Christmas Carriers' Convoy - part 2
17 Nov 2018Andrew Linton
Since meeting with Amaryllis Dood, I’ve been planning my cover story and thinking about logistics. It’s been a few years since I travelled to Colonia. At that time the star was called EOL PROU RS-T d3-94 and Jaques Station went under the fancy name of “80 DD-D 774-CE-2”.I haven’t decided, yet, what kind of ship to take with me and while I’m turning different options over in my mind I take an Asp Explorer down to the surface of planet 1 of Shinrarta Dezhra where I can top up my supplies of Jumponium.
I collect polonium, arsenic, and niobium, but at a price. I become disoriented as I bounce across the regolith; my shoulders tense up and I crack the base of my spine on the frame of the seat where the padding has worn thin. I'm beginning to doubt my ability to take on the rigours of the journey to Colonia; then I remember the billion reasons Dood has given me for seeing it through.
After a successful foray, I climb away from the planet and check for contacts—Shinrarta Dezhra can be a dangerous place to live, what with all the elite combat pilots looking for something to shoot at. It's fairly quiet just now, but there's a Cutter that seems to be paying me too much attention. I change course and the Cutter matches vectors. I put another pip into shields, though my Asp is no combat ship, it's built for exploration. I change course again and the Cutter follows me and comes closer.
I lock in a jump that, I hope, will be beyond the Cutter's range—that's pretty much the only advantage an exploration ship has over a combat build. I line up the Asp with the destination and I'm about to High Wake when the Cutter hails me.
We agree to meet in a bar on Memorial and half-an-hour later we're sitting opposite each other sipping our drinks: Eranin Pearl Whiskey for me; Fujin Tea for Tay. It's on expenses of course.
Tay is serious with more than a hint of melancholy in her watery, doe-like eyes. After a short conversation I don't doubt that she is good at her job. I sense, though, that it will take a while for her to open up and give me her story; there's a sadness in her the cause of which she's keeping locked away. I catch the fragrance of Alya Body Soap, advertised to offer deep cleansing of both body and soul. There's a reason she uses it, I expect.
The talk turns to the mission.
"I've been giving some thought to our cover story," I say. "I think we should join the convoy as a travel agency; it's low profile and we can talk freely to people in the guise of advertising the business and drumming up trade. With that in mind, I think we should fit out an..."
"Orca is the obvious choice," Tay says without hesitation, as though she's been thinking about it too. "Beluga's too big; Dolphin's too small. No, the Orca is a good choice, Andy. We can engineer it to give a good range and it's pretty comfortable and easy to fly."
"...is exactly what I was going to say."
*
It takes us less than a day to incorporate Linton Travel Agency as a business and fit out an Orca with the build we want, all paid for by Amaryllis Dood's osmium credit card. Using the Jameson Memorial shipyard and outfitting, combined with the engineering blueprints I've accumulated over the years, we put together a shiny new ship capable of 53ly jumps.
Tay has a thoughtful look in her eyes which I'm learning is about to be followed by a good idea.
"Of course, we'll have to take on some passengers. It'll look suspicious if we're travelling light."
I see the sense in this. What kind of travel agency would be flying around in an empty ship? We have cargo space and could take some rares or some gold for the festivities, but it would still look unconvincing.
"I was over in Viktorenko Holdings the other day," I say, "and I noticed that the Coalition of Paitina was offering one-way transport contracts to Colonia; we could look there."
"Also," Tay adds, "we could start running local missions now; it's still a few weeks until the convoy departs. I've seen some passenger contracts placed by criminals who want to travel covertly around the bubble. We could try to build up some contacts and maybe get some leads on the case."
I'm beginning to wonder why I'm needed at all as a private investigator; Tay seems to have everything under control.