Smuggler's Dilemma Read online

I entered my quarters and sat on the floor next to the box where the two kittens lay. I’d been watching their progress from my HUD and knew that the littlest one didn’t stand much of a chance. Its vitals had declined even with the help of the cuff.

  "How are they doing?" Marny asked from the doorway, holding out a cup of coffee.

  "Oh, you are my favorite person," I said, gratefully taking the cup. "The little one isn’t responding to the cuff."

  "How about the other?"

  "He’s getting stronger. I hope they make it," I said.

  FILBERT

  "Where are the kitties?" Ada burst into the mess/galley. Nick, Marny and I had gathered around the long table, waiting expectantly for her to arrive with Jake. Marny had been ordering Nick and me around for the last thirty minutes in preparation for one of her signature feasts.

  I pointed up. "In my room."

  "We’ve got to go see 'em. Marny said one is really sick. Is he going to make it? Can I hold them?" Ada fired off rapidly.

  "Neither is doing very well. I’ve got a video channel, here…" I pinched the channel from my HUD and flicked it at her. "How about after dinner we go up and look at them?" I glanced at Marny, not wanting to ruin her dinner plans.

  "Don’t be silly, Cap," Marny said, "We can wait to eat."

  Jake entered from the direction of the cargo hold and looked confused to find us lined up waiting to step onto the lift. To his credit he just lifted an eyebrow and watched as Ada and I disappeared.

  "They’re tiny," Ada whispered, looking into the box. "Can I hold them? They look so lonely." I started to suggest that it might not be a good idea, but Ada had apparently already decided. She reached into the box and lifted the blanket containing the two tiny felines and cradled them against her chest. "You can’t just leave them in there, they need to know that someone loves them."

  "You want to eat up here?" I asked, knowing better than to argue.

  "No. They can come down with me." She smiled, turned and walked out of the room. We rejoined the crew at the mess table where Marny gave me what I could only guess was an 'I told you so' look.

  "How can we help pack up?" Jake asked after we sat down.

  "Inventory," Nick said. "I’ve sent everyone a subroutine that will scan the contents of a crate and create a bill of lading. We have to assume that everything in here has been stolen, there’s a good chance that some of it is also illegal. We’ll send a list of it to Mars Protectorate and see what they want us to do with it."

  "We’re in Indian space. Any legal problems with bringing this stuff into Mars space?" Jake asked.

  "Already cleared it," Nick said.

  "What’d that cost?" I asked. I’d started to realize that Mars Navy gifts never came without a price.

  "They want our scans of the cargo. I’m sure they want to track the stolen goods."

  "Why wouldn’t they just confiscate it all?" Jake asked.

  Marny took that one. "They don’t care about the stuff, they just want to track Red Houzi’s movements. If they start seizing our plunder, then we might just decide to start hiding things from them. It’s a symbiotic relationship."

  "I like it," Jake said, nodding.

  "Marny, how do you want to run security while we’re here? Do we need to have shifts on both ships?" I asked.

  "We’ll maintain a watch on the Hotspur. Nick has it connected to the command center so one person can easily cover both."

  Ada spoke immediately. "I volunteer."

  "You want first watch?" I asked.

  "I’ll take 'em all, that way I can watch the kitties. Any problem if I snooze, Marny? " she asked.

  Marny shrugged her shoulders. "I don’t think so. We’re not expecting trouble and the ship will certainly wake you if there’s a problem."

  "Good. It’s settled then," Ada said triumphantly. I’d never seen her so excited about anything before.

  "Perfect," Nick interrupted and drew everyone's attention back. "I know everyone’s tired, so the first order of business is sleep. We won't set a specific schedule, just work your way to the warehouse whenever you’re ready. The two things we need to focus on are organizing the junk in the two remaining quads and completing the inventory of the warehouse. It’s 2200 now. I plan to start at 0600 tomorrow morning, join me when you can."

  It didn’t take long for us to break up. Everyone was exhausted. We’d been pushing hard and the tension of being in enemy territory weighed on us all. I walked Ada up to the cockpit and sat next to her.

