buying John a villa that he had seen only in holos. Even after Mina's death, he had kept up the payments. He wasn't exactly certain why; he had only a vague reluctance to give up his last contact with his lost love. However, Mina was dead; there was no urgency to his plans.
Until Atlantea.
It was almost unheard of for pirates to attack entire planets. But Atlantea was a minor trading center, with a few medium-sized cities and the rest of the planet only sparsely settled. Except for a disorganized militia, the planet was virtually unarmed.
They had been on Atlantea for a week and John's two freighters were nearly full of loot when he came across Smiley and his crew at work. A wealthy merchant had refused to reveal the hiding place of his valuables. When John walked in, the man was tied to a chair, being forced to watch as his wife and teenage daughter were gang raped by the pirates. Over the cries and screams of the women, John heard Smiley threaten to destroy the daughter's beauty if the man did not talk. 'Naw,' Smiley was saying, 'I won't kill 'er. I figger she'll do that herself when she sees her face. I'll just slice her nose, cut off her ears, and mebee give her some ar tistic scars. Time I'm done, she'll vomit ever' time she looks in the mirror.' The man looked sick, tears running unheeded down his bruised and bloody face.
John glanced at the subject of Smiley's threats just as she turned her dirty, agonized face toward him. Their eyes met.
John told himself later that the girl really did not look that much like Mina. Oh, the hair color was similar, and her features generally resembled Mina's, but the resemblance wasn't really that close. At that moment, though, John was transfixed.
Mina had told him that someday something would happen that would hold a mirror up for John, and show him what he had become, what he had done to himself. Then, she said, he would probably kill himself. She had begged him to 'go straight,' stop the piracy and settle for peaceful trade — and then she had been killed when he tried.
But suddenly he saw himself in the girl's dull, pain wracked eyes. He was responsible for all this. He had planned this huge planetary raid. The animals torturing her were his men, obeying his orders. He had become what Smiley was: a monster.
John made it outside before he vomited. Mina's mirror had appeared, and John was full of loathing and disgust for what it had revealed.
Mina had been wrong about one thing, though. John overcame the urge to kill himself, mainly by focusing on forming a plan to escape the pirates and flee to some place where he could begin a peaceful new life and put this horror existence behind him.
Time dragged as Azure Sky 's AI shut down the drives and went to minimum life support. There was 'way too much time to think, to regret the past, and to worry about whether he would be discovered.
He was monitoring the pirate fleet's communications, and was gratified by the confusion his disappearance and Smiley's death had caused. The struggle for leadership was well underway, and from what was being said, and more importantly, what was carefully not being said, it was becoming apparent that Townley was on his way to gaining control. Captain Franks of the hellraker was still alive, but John suspected that was only because he was being very cautious, and refusing to leave his ship. Eventually, Townley would bribe one of Hellraker 's crew to kill their captain.
Meanwhile, Townley had called a 'council of captains' of the various ships. It had been decided that this 'council' would command until a leader was selected.
So far, no search had been mounted for John and Azure Sky. It appeared John had been right: Townley didn't trust Turlow not to run off. And it was Townley. John could tell that he was the one pulling the strings, and despite his drunkenness, it appeared that Franks knew it too. Franks was refusing to leave Hellraker, claiming not to trust his crew. However, he was in almost constant contact with the other captains, trying to forge support for his own candidacy. That he would fail was, to John, a foregone conclusion. Townley was smarter, tougher, and meaner. He was also sober. John just hoped Franks lasted until he completed his escape.
Between Azure Sky 's library and monitored pirate communications, the time passed slowly. Nevertheless, it did pass. John heaved a great sigh of relief as the yacht jumped.
After two recal stops, his first stop was Jackson. Jackson had been a shipbuilding center long before the Fall of the Empire. For a long time after the Fall, Jackson had been able to carry on business as usual. Empire or no, trade required ships, and ships required maintenance, repair and replacement. But now, decline and piracy had begun taking their toll on interstellar trade. Large freighters and the few remaining passenger liners no longer had to wait for access to the orbital shipyards, and the ground-based yards were no longer crowded with smaller ships. The decline here had been slow, but it was definitely occurring.
John's reason for coming to Jackson was Yan Carbow. Yan was one of the ex-slaves that escaped with John. Yan had left the pirates after the first raid, on the ore carrier from Peltir IV. The deaths of the ore carrier's crew had shocked and disgusted Yan. He had taken his share of the loot and returned to his home planet of Jackson, where he had bought into a small groundside shipyard servicing mostly small intrasystem ships. A few years ago, casual contact with another ex-slave had revealed that Yan had done well, and had assumed full ownership of the yard.
Yan was a large man in late middle age whose rough, scarred hands testified to his years of hard labor. In the years since he left John, Yan's muscle had softened to fat, turning a large man into a huge one. Still, he was a gentle bear of a man with a ready smile and a cheerful manner that had been invaluable to the slaves' survival.
Yan's smile widened to a broad grin when he saw John. 'Hello, hello!' he bellowed, careful not to use John's name where it could be overheard. Even years later, the habits of slavery persist. 'Come in and tell me what we can do for you!'
He ushered John into his office and carefully closed the door before grabbing John into a huge bear hug. 'John!' he bellowed. 'I'm so glad to see you again!' His tone lowered to a roar. 'I was afraid you were dead!'
John's grin was wide and sincere as he gestured to Yan to lower his voice. 'It's great to see you again too, Yan,' he replied. 'I hear you've done well for yourself.'
The big man's smile widened. 'I have done well, John,' he replied proudly in a more conversational tone as he gestured John to a chair. 'Life has been good since I came back. Sheol, I'm a gentleman now! A yard owner and pillar of the community.'
He thumped into the oversized swivel chair behind his desk, and then leaned forward as his smile faded. 'I assume this isn't a social call, John. What's up, and how can I help? Need to hide out? I can get you fixed up with an identity and you can take over half of the yard.'
John started. 'You're joking!'
The smile resurfaced as Yan shook his head. 'Nope. No joke. I owe you my life and my freedom. I have always hoped you'd show up here so I could make that offer. I'd be proud if you'd accept it.'
John shook his head in disbelief. 'Yan,' he replied slowly, 'You're amazing.' He looked around wistfully. 'I really wish I could accept your offer. But I'm on the run now, and need to bury myself in the Old Empire for awhile.' His eyes returned to Yan and a slow half-smile lit his face. 'Perhaps I can come back when the heat's off. I think I'd like that.'
Yan frowned. 'Law problems? Sheol, I've got contacts…' his voice trailed off as John shook his head.
'I'm afraid the law is a minor problem at the moment,' John said. 'My former colleagues are at the head of the list. Any time now, lowlifes here and throughout the sector will hear that there is a big bounty on my head, courtesy of Captain Reg Townley, newly crowned Terror of the Spaceways. I've got to travel far and fast.'
Yan nodded, the ever-present smile fading. 'So you finally quit. Did Mina's words finally get through that thick skull?'
'Something like that. Anyway, I've got a gorgeous yacht called Azure Sky sitting on your apron. She's exactly what I need. She's fast, luxurious, and best of all, she's got an AI advanced enough to let me run her alone.'
Yan nodded again. 'So what can I do for you?'
'Well, first of all, she needs a new identity. I would like her beacon to identify her as some kind of small courier ship or something. Second, she's way too fancy. She's obviously pre-Fall, but she has been kept in immaculate condition. I need her made to look old and beat-up. I'd like her to seem like something innocuous, that won't attract pirates.
