"You're right," Jirik replied apologetically, "They seem so much like Trivid-comedy conspirators that it's easy to dismiss them; but what happened to Valt wasn't funny."
The two left the Lass and headed for the shuttle bay to catch a surface shuttle. Less than an hour later, they landed on the surface of Alpha, and went to the Spacer Guild office, where Via formally signed off the Lass, and Jirik recorded a glowing performance report on the Astrogator.
Chapter 12
As Jirik left the Spacer Guild building some three hours later, a man dressed in the coverall of a longshoreman stumbled into him, pressing a note into Jirik's hand as he regained his balance. "Damn!" Jirik said under his breath, "Spook crap again. Okay, here we go!"
The note contained only the name of a nearby restaurant, and the scrawling word "Now." It wasn't signed, but then, Jirik thought, it didn't have to be. Tomys was ready for the spook games to begin. Jirik sighed deeply, and trudged resignedly toward his unwanted appointment.
The restaurant named in the note was nearby, and was obviously a favorite of spacers and port workers. Tomys was seated at a table in the rear, which Jirik assumed was well bugged
As Jirik approached, Tomys rose to his feet. "Welcome to Alpha, Captain!" Jirik merely grunted, and assumed the seat opposite the little man.
"I'm certainly glad you made it, Captain," Tomys continued "Though I understand that you suffered some more hull damage."
Jirik shrugged. "We scraped off some hull coating running through part of a nebula at .01 C. Nothing serious, though."
Tomys nodded and grinned. "Uh huh. Glad to hear that. By the way, Captain, Did you hear anything about a plague ship?"
Jirik was wary, but ready. "The Port Captain mentioned something about a plague ship running.around the sector. Why?"
Tomys' grin was that of a cat ready to pounce, but his tone was studiedly casual. "I just thought that it was an interesting coincidence; a plague ship with a silver hull running around the sector, and you with damage to your hull coating."
Jirik shrugged. "The Port Captain said that it was a nonhuman ship." Tomys' grin was beginning to irritate him.
Tomys nodded. "Yes, it's supposedly a Kjinnthian ship named the 'Klaakriit'. But the Kjinnthian Consulate says that they have no ship by that name registered, and that they don't plate their hulls. They use the same insulating, anticorrosive coating that we do. Strange, isn't it?"
Jirik shrugged again. "If you say so. Is that why you set up this meeting, to tell me the latest bar gossip?"
The irritating grin never wavered. "Of course not, Captain. But it's a serious offense to transmit a false distress beacon. If the authorities catch up with that Captain, he could find himself in deep trouble."
I'm sure he could," Jirik replied unconcernedly. "Now, shall we get to it? I've got a hell of a lot to do."
Tomys' grin faded. "All right. Obviously you made it. What about that astrogator you signed on. Do you think she was really a terrorist spy?"
"Yes, she was." Jirik replied. "In fact, she told me so. She's a spacer, remember? Once we cleared the rim, she came to my cabin and told me all about it. She gave me these," He threw a handful of spy-eyes on the table, "And she gave me this, in case I ran into someone who could use it." He produced the memory crystal containing Via's report
"What is it?" Tomys asked warily, not touching the crystal.
"It's her complete report on everything and everyone that she could remember involving the terrorists. She says it contains names, dates, and suspected rank in the terrorist hierarchy," Jirik replied indifferently. "I don't know, I haven't played it."
Tomys was still wary. "Why not?"
Jirik shrugged. "For one thing, I didn't want anything to do with this terrorist crap. Besides, I didn't want you to think that I'd tampered with it.
Tomys relaxed slightly. "All right. Why do you think she's being so good to us? I mean, why would she go to the trouble to record this crystal?"
"I told you," Jirik replied in a tone tinged with exasperation, "She's a spacer. She broke one of the prime rules that we live by, and she was feeling guilty about it. This was her way of making up for it. Look," He continued earnestly, "Don't go chasing after this woman and interrogating her. This crystal contains all that she knows. She's being straight, and she doesn't need a bunch of spooks making her life miserable. All she wanted was out of a mess. Right now, she's over at the Spacer Guild trying frantically to sign on any ship heading away from the rim. Leave the woman alone." His tone had become pleading.
Tomys, for the first time since Jirik had met him, seemed unsure. "Well, we'll see what's in her report. Maybe we won't have to bother her."
"I sure as hell hope not," Jirik replied. "Her new captain could almost ruin her, if you guys start acting like she's some kind of villain." He tried to change the subject. "By the way, you were right. Cony seems to be the big man among the terrorists. Telson says that there could be others that she doesn't know about, but that Cony was the highest-ranking terrorist that she got to meet." His face darkened. "He was also the one that had Valt beaten. I'd like to talk to him about that," he added in a deceptively light tone.
Tomys straightened abruptly. "Forget it, Captain. Leave Cony to me. So help me, if you interfere by, say, killing Cony, I'll have you up on charges. You just continue as you have, playing it straight and reporting to me. I'll handle Cony." Jirik nodded soberly.
"Now," Tomys continued, "Here's the battle comp software that you agreed to smuggle. It's been suitably altered, of course."
"Yeah," Jirik replied glumly. "Altered how? I mean, what if they have some way of checking it out? Will they be able to tell?"
Tomys' answering smile was confident. "Don't worry. It was altered by one of our top comp experts. The software will function perfectly, with one exception. It won't relay firing commands to the weapons systems. Oh, all the indicators will show that the weapons functioned perfectly, but they won't fire. Our man says that it would take someone as expert as him a month to track down the change; and we're sure that the terrorists don't have anyone that expert, or they'd have written the software themselves."
Jirik wasn't so sure. "They may have the entire resources of the University of the Rim," He replied doubtfully.
Tomys shrugged. "We thought of that. We provided our man a list of the faculty and comp techs, as well as a complete inventory of the University's computing resources."
"I hope that your man's right," Jirik replied, "I wouldn't want a bunch of dissatisfied terrorists coming around demanding their money back, or deciding to take it out of my hide!"
"Don't worry, Captain," Tomys said casually, "You just do as you're told, and you'll be fine."
Nettled, Jirik decided that it was time to play his trump card. "Yeah," he replied with elaborate casualness, "That's pretty much what the Guild lawyers said."
Tomys' eyes narrowed. "What do you mean?"
"Well," Jirik replied, "After I signed Telson off, I took the precaution of talking to a group of the Guild's lawyers. The Guild was most cooperative. They're not thrilled when one of us is used as a pawn by a political entity. Our well-publicized unwillingness to become involved in politics is one of the main things that helps us survive. So, they provided me with a room and half-a-dozen Guild lawyers to advise me."
For the first time since they had met, Tomys' composure had slipped. "You fool! What did you tell them?"
Jirik had begun to enjoy himself. "Not very much. They wouldn't let me tell them much. They said that they had no desire to live incommunicado on a prison planet until you decided that they could be released. They did send a courier to Alliance Intelligence Headquarters to verify your identity, but they realized that they won't find out for months, if at all."