Chapter 3: Chapter Three

It was on the annex to the galactic transfer station at the busy rim base Claxton 5 that Jenna confirmed her decision. She had felt to be safe in the anonymity of the bustling center, but had barely sat down in the busy eatery when she heard the whisper behind her.

“Jenna, is that you?”

*********

 Two standard months had passed since the Tapir Bull had left Grants World, since then Jenna had expertly piloted the small cargo ship to numerous worlds. At each she had exercised a low profile, not wanting to attract any attention. At each stop, whether to pick up or drop off cargo, she had listened carefully in an attempt to pick up any information that she could. Nothing she had heard up till now had alarmed her.

She had watched her new crew mates carefully, not ready to trust them fully. She was most wary of Simon Bush and one of the security guards. The guard she felt would be likely to turn her in for whatever reward was on her head at a time he felt he could get away with it. Simon Bush was different, harder to read, more dangerous. Yet he had been unfailingly polite to her.

What is his game? Jenna wondered, laying on her bed in her cabin. Or am I imagining things? Sitting up she checked the time of arrival and saw that there was half a period to go. Better get to the bridge, she thought. Looking around the tiny cabin, she saw that she was ready to bug out as always. Locking her door she wondered about that term, Bug out, where did it come from? The thought amused her.

 Checking the status of the pilot’s station on her arriving on the bridge, she saw that everything was in order. “Status nominal.” She announced to an empty bridge. Typical. She thought with a curl of her lip. Her finger stabbed at the comm, “Point four to arrival. Bridge crew to bridge.”

A composed Ressi Blue was the first to arrive. Sitting at her station, she powered it up from its standby status.

“Navigators station is ready.”

“Confirmed.” Jenna replied, then; “Transferring communications to navigator station.”

“Got it.” Ressi replied just as Dirk Crucrus and the Captain arrived. Without so much as a glance, each went to his accustomed seat.

“Security station in order.” Dirk touched the appropriate icon. It blinked as Jenna confirmed, then went on.

“Transferring control of scanners to security station.”

“Accepted.” Came the prompt response.

Jenna touched another icon. “Pilot ready for arrival captain.”

Simon Bush replied, “Confirmed.” His face and voice expressionless,

Jenna had noted this and an ell of unease wiggled inside he, but her training helped keep her face equally empty. She opened a comm link to the engine room.

“Engine room, approaching hyper shutdown. Stand by for thrusters, emergency power.” It was always a tense moment, coming out of hyper space. You couldn’t see if anything was going to be in your way and they couldn’t see you coming. So if something was there, then the outcome was likely to be fatal. If you came away with survivable damage, you could count yourself lucky. Minor or no damage, buy a ticket in the galactic lottery.

“Engine room is ready.”

“Copy that.” A general announcement followed. “Arrival imminent. Stand by.”

Silence fell on the bridge as the time for arrival approached.

“Leaving hyperspace, stand by. Now.” Jenna cut the hyper drive and lowered the covers on the forward windscreen. Her eyes narrowed and her lips pursed as she stared straight ahead.

“Looks good, nothing on the scanner.” Dirk reported.

Without replying or giving any warning, Jenna wrenched the Tapir Bull to the right, jacking the thrusters up to one hundred percent at the same time. The sudden move created chaos onboard while safety force fields automatically flashed into operation keeping the bridge, engine room and other crew members in their seats. Demands and protests flowed into the bridge from various parts of the ship and Dirk and Simon stared at Jenna, Ressi being too busy just holding on.

Reducing thrust as she held the new course for a fraction, an intense Jenna turned to Ressi and with admirable restraint, addressed her.

“Ressi, ask that imperial cruiser what she thinks she doing in an arrivals zone with identification switched off!”

A shocked Ressi shook herself and turned to her comm, but before she could query the imperial ship, it hailed them. Ressi put it on speaker.

“Tapir Bull, this is the heavy cruiser Aspen. Do you read?”