  "You need to hold them, Liam," she said and pushed the warm bundle into my arms. They were so small, I couldn’t imagine how they’d survived to this point.

  "Do you think they’ll live?" I asked.

  "You have to have faith, Liam."

  "I hope you’re right." I leaned back in the pilot’s chair, surprised at how attached to these little guys I’d become in such a short period of time. I heard a tiny fluttering sound from the blankets. "I think one of them is having trouble breathing," I said quietly, more than a little concerned.

  "No, he just likes you, that’s a happy sound he makes," Ada whispered.

  I must have fallen asleep. The next thing I knew, I woke up with the kittens still on my chest. I checked the medical display and was sorry to see that sometime in the night the smaller of the two had passed away. I looked over to Ada, who was awake and looking at me. She held her finger up to her mouth and I saw tears in her eyes.

  "He passed half an hour ago," she whispered, "and there was nothing we could do for him."

  It was almost 0500 and I’d been asleep for over six hours. "I think he should be buried with the rest of his litter," I said.

  Ada held out her arms and I handed the blankets to her and stood up. I leaned over and gave her a hug then wrapped the deceased kitten carefully in one of the blankets. I felt a strong responsibility to take him back to his family.

  I didn’t have any trouble locating the small mound of rocks where Nick and Marny had buried the small family of cats. I removed a few of the rocks and placed his body next to his mother and then covered them all back up.

  "Don’t worry," I said before leaving. "We’ll take care of him." I felt a little self-conscious talking to the dead, but it didn’t stop me.

  I wasn’t surprised when I entered the galley and found Marny standing in front of the coffee maker. I suspected she’d already talked to Ada since she just nodded and handed me a cup of coffee.

  "You know, it’s why people are drawn to you, Cap," she said.

  "What’s that?" I asked.

  "You care," she said. "The universe is full of people who are just out for themselves, but you make people feel like they’re part of something bigger because you care."

  I took a deep breath. "Well, it kind of sucks today."

  "Aye, Cap. Some days it sure does."

  "Where’s Nick?" I asked.

  "He’s working on getting the first quad packed onto the barge," she said. "He’s pushing hard."

  "I feel it too. This place gives me the creeps and I don’t want to be here any longer than I have to. Are you ready to head over?"

  She nodded in agreement. "Might as well. It’s all got to get done."

  A couple of hours later Jake joined us in packing up the two remaining quads and by the end of the day we were finished with both of them. It had been a long day, but we’d accomplished a lot. At dinner, Nick informed us that the construction bot estimated its completion by 1000 the next morning. It was quicker than we’d need, since it would take us all of the next day to inventory the crates in the warehouse.

  Ada brought the kitten down to dinner. She looked tired and I knew it was because she hadn’t slept much the night before. We hadn’t talked about it yet and I wondered if we ever would.

  "Liam, I think it’s up to you to give him a name," she said.

  "Are you sure?" I asked.

  "Of course. I might be caring for him, but he’s your cat."

  Everyone looked at me expectantly. />
  "Filbert," I said. I got more than a few questioning eyebrows. "It’s what I thought about when I first saw him. He looked like a little hazelnut curled up next to his brother."

  Marny let loose a small laugh. "When have you ever had a hazelnut?"

  "Sometimes we’d get hazelnuts when the family traders docked on Colony 40. It seems fitting," I said.

  Ada handed me the bundle. "Well, Filbert, you need to go to Liam because Auntie Ada needs a few minutes to get cleaned up."

  "It seems like he’s responding to the cuff," I said, looking down at him. He still looked pretty bad with the large tufts of missing fur.

  "AI says all the parasites are gone and he’s gained fifty grams today, mostly fluid," Ada said. She continued to fill us in on all of the minute details of Filbert’s day. If anyone thought it was annoying they sure didn’t let on. I, for one, found it interesting.

  "I found a pattern for a gravity box," Ada finally said after recounting the day. "You should manufacture two and install one in the cockpit and one in your quarters."

