Wanderer - Echoes of the Past Read online

  “With you Teeko go could, Jess friend. You protect. You safe keep. Others see not Teeko.”

  Elizabeth was surprised to hear from the strange creature. Normally it stayed quiet when they were having discussions.

  Jess smiled at the creature.

  “Sorry Teeko, not this time. There are too many people out in the corridors. I know you can hide from them, but you can’t stop them walking into you. People would know something was there in moments, and pretty soon you’d be cornered and locked up. I can’t allow that.”

  Teeko didn’t answer, other than to emit a low grumbling sound from his torso. Once she was certain Teeko wasn’t going to say anything else Elizabeth spoke.

  “We need some ground rules then. We have to assume the meeting place is bugged. We can’t afford to destroy those bugs, that would tip them off, so we need to agree some ways to keep any discussions secret.”

  Elizabeth expected Jess to groan at that, instead he just nodded and gestured for her to start. Elizabeth reflected on the changes in Jess for a few moments, then began outlining the words and gestures they should use.

  *****

  The station airlock opened. Jess followed Elizabeth into the crowded corridor, feeling extremely exposed. Keen though he’d been to leave the Wanderer and explore the station, actually leaving the ship was a wrench.

  He hurried after Elizabeth, using his implants to accelerate his thoughts. Everything around seemed to slow down. Now he could take the time to study those around him for any threat.

  They soon turned off down a side passage which was quieter. They had to walk much further than Elizabeth and Sal had the day before, down a series of relatively quiet passageways. Jess stayed keyed up, watching everything. It made the already long trip seem far longer, but he wasn’t willing to drop his guard even for a moment.

  Finally they arrived at their destination, a small shop which seemed to be full of what Jess thought was mostly junk. Elizabeth opened the grubby door and stepped through, Jess close behind her.

  As he stepped over the threshold Jess became aware of several sophisticated scans washing over him. His implants were more than a match, ensuring he appeared to be completely normal on the scan.

  Definitely the right place, he thought to himself.

  Inside the shop waited an elderly man with wild looking hair sticking out in all directions. He wore grubby overalls and seemed a perfect fit for the shop, right up to the moment Jess met his eyes. The eyes were cold, calculating, and seemed to bore through Jess.

  “You I was expecting,” the man said sharply, pointing at Elizabeth. “You I was not.” Now he pointed at Jess. “And I don’t like surprises. What are you doing here?”

  Jess was supposed to act as Elizabeth’s son again. In that moment, staring into the contact’s eyes, he felt certain that was the wrong answer to give. Making his mind up he replied confidently.

  “I’m the captain. I want to see who we are dealing with and what the price ends up being.”

  Jess sensed Elizabeth stiffening in anger beside him, furious that he had deviated from the plan already. The contact studied Jess in silence for a long time before nodding.

  “Pretty young,” he said. “But not the youngest captain I’ve dealt with. You carry yourself right too. I bet there’s a story there, but not one I want to hear.

  So, you need the imperial paperwork for your ship. Don’t tell me why — I don’t care and you’ll probably lie anyway. Here’s the price in a number of precious commodities, from gold to gems. Feel free to pay in a mix of them if you need to.”

  Jess studied the numbers. They could pay in gold but it would put a large dent in their stores, they’d have to pay out nearly eighty percent of what was left.

  “This is very high,” Elizabeth said. “We’ll pay you sixty percent…”

  The man stopped her with a raised hand.

  “I think you misunderstand me,” he said. “This isn’t an opening bid, this isn’t a negotiable price. This is what you will pay if you want our services. Feel free to walk away.”

  Elizabeth opened her mouth to speak, then forced it closed. Turning to Jess she clasped her right wrist with her left hand. It was one of the signals they had agreed. It meant the price was too high, but they had to accept it. Jess nodded slightly in reply. He agreed. They needed the documentation and those selling it clearly knew that.

  “We accept,” Jess said. “How quickly can you provide them?”

  “Very quickly. You can contact your ship from here, we have a secure link to the comms network that can’t be traced. Once you start transferring the payment we will start. You'll be able to walk away with the documents in under an hour.”

  “All right, let’s get this started. Where is the comm?”

  The man smiled and pressed something out of Jess’s sight. Moments later a comm screen opened on the counter.

  Jess moved towards it, then paused.

  “So where do we deliver to? And what should I call you?”

  “You can call me Bob. Our shuttle will approach your ship and dock. Leave the payment in your airlock. My men will retrieve it then leave.”

  “No way,” Jess said. “No offence, but I’m not letting anyone that close — especially shuttles that could be packed with men and specialist cutting equipment. The payment will be loaded into our shuttle. It can meet with yours for the delivery, or go direct to one of your ships.”

  “No.” The smile was gone now, and the man claiming to be called Bob was clearly angry. “You do as we say or the deal is off.”

  “Fine,” Jess replied. He turned to Elizabeth. “Come on, we're leaving.”

  Jess kept expecting Elizabeth to jump in, to steer him towards a different course of action, but it seemed that she approved. She even smiled at Jess as she nodded.

  Jess turned towards the door but stopped when Bob spoke.

