Chapter 16 The Four Shipmates
'Dyn, it's Wil. I'm staying downside tonight. I won't be up before the third or fourth watch. If you need a backup, go with Ginger. I'd not trust either Astro or Orbit with the ship. Fair orbits,' I said. I set the message up to be compressed and sent on a narrow laser link when the Lost Star's orbit brought it within line of sight. It'd be indistinguishable from a standard tracking blip. I nodded to Min next to me in the pilot's seat of the Ghost.
She switched on the camera before her and recorded her message. 'Vyn, Tenry, don't wait up for me tonight. We've a few loose ends to tie up tomorrow. Wil...' here she turned and gave me a sidelong glance with smile, '… and I will stay aboard the Ghost tonight. See you sometime tomorrow. 'Night.' She signed off and hit stop.
'Why did you do that?' I asked, mildly alarmed.
'Do what?' she asked with another sidelong glance and a smile.
'You know – you just did again... What are they going to think?' Given her rather disheveled appearance, her hair undone and tie loose, jacket off, I could readily imagine what they might think.
'Oh, you needn't worry, Captain Litang,' she said with mock tartness.
'I'm not. Not exactly. But why risk giving them a false impression?'
'Because they know me too well for me to get away with a lie. I can't tell them the truth – they doubled as our security detail and felt they'd failed when my parents were killed. Never mind that they were aboard the Silvery Moon in transit to Yendora orbit at the time. If they knew what happened tonight, I'd never be able to go anywhere alone again, which is not acceptable. So if I must lie I had to give them a different lie. One I doubt they'll feel comfortable pursuing.'
'I suppose... ' I shrugged, and added with my own sidelong glance. 'Though I'd think a more likely lie could be found, if you really needed one.'
'Any suggestions? I haven't sent it yet.' she replied archly. 'Give me a believable reason why I couldn't return to the 'Moon like I've done every day since my return.'
I just looked at her. 'Are you saying you've given them a believable reason?'
She considered that for a moment and broke out laughing. 'An excellent point! But the point is, believed or not, they'll not ask about tonight. Which is all I want,' and adding after a pause, 'I'm sure they'll be discrete, but if you really mind, I'll re-do it.'
'No. I was just being my usual cautious self. Doesn't matter. It'll confuse 'em when they see us together, though I hope we're becoming less wary of each other,' I ventured.
'We're shipmates. Whatever else that comes along will be in that context.'
'Shipmates it is. And I have to say, mate, we did alright tonight.'
'Yes, we did. They had to run bloody hard to catch us!' she laughed.
'I doubt it, I was only lumbering along,' I said. 'Still, I suspect they regretted catching us. That, in any case will be my story – when I can tell it. Send your message and let's get comfortable. I want to hear your yarn.'
'Oh, Captain! Yes, let's get comfortable,' she laughed sarcastically hit the send button and slipped into the main cabin.
I followed her out. There seems to be a certain carefree joy in living after someone tries, and fails, to kill you. We both were feeling it. Still, however fond of Tallith Min I was feeling, I wasn't feeling foolish. We'd sealed a partnership – running the Lost Star with mutual confidence in each other. We'd become shipmates, a relationship that transcends even friendship. But there are limits and she was watching me carefully to see that I understood them. I'd no intention of giving her the opportunity to spell them out.
She settled once more on the settee, drawing a blanket over her spare legs. Though this pair looked real from a distance, she considered them 'ugly'. I settled into the matching settee across the narrow aisle.
'As you know,' she began after taking a sip of cha from the mug she'd left on the shelf next to her, 'My parents were killed when a space boat – piloted by a dead man – struck our boat in route from the Slivery Moon to our country estate. The odds that an uncontrolled space boat could strike another boat are astronomical. And when you consider the fact that the supposedly uncontrolled boat changed course three times in order to hit us, you can see we're well beyond any possibility of it being pure chance.'
'Three course changes! How could that have been overlooked during the inquest?'
She shrugged. 'Air turbulence according to the report, based on incomplete data. The black boxes somehow did not survive the collision intact and the data was corrupted. And well, with the other pilot and my parents dead, and I expected to die shortly, the inquest was rather superficial.