  I’d heard of a gravity box, although I’d never seen a reason to have one before. Ultimately, it created a stable gravitational field in a very small area. If we could train Filbert to rest in the gravity box during combat maneuvers or when we dropped out of hard burn, he’d be a lot more comfortable. I looked at the plan Ada had sent and noticed she’d found one designed by spacers. In addition to being able to plug into the gravitational system, it also maintained heat, pressure, atmo and had cartridges for water and food. The cost of the pattern was two hundred credits for a single use, but it was perfect, so I shipped the pattern to our replicator. At two hours construction time for each unit, I set the priority to low, so Nick’s packing supplies would get completed first.

  "That thing’s perfect," I said. "Do you think he’d wear a vac-suit?"

  "It’s been done," Ada said, "but I don’t think it’s very common. The reading I did today says that if you give them experience in zero gravity as babies, they are really natural at it."

  "What about septic?" I asked.

  "That’s a bit harder," she answered. "Turns out some people teach them to use the head. I’ve found instructional videos you can watch. It’s a lot of work, but then as spacers, we tend to have a lot of free time."

  "Kind of sounds fun," I said.

  "For now, this little guy just needs sleep. I hope he’ll be off the cuff by the time we leave this rock," she said. "Did you find any kitty food on the base? He’s a little young to be weaned, but according to everything I’ve read, he should be able to eat solid food."

  Nick put up his hand. "I know where there’s some cat food. There was a bunch in their pantry. I’ll make sure that crate is on top."

  I spent the night in the pilot’s chair next to Ada again and she let me keep Filbert on my chest. She had to keep reassuring me that his purr, which sounded more like a piece of loose metal rattling, was him expressing happiness.

  JUST BECAUSE YOU'RE PARANOID

  Nick assured us that we could get through the crates in one day, even though we were to inventory each of them thoroughly. I didn’t have any reason to doubt him, but it was a lot of work to handle every item in each crate. He’d made it easier by having the stevedore bot bring us a crate and place it on a platform so that we didn’t need to bend much. Once we’d sifted through the crate we repacked it, recorded its serial number and the stevedore bot moved it out of the way.

  "Cap, Nick, you’re going to want to see this," Marny said.

  She’d opened one of the larger crates. We had to stand on ladders to look down into it. I hoped she’d found missiles. I wasn’t expecting trouble, but you could bet we would eventually find a use for them. What I saw in the crate confused me, though. It was some sort of vac-suit made of a very heavy, armored material.

  "What the frak is that?" I asked.

  "Mechanized infantry suit," Jake said. "Talk about contraband."

  I looked at Marny. "Is he right?" It certainly lined up with what I thought a mechanized suit would look like.

  "On both counts," she said. "It doesn’t get a lot more illegal than one of these. I bet the Navy will change their mind about our agreement when they see these bad boys."

  "How many are there?" I asked.

  "Three," she said.

  I couldn't believe our luck. "Are they operational?"

  "They operate on ship fuel, although their batteries are probably low. Maybe have Jake check 'em out - they’re right up his alley." Marny said.

  "I’ve never seen one, but I bet I can figure it out." Jake had come over, interested in what we’d found. He bent over the crate and touched the suit. "Want me to spend time with 'em?"

  "It’d be worth a look," Marny said. "I’d like to know if they have ammo. But it’s not like any of us could use it."

  "Why’s that?" I asked.

  "Training for a suit like this takes almost three or four months," she said. "They’re super sensitive. We could walk around with it, but if you did something wrong, you could punch through the side of the ship in a heartbeat."

  "Is there more than one kind of mechanized infantry?" I asked.

  "Not sure what you mean," she responded.

  "Well, my dad said he was mechanized infantry," I said. "Do you think he had a suit like this?"

  "No idea. Was he Mars?"

  "Nope, North American," I said. "Beginning of the Amazonian war."

  "Really?" Marny asked. "That was my war. You’re making me feel old. But if he said mechanized, he could have been an engineer or some sort of support staff. These are the suits they used. Did he see action?"

  "I think so, he didn’t talk about it much. You have to know Big Pete. He’s not really a talker, especially about himself."