  “You won’t find anyone else to provide this service for you. We talk to each other, discuss customers. Don’t think for a minute that you’ll get the documents you need anywhere else on the station, or anywhere in the Serona system.”

  Jess glanced over his shoulder and shrugged.

  “Then we’ll go to another system,” he said. “We’re in no hurry. Sorry to have wasted your time.”

  He made it as far as the door before Bob spoke again.

  “Fine. We do it your way.” All the anger was gone from his voice now. Jess started to suspect it had been put on before. “Now, would you like to call your ship? Once payment is on the way we can start to discuss exactly what you need the documents to show.”

  “How do we know the documents will work?” Jess asked, returning to the counter.

  “You don’t… until you get them checked by the Empire.”

  “What?”

  “Don’t worry. I’m kidding with you. You know it works because we’re still in business. We haven’t had disgruntled customers knocking the door down, or Imperial agents popping in to see why we’re selling illegal false documents.”

  “I didn’t think the Empire had much power on this station,” Jess said suspiciously.

  “They don’t, which is why when their agents do take action it’s usually far from subtle. That’s your guarantee — the fact we are still here and still alive.”

  “All right.”

  Jess had already started the process of loading the shuttle using his constant connection to the Wanderer. For a moment he was tempted to simply have the shuttle launch, and watch Bob try to figure out how he’d known in advance how much gold to load. He quickly shrugged the thought off though. They were here to avoid unwanted attention, not to attract more.

  He put through a call to the ship, ensuring it was set to voice only. Bob passed over details of his shuttle and Jess passed them on to the ship. In under two minutes Sal confirmed the shuttle had launched — for the benefit of Bob. Jess already knew. He was the one controlling it.

  Jess told Sal to expect them sometime within a couple of hours t
hen killed the call. He turned to Bob.

  “What do you need to know?” he asked.

  The answer, it turned out, was an awful lot. The forms required detailed measurements of the Wanderer, details that Jess was easily able to provide. The question of where to register was more of an issue.

  “Records from many of the outlying systems never filter through to the central systems, or have large gaps when they do,” Bob explained. “Which should mean the best thing to do is mark your ship as being registered by one of those far distant systems.

  Nothing in life is that easy though. The Empire knows people use those systems to create false registrations and so gets very suspicious of any ships that have been registered out there. We actually get quite a few traders legitimately registered in those systems coming to us for false documents that won’t attract so much unpleasant attention.

  So, we need to pick a system that isn’t on the edges and that doesn’t keep particularly good records, but also isn’t one you’re ever likely to visit. Where abouts are you planning on heading?”

  “Why don’t you show us where the possible systems are and we’ll pick one?” Jess asked.

  “Oh so suspicious!” Bob chuckled. “All right. These are the ones we would recommend using,”

  A display lit up showing the inhabited systems as far as the Quarantine Zone, but none of those on the far side. Around twenty flashing dots drew Jess’s eye. None were near the edge of the inhabited worlds. One was almost at the opposite end of inhabited space from the Quarantine Zone. Jess quickly discarded it as being too obvious. In the end he had fourteen he felt were possible, and chose one at random.

  “That one,” Jess said.

  “All right. Barpal it is. I suggest you read up on the system, so you can at least pretend to have been there if challenged. Some of these imperials are almost intelligent.”

  As the questions continued Jess was aware of the Wanderer’s shuttle docking with that of Bob’s people, then of the payment being successfully unloaded. Everyone returned to their own shuttle, leaving the Wanderer’s automated shuttle free to return. Jess still sent it to an isolated bay that had no access to the living area or the main cargo decks. Just in case.

  “Payment has been successfully delivered,” Bob announced.

  “Yes,” Jess agreed.

  “How do you know?” Bob said, eyes narrowing.

  “The flight plan you gave meant they’ve had plenty of time to meet up and unload. You’d have told us if there were problems. Therefore everything must be fine.”

  “Yes… well… it’s done.”

  Bob seemed at least partly convinced by Jess’s answer. Jess cursed himself inside. One stupid slip could have endangered everything.

  “Just a couple more details,” Bob said. “Then we can have you on your way in ten or fifteen minutes, with all the documents you need.”

  It was more like twenty-five minutes, but they did finally leave the shop with all the documentation they needed. Or so Bob assured them. He said his goodbyes without moving from behind the counter. Jess and Elizabeth soon found themselves outside.

  As they retraced their earlier steps Jess was even more on edge than he had been before, and accelerated his mind even further. To begin with he regarded every one of the few people they saw with suspicion. Then they reached more crowded passageways and he found himself watching everyone that came near, constantly searching for anything out of the ordinary.

  Much to Jess’s surprise, they reached the Wanderer without any incidents. Once safely back on the ship a wave of tiredness crashed over him. He’d pushed himself too hard for too long. He managed to reach one of the sofas before collapsing, almost immediately dropping into a deep sleep.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Jess collapsed onto a sofa, unconscious before he stopped moving. Elizabeth rushed over, desperately worried, but Ali still beat her there. After a moment Ali relaxed.

  “He’s fine,” she said. “Just exhausted.”