'Anyway, I was at the controls heading down for our country home when the automatic alert sounded, and the boat made its automatic evasive maneuver to avoid the out of control boat – a normal and effective response to avoid a crash. The other boat made its first course alteration, bringing it back on collision course and forcing our boat to make a second evasive maneuver. My boat was fully operational and I let it make its programed maneuvers – again, the standard operating procedure since the boat's AI reacts faster than a human pilot. We're talking about maneuvers only seconds apart. The other once again changed course just as my boat began its avoidance maneuver, as if it was pre-programed to react to the standard avoidance maneuver. Desperate to avoid a crash, I banked my boat sharply, in the hope that we'd present a smaller target. It proved to be the wrong maneuver, as the plunging boat struck the upper hull of the passenger compartment, shearing much of it off and killing my parents instantly. Still, enough of the boat was left intact that I managed to remain conscious long enough to crash land on an island beach five minutes away, though it left me pretty much dead as well. I didn't regain consciousness until four months later, on Kimsai, where Vyn and Ten had brought me in a suspended animation box aboard the Silvery Moon. By that time the inquest was over with the suggestion that my final maneuver had nullified the space boat's automatic evasion which resulted in the crash.' She paused. 'Pilot error.'
'But how'd they come to that conclusion? Even without the black boxes, everything is tracked on radar.'
'Not as detailed as would be needed to determine the sequence of the last two maneuvers. And so with the black boxes mostly destroyed despite the fact that I landed the boat, it could not be determined precisely what happened in those final seconds. And since I was unable to speak at the inquest, expected to die, and with everyone else involved dead, they didn't think it worth the effort to keep the inquest open that I might speak.'
'Did you register an objection when you returned?'
She shrugged. 'I didn't think it mattered and now, when it clearly does, I need to stay dead for as long as possible. However, since the other pilot apparently died in space, the Patrol has an interest in the incident, and though they deferred to planetary investigation because the boats collided within the atmosphere, Vyn tells me that the Patrol has flagged the incident as an open case, but won't investigate further unless something new turns up.'
'And you don't think tonight qualifies as something new? If you don't want to bring in the Guard, why not alert the Patrol?'
She stared off into space for several moments before turning to me, 'Tonight's incident is strictly a Guard affair and, I find, I'm taking the whole affair very personally. I don't want the Patrol involved, at least until I know a whole lot more about what's going on and what's behind it. I don't know what my parents were involved in, and I don't want go to the Patrol until I do. After all, the Shipmates didn't run to the Patrol. I need to know what this is all about before going to the authorities.'
I could see in her eyes that I wasn't going to change her mind, so I tried a different track, 'What about the other pilot? The dead one? What did the inquest determine happened to him?'
'He was a sales representative for a rocket boat parts supplier from Sanre-tay. He had the boat equipped with the parts he was selling. He took a client from a Yendora based shipbuilding firm out for a de
monstration, returned, dropped him off and took off for Port Prime only to end up crashing into our boat. Very little of him was recovered from the crash. He was presumed to have either lost consciousness or died during the flight back to Port Prime. Hard to believe, but strange things happen. I'm having people look into this sales rep, but don't expect much. I can think of several ways they could have rigged it, but I'll likely never be able to prove anything.'
'Well, it's impossible not to believe it was deliberate,' I said. 'Not after tonight. I'll defer to your judgment, Tallith, but I think that by not alerting the Patrol you're missing the chance not only to find out more, but to bring the killers to justice.'
She shook her head “no”. 'There are too many unanswered questions involving my parents and Uncle Hawk. For all I know, they may've been pirates. I think it's best left as a private affair for now.'
'So, what exactly do you know about it? About why?'
'Very little, and most of it guesswork. First, I can't imagine anyone from their life on Calissant had any motivation to murder them, so it must be out of the Four Shipmates era,' she said. 'Given their yarns, that's not a great stretch. Plus, with this experience behind me, I can now see what Uncle Hawk was afraid of when he advised me to stay on Kimsai.'
