Personal Log 97: 8th - 14th February, 3302
09 Oct 2016Jemine Caesar
8th - 14th February, 3302 Sam's long-awaited band reunion went well; plans were laid for regular spots at the Rose, and dreams of fame as the galaxy's next big thing loomed large.
"And I have some more good news," he told me over breakfast. "My old friend Daniel Maguire has been in touch. He says seven of the harem girls have requested protection. Daniel's men are with them now."
Later, while Sam was busying himself with some maintenance work on his ship, I received a call from Argent Steel. "Howdy, ma'am," he drawled.
I found him very easy to talk to, and was soon telling him my life story. Not for the first time I wondered whether I was just a little too trusting. Am I so naive that I can't help but confide in people I've only just met? The same thing had happened with Rudolphus, and Sam, and Marcus Trelawney. And now it was happening again with this man, Argent Steel, as I told him all about Caz, about my daughter Bekka, about Aoife Hohnlein and about the murders of the harem girls.
Steel turned out to be a good listener, and offered me some words of comfort as I wept at the memory of Bekka.
"I know you loved your little girl," he said. "I'm willing to bet she knew that. None of us will be here forever, and it's torture to be the one left behind. The irony is it's the dead who have it easy. For what it's worth, there are more tiny graves out there on hundreds of worlds that belongs to boys and girls who never had what your baby girl had. So if it helps, and I hope it does, you should feel some comfort that you gave her the time she had."
*****
The next day Sam disappeared on some mysterious errand. I took on a couple of courier jobs; tomatoes to Mombaluma, and tantalum to LHS 3295. Here I was reunited with Sam.
"I've been to LHS 2310, Jem," he said. "I have good news. Alec Russell is dead!"
Sam had finally tracked down Russell at MacLeod Gateway, and had dispatched him with a full clip from an energy rifle. "The gang has been taken care of, too," he added, visibly relieved to be rid of his nemesis at last.
We docked at HG Wells Hub in the nearby LHS 205-125 system, and booked in to a room. My dataslate beeped an incoming recorded message.
"Hello, Miss Caesar," said a man's voice. "My name's Wayne Foster. You don't know me, but you sent a message to my wife, Carrie. At Wohler Terminal, Kremainn? Carrie worked there as a cleaning operative. She... had an accident earlier today. She fell down a service staircase, and she... she broke her neck. She's dead. I... I just thought you should know."
I put down my slate. "Oh, Sam!" I cried. "Carrie Foster was number seven on the harem list."
I was number eleven.
Just as we were reeling from this latest piece of news, my slate beeped again. It was Nathalie.
"Hey Jem," she said.
"Nath," I replied. "What's wrong? You sound so tense."
Nathalie told me she had moved her parents to a safe hiding place. "I've been getting threats from the Kumo Crew," she said, clearly angry. "Jem, where are you? Can I come and talk? I need a friend." A short time later we were sitting in the starport observation lounge.
"It's so good to see you again!" I said. "I'm always thinking about you, honey. I imagine you in the Darkangel, out there chasing the pirates. I know you're an excellent pilot, but I do worry about you. Archon Delaine is so powerful."
Nathalie nodded ruefully. "I know that Delaine is worth his title of Most Wanted," she replied. "But I'll tell you, I'll take every single step seriously, and I won't rush the way. My first step is to get Tatiana on my side, second step is to buy a new ship. Bigger, with more weapons, more shields, more everything. You already heard about the Federal Corvette? A big, slick but deadly toy... He will be mine before any attempt to go towards Delaine. But how is Sam? Is he not here with you?"
I told her that Sam was in our room, asleep. "He's exhausted, Gaia bless him. He finally tracked down Alec Russell, an ex-navy officer who's been gunning for Sam over the last few months. Well, now Russell is dead, so we have nothing to fear from him. His gang has been rounded up, too. But there's something else, Nath. Seven of the girls that John Graham met have died since the start of the year. All apparently by accident. Sam seems to think that Alec Russell was behind it, but I don't know... I hope he's right. I'm on that list too..."
