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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Shadowdancer" data-source="post: 1879477" data-attributes="member: 515">Chapter XVIDate: 168-993 Location: Aboard the Bray Keaven, in jump space between Sentry and FonneinThe morning of the second day in jump, the crew gathers for breakfast. On the bright side, Swann hasn’t discovered the traditional "bomb for leaving Sentry" onboard yet. Ian takes a Marine ration pack and gives it to Aidan, but otherwise leaves Aidan in his room. The rest of the crew gets normal meals.Swann again eats a big bowl of oatmeal, topped with fresh fruit. As he eats, he listens to what the other crewmembers say. -----Vasilii starts off the discussion. "Mister Silver’s explanation yesterday was a bit incomplete. He left out something he said in the earlier conversation I had with him in the cargo bay. "Sometime prior to leaving Sentry, Mister Silver sent a message ahead to Fonnein informing his contact there that he would be arriving shortly, presumably with the cubes. He also informed them he’d be arriving on this ship. Unless we do something about it before we arrive, I suspect they’re going to be looking for us, him, and the cubes when we show up in orbit." He turns to Martha, Kevon, and Vargas. "Also, one of the Oser crew had a portacomp that had some kind of antenna peripheral on it. Apparently, our mystery cubes have some kind of transponders in them that this little portacomp could track. I can only imagine the avionics at Fonnein’s Highport are going to see them when we get in range, let alone when we dock. My personal feeling is that we should start trying to find some passive means of hiding them from sensors with what we have onboard, but that’s my opinion. Might also behoove us to reprogram the transponder and show up under a different name. "And not to get off the subject, but for everyone’s information, the Fonnein legal system, what there is of it, doesn’t rely on any codification of their laws. No statutes, no formal bill of rights, nothing. The people are supposed to be pretty levelheaded, but apparently someone with a lot of juice on that planet wants at least one of these cubes righteously. I’d VERY strongly recommend nobody leave the highport. Hell, for that matter, don’t leave the ship. As long as we’re in orbit, we’re still under Imperial jurisdiction, and as useless as seems to be these days, I’d rather trust that over the locals any day. "As for Aidan and the cubes. Since he seems to have a patron on Fonnein who wants to see him succeed with his mission, he’d probably get sprung from the local jail the moment we walked away from the police station, assuming he would get detained at all, given their legal system. "As unattractive as the prospect is, my vote’s to keep him on the ship for the entire stay at Fonnein, sedated if need be, and as soon as the repairs and maintenance are finished, we make a jump back to Sentry and take up the subject with the Marquis’ people, and let them deal with the cubes. Considering the money that's getting thrown around for these cubes, I’d say we’re in WAY over our heads — it’s time to cut our losses and walk away from this mess. But I’ll be damned if we’re going to turn them over to someone who hired yahoos like Aidan Silver or Hil Seirl to take the cubes off of us. "Oh, and that’s the part that REALLY gets me! Everyone and their cleaning droid knows where these damn cubes are, but nobody will come to US with an upfront offer! No, they have to hire spaceheads like him to TAKE the cubes off us, and still have to pay huge amounts of money anyway to a middleman! Not a good business model, unless they’re looking to kill the middleman when he shows up to make the exchange." He thinks for a brief moment about the off-hand comment, looks at the others with the realization that he’s probably right. "That’s it! That’s gotta be it! You figure he shows up to make the exchange, the other guy’s thugs disarm him before they let him in the door — one unarmed middleman is a lot easier to dispose of than seven armed crewmembers on their own starship. And it leaves no witnesses who could tie the person who’s supposedly buying to the cubes our affable middleman’s delivering. They get the cubes for nothing, except for a couple minutes of smooth–talking promising lots of money, and the price of a bullet." He looks at the door to Aidan’s quarters. "I don’t know whether to hit the little bugger, or to feel sorry for him. Since he’s a witness to the original job offer, he might still end up with a bounty on his head whether he delivers the cubes or not." -----Kevon frowns as he comes to the same conclusion as Vasilii. They were certainly in over their heads; if he had an escort frigate or even a fast patrol ship, he would say stay the course. But not in this poor excuse for a proving grounds target. "I’ll get to work on the transponder suppression," the lieutenant commander offers. "I’m a sensor and communications specialist, so I should be able to fashion something that will work." "Maybe with something from Mr. Silver’s cargo," he adds in thought. "So, the question is: do we tell Silver that his life is most likely in danger if he continues on his delivery route?" -----When Swann finishes eating, he sits back, looks around the room, rubs a hand across his face and says, "I’m not so sure Mr. Silver’s life is in danger. If he were dealing with criminals, then yes, they probably would eliminate him upon delivery of the cubes. But whoever arranged that Imperial warrant for him has Clout. Lots