The Clones of Mawcett (45 page)

“She left the station the same day. The delay was to let her get as far away as necessary before I contacted you.”

“Where did she go?”

“All I know is that she had a ship waiting. I think it was a freighter by the way she talked, but she never named it.”

“What did she look like?”

“Like a Tsgardi,” Pallowkith said, with what passed for an Alyysian shrug. “They pretty much all look alike to me, except–– her fangs looked even sharper than most, almost as if they were filed. And her fur was very neatly trimmed instead of looking shaggy like most other Tsgardi. That's all I know.”

“Did she mention any names of fellow conspirators?”

“No, none. That's all I know.”

“Would you recognize her again?”

“Possibly, from among a small group.”

“How were you to be paid the balance of your money?”

“The credits have already been deposited into a numbered account. After you had left the station, I was to receive the number and access code to the account by message.”

“Who was the Terran?”

“Some dumb freight hauler; I don't know his name. He probably didn't even know it. He was paid ten credits to find me and bring me to her quarters. He knew nothing about the deal.”

Jenetta nodded slowly. “I'll send someone down with images of all the female Tsgardi who have been on the station within the past month, along with some images of Tsgardi that couldn't possibly have been here. Identify her properly and I'll recommend the minimum sentence. If you pick one of the ones that couldn't have been involved, I won't.”

“Thank you, Commander. I'm sorry that I tried to trick you and I hope that you find your sister. Um- could I ask a favor of you?”

“You may ask, but I won't promise that I'll do it.”

“I want to consign my interest in my cargo to you.”

“What? Why me? I put you in here.”

“I don't want that damn bastard of a freight-hauler to keep it. And I thought perhaps you might give me a stake when I get out of prison, if you're able to do something with the cargo. You're the only one I've met here that I trust will treat me fairly.”

“What's the cargo?”

“It's mostly crystals and semi-precious stones. I bought the entire liquidated contents of a gem stone shop for twenty thousand credits from a recently widowed woman on Taurentlus-Thur. It's worth a hundred thousand credits at wholesale.”

“No weapons, or illegal contraband?”

“None, Commander. Do you think I want my sentence increased?”

“How much do you owe to the freight-hauler?”

“One thousand-three-hundred credits. He says that it's a shipping surcharge for station docking fees and additional expenses, even though I paid him for passage in full before we left Taurentlus-Thur. He's leaving the station in five days and says that he'll seize my cargo and sell it to cover the expense if I don't pay.”

Jenetta nodded. “I'll send a cargo ownership transfer claim form down with the images of the Tsgardis.”

“Thank you, Commander.”

After receiving the completed form from the Alyysian, Jenetta paid a visit to the ship holding its cargo. The Wallaby, unlike the massive freighters that could haul ten kilometers of linked cargo sections on each run, was a single hulled ship of just three hundred meters. As such, it was permitted to dock at one of the station's docking piers.

“I understand that you've assessed additional charges on my cargo,” she said to the captain after preliminary introductions with the Terran freight hauler were completed.

“Your cargo, Commander?” he asked. “I'm not carrying anything for Space Command this trip.”

“It's my personal cargo. I acquired it from Shev Pallowkith.”

The captain looked bewildered. “You bought Pallowkith's cargo?”

“Not exactly. He deeded it over to me, but now I understand that it can't be released, even though the freight charges were paid in full before you left Taurentlus-Thur. Why is that, Captain?”

The Captain's demeanor changed and he became nervously defensive. Space Command could seize his ship if he was convicted of violating the terms of a shipping contract. “There were additional expenses, Commander. I'm only passing on my costs, as permitted under Galactic law. I have that right where the cargo necessitates additional transport costs, not apparent at the time it was accepted for shipment.”

“What sort of additional expenses?”

“Well, uh, there was the extra food. And then there was the, uh, damage that they did to the other cargo.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Your cargo. The Taurentlus-Thur Jumakas.”

“Jumakas?” Holding up copies of the shipping manifest to examine it again, she said, “The cargo is supposed to be crystals and semi-precious stones.”

“There's that too, but it was the Jumakas that caused all the damage and extra expense.”

Jenetta drew in her breath and released it slowly. “I didn't know anything about Jumakas, but didn't you calculate how much food they'd consume on the trip and charge accordingly before you left the planet?”

“We did, but we didn't realize that the shipping crate would be so flimsy. They broke out just a week into the trip and ruined their entire food supply. We had to feed them with food from the mess hall after that. They also destroyed a lot of other cargo in the hold where they were being housed. And we had to construct a new shipping crate. I've also continued to feed them since we arrived here and discovered that Shev Pallowkith couldn't come up with the additional credits to redeem his cargo.”

Jenetta sighed. “What if I take the rest of the cargo and let you keep the Jumakas. You should be able to sell them for much more than the thirteen hundred credits.”

“Sorry, Commander; I don't want them vicious monsters on this ship one minute longer than necessary. Once I get to open space I'll jettison them and then sell the precious stones to recover my costs. You either have to pay the surcharges or I keep the entire shipment.”

