Chapter 65 The Azurete's Boat
01
When I set out to record my experiences as the acting captain of the Lost Star, I expected to write about the shipboard life aboard an ordinary tramp freighter. The Neb had other plans, and I find myself recording events that would put those old spaceers and their outlandish yarns to shame. Which makes it ironic that having finally settled into a stable orbit – even if it's a drift one – I've recorded nothing in two years. Perhaps within those outlandish stories I've accomplished what I set out to do. And well, I probably shouldn't have even mentioned how ordinary life has become. Naming names. But I guess it’s too late now, so I might as well bring this account up to date.
We've heard nothing from Min. We don't send radio-packets to Min & Co fearing St Bleyth might be intercept them. Instead, at Botts' suggestion, we use the Credit Box to communicate – attaching notes to small credit transfers to Min & Co. since these transactions are instantaneous, secure, and untraceable. Using this method, we gave Kardea a guarded account of our predicament and asked her to contact our families to tell them we were trading deep in the drifts and might be out of contact for years. If and when Min needs to communicate with us, Kardea should use this method as well. But, as I said, we've heard nothing from her. I wasn't concerned – she was actually deep in the drifts and unlikely to be in a position to send radio packets to the Unity. Plus, I was enjoying the long leash.
Our first run out of Baidora proved to be the model for our Amdia trade – Baidora outbound to Creylin, Dortag, Shantien, Hendin, with occasional calls on half a dozen other drift stations like Vilin's Rock, Wayzon's Reef, D'Jin Station, and the Darc'ar Reef before returning to Baidora. Some of those drift stations were the type that not only allowed Molaye to wear her pirate piece but I was glad to have her alongside with her wearing it. Most, however, were gateway stations to the deeper reefs and drifts, served by CTC and Guild freight liners, and so they were fairly Unity Standard, at least with the thin slice we dealt with. We've settled into a groove very similar to our old Azminn round, regular, modestly profitable, and unexciting, though we sail with our anti-meteor missile magazines fully stocked with assorted missiles, I have no trouble sleeping. Neb, we're delivering two dozen boxes to St Bleyth's Shantien chapter house twice a year these days, so I didn't worry (much) about them connecting us to the Lost Star. If they ever do, I'd know.
Dici got his pilot's ticket after the second voyage and Elana just passed her board exam yesterday, as did Kie as an environmental engineer, so I've a fully qualified crew. Rafe, the old rolling stone, has been content to stay on, in part, because the drift stations we're calling on are hardly inviting, and in part because he'd taken Kie on as his apprentice in his dark digital arts.
With our new identities, our owner somewhere in the drifts and unheard from, with Molaye now an extremely competent first mate, and Botts, Elana and Dici firmly settled in, the Lost Star was a fading memory. We were the Starry Shore.
02
I knew it – in naming names and saying how routine our life had become, I tempted the Dark Neb. Never seem to learn. Within hours of recording my brief update, our plans for a fifth drift run changed. I received a signal from the shipping office of the Numbia CTC. Were we available for an express run to Bleak Rock? They needed a large, D-matter furnace component delivered to their Bleak Rock foundry as soon as possible. The name alone gave me pause. I called it up on the charts as their transport agent gave me the particulars.
Bleak Rock lays on the edge of the Helgot drift, some 70 au outbound from Baidora. We'd sail up the rift between the Myzar and Helgot drifts for three quarters of the way at interstellar speeds, and step down to drift speed for the last dozen aus. The whole passage would take some 130 to 150 days. I was torn, Numbia's gratitude could do a lot for us... But I was comfortably settled in our Hendin-Baidora circuit. However, the charter terms, when the agent got around to them, proved too lucrative to pass up – I've an owner somewhere in the drifts that I was hired to serve – so five hours later we were once again dismantling our hold dividers in order to fit the massive conveyor part into holds 3, 2, and part of 1. Three days later we were on our way to Bleak Rock.
The first leg of our voyage, some 98 days of mostly clear sailing at interstellar speeds, took us past the drift world of Carivon, and up to the edge the finger of drift between the Myzar and Helgot drifts. After Carivon we decelerated to make our way through the thicker drift space of the Helgot Drift to Bleak Rock Station, a drift station that lives up to its name. We made Bleak Rock 121 days out of Baidora, well under our contract time, thanks to Botts, though I didn't dare give it a free hand for fear of making our passage too remarkable.
