The Legend of Corinair (19 page)

“No worries, love,” Josh promised.

“And one more thing. We already got jumped once by a shuttle full of bad guys. We don’t want it to happen again. So if you’re coming in under duress, you need to give us some kind of signal.”

“Like what? You want me to flash my running lights or something?”

“No, something vocal. Something you wouldn’t normally say, yet still seems appropriate.”

“How about if Josh talks like a real pilot?” Loki teased.

“Yeah, and Loki doesn’t. Oh, I know, he can start talkin’ like me.”

“Oh, using love, and mate every other word?”

“And let’s not forget, no worries, eh?”

“Yeah, that’ll work fine. What about for Marcus?”

“Oh, how about if he just stops swearing?” Loki suggested.

“I don’t think he can,” Josh joked.

Suddenly, several loud, hacking coughs came from Marcus.

“I think he just did,” Loki laughed.

“I know,” Josh interrupted. “He can just use the word please. That’ll make you do a double take, eh?”

“Fine,” Jessica said, just wanting to shut the two clowns up. “Please it is. Does that work for you Marcus?” A single cough confirmed his understanding. “Have a good flight, guys,” she said as she unplugged her headset.

“I believe we’re both going to get our heads firmly thumped later,” Josh declared.

As Loki reached down to change their comms back to the primary channel, a single cough came across the comms to confirm Josh’s declaration.

* * *

Nathan poked his head into the auxiliary systems support room just down the corridor from the bridge. The room had been converted into a makeshift signals intelligence office. Naralena, Enrique, and a few of the other refugees from the harvesting crew were busy poring over audio and video recordings that had been gathered over the last few hours.

As he entered the room, he noticed stacks of a few dozen data cores on one of the tables. There were at least four separate workstations setup, as well as a large, wall-mounted view screen on the wall.

“What are you watching?” Nathan asked as he entered the room.

“Nothing too interesting, sir,” Enrique explained as he kept skipping ahead in the video as if looking for something. “Just skimming through news broadcasts and marking anything that looks promising for translation.”

“Is this stuff live?”

“Naw, this is all the stuff we collected before we jumped into the system. So it’s all at least a day old. We picked up stuff that was just a few hours old while we were orbiting the gas-giant though. But for now we’re dark.”

“Why is that?”

“We can’t pick anything up while we’re inside this rock. At least not until they patch us into the facilities external comm-array. Vlad’s people are working on it with Allet, but until he gets the boarding ramp to secure properly to the ship, the only way over there is by EVA, so it’s slow going.”

“When does he expect to be finished?”

“Vlad’s working on the boarding ramp while Allet works on the comm-array. Last I heard, a few hours at least.”

“What’s with the data modules?” Nathan asked, pointing at the stacks of the black and silver components.

“Vlad pulled them from the damaged mainframe cores. Since they’re not being used, we’ve been swapping them out when one of ours gets full. Gives us a bit more storage capacity.”

Nathan nodded. “Good idea. If you want, I can scan through some of this stuff as well…if you could use the help, that is.”

“Sure. Take as many as you want. Just mark the file and location of anything that looks promising.”

“Okay. Carry on,” he ordered as he picked up a few data modules on his way out.

* * *

Josh and Loki gazed out the windows at the city below. It stretched out in all directions as far as they could see. Tall buildings, most of which came to points up high in the sky, surrounded by lush green parks and crystal white walkways. There were overhead monorail systems running on what seemed like impossibly thin rails. Even the more congested parts of the city appeared pristine by Haven standards.

“I don’t much care for this auto-landing crap,” Josh complained.

“They probably already heard how you fly and are just playing it safe. Just relax and enjoy the scenery,” Loki told him.

“Listen to you two,” Marcus teased over the comms from the rear of the shuttle. “You sound like you’ve never been to a core world before.”

“I ain’t been off Haven since I was what, four or something?” Josh reminded him.

“I’ve been a few places besides Haven,” Loki admitted, “but never any place like this.”

“How many people do you suppose live here?” Josh wondered.