Jenetta didn't see any alternative so she handed over her credits card and watched as the Captain processed the transfer. After she had applied her thumb to the charge terminal to approve the transaction, she said, “Bring everything out to the dock so I can do an inventory check.”

“Right away, Commander.”

Jenetta check marked the inventory entries on the manifest as the boxes were delivered to the dock. The last item, simply listed on the manifest as 'wood box with Jum', was a reinforced cage that contained the two Jumakas. Dockworkers stepped back uneasily as the huge cage was pushed through the airlock tunnel. The Jumakas snarled and snapped at the appendages of anyone who got too close. Since Taurentlus-Thur was located almost a hundred parsecs beyond the outermost border of the Galactic Alliance, few GA citizens were familiar with its indigenous wildlife. Jenetta had heard of Jumakas, but this was the first time she'd seen any. The big cat-like animals had been domesticated long ago on their home planet, and were commonly kept as pets, or as guard animals. She supposed that these were being trained to guard the shop of the gem stones merchant.

Similar in physical appearance to Terran Jaguars, both animals had fur as black as space. It gave them a look like that of big Terran cats affected by Melanism, a pigmentation condition that darkens their fur to a very dark-chocolate brown. At roughly a hundred sixty pounds each, they were smaller than the average Terran Jaguar, which in captivity will typically weigh around two-hundred-fifty. With an average lifespan of sixty Earth years in the wild and ninety in captivity, they lived two to three times as long as Jaguars. Obviously young, probably less than two years of age, the fully-grown female cats had bright yellow eyes that seemed to glow.

When the inventory had been verified, Jenetta ordered it taken to a Space Command warehouse. She had no idea what she was going to do with the big cats yet, but they couldn't be left on the dock, and she certainly wasn't going to allow the freighter captain to space them.

Jenetta found a secluded area in a warehouse where the animals could be kept for a while. They would be isolated from taunting workers and Jenetta could even exercise them right in the warehouse. She suspected that they hadn't been out of their cage since breaking out of the first one. Jumakas had a reputation for being highly-intelligent, docile animals, making them exceptional pets, but they were also fiercely territorial, making them excellent for guard work once they identified a territory, or owner, as 'theirs.'

Jenetta pushed a packing case over to the cage and sat down where the animals could easily pick up her scent. The cats watched her warily at first, but slowly settled down. She stayed with them for two hours that first day, talking to them calmly. She told them that they were safe now and that nobody would be poking objects at them or teasing them. Her voice seemed to reassure them and they stretched out languidly in the cage, but continued to watch her intently.

Jenetta was extremely careful when feeding the cats at first, afraid that she might lose a hand, or even worse. But she discovered that they wouldn't even accept food directly from her, having been trained only to eat from their food bowls. Training guard animals not to accept handouts was done to ensure that they couldn't be poisoned or drugged by outsiders. Jenetta decided they must have been half starved on the cargo ship or they wouldn't have broken out of their cage and gotten into the food supplies. Having them eat only from their bowls made good sense, and Jenetta decided not to tempt them again to accept food from her hand.

By the time Shev Pallowkith was shipped out in the brig of a Space Command destroyer, for the first leg of his journey to a justice court, Jenetta had been accepted by the big cats as their mistress. Once away from the crewmembers that had been taunting and teasing the large animals while they were in the freighter's cargo hold, they had settled down and even became docile and playful in her presence. She personally fed them their twice-daily meals and they came to understand that she represented their link to food. She began walking the big cats every day, and after that she was rarely seen without them when off duty. They were so well behaved that she took them to her quarters to live, and after a few more weeks she didn't even use the leashes anymore, as the big cats never strayed from her side when out of her quarters.

Jenetta located a gemologist who would appraise the cargo for a fee, and with his certification, she was able to sell the entire lot for sixty-thousand credits to a shop owner on Higgins. After deducting the credits used to pay the original freight bill adjustment, the gemologist's fee, and the new freight bill for delivery of the cargo to Higgins, she deposited the remainder in an interest bearing account for Shev Pallowkith. She had already become so attached to the big cats that she decided to keep them as her commission for handling the sale.

Cayla and Tayna, as she named the two female cats, would be her almost constant companions from then on. At first she couldn't tell them apart, and had to rely on color-coded collars, but eventually she learned to identify them from their unique personalities. The big cats wouldn't leave her side when they were out of her quarters, unless she told them to stay in one place. During the day they stayed quietly in her office while she worked, and when she ran in the gym, they loped alongside her, one on either side. Other runners gave the trio a wide berth. At night the cats slept on blanket pads that Jenetta placed on the carpeted deck next to her bed. The pets greatly helped fill the frequent voids of loneliness that Jenetta had felt since the Prometheus left.

In October, after leaving her office following a hard day's work, Jenetta headed for the shopping concourse to pick up a couple of personal items. As always, her cats were at her side, never straying more than a quarter of a meter away as they walked. Other shoppers stepped quickly out of the way as they approached, but the trio had become a frequent sight and no one fled in terror anymore.