the best thing that could happen would be for the Empire to reclaim her; but I’m not sure the Alliance would agree.”
“What I think we can agree on is that if the Glory or one of the nastier independents gets a fully operational battle cruiser, it could upset the balance of power throughout known space.” He shrugged. “It sounds melodramatic, but you could say that we’re trying to prevent an interstellar war.”
His guests exchanged glances. “Well,” Jane said at last, “We know how badly the Glory wants her.” She grimaced and shivered. “I was just imagining that Swordtan in command of a battle cruiser instead of a corvette.” She looked thoughtful. “Look, Captain. As we’ve mentioned, we’re known in every system in this part of space. We can help you.”
Kas chuckled. “I doubt it. Oh, we could use your undoubtedly complete knowledge of this sector, but I don’t think we need someone to shout “Impie spy!” at our next recal stop.”
She frowned. “We wouldn’t do that.”
Kas shrugged. “But we can’t take the chance that you would. No, I’m afraid we’ll just have to maroon you for a while.”
She sighed in exasperation. “Look, Captain, I can understand your lack of trust. All you know about us is that we’re Alliance citizens who spend all our time among the independents. But that battle cruiser is a threat to the independents, the Alliance, hell, everybody! Just the thought of planet busters in the hands of the Glory is enough to make me want to help you. Having them in Empire hands is far better than having them drifting around out here unclaimed.”
Kas started to reply, but she continued, “All right. We’ll give our word that we won’t betray you, even to the Alliance, and that we’ll do anything we can to help you get that damned thing back to the Empire!” The bald man beside her nodded, his face grim.
Again Kas started to reply. This time it was Rom who interrupted. “Don’t do it, Captain,” he said. “It’s an unjustified risk!”
Kas turned to him. “Rom, you’ve been crewing on traders for five years now. Tell me what you know about a trader’s word.”
Rom shifted uncomfortably. “A trader would die to keep his word. He knows that if he breaks it no one will ever do business with him again.” He shrugged. “I still say it’s an unjustified risk. We should put them back aboard their ship and boost max away from here.”
“He’s right, you know,” Kas said to the woman. “It is an unjustified risk. I have no right to jeopardize the mission for a pretty face.”
She grinned. “Pretty? Not in this universe!” Then she sobered. “Look, Captain. I ought to let you maroon us. We already know quite enough to blow your mission. We know your ship’s name and we know that you were here. You also let slip that you started from Prime. It wouldn’t be too hard to reconstruct your course data, project it forward, and get a pretty good idea where you’re heading.”
“But I don’t want to blow your mission. I want that damned battle cruiser safely back under Empire control. Oh, I won’t try to tell you that I wouldn’t rather see it in Alliance hands. But it does belong to the Empire, you’re the ones that know where it is, and you’ve got a crew for it already aboard.”
Kas looked doubtful, and she continued, “All right, I’ll prove my good intentions. You think that marooning us would be an effective way to isolate us for awhile. You’re wrong. This is a busy recal point. In fact, the Senegalese have been talking about putting a customs post here. It would be a few days at most before we were rescued. If we wanted to blow your cover, all we’d have to do is let you listen to your man here and maroon us, then contact the Alliance embassy on New Senegal when we were rescued in a few days.” she shrugged. “You see? I’m putting myself at risk just to tell you that. You could decide to kill us and destroy the Lady. But I don’t think you will. At least, I hope you won’t.” The bald man at her side nodded enthusiastically. “Me too!” he replied, glaring at the woman.
Kas released pent-up breath with a whoosh. “You have no idea how glad I am to hear you say that. You’ve just saved your lives. I figured the Glory would only have enough ships to picket the main recal points. That, plus the fact that we were both transiting it at the same time, told me that you’d be picked up quickly. That left me only two choices: trust you, or put you back aboard your ship and then blast her to emm-cee-squared. I was desperately hoping you’d come up with some way to let me trust you.”