'It would be in keeping with the thrust of their yarns,' I admitted.
'All four of the Shipmates have died within the last two years.' she said quietly. 'Miccall's death seems natural, a result of a long running heart problem. Uncle Hawk's accident would seem rather suspicious since he'd been racing needle rockets for fifty years, but there seems to be no way the rocket could have been sabotaged.'
(Captain Vinden raced needle rockets, small powerful plasma-electric rockets. He'd raced that day and was working on his ship in his yacht's hangar when it exploded, killing him. He'd been working alone and the needle rocket had been brought in directly from the race to the ship's hangar. And the only people on board were his ship's crew, all of whom had worked for him for decades. The chances of foul play seemed nil.)
'But my parent's deaths had to have been a carefully planned murder.'
'Being ambushed and left for dead tonight, eliminates any doubt.'
'Aye. It seems that their enemies finally found them and went about killing them,' said Min. 'I believe Uncle Hawk must've realized that. I saw him only one time after the crash. He seemed anxious and on edge, beaten down and old. Both my brother Jelter and I asked him about his and my parents' past, but he still refused to say anything about it beyond reciting the old tales.'
'I have to say Captain Miccall was never the same after learning about your parents' deaths either. Thinking back now, it seems that it was just after we heard the news that his health or his spirit began to decline and he started handing more and more of his duties off to me. A great deal of life had gone out of him, though I never made the connection. Yet neither Miccall nor Vinden made any real effort to change their lives. They could've disappeared again.'
'Perhaps they'd run as far as they cared too, or perhaps whatever – or whoever – they'd been trying to protect no longer mattered...' she mused.
'I'd a great deal of time on Kimsai to think,' she continued. 'I was confined to a recovery chamber for six months as the doctors grew and replaced my damaged internal organs. I turned the tales Uncle Hawk told over and over in my head and compared them with the yarns Jelter –a decade older than I – had heard growing up. We came up with a list of more than a hundred tales, but soon came to realized that many of the yarns were just altered versions of the same core stories, mutineers became pirates or revolutionaries, planets and star systems changed names, ships, times and sequences were altered to produce different yarns. But if you distilled their stories, eliminating the repetition and variations – and looked for a consistent theme, paying close attention to the incidental details, like whether my parents were married or just courting and such, you can arrange the yarns into two eras. The first set, a narrative of daring efforts to reverse an injustice, a theft or a political revolution. The second shifts to years and years on the run from powerful enemies, one close call after another. And then, a big gap before settling down on Calissant and the life we know them by.'
'I can easily believe you. When I saw them together, there was something more to them than I could put my finger on. Something tied them together. And there's always certain yarns that struck you as far more likely than many of the others. Do you have any clue as to who or what they were running from? Did Captain Vinden give you any hints at all when he visited? He had to have known it was murder once he heard your story.'
'He only warned me that – for reasons he'd not say – my parents might've been killed and that I might find myself a target as well. He wanted me just to stay on Kimsai where I'd be safe until he'd come for me. He'd not tell me anymore than that. It'd have been nice if he had,' she said with a shrug. 'I suppose he didn't want to encourage me to do anything on my own.'
'In any event, Jel and I came to several conclusions. First, we came to believe that my mother is central to the mystery, since kidnapping or assassinating her is a common thread in the yarns. We believe it's either a political affair out of some moon or drift planet because the revolutionaries often appear in the tales as villains, or a primitive blood feud with political overtones. Jel's certain my mother was the rightful ruler of a drift world or a moon, and her eldest daughter would inherit her title. In order to extinguish this line, the revolutionaries spent decades tracking her down to kill her and her heirs as well. Jel feels it's significant that my mother's eldest daughter, my sister Olaeytha, should have been put out of reach for the better part of three hundred years in the Outbound Survey. He believes Olaeytha may know more, or at least, may have been told something of the story before she left on her mission. He seems to recall a vague notion of something going on before she left on the mission. I was just a baby and he just a young boy so we can't say for certain.'
'But that doesn't explain tonight. You may've been incidental in the boat crash, but tonight, you were the target. Your older sister would, if Jel's theory is right, be the rightful heir, not you.'