We didn't spend more time at Bleak Rock than necessary to unload the conveyor and complete our documentation for payment. Four days later we sailed for Carivon where I hoped to pick up some boxes for some Amdia system world.
03
Nine days out of Bleak Rock, Elana pinged me as I made my nightly rounds. 'We've a ship on radar, Skipper. A ship's boat or prospector.'
We were in the middle of nowhere, so it seemed out of place – you need to keep an eye on unusual things in the drifts. 'Keep a sharp watch. There might be more,' I said. 'I'll stop down in a few minutes.'
I'd just stepped onto the bridge when Kie, at lookout said, 'I'm picking up a signal from the contact requesting our ID. Shall I reply?'
'Aye, and request one as well,' I said. 'I'll be in my office if they care to speak to us.'
'Contact, Captain,' said Kie in my com linked ear speaker as I settled behind my desk.
'Switch it over,' I replied, calling up the com screen on my desk.
A weary looking woman with drawn face appeared on the screen.
'Captain?' she asked, staring closely at her screen.
'Aye, Nives Wilcrofter, of the Starry Shore out of Baidora bound for Carivon,' I replied.
'A Guild ship. A tramp,' she remarked, no doubt consulting her registry data base. 'Rather far from the usual orbits for a Guild tramp.'
'Far from everywhere. But we tramps are shiftless creatures. In this case we're returning from a delivery to Bleak Rock Station. And you, Captain?' I asked, noting the star badge on her cap.
She stared at me for a few seconds longer before shrugging, 'I'm sorry Captain, but this is the drifts... My name is Feyla Linnor, Captain of the Asterdronia Trading Company's Azurete.'
In a ship's boat, which would likely mean...
'As you likely surmise, my ship has been disabled and I've had to abandon her at present. We're on our way to Carivon as well. As you can see, we're making a rather leisurely passage of it, since we started from initial lift. Will you honor Guild obligations and take us aboard as shipwrecked spaceers?'
'Of course, Captain Linnor. We're at your service,' I replied, and glancing at her boat's track displayed on the view-panel on the wall next to me, I added, 'Do you require my longboat to collect you, or can you accelerate to rendezvous on your own?'
'We've fuel to rendezvous, but only at the cost of our ability to decel and make Carivon, so you understand my caution. I need be certain of your welcome.'
'Aye, this is the drifts. But if your Guild records are up to date, you'll see we've been operating out of Baidora for the last several years. You're more than welcome to hitch a ride to Carivon or on to the Amdia system, for that matter.'
She considered that for several moments, and then nodded. 'Fair enough. I've only two of my crew awake to stand watch with me, the rest are in sleeper-pods. If you are willing to take us aboard, I'll bring us alongside.'
'I'll have cabins prepared for your arrival, Captain Linnor.'
03
Fourteen hours later Illy, the hounds, and I, waited on the port side landing stage to greet Captain Linnor and her crew. Molaye, with her beloved pirate piece on her hip, was stationed at the top of the access well along with Kie, Myes and Riv – just in case. Botts was keeping watch as well, with all of the ship
's sensors. This was, after all, the drifts, though everything checked out.
The dust-scarred hull of the longboat drifted into the floodlights as the gangplank dock latched on to its airlock with the slightest of tugs. A point in Captain Linnor's favor. As the safety door slid open, I stepped out into the clearsteel gangplank tube to greet our guests. Half a minute later, the airlock hatch opened and Captain Linnor swung out landing on to the gangplank with a magnetic click.
She'd taken the care to spruce up – a crisp company uniform, her hair tied back under her cap and her face freshly scrubbed, though that did not erase the tension lines etched in it.
'Welcome aboard, Captain Linnor,' I said stepping forward and taking her extended hand.
'It is good to be aboard, Captain Wilcrofter,' she replied taking me in with her cool eyes, adding with a wary smile, 'Thank you for having us.'
Linnor looked every bit a CTC ship's captain, which is to say she reeked of competent authority – even shipwrecked. She was as tall as I, slim, with light hair and sharp features, pretty, perhaps, but that was overlaid with years of authority and now, a great deal of worry. She was, after all, a captain of a wrecked ship – something I hope never to be. Still, even on this brief acquaintance, I was certain she hadn't lost it through carelessness.
'I'm sorry to hear of your misfortune, but I'm glad we can be of assistance,' I assured her, and turning as Illy approached with the eager dogs, added, 'And this is my purser, Illan Lantra, and the hounds are Astro and Orbit. I'm afraid they've the long established right to welcome all of our guests onboard.'