of it. Probably a Noble. A Nobel playing Games. And oh, how Nobles love their Games. "I think Mr. Silver is basically working as a troubleshooter. Some Noble on Alief had arranged to deliver the cubes to a person or persons on Fonnein and Adukgin. The recipients could very well be Nobles as well. Probably doesn’t matter if they are or not. "Anyway, this Noble on Alief hired the former Captain of the Bray Keaven to transport the cubes. But the Captain, and most of the rest of the crew, die from the plague. The ship is seized by the Imperium. The Noble doesn’t know what happened to the cubes, but he still wants them delivered. So he sends Mr. Silver to find them and deliver them. Goes to a lot of trouble and expense, too, so this Game is obviously important to this Noble, and probably to the recipients of the cubes as well. "Now I’ve done some similar work for Nobles from time to time. They like good, reliable Game pieces. They don’t like to lose good, reliable Game pieces. It seems as if Mr. Silver is a good, reliable Game piece, so his patron Noble doesn’t want to lose him. So I doubt he’s in any danger, as long as he completes his mission. Nobles also don’t like to kill someone who has completed a mission. They have a sense of honor about such things. "However, if you cross a Noble, or expose his Game when he wants it kept secret, then the Noble will retaliate. Nobles who lose their Games don’t blame themselves; they blame their Game pieces. He might have you killed. He might just make your life Hell. If we don’t cooperate in this little game, we might just make ourselves one big enemy. "You servicemen who are on reserve status or detached duty — you could be called back to active duty and assigned to sit on some frozen rockball planetoid monitoring Zhodani Core Expeditions for the rest of your life. Or doing field-testing of new vacc suit designs on a planet with an insidious atmosphere. "And Vasilii. How would you like to find yourself working for a Merchant trade delegation visiting K’kree space? Do you want to become a vegetarian? You’ll be wishing you had a Cuddles to protect you if a K’kree catches a whiff of meat on your breath. "Now I’m not saying we should just hand the cubes over to Mr. Silver and let that be the end of it. No, we need to protect ourselves, and our ship, and watch out for our own interests. He’s offered to get our ship repaired. Let’s take him up on that offer. He, and his Noble patron, owe us that much, at least. It’s because of them that the ship got damaged in the first place. I’m certain we won’t be taking all of Mr. Silver’s profit for this job. He’s going to compensated once this is through, I’m sure. Compensated very well. "We also should be concerned about who else wants these cubes. Someone hired Hil Seirl and went to a lot of expense to track down the cubes and try to intercept them. Maybe it was one of the intended recipients, anxious to make sure he gets what was promised him. Maybe it’s another player in the Game, someone new. So we need to be careful and cautious. "We also have some unfinished business we need to take care off. We still have the vials of starflower pollen. We need to get rid of them. While we’re in jump would be a good choice. We don’t want to get caught with that stuff during an inspection. "There’s been a lot of activity revolving around, and conversation about, these cubes. But we still know very little about them. I suggest we go get them, right now, and start trying to find out what they are, what they do, and why someone would want them. But most importantly, we need to find out if they do have some sort of transponder that allows them to be tracked, and if so, how can we mask it or block it. "And we only have six days left. So I suggest we allow a supervised Mr. Silver assist us with our investigation into the cubes, if he is so inclined." Vargas says, "Well, one, I agree about the pollen. The sooner it’s out the airlock the better. Second, if nothing else, we might want to find a spot under the fusion plant to stick the cubes. That much metal combined with magnetic fields does nasty things to RF. Third, we might want to consider helping Silver get the cubes to whatever Noble he’s working for. Might transfer the attention from us to the Noble and net us brownie points at the same time. Last, I’m loath to leave the XT after we land, if we land. I don’t see much use in wandering into a hot LZ." The Scout draws a mug of Kevon’s Navy paint thinner coffee. Ian looks at Swann. "Interesting theory. Makes for good storytelling. Guess we’ll have to wait and see if it fits in the fiction or non-fiction category." He takes another gulp of strong Navy brew java. "As much as I hate to admit it, I actually think that pain-in-the-ass," gesturing toward Aidan’s cabin, "was telling the truth yesterday. Question is, what do we do about it? Do we take the credits, hand him the cubes, and kick him off the ship once we arrive and be done with it? That sounds like the least trouble for us. But Swann, you don’t seem to like that idea. No matter what we decide to do, when we arrive, we need to be prepared and on our toes." Swann says, "I agree about being prepared. But I think that for the ordeal we’ve been put through, and the damage to the ship, we need some compensation before we cut Silver lose with the cubes." Ian subconsciously starts rubbing his wounded leg. "I like the idea of turning off or changing the ship’s transponder so we don’t advertise our presence once we drop outta jump at Fonnein." "You do know it’s highly illegal to do either one of