'They may fear I'd return in my sister's place. If you've invested a century tracking someone across the eight stars you're not likely to let a little loose end like me dangling, are you?'
'It's hard for me to imagine anyone, or any organization going to such great length and expense to track down someone so far removed from the events.'
'But, you see, they can't be sure of what I know. I might know enough to be able to return to lead a counter revolution or extract revenge, should it be a blood feud. They can hardly take the chance that I don't know. And I may, indeed, have one clue.'
'A clue as to what's going on?'
'I'm afraid it's not that definite. Still, it suggests that Jel is not wrong about my mother...'
'How so?'
'First, you have to understand that the Taoists adepts of the Peaks and Valleys come from every planet, moon and rock in the Nine Star Nebula, so that it's not too unlikely that one of the adepts would be from the moon or drift world where all this started. However, given the extent of the Peaks and Valleys and the nature of the adepts, it'd be unlikely to cross orbits with one. Yet, late one afternoon, six months ago, I was working in the garden of Jel's hermitage when an old traveling master happened by. He walked over to greet me and when I looked up he gave a sudden start. He exclaimed something like Ossera before he quickly regained his composure and restored his serene face. He introduced himself as Floating Cloud Hermit. I, of course, invited him to remain with us for the night since it was getting late. He hesitated, but in the end, agreed to stay, and over our meal we talked of this and that, Jel explaining to Floating Cloud how I came to be on Kimsai. I, of course, knew his reaction to seeing me, so I was able to follow Floating Cloud's subtle questions concerning our parents and family history, which, as far as we know, goes only back to Calissant where our parents recorded their official ent
ry into the Unity from the Drifts of Helgot. He stayed the night, but as he left with the first light the next morning, he gravely advised me to follow the Way and remain on Kimsai, so that I might live out my appointed days in peace and harmony. It was a subtle, but sincere warning. Jel, of course missed the import of that comment, until I told him of my first encounter. I'm convinced that he knew me. Or rather, not me, but of someone I reminded him of. Likely my mother or even grandmother in their youth, for Uncle Hawk remarked on several occasions how I looked so much like Mother when she was my age. I believe at first sight, he saw my youthful mother in me and called me Ossera, either her real name or her title.'
'Then he'd know where your mother came from, and presumably where those who would kill you come from too, given his subtle warning! If you could find him and convince him to tell you... '
'Exactly. But of course, it's not that simple. Finding a wandering adept like the Floating Cloud Hermit in the Peaks and Valleys is impossible unless he wishes to be found. And when you consider that he had a chance to tell us, but instead, sincerely advised me to stay, I doubt it's a practical option. However, his appearance does provide two hints. First, like Uncle Hawk, he advised me to simply stay hidden, which suggest that what the Four Shipmates, and now I, are up against is something too powerful to challenge. Secondly, he unintentionally gave me a hint as to where to look, if I cared too...'
'Because you know where this Floating Cloud Hermit originally came from?'
'Exactly. He is said to come from somewhere in the Alantzia System, but no one seems to know more than that. He's been on Kimsai for well over a century, so that many of those who may've known him in his early years are now very old or have traveled on. Still, I believe I know where to look if I care to ignore their advice. Really, something this uncivilized could have only come out of either the deep drifts or the Alantzia. And it seems to be something bigger than a drift feud.'
I sighed. Yes, of course it had to be the Alantzia system – the farthest star, nestled deep in the drifts. Alantzia is part of the Unity Charter, but as the most distant star in the Nebula and surrounded by drifts, it is said that even its planets wear that cloak lightly. One could imagine bloody revolutions or blood feuds occurring on Alantzia system moons or likely as not, on one if its planets as well. The Patrol keeps space mostly clear of pirates and guarantees honest trade, but beyond that, it is said that you're pretty much on your own, the planets very much like our moons or even the drifts themselves. If the core of the Four Shipmates' yarns revolve around some sort of political intrigue – given the scope of them – the Alantzia system would be a far the most likely place for revolution or feuds to occur other than a drift planet or moon in the drifts.
