Family Law 2: The Long Voyage of the Little Fleet (44 page)

"Record that scream carefully," Chance instructed. "I suspect it is something like – stand to and prepare to be boarded."

"Well what would
you
do if something that size and power chased you?" Captain Fussy asked.

"I'd try to talk to him. If I couldn't talk and he acted aggressively I'd hit him with everything I had. If that didn't work I'd let him try to board me and blow the ship if he got close enough to let me take him with me."

"You'd destroy your ship before allowing it to be captured?" Fussy asked, big eyed.

"Yes." Chance answered without any attempt to persuade him.

"You'd follow these orders?" he asked on the open channel, but not of any specific officer. He seemed clueless about how offensive and inappropriate such a question was.

Captain Frost just glared out of the screen at him, too angry to speak.

"Well of course... " Lord Byron replied like he was a bit daft to ask.

"Certainly," Einstein answered. "We all would."

"I am on the command circuit back in engineering," Ho'omanawanui said. "I don't usually have anything to say, but let me tell you Badger Boy, if we were defeated, boarded, and I didn't have orders coming from the flight deck anymore, you better damn well believe that we'd have a dual reactor failure you could see at the neighboring stars."

"Oh."

"Entry radiation
ahead
. Yes! They overjumped us," Einstein reported. "System scan is no use to them. Neither of us will be on it for a several hours even though it happens to be on our side of the star.

"Locals are saying hello," Einstein reported.

"Captain Fussy, would you speak with them for us please?" Chance asked, apparently unmoved by the previous discussion. Surely Fussy understood which way the wind blew now.

"Certainly, Would you give me some idea how much you want me to reveal of outsystem action and your intentions?"

"I imagine they will want to know what was happening with that huge strange ship. I certainly would. You are free to tell them the Biter ship it was pursuing fired on us unprovoked and we destroyed it. I have no more information on the stranger I wish to share. I would rather not speculate they may intend an interception and capture without any real proof. If they know any more than is on system scan we'd sure like to know. As to the Biter ship ahead of us, you may say it has pursued us very aggressively and we consider it hostile."

"Einstein, would you use the Trade translation program and very politely inform the Biter ship ahead of us that his fellow Biters have been making a habit of shooting at us and we intend to destroy him if we see him do anything but proceed straight through the system," Chance requested.

"Aye, sir, with pleasure. He overjumped us a couple light minutes, so we'll be waiting four minutes plus time for him to tell us if he's decided it's a good day to die."

"The locals calling us are miners," Fussy reported, "they said some of their fellows over in the area the big ship came in hailed it close enough they should have heard but they got no reply. They agree the Biters are trouble and what you'd call a pain in the butt. They stopped short of saying to go ahead and shoot them, but I think that's the way sentiment runs. They are more concerned with the unknown. I told them the Biter that just exited ahead of the big ship fired on us and then destroyed them in flight."

"Thank you Captain Fussy. Which of your races are the locals here?" Chance wondered.

"Badgers and what you call Sasquatch. They've an affinity for deep space mining."

"Biters have our message," Einstein noted.

"You know, if I were a miner looking for asteroids worth busting up, I believe I'd just keep my mouth shut and ease around to the opposite side of my rock if I saw a seven hundred meter space ship come in like a bat out of hell," Captain Frost commented.

"There are a lot of folk sayings and popular wisdom about Sasquatch," Captain Fussy admitted. "One unkind saying is that you shouldn't pick a fight with a Sasquatch because they are too dumb to be afraid. But no race that built starships on their own are
stupid
. I once was drinking with a mixed group and somebody repeated that slight. The Sasquatch just laughed and informed us they are simply out of practice being afraid, because they killed everything on their planet they needed to be afraid of."

"Was he joking or serious?" Fat asked.

"That's what makes it even funnier," Fussy said, "with a Sasquatch nobody can tell."

"Biter ship is
accelerating
!" Einstein said, surprised.

"Show the vectors on screen," Chance requested. "Away from us?" he asked, surprised.

