Rela Qi Gets in Deep - Pt 2 (30.04.03)

[Jasperodus]

As people liked the opener, some more. Further episodes will follow reasonably regularly (will maintain one a week at least if people continue to enjoy it).


Rela Qi Gets in Deep

Part 2

The Teladi was called Sunosias Suulaeos Sannis and almost backed out of the deal when he smelled the stench of BioGas that lingered in every part of the Swim by Night.
‘What in penury is that smell?’ complained Sannis. ‘I’ve been on Boron ships before but they’ve none of them smelled like this. They smelled, mind you, just not so vomit-makingly as this bucket. I’ve a mind to try my luck with another ship.’

Rela Qi mustered his dignity. ‘It’s BioGas. This ship’s been a working vessel all its life. I suppose you could try and hitch a lift on an ore scow.’
Sannis glanced at him. ‘No. I can stand it. You just get me to Seizewell. I take it you have accommodation?’
‘There’s a couple of spare crew cabins off the spine. Mind you, they’re very small.’ Rela led the way to the spinal corridor - the Boron had designed the Dolphin class with maximum cargo capacity in mind and arranged everything else in a very cramped fashion along the length of the ship.

The Teladi opened his eyes very wide when he saw just how cramped that was.
‘You expect me to spend the journey in this sonic-cleaner cupboard?’ The Teladi’s skin writhed, a sure sign of disgust.
Rela wondered if he’s regret it but heard himself saying, ‘You’d probably be more comfortable up front with me. There’s quite a good crewspace behind the flight chair. The galley’s in easy reach too if you need water or some multi-rations. I think I’ve got a couple of packets of Nostrop Noodles in there.’
The Teladi turned to stare at him. He made some kind of slithering noise under his breath then said, ‘Very well. At least I’ll be certain of where we’re going.’
‘That’s right. Come on.’ Rela led Sannis back up the spine, thinking that this was not only a fastidious Teladi but also quite a suspicious fellow too.

On the flight deck, Rela settled into his chair and swung around to face Sannis. He indicated one of the two chairs in the crewspace, well padded, if a little tatty. With a sigh and the poorest of grace, even for a Teladi, not the most graceful of species, Sannis sat down.
‘Well here we are,’ said Rela brightly. ‘We’ve got a few minutes before we can launch. A resourcer’s inbound.’
‘I see,’ replied Sannis.
‘So, here we are, ah, Sunosias Suulaeos Sannis, did you say? That’s quite an unusual Teladi name, I didn’t think...’
With a mighty sigh, Sannis said, ‘I’m from the Western continent of Homeworld. We like our names both alliterative and unique where I come from.’

Rela mentally bubbled. The Teladi Homeworld was probably the most expensive place to live in all the known sectors. Even the lowest Homeworlder was wealthy by any measure you cared to name - most particularly the Rich Index of the Profit Guild. To Sannis, the 50,000 he’d put up was unlikely to be a hardship, except in terms of the natural parsimony of the Teladi.
The Teladi interrupted his thoughts, 'You may call me Sannis if you wish.'
'Thanks, call me Rela. Ah!' The launch clearance signal sounded and Rela turned to his controls. 'We'll be out of here and on our way to Seizewell in a moment.'
'Not before time,' Sannis muttered, not quite softly enough for politeness' sake.

Rela decided not to persue further conversation and concentrated on the launch. All the systems were checking out. Launch go signal sent. Launching, accelerating and out. Back in space. He checked the orientation and maneouvered to point in the direction of the west gate. Nothing much on the radar. Rela decided to put the ship into SETA.
He turned back to the Teladi, 'Just a couple of hops and we'll be there. Shouldn't take too long.'
The Teladi grunted acknowledgement and looked out of the port side visiplate. Rela shook his head and went over the systems to check everything was working properly post-launch; pieces of Swim by Night were apt to shake loose in the shock of leaving a station.

The jump to Ceo's Buckzoid was smooth and travel through that system uneventful. They soon jumped through to Profit Share and were heading for the Seizewell gate. They were most of the way to the gate when Rela noticed a ship coming out of the gate and took a peek through the magnifier he'd had installed a few months back. It was a Split freighter, Mule class.

Rela turned to Sannis, 'There's a Split freighter ahead of us, It's just come out of the gate.'
The Teladi's head whipped around. 'What?' he hissed. 'Are you sure?'
'I've just looked it over in the magnifier. It's a Mule all right. Either that or a disguised pirate freighter.'
'No,' said the Teladi in a strangely hollow voice. 'No, it's not . It's a Chin Security special. Looks like a Mule but can put on a turn of speed no Mule you ever saw could. That and it packs drones and Hornet missiles, and carries Chin Security troops in the cargo hold.'
'What? How do you know that?' asked the astounded Boron.
'I know it because Chin Security has been after me for weeks and I don't believe in coincidences.'
'Why in all the oceans are Chin Security after you? Have you swindled Family Chin?' Rela Qi didn't like to think of that. The Split as a race took fraud very, very seriously and the most powerful of the Split families wasn't likely to deviate from the norm in that regard.
'I almost wish I had,' was Sannis' extraordinary reply. The Teladi shook himself, then looked at Rela with a commanding light in his eyes. 'Get me to the nearest station. It isn't over yet. If I can hire a Bat pilot, even a souped-up and gutted Mule won't be able to catch me. Come on! What's the nearest station?'

