A Matter of Honor (Privateer Tales Book 9) (6 page)

"You'll get a chance to find out shortly. If I'm right, that's Mom and Merik coming in the smithy's mule right now." Amon pointed at a pair of headlights bouncing off a nearby building.

"But, it's only 0630. They said they weren't starting on the gates until 0700." Merrie's voice rose.

"Don't sweat it. It'll take us at least two hours to set the straps in the wall and another hour to bolt the hinges onto the door. I'll go slowly. They're always accusing me of it anyway," Amon said, looking at the sooty face of his evening's companion.

"Don't get in trouble for me."

"We're in this together, Merrie. You've made a believer out of me and I want to see what I can make from your steel. I want to try to make a real sword, not just daggers."

"You mean it?"

"From what you've shown me, the only skills I'm missing are folding and tempering. Otherwise, swords are just like making long, thin iron daggers." Amon stood and offered his hand.

Merrie brushed off her pants as Nurit and Merik pulled to a stop in the smithy's vehicle. In the cart behind the mule lay the unassembled hinges for the city's main gate.

"How'd it go last night?" Merik asked, hopping out, handing Merrie a steaming cup of coffee.

Merrie gratefully accepted the cup with a broad smile. "It's taking longer than planned. But we loaded the last of the material into the furnace twenty minutes ago."

"I reviewed your bench notes last night. Up 'till that point I thought you were constructing an electric arc-furnace," Merik said.

"I want to, but without use of the maker-machine, an arc-furnace isn't practical. I'm hoping Master Nurit and Amon will be able to demonstrate the value of this steel and the council will give me the go-ahead." Merrie looked nervously from Merik to Nurit.

Merik turned to Nurit, who'd climbed out of the cart and was crouched, inspecting the furnace's oxygen inlet. "Nurit, how about it? Are you interested in working with Merrie's steel?"

"We've had good success with our iron and it may be too late to teach this old bird any new tricks," Nurit answered. "Amon's got the energy for this though, and he's his own man."

"Amon?" Merik asked.

"I believe our settlement is at risk, Master Merik," Amon answered. "We've too long relied on our founder's technology. If we are to survive, we must develop our own. I hope Merrie's steel is just the beginning."

Merik cocked his head and smiled at Nurit. "He sounds so much like his father."

"Yes he does. Now, I hate to break up the conversation, but we have crews meeting us at the front gates," Nurit said, climbing back into the driver's seat of the vehicle.

"Are you able to leave, Merrie?" Merik asked.

"The furnace will finish in ninety minutes. It would be ideal if I stayed and monitored the smelt," she answered.

"Understood. Perhaps we'll spend time discussing project planning in our next session," he said.

"My apologies, Master. The project exceeded my time estimates by a significant margin."

"And, so it is with most projects."

Amon climbed into the mule behind Merik and gave a friendly wave to Merrie as they pulled away. The trio rode quietly through the abandoned section of the settlement, the empty buildings a stark reminder of their losing battle with the Ophie.

At the front gates, they found the master stone mason and his crew driving wide iron wedges into the seam at the base of the wall, lifting the wall just enough to make room for the hinge straps.

"Master Pessach, good to see you this fine morning," Merik called, jumping from the cart, extending his hand to the older mason.

"About time you showed up. We've no time to be standing around, Merik. The smith's failed gates allowed those lizard devils to tear down half my city," Pessach growled.

"Very well. We'll start at the bottom and work up."

"Would you also instruct me on the consistency of my mortar? No? Good! I'll let you know when I need your help," Pessach said and turned to the group of laborers he'd brought along, continuing barking instructions.

"Let's get started, Amon," Nurit said, ignoring the grumpy mason.

Together they carried an iron hinge strap over to the newly exposed sandstone block. They lay the strap next to the channel that had been carved from the block centuries ago. They slid pins, four centimeters in diameter and ten centimeters long, through the strap and stepped out of the way.

Pessach directed his crew to fill the empty channel with mortar and then seated the strap and pins in the soft bed, clearing the extra material by deftly flipping it away with his trowel.

"Lift now. We don't have all day," Pessach barked at the laborers, who'd been assembled to man the block and tackle. It took several minutes of fussing before he was satisfied with the block's placement. "Check your measurements now, Merik," he said. "Once we release this stone, we'll not be moving it again today."

Merik verified the measurements and nodded for them to continue.

At 1200 they stopped for lunch, having set the four straps on the left side and the first on the right.