“Over 4 billion was the last estimate,” Tug reported over the comms. “Most of them are clustered on the main island nations in the upper and lower oceans.”

“How much of this planet is covered with water?” Loki asked.

“More than ninety percent,” Tug explained. “Most of their exports are water based commodities.”

“How come nobody lives in the equatorial regions?” Loki asked.

“This planet has no axial tilt, and its orbit is nearly a perfect circle; hence it has almost no seasonal changes. The equatorial regions are just too dry to support life.”

“How can any place on a planet that’s ninety percent water be too dry?” Josh wondered aloud.

The shuttle continued on its gradual descent over the city as it approached the local spaceport. The closer they came to the port, the more ships they saw coming and going. There was an incredible amount of air traffic, ships of every conceivable shape, size, and purpose.

“Jesus, no wonder they require ships to use the auto-landing system. Look at this!” Loki exclaimed.

“It reminds me of when you go into the kitchen at night, and turn on the lights, and all the bugs go running for cover,” Josh commented.

Outside, another larger shuttle appeared to be coming straight at them. “Uh, Loki?” Josh said, a slight bit of concern in his voice. “Is that guy coming right at us?”

Loki looked down at his scanner display. “I’m not sure.”

“Whattaya mean, you’re not sure?” Josh’s concern was beginning to show signs of panic as well.

“There are so many tracks on here, I can’t make out who’s who.”

“Well, are any of them coming right at us or not?”

“They all look like they’re coming right at us, Josh!”

Josh began to frantically try to disengage the auto-flight system. “How the hell do you shut off this crap?!” Josh was really starting to panic as the approaching ship drew nearer at an alarming rate.

“We’re going to collide!” Josh yelled as he ducked down, holding his arms up over his head to protect himself.

The massive shuttle skimmed over the top of them, missing by no more than a few meters. The jet wash from the larger ship’s engines shook the smaller shuttle for several seconds after passing overhead. By the time the roar of the passing ship’s engines subsided, all that was left was the sound of Loki’s laughter.

“What are you laughing at?” Josh demanded.

“I thought you never flinched?”

“Real funny, that was. Real funny.”

Ten minutes later, the shuttle was on the ground and had rolled to a stop at one of the countless cargo terminals. Tug and Jalea came down the boarding ramp almost before it had completely deployed.

“We’ll secure a transport for the ore and return,” Tug advised Marcus as they walked away.

Marcus watched as the two Karuzari walked across the tarmac until they reached the terminal building, where Tug went to the left towards the transportation office and Jalea went into the terminal building. Jessica had told him to keep an eye on the two of them. He didn’t know why she didn’t trust them, but as trusting people wasn’t in his nature any more than it seemed to be in hers, he had no problem obliging her request.

Jalea took a moment to let her eyes adjust to the interior lighting after coming in from the harsh afternoon sun of Corinair. After looking around to get her bearings, she spotted a communications service counter and headed toward it.

“Can I help you, Miss?” the clerk at the counter asked in the local language of Corinairi.

“I need to purchase five comm-units, please.”

“Of course. Will those be local, global, or interplanetary?”

“Two local, one global, and two interplanetary units.”

“No problem, just give me a few minutes to activate them for you.”

Jalea waited calmly as the clerk activated each unit. After paying for the comm-sets, the clerk placed them all into a clear plastic bag and handed it to her.

Jalea left without delay, heading for the exit. She stopped short of the doors, pausing to take the global comm-set out of the bag and put it into her jacket pocket before heading through the doors.

As she stepped out, Tug pulled up in a large, flatbed cargo skimmer. Jalea stepped into the open cab and took a seat next to him, the skimmer sinking slightly lower to the ground temporarily as it adjusted to the additional weight of another passenger. Tug immediately sped off across the tarmac on his way back to the shuttle.

“What do you suppose she was doing in there?” Marcus wondered aloud.

“Using the bathroom?” Josh offered.

Marcus just glared at him. He continued watching their skimmer as it hurtled across the tarmac, adjusting its speed and course to avoid ships and other skimmers sharing the tarmac with them. After a few minutes, the skimmer finally arrived and Tug backed it into position as close to the rear of the shuttle as possible.

