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CHAPTER 4 – REFIT AND SHORE LEAVE

06:33 (Universal Time)

Sunday, March 14, 2315

Docking Station 2, Las Americas Spaceport

Earth orbit

As Tina expected, the first persons to come on the KOSTROMA from the spaceport once her ship had docked in Earth orbit were a team of Terran Customs Navy officers with grim expressions on their faces. She met them at the entrance point on the Promenade Deck, presenting her right hand to the senior officer, a commodore no less.

‘’Commodore, I’m Tina Forster, owner and captain of the MSS KOSTROMA. Welcome aboard!’’

‘’Thank you, Captain Forster.’’ said politely the commodore, a small, thin Asian man in his forties, while shaking her hand. ‘’I am Commodore Hiro Misawa, sent by the Headquarters of the Terran Customs Navy to investigate the incident between you and an unidentified ship you destroyed in the Main Asteroid Belt.’’ Seeing Tina tense up at his choice of words, Misawa quickly reassured her.

‘’Please do not take negatively how I phrased that, Captain Forster. It is just that, until proven, little is known officially for certain about that incident, apart from the role played by your ship. I do not want to imply in any way that you acted wrongly, on the contrary.’’

‘’That does reassure me, Commodore Misawa. If you will please follow me, I will bring you to my bridge-level meeting room, where you will be able to review all the pertinent data. Is my crew allowed in the meantime to start unloading our cargo and our passengers?’’

‘’They can go right ahead, Captain. I will just ask that your senior officers stay aboard for a few more hours, that is until we leave.’’

‘’An understandable request, Commodore. This way, please.’’

Twelve minutes later, Tina sat with the four TCN officers around the large table of the bridge meeting room and ordered from the crew’s cafeteria trays with coffee and tea service sets and an assortment of muffins, croissants and other light pastries. While they waited for the food and drinks to be delivered, Tina selected on the computer terminal in front of her a number of electronic files, then sent copies to the terminals of her visitors.

‘’Here are all the pertinent electronic files on the incident, gentlemen. You are of course welcome to peruse any other file in my ship’s databank if need be.’’

‘’Your cooperation is truly appreciated, Captain Forster.’’ said Misawa, sincere. ‘’Could you tell us first in your own words what happened out there in the Main Belt?’’ Tina obliged him with good grace, speaking for about three minutes. Misawa was thoughtful for a moment before asking his first true question.

‘’These pirates, did you recognize any of them from their voice?’’

‘’No! If you implied that the old crew of the RISING STAR had gone into piracy, I will flatly tell you now that I will never believe that. I knew well my uncle Peter and most of his senior officers and they were all honest, decent people. I have personal recordings of my uncle and of some of his crew which you can listen to and you will find that their voice signatures don’t match with any of the voices from the pirate ship.’’

‘’Without wanting to insult you by doubting your word, miss, could we have copies of those recordings?’’ asked one of Misawa’s officers, a tall African woman.

‘’You can, Lieutenant-commander. In fact, I will retrieve them right now and send them to your terminal, so that you can copy them.’’

‘’Thank you, Captain.’’

Tina was still sifting through old communications recordings, selecting some and sending them to her visitors’ terminals, when a young and very beautiful Asian dark-skinned woman, a teenager actually, entered the meeting room after knocking on the door. Dressed like a waitress, she pushed a cart supporting cups, smoking pots and plates close to the table. Tina was secretly amused to see the three male TCN officers focus at once on the newcomer with delight.

‘’Commodore Misawa, may I present you Miss Tiki Batrang. She works as a waitress both in our crew’s cafeteria and at the lounge-bar APEROSSIMO, one of the commercial concessions on our Promenade Deck. I have to say that she has quite a few of my male crewmembers smitten.’’

‘’I can see why.’’ replied Misawa, smiling. That made young Tiki smile as well, making her even more delectable. She however served the TCN officers and Tina quickly and efficiently and left without delay, in order not to distract unduly her captain’s guests. Tina thanked her mentally for that and looked at Misawa, who was sipping from his cup of coffee.

‘’I believe that the voice recordings I just gave you will put to rest the thoughts that my uncle and his crew turned to piracy. My belief is that they were executed by the pirates after their ship was captured by them two years ago.’’

‘’Unfortunately, your ship left only a mass of hot slag out of that pirate ship, Captain Forster.’’ said the female lieutenant-commander. ‘’It will now be impossible to identify those pirates.’’

‘’And I am sure that Captain Forster had no other choice at the time, short of surrendering her ship and then possibly see her crew and passengers slaughtered.’’ cut Misawa, to the secret relief of Tina. ‘’In fact, I have to say that the tactics you used were near strokes of genius, Captain. What made you think about using your life pods as projectiles?’’

‘’Well, in view of the extremely high value of my present cargo, I was worried from the start of my trip about what I would do if attacked. I eventually realized that my life pods were the nearest things to projectiles I had. Attracting the pirate ship within their effective range was actually the real challenge. The aiming and firing of the pods was handled by the ship’s main computer, using the ship’s attitude control.’’ Misawa then asked a question which left Tina confused and shocked.

‘’Captain Forster, if you were fearing an attack on your ship, then why didn’t you request an escort ship from the TCN’s sector commander?’’

‘’But…Mister Langemann, CEO of the Vesta Consortium and the owner of the rare metals I carry, did ask for a TCN escort ship. Rear Admiral Parwan rejected that request, citing the lack of available ships.’’

‘’Rear Admiral Parwan did?’’ said Misawa, clearly surprised. Tina then

understood that only part of the facts was known on Earth…or that someone was trying to cover his behind in this affair.

‘’Yes, according to Mister Langemann. In view of the immense value of my cargo for Earth’s industries, I was very surprised as well that your Admiral Parwan didn’t consider escorting my ship as his top priority, Commodore.’’

‘’Indeed!’’ said Misawa, frowning at the possible reasons for such a refusal. The female lieutenant-commander however reacted in a much more heated way at what she thought Tina was implying.

‘’Surely, Captain Forster, you are not suggesting that Rear Admiral Parwan was negligent in his duties?’’

Tina, having heard enough of her, stared coldly at the lieutenant-commander.

‘’Lieutenant-commander Mavimbi, that is exactly what I am suggesting. We Spacers are constantly requested by your navy to pay taxes, shipping and custom fees of all kinds and are sometimes stopped and inspected at the whim of your captains in the middle of shipping runs. We thus have I believe a reasonable expectation to get some protection from the TCN when transporting cargoes worth many billions of credits. On this run, my cargo was worth over 141 billion credits, more than the worth of your whole navy. Yet, your sector commander could not be bothered to provide my ship with an escort.’’

Mavimbi was about to reply hotly when Misawa raised a hand to signify her to keep silent.

‘’Captain Forster has a valid point, I must say. I will definitely inquire about that aspect of this incident. Well, now that we have all the data we need to study this incident, I think that we can let the good captain free to take care of her business, unless you have something else for us, Captain.’’

‘’Actually, I do, Commodore.’’ said Tina gravely. ‘’That pirate ship’s armament was visible once at short range, thus I could not see how it could use regular spaceports to refuel and resupply. It must have had a base of its own, a clandestine base that could be sheltering more pirate ships and would be used to transfer its illegal loot on more legitimate-looking ships for shipping and sale to customers that are not too scrupulous about forged waybills. I believe that the TCN should seriously investigate that possibility, Commodore.’’

‘’Again, you make a lot of sense, Captain Forster.’’ replied Misawa somberly. I will convey your suspicions to my superiors.’’

‘’And what about Rear Admiral Parwan?’’

‘’My superiors will have to examine his case, miss. In this case, I can only make suggestions.’’

Meaning that somebody up Misawa’s chain of command will probably sweep the whole mess under the carpet, thought bitterly Tina. Misawa then rose from his chair after a last sip on his cup of tea and presented his right hand, which Tina shook after rising herself.

‘’Well, thank you very much for your cooperation, Captain Forster, and for your hospitality. We will keep you appraised of the final results of our inquiry.’’

‘’That is much appreciated, Commodore. Let me guide you back to the boarding tube.’’

Twelve minutes later, Tina was seeing off Misawa and his three officers at the port boarding gate of the Promenade Deck. Natalia Vasilyeva, who was supervising the disembarkation of their passengers, approached Tina, stopping besides her and watching with her the TCN team walk away.

‘’So, what is the Navy saying, Tina?’’

‘’They say that they will investigate the pirate attack against us. Commodore Misawa appears to be a good officer, but I don’t have much faith in his superiors. For all we know, Rear Admiral Parwan, of the Vesta Sector, may very well be the one who leaked our route to the pirates, but I could not say so directly to Misawa. We can only hope that Misawa will have the balls to push his investigation all the way. Well, enough about that! None of our passengers suspect that we were attacked on our way to Earth, I hope?’’

‘’I heard nothing about that…yet. They all seemed to have enjoyed their trip, including even our choosy diva. I arranged for one of our shuttles to carry her and her troupe, complete with vehicles and equipment, directly to her hotel in Paris. That made her quite happy.’’

‘’A nice move, Natalia. What would I do without you?’’

‘’Muddle through?’’ suggested with a smile the tall blonde, getting an elbow in the ribs in response.

‘’Yeah! Well, I will go see Denise on the Hangar Deck. I will feel better when that rare metals cargo will be offloaded and our shipping fee credited to our bank account. See you at lunch, Natalia.’’

Going down two levels, Tina found Denise Lonsdale supervising the unloading of the crates of rare metals with three men. One of the men, the local representative of the Jovian Shipping Lines at Las Americas Spaceport, was known to Tina, but the two

others drew blanks in her memory. A strong contingent of armed security guards bearing the patches of the Corbon Metals Consortium were on hand as well, supplementing the four armed guards from the KOSTROMA’s security section. Raising her nose from the data pad she was looking at, Denise smiled at Tina as the latter approached her group.

‘’Ah, Captain! I believe that you know already Mister Jimenez, from the Jovian Shipping Lines?’’

‘’I effectively do.’’ said Tina, stopping besides the group and shaking Jimenez’ hand. Denise then presented the two other men with her.

‘’Then, let me present you Mister Fred Nugent, representative of the Corbon Metals Consortium, and Mister Antonio Bergamini, representative of the insurance group which was insuring this cargo of metals.’’

Tina shook hands with both men, with Bergamini speaking to her in a low voice while smiling widely at her.

‘’My insurance group is presenting you a very special thank you for protecting your cargo the way you did, Captain Forster. I don’t want to sound insensitive about the fate of your crew and passengers if those pirates had succeeded in boarding you, but having your cargo stolen would have meant a huge blow to us, possibly even bankruptcy. Our CEO has thus authorized me to credit your ship’s account with the sum of fifteen million credits as a reward for safeguarding this shipment.’’ Tina’s face brightened on hearing that: while some would call that reward ‘niggardly’ in view of the value of the cargo involved, the fact was that nothing obliged the insurance group in giving her any reward at all.