Rela pulled up the sector chart. They were passing close by a Sun Oil Refinery. 'As you see', said Rela, pointing out as he turned the ship toward the station. His mind was in a turmoil but he was managing to operate on adrenaline and that would have to be good enough.
'Fine. They're sure to have a few fighters berthed. No. It's not over yet,' said the Teladi, this last clearly to himself.

Rela glanced at the radar and nearly fell out of his chair. The 'Mule' was heading straight at them and at an astonishing speed: it had to be doing over 130ms. The Split must have packed a quarter of the cargospace with power systems and velocity-boosting machinery. From what Sannis had said, the rest was likely to hold enough drones, missiles and troops to fight a one-ship war. The only thing it lacked was its own beam weapons. No choice there, the obvious external fittings would have broken the disguise.

They were only a few kilometres away from the station and Rela sent out the docking request signal. After the usual second or so's delay, the station's automated systems sent back the permission-to-dock signal and switched on the green docking channel lights. He maneouvered the Dolphin into position and brought the ship back to docking speed.

Behind him, he could hear the Teladi muttering to himself, 'Stupidity. Should have hired a fighter in the first place. Damned Chin! Who would have thought they'd be monitoring an Ore Mine? Chin spies must be all over Boron space.'

Rela called out, 'Why didn't you hire a fighter?'
'What? Oh, I had this idiotic notion of being inconspicuous. A Dolphin in Teladi space is a commonplace. You don't see that many Boron fighters though. I thought they'd have the resources to watch the gates and follow up any fighter traffic. Obviously they picked me up earlier. They probably had an agent in the Ore Mine. Possibly even earlier than that. I don't know what Boron Intelligence do for a living. Probably rescues cetaceans stuck in coral reefs, yes?'

Rela laughed out loud. 'You're blaming Boron Intelligence for this?’
‘Why not? I bought their assessment of Chin activity in Boron space in good faith. Clearly it was incompetent or simply a pack of lies.’
‘You bought information from the Big Tentacle?’ Rela was shocked, why in the name of the Queen would Boron Intelligence sell information to a Teladi?
'You really are quite naive, aren't you? Not exactly from the Big T, rather from one of my contacts in the organisation,' replied Sannis, clearly comfortable with Boron slang and idiom.

Rela glanced at the readouts a moment, docking was entering the automatic phase, then asked, 'Why would one of our agents sell secret information to you?'
The Teladi sighed. 'Why else? For the money. A Boron spy can use money as well as anybody else and your government doesn't pay its agents well enough. Boron Intelligence is notoriously bad at keeping secrets. The Teladi Espionage Branch makes sure that keeping secrets is profitable for our agents, so we don't have so many leaks.'

The ship shuddered as the docking clamps engaged. 'Now, I must take my leave of you, my naive friend, time to find a willing pilot.'
'Wait a minute! What about my credits?' asked the Boron.
'Bah. You didn't get me to Seizewell. Why should I pay up?'
'Maybe because the hatch isn't opening till you do? replied Rela, who wasn't entirely an innocent cast into space.
'Part-payment only, 25,000,' snapped the Teladi.
'30 or we wait for the Split.'
'I don't think you want to do that but you're just fool enough. Very well, 30 it is. Now get the hatch open,' snapped Sannis.

Rela coughed and indicated the transaction console. With an air of great reluctance, Sannis went to the console and quickly arranged the credit transfer.
'There. It's done, now open your damned hatch!'

Rela checked the transaction, Teladi knew a lot of electronic banking tricks, then satisfied, popped the hatch. Sannis hurried out and down the spine to the upper hatch. Rela thought a moment then decided to follow. A moment later he heard a squawk of indignation, unmistakeably Sannis. Rela picked up the pace, maybe the hatch hadn't opened properly, it was possible given the ship's infirmity.

Unfortunately, the hatch had opened all too well. Standing just inside the depressurisation unit was Sannis and beyond him, projacs levelled, a squad of Teladi Profit Protection troopers. Rela's swim bladder tightened like it had never tightened before: it seemed he might regret swapping mundanity for adventure...

[SteveMill]

Really promising, you should check out a few books on creative writing to pick up some tips and pitfall warnings. Standing on the shoulders of giants and all that.

[pixel]

really good!!!

Keep em coming.

[Al]

Yup enjoyed this bit too. Keep writing. If you haven't already done so, I would read some of Steve and Merc excellent stuff.

Al

[KiwiNZ]

Good read. So Sannis is not only on the run from Split Security but also Teladi? Good development.

[Moss]

An interesting read Jasper , methinks I will have to find and read the first installment too when I get a bit more time.