Chapter 26: 26. Inspection

"Amanda, Sarah, you two stay out of sight here in the mess," Piper ordered. "Jenny, sorry to ask but I want you to shut down the HPD. I don't want them to know you're here at all."

Sarah asked, "What do we do if things get violent?"

Our captain replied, "I'm going down to open up the hold, I'll talk to Mr. Lebeau myself and find out what he wants. If things go badly I'll hold them off while you seal up the airlock from the cockpit. Do what you have to do to keep the ship secure. Then if we have to, we'll just take off."

"And the armoured grav-sled?" Jenny asked. "What if they attempt to stop us?"

Piper shrugged, "We'll worry about that if it becomes an issue. We can always just push it out of our way. But let's hope it doesn't come to that. It might just be Lebeau being itchy to get his cargo."

"That's your customer?" I gasped. "The guy you're working for is threatening you with an armed boarding party?"

"Yeah," the captain replied calmly. "And he doesn't like to be kept waiting, so I'm going to go see what he wants."

She moved to the starboard ladderway and reminded us, "Amanda, Sarah, stay out of sight. Jenny, shut down the HPD but obviously keep monitoring the situation."

With that she opened the ladderway hatch in the airlock floor and slid down the ladder into the main cargo hold. The hatch sealed shut again behind her.

"She seems pretty calm considering she's going to face a half-dozen guys armed with automatic weapons," Sarah commented.

Jenny sounded uneasy as she responded, "I hope this isn't indicative of all our captain's business relations."

She added with a sigh, "Shutting down the HPD. I'll let you know via the intercom if anything untoward happens down below."

A moment later her hologram flickered and vanished, leaving the small spherical drone visible. It drifted into the lounge area then settled on one of the tables next to the sofa before powering down completely.

I sighed as I looked at Sarah. "I hope Piper's calm demeanour means this is a routine thing. Maybe there's really nothing to worry about?"

"I hope so too," she replied. She gestured at the gun on her belt and added, "Between you and me I'm a lousy shot with these things."

"Me too," I grimaced. "I really hope we never have to use them."

Jenny spoke up over the intercom in the mess, "We have been boarded by four men. Two are armed with submachine-guns, the other two appear unarmed. Captain Piper is speaking with them."

A few seconds later Piper's voice came over the intercom, "Amanda, Sarah, please report to the main hold."

Sarah and I exchanged a glance. Our captain's voice didn't sound stressed, she didn't sound like she was under duress.

"I guess the customer wants to meet us," Sarah said with a shrug.

The two of us went into the starboard airlock and took the ladderway down to the main hold. The main airlock was wide open and the ramp was down, while the doors to the secondary hold were sealed shut.

Piper was standing near the middle of the deck with two men in front of her. The two guys with guns were back a little ways, standing at the top of the ramp just inside the main airlock. They weren't aiming their weapons at anyone, but they were holding them in a way that suggested they could easily point and start shooting if they wanted.

One of the unarmed men was talking as Sarah and I came down into the hold, so we picked up the conversation that was already going on.

"...alone when you departed the Fuminja Cluster. And I know you didn't take on passengers during your unusually-short stay at the Regulon mining colony. Then instead of setting course here, you flew to Rolandan-2. Where you arrived with a load of Imperium tech, and a couple mysterious new crew members."

The speaker was a middle-aged man. He was wearing what passed for a fancy-looking business suit, with a black jacket and slacks and a dark-grey button-down shirt. He had short dark hair, his face was clean-shaved and his complexion was slightly tanned. He wasn't a big or imposing-looking guy, he was actually an inch or so shorter than Piper. His build was about average, with maybe a little extra weight on him.

Next to him was the other unarmed guy. He was younger, in his late-twenties or early thirties. He was also taller and slimmer, with short brown hair and a trimmed beard on his face. He was dressed in business attire as well, though his clothes weren't as well-tailored as the first guy.

And the two men with guns both looked like stereotypical armed thugs. They were tall, muscular, and mean-looking. Both were dressed casual, t-shirts and military-style boots and pants. The one on the left kept his eyes on Piper, the one on the right was watching me and Sarah. Mostly me.

The bearded guy was staring at me too, and I started feeling self-conscious about my tail and ears again.

Meanwhile the man in the suit continued talking, "So you understand why I'm concerned? I've been very clear that my business is sensitive. The last thing I want is anybody with Imperium ties snooping around me, or anybody who works for me."

Piper kept her attention on the middle-aged guy in the suit as she responded, "What makes you think me or my crew would have any ties with that lot? You know I can't stand the Imperium, Mr. Lebeau. I wouldn't have a damn thing to do with them."

Lebeau gestured towards me and Sarah as we both moved to stand next to our captain, "If they're not from the Imperium then where'd you find them? And where'd you come up with a pile of Imperium gear to sell at your last stop? Seems to me like you rendezvoused with that ship that's been prowling around the past half year. Then you took on a couple spies in return for a pile of hardware you could pawn off as salvage."

Our captain rolled her eyes, "Do they look like spies?"

"If they did they wouldn't be spies," her customer retorted. Then he snapped his fingers and gestured towards me and Sarah.

I tensed and took a half step back, but all that happened was the bearded guy held up a handheld scanner. It looked similar to my portable medical scanner, but it was obviously an older and cruder design. He used it to scan me, then Sarah.