‘’Those fifteen million credits will make for a nice vacation bonus for my crew, Mister Bergamini. Please present my warmest thanks to your CEO.’’

‘’I certainly will, Captain.’’

Fred Nugent was next to speak after taking the time to register the serial number of an outgoing crate of rare metals.

‘’My consortium is also very pleased with you and your ship, Captain Forster. This cargo of rare metals will sustain our smelters for a good seven months and will help us keep a steady production of specialty steels. Iridium in particular is in such rare supply these days. Thank God that the Vesta Consortium recently found a real nugget of an asteroid made nearly entirely of heavy metals. We will certainly keep your ship in mind when we will need to transport another shipment of rare metals.’’

‘’Thank you for that thought, Mister Nugent. I have however to warn you that I will possibly get my ship to a shipyard for a mid-life refit after unloading of this cargo and payment of the shipping fee. My KOSTROMA is still in very good shape but it is 25 years old now and it could use an infusion of newer technology.’’ That made Nugent smile widely and he showed her his right thumb.

‘’Then, it will be my pleasure to use this thumb to certify delivery of the cargo and to authorize the transfer of 4.246 billion credits to your ship’s account as soon as all these crates are moved out and on their way to our ground installations, Captain.’’

‘’Hell, for four billion credits I would suck that thumb with pleasure, mister!’’ Replied Tina, making the group laugh. Alfonso Jimenez, whose JSL was getting a cool half billion credits of its own for having helped arrange the shipment deal, nodded slowly his head.

‘’The Jovian Shipping Lines will be sad to lose the services of your ship for all these months in refit, Captain Forster. We will be however most happy to eventually reintroduce a rejuvenated KOSTROMA on our shipping lanes.’’

‘’Well, my KOSTROMA may go into a refit, but I still will have all my embarked fleet of passenger and cargo shuttles available to take up the slack for in-orbit and orbit-to-ground transportation work on behalf of the Jovian Shipping Lines. However, I intend to give first a good month of vacation on Earth to my crew…and myself.’’

‘’That is most understandable, Captain Forster.’’ said Jimenez, brightening. Being able to use the shuttles from the KOSTROMA would save him daily tens of thousands of credits by avoiding the need to rent at inflated prices the services of Terran-owned shuttles, which were getting greedier by the month and, in his mind, were less well maintained than the shuttles belonging to the JSL fleet. The group then went on watching the unloading of the heavy crates of metal ingots and powders. A bit over two hours later, Fred Nugent made a show of signing with his thumbprint the transfer of the shipping fees to the KOSTROMA’s and the JSL’s bank accounts. Of a common accord, the group then went to the crew’s mess to toast the event with a round of drinks. Another hour and Jimenez left the ship with Nugent and Bergamini in very good spirits indeed.

15:58 (Universal Time)

Monday, March 15, 2315

Crew mess, MSS KOSTROMA

Docking Station 2, Las Americas Spaceport

Tina waited until all the members of her crew and their families, including the personnel temporarily transferred from the APOLLO and the staff and owners of the commercial concessions on the Promenade Deck, were sitting before starting to speak in her microphone.

‘’Ladies and gentlemen of the KOSTROMA, now that the unloading of all our cargo is completed, I will be happy to announce a few good news to you. First, you may all know already that our latest cargo has earned us a huge shipping fee equal to a bit over four billion credits, plus an insurance reward of fifteen million credits and another ten million credits bonus from the Vesta Consortium. While most of that money will be used for a serious refit of our ship and for our future operating expenses, all of you will get substantial individual bonuses. Since this huge profit was due to the specific cargo we hauled on this latest run, all the crewmembers who worked aboard during that run, including those temporarily assigned from the cruise liner APOLLO, will each get identical immediate bonuses of 100,000 credits. The employees and owners of the commercial concessions renting space on our Promenade Deck will receive on their part individual gifts of 25,000 credits, to thank them for the services they provide on this ship.’’

Tina had to pause for a moment, while a wave of loud cheers went through the crowd.

‘’There is more, my friends. Each permanent crewmember of this ship will as well see soon an individual bonus of 500,000 credits transferred to savings accounts in your names at the Jovian Credit Bank on Callisto Prime. I will urge you to be cautious about how you use this money and that you ideally save it for your retirement days, or for the higher education of your children. We don’t know how the economy or space commerce business will fare in the years and decades to come, so, please, try not to burn that money on wild buying sprees.’’

This time, there was a delayed reaction to her announcement before the crowd cheered again: her crewmembers were obviously stunned by their sudden good fortune. Tina again waited for a relative calm to return before speaking.

‘’I intend during the next few days to go shop around the shipyards in Earth orbit and around the Moon, in order to find a suitable yard which could conduct a major refit of the KOSTROMA, especially to its propulsion systems. Once such a yard is selected and a refit contract is signed, we will move our ship to that yard, then you will be free to take

a well-deserved vacation on Earth. You will each get an all-expenses covered, one month paid vacation package for you and your families at one of the Earth vacation resorts our administrative office will select. Be assured that we will not be cheap about the resorts selection we will offer. After that month of vacation, you will return to the ship to help with its refit, but will be able to leave your families at the vacation resorts for the duration of the refit, and that out of my pocket. For the staff and owners of our commercial concessions, do not worry about seeing your businesses shut down during the ship’s refit. You will be allowed to stay open as long as it does not interfere with the refit work. Furthermore, I am suspending from now until the end of the refit the need for you to pay your monthly rent, whether you close or stay open.’’ More cheers and applauses followed her words. Now feeling as proud and happy as she ever had been before, Tina smiled to the crowd around her.

‘’That is all for the moment. You may start shopping around for Earth resorts in which you would be interested to spend your vacation. Our administrative office will then select the ten most popular resorts which you will suggest and start preparing packages for your use. Oh, one last thing: LET’S GET THIS BAR OPENED!’’ Tina didn’t have to repeat herself before there was a massive surge towards the bar of the mess.

10:06 (Universal Time)

Thursday, March 18, 2315

Chief designer’s office, Avalon Space Yards

Earth orbit

Tina was led by an Avalon Space Yards senior secretary to the office of the enterprise’s chief designer, where she was greeted by a tall, lean man in his late forties with blond hair and clear blue eyes. The man, dressed very informally with an opened neck shirt and beige slacks, gave her a frank smile while presenting his right hand, which Tina shook.

‘’Welcome to the Avalon Space Yards, Captain Forster. I am Gustav Shomberg, chief designer of the yard.’’

Tina opened wide her eyes as the engineer’s grip nearly crushed her hand.

‘’Gustav Shomberg? THE Gustav Shomberg who designed the Shomberg Fusion Drive?’’

‘’In person!’’ replied proudly the engineer. ‘’So, you want to overhaul and improve your KOSTROMA, Captain?’’

‘’I certainly do! Having it done under the supervision of one of the most brilliant ship designers of the day will certainly help me sleep soundly during the next few months.’’

The smile of the engineer widened at her words.

‘’And the reputation of our space yard for quality work is not overblown, I assure you, Captain. But let’s sit down at my design console to discuss your needs.’’ Tina accepted the chair shown to her near a work station with a large holographic display sphere, with Shomberg sitting at the station.

‘’Mister Shomberg, I will certainly not dispute the reputation of your shipyard, which is well known, but I was surprised to learn that it is presently working only at half capacity. Mind you, I am not complaining about that, as it is giving me an opening to get your enterprise to work on my ship.’’

Shomberg’s smile dissipated somewhat and he became thoughtful, speaking in a calm, slow voice.

‘’That, Captain, reflects the latest government budget cuts to its space-related expenditures. In case you haven’t heard in the news, the financial situation of the Terran government has worsened steadily during the last few months, due to increasing demands by Earth’s population for social benefits and assistance.’’

‘’I have heard about those demands but, frankly, found many of them completely unreasonable, Mister Shomberg. There are already too many billions of Earth citizens living on welfare and doing nothing. Hell, there are simply too many billions of people on Earth in view of its depleted natural resources.’’

‘’I totally agree with you, miss.’’ said glumly the engineer. ‘’While I work and live in Earth orbit, I consider myself a Spacer first and have little sympathy for the masses on the planet who do little by themselves to improve their lot. Unfortunately, those masses also represent big voting blocks for the politicians of the Terran Federation, blocks which they can manipulate and use to stay in power by granting them ever more generous social benefits. However, those benefits have to be funded in order to keep the Federation’s budget from sinking into red ink. Unfortunately, Grand Administrator Li and his governing council have chosen to fund these social programs via cuts to space

development projects and increased taxes on Spacers and space shipping. We at the Avalon Space Yards saw last month a government contract for the refit of a number of heavy units of the Terran Customs Navy abruptly cancelled, leaving us high and dry with no warning. The Terran government is even disputing payments for stocks of structural steel and aluminum and ship machinery parts we had acquired for that contract.’’

‘’But, such a breach of contract is clearly to be blamed on the government, and not on your yard, no?’’

‘’Most lawyers would say so, miss. However, too many judges in the Terran Federation justice administration are corrupt or totally subservient to the government, owing it their seats.’’

Tina looked at the engineer with visible worry.

‘’Are things really becoming this bad on Earth? I watch regularly the space news but did not pick up on that.’’

‘’Miss, one would need solid proofs before being able to publicly post such accusations without risking immediate arrest for defamation of public servants. Most news agencies won’t risk such legal pursuits…or worse.’’

‘’Worse? What do you mean?’’

Shomberg bent forward towards her and lowered his voice, as if he was afraid to be overheard.

‘’Let’s say that, in the poorer areas of Earth where the government gets the majority of its public support, an increasing number of journalists and reporters critical of the Terran administration have been attacked by bands of thugs and beaten, or even killed in a number of cases. When some of those reporters complained to the local police, they were either ignored or accused of having provoked the incidents themselves. In most cases, nothing was done. I have a friend on Earth who was an investigative journalist. She was looking into a case of government corruption in India when she was brutally beaten at night by a bunch of thugs. When she went to complain to the police, she saw with a shock that one of the policemen at the station was one of her attackers. She then decided to drop her complaint and abandon her investigation. She has since abandoned journalism.’’

Tina could only look at him with horror and disgust before she could regain her voice.

‘’But, that’s outrageous!’’

‘’Yes, and it unfortunately represents a growing trend in the state of affairs on Earth.’’

‘’But, I am due to send soon my crew on extended shore leave on Earth. Are you saying that they would then be at risk?’’

‘’Not if they avoid certain areas and don’t meddle publicly in local politics or social affairs. Personally, I avoid Africa and the Indian Subcontinent like the plague, and have done so for years. They are grossly overpopulated and polluted, are ripe with widespread corruption and are sustained only by massive social programs from the Terran Federation. Australia, North America and Northern Europe are however quite safe for Spacers in my opinion.’’

‘’Quite safe for Spacers… I am not sure that I like what your last sentence implies, Mister Shomberg. Why would Spacers be especially at risk on Earth?’’