Simon Bush glanced around the bridge including Junt Rainius and Langford Dinaan who had just arrived to see what was going on.

“Go ahead Ressi.” Simon spoke. “Answer.”

“Aspen, Tapir Bull, we read you.”

“Tapir Bull, this is Captain Traska. Nice maneuver pilot and quick reactions there. Well done, you might have scratched us!”

With a laugh, Dirk said, “Keep talking Ressi.”

“Yes,” Simon added with a chuckle, “give them the full Jenna treatment!”

Jenna frowned at that but remained silent.

“Aspen, We were lucky, Captain Traska.” Ressi felt comfortable replying. “Our pilot was alert and took action in time.” She took a breath. “Question,” she said, “why didn’t you show up on our arrival scans?”

“A good question, Tapir Bull,” The grim voice augured ill for someone, “I want to know as well.” After a fractions silence, the Captain spoke again, “But I must be off now. Aspen out.” 

 “Good travels, Aspen. Tapir Bull out.” Ressi shut the comm off. “Well, that was interesting,” the wiry woman said in her somewhat high pitched voice. “That is one rare captain to chat with us like that.”

“Yeah, I haven’t run across to many captains like that,” Dirk observed, “he is admiral material.” Langford Dinaan agreed.

“Well, I wouldn’t want to be whoever put the cruiser into stealth mode.” Dirk responded. “They will be in trouble for sure!”

“Is there anything from space control?” Jenna put in quietly before Ressi could answer. “We are getting close, I need to know where to go.”

Ressi coloured and pinched her lips at the implied rebuke while Dirk turned to his board and called the scanners back up. Simon had reverted to his expressionless face. The engineer and cargo master having seen what had happened left without further comment.

*********

The approach to Galactic Transfer Station Claxton Five was so normal in all other respects that Jenna relaxed somewhat. Parked in the cargo transfer area of an adjacent satellite, Junt soon had the load that they were delivering accepted and unloaded.

“Smooth, just as I like it.” Simon smiled the next day. Turning to the Cargo Master, “Any cargos here?” He asked.

“Not here but it seems there are some over at the outer Annex,”

At this Simon frowned. He ran his eyes over the rest of his bridge crew. Dirk spoke first. “Security should be okay, but until we know what the cargo is …”

Ressi agreed. “We have handled questionable cargos before and have a good rep. Maybe we can charge a reasonable premium, we have done that before.” All eyes turned to Jenna.

With a shrug of her shoulders, Jenna said she wasn’t able to give an opinion. “I have never flown here before and haven’t heard of the Annex.” She looked around questioningly. “Can someone explain?”

Langford Dinaan smiled. “The Annex is thought to be a place where you can make a deal to obtain things that the local patrols might frown upon.”

“Pirates in other words?”

“Not likely, Jenna.” Simon elaborated. “But those who deal with pirates. Middleman and fences mainly; they take shipments from other galaxies and clusters.”

“The legion and the patrol don’t step in and stop them?”

“The legion would if they have grounds to believe that piracy is involved, but without some proof, they won’t act. It’s really a patrol matter and the annex is privately owned with its own security.” Dirk added. ‘Don’t be fooled though, a patrolman I spoke to a couple of visits ago told me that they have a task force standing by. One wrong step by the owners and, zap.” He made a pumping action with his fist.

Listening to this, a plan began to form in Jennas mind. “So, what do we do, take Tapir Bull over there?”

The slight rigidity of Jenna’s body was not missed by Simon but he kept his thoughts to himself. “I don’t have any better idea unless we hear of another cargo?” A quick survey with of the ships officers showed that no one had any better ideas.

*********

By what was considered the morning of the next day they were parked at the annex. Taking the precaution of covering all possibilities, Simon had Junt comm all his contacts so that in the event other cargos became available, they would be considered.