Her eyes narrowed and her face darkened. “You mean that all this time you knew you couldn’t just maroon us? That every time you talked about marooning, you were really talking about killing us?”
Kas nodded. She jumped to her feet, her flush deepening. “Why, you revolving sonofabitch! You… you… unprintable bastard!” She seemed about to continue when Lar Tennig put his hand on her arm. “Lady,” he said quietly, “It might not be diplomatic to insult a man with reason and means to kill you!”
She stopped, mouth open. Her gaze moved from Lar to Kas, then back. The flush began fading from her cheeks. Suddenly she smiled and then giggled. Finally she collapsed back into her chair, roaring with laughter. Lar joined her a moment later and Kas broke down at nearly the same time. The three of them dissolved in gales of laughter as the almost palpable tension dissipated. Rom sat quietly, a smile lighting even his dour features.
Finally, they began to compose themselves. “What’s a ‘revolving sonofabitch’?” Kas asked. “I’ve been called names by experts, but I’ve never heard that one.”
She stifled a laugh. “A revolving sonofabitch is a sonofabitch any way you look at him,” she managed to get out before being once again carried off by gales of laughter. Kas, Lar and even Rom joined her. Kas managed to choke out some comment about ‘revolutions’, sending them all back into paroxysms of laughter. It was a good start for what Kas hoped would be an effective partnership, and not one of betrayal.
Before they boosted for the jump point Edro went over to the Lady Jane to erase the communications recordings involving Starhopper. He also gathered personal belongings for their new recruits. Neither Jane nor Lar suggested that they be allowed to return to their ship for that purpose; this partnership was too new and too fragile to permit that. As soon as Edro returned, they boosted for the jump point at max acceleration. The Lady Jane remained behind, of course.
“Y’know,” Lar observed, “By the time we get back here we’re liable to be a space legend; ‘ Lady Jane, ghost ship of the Hatchell system’. Found drifting with her drive coils and sensor array damaged, but no sign of the crew.”
Jane grinned. “Not really. Oh, maybe for awhile. But as soon as the authorities see our com tapes they’re going to be more concerned with the Glory. They’ll probably assume that Glory bastard grabbed us. It could cause a helluva stink, though.”
Rom was still unhappy about trusting the newcomers, but as soon as they’d jumped, Kas called Jane and Lar to the bridge. “Our next recal point is a system called ‘Homesite’. What can you tell me about it?”
Jane shrugged. “Not much there. Its only claim to fame is that it’s the only privately-owned planet in known space. It was some tycoon’s great idea. He bought the rights to the only terrestrial planet in the system from the government of Singh about twenty years ago. I hear it pretty much wiped him out, but he had this hare-brained idea that a privately-owned colony, operated for profit, would be more efficient than colonies with more typical governments.
“So he bought the planet, set up a shuttle service to Singh, and started trying to sell land. As I understand it, he planned to market his land in other systems once Homesite started to pay off. Only thing was it never did pay off until the heavy industries moved in. No laws or oversight, of course, so they could operate pretty much as they pleased. For the past twenty years they’ve been raping the planet’s resources, polluting the air and water, and just generally running the place into the ground.
“About the only people there now are a couple hundred thousand employees of one or another mining, smelting or processing companies. We’ve made a pretty good profit there a few times, though. Not enough people to attract most of the larger traders, so us little guys can run a load of luxuries in there, and make a pretty nice bundle.” She shrugged. “You won’t have to worry about customs there. No import restrictions, so no smuggling.”
Kas nodded. “Good. After D’Jellabah and Hatchell I could stand a little boredom!” He told her about their experience at D’Jellabah. He didn’t spare himself and confessed to his errors in dealing with the dealers and chandlers.
She chuckled. “Don’t worry about it. Oh, in most systems, you’d have attracted lots of attention. But on D’Jellabah you were just another unbeliever, and all unbelievers are crazy or stupid. Or both. They’ve got a weird