Nathalie pondered this for a moment. "Well," she said at length, "if Russell had contacts, maybe they want to finish the job for him. You should stay with Sam for a little while, until you're both sure the threat is gone."
*****
The next day I watched with sadness as the Darkangel departed from HG Wells Hub, taking Nathalie away to resume her pursuit of Archon Delaine. Sam and I returned to Beta Hydri.
Towards the end of the week, Sam announced he had an errand to run. "Just a quick trip to Baker," he said. "I won't be long."
True to his word, Sam returned just a few hours later, acompanied by a tall, slender girl who I guessed to be about 14 years old.
"Jem," said Sam. "This is Natalia." The girl looked at me with huge, beautiful green eyes, and held out a hand in greeting.
"Zdravstvuyte, Chem" she said. "Werry please to meet you."
Natalia was the girl who Sam had rescued from a ground battle while he was in the Federal Navy. He had arranged for her to be adopted by a couple on Baker in the Opala system.
"Natalia called me yesterday, asking for help," he now explained. "Apparently her adoptive parents have been mistreating her. I don't want to go into details."
My heart went out to the girl, who was clearly frightened at being once more in a strange place.
"Do you like milkshakes, Natalia?" I asked. She nodded.
We went to Minnie's Milkshakes, a popular cafe run by an old friend of Sam's mother. The milkshakes were delicious, though I could feel mine going straight onto my waist.
I asked Natalia whether she had any hobbies.
"Da," she replied. "I am total bookvorm. Ven I voss at school, I read votever I could lay my hands on."
Natalia was clearly a very intelligent girl, with a love of sport and an ambition to become a trader someday, like her real parents had been. Natalia and I quickly bonded, for we had a lot of common ground. We had both lost our parents. We had both suffered hardship and fear. We were both women in a dangerous galaxy.
*****
The next day, February 14th, I took Natalia on a shopping trip around the malls of Stevenson Base. Natalia's eye was caught by a very pretty dark blue dress with white lace trim.
"Why don't you try it on?" I said. We both agreed she looked absolutely stunning in it, so I happily bought it for her.
With Natalia safely settled at Stevenson Base with Sam's parents, Sam announced he was needed at Lenoir City, "to meet with an ambassador from Macalites". Knowing diplomacy was rarely a quick affair, I decided to take The Last Thing on some trade runs.
At Minmar I found a mission which sounded interesting; recover a black box from a ship destruction in the Minmar system itself. A representative of the employer, People's Minmar Free, told me I had a day to carry out the job.
"And the pay's good, too," he said, flashing me a gold-toothed smile. "30,000CR for one black box. Easy money!"
I wasn't so sure, and had visions of being pounced on by a wing of heavily armed ships once I had found the black box in question. So I was pleasantly surprised to return to Ferguson Landing less than an hour later with not one but six black boxes, having encountered no hostility whatsoever. Easy money indeed!
After verifying which of the black boxes was the required one, Gold-tooth transferred the payment to my account; I picked up an additional 22,500CR for the other five boxes.
A few more courier runs followed; lepidolite to LHS 3836, aluminium to Plutarch, and explosives to Delta Pavonis. Sam's work at Lenoir City had come to an early conclusion, so he flew to join me at Buisch City starport in the Delta Pavonis system.
"I've been thinking," he said as we settled in to our room. "We've both got permits for PLX 695 now. Maybe we could take a trip there for some sightseeing."
I nodded in agreement. "That sounds like a good plan," I said.
Sam watched as I stripped off my flightsuit, and said, "I have another plan in mind for right now."
He took my flightsuit out of my hands and dropped it onto the deck. Then, wrapping his hands around my waist, he lifted me up and pushed me against the bulkhead.
What came next also proved to be a very good plan indeed...