No, I suppose not.
A lot of ships pick up contracts for them, bringing stuff in from all over the Confederation. And of course Tranquillity is the Confederations principal base for blackhawk mating flights now Valisk is falling from favour with the captains. The eggs gestate down in the big inner ring. It all adds together. The Lords of Ruin have built it into one of the most important commercial centres in this sector.
Terrance looked across the bridge. Seven acceleration couches were arranged in a petal pattern on its composite decking, and only one of them was empty. The compartment had an industrial look, with cables and ducts fixed to the walls rather than being tucked neatly out of sight behind composite panels. But then that was a uniform characteristic throughout the Gemal and her sister ships which shuttled between Earth and stage one colony worlds. They were bulk carriers whose cargo happened to be people, and the line companies didnt waste money on cosmetic finishes.
Captain Llewelyn was lying inertly on his acceleration couch, surrounded by a horseshoe of bulky consoles; a well-built sixty-eight-year-old oriental with skin as smooth as any adolescent. His eyes were shut as he handled the datavise from the flight computer.
Have you been here before? Terrance asked.
I stopped over two days, that was thirty-five years ago when I was a junior officer in a different company. Dont suppose its changed much. Plutocrats put a lot of stock in stability.
Id like you to talk to the other captains for me, the independent trader starships we want to hire. I havent exactly done this kind of work before.
Oliver Llewelyn snorted softly. You let people know what kind of flight youre putting together, then start flashing that overloaded Jovian Bank credit disk around, and youll be beating them off with a stick.
What about the mercenaries and general troops?
The captains will put you in touch. Hell, the combat boosted will pay the captains for an introduction. You want my advice, delegate. Find yourself ten or twenty officer types with some solid experience, and let them recruit troops for you. Dont try and do it all yourself. We havent got time, for a start. Rexrew gave us a pretty tight schedule.
Thanks.
Youre paying, remember?
Yeah. It had taken twenty thousand fuseodollars just to get Oliver Llewelyn to agree to take the Gemal to Tranquillity. Not part of my LDC contract, the captain had said stubbornly. Money was easier than datavising legal requirements at him. Terrance suspected it was going to cost a lot more to take the Gemal back to Lalonde. You sound like you know what youre talking about, he said, mildly intrigued.
Ive flown a lot of different missions in my time, the old captain said indifferently.
So where do I meet these starship captains?
Oliver Llewelyn accessed a thirty-five-year-old file in his neural nanonics. Well start at Harkeys Bar.
Fifteen hours later Terrance Smith had to admit that Oliver Llewelyn had been perfectly correct. He didnt need to make any effort, the people he wanted came to him. Like iron to a magnet, he thought, or flies to shit. He was sitting in a wall booth, feeling like an old-style tsar holding court, receiving petitions from eager subjects. Harkeys Bar was full with starship crews hunched around tables, or concentrating in small knots at the bar. There was also a scattering of the combat boosted in the room. He had never seen them before, not in the fleshif thats what it could be called. Several of them resembled cosmoniks, with a tough silicon outer skin, and dualeven triplelower arms, sockets customized for weapons. But the majority had a sleeker appearance than the cosmoniks, whose technology they pilfered; theyd been sculpted for agility rather than blunt EVA endurance, although Terrance could see one combat boosted who was almost globular, his (her?) head a neckless dome, with a wrap-around retinal strip, grainy auburn below its clear lens. The lid rippled constantly, a blink moving round and round. There were four stumpy legs, and four arms, arranged symmetrically. The arms were the most human part of the modified body, since only two of them ended in burnished metal sockets. He tried not to stare at the assembled grotesqueries, not to show his inner nerves.
The bars atmosphere was subdued, heavy with anticipation. It was long past the time the band were usually jamming on stage, but tonight they were drinking back in the kitchen, resigned to a blown gig.
Captain Andr Duchamp, Oliver Llewelyn said. Owner of the Villeneuves Revenge .
Terrance shook hands with the smiling round-faced captain. There was some contradiction in his mind that such a jovial-seeming man should want to join a military mission. I need starships capable of landing a scout team on a terracompatible planet, then backing them up with tactical ground strikes, he said.
Andr put his wineglass down squarely on the table. The Villeneuves Revenge has four X-ray lasers and two electron-beam weapons. Planetary bombardment from low orbit will not be a problem.
There could also be some anti-ship manoeuvres required from you. Some interdiction duties.
Again, monsieur, this is not a problem from my personal position; we do have combat-wasp launch-cradles. However, you would have to provide the wasps themselves. And I would require some reassurance that we will not be involved in any controversial action in a system where Confederation Navy ships are present. As a commercial vessel I have no licence to carry such items.
You would be operating under government licence, which allows you to carry any weapons system quite legitimately. This entire mission is completely legal.
So? Andr Duchamp gave him a quizzical glance. This is excellent news. A legal combat mission is one I will welcome. As I say, I have no objection to conducting anti-ship engagements. May I ask which government you represent?
Lalonde.
Andr Duchamp had a long blink while his neural nanonics almanac file reviewed the star system. A stage one colony world. Interesting.
I am negotiating with several astroengineering companies with stations here at Tranquillity for combat wasps, Terrance Smith said. There will also be several nuclear-armed atmospheric-entry warheads to be taken on the mission. Would you be prepared to carry and deploy them?
Oui.
In that case, I believe we can do business, Captain Duchamp.
You have yet to mention money.
I am authorized to issue a five hundred thousand fuseodollar fee for every ship which registers for Lalonde naval duty, payable on arrival at our destination. Pay for an individual starship is three hundred thousand fuseodollars per month, with a minimum of two months duty guaranteed. There will be bonuses for enemy starships and spaceplanes destroyed, and a completion bonus of three hundred thousand fuseodollars. We will not, however, be providing insurance cover.
Andr Duchamp took a leisurely sip of wine. I have one further question.
Yes?
Does this enemy use antimatter?
No.
Very well. I would haggle the somewhat depressing price ... He cast a glance around the crowded room, crews not quite watching to see what the outcome would be. But I feel I am not in a strong bargaining position. Today it is a buyers market.
From his table on the other side of the bar Joshua watched Andr Duchamp rise from Terrance Smiths booth. The two of them shook hands again, then Andr went back to the table where his crew were waiting. They all went into a tight huddle. Wolfgang Kuebler, captain of the Maranta , was shown to Smiths booth by Oliver Llewelyn.