“While they work,” Eth said, “I’m going toneed copies of your sensor records transmitted to my ship. I need toknow everything you saw when you were attacked – what kind ofships, how many, any electromagnetic signatures that might identifyspecific vessels…”
“You’ll have to file a request withcorporate,” Balthazar cut him off. “Now, if you have no otherrequests…”
“Just the one I’ve already made,” Eth cutback in. He knew the likelihood of Meleke’s corporate office evergiving up data, especially to a species at the center of theirbiggest scandal in forty thousand years.
An orange icon pulsed in his peripheral vision. Hetwitched his eyes to acknowledge.
“If you have pressing matters, Commodore,please feel free to attend to them. I wasn’t presenting you with arequest, I’m simply telling you what I need.”
“But I can’t grant your reque… needon my own authority,” Balthazar told him. “It’s out of myhands.”
“And it’s in my hands,” Eth repliedas one of his people appeared behind the commodore. He hadn’tordered that but the young engineer had a flair for the dramatic.
“I’vereceived the data, Carom.Well done. Return to the Mouse.”
“Aye, sir,” the young man said, startling thecommodore into spinning around. He cracked off a sarcastic salute tothe Meleke officer before ceasing to be there.
“You boarded my ship,” Balthazar spluttered,“without my permission? You took data from my systems? By the gods,I will see you brought before a tribunal!”
“Interesting offer,” Eth replied calmly. “TheMeleke Corporation inviting a Human to offer testimony. You know,Irth has only the one moon?”
“What? I don't…”
“My lord, Glebof Irth, found a secret facility there, built by Quailu, if you canbelieve it. The security wasabysmal. It didn’t take long for him to gain access to therecords.”
“I don’t see what that has to…”
“If a major corporation was interested in anexciting new criminal opportunity,” Eth mused, “hypothetically,you understand, they should probably pick more reliable allies thanthe Chironans.”
Balthazar started to turn to the left but caughthis flight response and stood fast, scowling at the impudent Human.
“As soon as my damage control parties havefinished their work, we’ll be on our way, Commodore.” Eth took aquick step toward the holographic Quailu. “I don’t expect to hearfrom you about anything else.”
He cut the connection.
“Damn, Boss,” the tactical officer saidquietly, “that was satisfying to watch.”
“Yeah,” Eth agreed, “but the feeling wearsthin pretty damned fast.” He nodded at the empty space whereBalthazar’s projection had stood.
“His ships were forced out of path and searchedfor Humans. Nothing about that sounds random.” He turned to thetactical station, the team looking back at him.
“What are they looking for?”
A Farewell to Alms
The Kuphar, Earth Orbit
Frank reachedout, laying a hand on the side of the soil adjuster asif he were greeting a newhorse. “Soil adjuster,” he said quietly, shaking his head.“Marketing is not a strong-suit for the Quailu. A symptom of beingtop dog for millennia, I suppose.”
He found the mounting-step, mildly uneasy athaving implanted knowledge lurking in his noggin, and climbed up intothe control cab. He ran through the menus, looking for anything thatmight show a hole in the training module provided with the equipment.
Bau’s peoplewere thorough, Frank had toadmit.
He grinned. Theymight be good at what they do,butit hadn’t occurred to themto have one of these machines assembled in the hold so the colonistscould familiarize themselves with the tech.
The Quailu had anabsolute trust in their training pods. Ithad taken quite a bit of discussion between Bau’s technicalspecialists and the farmers before they’d agreed to assemble onevehicle of each type in the cargo hold.
Frank looked out the protective energy-screen ofthe small cab at the other vehicles. Calling it an agreement was abit charitable.
One of the farmers from India, the source of mostof the colonists on this ship, had simply taken matters into his ownhands. Sushil was sitting next to Frank in the mess hall during themeeting.
The two men were muttering under their breath toeach other in English, both equally annoyed that the techs weredragging their feet. The solidly built farmer finally stood up anddeclared that, since Bau had made a gift of the equipment tothe colonists, there was nothing stopping them from setting up a fewsamples down in the cargo hold.
And that was that.
The hands-on introduction to these machinesinvolved a great deal of discourseamong the Humans. Frank gained muchmore from that than just technical knowledge.
He’d neverthought of himself as part of the minority before. On the Kuphar,as one of only twenty-three Caucasians joining an expedition ofthree-hundred twenty-four colonists, he was suddenly theodd man out, ethnically and culturally.
He’d been surprised and more than a littledisappointed in himself to realize he was far more concerned aboutthat than he was about the challenges of moving to an entirely newplanet.
Examining the nanite-based farm equipment with hisfellow colonists had done wonders for restoring his comfort levels.There was something about farmers tinkering with equipment, somethingthat transcended cultural divides. It was common ground.
And Sushil had brought along a flask of whiskey.He tapped it on the roll-bar to get Frank’s attention. He waggledthe bottle, one eyebrow raised and Frank nodded in confirmation.
Sushil hopped up on the boarding-step and handedthe flask in. “No surprises so far,” he said. “You?”
Frank shook his head as he unscrewed the flask.“Pretty much matches what’s in our heads.” He took a drink.“Damn, Sushil, this here’s a surprise! What’s this?”
Sushil grinned, taking the flask for a sip of hisown. “Paul John. I brought along a case so I’d have a taste ofhome.”
“Not like any whiskey I’m used to,” Frankfurrowed his eyebrows. “Kind of, spicy…”
“Hi, Boss.” Terry’s head appeared over theleft side of the vehicle. He nodded across at Sushil. “Goodafternoon, Mr. Kawle.”
“An eternal afternoon,” Sushil said.“They keep this ship away from night skies so my father-in-lawwon’t notice us blocking out the stars and figure out where I’vetaken his daughter.”
“Was it hard?” Frank asked. “Not being ableto tell relatives where you were ‘moving’ to?”
Sushil waggled his head. “It wasn’t easy,signing over my land to my wife’s father, but telling them we weremoving to Dubai was easier than we both expected. What about you?”
“Hell, I had it easy,” Frank admitted. “Mybrother’s the only person I have to tell and