'That sounds right – though all I know about Alantzia comes from spaceer yarns and fiction,' I said, cautiously. 'Where ever they come from, they were too powerful to resist. And still he'd not bring himself to tell you who or what to hide from. That seems strange to me.'
'I imagine he kept it vague in order to prevent me from running off and looking on my own. I don't actually need to know who I'm hiding from. I just need to get lost. Deeper than they did. I suspect that by not giving me anything specific to go by, he hoped I'd have no choice. What he didn't know was how much Jel and I would discover on our own.'
I carefully considered what I wanted to say next. She was not asking for my advice and I had promised myself to give it only when and if she asked. Here was a test.
'I see why you'd want to leave them with the impression they killed you. Hopefully we can keep them in the dark until after we sail and ideally, after we leave the system.' I said as casually as I could.
'We've a good chance of that, if we're careful. Neither of us are important people. I assure you that if two bodies showed up murdered on the Yacht Club tarmac, one a casual member and the other an off-world spaceer, they'd make sure it was hushed up. Only the Guard would ever know about it. The assassin will have no reason to suspect anything in the lack of information about our fate. I've already transferred the Lost Star to the holding company so my name no longer appears as owner. Finding my connection to the ship would involve some deep digging which they'd have no reason to do if I was dead. So yes, we've a good chance staying dead. Still, we'll never know for certain, so we must never assume they think I'm dead. Even so, if we can fool them only long enough for the assassin to get off planet, we can continue with our plans and get out of system before another attempt can be made.'
'Right. And really, if you think about it, there's no reason why we couldn't jump out of system right from Tiladore. If we left without a cargo, there'd be no need to list a destination which could be traced via the shipping intelligence posts. And with the Tiladore charter we can afford to sail hollow and still be in fair shape at the far end.'
'Something to consider,' she said, adding with a faint smile, 'Though as owner, I'd rather have a cargo outbound. We're going to need to show a profit no matter what we decide to do.'
'I don't know how to alter log records or change ship's names and registrations, but I suspect your Vyn and Tenry with their Patrol experience can help us there. We could make a few non-Guild voyages within the drifts together with a name change or two and we'd put them years behind us once again. At the very least, we'd be in a position to pursue our inquiry without having to look back over our shoulder for quite a while.'
She said nothing, lost in thought, so I continued, 'There's no safer place in the Nebula than aboard the Lost Star. There's not much that can harm a space ship even if they identified us. We'll just have to be careful downside for a while until we've had time to hide our tracks.'
'We don't know who's looking for me,' she said. 'or how widespread their agents might be... It takes more than a name change to hide a ship, especially one you've been tracking for nearly a century. And, well, we know nothing about the drifts or who to trust. I'll have to think about it. But not tonight. I seem to be running out of whatever the medic unit gave me to revive me, so I think I'll hook myself up again and see if I can get some rest. The forward seats fold down into beds, blankets can be found in the drawer under your settee...'
'Is there anything else I can do?' I asked. I could see she was now getting tired and I could sense that the future was not something she was prepared to think about, or at least talk to me about just yet.
She shook her head No. 'I'm just sore and tired. A night's rest will fix me up.'
'Tallith.'
She looked across the narrow compartment at me.
'I, well I just want you to know, you're not facing this alone. I know that I'm just a bit player, someone in the wrong place at the wrong time, but they tried to kill me too. I've a personal stake in this. I want to be a part of what you decide to do,' I said, compelled by loyalty and concern, while at the same time, regretting the necessity. Still I knew that if I didn't say anything now, I'd regret it far more. 'Plus, I'm sure I speak for the whole crew when I say, we'll stand by you and do what it takes to keep you safe. I'm sure we can keep you safe.'
'Thank you, Wil. I appreciate your concern, but I've not given any thought beyond playing dead until we sail. We'll have time after we sail to consider what needs to be done...'
'I stand by what I said, Tallith. It's more than concern. I'm in, like it or not. But as you say, we'll have plenty of time to hammer out our plans, so if there's anything I can do now, just order me about...'