Leaving the Tapir Bull was something of a revelation for Jenna. It was rare for her to ever leave the ship due to the possibility of being recognised, so being submerged in a melee of entities from different worlds, including some aliens, they rarely mixed with humanoids due to environmental differences, was something of a shock. The annex was quite large with spaces for thirty or so smaller cargo ships to load and perhaps twice as many external parking piers where two cargo ships could hook up via the access hatch. It was to one of these that Jenna piloted the Tapir Bull.

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“Thrusters shut down and external power engaged.” Jenna announced. “Bridge to standby.”

“Confirmed.”  Simon rose from his seat. “Let’s go and see what we can find out.” He led his crew to the hatch,

Len of Rennis was there to meet them. “Let’s divide up and cover more ground?” He suggested.

“No.” Simon said. “I want you to say here. Send one of the men to the end of the pier while you say here with the other man.” Dirk frowned then nodded.

“I’ll make sure he is reliable. Also he will have full instruction on what to do.”

Langford stirred. “The third engineer is tasked to service the engines. He’ll be ok on his own until we get back.”

“Good.” Simon replied. “Langford, you and Len stick together. Junt you and I will check out the shippers lounge. Ressi, you will stay with the ship as usual” Turning, Simon met the level gaze of Jenna.

“No one knows you here, that means no one will give you the time of day, so wander around and get something to eat.” Simon Bush advised Jenna. “Just get used to the place.”

“Good idea, can you tell me the best direction to where the other pilots eat, or is there no such lounge?” Jenna slung her pack over her shoulders. No one commented, she took her pack everywhere.

“There are lounges all over the place but the one most pilots use is in the fourth quadrant, near the fortieth set of loading bays.” Ressi replied. At Jennas enquiring look, she went on. “I went there once with our old pilot.”

“Okay, enough,” Simon sounded impatient, “let’s go, meet back here in eight periods.”

This place could do with some cleaning. Jenna thought as they walked down the somewhat grubby and narrow pier to the main hanger area. The grime offended her sense of personal self-care, but soon they were in the main hanger. Jenna stopped and surveyed the area. She understood straight away what Simon had said! Almost everyone in the area turned and stared at her. A strange feeling came over her, someone was watching with more than casual interest.

“Have fun kid.” Simon chuckled and left. The two engineers also left in a different direction after giving her a nod as well. With another, carefully disguised survey of the onlookers, Jenna turned in the direction she needed to go. This could get interesting, she thought.

*********

As he walked away, the entity currently known as Simon Bush wondered at what the future held for Jenna of Christos. While he hadn’t spoken to Gail, Simon had discussed everything with Dana, Andrea and Nathan along with some of the others and, like them was dissatisfied with what He had said. Simon had not spoken to Him recently, that is for a couple of thousand years and Andrea had not since the visit to Christos. Most frustrating had been the absence of Gail, he felt that they could have trusted each other.

He gave a mental shrug, well there was nothing more he could do, Jenna was out of his hands now, it was all up to her.

*********

On her own for a change, Jenna looked around as she walked. While she was still the object of curiosity the looks had changed from overt wariness to a more general awareness. None appeared friendly.

Checking the closest loading bays, Jenna had worked out the direction to head for what she assumed was the pilots lounge. Finding it was not a disappointment as she had taken in the eating and lounging areas that she had pasted. What she had arrived at was just a collection of seats, some looking comfortable, others less so. Set in the walls around the seats was a series of ordering and serving nooks, with their specialties displayed above them. As Jenna considered what to buy to eat, a voice called to her.

“Hey, you a pilot?”

Hearing the challenge in the question, Jenna turned slowly and considered the speaker. It was a rather corpulent man who swaggered into view. The motley collection of bystanders watched openly, gauging the possibilities.

“What if I’m not?”

“Only pilots allowed to eat here, good ones at that.” The man leered.

“Are you a pilot?” Jenna shot back, her question framed in tones of unbelief.

The man’s leer vanished, replaced by a look of anger. “Yeah, I am.” He spat.

“Must be for an ultra-heavy carrier.” Jenna replied, openly looking her challenger up and down.

