“Um, Pilot Ashley Lamport,” she said, blushing.
“How's Elise?” Jake asked with a wry grin.
“Oh, she's fine, still sleeping,” the Minister let Ashley's hand go slowly and turned towards the stairs at the end of the foyer. “I get the feeling you're here on business.”
“I wish I had time for something else, but I'm back on the run.”
“Some things never change. Can we talk openly in front of your pilot?” Asked the Minister as they walked through the interior doors. They were as ornately carved as the walls, but Ashley could see the decor just covered several centimetres of hardened metal.
He didn't wait for the Captain to answer, but turned to her, flashing a grin. “We can talk in front of you, right?” he looked back to Jake. “She seems smart enough to keep this meeting to herself. I'd like her to stay,” his attention bounced back to her. “You should stay, have some fruit.”
“I trust Ashley with my ship, so I'd trust her with anything that comes up here,” Captain Valance confirmed calmly. The Minister's excitable demeanour didn't phase him in the least.
“Well, I do have some news for you. Regent Galactic has put an open bounty on your head.”
The sitting room was a little more intimate. There were four thickly padded sofas in the middle of the room set up in a square. Along the walls there were chairs and three side boards with different beverages and snacks. Small bowls of fresh fruit were placed around the room. She followed Jake's lead and sat down beside him on one of the dark brown sofas.
Minister Lorne picked up one of four bowls of yellow and green melon slices and added a dollop of white cream on top. She did the same and just listened as she ate small bites.
“How much is this bounty?” Asked Jake.
“Only five hundred thousand, but the word is they have a specialist on it.”
“The word? I know Regent doesn't exactly let rumours out.”
“All right, I checked with Intelligence before you arrived. We don't know anything about him yet, sorry. Reminds me of you when we first met.”
“Hopefully he's not as good.”
“Here's hoping,” he turned to her for a moment, his demeanour instantly becoming more pleasant. “How's the melon? I like it this sweet, not everyone does.”
“It's very good, thank you,” Ashley said, holding her hand up over her mouth as she talked around a bite.
“I expected more trouble from Regent Galactic. I cost them a lot of credits.” Jake continued.
“I'll say. I don't think they'll be short on subjects to experiment on though. Our intelligence shows that there are a lot of ships just like the one you took out. I'm sorry we can't go after them, they're not a priority right now.”
Ashley stopped eating, lowering the bowl down to her lap. Not a priority. The phrase rang in her ears.
Jake only nodded. “How is the war going?”
“Badly. We're not losing on all fronts, but our territory is shrinking. Regent Galactic is starting to cut off our main supply lines.”
“Do you know where their supply lines are?” Jake asked.
The Minister stopped and stared at him for a moment. “You're looking to do some damage,” he said with the beginning of a smile on his face.
“I'm looking to trade services.”
“Now things are getting interesting,” he hastily put his bowl down and rubbed his hands together while sitting up on the edge of his seat. “Captain Valance is asking for something.”
“I need help finding my daughter. It's been a year and a half since she last contacted us and I didn't get the message then.”
“What can you give me?”
“All the information is right here,” Jake said as he put a small gold coloured centimetre by centimetre chip on the table.
“What are you offering in return?”
“I'll sign as a privateer with your government.”
“Do it publicly. If you record what you're doing and we broadcast it over our networks, it'll bolster morale. We could quadruple our force of privateers in weeks.”
“I don't work that way.”
“Oh come on. You made Regent Galactic look like evil incarnate with your last capture, why not sign the contract in public and maybe say a few words? Then we can put recorders on your crew, you won't even know they're there, and make it a real show. Like a regular thing on the Newsnets, maybe even do a few live Holocasts.”
“I'm not going to let you record everything we do and put people on my ship.”
“All right, fine. No people on your ship but there's gotta be a way we can get you and your crew on camera,” he brought his hands up in the shape of a frame, squaring Ashley's face for a moment as though looking at her through a screen, “in three dimensions or two dimensions, you've probably got enough beauties and beasts in your crew to make some real drama in the dead times and a few mad minutes when the action is on. Toss me a line here Jake, let's make this war popular!”
“I might be able to send you something but I'm not going to let you just jack in and record everything I do. You're not linking to us to any networks. We're not going to become some kind of reality programming. I can't have someone in the way or a link someone can trace. If I'm going to hit and run or capture cargo for you I have to do it unfettered.”
“All right, let's lay it out then. We sign you on as a privateer, you get your repairs for cost and labour. You'll also keep forty percent of what you capture.”
“I won't do it for less than seventy percent untaxed, and repairs when we pull into port. I'll also send you footage you can use while your intelligence network digs up information on my daughter.”
“You'll do one recruitment spot and give us twenty hours of action footage within two months. If the rest of your crew could do something like a confessional type interview that would just wrap it all up nicely.”
“No confessional interviews.”
“Fine, we'll make something up,” he looked to Ashley and winked. “Unless you want to provide some details.”
Jake sighed. “So I keep seventy percent of everything, repairs at material costs and you look for my daughter using your intelligence network. I'll need some experienced volunteers, whatever information you have on Regent Galactic's trade routes and supply lines. In return you get footage,”
“Two hours of action footage, eighteen hours of coverage.” Interrupted the excited Minister.
“okay, two hours of action footage and a recruitment spot within the space of two months and you can use the footage of us walking through your lovely facilities on the way here as coverage.”
“Fine. Do we have a deal Captain?”
“See what you can dig up on my daughter before my ship is repaired. If you find something I don't already know then we have a deal. I'll only sign with someone from the Defence Ministry though. I won't have you back this only to find out it gets kicked at the last minute,” Jake said, extending his hand.
The Minister was positively grinning as he slipped his clean, soft, manicured hand into the Captain's black armoured grip. “The hero of the Thadd system officially on our side. They'll have to approve it. This'll go over like bang! In the press,” he exclaimed excitedly.
Too Easy
The ride back was quiet. Captain Valance wasn't brooding, that wasn't the word. He was pensive. She tried not to look at him. Thankfully the view outside was amazing. Ashley could see the hurricane meeting the electromagnetic break wall. Before it was mostly circular, a gathering of clouds around a dark center. As she looked on the hurricane was taking on an oval shape and wisps of white clouds were starting to break free.
“How long do you think it'll last?” She asked.
“The war?”
“Um, sure.”
“They've been fighting for almost ten years. Regent Galactic is engaged with this government and another super corporation, it'll go on until they win. A few more years maybe.”