"Showing probable course," Einstein updated. "He's going to skim the star and go out the other side hot. I bet he's going for the system the fellow we killed came from, before this one."

"He wouldn't talk to you either," Fat noted, with contempt.

"Well somewhere off in that direction are a lot of Biters. I hope he doesn't bring them all back with him." Chance said.

"Three jumps from that system to a Biter colony world. It doesn't show easily in your chart because it doesn't call out the routes, but it's there," Fussy told them.

"We'll be back in 80 before they can be there. They can bring their whole navy for all I care once we are back with the
Retribution
and
Murphy's Law
. Even one of the DSE's could give them a pretty hard time from what I've seen."

"Will the folks here shoot off a drone to system 80 so they'll have word about the big ship before we arrive?" Chance asked Fussy.

"Drones are expensive and nobody here is going to spend that kind of money when I already told them we are headed there. We'll be bringing the news home ourselves."

"How did this system get cataloged as number 82?" Einstein asked. "It seems out of sequence."

"For whatever reason it was bypassed and then somebody backtracked and checked it out later," Fussy told him. "That isn't uncommon. Also, Biters don't really have a navy. Each clan has to buy their own, so very few have several and there are a lot of small clans that will never have the funds to buy and operate a ship. If they want a force of any size they'd have to seek agreement with other clans to join up. Absent a big cash payment they'd have to guarantee there will be loot. They aren't very agreeable, and so far every time they mess with you it has been a dead loss. It should be a hard sell."

"Well this one got away, but with a thirty million kilometer lead and a bit higher velocity it would have been a stretch to run him down. I suspect the big ship decided he couldn't overtake him in this system before he jumped out, or we'd have seen him by now. We'd have had to stick everybody in their bunks on gel bags and sippies. I have no doubt we'd have lost a few crew to the acceleration to catch him. I
have
to get just one lousy missile externally mounted on the
Roadrunner
," Chance complained. "The
Roadrunner
could have run him down, But we need some cheaper, smaller missiles too. It don't make any sense to use a missile on him that's probably worth more than their crappy ship."

Fussy added gel bags and sippies to his search and question list, along with X-head, nuke, yield and Greaser. Surely somewhere in the huge chunk of English web they'd received there were some hints of what those terms meant.

"Persevere, I'm putting a file on your screen. It's a brief summation of our circuit and actions in each system. Transmit it to Gordon first thing as soon as we have entered system 80, just in case we still have somebody looking to prevent us getting back."

"You think an ambush is a possibility? Persevere asked. "Or there might be others overtaking us?"

"Not a very great chance, no. But what were the odds that we'd see a seven hundred meter alien starship? Why risk waiting to pass really critical information a minute longer than necessary?"

And that's why he's captain
, Persevere realized again.

* * *

"They not only said you can come down, but that if you want to use your own shuttle that's fine," Talker told Lee. "Have you been lobbying behind my back?" he asked, plainly.

"Not a word," Lee told him. "I don't know anybody down there, to even know whose arm to twist."

"Now
there
is an image," Talker said of the expression.

"I'm surprised you know what lobbying is. That's very much an Earth expression. They don't lobby on Derfhome, and they call it something else on Fargone."

"It took me awhile to find the term. I'm glad it was correct. What do the Fargoers call it?"

"Bribery."

"Sometimes, I'm not sure when you are serious and when you are making humor," Talker admitted.

"Good, the best humor is ambiguous and the truth if shocking best of all," Lee said.

Talker looked like he wanted to say something, parted his mouth even, slightly, then decided to play it safe. "You are otherwise welcome to take one of our shuttles down if you wish the experience. I spoke to your chief engineer and he said our  shuttles are about the same for safety."

"Will you provide an escort then?" Lee asked.

"Me personally?" he asked alarmed.

"Not unless you want to. You can foist it off on some flunky. I just need somebody to tell me not to stand where the streetcar is going to squish me, or that some door is to a private club and not a public business. Those sort of things any Badger would know, but not a crazy alien. The sort of things that 'everybody knows' so there is no sign or tourist guidebook. Surely you can imagine that there might be confusing situations or social norms I shouldn't breach."