those?," Swann asks. "I’m not sure we need more legal complications at the moment." "As far as the cubes emitting some kinda tracking signal," Ian says, "I would be surprised if that is the case. I think the antenna attached to the pirate’s laptop was to be used to link up with another ship in orbit. Remember, his story was he wanted to purchase passage on our ship, then dock with another ship in orbit to transfer cargo." A frown crosses Ian’s face. "On the subject of the pollen, I vote to space it." Martha nods, relief entering her voice. "I second that!" "Yes," Ian continues, "let's allow the pain-in-the . . . uh, Mr. Silver to join us and examine the cubes." "Personally, I think we should just send him on his merry way when we reach Fonnein," Martha sighs. "But I’ll go with the majority on this one. I still don’t trust that ol’ groat, and I think that the liberties he takes with things that aren’t his will be the death of him. I’d just rather that be a death of one rather than a death of eight, but that’s my thoughts on the matter." Martha slumps back into her chair, sipping half-heartedly at her mug of Bitterstouts. -----Vasilii listens to Swann’s theory, but apparently is not entirely convinced. "OK, I hear you, but given the importance of the issue, I’d like to make sure your theory has some solidity. I’m not harping on it; I just want to walk through it to make sure we’ve covered the angles. "OK, as for the warrant, it claims that what’s inside the cubes is perfectly legal, but it specifically avoids describing the contents. If it’s legal cargo, why not list the contents? If I were a customs agent, that would look a little odd to me. "Also, if it’s legit cargo, why would the other crew put it in a smuggling compartment instead of the cargo bay or the ship’s safe?" "Depends on exactly what is in the cubes, and if someone else wants it," Swann says. "Hil Seirl’s involvement seems to indicate someone else does want it. It might be some sort of top secret research project, or a new prototype. It would be legal, but you wouldn’t want your competitors to know you were moving it from one system to another. They might try to hijack it. Or it could have been stolen from the rightful owner, and the owner wants it back. It’s legal to own, you just don’t want anyone to know you’re trafficking stolen goods." Vasilii mulls this one over. "Hmm. Alright, for now I can work with you on that one. It seems a little far-fetched to me, but I can’t say it couldn’t happen that way. "OK, we’ve tossed this ship from stem to stern, and we haven’t found any document even remotely like that warrant left behind by the other crew. They would have had the exact same problem getting those cubes through customs as Mister Silver would, so why wouldn’t they have something like it, if the cargo is legit?" "Well, besides the fact that Imperial warrants are very rare and difficult to obtain, giving one to the original crew might've make them a little too interested in what they were carrying," Swann says. "Smuggling something through customs, they were used to. Smuggling something valuable enough to warrant an Imperial warrant, maybe someone else might be interested in acquiring it." "But then, by your own argument, wouldn’t giving one to Aidan run the chance of making him too interested?" "Well, I believe that at the point the patron sent Silver after the cubes, he probably felt he had no other choice, since there was a very good chance the cubes had been discovered by the authorities." "Consider also, if you were a patron who wanted a classified cargo shipped somewhere without running the risk of having it opened by Customs, wouldn’t your cargo look less ‘interesting’ if you gave the delivering crew a piece of paperwork that made the cargo look legit and official, that also allowed them to walk it right past the Customs desk, rather than hiring the crew to specifically smuggle it?" Vasilii asks. "I mean, wouldn’t a legit cargo with papers look less interesting than a smuggled one without any, hmm?" Swann smiles and says, "It’s certainly not the method I would have chosen, but the patron may have considerations we’re not aware of." "Although," Vasilii smiles to himself, "that idea is rather secondary. To be honest, your theory has a pretty major hole in it. To be even more honest, I’ve seen planets smaller than the hole in your theory, which basically boils down to this: "This hypothetical patron we’re considering, who wants the issue of their cubes dealt with quietly, discreetly, secretly, in a way that arouses NO ONE’S suspicions or curiosity," Vasilii points at Aidan’s stateroom, "hired HIM for the job! "I mean, c’mon Swann, this guy’s the poster child for unresolved childhood dependencies! If he’s not the center of attention, he’ll shrivel up, wither, and die. This is NOT the guy you hire to be low-key and discreet. Swann smiles again and says, "Again, not the method I would have chosen. "I think the patron hired the ship to move the cubes to a new location," Swann theorizes. "When the ship was confiscated because of the plague, the patron had to assume the cubes might have been found. So he gets the warrant for Mr. Silver so that if they have been discovered by a third party, Silver can walk in and take them back with no questions asked. Or at least without having to answer the questions." "Except that the warrant doesn’t allow him to take possession of the cubes," Vasilii says. "It only lets him move them through Customs." Swann considers this. "I thought the warrant allowed him to take possession. Hmmm, that would change the scenario