"I'd thought Merrie would return by now," Nurit said to Amon as they sat under the shade of a tree twenty meters from the front gate.

"I hope she didn't fall asleep. She didn't rest last night," Amon said, leaning back against the slick trunk of the tree. "Is Master Pessach always in such a foul mood?"

"His wife was killed in the last raid. He blames Merik and me for the failure of the blasters and gates. I understand his grief," she said.

"There's Merrie, now," Amon nodded in the direction of the gate. Merrie had joined Merik, and the two were talking with Pessach.

"We've a long afternoon ahead of us," Nurit said. "We might as well get back to it. I'll have you start assembling the hinges on the doors."

"Very well."

It was 1830 when the second door's final hinge pin was slid into place and the cap-nut securely welded onto its end.

Captain Gian, who'd been checking on their progress throughout the day, approached as Nurit and Merik were adjusting the gate's locking mechanism to fit with the new configuration.

"Will we be able to lock it this evening?" Gian asked.

"It is locked now," Merik replied, smiling. "I believe there will be some settling over the next tenday, so we'll be back to make further adjustments. For now, however, it's all yours."

Gian sighed audibly. "That is a great relief. Although, now that the Ophie have discovered the weakness in our blasters, I'm afraid they'll attack the southwest gate."

"I have a plan for making our remaining blaster mobile. It would allow us to relocate more efficiently if another gate comes under attack," Merik said.

"We're vulnerable if they simultaneously attack multiple gates. Is there no way to restore the broken weapon?" Gian asked.

"No, it is beyond our ability," Merik answered.

"I see. That is indeed bad news, but we'll plan accordingly," he said. "On another matter, I've been receiving reports of activity in the old tannery. Was it your apprentice that I saw over there?"

"Yes. My apologies for not informing you earlier."

"What was she doing?"

"It's a project you might find interesting. Merrie, would you share with Captain Gian what you've been doing?"

Merrie's face turned bright red as the conversation turned unexpectedly toward her.

"Yes, of course. Really, it's a multi-disciplinary project. I believe I've constructed a furnace that will allow us to smelt steel," she said.

"Why is this significant?" Gian asked.

"Steel is twice as strong as iron - properly tempered, even more so. With steel, our blacksmiths will be able to craft long blades that are practical for your protectors to wield. Additionally, we will be able to produce long bows and arrow heads that I believe will pierce the natural armor and be small enough to penetrate to the vital organs of an Ophie."

"Is this truly feasible, Merik?"

"Time will tell..."

Radium Sea, Planet Curie, Tipperary Star
System

The cylindrical submersible docked aft-first onto the armored side of the domed structure. The subtle whirring of motors was the only noise we heard as a heavy door slid out of view, exposing the pressure barrier to the interior of the station.

Anino and the rest of my crew awaited Marny and my return in a well-lit and otherwise empty room. One look at Tabby's face and I knew she was as angry as I was.

"That was some kick-ass teamwork out there!" Anino said as we passed through the pressure barrier.

I took three quick strides through the barrier, picked the teenager up by his suit and pushed him against the wall. A blaster charging behind me was followed by the sound of two more revving up.

"You risked my entire crew out there. Explain to me why I shouldn't knock your teeth into the back of your neck?"

"Mr. Hoffen, I beg of you! Place Master Anino on the floor and step back, or I'll be forced to respond," Jonathan said from behind me.

"You so much as move a muscle, Jonathan, and I'll drop you where you stand," Tabby growled. Her blaster was in my peripheral vision and leveled at Jonathan.

"Oh frak me, a Mexican standoff. Could this day get any better?" Anino squeaked. "Jonathan, put down your weapon. I'm at no risk here. Hoffen is making a point. He's establishing a pecking order."

"Master Anino, I believe he intends to do you harm," Jonathan said.

"What kind of sick shit are you?" I asked, letting Anino slide to the floor.

"Well, now we're getting somewhere," Anino said, standing back up and brushing non-existent dust from his knees. The teenager was a head shorter than me.

"We're out of here, Anino. We don't need whatever work you have for us. I need to trust my business partners," I said. "Jonathan, you promised to return us to the surface if I requested. Are you as good as your word?"

"I am, Captain Hoffen," he replied.

"Wait. Don't you want to hear what the big deal is?" Anino asked.

"No, you sick little bastard. No job is worth dying for," I said.

"Well, that's the rub, really, isn't it?" Anino asked.

It was such a strange thing to say I couldn't help myself but to ask, "What are you talking about?"