‘’Because many in the unemployed masses on Earth believe that us Spacers are living on their back, a belief that the Terran government does little to dispel. You must know the old proverb that says: if you have a problem, it is easier to blame outsiders for it than to deal with it.’’

‘’Yes, I know it.’’ said Tina in a dejected tone. Shomberg then patted gently her shoulder.

‘’Please forgive me for having lowered your morale with such a ghastly subject, miss. Let’s see now what the Avalon Space Yard can do for your ship.’’

Nearly three hours of technical discussions followed, with Shomberg projecting a 3D image of the KOSTROMA on his holographic display and modifying it as he responded with suggestions to the refit requirements presented by Tina. At the end of the discussion, Tina looked with awe at the 3D image of her ship, now quite different from its present state.

‘’My God! This would indeed be like a dream come true. How much would all this work cost and how long would it take, Mister Shomberg?’’

‘’I would have to first do detailed plans and calculations before I could give you an accurate cost estimate, miss, but I would say out of experience that the bill would come to a bit over three billion credits. Fortunately, the machinery parts and plating we had stockpiled for that now cancelled government contract will allow us to save a lot of time and shave some of the costs. I would say that the work should take between seven and eight months.’’

‘’That is quite reasonable, in view of the finished product.’’ said Tina, satisfied. ‘’I will be waiting for your yard to send me a detailed contract proposal for signature before

giving my final approval. Once the contract is signed, I will move my ship in dry dock. Can my crew help your workers during the refit?’’

‘’To a degree. Most of the work will take place outside of the main hull, so your people will be free to still use their onboard accommodations during the refit.’’

‘’That suits me just fine, Mister Shomberg. By the way, there are a number of commercial concessions which rent space aboard my ship. If they are interested, your workers would be welcomed to visit and use them.’’

‘’Concessions? What kinds exactly?’’ asked the chief designer, showing interest. Tina then took out of a pocket a small electronic tablet and switched it on, then opened a file listing the facilities of the KOSTROMA. She presented the tablet to Shomberg, who read quickly the list. He smiled on reading some of the entries, then gave the tablet back to Tina.

‘’I believe that our yard workers would indeed be interested to visit some of the establishments on your ship, miss. I must say that, for a cargo ship, your passenger facilities are impressive. Once overhauled, I believe that your ship will be well equipped to attract many juicy contracts.’’

‘’I am certainly counting on it, Mister Shomberg.’’ replied Tina, a wide smile on her face. Something then came back to her mind and she became quite serious. ‘’Uh, with all these fascinating proposals of yours, I forgot to mention something: I will need to refurbish and refill ten of my life pod launch tubes.’’

‘’You had some kind of emergency aboard your ship recently, miss?’’ asked a surprised Shomberg, bringing a grimace on Tina’s face.

‘’You could say so, mister. I wanted to keep that incident hush hush, but I suppose that it will come out sooner or later. In truth, my ship was attacked by a pirate ship while navigating inside the Main Asteroid Belt a few days ago. Since I strongly suspected that those pirates would not leave living witnesses behind, I decided to defend myself by firing life pods from point blank range at their ship. While they were spinning out of control, already severely damaged, I then fired my main fusion drive and caught their ship in my plasma exhaust, melting them to a slag.’’ Shomberg stared at her for a moment with disbelief, then broke out into a short laughter before regaining control of himself.

‘’Life pods as shells: that was a brilliant tactic, miss.’’

‘’Maybe but, if I ever encounter other pirates again, which is a possibility, I doubt that the same trick will work twice.’’

‘’I never heard before about pirates actually existing in the system, miss. Maybe this was a fluke incident.’’

‘’I don’t think so, mister. The ship that attacked me was owned before by my uncle and had disappeared without a trace in 2313.’’

Tina then quickly told him about the story of the MSS RISING STAR, how it had disappeared and how she had recognized it during the pirate attack. That left Shomberg in deep thought for a moment.

‘’So, you have legitimate concerns about the possibility of future pirate attacks, but are not confident about the TCN protecting your ship?’’ It was Tina’s turn to laugh, but with a bitter tone to it.

‘’Them, protecting me? I am not even sure that it was not a TCN officer who leaked my flight plan and cargo manifest to these pirates. I suspect that your answer will be no, but is there any legal way I could have some armament mounted on my ship?’’

‘’None!’’ answered at once the engineer. ‘’Only TCN ships have the legal right to carry any armament bigger than portable firearms, miss.’’

‘’Damn! I thought so!’’

‘’However…’’

Tina looked with surprise at Shomberg, who was thinking hard. She however didn’t dare break his train of thoughts and waited for him to speak again.

‘’However, you already have aboard your ship most of what you would need to have a pretty powerful ship battery indeed. The work and modifications needed to turn these parts into a weapon system would be relatively minor and could even be done by your own crew while in space. It would be just a question of installing a number of new optical conduits and connecting them to the new sensors turrets that you wish to have installed on your ship.’’

‘’Go on, Mister Shomberg. You certainly have my full attention now.’’ The engineer then spoke for a few minutes, using a few holographic schematics to explain his idea. At the end of it, Tina could only nod her head, impressed.

‘’Hell, that is a brilliant idea, Mister Shomberg. I think that you just sold me on the concept. Uh, may I ask why you told me about this after saying that arming my ship would be illegal?’’

Shomberg stared gravely at Tina as he replied to her in a calm voice.

‘’Because you are a fellow Spacer in need of help, Captain. Because I believe that you have a legitimate reason to want this. Because I, like you, have no confidence

in the TCN or in the Terran authorities. Because we Spacers may very well end up having to face the TCN and the Terran authorities in a direct confrontation in the not too distant future.’’

Tina, shocked by his answer, could not speak for seconds.

‘’But, how could you say that?’’

‘’How? By being able to listen directly to unfiltered, uncensored local and regional news from the surface for years and by thus having a clear picture of what is really going on around Earth, Captain Forster. Earth is ready to implode under the weight of its excess population, its pollution and its depleted resources. Add to that a Terran government unwilling to take the hard measures needed to restore some balance on Earth, but also too willing to make us Spacers the scapegoats in the eyes of these billions of unproductive, often poorly educated Earth inhabitants. You then have the recipe for a disaster fueled by ignorance, indolence and corruption. Believe me, miss: in some areas of Earth, the word ‘Spacer’ has a pejorative meaning. I know from personal experience.’’

Tina digested his words with difficulty, her stomach churning acid as she stared at the engineer, unsure if he had spoken the truth or had let some bitter incident influence his thinking. Whatever it was, she certainly was going to do her own digging into this subject…and soon. Rising from her chair, she shook hands with Shomberg.

‘’I will certainly keep in mind what you told me, Mister Shomberg. I will be waiting with great expectation for your detailed contract proposal for a refit.’’

‘’You should get it in a week, Captain. You will get the best from Avalon Space Yards.’’

‘’I do not doubt that, Mister Shomberg. We should see each other soon. Goodbye, Mister Shomberg.’’

‘’Goodbye, Captain Forster, and have a nice vacation with your crew.’’

‘’I certainly intend to.’’

True to his word, Shomberg sent a detailed contract proposal, complete with electronic blueprints of the modifications and work to be done on the KOSTROMA, six days later. Tina signed the contract after reviewing it with Piotr Romanski and with her engineering staff, finding everything to be most satisfactory, including the very reasonable final price tag of 3.18 billion credits. That was actually going to leave her with a much bigger financial reserve than she had hoped for, something that she was

certainly not going to complain about. She somehow suspected that the Avalon Space Yards was making her a preferred customer bargain, probably because the yard was going to be able to use up much of the stockpile of unpaid materiel it had been stuck with after the government had abruptly cancelled its own contracts. The next day, she moved her ship to the giant main dry dock of the Avalon Space Yards, a gigantic airtight space structure which could accept ships up to 2,500 meters long and 1,500 meters in diameter and which would allow the refit work to be done in a pressurized, climate-controlled environment. A few days of furious work by her crew were then needed to stash away or temporarily dismantle the equipment and fittings which could be in the way during the refit. Then, Tina was free to let her crew go on their well-deserved vacation. By a coincidence that did not escape her, the refit work proper started on April 1st, April Fool’s Day.

16:11 (North American Pacific Coast Time)

Friday, April 2, 2315

Enos Lake Log Cabin Tourist Lodge

North of Nanaimo, Vancouver Island, Canada

Tina breathed a sigh of content as she was about to land on the small landing pad of the Enos Lake Log Cabin Tourist Lodge, having crossed at low altitude the east coast of Vancouver Island just north of Nanaimo, on the Pacific coast of Canada. The magnificent sight of the still heavily forested region and of the waters of the Queen Charlotte’s Straight was like a balm for any Spacer who had not seen nature’s beauty for

months or even years. The tourist lodge owned and run by her cousin, Janet Forster, sat on top of a forested hill near the southern tip of Enos Lake, a small lake a bit over one kilometer long. The lodge, being on a dominant feature, also gave a good view of the eastern coast and of the neighboring small town and harbor of Dolphin Beach. Apart from the fantastic panoramic view, the lodge provided accommodations for tourists in a series of randomly dispersed, old-fashioned wooden log cabins connected to the lodge’s main building, also made of logs, by natural stone-paved trails. Whenever she visited Earth, Tina never failed to pay a visit to the lodge, to relearn how to live with nature. Now that she was the owner and captain of her ship, she had made a point of adding the Enos Lake Log Cabin Tourist Lodge to the list of resorts to be used by her vacationing crew members. Being presently in the off season for tourism, Janet Forster had been in turn more than happy to reserve twelve of her log cabins to the KOSTROMA’s crew.

Setting down gently on the pad the light passenger shuttle she was piloting, Tina then twisted her head to look at the 34 men, women and children from the KOSTROMA who had chosen the lodge as their vacation spot.

‘’We have arrived at Enos Lake. You may now disembark and grab your luggage while I power down the shuttle. I will be with you in a minute.’’ Her cheerful passengers did not waste any time to leave the shuttle with their bags, stepping out in the fresh, humid air of a Vancouver Island early Spring. There was no snow on the ground but the outside temperature was around eight degrees centigrade and there was a salty breeze coming from the coast. Mark Cisco, one of the passengers of the shuttle, took a deep breath of fresh air with relish.

‘’Aah, real air! I can smell the pines and spruce trees around. I will love this vacation’’

Joan Ferguson, another passenger of the shuttle, shivered a bit in the fresh wind.

‘’I should have brought a warmer coat with me. It is colder than I thought.’’

‘’Bah! You will have ample opportunities to buy something warm here, Joan.’’ Mark smiled gently on seeing the youngest children in their group break away at a run towards the nearby forest while screaming with joy, two adults after them.

‘’I can easily understand these kids’ rowdiness: it must be the first time for some of them that they can run around freely in the open without a spacesuit.’’

‘’Just seeing this blue sky is already nice by itself.’’ said softly the stripper. Mark then pointed at the Sun, low on the horizon.