a bit. But only as far as how Silver would have to go about acquiring the cubes." "Alright, now let’s look at your Nobles and their ‘good, reliable game pieces,’ " Vasilii says. "You ever play chess, Swann? In chess, all your pieces are theoretically valuable, it’s just a question of the use you put them to. But for the sake of seeing a larger strategy succeed, ‘good and reliable’ game pieces will easily become expendable and sacrificed without a second thought. I mean, game pieces are worthless if they don’t get used at some point, right? "And for the right amount of money, even good and reliable game pieces can be replaced. And Nobles usually have plenty of both to spare." "Well, I’d say Mr. Silver is a very valuable piece. Holding that warrant pretty much makes him a queen. You don’t sacrifice your queen unless you’re going for a checkmate." "I wouldn’t give him that kind of credit just yet," Vasilii counters. "The scope of his warrant is too limited to help him get the cubes, not without some kind of help. His best bet would have been to get a Customs agent on his side while we were still on the ground at Sentry and confront us there. Then he would have had the authority behind him to simply take the cubes without us being able to say anything. "But as it is, alone with us out here, he’s got nothing. If anything, he’s complicated his own problem by drawing attention to himself and the cubes, in a way that’s made us unreceptive to him, and pretty seriously damaged his chances of ever getting hold of those cubes. I’d say he’s on the same level as the rest of us pawns. "Besides, I’ve half a mind to take that damn warrant off of him to keep him from going anywhere with those cubes when we get there." "There’s still the matter of the damages to the ship," Swann says. "I think we need to be completely and adequately compensated for that. And there’s the matter of Silver’s patron. I still think that, whoever he or she might be, we don’t want them mad at us. In fact, if we can arrange for them to become indebted to us so they might do us a favor in the future, all the better. It never hurts to have influential friends in powerful places." Vasilii lets out a long sigh, looking thoughtfully at the table for a moment, absently tapping the side of his coffee cup with his index finger as he thinks. He finally speaks, addressing the rest of the group as much as Swann. "Alright. How about this, then. Two cubes, two destinations, that’s two exchanges that have to be made. We go ahead and make the first one on Fonnein and see how it goes. If it goes off without a hitch, we continue on to Adugkin and make the exchange there. "But, if the exchange on Fonnein goes rimward and we get ripped off, or the ship gets broken into again, or if the ship or any of us get detained, we turn over whatever cubes we have AND Aidan to the Imperials, and wash our hands of the matter. How do you folks feel about that?" Swann smiles. "That sounds fine. And if any of those things happen, and Silver is still around, the Imperials will be the least of his problems." "In either case, if we’re ever going to return to Sentry in the future, we’re going to need the warrant after the exchanges are done, to back up our story that the cubes weren’t contraband being smuggled," Vasilii says. "That much I’m going to insist on — I’m not ready to burn our bridges at Sentry, at least not yet." Ian appears deep in thought. "That sounds like a decent plan," he finally says. "I don’t want to burn any bridges, either," Swann says. "I don’t think we’ll need the warrant. We can always deny anything the Oser’s crew says about what we were carrying that they were after; they could have gotten the wrong ship, and it would be our word against theirs. With nothing in the smuggling compartments, they have no proof. "I don’t know if Silver has to return the warrant after he’s made his deliveries. But if worse comes to worst, as a backup, we can make a copy of the warrant. We can save the copy we download from the imbedded chip we scanned, and visually record the original. In fact, that might not be a bad idea to do anyway, just as a precaution." Vasilii interrupts him with a tone of resignation in his voice. "The Sentry people have the portacomp. Think about it for a minute: the diagram of the ship with the transponders highlighted on it, along with the coordinates. This ship is a standardized design; they’re going to know that whatever had those transponders wasn’t in any of the cargo bays. And if I were a Customs agent, I’d want the crew to produce nothing less than the original warrant to explain that. "Still, making a copy couldn’t hurt." Swann looks puzzled. "Am I missing something? What diagram of the ship with the transponders highlighted? I don't remember that being on the computer. It was just a readout of location coordinates that at the time corresponded to the smuggling holds. We don’t even know for sure that the cubes have transponders attached to them. That’s just speculation on our part right now. That’s why we need to do a thorough examination of the cubes." He stands up. "I’m going to get the cubes right now so we can start examining them. Vargas, could you help me?" "Sure," Vargas says, shrugging. "Let’s just hope they’re not rigged to explode or anything. Jump space is pretty unforgiving." Swann turns to look at Ian. "When we get back with the presents, we’ll bring out Silver. Maybe he knows something about them." Swann and Vargas head down to engineering to retrieve the cubes.</blockquote>

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