been no match for the combined might of the Empire and the Alliance, and once that fleet was defeated, uprisings on all seven worlds overthrew the Glory in bloody revolutions. All seven inhabited worlds had considered themselves betrayed and abandoned by the Empire. Three had petitioned to become members of the Alliance. However, the other four all became fiercely independent. One had rejected all government, and had reputedly declined into total anarchy. For some reason, though, pirates seemed to avoid Liberty. It might be interesting to find out why.
Or perhaps Libertad, with nine systems and three inhabited worlds, all ruled by a hereditary king.
Even discounting the worlds that had reverted to barbarism and those that had lost space travel capability, Cale had plenty of choices.
His next stops, though, would not be to settle. He needed to convert some of his sunstones into more easily usable form. The fabulous value of even a small sunstone meant they were difficult to convert to local currencies, and even if the conversion were possible, it would certainly draw attention to the converter.
No, he needed an intermediate form of wealth. One still easily portable and one that had value on almost all worlds, regardless of their local currency. He had settled on diamonds. Diamonds are still the hardest natural substance known to man, still made spectacular jewelry, and were still rare enough to be worth more per carat than anything except sunstones. They could also be converted to any of a thousand local currencies without a lot of questions being asked, as long as one was careful. And Cale planned to be careful. Sunstones were so rare and valuable that his conversion of even one large one into diamonds would be known throughout the sector in less than a month. He was going to have to convert one stone on one planet, and then quickly head directly for another planet to convert another one before word of the first transaction got around. However, he could not afford to let Scorpion be identified as being on both planets at the critical time. Finesse was needed. Fortunately, he had been foresighted enough to allow Yan Carbow to present him with a remarkably sizable amount of another 'universal' currency: gold bars.
Cale turned Scorpion toward Torlon. Torlon had been a moderately successful trading center before the Fall; now it was sinking more and more quickly down the slope toward poverty, and was on the verge of losing spaceflight. He was not challenged on his way in from the jump point. In fact, he apparently wasn't even detected.
Cale didn't have a contact on Torlon. In fact, he had no leads at all, just a barroom story about a scrap operator who scooted around the sector in a small, fast boat with jump capability. However, he found what he was looking for immediately, an orbiting junkyard full of old and scrapped ships. He grounded Scorpion at the dilapidated, weed-grown port field, careful to land as far as possible from the tower and as near as possible to the two rusting tramps occupying the field. He dressed in the workman's clothing Yan had provided him, then climbed down the footholds on Scorpion 's hull, sneezing from the smoke of the still-burning weeds his landing had ignited. Throwing the small but heavy bag he carried over his shoulder, he began the long hike to the tower.
There was only one man in the tower, and his appearance matched that of the field. His worn clothing was none to clean. Neither was he, or the tower itself, for that matter. He was lounging in a floatchair in front of the communications board.
'Good morning,' Cale said cheerfully, 'Can you direct me to the best place to buy a used ship?'
'Hmph,' the man replied ungraciously, 'What fer? Ya gotta ship, ain't ya?'
'Naw,' Cale replied casually, 'He just gimme a ride here. My ship give up on Cutler's World.'
The man snorted. 'Cutler's World?' They ain't even got space flight anymore!'
Cale shook his head sadly. 'Don't I know it? I spent a year there workin' my ass off for food before this guy showed up an' gimme a lift. So where can I buy a ship?'
'Huh! Th' only person on Torlon that might still have a ship to sell is Ber Nabel. But he might not have anythin' to sell. Mostly he's in the scrap business.' The man waved vaguely. 'His yard's over on the other side of the port. But he'll probably be up at the orbital yard cuttin' up another ship.'
'Thanks,' Cale replied offhandedly. 'I guess I'll try the yard. Maybe I'll get lucky.'
The man just shrugged and turned back to the comm board. Cale set off across the hot plascrete in search of Ber Nabel.
Nabel's yard was easy to find. It consisted of at least a hectare of rusting hulks and ship parts. Small intrasystem freighter hulls were mixed inextricably with their larger interstellar brothers. Here and there, hull alloy gleamed brightly through scarred antirad coating. Cale recognized two DIN-class freighters that had been scavenged to near-skeletons.
