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Chapter Thirty




“Ah, Captain Kade,” the Jovian embassy clerk greeted him. “Thank you for coming. It seems I have a spot of good news for you.”

“You do?” Nathan replied with a doubtful, guarded frown. He sat in one of two chairs across the man’s desk and slid it forward.

Nathan hardly ever had a need to visit the Everlife’s embassy in Port Leverrier, and his recent string of visits had reminded him why he disliked the place. The layout seemed purposefully designed to make him feel small and uncomfortable, its ceilings too high and its corridors too narrow.

The tall, monolithic structure stuck out from the rest of the city, its outer walls a shiny obsidian chased with occasional golden flourishes. Heavily armed commandos stood watch over the visitor entrance and at various checkpoints within the embassy’s confusing interior.

This clerk seems helpful enough, though, Nathan told himself. Feori Kason, I think his name is. He checked the man’s desk but only found a small sign that read junior clerk.

“That’s correct, Captain.” Probably-Kason beamed at him, his face incredibly lifelike with dark blue skin and silver hair, though his eyes were an off-putting shade of luminous red.

“Good news concerning . . .”

“Your salvage application, of course.”

“Oh?” Nathan’s eyes widened. “Really?”

“Yes, and I appreciate your patience in this matter. Given the”—he gave Nathan a sympathetic smile—“sensitive nature of the salvage in question, it was necessary for me to consult with my government back on Jupiter. That took some time, as you can imagine, and I only just received the official response this morning, hence why I called you in.”

“What did they say?”

Kason retrieved a vlass tablet from one of his desk drawers, inspected it, then set it down in front of Nathan.

“Here. You can read it yourself if you like. That’s your copy to keep, but to summarize, the Star Dragon corvette in question, along with all equipment, supplies, and bodies found onboard, has been declared legal salvage by my government.”

“Really.”

This was too good to be true. What was the catch?

“Yes. Really,” Kason said.

“The Everlife doesn’t want it back?”

“‘Back’?” Kason seemed perplexed for a moment, but quickly recovered. “I believe you misunderstand the situation. The ship in question was never an official part of our military. Instead, it was registered directly to the Xormun copy-clan.”

“Really?”

Kason frowned and drummed his fingers. “Captain Kade, I’m beginning to feel you’re not comfortable taking me at my word.”

“Just surprised, is all. Please continue.”

“Well, as I was saying, we’re dealing with a Xormun clan ship. Under normal circumstances, said clan would petition for the ship’s return, and the Everlife government would move to offer the current holders a finder’s fee for their services.”

A rather stingy one, I’ll bet, Nathan thought.

“However,” Kason continued, “the Xormun clan has come under severe legal scrutiny as of late. Several . . . unfortunate incidents have been brought to our attention, both from private citizens of the Everlife and through official government channels, namely the Union and Concord. It seems the Xormuns have been making quite a nuisance of themselves as of late, especially the Galatt branch, and my government has decided to finally take legal action against the clan.”

“Really?”

“Yes. Really. There’s even talk of excommunicating the entire branch, if you can believe it!” Kason gave him a little shudder before continuing. “I personally doubt the penalties will be quite so severe, but whatever the result, the Xormun clan will find itself on the Everlife’s bad side for decades to come.”

Couldn’t have happened to a nicer bunch of thugs, Nathan thought.

“Then the ship is mine?” he asked the clerk.

“Not. Quite,” Kason replied delicately. He retrieved two stacks of paper forms and another vlass tablet from his desk and set them on top of the first tablet.

“What are these?”

“The steps you need to take in order to properly register your salvage as a flyable ship.” Kason raised an eyebrow. “I assume you wish to keep it and not sell it off?”

“That’s right.”

“Then these documents will guide you through the process.”

“Hmm.” Nathan grimaced at the stack of forms and picked up the second vlass. “I need to register as the ship owner with the Everlife?”

“Correct.”

“What’s with all these fines?”

“Fees,” Kason corrected. “For your new ship to be properly registered with my government.”

“That’s a lot of money. Is this really necessary?”

“Would you rather risk a misunderstanding with one of our patrol ships?”

“No.”

“Then I suggest you follow the process as outlined in these documents.”

Nathan picked up one of the paper forms, which came from the Neptune Concord.

“I expected this one. And I also see the Concord administrative fees are a tenth what the Everlife charges.”

“There is a surcharge for long-distance processing.”

“Of course there is.” Nathan set the form aside and picked up the other one. “What the hell?”

“Is there a problem, Captain?”

“What’s the Union got to do with any of this?”

“You will need to register your new ship with the Saturn Union as well.”

“But I’m not from Saturn, and it’s not one of their ships!”

“True, true.” Kason nodded and smiled. “But they don’t know it’s a legitimate piece of salvage. At the moment, you could be mistaken for a ship thief. This process will clear up any potential confusion.”

“But your government has declared it legal salvage.”

“I know that, and you know that, but the Union . . .” Kason shook his head.

“Can’t you just tell them yourselves?”

“That’s your responsibility as the new owner.”

Nathan glowered at the forms. All these “fees” would add up fast.

