OMEGA Exile Page 6

  Chapter 5

  _______________________

  The following day, we received our first inspection assignment. It would be a repeat flight out to Gelnac to inspect a newly arriving load of refrigeration units. The units would later be assembled for home use in a variety of different brands and models. Since the trade embargoes had begun, simple appliances had sometimes been difficult to acquire.

  As we approached the target vessel, Joni said, “You know, those trade wars are all a joke. It's nothing more than the ruling families fighting over who makes how much.”

  “I don’t follow.”

  Joni punched up a diagram of the freighter to be inspected. “Well, there are twelve ruling families in the New Alliance. Each has their own little empire of planets and colonies to oversee. They've all decided any trade imbalance with anyone else was unconscionable. Why should they be allowing wealth to flow out of their empire into another? That’s the reasoning that went into all the embargoes, rather than working out fair practices that would benefit everyone. It’s all about power and wealth.”

  Joni continued, “You can’t get Orientus coffee here anymore because my uncle decided he didn’t want profit going to the Galwich family. The tit-for-tat trade squabbles over simple items led to full-fledged trade wars, which led to the embargoes. In the last two years, that has spread to withholding of raw materials as well. In some ways it’s a great opportunity for local entrepreneurs, but most lack the resources to start businesses producing the needed goods. Instead, everyone just goes without.”

  “You seem to be well versed in the economics of the New Alliance.”

  Joni laughed. “It’s the family business. I despise politics and all this economic nonsense, but I do find it important to study. If I know how the trading systems work, I can better tell if a cargo is being smuggled, or if it’s counterfeit. The longer these trade wars last, the more likely a cargo is to be one of those two.”

  I closed my holo-display. “I’ll let you handle this inspection, Miss Salton. I won’t say a word until you have a report prepared to deliver to the ship’s administrator. I'll follow behind and offer feedback when you're done. There is no better way to learn than by doing it yourself.”

  Joni smiled. “I appreciate that, Mr. Beutcher. Hopefully, this is just another confidence builder.”

  We pulled alongside the freighter and slipped through the gravity wall into the docking bay. The manifest administrator was waiting for us with his logs. The administrator smiled as he held out his data store.

  Joni transferred the log and popped it up above her arm pad. “Fifty thousand refrigeration units. OK. Let’s go have a look at your bays.”

  As I followed the pair, I continued to be impressed with Joni’s professionalism and thorough inspection procedures. Twelve random shipping containers were opened when the inspection procedure had called out only four. Every nook and cranny of the freighter was inspected, with all the usual hiding places yielding no signs of contraband.

  As we proceeded into the bunk room, she began searching through the personal belongings of the crew. I took note of an Igari crewman who fidgeted as she searched his gear. After finding nothing, she moved on to the next trunk and then a duffel bag. When the search was complete, she moved back in front of the nervous Igari.

  Joni stared him in the face. “Mr. Jaqua. You do realize you're carrying a banned substance.”

  The Igari panicked and sprinted for the door. I was shocked by the quick response from the petite Human who was now under my tutelage. The doorway was seven meters away. Not only had Joni Salton caught the fleeing Igari, but she had subdued the subject on the deck with an arm bar and a knee to his back.

  The slightly larger Igari was slowly pulled to his feet and returned to his trunk, where a small bag of Orientus coffee was found.

  Joni held up the small sack. “Mr. Jaqua. I was only going to give you a warning that under order of the Salton family, Orientus has recently been banned. You might want to finish what you have before it gets confiscated.”

  I turned to look at the mortified captain. He had been warned to have a clean ship as a member of the Salton family would be performing an inspection. The ship was registered to the Motlin Corporation and was fully owned by the Saltons.

  Joni handed the bag back to the crewman with a pursed smile before turning to the captain. “Captain, I know you know who I am, so this is how it’s going to be. Mr. Jaqua is not to be punished for this in any way. I will have someone follow up sometime after this, and if I find any sort of punishment for this incident, I will have your license. Am I clear in what I'm saying?”

  The captain nodded. “Yes, Ma’am. Mr. Jaqua has done nothing wrong and therefore will not be punished in any way.”

  Joni turned back to the still-shaking crewman. “Mr. Jaqua. I hope you're still able to enjoy the Orientus, but you may want to brew it up soon, before it goes missing. You can't get it in the stores anymore.”