‘’Unfortunately, night is approaching. Let’s go to the lodge’s lobby, to get our room keys.’’

‘’Cabin keys!’’ corrected Tina Forster, who was passing by them on the way to the main building. ‘’Here, you rent cabins, not rooms.’’

‘’I stand corrected, boss.’’ replied Mark, attracting a giggle from Tina.

‘’It’s Tina for you, not boss, you nice big hunk.’’

‘’Yes, boss!’’

The trio laughed it out on their way to the main building of the lodge, built in ‘A’-frame fashion with large, varnished wood logs. There were only a few people present in the reception lobby and waiting lounge, including a mature woman standing behind the reception counter, when the group entered. The receptionist immediately walked out from behind her counter to go exchange a warm hug with Tina.

‘’Welcome to Enos Lake, Tina. It has been a while since your last visit.’’

‘’I was kept busy, Janet. And you? How are you doing?’’

‘’Quite well indeed. Business is good, the husband is behaving and so are my kids, who are growing at a frightening rate.’’

‘’Aren’t they all? Before further personal talk, could I have my group registered first?’’

‘’Of course! After all, we will have many more days to talk together and exchange news, right?’’

‘’Effectively, Janet. Apart from occasional trips back to orbit to check on my ship, I intend to have a solid month of vacation.’’

‘’Your ship…’’ said dreamily her cousin. ‘’That was quite a gift that Uncle Bill gave you.’’

‘’Yes, and I am improving it right now. The KOSTROMA just entered an orbital yard for a major refit. I will however wait until tonight to tell you more about that.’’

‘’Right! Let’s take care of your group of Space truckers.’’

‘’Space truckers?’’ said Tina in a false, outraged tone of voice. ‘’Please!’’

‘’Alright, alright!’’ replied Janet with false contrition. ‘’Your group of Space wanderers.’’

‘’That’s better!’’

Registering Tina and her group and then guiding them to their respective cabins took Janet Forster a good forty minutes, by which time the Sun had settled under the

horizon. The log cabins did possess modern amenities, but these had been built in with discretion, to preserve the old style look of the log houses as much as possible. Of a previous common accord, Joan Ferguson and Mark Cisco took shared occupancy of one of the cabins, not because they were planning on dating each other but because they trusted each other out of their work together at the JUPITER. Unpacking their bags took only a few minutes, following which the two of them decided to return to the main lodge building to have supper. Once out of their cabin, however, Joan was attracted to the sight of the waters of the nearby straight, on which the fading dusk lights were dancing, and stopped near the landing pad to admire the view.

‘’God, it is so nice to be able to see true nature like this. Life on the KOSTROMA is comfortable, but nothing can replace this. When I think that us humans have destroyed much of Earth’s beauty.’’

‘’Some places have fared much worse than here, Joan. Luckily, this region has been protected for centuries by comprehensive environmental regulations and laws. I have quickly read about the history of the Canadian Pacific coast yesterday. At one time, clear cut logging operations were threatening to erase the forests on this island. Fortunately, the local people saw the folly of that and convinced the local government to declare much of the island as protected nature areas. There is still some logging done, but it is severely regulated, like the fishing industry.’’

‘’At last, some good sense!’’ said Joan, still contemplating the coast and sea. ‘’My last visit to the British Islands, some six years ago, was a severe disappointment. The air there was severely polluted from all the industries, while too many cities and suburbs had been reduced to overcrowded slums full of unemployed people. Going out at night was risky, with gangs of young thugs roaming the streets. I promised myself never to come back there.’’

‘’I can understand you, Joan. My own visit to Detroit three years ago nearly cost me my life. I had made the mistake of going through a particularly bad district at night and barely got out of it, with a number of knife cuts and stab wounds as a bonus.’’ They were silent for a moment, watching the sea in the distance, before Joan spoke again in a low voice.

‘’Mark, do you think that Earth could turn around and regain its past beauty again?’’

‘’Uh, I frankly don’t know, Joan. Unfortunately, the mineral resources which have been depleted by Humanity can never be recovered. Earth now depends on us Spacers

for minerals. As for the air, water and vegetation, it would be possible in my opinion to clean up our act, but only if the local populations and governments are ready to make the efforts and pay the price for such a cleanup operation. Unfortunately, too many people on Earth now care only about themselves and the short term.’’

‘’But, they managed it here, no?’’

‘’Yes, and it is to their credit, but some regions, like Africa, are now nearly beyond redemption. Earth’s biggest problem, and one that has been one for centuries, is that there is too many people living on the planet. Africa is the most overcrowded, impoverished and polluted continent of all, yet they still refuse to practice birth control there, claiming old traditions and religious practices as excuses. It is also by far the continent with the most corrupt governments. Half of the continent has turned into deserts and there is a severe water and food crisis, yet African administrators are still mostly preoccupied with stealing as much public money as they can before leaving power, if they ever do leave power.’’

‘’And the central Terran government, why isn’t it doing something about that?’’

‘’Maybe because it is about as corrupt and short-sighted as the regional administrations. I am afraid that it will take something major to wake up all those politicians.’’

‘’Something major? Like what?’’

‘’Something like a major natural disaster, or a food crisis, I don’t really know, Joan. I tell you what: how about forgetting all those problems and concentrate instead on enjoying our vacation here?’’

Joan rested her head on his shoulder and crossed her arms to protect her torso from the cold wind.

‘’You are right, Mark. Let’s enjoy our time here while it lasts.’’

04:26 (North America Pacific Coast Time)

Wednesday, April 14, 2315

Enos Lake Log Cabin Tourist Lodge

The buzz of her wrist communicator woke Tina in her cabin well before the first lights of dawn. Shaking off her sleepiness, she activated the small viewing screen, to

see the concerned face of Patricia O’Neil, who was on duty this week on KOSTROMA’s bridge.

‘’Yes, Patricia?’’

‘’Tina, sorry to wake you up like this, but one of our crewmembers is in hospital in Acapulco, Mexico, and his family is being detained by the local police.’’ That woke fully Tina in a hurry. Throwing away the bed sheets, she swung her legs out and sat up on the edge of her bed.

‘’What exactly happened?’’

‘’According to the wife of Denis Sweeny, who was only allowed to place a call ten minutes ago by the local police, they were harassed in a restaurant last night by some local customers. When the Sweeny’s left the restaurant, those customers attacked and beat up our technician, then pretended that our man started the fight when the police arrived. The police arrested the whole family, charging them with disturbing the peace, and is still holding Misses Sweeny and her three children at the central police station in Acapulco, while our technician has been admitted at the city’s main hospital in serious condition. Misses Sweeny seemed to have been unable to speak freely when she called, but I got the strong impression that the local police is part of the problem here.’’

‘’Okay, send me via my communicator a map with the precise location of the Acapulco central police station and that of the main hospital. I will also need the hospital room number of our technician. Send me as well pictures and short bios of the Sweeny family, so that I can recognize them in Acapulco. Then alert our medical section and have a medical evacuation flight prepared. If our technician can be moved, I will not let him or his family in Acapulco. I will depart from Enos Lake as soon as you send me the maps and info.’’

‘’Understood, Tina. Should some of our security people go with the evacuation team?’’

‘’No! They would have no jurisdiction or legal mandate on Earth. I think that I will have to play nice with the local bastards to get our people out. Thanks for warning me.’’ Tina then closed the link and jumped out of bed to dress as quickly as possible. She was running out of her cabin less than six minutes later, heading for her light shuttle.

She took off two minutes later, having started her fuel cell generators while waiting for the maps and info from Patricia O’Neil. Now armed with that information, she quickly sent electronically a flight plan to Acapulco to the regional air traffic control center,

then put her craft on auto-pilot. She took the time of her flight to first study the biographical data on the Sweeny’s. Denis Sweeny was one of the small craft maintenance technicians of the KOSTROMA and had no criminal record, being seemingly a quiet, sociable family man. Next, Tina placed a call to the Acapulco main hospital, trying to get more information on the medical state of her technician. However, she was refused that information, on the grounds that it was confidential and personal. Giving up temporarily on that, Tina then called the Acapulco Police Department, getting a receptionist that answered in Spanish, then in English.

‘’…Acapulco Police Department. How may we help you?’’

‘’My name is Tina Forster and I am the employer of a man your police arrested last night, along with his family. I would need to discuss their case with your desk officer on duty, please.’’

‘’One moment, please: I am transferring you to the duty desk.’’ After a short wait, Tina was connected to a burly man wearing the uniform of a police sergeant sitting behind a desk or counter. Thankfully, the man spoke a fair English.

‘’Duty desk, Sergeant Mendoza! What may I do for you, Miss Forster?’’

‘’I would like to arrange for the release of Denis Sweeny, who is presently being treated at the main city hospital, and of his wife and three daughters, who are presently in your custody. I am their employer and am presently flying towards Acapulco. I believe that there was a serious case of misunderstanding in this case.’’ From neutral, the policeman’s expression became nearly disdainful.

‘’No misunderstandings, miss: your employee caused a disturbance, then attacked three citizens in good standing. He got what he deserved and will have to face charges of assault and disturbing the peace.’’

Tina had a hard time not to show fully her anger and contempt then.

‘’You pretend that a family man on vacation with his wife and three young daughters would attack three other men, Sergeant? Those accusations don’t make much sense. And why are you holding Miss Sweeny and her three daughters?’’

‘’They also attacked our three citizens and resisted arrest when our officers arrived on the scene, miss.’’

Tina could sense that the policeman was lying through his teeth, while the man’s arrogant air was infuriating her seriously.

‘’Sergeant Mendoza, I believe that this whole story is a crock and that it wouldn’t hold water in front of any fair judge. I am however concerned mainly with the health and

safety of my people and am ready to make arrangements to obtain their prompt release, unless you want me to get some very powerful lawyers on your back instead.’’ The policeman’s stance then changed slightly as he stared back at her on the video screen.

‘’What kind of arrangements are you talking about, miss?’’

‘’I am ready to pay for their cautions and for any compensation claims or fines laid against them. I would however prefer to discuss this in private on arrival.’’ Tina saw from the man’s reactions that her subtle message had come across, something confirmed when the policeman toned down his arrogance.

‘’That could effectively be arranged, miss. When will you arrive in Acapulco?’’

‘’In about two hours. Does your police station have a landing pad?’’

‘’Yes, but it is reserved strictly for police craft, miss.’’

Tina swore mentally to herself, but then tried something else.

‘’Could I speak to Misses Sweeny and to her daughters, Sergeant?’’

‘’I am sorry, but you will have to wait until you are at the police station, miss.’’

‘’Very well, Sergeant. I should be at your police station at a bit past nine in the morning, local time.’’

‘’We will be expecting you, Miss Forster.’’

Tina, unable to further pretend to be polite with the bastard, then cut the communication link. She took a moment to calm down and chase part of her contained fury before calling the KOSTROMA and getting Patricia O’Neil on the line.