Ber Nabel was a small, grizzled man, his salt-and-pepper hair matched by a full beard even larger than Cale's. When Cale found him, he was using a plasma torch to cut a hull section free on a medium-sized bulk carrier.
'Sire Nabel,' Cale shouted up to him, 'I wonder if I might talk with you on a matter of business.'
Nabel pushed his protective goggles up onto his forehead. 'What d'ye want?' he shouted. 'I'm busy!'
'Too busy to do business?'
The man scowled. 'Business, eh? Oh, all right.'
He lowered himself in his safety harness until he stood beside Cale. 'What kinda business?'
Cale shrugged. 'I might want to buy a ship. Don't you have an office where we can discuss it?'
Nabel snorted. 'Buy a ship? What kinda ship?' He led Cale to an Old Empire corvette hull that apparently served him as an office. Inside, the ship's messroom had been gutted and a scarred real wood desk installed, along with a remarkably modern comp. Nabel threw himself into an old float chair that had been welded to the deck.
There was no other chair, so Cale simply stood. 'I want something small and fast. Small enough to operate by myself, and fast enough to run courier jobs — and outrun pirates.'
Nabel shook his grizzled head. 'What makes ya think I got any ships? I'm not a dealer. I'm in the scrap business.' The man's tone was short, hostile; and his eyes cold as space.
Cale smiled. 'A man that strips ships for a living, well, I just gotta believe he'd build himself a sweet little job to run around in. Somethin' small enough to put in the hold of a ship he bought at auction.'
Nabel scowled. 'A man's gotta have a way to get to auctions in other systems. But what makes you think I'd sell it? And why would I sell it to you?'
Cale's smile widened as he reached into his bag and dropped a gold bar on the battered desk. 'That's why. I've got gold, and a proposition.'
Nabel's eyes widened at the sight of the gold bar, and then narrowed with suspicion as he looked back at Cale. 'What've you got in mind?' His eyes dropped and his fingers began to caress the bar.
Cale leaned forward his hands resting on the desk. 'Here's the proposition. I need a fast ship for a courier job; a one-time, fast job. If I like your ship, I'll buy it. Then I'll make my run. Once I've done the job, I'll bring the ship back, and sell it back to you for, say, half price.'
The old man's eyes gleamed. 'So, what you want, you wanta rent my ship. This job. Is it legal? I don't wanta get arrested at an auction for somethin' you did!'
Cale waved a finger in negation. 'No questions. Do you have something, or not?
Nabel looked up at Cale. He was having trouble tearing his eyes away from half a kilo of pure gold. He swallowed, and then scooped the bar into a desk drawer. 'Folla me,'
As the two worked their way across the yard behind the 'office,' Cale caught sight of something that excited him. He was pretty sure he saw a stinger-class courier like the one Scorpion was imitating. If everything went well, he might want to talk to Nabel about that hulk-especially, if he had the registration papers on it!
Nabel led him to a shed made of hull plates. With a flourish that could only be described as pride, he swung open a sagging door. In the dim interior was a small Old Empire courier ship. At first, Cale thought it looked to be in good repair, but he saw nothing to produce Nabel's evident pride. Then his eyes began to adjust to the dimness.
The front of the tiny ship looked normal. But aft of the passenger area, the hull widened out, and showed a number of odd bumps and bulges. It looked as though the old man had put in larger inertial drives, and a much larger fusactor than the Empire had installed. Cale examined the ship more closely. The modifications were obvious, but the hull plates had been carefully fitted to restore the aerodynamics of a ship that had to fly in planetary atmospheres. L'rak was lettered proudly on the hull in a garish purple. Cale knew that a L'rak was an ugly reptile native to Sata IV that was famed for its speed. The old man touched the handle and the ship's hatch opened smoothly. Internal lights came on, and Nabel waved Cale into the cramped vessel.
'As ye can see,' the old man said, 'she's an old Gnat-class courier. But I lost out on a scrap deal because she was too slow. So I give her the inertial engine an' fusactor outta an old Strengl long-range fighter. Had to upgrade