  Jalla Jaqua replied, “Thank you for your kindness with this situation, Miss Salton. I’m new to the crew of the Farengate, and I'm in desperate need of this job.”

  Joni looked back at the captain. “You do your job to the best of your ability, and I am sure Captain Haira will treat you fairly.”

  The captain nodded with a still-worried look on his face.

  We moved back to the docking bay. Joni quickly had her report ready for the administrator and the captain. “You run a good ship, Captain; keep in mind that a captain is only as good as his crew. Treat your men fairly, and they will work hard for you, and a hardworking crew means better profits for the family. Take care, Captain, and have a good day.”

  I followed Joni back onto the Daunte where we were soon back out in free space, heading toward SS5.

  “I have to say I liked the way you handled yourself back there, Miss Salton: both professional and mature. I wish the trainees I had twenty years ago had been so cool and collected. Although, I’m left to wonder why you pounced on that poor fellow so quickly. We are on a ship in space.”

  Joni turned with her eyebrows raised. “Did you see the panic in his eyes? I didn’t want him running out of there and purposefully jamming his hand into an ion stream somewhere, so I tackled him before he could hurt himself.”

  I nodded. “Quick thinking on your part. I would not have made that immediate leap. Now, on to the more important topic. Has Orientus really been banned by the family?”

  Joni smiled. “Does it bother you that you have two crates of contraband in your storeroom, Mr. Beutcher?”

  “I can hardly be out here busting captains and crews for contraband if I am carrying it myself. I try to go by the letter of the law. That’s one reason I earned these three stars.”

  Joni laughed. “OK, well, I guess we need to remedy that situation right now. In the name of the Salton family, I hereby confiscate the two crates of Orientus in the store of the Daunte. Said contraband will from here on out be property of the Salton family and will be dispersed to the crew of the Daunte, a government-owned ship, at the family's discretion. How’s that sound?”

  “Add that note to the ship’s logs, and we'll be in good shape. I believe we should seal this edict with a cup of said coffee. Does that fall within the new Salton family guidelines?”

  Joni again laughed. “I believe it does.”

  When I returned with the two cups of Orientus, Joni had the inspection schedule up on the holo-display. “Next up is the Kuleroog, with eight hundred thousand tons of iron. I’m requesting a portal transit for this one.”

  I sipped as Joni managed the controls for our jump. Two minutes later we were parked in position, four light-years from where we had previously been. For only an instant, I noticed a blip on the tactical display. I checked the history logs and could not see any anomaly had been logged.

  “Did you get a flicker on the nav screen right after that jump? I saw something, but the logs aren’t showing a blip.”

  Joni shook her head. “I didn
’t pick up anything.”

  I set down my mug and stood.

  As I poked away at a small device on the wall behind my chair, Joni asked, “What are you messing with?”

  “It’s a personal recorder. I keep my own records of everything I do in the cockpit. If a situation arises where my actions are in contention, I can review them to see what transpired. It has helped me to avoid mistakes by going back and reviewing what I’ve done. We sometimes develop habits that are not the best for us. In this instance, I want to see if it recorded the anomaly I thought I just saw.”

  Joni tilted her head slightly to one side. “Hmm. Interesting. I might find something like that useful as well.”

  “There. I’m transferring this to your display. Here, see this spike in the detector array. It was on-screen, but not recorded in our logs.”

  Joni stood and walked out of the cockpit, walking the cabin in search.

  I glanced back from the cockpit. “What are you looking for?”

  “Oh, never mind. I’ll tell you later. Anyway, I wouldn’t worry about that blip. My simulator display used to do that as well. Probably just some defect they never worked out of the designs.”

  The Kuleroog pulled alongside our position.

  As we walked around the cargo bay, Joni quickly pulled me between two supply containers. “Sorry about the brush-off about the blip, Mr. Beutcher. I believe that's a shadow ship my father has following us. The blip was from a portal jump it made to a nearby location. It wasn’t in your logs because the ship’s systems are fully under the control of my father’s security teams. Everything we have been saying and doing is being recorded and analyzed by an entire team of people. When we get back aboard, I’ll crash the system and do a clean basic reboot. We'll probably be contacted about it in about three minutes. If that happens, we'll be in need of a way to communicate privately.”

