“We may as well get right to it,” he began.
Tarn nodded. “I can’t figure out why the Empire would send you, of all people,” he said.
Kas frowned. “Send me? Hell, they booted me! Look, Tarn, I get the feeling I’m missing something. Who or what am I supposed to be? I mean, you talked about jail. I just barely avoided being locked up on Prime. Now I come out here, and you want to lock me up. What’s going on?”
Tarn eyed him suspiciously. “We may get to that, though you won’t enjoy it if we do. Why don’t you just tell me what you’re doing out here out of uniform and in an old trading hulk?”
Kas put on a wounded expression that was, he was glad to note, echoed by Rom. “ Starhopper may be old, but she’s no hulk. She’s sound as an Imperial crown!” Tarn showed no reaction, and after a long moment, Kas sighed deeply.
“I’d hoped to not have to go into this. The crew doesn’t know. But it looks like I have no choice.” He sighed again. “You remember Admiral Lu-Jenks?”
Tarn’s rigid expression softened slightly. “Sure do. You were his favorite hate object. He seemed to want to devote the rest of his career to ridding the Fleet of outerworld scum like you.”
Kas grimaced as he nodded. “Yah. Well, he decided to take it upon himself to do just that. He sent me on a rigged mission in command of a destroyer. I was to raid a pirate base that had been found on an airless moon in an uninhabited system not far from Avalon. But they were waiting for us. We were hit with nuclear-pumped planetary defense lasers, heavy particle beams, and even missiles. We took ship damage and almost twenty percent casualties; over fifty percent in the landing party. The thing was, we succeeded, which Lu-Jenks obviously didn’t expect.”
“When we finally took the place, we found proof that Lu-Jenks had warned the pirates that we were coming.” He slammed his fist on the arm of his chair. “I still can’t believe that a Fleet officer, an Admiral at that, would do that to his own people!”
He frowned into his lap for a moment before continuing. “When we limped back to Avalon, Lu-Jenks knew something had gone wrong. He ordered me to his office on the planet to report.” A hint of a grim smile touched his lips. “I reported, all right. I broke his jaw and a few other body parts before his staff pulled me off him. He said he would have me executed for assaulting a superior officer. He would have, too. But I had the evidence, and I made sure it got to the proper people.
“Proper!” He continued with a sour smile. “They said it would be bad for Fleet morale to court-martial an Admiral, especially one from as powerful a family as Lu-Jenks’. All they did was make him retire. With full honors and full pension, of course.
“Naturally, they weren’t quite so considerate with outerworld Captains. I was offered a choice: take early retirement and a reduced pension, or be court-martialed for assaulting that pompous bastard.”
His expression turned bitter. “So, an innerworld Admiral schemes to get sixty-three Fleet people killed and a hundred and thirty more wounded, and retires with honors. I fight a heavy action against a prepared opponent, and get booted out at reduced pension. So much for devotion to the Fleet!”
He shrugged, and a sour grin surfaced. “When the story began getting around, I did find that I suddenly had a lot of friends. One of them fixed me up with a civilian Master’s ticket, and few more managed to find me financing to buy the old Starhopper and bid on the charter to deliver these cold-sleep colonists. I signed on an outerworld crew on shares, and here I am.” He finished.
Tarn was looking skeptical. “And how long ago was this?” He asked.
“Just over a standard year, now,” Kas replied.
Tarn turned to his aide and gestured slightly. The Lieutenant nodded, and Tarn turned back to Kas. “Lieutenant Trensa needs to call my ship,” he said. “Is there someplace he can get secure communications?”
Kas grinned, “This is a trading tub, not a flagship. Secure communications don’t come with the package.” He thumbed the intercom. “Edro, the Lieutenant from the corvette will be coming up to the bridge to use the comms. Show him how to use them if necessary, then you and Tera leave the bridge to give him some privacy.” He turned and looked at the Lieutenant as he continued, “the Lieutenant will let you know when he’s finished, so you can resume your bridge stations.” The Lieutenant nodded silently and slipped out the hatch.
Kas turned his attention back to Tarn as the latter was saying, “I should have known that anywhere I’d find Kas Preslin, I’d find a beautiful woman! And what’s such a lovely young lady doing consorting with a degenerate like Preslin?”
Lady Jane blushed, but flashed a broad smile. “Oh, aside from an insatiable lechery, he’s not so bad.” She shrugged. “Actually, I guess you could call me a guide. Captain Preslin wasn’t familiar with the independents and the Alliance. So, since my ship was laid up I contracted to help keep him out of trouble.”
Tarn snorted. “It would take more than one woman to keep Kas Preslin out of trouble.” His smile faded. “You have a ship? May I ask your identity and citizenship, please?”
She shrugged, her expression bland. “Of course. I’m Jane Gray. They call me ‘Lady’ Jane Gray. I’m an Alliance citizen, though I spend most of my time in the independents.”
He nodded. “I recognize the name, though I’ve not had the pleasure of meeting you before. You’re pretty well known in this part of space. Your ship is also the Lady Jane, is it not?” She nodded.
“Well,” He continued, “You’re an Alliance citizen, and you’ve just heard Kas’ story for the first time. What do you think? Is it just a cover story for an operation by Imperial Fleet Intelligence?”
Jane grinned. “Nobody would make up a story like that, especially a military organization! Punching out an Admiral? I mean, really!” She turned an old-fashioned glare on Kas. “I wouldn’t put it past him to do it, either!”
Tarn chuckled. “I wouldn’t, either. After all, I’ve known him for over ten years. How about it, Kas? Did you really do that, or is it just your cover story?”
Kas shrugged. “I imagine you’ll know in a few minutes. That’s what your Lieutenant’s doing, isn’t it? Checking out my story? I figure you must have someone on board your ship that’s recently returned from the Empire.”
Tarn's smile was sincere. “Of course. One of my officers returned six months ago from detached duty on Prime.” He shrugged. “In the meantime, let’s take care of business. Who issued that charter, and where is this colony they’re establishing?”
Uh oh, Kas thought, here we go. He shrugged and slid Starhopper ’s papers across his desk. “The colony’s on a planet called Turow’s World. The Charter was issued by Farterra.”
Tarn frowned. “Farterra’s not establishing any colonies. They can’t even keep their home world solvent.” He was leafing through the documents.
Kas shrugged. “So Lady Jane tells me. I figure they experienced a communications lag. Their trade representatives on Prime issued the charter before they heard about Farterra’s economic collapse. By the time they heard it was too late.”
Tarn nodded. “Possibly. So where does that leave you?”
Kas shrugged again. “Depends. If you don’t delay me too much and I can make my delivery on schedule, it makes no difference. The balance of the charter is in escrow on Prime. Of course if I don’t make it on time, I imagine they’d be eager to impose the delivery penalties set out in my charter. If you really held me up, I could end up losing Starhopper. So, while I’m glad to see you, you’ll understand if I tell you to quit wasting time and let me go! I just wanted to recal in your damned system, not take up residence!”
Tarn leaned forward with a grin, resting his elbows on Kas' desk. “We’ll see. But there’s too much at stake to just turn you loose for old times’ sake!”
Kas frowned. “There you go again! What’s going on, Tarn? What’s the Empire got up to since I’ve left that’s got the Alliance so excited?”