.

"Pirates."

The word hung in the air for a long moment, the only sound being Behl muttering to himself and tapping on the keys of the clipcomp. Scowling, Lady Fuzza finally said, with notable hostility in her voice, "Mr. Horn, it was a... pleasure, and now we must ask you to leave us. We do hope that you will find a ship more suitable for your needs."

"Please, allow me to finish—"

Captain Zlo cut Alec off. "I think not. As my partner here just said, leave us."

"Your cargo, the two hundred tons of crystal-silver. It was on a deep-space cargo ship called
C-5,
correct?" Behl said quietly, looking down at the clipcomp.

That got their attention. "How did you know that?" demanded Lady Fuzza.

"Because the very same pirates who took your cargo captured the cruise liner I was captaining."

"Impossible!" blurted Captain Zlo. "No pirate activity has been reported in this sector for the last twenty years! That's why we and our investors choose this region of space to trade in."

Behl nodded laconically. "Sure, and since there's no piracy in the sector, you don't need any piracy insurance, right? If a ship and its cargo were to go missing with no further explanation, it couldn’t be pirates. And since the ship is never seen again, you can't claim natural disaster or accident, so the administrators of this trading facility don't have to reimburse your insurance claim anyway. At least I think that's how it reads on your contract here." Behl held up his clipcomp in front of them.

"Where did you get that information?" Lady Fuzza asked hotly. 

"Never mind that. Now, look here." Behl pushed a few keys, and the display changed. "In the last five years, which is as much data as I can access, three hundred and seven ships have been reported missing in this sector. That's not unusual for a region of space as large and active as this one. Now, what's interesting is that not even a molecule of one of those ships or a farthing of its cargo has ever been recovered, and there have been no piracy investigations at all. That's why this sector is remarkably free of piracy—nobody looks for it, so it doesn't exist. Self-fulfilling prophesy. And also, not a single one of the insurance claims for these ships has been paid out, since all of them are still reported as missing, and the standard ten-year loss assumption clauses have never been activated."

Without saying a word, Lady Fuzza took the clipcomp from Behl and studied the display. Captain Zlo joined her, and Alec could hear him whisper, "I warned you of this three years ago, you and the investors. But did you listen?"

Lady Fuzza handed the pad to Captain Zlo, otherwise ignoring him. "We shall make an official report to the Key Administrators about what you have discovered, sir. But my decision still stands."

Behl rolled his eyes. "Milady, that would be unwise."

"Are you threatening me?" she all but shrieked, in a tone in which anger warred with disbelief.

Alec held up his hands in a placating gesture. "Of course not, milady! Perhaps my friend's comment was rather indelicately put.
We
pose no threat to you. But think it through. New Frontier controls nearly all the trade in this sector, for thousands of light years all around. They guarantee that local traders are safe from piracy...and yet ships still disappear at an alarming rate.

"And if you haven't already guessed from what Captain Behl just told you, we ourselves were taken by pirates not too many light years from here. We escaped from them only through an unusual, convoluted series of events, like something you might see in an adventure vid. Clearly, then, piracy
does
occur in this sector—and it is impossible to believe that the authorities are unaware of it.

"So," Alec said, taking in their suddenly frightened faces, "who do you think could possibly have enough political and pecuniary power to conspire like this and profit?"

After taking a deep breath, Zlo said, "You say you escaped from pirates. Why should we believe you?"

Alec pulled a shiny crystalline mass out of his pocket. "Does this look familiar?" He tossed it to Zlo.

Zlo's eyes widened. "By all the gods and demons! Crystal-silver!"

"You might want to check the registry number, but I think that might be one of yours."

The Marengan traced the figures limned onto one facet with a shaky finger. "I do not have to check. I recognize the number, and here is our house's trading sigil."