As the skimmer backed up, Marcus raised the ramp so it was level with the tarmac. Tug adjusted the hover height of the skimmer until it was level with the shuttle’s boarding ramp, and backed it up until it was flush with the boarding ramps leading edge. A moment later, four legs extended from the skimmer and made contact with the tarmac below, after which Tug shut the skimmer down.

Marcus wheeled the crates of ore out of the back of the shuttle and onto the bed of the cargo skimmer, carefully positioning the crates in order to fit all of them onto the vehicle. The entire off-load took only fifteen minutes.

Jalea climbed down out of the skimmer’s cab and walked over to Marcus. “You may use this to contact us should the need arise. It will work anywhere within the Darvano system, even inside the asteroid base.”

“This thing will work inside a rock?” Marcus challenged.

“The external comm-array will relay the signal to the interior of the facility. It will work just fine. Unless instructed otherwise, you may meet us here tomorrow morning, between nine and ten, local time.”

“And what will you two be doing while we’re gone?” Marcus asked, trying, but failing to not appear abnormally inquisitive.

“Our instructions were to sell the ore and use the money to purchase supplies for the Aurora, which you will haul back to the ship tomorrow.”

“That shouldn’t take too long. Maybe we should just wait around.”

“That will not be necessary. We are also going to attempt to locate any
friends
on this world that might lend assistance.”

“Uh huh. What kind of friends?”

“I do not believe that is any of your concern,” she said as she turned and walked away.

Marcus looked down at the comm-set she had handed him, and then back at her as she climbed into the cab of the skimmer. Tug climbed in the other side of the cab, powered the vehicle back up, and retracted the legs before pulling away.

“That is one icy bitch,” Marcus muttered.

“So, time to blast off?” Josh asked.

“Soon,” Marcus told him. “First, let’s go and get us some real food.” A big grin came across his face. “I’m buying.”

* * *

It had been relatively easy to dispose of the Aurora’s shipment of raw ore as Tug had asked for a price that left the buyer with plenty of room for profit. Now that they had concluded the first task of their visit to Corinair, they were more than ready to depart the dirty, industrial part of the capital city.

“We must go to the market and purchase supplies,” Tug announced.

“Perhaps it would be more efficient if we were to separate. You go to the market and procure the supplies the captain requested. I will secure us lodging for the night and place discreet ads on the net that only our friends will recognize. This will provide additional time for them to contact us.”

Tug did not like the idea of separating. Not only was the capital city a large and heavily populated city, it also had its dangerous side. He had no doubt that Jalea could handle herself and would not take any undue risks, but he was yet unsure how much he could trust her. Jalea had normally been a master at self-control and emotional discipline, despite some of the more passionate moments they had shared in the distant past, long before his third marriage to Ranni. But her recent behavior, including her sudden violent outburst in the Aurora’s interrogation room, had him a bit concerned—not only for her well being, but also as to her true intentions.

“Are you sure?” He did not want to come right out and announce his misgivings. “There is yet sufficient time.”

“I will be fine,” she assured him. “It is not my first time on this world. Besides, I wish to seek counsel from a member of the Order.”

“You still cling to such superstitions, even in the light of our new reality?”

“It still provides me strength,” she told him. “Do not judge—”

“Of course. But we must first purchase comm-units,” he insisted, “so that we may stay in contact.”

“I have already taken the liberty,” she informed him, pulling one of the local comm-units from her shoulder bag.

Tug tried unsuccessfully to hide his surprise. “How did you pay for these?” he asked, worried that she might have left a financial marker that a watchful Ta’Akar intelligence operative might notice.

“Do not concern yourself. I used standard universal credits. And I reprogrammed my ident-chip prior to departure, as I am sure you did as well.” Jalea smiled to reassure him. “You forget that I am not new to subterfuge. I also purchased a pair of interplanetary comm-units and gave one to the Havenite in case we need to communicate with him later. We can also list one of the numbers as the contact in our advertisement, in case one of our friends tries to contact us after we return to the ship.”