"You said no job is worth dying for and yet it always comes down to that for you and your crew," he said.

"I don't know what you're on about, but we're out of here. Nick, do you know where the suits are that we came in?"

"Down the hall, Liam. We're not far from the main room," he said.

"Lead on," I said.

Anino smiled and shrugged his shoulders, apparently content to follow us into the main room.

Lower armor plating. Dim interior lighting
.

We all stopped moving for a moment as the metallic dome retracted into the floor. Beneath the metal was a thick layer of armor-glass. When fully retracted, the entire twenty meter tall structure was completely translucent down to the last two meters where it appeared we were embedded into the floor of the sea. The interior lights had dimmed and glowing strips along the floors and walls provided a small amount of light.

Outside, the feeding frenzy had dissipated, although a number of larger fish were lazily gliding around, looking for scraps that might have been missed in the milieu. It was hard not to be mesmerized by the huge variety of sea life the light of the dome illuminated.

"How far down are we?" Ada asked.

"Ninety-two meters," Anino said, his quiet voice easy to hear in the silence that had settled over us.

"Why weren't we crushed by the water when we exited the dome?" Marny asked.

"The suits can handle a lot more than that. To be honest, I'm not sure a Sephelodon could crush the armor, so you probably weren't in any real danger," he said.

"Drop it, Anino. We're not buying what you're selling," Tabby spat. She wasn't giving in so easily.

"Tell me, Hoffen. Why did you risk your entire crew for the crew of
Cape of Good Hope
?"

It was a sore subject, which shouldn't have surprised me. I was growing to like this Anino kid less with every moment I was around him. We'd watched an entire shipload of people fall out of the TransLoc fold-space wave and be lost in the deep dark of space. To be honest, being torn apart by the forces of fold-space was the best case scenario. The worst case would be that the
Cape of Good Hope
had remained intact and been dropped into the deep dark of space somewhere. The people onboard would have starved to death, too far from any planet or civilization where they could re-fuel, repair or restock.

"Don't listen to him, Cap. He's messing with your head," Marny said.

"What? It's a fair question. I did pay you fifty-thousand credits, just so we could talk," he said.

"You're an ass," Ada said. Her response was surprising, as she typically didn't have a bad thing to say about anyone. "Having money doesn't give you the right to mess with people's lives."

"Come on, Hoffen. I'll drop it if you answer," he said.

"Fine. It's something you wouldn't understand, Anino. It was a matter of honor. Moderate risk to the lives of my crew versus certain death for
Cape of Good Hope's
crew. The only thing I regret is not starting earlier. If I had, we might have been successful," I said.

I peeled the grav-suit off, hung it on a hook and started pulling on my vac-suit.

"You had to know there was a possibility of someone getting hurt when you took on those pirates back at Colony-40," Anino said, looking at my prosthetic foot.

"This?" I asked, waving my hand across my foot. "Good trade, I'd say. Those pirates would have just kept killing my friends and family if we hadn't done something."

"How do you know so much about us?" Tabby asked.

"Information is easy to come by, Masters. You know what's hard to find?"

"Rich assholes who like to frak with people?" she fired back.

"No, those are a dime-a-dozen," he agreed.

Tabby growled. "I know, I just wanted to call you an asshole again."

Anino chuckled. "Point Masters," he said under his breath.

"What'd you say?" Tabby asked. Both Nick and I stopped what we were doing and looked at him. Anino had used a phrase that was unique to our small group.

"You heard me. And, you're right. I'm a rich asshole who's been snooping on you," he said.

"What's hard to find, Anino?" Nick cut to the chase.

"A crew with honor," he said.

"Too bad this crew isn't available." Tabby hissed, walking from behind the visual screen of the locker room. She dropped her grav-suit on the ground, communicating as much disdain as possible with that single gesture.

"So you've said. But what if I said I could retrieve
Cape of Good Hope
?"

"They're long dead. We saw them break up and fall out of fold-space," Nick said.

"You sure that's what you remember?" he asked.

"Their starboard engine was sheared off by contacting the edge of the fold-space bubble." I still replayed the sequence in my mind's eye in quiet moments.

"Haven't you wondered why LeGrande turned out of the wave and accelerated?"

"She didn't want the debris of her ship to cause any more casualties," I said.

"Want to ask her yourself?" he asked.

"Are you nuts?"

"Probably."

"Show us," Nick said.

"You can't be taking this jerk seriously," Tabby said.

I'd finished pulling on my suit and turned to look her in the eyes. "I have to see for myself," I said.