‘’Patricia, I will need you to find quickly how many of our people are in Acapulco right now.’’

‘’Let me get the personnel roster, Tina.’’

Patricia came back on line a minute later.

‘’We have a total of 41 crewmembers and relatives presently on vacation in Acapulco, Tina. Like the other groups on vacation, they are all staying at the same hotel, including the Sweeny’s, at the MARRIOT BEACH HOTEL to be precise.’’

‘’Good! I will now ask you to call all of our people at the MARRIOT and tell them to start packing immediately for return on the KOSTROMA. Tell Valentina Suvarova to fly out with a light personnel shuttle and to go get our people out of Acapulco without delay. I am placing Acapulco out of bounds to our crew as of now. In the meantime, I will be taking care of the Sweeny’s.’’

‘’I’m on it, Tina.’’

Less than twenty minutes later, Tina got another call, this time from her head of security, Bill Morrison.

‘’Tina? This is Bill! I am presently in Acapulco with my family and got your recall order. What is going on?’’

Thanking Morrison’s presence there, which gave her someone with a cool head and strong nerves to look over her people in Acapulco, Tina took a minute to explain the situation to him. Her recount of her conversation with Mendoza made his face harden.

‘’The bastards are looking for a bribe alright. The whole charges must be bogus. I have to say that I won’t really be sad to leave Acapulco, and neither will the others.’’

‘’What do you mean, Bill?’’

‘’That, while subtle most of the time, there is here an undercurrent of hostility towards us Spacers in general. The hotel staff is polite enough, but I understand Spanish and I could overhear a few comments made in our backs in town, especially in the less affluent parts. Us Spacers are not really popular around here, except when we drop money on the table, of course.’’

‘’I see! Could you do something for me, Bill, while I do my best to get the Sweeny’s out of police hands?’’

‘’Sure, Tina! What is it?’’

‘’I would like you to gain access to the Sweeny’s room and to pack up and take away their things, then to pay their room bill. The faster we can all get out of Acapulco, the better. I will reimburse you later for the Sweeny’s room.’’

‘’Don’t worry about that, Tina. Keep me posted on the Sweeny’s.’’

‘’I will, Bill.’’

At three past nine, local time, Tina landed in the Acapulco international airport and took fifteen minutes there to go to one of the airport’s banks, opened 24 hours a day, to withdraw a large sum in cash. She then jumped into an air taxi that got her to the city’s central police station, a big concrete building that had seen better days and appeared to be poorly maintained. That did not surprise Tina, who had read about the chronically insufficient government budgets, misappropriations of public funds and poor pay scales in this area of the Earth and in other places. In a sense, that was going to help her: in places such as these, money truly talked. Having had time to think about her strategy during her flight from Enos Lake, she had a plan of action ready by the time

she entered the police headquarters. Needing something first, she looked around briefly and, seeing an employee cafeteria to one side, entered it and went to a vending machine. Buying a tablet of chewing gum, she started chewing on it, trying to look as inconspicuous as possible. Her eyes were then attracted to a large television screen in one corner that seemed to be tuned to a news channel in Spanish, with English subtitles. The scene on the screen was one of utter chaos and violence, with a huge crowd of rioters in a city battling a line of riot control policemen. Both sides were freely hitting the opponent side with ferocity, the policemen with police batons, riot gas and rubber bullets, the rioters with bats, crowbars, bricks and even Molotov cocktails. Appalled by such violence, Tina approached the screen to better see. The reporter on the scene, in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, was explaining that the riot had been caused by growing popular demands for more generous subsidies on food staples for the poorer segments of the population. The reporter then alluded to other, recent food riots in city slums across South and Central America, including one a week ago in Mexico City. At one point, the reporter interviewed some bystanders at the edge of the riot, with those shouting angry claims against the government handling of the food subsidies, which were deemed grossly insufficient. One of the protesters then made Tina’s ear get up when he claimed angrily that the money ‘wasted on Spacers’ cut into the subsidies for the popular masses. His claim was immediately echoed with approving remarks by those around him. Having heard enough and also being disturbed by it, Tina walked out of the cafeteria, then took a moment to take out her gum and tear a small part away, gluing and flattening that part against the outer face of the cover of her wrist communicator, where a small red light indicator would be normally be blinking when the device was operating. Then opening the cover, she punched in a series of short commands, then partially closed the cover, her communicator now in continuous sound and video recording mode and with the signals being as well retransmitted to the KOSTROMA via her light shuttle.

Throwing first the rest of her gum in a waste basket, Tina walked to the reception desk in the lobby, which was manned by two police officers and a civilian receptionist. Stopping in front of the receptionist, she spoke to her politely in English.

‘’Good morning, miss. My name is Tina Forster and I am here to see Sergeant Mendoza, at the duty desk.’’

‘’Let me call the duty desk, miss. It won’t be long.’’

The young woman punched in a number on her videophone, then waited two seconds before starting to speak in Spanish with someone on her screen. After a short conversation, the receptionist looked back at Tina and pointed at a large double door on one side wall of the lobby.

‘’Sergeant Mendoza is waiting for you, miss. The duty desk room is just beyond those double doors.’’

‘’Thank you very much, miss.’’

Tina forced herself to walk at a calm pace towards the double doors while steeling herself for the verbal confrontation that probably would follow soon. Pushing the double doors, she entered a starkly more austere room compared to the lobby. Vast but furnished only with rows of uncomfortable plastic molded seats for visitors, it had a long counter on one side, behind which sat or stood a number of policemen. One policeman near the door immediately confronted her in a barely polite tone in Spanish. Tina shrugged her shoulders and spoke in English.

‘’I’m sorry, but I do not speak Spanish. I am here to see Sergeant Mendoza. He is expecting me.’’

The Mexican policeman then barely hid a cruel smile.

‘’Ah, you are the employer of that trouble-making gringo Spacer. Follow me.’’ It took everything for Tina to hold her temper, but she followed the policeman without a further word, ending in front of an overweight police sergeant sitting behind the duty counter. She casually put her forearms on the counter, discreetly pointing the micro-camera of her communicator towards the sergeant, who nodded his head after eyeing her quickly.

‘’So, you are Miss Forster? You are quite young for a ship captain.’’

‘’I am also the owner of my ship, Sergeant.’’ said Tina, making the man’s eyebrows rise with surprise. ‘’We spoke earlier online while I was flying in. Before discussing how to resolve this case to our mutual satisfaction, I would like to see Misses Sweeny and her three daughters and speak to them.’’

‘’That can be arranged, Miss Forster. Follow me, please.’’

First opening a panel in the counter to let in Tina, the sergeant then led her to an adjacent section containing a series of holding cells made with steel bars. Tina soon stopped in front of a large communal cell reserved for women, most of them looking like prostitutes. Her eyes immediately stopped on Alice Sweeny, huddled on a corner bunk

with her three young teenage daughters. Her face, apart from sporting numerous bruises and a black eye, showed fear and despair, while she clung protectively to her youngest daughter Cynthia, who was eight years old. The oldest daughter, aged fourteen, also sported bruises on her face and head, to the shock of Tina. Snapping her hear towards Mendoza, Tina eyed him with contained anger.

‘’Who beat up Misses Sweeny and her eldest daughter, Sergeant?’’

‘’They resisted arrest, so our men had to play rough. They also assaulted our three citizens that your employee attacked.’’

‘’Sergeant, I will not waste time qualifying your ridiculous claims for what they are, unless you can convince an honest judge that a family man on vacation with his wife and three young daughters would attack three grown men. I would like to speak to Misses Sweeny and her daughters, preferably in private.’’

The semblance of politeness on Mendoza’s part then evaporated and he stared back at her with contempt.

‘’You are not on your ship, miss, and we make the laws here, not you Spacer parasites. These four will remain in cell until you give me a good reason to change my mind. As for getting the charges to stick, you really think that we will have trouble to find volunteers to act as witnesses against Spacers?’’

Seeing that the policeman wanted to play hardball, Tina changed her tactic, giving Mendoza a hard look.

‘’Sergeant, I am this close to deciding that dealing with you is a waste of time. These people are my crewmembers and are under my responsibility. You either start becoming more reasonable or I will go get the most powerful lawyers I can find and will launch a lawsuit against you and your police department for police brutality and wrongful arrest. Know that I am now making this a matter of principles and am ready to spend as many millions of credits as necessary in pursuing a lawsuit all the way up to the Terran Supreme Court. You will then have to explain to your police commissioner and to your mayor why they have to spend millions in legal fees, on top of attracting disrepute on your tourist industry, when everything could have been settled quietly to our mutual satisfaction.’’

The police sergeant stared back at her with anger for a moment, then clenched his teeth and hissed.

‘’Very well, miss. What do you propose exactly?’’

‘’I want all charges dropped against the Sweeny’s, in exchange of which I am ready to pay compensations to the three men you pretend were attacked by my employee.’’

‘’I can’t take such a decision by myself, miss. I will have to speak first with my lieutenant.’’

‘’Fine with me but, first, I want to speak to Misses Sweeny and her daughters.’’ Mendoza seemed for a moment like he was going to refuse her request, then made a gesture to the policeman nearby holding the keys to the cells and gave him a short order in Spanish before facing Tina again.

‘’Very well, you can speak to them, but here. You have five minutes.’’ Tina did not answer, returning his glare until the door of the cell was opened. She then entered and, ignoring the other female prisoners, hurried to the Sweeny’s. Alice Sweeny hugged her with the strength of despair when she knelt in front of her.

‘’Thank God you came, Captain! This has been nothing but a pure nightmare.’’

‘’I swear that I will do the impossible to get you and your husband out of trouble, Alice. How have you been treated here up to now?’’

Tina didn’t like the way the battered woman hesitated and lowered her head before answering.

‘’Not very well. Male policemen searched me and my daughters, forcing us to completely undress and joking between them as they abused my daughters.’’ Tina couldn’t help throw a hateful look towards Mendoza before looking back at Alice Sweeny. She made sure as well that her communicator’s camera could record the woman’s battered face.

‘’Tell me quickly what happened before your arrest, Alice.’’

‘’We…we were eating supper at a restaurant in town. Just before we could finish our meal, three men eating at a nearby table started taunting us in Spanish. We couldn’t understand what they said, so Denis decided to cut our meal short and return to our hotel. Those three men however followed us outside of the restaurant and continued to harass us verbally as we were trying to find a taxi. Other passersby then joined in on the jeering and taunting. When Denis tried to tell the three men to leave us in peace, he was then attacked by them and was punched and kicked until he fell on the sidewalk. The three men, encouraged by passersby, continued to kick Denis while he was down. That was when I and Lisa tried to interpose ourselves, but we were punched and kicked as well. Two policemen arrived after a moment and stopped the men from hitting us, but

let them go, while they arrested us. Denis was then unconscious and was bleeding from the nose and mouth but they waited until we were all at this police station before calling an ambulance for him. I haven’t been able to see Denis or speak to him since then. I…I am so afraid for him.’’