  “How do you…” Elizabeth started to ask, then stopped. “Oh. Through the ship, yes?”

  “Yeah. He didn’t sleep much last night, worrying about today I suppose, and then he kept his thoughts accelerated all the way to and from the meeting. He probably feels as if he’s been awake for two or three days straight. His implants kept him sharp till he got back, then he relaxed and the tiredness caught up with him.”

  “That’s a relief. I thought something was really wrong when he collapsed like that.”

  “Me too. He’ll be fine though. Well, he will be until I speak to him about giving us such a scare!”

  “Jess sent a message saying you have the documents,” Sal said. “How sure are you that they’ll work?”

  “Pretty much certain,” Elizabeth replied. “Otherwise the people we got them from wouldn’t still be in business.”

  “So what do we do now?”

  “Mostly we wait. I’ll go out again for a while and keep letting those who might be interested know that we are available for hire. Those we want to deal with will take their time, and will check us out thoroughly, before offering us anything.”

  “What do you think they’ll offer?”

  “Hard to say. Something to test our commitment. Probably smuggling something low value to start with, but it might be something else entirely. It depends what they need doing that they are willing to trust us with.”

  Sal and Ali sat in silence, absorbing the information. After a while Sal got up and went towards her room. Ali stayed by Jess, watching over him as he slept. Elizabeth began to plan where to go and who to speak to when she left the ship later.

  *****

  Dash cycled through the airlock then headed towards the flight deck of the Shadow Beam.

  “Any updates,” he asked Hackett.

  “The older woman and a young man went and collected the false documentation for the Wanderer earlier. The older woman went out again a few hours later and hasn’t come back yet. Sovon hasn’t stirred from his ship all day.”

  “Anything more on their ship, the Wanderer?”

  “No, nothing. It hasn’t ever docked anywhere our records cover, under that name or any other. It’s a mystery ship.”

  “Or it has just never docked anywhere we’d know about, which is more than possible. The most boring explanations are normally right.”

  Hackett grinned. “Even in our line of work Captain?”

  Dash smiled back. “Well, not always. More often than not though. Keep on it. Two more of our contacts have heard that the Wanderer is looking for work, the type of work we often supply. I still feel there’s something there we need to know.”

  “What happens when they leave, or Sovon does. We can’t follow both.”

  “I know. At the moment I’d say we follow Sovon, but we’ll see. I’m going to get something to eat then get some sleep. Make sure someone covers you so you can get some rest.”

  “Aye, Captain.”

  Hackett threw a sloppy mock salute and returned to his station. Dash smiled and left him to it, mind still trying to unlock the mystery of Sal and the Wanderer, and the question of whether Sovon was hiding something.

  *****

  “Captain, Sovon is on the move.”

  Hackett’s voice jerked Dash from his thoughts. He’d been sitting hunched over a steaming mug of black coffee, trying to shake off the effects of a poor nights sleep. Too much had been going through his head to let him rest properly and he was getting too old to survive on a few hours of shut-eye.

  The announcement that Sovon was on the move achieved what the coffee had failed to. Dash left the coffee where it was and jumped up, rushing through to the flight deck.

  “What’s going on?” he demanded.

  “The Steady Light is undocking now. Sovon sent a message to our agent saying he'd been offered a juicy run from Solcant in the Cannington system. There is an offer floating around, but very few people are getting to hear about it. I think it smells.”

  “T
he offer is probably real, but it sounds like it’s cover for something else.”

  “Do we follow?”

  “Yes… No. No. If we fly there in the Shadow Beam he’ll realise he’s being followed. There’s no reason for us to go to Solcant, and we can’t do the cargo run.”

  He was silent for a long time, thinking, then he spoke again.

  “Got it. We could be an escort for a trader. We’ll need to hire one that’s ready to go almost immediately, and that will be discrete. One mention of the fact that we hired them rather than the other way round and our cover is blown.”

  “Right sir. You want to chase Sovon and let the investigation into the Wanderer lapse then?”

  “No choice…” Dash began, before stopping. A grin spread across his face. “No, I’ve got a better idea. We know the Wanderer is looking for work, and that they should be ready to leave at short notice. We can kill two birds with one stone.

  Send the Wanderer a message offering them work which will require running cargo from the Cannington system. Tell them that we will be going with them as their escort — paid for by them if anyone asks. Include the authentication codes so they know it’s from those they were trying to contact, and give them a ten minute deadline to accept.”

  “Yes Captain.”

  “Once that’s sent let me know as soon as they reply.”

  “What about payment?”

  “Ugh. I don't know. Just say it will be generous and will be confirmed once we are under way. If they truly want to build contacts with us they’ll accept it.”

  “Aye Captain. Sending it over now.”

  “Good. Jasper, I want the ship ready to leave in five minutes. Is everyone aboard?”

  “Aye Captain,” replied Jasper, the main pilot Dash had bought with him. “Everyone is aboard. Preparing for launch.”

  Dash settled into the copilot’s chair. He didn’t expect trouble, but that was when it often struck. Activating the ship wide intercom he spoke, quietly but firmly.

  “All hands to battle stations. Strap yourselves in people.”