'Illan,' she said with a nod and a cool smile, 'Astro and Orbit,' she added with a polite pat on their heads.
They were their usual friendly selves, not that it told me anything. They'd been pals with St Bleyth's D'Lay as well.
A large and wide square-built first mate (from his cap's badge) and a thin, wiry chief engineer – well, engineers always look like engineers, and she looked like one without even glancing at her badge – followed Linnor out and onto the gangplank.
'My First, Pax Sol, and my chief engineer Ivay Chan,' she said, introducing her shipmates, adding 'The rest of my crew are in pods. We needed to conserve resources aboard the longboat.'
'Aye. Welcome aboard Pax, Ivay,' I said as we shook hands and exchanged a few words over the bounding dogs. 'Let's go up to the office where we can discuss arrangements for moving the rest of your crew on board and stowing your boat,' I said with a wave towards the access well.
As we reached the bridge deck, I introduced Molaye and the gang, who still lingered around the access well, mostly out of curiosity now. I'm sure my guests didn't miss Molaye's pirate piece, but they affected not to notice. As I said, this was the drifts, and they likely had far more experience in them than I. I ushered them into the ship's office. The dogs joined us, but since they were on their best behavior, I let them stay.
'I've had three cabins cleared for your use,' I said. 'I'd like to transfer your sleeping shipmates to our suspended animation strong room and secure your boat. If that's satisfactory I'll set my crew to work, which should take us to meal time, where I hope you'll join us.'
'Thank you. We don't wish to be in the way – I realize how strangers can be disruptive – but I'd feel more comfortable if we are able to travel awake to Carivon.'
'Of course. You're all welcome to travel awake, we're only 14 days out of Carivon. We'll get along just fine. And I should add that you're welcome to travel with us to Amdia as a Guild courtesy as well, if you choose to.'
She nodded. 'Thank you. How we proceed from Carivon will be determined by my owners.'
'Ah, yes,' I said. 'I'll have M'Ley to organize a party to transfer your crew.'
She nodded to her shipmates, 'Pax and Ivay will help.'
They rose and I stepped out into the passageway to tell Molaye to get the off duty crew together and transfer the sleeper-pods to the strong room. As I stepped back in, I asked, 'Can I offer you something to drink, Captain? I've some Mystwine, Ysent or Ram Rock rum, or a cup of cha or kaf.
She closed her eyes for a second and then said with a sigh, 'Ram Rock rum sounds so tempting, but I think I'd better settle for kaf.'
'Kaf it is. We'll save the rum for after dinner.'
'I'd imagine you're curious to know how I arrived in this orbit,' she said, watching me go about brewing the kaf.
'Yes, of course, though I imagine it's not a pleasant topic. Really, if you'd rather wait and tell your story once and be done with it, we can postpone it until after dinner.'
'That might be best,' she said. 'Still, I assure you my crew and I did all we could to prevent the loss, and we were able to abandon my ship in a position that its cargo can be salvaged.'
'I've no doubts that you did everything that could be done. A chartered trading company doesn't employ careless captains or crews.'
'As to that, Captain, well, I'm in a rather delicate position. I'm sure you ran a Guild register check on the Azurete and the Asterdronia CTC and you're aware of the business we're in. So when I say my ship was home bound with a full cargo, you can understand that keeping the fate of my ship a secret for as long as possible is vital for the success and safety of the salvage operation. I opted to sail for Carivon instead of several closer drift stations to minimize the risk of word getting out before the official salvage operation could be put into motion.
'Word will get out, of course. People will talk. Hopefully whispers on Tradonia will take their time reaching the drifts. But if word leaks on Carivon, any salvage operation could become a great deal more difficult, and dangerous.'
'I understand your concern, and I'll see that no one talks.'
'I also hope our presence on board can be kept secret. That would've been impossible if we'd arrived in a longboat.'
'You can count on us. We're all good Guild members. We've never called on Carivon – we were planning just a quick look-in to see if there were any odd boxes we could take along back to Amdia – so our stay need only be as long as you require to contact your owners and get your instructions,' I assured her as I handed her a mug of kaf.
She nodded. 'I'm sorry to sound so demanding, but I have my responsibilities to my owners.'
'Aye, owners,' I said, raising my mug of kaf in an ironic salute.