She gave me the grim smile I'd come to understand as grudging acceptance and nodded.

The five of us followed Anino to his work area.

"Pardon the mess. I'm working on many different projects."

Indeed what looked like complete chaos from across the room actually had some organization to it.

"I can't turn up the lights with the dome unshielded. It freaks out my neighbors and they'll hurt themselves," he said as he pulled a crystal about the size of the end of my thumb from a delicate three-point cradle mounted in an array of a hundred similar crystals.

"Is that…," Nick sputtered. "How could you…"

"Perceptive questions, both. Yes. This is a quantum communication crystal. Its mate resides aboard
Cape of Good Hope
. As for how, when money is no object, things once thought impossible to acquire are not so difficult."

"You're saying you can raise Captain LeGrande with that crystal?" I asked, my heart hammering in my chest.

"Surely, you've had enough experience with these quantum crystals to know the answer to your own question," he said. "That's not the really interesting part of this conversation."

"Liam. He has a jump ship," Nick said. "This is a rescue mission."

"Jupiter and Mars!" Anino clapped his hands together, gently holding the crystal between his thumb and forefinger. "How I miss working with other brilliant minds. So, are you in?"

Tabby fidgeted next to me. She didn't trust Anino, but knew he was dangling the ultimate carrot.

"Why do you need us? Why wouldn't Belirand mount up and fetch them?" Marny asked.

"There's more in play here than you know. If they retrieve Captain LeGrande and crew, they'd have to admit they could have recovered every other past failed mission," he said.

"So they let LeGrande and crew die to push off liability for previous missions?" Nick asked. "That's crazy. Their liability is growing, in that case. Belirand could pay the crew off and make them sign confidentiality agreements."

"You're right," Anino agreed. "It's bigger than that. Belirand has lots of reasons not to retrieve that crew."

"That doesn't explain why you need us," Marny pushed. "You can hire crew all day long. All this talk about honor and team work - there's something else going on. What aren't you telling us?"

"Belirand," Ada said. "It's all the failed missions from the past. Public outcry would be outrageous."

"You're right and they'd do anything to keep that secret, Chen. And, I mean anything." Anino bowed his head and looked up again, right into my eyes.

"I don't understand. It was Belirand who put us in contact with you," I said.

"Apparently, you haven't spent much time around a bureaucratic organization," Anino said. "Left hand rarely knows what the right is doing. It's not like the people I bribe go bragging to their bosses about our arrangement," he said.

"You sure you want to get mixed up in this, Cap?" Marny asked.

"I don't know that I can walk away if there's any chance to save LeGrande and her crew," I said, slowly scanning the faces around me.

"What about our ships and cargo? Isn't the co-op depending on us?" Ada asked.

"You're right, we'd need to make a return trip with our load," I said.

"Seriously?" Anino asked.

"What'd you expect? We have people who depend on us. We can't just disappear on them. We've frak-tonnes of ore that need to be delivered to the Terminal Seven project. Perhaps you've forgotten what it's like to work for a living, but we haven't," I said.

"You're thinking too small, Hoffen. Hold on, let me see what I can do," he said and started punching on a virtual keyboard and swiping objects around on a virtual display only he could see.

"I've just purchased a segmented hauler, right here on Curie, for a million credits. I'll lease it to
Loose Nuts
for a hundred thousand credits annually. I can have it delivered to Descartes. Will that do?" he asked, flicking a contract at Nick.

"A million credits?" Nick asked. "No, that won't do. We've a line on a hauler, we just need to take a look at it."

"Fairy Tits! Think bigger, James. This thing'll haul more ore than your damn colony can mine in a year," he said.

"Cancel your deal. Apparently, you haven't spent a lot of time trying to make a mining operation work. A hauler that size burns too much fuel and we'd go broke. If you want to speed us along, lend me that million credits at five percent annually and I'll make the rest work," Nick said.

"Five percent? Are you nuts, nobody lends at that rate," Anino said.

"Today, you do," Nick said. In that moment, I felt a surge of pride.

It was almost surreal watching the teenage Anino stare Nick down in a battle of wills.

"Given your net worth and daily income, you've just spent more than a million credits arguing with me. Care to make it two?" Nick asked.

"Ugh, fine. Take the million credits, I don't care," Anino said, waving his hand in dismissal

"We don't mind working for it." Nick swiped an agreement from his HUD and tossed it at Anino.

Anino swished his hand across a virtual signature block and flicked it back.