“It would almost be better to cut my losses and sell the ship,” Nathan said. “Just use the money to buy a new ship and make a fresh start of it.”

“How you wish to proceed is, of course, your prerogative. I’m merely here to point out your options.”

“Thanks,” Nathan grumbled, his tone neither thankful nor enthusiastic. He glanced over the spread of government forms, then scooped them up and rose from his seat.


Nathan parked his rental car outside the Freelancer Market’s main building—an expansive, white, sixteen-story, crescent-shaped structure built near the outskirts of Port Leverrier’s plateau with a clear view across the farmland plains. He reclined the driver’s seat, propped his boots up on the dash, and began reading through the documentation he’d received from the Jovian embassy.

His mood wasn’t cheery to begin with, and the contents of the forms did nothing to improve it.

“So many fees,” he muttered, occasionally glancing up at the market’s main entrance. “So many large fees.”

About half an hour later, Aiko emerged through one of three sets of double doors and waved at him. She hurried over to the car carrying a hefty gray duffel bag.

“How’d it go?” Nathan asked.

The Jovian stuffed the bag into the trunk and settled into the seat next to him.

“Fabulously! I put the goods up for auction, and we ended up fetching ten times the standard rate for black computronium!”

Ten times?” Nathan echoed in disbelief. “How’d you manage that?”

“A mix of luck and skill. There was a representative from the First Union Bank on hand, and when she inspected the goods, she appraised it as S+++ Uncatalogued Variant. That alone stirred up a ton of interest, and I made sure to stoke it by talking up where we found the stuff.”

“Did anyone believe you?”

“Not sure. The bank appraisal told them our goods were exceedingly rare, which led to a minor bidding war. As for whether anyone bought into the part about the insane statite and the lake of computronium”—she shrugged—“who can say? They can believe whatever they want as long as their money’s good.”

“Who ended up buying it?”

“Some Union government rep. He and a few private investors kept going back and forth, but in the end, he made it clear his deep government pockets were going to win, and the rest backed off.” Aiko chuckled. “We should tell Vess to carry a bigger thermos next time.” She nudged him in the arm. “Oh! Maybe you should buy her one. You know, in case she runs into another statite.”

“I’ll get right on that,” Nathan replied dryly.

“How’d your visit to the embassy go?”

“Mixed. There’s good news and bad news. The good news is the corvette has been declared legitimate salvage.”

“And the bad news?”

Nathan handed her the stack of forms and documents. She shuffled through them, her cameras flitting back and forth across rows of text.

She whistled. “That’s a lot of fines.”

“They’re fees, technically.”

“We should have enough money to cover these.”

Maybe. Remember, we’re going to have repair and refit costs on top of all this. Some of that we can put off, but we really need to rework the corvette’s interior if we plan to keep it. I don’t like the idea of someone hitting the wrong button and inadvertently dumping the ship’s air.”

If we’re keeping it?” Aiko asked.

“Yeah. If. We also need to keep in mind we don’t get to keep the entire haul you earned from the auction. Sixty percent of that belongs to Vess and Josh, plus Rufus earned a cut from our share.”

“You know he’s going to turn it down.”

“That’s up to him. He helped out a lot, and he saved my life. I’m going to offer him a ten percent cut of the whole.”

“If you feel you need to,” Aiko replied with a shake of her head. “I still say he’ll give the offer a pass.”

“Either way, between refit expenses and fees, we’re going to end up short on cash.”

“Wait a second. Are you actually considering selling the ship?”

“The thought crossed my mind.” He leaned back in the seat.

“We could take out a loan to make up the difference.”

“We could. We need to see how the numbers shake out.”

“It’d be a shame to lose a ship like that. What other freelance crew gets to fly around in an Everlife stealth corvette?”

“None that come to mind.”

“We’ll never put our hands on a better ship.”

“I know.” He sighed, then sat up in the seat. “Shall we head back?”

“Sure thing.”

Nathan switched on the car, pulled out of the parking lot, and headed for Ackerson Memorial Spaceport.


Aiko called the others over once she and Nathan were back aboard the ship. Rufus came by shortly after the call, and Joshua and Vessani joined everyone else less than an hour later. They convened in a long, open space on B Deck that Nathan imagined would become the ship’s kitchen and dining hall, should they end up refurbishing the ship.

All five of them sat or stood around the round central table, its rich dark wood engraved with native nekoan text. The wooden chairs were also crafted by the nekoans, with L-brackets and bolts around their feet the only modification made to keep them from floating or sliding away during space travel.

Beany sat in a sturdy pot of Neptunian soil placed near the middle of the table. A small white flower bloomed from the top of the cutting, and tiny buds had formed amongst its leaves, hinting at the coffee bulbs it would soon produce.

“Here’s what we got.” Aiko set her duffel bag on the table, then emptied out several cases marked with first union bank on the tops and sides. Nathan opened each of the cases and turned them toward the clients. All of them were stuffed with row after row of c’troni cylinders.

“That’s . . . a bit more than I expected,” Joshua said.

“We managed to get a good price.” Aiko slid the auction receipt forward.

“So it would seem.”