  Joni was right. When the inspection was complete and the Kuleroog had pulled away, the security desk opened a comm for a routine check. As stated, she performed a crash-boot of the Daunte’s systems.

  Three minutes eight seconds later, the captain came on the comm. “Mr. Beutcher, this is Paq Wendell; just wanted to check in to see how things are going.”

  “We're about to jump back to the station, Captain. Miss Salton just performed another flawless inspection. We just sent the vessel on its way.”

  The captain continued, “I just noticed your logs aren’t fully transmitting, Knog. Are you having a problem with the systems?”

  I smiled at Joni. “We just had a simple reboot, Captain. I wanted to familiarize Miss Salton with the procedure. I’m sure the full system will be running shortly.”

  The captain was silent for a moment. “If you have any further issues, please let me know immediately, and thanks for watching over her, Knog; your efforts are appreciated.”

  “No problem, Captain. So far, she has been a pleasure to work with.”

  I winked as I closed the comm. The sweep taking us back to SS5 was completed moments later.

  I looked over the schedule. “Next inspection isn’t for another four hours; any interest in lunch?”

  “Yes. I’m famished. What did you have in mind?”

  The ramp-way dropped onto the deck of Bay-17. “I know a restaurant where we can get the best Kuriatan stew this side of, well, Kuriata. The owner is a friend of mine.”

  We continued our chat as we headed toward Sam’s. I took note of the complete absence of any other beings as we walked. The halls had been cleared ahead of us.

  Joni said, “You can see how lonely and boring my life can be, Mr. Beutcher. They probably have every citizen cleared out of here for a kilometer in each direction.”

  When we arrived at Sam’s, there were a dozen other customers sitting having lunch. I took note that I did not get the usual stares that a Grunta received when going into an eating establishment. We were big, and we were very different from the standard Human or the smaller Igari who dominated SS5.

  I directed Joni to the bar. “Bartender, can you let Miss Chocks know that Knog is here?”

  The bartender looked at me inquisitively for several seconds.

  “The owner, can you get the owner for me?”

  The bartender shook his head. “I’m sorry, sir. She's out today. She should be back later if you'd like to leave a message.”

  I offered a half smile. “No need. I’ll talk to her later myself. I think the lady and I are going to have a bowl of the Kuriatan stew. Bring me a bowl of thisen peppers on the side also.”

  I turned to Joni. “You like peppers?”

  Joni winced. “Not especially. I’m not much for the spicy hot foods. Aren’t thisen peppers supposed to be the extremely hot ones?”

  I nodded. “I suppose they are for Humans. The oils don’t react much with Grunta physiology, which puts them on the mild side for me.”

  As the bartender turned away to enter the order, I said, “I’m not putting much faith in the soup. I don’t think the regulars are at work here today. This looks like a group from your security teams. I know the owner, and she's here each and every day. The bartender didn’t even know who she was. I would suspect we'll be getting Kuriatan stew made by a security officer.”

  Joni laughed. “This is what I was talking about. I walk around in an insulated bubble. Just once I'd like to see the real world and real people. Half of the people at the academy were probably plants. You might be one of the only real people I know, Mr. Beutcher. You are real aren't you?”

  “How many Grunta does your father have on his security teams?”

  “None that I've ever seen.”

  The soup came out and was warm but flat. The peppers were thackeries, which any chef would never have mistaken for thisen.

  I stood and transferred twelve credits to the bar register. “Let’s go. We're wasting our time here. We can grab something from the Daunte’s food store.”

  The halls were again empty on the walk back to the ship.

  Just before boarding, I raised a question. “How difficult would it be to disable some of the devices on the Daunte? I’m getting a little irritated by the security overkill.”

  Joni whispered. “Ha! Now you are talking my language. I’ve spent the better part of the last five years trying to identify all the listeners and recorders that blanket the landscape around me. Give me ten minutes and I think I can find them all; I would need an energy broadcast sensor, though. Know where I might get one?”

  “I have an idea. Go on up and keep Raptor company. I''ll see what I can do.”

  I made my way out of Bay-17 and was suddenly confronted by Paq Wendell. “Where you headed, Knog?”

  “I’m heading down to Deck-97 to the salvage yards. I have a friend down there I want to say hey to. We've got some time before our next inspection. Didn't want to drag the poor girl along.”

  “Would that be Ogu you're going to see? The guy you were having lunch with yesterday?”