  "Did he ever call someone a squishy?" she asked.

  "Hah! Yes. If he got pissed at someone, he’d call 'em that, like he couldn’t think of a worse insult."

  "Aye, that sounds about right. They called everyone that wasn’t wearing one of these suits a squishy. We’ll have to charge 'em up, maybe he can take it out for a ride before M-Pro (Mars Protectorate) shows up to confiscate them."

  "I’ll let you know what I can figure out. It can’t be that complex. Most military gear is simplified so people who are under stress can still make sense of it," Jake said. "We actually have a maximum complexity calculation we use when designing interfaces for field use."

  "Cool, love to see what you come up with," I said.

  By the end of the day, we’d gotten through all of the crates, not finding anything else anywhere near as interesting as the mechanized infantry suits.

  ***

  At dinner that night, Jake had more information for us. "On the black market, each of those suits is worth at least a million. Maybe a million and a half."

  "That’s more than the entire rest of the load. Each," Nick said, sounding thoroughly impressed.

  "Really?" Jake asked. "You feel like we’ve got a million in the rest of that?"

  "Might be closer to eight hundred, but yeah, it’s a good load," Nick said. "Better yet, the stevedore bot has been packing the ship all afternoon. The construction bot is tearing down the shelving and will work on the warehouse while we sleep. By 1200 tomorrow, the only thing left on the asteroid will be the control center and power generator. We’re about twenty hours ahead of schedule."

  "How’s Filbert?" Marny asked before I could.

  "If he has another day like today, we’ll take the medical cuff off the day after tomorrow. He gained another fifty grams and he’s a lot more active. I just hope his hair grows back." Ada laid the blanket down on the table and pulled it back, exposing the scraggly kitten. He stood up and walked across to where Nick sat and batted at a reflection on the surface of the table.

  "He’s a lot more active," I said. "Did any of the gravity boxes get manufactured today?"

  "They both did," Nick said. "I pushed up their priority. I don’t need the stuff I had in the qu
eue until tomorrow. Tell me where you want them, and I’ll install them. I won’t have much to do until the warehouse is disassembled and packed up."

  I turned to Ada and asked, "Think he’s ready to sleep on my bed?"

  "I wouldn’t," she said. "I manufactured a litter box for him to start training on, but he might make a mess on your bed, he’s not real good with that yet."

  "What else did you find out about the suits?" I turned back to Jake, remembering that we'd been talking about those before we got distracted by the fur ball.

  Jake was ready to talk about his discoveries. "I woke 'em up and they automatically found the power grid and topped off their emergency batteries. They’ve got fuel and are half loaded with ordinance. They’re amazing. Each suit manufactures ammunition on the fly. It runs on normal ship fuel, oxy crystals and recycled water. Basically, they’re mini one-person ships and as far as I can tell, they’ve never been used."

  "Too bad we’ll never get to play with them." I turned my attention to Nick. "Speaking of, when will we send the bill of lading to Belcose?"

  "Belcose?" Jake asked.

  "We talked about him back on Mars. Remember?" Nick responded. "Lieutenant Gregor Belcose is our Navy contact and I figured we’d send him an update once we’re in Mars space."

  "Why wouldn’t we sell the suits outside of Mars jurisdiction?" Jake asked. "It feels like you’re giving away a pile of credits, and that affects all of us."

  "We made a promise to M-Pro that we’d give them the scans of the cargo. I can’t go back on that without risking our reputation," Nick explained.

  "We’re not even in their space, I don’t see the big deal. I’m not crazy about leaving that kind of money on the table." Jake didn't have the relationship that I did with Nick. He also didn't know about our background with the Navy. I got all that and breathed deep so I wouldn’t get confrontational with him.

  Nick looked at me, clearly hoping I’d pick up the conversation. I did.

  "It’s a judgment call. From our perspective the Letter of Marque, which gives us our privateer status, is worth a lot more than the suits. We also don’t know that Belcose will confiscate them. We’d be acting in bad faith if we didn’t send him the scans or if we sold them before we made contact," I said.