“Where’s my thermos?” Vessani asked.

“Is that really the most important matter here?” Nathan asked.

“It is to me. I like that thermos.”

“Hold on.” Aiko stuck her arm in the bag and rummaged around in the back before she pulled out the thermos. “Here you go.”

“Thanks!” Vessani accepted the return of her property with a happy flick of her tail.

“Back to business, then?” Nathan divided up the boxes into two groups. “There you have it. Sixty-forty. Everything look good to you?”

Joshua inspected the bank boxes, then gave him a satisfied nod.

“Everything appears to be in order.”

“Normally, this is the part where I have you sign the ‘commitments fulfilled’ page of the contract, but”—Nathan gave them a guilty shrug—“we seem to have lost the originals at some point.”

“And we are not flying out to the Sanguine Ring to find them,” Aiko added firmly.

“I’m sure we can let this one formality slide.” Joshua took in the gleaming money cylinders, then began closing the lids of each case and stacking them. “Anything else?”

“Just some business I need to sort out with our resident cleric.” Nathan pushed one of the boxes toward Rufus.

He pushed it back.

“You sure?”

“Nate, you know me. What am I going to do with all that money?”

“I don’t know. Buy yourself some new wigs?”

“Not to belabor my previous point,” Aiko began, “but we’re not going back to find them.”

“I’m sure I’ll manage,” Rufus replied with a smile. “Go on. You keep it.”

“If you say so.” Nathan slid the box back to his pile. “Gods know we need it.”

“Is it true, then?” Joshua asked.

“What is?”

“That you’re considering selling this ship instead of keeping it?”

Nathan glanced over to Aiko.

“I may have let that slip when I called everyone over,” she said, sounding not the least bit apologetic.

Nathan sighed wearily. “We haven’t decided yet.”

“We both want to keep the ship.” Aiko leaned in with an elbow on the table. “But we’ve got some legal hurdles to jump through first.”

“What kind of hurdles?” Joshua asked.

“The expensive kind,” Nathan said.

“You’re really going to sell off the Stolen Dragon?” Vessani’s ears sagged.

“I didn’t say that,” Nathan replied. “And even if we did, we’re not keeping that name.”

“Why not? It’s a great name.”

“It’ll give the wrong impression to potential clients.”

“You do have a point there,” Joshua said. “I suppose we’ll have to come up with a better one.” He glanced over to Vessani, who nodded to him and together they pushed their money cases back toward the center of the table.

“What’s this for?” Nathan asked.

“Vessani and I would like to discuss a new piece of business with you. An ‘investment,’ if you will.”

“An investment. What kind?”

“In your enterprise.” Joshua gestured around them with one hand. “And in this ship.”

“Really.” Nathan gave Aiko a suspicious glance. She’d been the one to call everyone over, and he hadn’t been around to hear the content of those calls.

“I may have dropped a suggestion or two,” Aiko admitted, still not sounding the least bit sorry.

“Uh-huh.” Nathan turned back to Joshua. “What kind of arrangement are you proposing?”

“A basic profit-sharing one”—Joshua indicated those around the table—“with the two of us staying on as crew, and you retaining a majority share in the business. A ship needs a captain, after all, and I don’t see any of us filling those shoes.”

“Wait a second,” Nathan began incredulously. “You two want more of what we just went through?”

“Well . . .” Joshua chuckled. “Perhaps not quite so ‘skin of our teeth’ as that last one, if we can avoid it.” He then smiled. “Though, I rather enjoyed my first taste of adventure amongst the untamed reaches of the solar system.”

“You, too?” Nathan asked the nekoan.

“I’m just happy to have found a crew that isn’t scheming to screw me over.”

“If we pool our resources, we shouldn’t have any trouble keeping the”—Joshua paused with a slight grimace—“as yet unnamed ship, along with enough spare liquidity to outfit the vessel quite well.” He raised an eyebrow. “What do you say, ‘Captain’?”

“That’s one hell of an offer,” Nathan replied, a grin forming on his lips. “Okay, so, if the four of us—”

Rufus cleared his throat and held up five fingers.

“What?” Nathan asked. “You, too?”

“If the rest of you will have me.”

“Last time you slammed a door in my face, remember? I practically had to beg you to come along.”

“Sorry?” Rufus looked as if he didn’t know what else to say.

“You really want in on this?”

“I do.”

“What about your missionary work?”

“Those efforts are certainly important and rewarding. In their own way.” Rufus paused, and then blew out a quick breath. “But, to be perfectly honest, I was bored.”

“There was smoke coming off the back of your head a few weeks ago.”

“I know what I’m getting into.”

“Well, Captain?” Joshua sat forward. “What do you say to all this?”

Nathan glanced around the room, his gaze passing across each of their expectant faces. Except for Aiko’s of course; he couldn’t read hers, but her body language struck him as at least somewhat expectant.

He hadn’t asked for or even anticipated this opportunity, but now that it lay before him, he couldn’t help but grin.

“What do I say to this? I say we’re going to have ourselves one hell of a ship.” He paused to meet each of their gazes in turn. “And one hell of a crew.”



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