At the hoots of laughter from the other pilots, the man snarled and charged the ready pilot. A side step and a kick to the knee brought the fight to a swift end. The overweight man’s knee collapsed on him and the would-be challenger rolled on the floor clutching the damaged joint.

“By the way,” Jenna told the moaning man, “I am the pilot for the Tapir Bull.” Another burst of laugher from the crowd greeted the announcement.

One of the grinning spectators approached and with a laugh introduced himself. “Kinness of Gloaming Five. Pilot of the Lacties. That was nice to watch!”

“I didn’t want to really hurt him.” Jenna gave a tight grin.

“Your restraint was noted!” An appraising glance took in Jenna. “Tapir Bull eh. You had some fun with that legion cruiser a day ago.”

“It was nothing.” Jenna just shrugged.

“Humble much are we.” A female pilot standing nearby chuckled. “Everyone has been waiting for Pressis there to get his comeuppance for a while.” She nodded to Jenna. “Kira, Gamma Moon.”

“Annual.” Jenna gave her cover name.

“Grab some food and let’s eat.” Kinness invited Jenna.

“Yes, lets.” Chuckled Kira as Pressis was helped away by a cursing shipmate.

For the next couple of periods Jenna was able to relax and listen to others as they chatted, Her ears perked up as a comment came from a passing pilot to the effect that a couple of the star ships were looking for pilots as they were leaving the cluster for more fertile grounds. A casual query as to why they would do that elicited the comment that “The nebulas are getting to hot for them.”

Jenna nodded. That would make it easier for her.

*********

Finishing her drink, Findus Sparkling Water or plain water was her preferred tipple, giving the excuse that she wanted to see how the rest of the annex operated, Jenna took her leave. She soon found the two ships she was looking for conveniently parked side by side. Buying a sealed bottle of Findus sparkling water, Jenna took a seat where she could keep both craft and their crew under surveillance. Comfortably seated, she awaited developments; it didn’t take long.

A big man flanked by two other slightly smaller men exited the star craft to the left and approached her, not even trying to conceal the weapons or the scowls they wore.

“Why are you watching us?” The big man demanded without preamble.

“Isn’t it obvious? I’m interested in you, both of you in fact.”

The scowl deepened, “Well we don’t like it, move on!” This was accompanied by a wave of the hand.

“Really?” Jenna worked an eyebrow. “You have a pilot then?”

The two man behind the big man glanced at each other. Weapons master from a heavy gravity word was Jennas thought, so the information was correct, let’s see what happens next. Jenna knew that she would have to be careful.

The big man, he had a surprisingly high pitched voice, didn’t blink, just stared at Jenna. “You are Annual, pilot of Tapir Bull, correct?” It wasn’t really a question.

“You have good sources.” Jenna didn’t smile.

“I heard about you taking that idiot down.” He grunted, then without being asked sat down across from Jenna. The chair groaned under his weight. “What he deserved.” The two eyed each other. “Why do you want to leave the Tapir Bull?” From the tone of the question, if not answered, there would be consequences. The two other men moved closer, but kept well apart.

“The same reason you want to leave to the seventh cluster.”

Something changed in the big man’s eyes.

“There are many reasons, I know ours, what’s yours?”

“That’s my business. It won’t affect you!” The firm response seemed to assure the weapons master somewhat.

“I need to know your real name, I’m sure Simon Bush knows it.”

Jenna reflected that once again, surface appearances didn’t always reflect reality. This big hulking man seemed to have a sharp mind. She decided to reply with the truth.

The weapons master sat back, rubbing his chin with one massive hand. “Jenna, hmm.” He appraised Jenna in a new light and seemed to come to a conclusion. With a jerk of his head to the other two men he sent them away. “Get something to eat but don’t leave.” He followed the two men to the ship and entered, leaving one outside.

Jenna watched all this then, with a mental shrug, ordered some food. Relaxed, she had just started to eat when …

“Jenna, is that you?”

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