Finally he looked at Mr. Lebeau and shook his head, "They're clean boss. No identity implant, no other sign of Imperium tech or tampering."

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"So where'd you get them?" the customer demanded. He was still watching our captain as he added, "You didn't have them at Fuminja, you didn't pick them up at Regulon. You picked up two passengers and a load of Imperium gear, where'd they come from?!"

Our captain replied calmly, "I picked them up at Marshal's World. I got an FTL signal just before I made my delivery at the Fuminja Cluster. A friend of my dad's wanted to cash in an old family debt. Asked me to take in these two strays. So after my stop at Fuminja I detoured over that way and picked them up."

She added, "I've kept them out of your business, kept them locked in their cabin when we were at Regulon-4. And first thing I was going to do when I got here was come let you know I took on a couple crew."

I was impressed at how smoothly our captain could lie. It left me wondering if she came up with that story in advance, or if that was something she just put together on the spot. Though if it was something she planned ahead of time, I figured she'd have told me and Sarah. If we needed a convincing back-story, we probably should have been told what it was.

Mr. Lebeau finally took his eyes off Piper and looked towards me and Sarah. His eyes swept up and down over me and left me feeling like I needed a shower. Fortunately he didn't seem to want to talk to either of us.

His attention turned back to our captain again and he asked, "So where'd you get the Imperium hardware?"

"That ship you mentioned, the one's been prowling around? It ran into one of those mines over by the Gorath field," she replied. "Ripped her in half, no survivors. I salvaged what I could, but that is none of your business. As per the contract you and I both signed, what I do with my ship on my time is up to me, as long as I make your deliveries on schedule."

Lebeau stared at Piper for a few more seconds. Then he looked at me and Sarah again.

Our captain gestured towards a pair of smaller shipping containers to the left as she stated, "If you've got a problem with any of that, then you can take your delivery and get off my ship."

The customer was still looking at me and Sarah. Mostly me though, and once again his gaze left me feeling like I needed a good shower. I could practically see him undressing me with his mind, and it felt pretty gross.

I really wanted to say something, but the two guys standing by the ramp holding submachine-guns at the ready were a pretty good reminder not to annoy the customer.

His eyes were still on me as he commented to Piper, "If these two are crowding you, I'd be willing to take them off your hands. Or just the fox. If you want to hand her over to me, I'll make it worth your while."

My eyes widened and I felt my cheeks going red. I felt angry, shocked, nauseous, and scared all at once. I almost couldn't believe my ears.

It actually sounded like the guy was talking about buying me, as if I was property or something. And not that I thought our captain would ever agree to that, but hearing this guy offer it so casually and openly left me feeling anxious again about this world.

"Not a fucking chance," Piper stated. Her tone was calm and relaxed, she didn't sound angry or anything. Or maybe she was holding her anger in check, considering how out-numbered and out-gunned we were. "They're under my protection. They're my crew, and they're my friends."

The creep's eyes stayed on me for a few more uncomfortable seconds before he finally looked back at our captain again.

He told her, "I'll send a couple of my guys to pick up my cargo within the hour. As for the next shipment... I'll be in touch."

Without waiting for a reply he turned around and walked out and down the ramp. The bearded guy hurried to follow, and finally the two armed thugs left as well.

Piper watched them go, then walked to the controls next to the main airlock. She tapped a couple buttons and the ramp started to rise up while the main doors slid closed.

Once everything was sealed up she looked to me and Sarah and commented, "That went well."

"Did it?" Sarah asked. "I couldn't tell if he was angry or not."

I finally spoke up, interrupting whatever our captain was about to say.

"He tried to buy us?!" I stated with a scowl. "Right? That's what he was trying to do?! Tell me that sort of thing's not legal here!"

Piper sighed, "No it's not. It's not legal on any world in this sector. But like I said earlier, the law here is based on who can afford it. And Mr. Lebeau isn't the kind of guy who worries too much about laws or morality anyways."

She grimaced and added, "And I may have given him the wrong idea about you two, with that story about picking you two up at Marshal's World."

"I'm guessing that planet has a bad reputation?" Sarah asked.

The captain nodded, "It's a lot like Regulon-4. It's an airless ball of rock, and originally it had a mining colony on it. Turned out there was very little useful ore or something? Whatever, the mining colony tanked and folks gave up trying to mine it. Instead they turned it into a privately-owned penal colony."

"So he thought we were criminals?" I asked. "How does that make buying us any better?"

Piper shook her head, "You both look too young to be hardened ex-cons..."

She blushed slightly and elaborated, "There's only two reasons a couple pretty young women like you would be at Marshal's World. Either you were there providing 'companionship' for the guards who work there, in which case he'd think maybe you were available. Or the other possibility is you were born there as children of inmates, in which case you're not really citizens of anywhere and probably don't have any useful skills and minimal education. So once again, available."

"So why the hell would you say that's where we're from?" I half-demanded.

Our captain sighed, "It's the only world close enough to my route that I could pick you two up while still salvaging the Hammersmith and making my deliveries on time."

She added, "Let's go up to the mess, we can sit down and talk about this stuff over a drink. Now that everyone's met and nobody died I can fill you in on the details."