Alice Sweeny then broke out in tears, prompting Tina to hug her until she quieted down a bit.

‘’Don’t worry, Alice. I will go visit Denis immediately after this and will come back to see you again.’’

‘’Please, make it quick, Captain. These people hate us: we will never get fair justice from them here.’’

‘’I know, Alice. Have faith, though: I will do everything possible to get you out. I will now have to discuss with that policeman. Hang on!’’

Cold resolve on her face, Tina got up and went to the cell’s door, which the jailer opened for her. Going out in the corridor, she stared hard at the sergeant while taking a small pad and a pen from a pocket, quickly writing a number on the pad and tearing the page to present it to Mendoza, along with one of her calling cards.

‘’These are the terms under which I would like to discuss the dropping of charges and release of my people, Sergeant. While you talk to your lieutenant, I will go visit my employee in hospital. One more thing: any more sexual abuse by your cops against that woman and her daughters and the deal is off and the lawsuit on. You or your lieutenant can call me at my number if you take a decision before my return. One last thing. If you think that I don’t have the money to outspend your legal department, you better think twice.’’

Mendoza quickly glanced at the small page in his hands and did a double take, then eyed her with caution.

‘’I will see what I can do, miss.’’

Tina then walked out of the cell block, leaving the sergeant to hurry towards the third floor office of his officer.

Once outside of the police headquarters, Tina took another air taxi to go to the city’s main hospital. Entering through the main entrance of the hospital and going to the reception desk, she got directions to Denis Sweeny’s room, which was actually a common ward adjacent to the emergency section. Her anxiety grew as she walked

towards the emergency and saw the conditions inside the hospital. There were patients on gurneys nearly everywhere along the corridors, and the medical equipment seemed to Tina to be both old and in insufficient quantity compared to what she was accustomed to see in the KOSTROMA’s medical section. The medical staff seemed also tired and harassed, overwhelmed by the number of patients. When she arrived at the common ward where Denis Sweeny was supposed to be, she found herself facing a sea of gurneys, some separated from the others by sliding curtains but most being simply lined up in tight rows. A few nurses and doctors were literally running around, treating their patients the best they could. Tina then noticed that not all the patients were hooked to medical monitors. Looking worriedly around for Denis Sweeny, she was stopped by a nurse that had noticed her.

‘’May I help you, miss?’’

‘’Yes! I am looking for a man named Denis Sweeny, who works for me. He was brought in yesterday night with multiple contusions.’’

‘’Let me just check at the control desk, miss.’’

While the nurse walked to a work station a few meters away, Tina continued to scan visually the ward. Her eyes suddenly recognized her technician, lying on a gurney in a far corner and apparently asleep. Not waiting for the nurse to return, Tina walked quickly to Sweeny’s bed, noticing that he was one of the patients not hooked to a monitor. She tapped the shoulder of a passing nurse and pointed Sweeny to her.

‘’How come this man is not hooked to a monitor, miss?’’

‘’We don’t have enough monitors for all our patients, miss.’’ replied impatiently the nurse before walking away. The first nurse then approached Tina, an electronic tablet in her hands.

‘’I see that you found your employee, miss.’’

‘’Yes, I did. How is he doing?’’

‘’Well, he was admitted last night with a severe concussion and multiple contusions. Since then, scanners have revealed two fractures in his skull, one above his right ear and the other across his forehead. He has not regained consciousness since his admission.’’

‘’And he is not hooked to a medical monitor despite his concussion and skull fractures? He could slip in a coma unnoticed and die, dammit!’’ The nurse gave her a reprobate look.

‘’We are doing what we can with what we got, miss. Are you a doctor?’’

‘’No, but I have seen enough medical emergencies aboard ships to know how tricky concussions are.’’

‘’So, you’re a Spacer, miss?’’

Tina felt anger swell inside her then.

‘’And what is that supposed to mean, miss? We are human beings, like any Earth inhabitant, and we care no less for the others around us.’’ The nurse seemed to regret her words and mellowed down.

‘’Let me do a check on your employee, miss.’’

Sidestepping around Tina, the nurse went to stand by the side of Sweeny’s gurney and grabbed his left wrist to check his pulse. Tina suddenly felt cold dread when she saw alarm appear on the face of the nurse, who then pressed two fingers of the technician’s jugular, shouting an alarm in Spanish after a few seconds.

‘’I HAVE NO VITAL SIGNS HERE!’’

That attracted a male doctor and two more nurses at a run, with Tina having to stand back to let them pass. Now worried sick, she watched anxiously as the doctor examined Denis Sweeny, only to lower his head in discouragement after less than a minute. After speaking angrily to the nurses, the doctor went to see Tina, speaking softly to her in English.

‘’I am sorry, miss, but it seems that your employee died about twenty minutes ago, judging by the body temperature. We can’t do anything for him anymore.’’ While tempted to accuse him and his staff of gross medical negligence, something she would have good justification to do, she could see the appalling conditions under which the hospital staff was working. Looking sadly in the doctor’s eyes, she kept her voice low and polite.

‘’The fault was not yours, or that of your nurses, doctor. The guilty ones are the men who attacked and beat up my crewmember, and the politicians who didn’t provide sufficient budgets to allow proper treatment for all these people. My employee is a Jovian citizen and, as such, I request that his body be delivered to my care, so that he could be properly autopsied and then buried according to our customs.’’

‘’Uh, I don’t know about releasing the body to you, miss. This man was brought in from the police station yesterday, accused of assault and battery. The city police will certainly want to run their own autopsy on him.’’

‘’So that they could make all evidence of wrongful arrest disappear, doctor? Know that this man’s wife and her three young teenage daughters are presently in police

custody, accused of supposedly resisting arrest and of assault against three grown men. The truth is that my employee was brutally assaulted, along with his wife and daughters, then arrested, simply because they were Spacers. Furthermore, his wife and daughters, which I just visited in jail, were sexually abused by local cops, with male officers strip-searching them. I am talking here about girls as young as eight. If you want to be part of this cover-up, fine, but then expect to be included in the lawsuit I will unleash on this city’s administration and police department. I have plenty of millions available for such a lawsuit and I will take it as high as the Terran Supreme Court. I have presently a medical shuttle on standby in my ship. I can have it here in less than one hour, if you release the body to me.’’

The doctor hesitated for a long moment, then nodded slowly his head.

‘’Your man is dead. Whether he was guilty or not, he paid a price no court of justice could exceed. You may call your medical shuttle now, miss. I will go prepare the release papers.’’

‘’Thank you very much, doctor. It will be much appreciated. Here is my calling card, in case you get in trouble for your decision.’’

The doctor examined the card for a moment, then pocketed it and walked away. Tina gave a sad look at her dead crewman, filming his body before switching her communicator to call mode.

‘’Patricia, this is Tina. Denis Sweeny died about twenty minutes ago at the Acapulco Central Hospital and I have gained release of his body into my care. Send that medical evacuation shuttle down at once, before the local police makes his body disappear.’’

‘’Our medical shuttle is already in Acapulco, Tina. It landed at the airport fifteen minutes ago and was awaiting further orders there. I will tell the shuttle to lift off at once.’’

‘’Thank God for a crew full of initiative!’’ said Tina, meaning it. ‘’The body will be at the common ward of the emergency section. I will stay with it in the meantime.’’

‘’And his family? What is happening to them, Tina?’’

‘’They are still in custody and were in fact sexually abused by local cops. I am however working on their release. Just get me this shuttle in a hurry.’’

‘’On its way, Tina!’’

Putting back her communicator into recording mode, Tina then waited by the side of Sweeny’s gurney, contemplating the dead man. The doctor in charge of the ward came back to her fifteen minutes later, just as Doctor Maria Perez and two of the KOSTROMA’s paramedics were entering the ward with a medical evacuation anti-gravity capsule. The local doctor looked with envy at the ultramodern capsule, then made Tina sign the release form, giving her a copy afterwards as Sweeny’s body was transferred to the capsule. This done, Tina faced Maria Perez, who had been looking around her with growing indignation.

‘’Bring Denis Sweeny’s body back to the KOSTROMA, then perform a detailed autopsy on him, Maria. Treat his death as a suspected homicide. I consider the local police as partially responsible for his death as well. Don’t let anyone else take the body.’’

‘’Understood, Tina. We are on our way.’’

The KOSTROMA’s medical team then left in a hurry with their capsule, leaving Tina with the dejected local doctor.

‘’Again, miss, I am truly sorry if we were not able to do more for your man.’’

‘’And, again, I am not blaming you, doctor. In fact, I now intend to do a charitable donation to your hospital as soon as this whole stinking affair is over. Thank you again for your comprehension, doctor.’’

Tina again took an air taxi to return to the police headquarters. She however waited until she got confirmation that her medical shuttle was safely on its way to orbit before entering the building. With her communicator on record mode, she walking resolutely to the duty desk of Sergeant Mendoza. The latter did not miss the hard look on her face.

‘’So, how is your employee, miss?’’

‘’Dead! He died about one hour ago in hospital without ever regaining

consciousness.’’

Alarm showed up on the man’s face, probably because of the possible repercussions from this rather than from regret at Sweeny’s fate, even though he then tried to look sorry.

‘’I am sorry to hear that, miss. My lieutenant is ready to discuss the release of his wife and daughters with you.’’

Tina gave the fat policeman a disgusted look.

‘’An innocent man is dead and you still are trying to take more money from me for the release of his family? Tell your lieutenant right now that my first offer is final. If he still wants to continue with this charade of justice, I will then add criminal negligence and homicide to the other charges of the lawsuit that I will then launch against your police department and this city’s administration. I will then contact the Jovian authorities with the facts of this affair, which will most probably convince them to slap a travel ban advisory against Acapulco across the whole of the Outer Solar System. You will then have a hard time to extract more money from visiting Spacer tourists, whether legally or illegally.’’

‘’Uh, let me call my lieutenant, miss.’’

‘’Please do, Sergeant.’’

After a short call, Mendoza looked back at her with jaundiced eyes.

‘’I am going to escort you to the office of Lieutenant Guerrero, miss. Follow me.’’

On her way to the third floor, Tina was briefly worried about these crooked cops becoming really stupid and trying to intimidate her through violent threats. That would be about the most stupid move they could do now but, on the other hand, they had not yet proved that they were intelligent. Tina was however resolved to win in this case, even if she had to spend months in courts to make these bastards pay. She was finally introduced in an office occupied by a bull of a man, who eyed her hatefully. She crossed her hands in front of her, making sure that her communicator could film the police lieutenant. The latter growled in English, a dangerous tone to his voice.

‘’Do you know what could happen to a dirty Spacer girl like you who tries to dictate to us what to do? You could be found dead in a ditch tomorrow morning, victim of an apparent mugging. Even better, you could have been gang-raped as well before being killed.’’

Tina was able to make a conclusion then: these cops were definitely not intelligent. She, and by extension the KOSTROMA’s communications logs, now had proof that this Lieutenant Guerrero uttered unequivocal death threats towards her.