I had, indeed, looked up the Asterdronia Chartered Trading Company. It trades in precious metals – gold silver, platinum, and the rare minerals needed for the creation of D-matter. None of these are rare in absolute terms – the drifts have more than enough to supply the Unity for the next few hundred thousand years. Over half of the required supply of these metals and minerals are supplied as a byproduct of mining other metals in the drifts. The remaining balance, however, comes from the relatively rare mine-able rocks and finding those rocks is time consuming and thus expensive. This, rather than absolute scarcity makes them precious. A ship's cargo of refined gold, silver, platinum and rare minerals would certainly attract a great deal of freelance salvage operators once word gets out – as it will.
'Owners,' she said, 'May they keep their wits about them. And speaking of wits, I trust you'll allow me some leeway in that department as well. I'm very grateful for anything you can do for us. It's just that...I haven't come to terms with this disaster just yet.'
'Yes, of course. If there's anything I can do, don't be afraid to ask. I assure you, I feel your pain.'
She nodded. 'I should also say that I can't promise you anything. Every decision will be made by my owners on Tradonia.'
'We serve our owners.' I said.
'Have you been trading in the drifts for long?' she asked to change the subject.
'Something like five years now. Five years too long...' I began by sketching in our history and we soon drifted into spaceer yarning unit Molaye appeared, minus her pirate piece, at the office door.
'Passengers and boat are stowed and the personal effects delivered to the cabins, Captain,' she said when I inquired with a glance. r />
'Right,' I said, and glancing at the desk clock, I added, 'Dinner will be in a little less than an hour, so I'll let M'Ley show you to your cabin so you can settle in a'bit before dinner.'
'Thank you, Captain,' Linnor said rising, 'I appreciate all you've done.' And with a nod and a faint smile to Molaye, left me with the sleeping dogs.
04
'I appreciate your patience, Captain Wilcrofter,' began Linnor, with a nod to me.
'Wil will do fine,' I said.
She nodded with a faint smile and continued looking about, 'I appreciate Captain Wil allowing me the opportunity to tell our story once to everyone. It is, as you can imagine, a painful memory for all of us,' she began. All but Lili and Myes, who had the watch, had settled about the chairs and lounges of the awning deck after our meal to hear her tale.
'The Azurete is a 110 meter, 60 container, cargo liner designed for drift work – a reinforced hull, extended fuel tanks and two enclosed boat hangars, one housing a skip fighter for added protection. As I'm certain most of you know already, we specialized in the transport of precious metals and rare minerals, hence the skip fighter. Though in my 19 years as captain, we've never had to actually use its weapons. Having it aboard has been enough to keep us free of any would-be pirates. The Azurete's field of operation is the Kryver Reef. We call on several dozen independent mining stations once a year. The reef is massive, some 20 to 25 au in size and we spend nearly four months within it collecting our cargoes – mostly in quarter boxes. We were home bound for Tradonia with 196 quarter and half boxes, less than half a day from the edge of the reef when our long range radar picked up some remarkable activity amongst the rocks of the reef bordering the passage we were threading.
'It appeared that something vast in the reef had exploded, sending rocks and asteroids flying at hyper-speeds – approaching that of an interstellar ship, and since this happened in the dense reefs, these hyper-speed rocks were striking other rocks, sending them flying outwards at random vectors as well, so that we faced a massive hyper-speed storm of meteors coming at us from odd angles and at such speeds that we could not hope to avoid all of them.'
'A so called black dragon, event' said Lilm.
Linnor cast a glance towards Lilm. 'Yes, I've been told that's the drifteer term for such an event. Are you familiar with the phenomena?'
'I sailed the Canjar Drift in my youth – a very strange quarter of the Nebula,' she replied. 'And likely the source of many drifteer and spaceer legends. I've not actually seen a black dragon in action, but we often sailed through the Mulbria Reef along what was said to be an ancient black dragon passage – a very clear and straight hole through a dense reef. And there are many other such tracks throughout the Canjar.'
'And do you know what they are? Assuming they're not actual dragons swimming through the rocks of the reef,' asked Linnor with a faint smile.
'I don't know if you can assume they're not dragons or some sort of inter-dimensional phenomena. You've just witnessed one, so you know more about that than I,' replied Lilm sharply.
'Our radars didn't pick up any dragon.'