  I nodded.

  The captain sighed. “Well, try to keep it brief. I don’t like Miss Salton being on that ship alone.”

  I again nodded as I hurried past the captain on my way. When I arrived at the salvage yard, I went straight to Ogu.

  After a quick greet, I got down to business. “I need a sensor to sweep the Daunte with. My new trainee comes with bugs. The Saltons really look after their own, and while that's fine from a security standpoint, both of us would like some privacy. I need something to sweep the ship that will tell me if we have a dead zone.”

  Ogu smiled. “I can do you one better. I have a detector for you to use, but I also have a scrambler that will mask either audio or ionics in an area from two meters up to ten meters diameter.”

  We walked toward a storage area as Ogu continued. “I would suggest you do the sweep of the ship and find a spot with the lowest sensor detection. Set this scrambler to the minimum setting at that location only when you want to have that private conversation.

  “It's small enough to f
it in the palm of your hand or a pocket. When your conversation is done, just turn it off. If those listening on the other end determine something is wrong and come to check the ship, they'll find everything working as normal. Just don’t let them catch you with it.”

  I nodded. “That sounds doable. All I have to do with the scrambler is give it to my trainee. They won’t be searching her, and I’m certain she would use the device judiciously. I’ll need something else to take back with me in case they come questioning you as to what I purchased. Maybe a lumbar support for my chair. I tend to slouch, and that might actually be helpful.”

  Ogu laughed. “One lumbar cushion coming up. I have a size that will fit the chair of the Daunte well. That ship may be new, but the pilot’s chair is a standard model that has been in use for about fifteen years. I have a number of those supports.”

  I grabbed Ogu by his shoulder and gave it a quick squeeze. “Write it up as a normal sale so we have a record. I want this to look like I was just here as a customer.”

  “I'll lock away the few items I have that might not sit well with the authorities should they come searching.”

  I transferred the eighteen credits. “Sorry, I didn’t intend to bring in heat on you.”

  Ogu again laughed. “Don’t worry about it. If they come, it won’t be the first time. I have a good system in place to keep myself looking clean and lawful.”

  I thanked Ogu and headed back to the Daunte. As I approached Bay-17, Paq Wendell was again waiting for me.

  “That didn’t take long.”

  I held out the lumbar support. “I’ve been wanting one of these for some time. One of those things you don’t think about when you aren’t in the chair.”

  “I could use one of those myself.”

  I stopped. “Captain, is everything OK?”

  “This whole thing has me nervous, that’s all. I can’t say I like all the attention from the higher-ups. The chief has been leaning on me hard to keep a close eye on things.”

  I patted the captain on the back. “She’s a smart girl, Captain. So long as she sticks with me, she'll be fine. I’m not one for sticking my neck out too far.”

  Paq Wendell took half a step back. “You? I know you don’t go charging into trouble, but you have certainly found enough of it over the years. Those stars don’t come to inspectors who don’t poke their nose deep into the business of others. Keep her out of those situations, Knog. We can’t afford the problems that will come if there's an incident of any sort.”

  I nodded as I turned to finish my walk to the ship. “She’s in good hands, Captain. Go back to your desk and get some work done.”

  When I reached the top of the Daunte’s ramp-way, Joni was waiting. Before she could speak, I raised my finger over my mouth. I pulled the signal detector from my pouch and handed it to her. She smiled and immediately got to work with her sweep. In fifteen short minutes, she had identified four listening devices and a weak signal zone by the galley oven.

  I pulled out the scrambler, turned on the oven, flipped the scrambler to its minimum setting, and said, “This will be our spot if we need to discuss anything in private. Turn on the oven and then this device. It will give us a couple meters of talk space. You keep both of these, and if asked, you did not get them from me.”

  Joni nodded. “Oh, I'll keep them secure. Security doesn’t go into my bags for anything.”

  She stepped up on her toes and gave me a quick kiss on the cheek. It was something I was not expecting. Most species would be hesitant to make intimate contact with a Grunta. If the tough gray skin on my cheeks could have blushed, it would have.

  Joni smiled. “We have four bugs on this boat, aside from any official comm channels they're watching. I won’t ask where you got these from, and I won’t divulge that should I be asked. Now, let’s get a new inspection scheduled so we aren’t just sitting here.”

  The scrambler was turned off.