‘’Before you continue to think that your title of police officer puts you above the law, Lieutenant Guerrero, I would urge you to use your head first. You think that nobody else knows that I am here, and for what reasons? Maybe your local courts would be corrupt enough to buy your version of the facts, but not higher courts all the way to the Terran Supreme Court. Even if I die or disappears, then it will be the Jovian Shipping

Lines and, ultimately, the Jovian authorities which will press the investigation of this case. A Jovian citizen is already dead, which is more than enough to attract attention on your police department. To continue prosecuting that man’s family on the outrageous charges you put against them and to make me disappear as well would only firm up the noose around your neck.’’

The police lieutenant jumped on his feet and glare at her.

‘’And you really think that anybody here on Earth cares about what you Spacer bloodsuckers could say? Our people live mostly in poverty while you arrogant Spacers live in luxury, selling us minerals and chemicals at inflated prices. I could send your Misses Sweeny and her little whores to jail for years on whatever charges I decide to bring and there isn’t a thing that you could do about it. I could in fact find as many witnesses as I want against your people, and nobody here in Acapulco would be sorry to be rid of more Spacers.’’

Tina eyed the man with utter disgust: his stupidity and hatred were at a level difficult to believe.

‘’Lieutenant Guerrero, you have right now three options, in my mind. First, you could finally show some sense and end all this quietly by dropping all charges against my people. Second, you could be stupid and continue to hound the Sweeny’s, until some higher court finds you guilty of abuse of authority, wrongful arrest and sexual abuse of minors. Third, you could be even stupider and decide to kill me on top of everything, which would basically land you eventually in jail for life. As for my previous offer, in view of the threats you just made against me, it is withdrawn. You will now have to explain to your men why you blew away their part of the take.’’ Now enraged like a bull, Guerrero burst out from behind his desk and grabbed Tina by the front of her shirt, violently slamming her back against the wall of his office.

‘’YOU LITTLE BITCH! YOU HAVE NOTHING TO BACK YOUR THREATS! I CAN MAKE ANY EVIDENCE I WANT OR MAKE THEM DISAPPEAR AS WELL. THE MEN WHO BEAT UP YOUR DAMN SPACER DID A PUBLIC SERVICE AS FAR AS I AM CONCERNED. I WILL TAKE A SPECIAL PLEASURE TO MAKE YOU SUFFER BEFORE CUTTING YOUR THROAT TONIGHT.’’

‘’But, Lieutenant, we can’t…’’ stuttered the sergeant, who had watched the whole thing and was looking at the scene with horrified eyes. Guerrero gave him a contemptuous look while still holding Tina against the wall.

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‘’ARE YOU LOSING YOUR BALLS, SERGEANT? YOU ARE READY TO LET THAT SPACER WHORE THREATEN US? SHE IS TOO DANGEROUS FOR US NOW. BESIDES, SHE PROBABLY HAS ON HER THE MONEY SHE PLANNED TO GIVE US. WE WILL TAKE IT, THEN MAKE HER DISAPPEAR.’’

Tina, despite the physical fear of being held by such a strong, brutal man, still was not ready to give up and spoke with as firm a voice she could muster.

‘’I am more dangerous than you think, you bastard.’’

She then raised her left wrist to her face and opened fully the cover of her communicator, showing the faces of Patricia O’Neal and of two more crewmembers who had listened to the transmission over her shoulders.

‘’You got all that on record, Patricia?’’

‘’From start to end, Captain.’’ replied the communications specialist, both angry and fearful for Tina. Guerrero looked at the communicator, dumbfounded, as Tina eyed him coldly.

‘’Another thing, Lieutenant Guerrero: you destroy my communicator now or terminate the link and my crew will immediately alert the Terran Federal Police. If, however, you become reasonable, abandon right now all charges against the Sweeny’s and release them into my care without delay, I will then wait twelve hours before releasing the records in my possession to the federal police. That should give you enough time to disappear somewhere in some shit hole with your stolen money before the hunt is on. One of my crewmembers is now dead, mostly because of you and your crooked cops, and I am in no mood anymore to play nice with you. You had your chance and you blew it, so forget about any money from me. Now, get your hands off me or I will tell my people to alert the federal police right now.’’ He looked at her with pure hatred but released his hold on her and stepped back. His face flushed with emotion, he then looked at his sergeant.

‘’Do as she say, Sergeant Mendoza. Release the Spacer family and erase the file against them.’’

Shaken and starting to realize that his own career as a policeman was about to end, the sergeant could only nod his head before leaving the office, followed closely by Tina. Once alone, Guerrero looked outside through the windows of his office at the city and its beach area, then slammed both of his fists on his desk with impotent rage.

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‘’HIJA DA PUTA1!’’

20:29 (Universal Time)

Captain’s cabin, MSS KOSTROMA

Avalon Space Yards main dry dock, Earth orbit

The buzz from the door of her private study caught Tina as she was pouring herself her third scotch of the evening while sitting with both feet resting on top of her work desk.

‘’Come in!’’

The door slid open and Dana Durning, the chief navigator and unofficial executive officer of the KOSTROMA, entered the study at a cautious pace. She frowned on seeing the half empty bottle in Tina’s hand.

‘’You know that drinking won’t make Denis Sweeny’s death disappear, Tina.’’

‘’Probably not, but it may stop me from thinking about it.’’ replied Tina in a tired voice, making Dana shake her head.

‘’It won’t do that either. Do you mind if I sit for a talk?’’

‘’Go right ahead, Dana.’’

The young woman, four years older than Tina and shorter by a good ten centimeters, grabbed one of the swiveling padded chairs in the study and placed it in front of the desk before sitting in it and staring thoughtfully at her.

‘’You did all that you could for Denis and his family, Tina. In fact, you did more than most would have done, a lot more. You don’t need to blame yourself.’’

‘’Maybe not, but I am the Captain! As such, I am ultimately responsible for the safety of all aboard, Dana.’’

‘’On this ship, yes, but you can’t control what happens on Earth, Tina. I reviewed the recordings you took in Acapulco, apart from talking to our people who returned from there, and I have to say that the intensity of the hatred against us Spacers there came as a shock to me. We were lucky that no other crewmembers fell victim to lynching mobs in Acapulco.’’

Tina took another sip of her scotch before replying in a subdued tone.

1 Hija da puta! Daughter of a whore, in Spanish.

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‘’Dana, someone recently told me that we Spacers were on a collision course with Terrans and that things could soon turn ugly. I didn’t want to believe that person then, but now I have to think seriously about that possibility. The conditions on Earth for its population seem to be worsening, mostly because of overpopulation, and we are easy scapegoats for those billions of people living in poverty and ignorance. You just need to watch some of the food riots going on around the Earth to see that. The person who confided in me was afraid that the Terran authorities would use the resentment against us as a safety valve for the popular anger.’’

‘’Even if that is true, Tina, there is little we can do about it by ourselves.’’

‘’That’s not completely true, Dana. What we can do is to prepare ourselves as best we can for the eventuality of such hostilities.’’

‘’How? We have no armaments and none of us are soldiers. Besides, would things really go as badly as ending in a war? Humanity has not known war for over a century now.’’

‘’Because the planet finally got an effective central government, which was then able to force a general disarmament. However, that central government, the Terran Federal Council, is now treating us, the Spacers, as scapegoats to assuage the discontent of the billions of unemployed, restless people on Earth. How much can you, as a Spacer, accept in terms of humiliation and exploitation from Terran authorities before saying enough? I think that we soon will have to do just that, but we will then need something to defend ourselves if the Terran Federal Council decides to force its will on us. Fortunately, we may soon have something on the KOSTROMA.’’ Tina then told Dana about what Gustav Shomberg had suggested about turning their fusion ignition lasers into ship weapons, plus her own idea on how life pod launch tubes could be turned into missile silos. The navigator finally nodded her head slowly.

‘’Those are brilliant ideas, I have to say. Let’s say that we can soon install laser turrets on our ship. What about the rest of the Spacers? The Terran Customs Navy has over a hundred armed ships, plus tens of thousands of trained and heavily armed soldiers. What could we do, alone, against such a force?’’ Tina then put down her glass on her desk and got up from her chair, new resolve in her.

‘’We could show the example to other Spacers, Dana. You were right about the alcohol: it won’t resolve my problems.’’

‘’What do you intend to do now?’’ said Dana while rising herself from her chair.

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‘’Send a warning back to Jupiter. I know that the Terran Federal Police already has my recordings and accusations against those dirty Acapulco cops. Let’s make sure that the Terran authorities don’t simply bury this case to hide it. I have a good friend who works for the Jovian News Network and who will most probably be interested to hear about this.’’

15:08 (Universal Time)

Saturday, April 17, 2315

Office of the Jovian System’s Governor

Callisto Prime, Callisto

Jupiter System

Janet Robeson sat back in her swivel chair, her face hard, after finishing reviewing the video news clip that had gone viral through the Jovian System yesterday. She had heard about it yesterday but, due to her busy schedule as Governor of the Jovian System, had not had time to watch it until now. A number of her aides and officials who had seen it had finally convinced her to take some of her time to watch it. Now she understood why they had been so adamant about her viewing it.

‘’Do we know something more about this, apart from that news clip, gentlemen?’’

‘’We do, Governor.’’ answered her press attaché. ‘’In reaction to the first viewings of this clip on Earth, an Earth-based Jovian reporter went to Acapulco to investigate the anti-Spacer feelings there. What he found was at least as bad as what the original clip suggested. Even more, this resentment against Spacers does not limit itself to the Acapulco area, nor is it solely out of popular misconceptions and ignorance.’’

‘’Explain, George!’’

‘’Well, it seems that local Terran officials have not been shy in the last months about publicly blaming space projects and expenditures for the lack of funds for further foodstuff subsidies. That false belief in turn took popular roots in the poorer areas on Earth.’’

‘’And since when are these Terran officials spewing this venom?’’

‘’It apparently started just after the last Terran federal budget was passed by the federal senate seven months ago, Madam Governor.’’

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‘’The irresponsible idiots!’’ muttered the sturdily-built, 58 year-old woman. She next looked at her public safety official.

‘’Are there any indications that other Spacers may have fallen victim to this smear campaign, Harry?’’

‘’Yes, Madam Governor! After this news clip went viral, I reviewed the statistics about Spacers victims of crimes on Earth during the last ten years. They show a clear spike of such cases in the last six months, with the incidence of violent attacks in particular rising by nearly 400 percent. Of those attacks, the majority of the cases were not resolved by the local police departments, or were blamed by the police on the Spacers themselves. To be more precise, during the last six months, a total of 64 Spacers were murdered on Earth, while another 482 Spacers were hospitalized after attacks or fights. I regret that I did not catch on to this sooner, Madam Governor.’’