'Just so. Which is why they're called black dragons – undetectable, not quite of this dimension. But if you prefer a less colorful theory, it's that you've experienced a creasing of space-time wrought by the gravitational stress lines of the Ninth Star. If you consider the rocks of the reef to be specks of dust on the surface of a sheet of paper, a sudden creasing of that paper would send them flying in all directions, which seems to be the event you're describing. You've witnessed one of the myths of the Nebula,' Lilm said with a shrug, adding, 'And lived to tell about it, which is remarkable. How did you manage?'
'Luck, and a specially built ship. We could not avoid the effects of the, well, black dragon – it was too near and its effects spread too rapidly for us to decel, turn and run. Within an hour the passage we'd been following disappeared, leaving us no choice but to try to make our way through the meteor storm.
'Since we were not traveling at great speed, avoiding a normal meteor swarm would've been fairly routine, but with the hyper-speeds and with the variety of vectors with which the meteors were coming at us, it was impossible to avoid all of them and we had to take several minor hits from the smaller rocks while dodging or destroying the larger ones with our anti-meteor missiles. I had the crew suit up and stationed all of them but myself and my chief mates in our ship's longboat, turning that side away from the onrushing rocks.
'Over the course of the next six hours we danced and dodged and blasted rocks – but, as I said, not all of them. Only the fact that the Azurete was built for drift work, allows me to tell my tale. We were holed several times, including one through the engine room and into the main engine. Our crew section was also badly holed. Luckily they were small rocks and the main engine was not in operation or we'd not be here. Eventually, we reached the far side of the event and outer edge of the reef where the immediate effects of the black dragon had passed.
'Free of immediate danger, we were able to take stock of our situation. Both of the ship's boats were undamaged but the Azurete had only one balancing rocket operable and no working environmental system. Getting the ship to the nearest reasonable port, Carivon, on one balancing rocket would take over twenty years so I decided to abandon the ship and make for Carivon in the longboat where we could contact our owners and arrange a salvage operation.
'One option was to abandon the Azurete, buoyed, and trust that whenever a salvage operation was mounted – which might take years to organize – they would be able to locate the ship. Given the unsettled local conditions, I was leery of it surviving in the open, so with a small moon-like asteroid in radar range and reachable, I decided to land my ship on it instead. We spent several days maneuvering the Azurete using the few remaining steering rockets and the one balancing rocket to softly crash the ship on this moon. It had enough of a gravity, something like .02 gee to hold the ship until our return. I worked up a course for the moon and keyed several buoys to respond only to a coded signal, so it should be fairly easy for an authorized salvage operation to locate.
'With the ship stashed away, we set out three months ago in the longboat for Carivon. Which brings us up to date, I believe...' she paused, looked about and continued. 'As I mentioned to your captain, I am certain that my owners will salvage the Azurete. I'm hoping that we can keep both the wreck and our presence aboard your ship a secret in order to get a jump on any freelance competition... I think you can see how it would be a lot safer for the salvage operation if it didn't have any drift hawks (opportunistic some-time pirates) hanging about.'
'I can speak for all of us when I say that you can count on us,' I said. 'We understand the stakes involved.'
05
Traveling aboard a small tramp – awake – is not the most exciting thing to do in the Nebula, which is one of the reasons why we're on duty half of each day. Having more time on one's hands tends to get wearisome. Passengers must endure this idleness, which is even more wearisome, if you're a spaceer and used to filling half of your time with work.
You can read – we've a million books in the library, in thousands of omnibus collections sorted by genre, planet of origin, and era. You can watch vids, we've a million of them too, sorted as well – a legacy of the ship's time as a freight/passenger liner. You can exercise. You can eat boxed meals from the bistro whenever you want. You can go up to no. 4 hold and play catch with the dogs, though you sometimes have to snag them out of the air to reacquaint them with the deck. You can be pounced on by a big white cat, if you're not paying attention. You can sit around and yarn with the off duty crew. Or you could just sit on the awning deck or in your cabin and brood. Losing a ship will do that to you. However, after spending three months in a small boat crammed with sleeper-pods, they didn't complain.
We did make a point of having games in no. 4 hold each night, free-fall ball and target games, drone battles and even laser tag in the dark. I let Molaye play one game of l
aser tag, just to show our guests that she can wear a pirate piece on her hip. It was a short game. She doesn't miss. Ever.
All in all, we got along fine. Indeed, Molaye and Captain Linnor seemed to hit it off – two of a kind, I suspect. I even heard Captain Linnor laugh. Twice.