Talker sighed. "I shall accompany you. Not even our translators have as broad a picture of your differences and oddities as I've gained from our association."

"I have oddities?"

Talker just looked at her. It was uncomfortably similar to a certain look Gordon gave her.

"Wonderful, go ahead and book us to drop on your shuttle whenever you want. I don't need a private shuttle drop. I can have a kit tossed in a bag in ten minutes. Two changes of clothing and a pair of boots, a towel and wash cloth, a few emergency ration bars and some instant coffee and I'm good to go. Will they get all upset if I go armed?"

"We didn't discuss that, but adults are generally assumed to have the right of self defense. It would be rather pointless bare handed. But I respectfully ask you not look like an invasion force. Surely a simple pistol is sufficient. We don't have a high rate of crime and I won't take you in questionable areas. I'd hope you'll consult with me before you draw a weapon or fire it, unless the local wildlife is already chewing on your leg."

"Wow, that's a really interesting revelation."

"That we have dangerous native animals?"

"No, that you have 'questionable' areas. Look up slum and the wrong side of the street. I had a real education about crappy neighborhoods on Earth and the Moon."

"I will, but I think I know what I'll find."

"Maybe you can take me through a questionable area in an armored ground car with the window tint turned up dark," Lee suggested, excited at the idea.

"You know, the more you talk about it, the less I want to visit Earth."

"Smart Badger. Too many of the crazy locals would regard you as a talking animal. They would  probably think you'd make a terrific fur coat."

Talker shuddered ripples running down his sides. He drew his hands down opposite arms, forcing his fur back down. "I value your bluntness, but sometimes you disturb me."

"Hey, I agree. They first time I ever saw taxidermy work it just totally creeped me out."

Talker looked that up on his pad and didn't come back to the conversation right away, horrified.

"I know you've said Humans dream. So do Badgers. Do you sometimes have very bad dreams from seeing something like this, that continues to bother you? I might tonight."

"Oh sure, I was once trapped in my sleeping bag with little dinosaurs about a meter and a half tall  trying to chew their way in and eat me. I kept shooting through the bag when I'd feel a head pushing at me," Lee said making a gun with her finger and thumb to show Talker what she meant. "The little monsters kept trying to get good grip through the bag. I had so many dead dinos piled on me I started worrying about being crushed. I had bad dreams for
months
. We call them nightmares."

Talker stared at Lee, horrified. "Now I
know
I'll have bad dreams tonight. How do you get over such a thing?"

"Sleeping in the arms of a seven hundred kilo killing machine who has vowed to protect you really helps. Time really does heal these sort of problems. Do you have your own private room where you sleep with a door?"

Talker just nodded a yes.

"Well, putting a stack of soda cans, or anything that will make loud noise if disturbed in front of the door and sleeping with a loaded weapon might help tonight. If you are afraid to be alone and feel embarrassed to tell anybody, let me know. I'll come sleep between your bed and the door. Nothing is getting past me unless it can survive thirty big holes blown through it," she said stroking her holster flap.

"I'm emotionally touched that you'd consider doing such a personal thing for me," Talker said.

Lee looked a little put out. "Talker...  if you haven't figured it out yet. I consider you a
friend
."

* * *

"I'm taking Lee down to visit the planet," Talker told Trader that evening.

"Doesn't she understand you are an important executive? It's really a waste of your time and talents when you aren't short of things that
need
your attention," Trader objected, irritated.

"To quote her, she said I could 'foist it off on a flunky', but I am obligated. She has befriended me."

"I'm not sure what that means with these people. I've observed Humans who consider themselves friends and Derf that proclaim they are friends. I even have a couple Human/Derf combinations that say they are friends, but I'm not sure of the
depth
. One gambler told me that the surest way to lose friends is to loan them money. So I'm uncertain of the word. It's slippery."