‘’Don’t feel too bad, Harry: we all missed it. So, Grand Administrator Li is blaming his budget woes on Space expenditures and causing in return our citizens to be run after by lynch mobs on Earth? Does he have any idea of what he may ultimately cause by such a stupid policy?’’

Her political assistant took on her to respond to her hypothetical question.

‘’My guess is that he realizes it but doesn’t care about the consequences to us, Madam Governor. If I may play the Devil’s advocate for a moment, I would suggest that the 348 million or so Spacers dispersed around the Solar System weigh little on Grand Administrator Li’s mind compared to the more than nine billion people packed on Earth. Technically, he is right about caring more about the majority, but we all know that his cabinet has consistently failed to apply the measures and policies which could eventually help to reduce the burden of overpopulation on Earth.’’

‘’This cannot go on!’’ said firmly Robeson, slamming a hand on her desk. ‘’Spacer citizens have as much rights as Terran citizens and I will not let them be abused and threatened because of some misguided central government policy. Lisa, prepare a travel advisory concerning Acapulco and its surrounding area and submit it for my review and signature by tomorrow morning. Once signed, I want it published across the whole Jovian System. We will also send information copies to Governor Perez on Titan, to Governor Watts on Mars and to the CEOs of the main private consortiums in the Main Asteroid Belt. Their citizens are as much at risk as our own citizens in this affair. We will attach to these copies duplicates of this news clips and of the crime statistics dug up by Harry.’’

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‘’Grand Administrator Li may not be happy about us potentially hurting part of Earth’s tourism industry, Madam Governor.’’ cautioned Robeson’s political assistant, attracting a hard look from the governor.

‘’I don’t care what he will think about this, Lisa. I am more concerned about the safety and lives of our people when they visit Earth. Li will have to give us good reasons to reassure us about our people’s safety before I will rescind that travel advisory.’’

‘’What about a possible backlash from Li, Madam Governor?’’ said her public safety official. Robeson gave him a corner look.

‘’What kind of backlash, Harry?’’

‘’Political backlash for one, Madam Governor. Grand Administrator Li has the constitutional power to replace you, even though you were freely elected by the people of the Jovian System. The people of the Jovian System would be outraged, but I am not sure that he would care about that. He may also apply economic pressures on us, or even order a show of force by the Terran Customs Navy to intimidate us.’’

‘’Then, he would be an even bigger fool than I already think he is, Harry. Earth is presently surviving only because of our shipments of food, chemicals and minerals. Without steady supplies from the Outer System, Earth’s industries would grind to a halt. And Li can’t even pretend that we are fleecing Earth: we are shipping things at a low profit margin and have been for years. This business of accusing us of getting fat on Earth’s back is utter nonsense.’’

‘’But that is not stopping the Federal Council from continuously slapping new customs fees on our shipping, Madam Governor.’’

Janet Robeson took a deep breath out of frustration then. She now realized fully how things had soured overall since the last Terran federal election, when totally unrealistic promises had been made by Li and his political party in order to win the votes of large portions of the Earth’s population. Those promises had not been kept, of course, but it seemed that Li had found some convenient scapegoats to escape the popular hire on Earth: her and the other Spacers in the Solar System. Something had to be done before the situation got out of hand.

‘’Ladies and gentlemen, I believe that, if we want Grand Administrator Li and his council to see reason, we Spacers will have to speak with one voice. Lisa, we will send in the days and weeks to come discreet feelers by hand-carried letters to the other Spacer administrations, to gauge their sentiments about the present situation with Earth.

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We will however not include Governor Saxman of Mercury in that list: the man is a complete Li toady!’’

‘’Understood, Madam Governor.’’ said the political assistant, while the other advisors nodded their heads. ‘’I will start drafting letters for your review right after the travel advisory is in place.’’

11:39 (Shanghai Time)

Tuesday, April 20, 2315

Office of the Grand Administrator

Terran Federation central administrative complex Shanghai, China

‘’This travel advisory is unacceptable! What was Governor Robeson thinking? Wasn’t she aware of the effect it would produce on the local economy of Acapulco? That region is already in serious economic trouble, has been for years.’’ Grand Administrator John Li, a medium-built man in his fifties, threw an angry look at the assistant who had brought that piece of bad news.

‘’Was this incident she alludes to in her travel advisory as serious as she pretends?’’

‘’I believe so, Grand Administrator.’’ replied the man, nervous. It was never good for one’s career to get Grand Administrator Li angry, whatever the reason. ‘’The Federal Police has investigated the case and found evidence of incompetence, corruption and gross abuse of authority by the Acapulco Police Department, sir. That Spacer ship captain managed to record on camera an Acapulco police lieutenant as the latter was threatening to kill her, apart from confessing that the charges against a Spacer family were trumped up. That police lieutenant was also quite venomous about his opinion of Spacers in general. The news fracas that followed in this case also showed widespread popular prejudice against Spacers among the population of Acapulco, enough in fact to justify a travel advisory, Grand Administrator.’’

‘’Bunch of idiots!’’ swore quietly Li. ‘’They cut their own throats in public and now I have somehow to get them out of trouble. Very well, let these idiots in Acapulco swallow their medicine and tell the Federal Police to go heavy on those responsible in this affair. We might as well appear to be on the side of true justice in this: it might

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assuage Robeson’s fears. One more trick like that from her, though, and I will eject her from her position.’’

Li, who was quickly reviewing the text of the Jovian travel advisory and its attachments, then frowned on reading a specific name.

‘’The MSS KOSTROMA. I believe that I heard that ship’s name recently, no?’’ His aide consulted quickly his electronic note pad before answering.

‘’Yes, sir. It is the ship which recently destroyed a pirate ship in the Main Asteroid Belt by firing life pods at it as it was about to board the KOSTROMA. The captain is a Tina Forster and that ship is an ultra-heavy cargo hauler with an empty mass of 2.5 million tons.’’

Li whistled, impressed.

‘’Quite a big ship indeed! That Captain Forster also seems to be a woman of character. Do you have a picture of her?’’

The aide consulted again his pad, then sent electronically a file to Li’s computer. The picture attracted a smile on the face of the Grand Administrator.

‘’She is quite young for her position of ship’s captain. She is attractive, though. Thank you, Minh, you may go.’’

Once his aide was out of his office, Li thought about what this advisory from Robeson could tell him about the future actions of the Jovian governor. Clearly, she had not hesitated much before declaring without consulting him in advance an edict that she knew would displease him. That was definitely one bad point against her in his mind. He then went back to work on another dossier but his aide buzzed him again less than six minutes later, making Li sigh before he let him in. The young man was clearly agitated, making Li’s eyes focus on him.

‘’What is it, Minh?’’

‘’Grand Administrator, the governor of the Saturn System just broadcasted a travel advisory against Acapulco similar to the Jovian advisory.’’ This time, Li reacted more forcefully, clearly infuriated by that latest news.

‘’By the dragons! Are all my space governorates going to baffle my central authority like this?’’

Regaining his composure quickly, Li pointed an index at his aide.

‘’Find out if any other Spacer governor or administrator on top of Robeson and Perez have or are planning to publish similar travel advisories. If more do, I may have to

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call the lot on the carpet for their actions. At the least, they will not get away with this without having to pay a price for it.’’

To Li’s fury, the governor of Mars and all the private consortiums in the Main Asteroid Belt and the Trojans asteroids followed suit with the governors of Jupiter and Saturn the next day. With the governor of Saturn also being in charge of the Uranus, Neptune and Pluto sectors, that left only the governors of Mercury and of the Moon abstaining from publishing a travel advisory against Acapulco. It then took only days before nearly all the Spacers on vacation in and around Acapulco fled their hotels as quickly as they could, while reservations and bookings dried out, sending the city’s tourism industry in a tailspin. In a bitter irony, that only exacerbated the local hostility towards Spacers around Acapulco and in Mexico. Police Lieutenant Raphael Guerrero was the first to pay for the broken pots, being chased down, caught and then promptly judged, with the Terran Federal Grand Prosecutor breathing down on the necks of the judge and prosecutor in charge of his case. Less than three weeks after the death of Denis Sweeny, Guerrero was found guilty of uttering death threats, assault, abuse of authority and perjury and subsequently sentenced to five years in jail, with the loss of his police pension and benefits. The three men who had actually beaten Denis Sweeny were also brought to justice and quickly sentenced to ten years each for aggravated assault and homicide. Sergeant Luis Mendoza got off relatively easy on his part, being simply kicked out of the Acapulco Police Department.

In Enos Lake, where she had returned to her log cabin to continue her interrupted vacation, Tina Forster greeted the news of Guerrero’s demise with mitigated satisfaction. While those guilty of the death of her crewman had been dealt with and punished by the Terran justice system, she had no illusions that those sentences would change the poisonous atmosphere against Spacers on Earth. If anything, the travel advisories from the Spacer administrations ignited a vigorous debate in the Terran Federal Senate and in the governing council about the limits of the powers held by the Spacer governors, whose systems enjoyed a semi-autonomous status, according to the federal constitution. That status had however been couched on paper in rather vague or encompassing terms more than a century ago, leaving politicians and lawyers from all sides plenty of leeway to debate those constitutional powers both in public and in court.

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Once her month of vacation was finished, Tina returned aboard the KOSTROMA, giving her log cabin to Dana Durning, who had acted as executive officer on the ship while Tina was down on Earth. With Dana taking her own, well-deserved month of vacation among the forests surrounding Enos Lake, Tina concentrated on following closely the refit work being done on her ship. With their families still on vacation on Earth and with weekends available to fly down to rejoin them, her crewmembers went back to work with gusto, helping as much as allowed the yard workers. The latter, apart from being happy to have work instead of having to go on temporary unemployment, quickly became enthusiastic customers of the JUPITER sex club and of the APEROSSIMO lounge-bar. The families of the yard workers, housed in comfortable accommodations in the yard complex but not having access to many commercial concessions inside the complex, also used extensively the facilities of the KOSTROMA. The owners of the commercial concessions on the ship, instead of the temporary downturn they had expected during the refit period, thus saw their businesses boom during the yard work, with their profit margins further inflated by the temporary suspension by Tina of their rent payments. With morale high on the ship and around the yard complex, and with the large stocks of materiel and parts already at hand in the yard, the refit work went at record speed. Instead of contemplating a completion date of end of November, a very satisfied Tina could now look realistically on taking her ship out of the yard by the end of October, shaving a full month on the planned schedule. As work progressed on her ship, however, things got more tense between Earth and the various Spacer administrations, with Li’s government eventually losing in the Terran Supreme Court its constitutional challenge to the right of the governorates to publish independent edicts. Li then retaliated by squeezing the budgets allotted to Space projects,

transferring the money thus saved to fuel larger subsidies on foodstuff and housing for Earth’s ever growing population. Tina watched all that with growing foreboding, remembering the warning Gustav Shomberg had given him in mid-March.

THE KOSTROMA SAGA by Michel Poulin - HTML preview

CHAPTER 4 – REFIT AND SHORE LEAVE

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