The luxury passenger ship bearing Julia Debran and her daughters made the perilous passage to Barataria through the Pleiades star cluster. Thorson had made the journey many times and he knew just where to travel and when to signal the recognition code. It took him three days to complete the passage, because the ship developed an unfortunate tendency to drift off course as the occasional gravity eddies would stretch out their tendrils and attempt to pull them in. It was not a life threatening issue, as a tug would come get them out if he miscalculated and got sucked in, but his professional pride would not let him get sloppy. He took it slow and arrived at the moon of Barataria only two days behind his original estimate.
As he approached the artificial moon, its massive door opened to let him inside the cavernous globe left behind by that mysterious missing civilization. He called for gate assignment and was told to dock at gate 16. Security met him at the airlock and took the Debrans off his hands. He told the security chief to make sure nothing happened to them, as he would be looking in on them. The Ascetic didn’t even respond to the poorly veiled threat, but walked off with the three women to a detention cell, until the shuttle was ready to depart for the planet. A female Ascetic gathered up some clothes for the Debrans and followed along behind.
Chapter Nine
Shadow Lead Analyst G’Lon, of the Imperial Analytical Cabal, was reviewing the data forwarded from the Missile Corvette J’New. At first, he thought it must be some image projection of a ship from the D’Rin star cluster’s Human side. Those sometimes happened, but never at this distance. The hard spectral analysis of the ship proved it wasn’t a mirage. The best K’Rang astrographers had surveyed the star cluster for over a decade and pronounced it impassable. How could they have been wrong? Over 100 Shadow Force scouts in six ships had perished, verifying the impassability of this zone.
Here, if true, the Humans had an open path between two K’Rang main worlds. An invasion through this approach could split the empire. The Shadow Force Fleet and Imperial Fleet were still reconstituting from the debacle at G’Dranu, or New Alexandria, as the Humans called it. Fleet severely reduced K’Rang main world defenses to bolster the frontier against an expected Human counterattack.
He set up an emergency meeting with Master Tactician B’Gotil, of the Imperial Staff, to brief his findings. He also forwarded a message to the K’Rang Fleet Personnel Directorate, recommending approval for the promotion of Sensor Technician T’Get and an appropriate award for Sensor Lead Technician H’Talli. A short call to the captain of the J’New sent it on an immediate sortie to monitor the location where the Human ship was detected.
Kelly reviewed what the sensor section found for him on Debran Industries. Friedrich Debran was the second son of industrialist Johann Debran. His brother, Wilhelm, had been appointed as Chief Executive Officer for Debran Industries, Inc., but died in a ground car accident before he had been in the job for a month. Police had investigated the accident, thought that there was something suspicious about it, but couldn’t find any hard evidence of wrongdoing.
Kelly reviewed the growth of Debran Industries, Inc. since the changeover. Friedrich did a very good job as CEO. He grew the business and diversified the company to include light manufacturing, electronics, mining, shipping, entertainment, and armaments. The net worth of the company had grown by 300 % under his stewardship. There were more than a few securities commission concerns on some of the mergers, but they always went through, such as the 51 % controlling interest in the Indigo Consortium after the mysterious fire that killed Charles Delphant, the Indigo Consortium’s former CEO and brother of Debran’s chief of staff.
It was obvious that Debran was politically connected and could get his way when needed. Kelly checked political contribution databases and found extensive contributions to Colonial Party candidates and causes. Kelly found a think tank sponsored by Debran that was frequently quoted in news reports, supporting the Colonial Party agenda.
On the personal side, Friedrich had been married to Julia Deirdre Halscomb since 2295.08.03. He had two daughters: Christine, 26, and Sylvia, 21. The daughters were frequent subjects of tabloid gossip and Tri-Vid celebrity shows. He checked out their photos and saw they were lookers. Most of the pictures were taken in high-end locations and hotspots with them in little to no clothing.
Kelly pulled up some photos of Mrs. Debran, which showed where the girls got their looks. She conveyed a sense of grace and style in every photo, whether posed or candid. Kelly looked up her family and saw she was from an Old Earth banking family, and had a fortune of her own that may have rivaled Debran’s. Kelly wondered if theirs was a marriage of two great families for commercial purposes or for love.
Sally Halstead was uncharacteristically whistling while she prepared the evening meal. One-Eyed Pete suspected it had something to do with the new dishwasher she’d convinced him to hire.
One-Eyed Pete had no interest in Sally beyond her ability to cook excellent meals and make him a lot of credits. If young Russell Obwobwo made her happy, Pete was happy. He did get a kick out of watching the two of them trying to be discreet and failing miserably. The two were smitten with each other. He could see it in their eyes and their inability to avoid brushing up against each other. They did make an odd couple. You wouldn’t think a young, strong, handsome man would feel attraction towards a pear-shaped, plain woman ten years his senior or vice versa, but they did.
Pete was happy to have Russell around. In addition to keeping Sally beaming, he had a green thumb when it came to growing herbs. A small shipment of live herb plants and seeds came in on a captured ship. Russell convinced Pete to bid on them and established a small herb garden, which produced many more fresh herbs than Sally could use. Pete sold these to his fellow restaurant owners at a tidy profit. Russell had already repaid his own purchase cost with the profits from his herb garden. Pete had plans to expand the herb garden next year.
Pete’s reverie was halted as two members of the Ascetic Guards, a Deacon, third-class and an Acolyte, second-class, entered the kitchen through the delivery door. He moved to intercept them, thinking they had come in the wrong door.
“Gentlemen, can I help you? Our dining room is through the glass door on the street front.”
The senior guard pulled a pocket tablet out and said, “We have a special order here to be filled.”
Pete came up to them and looked at the tablet.
“Gentlemen, we can provide you with the first and second meals on your list, but the third is not available on Barataria. If it were, it would be here in my kitchen. Sally, come look at this.”
Sally came over and perused the menu on the tablet and then exploded, “Pearlfish! What dumbass thought they could get pearlfish? Those are embargoed from export out of the Spica system. They’re on the endangered species list, fer chrissake. Nobody can get pearlfish. How about wingfish in a butter sauce? Those I got.”
The two guards looked at each other with looks of pure puzzlement. Their simple diet included nothing on the tablet. The senior guard pulled out a communicator and spoke briefly. He put away his communicator and said the wingfish would be fine, then asked if they could be ready in 30–45 minutes.
Sally threw up her hands and said, “Who is this for? It’s obviously not someone that’s been on Barataria for long, if they think we can get pearlfish.”
The guards were unresponsive to her query, so she pulled ingredients out of her larder and started her prep. In 40 minutes she had completed the meals, plated them, and prepared them for carry out. The meals were more than the two guards could manage by themselves, so Russell was dragooned into helping them. Russell wouldn’t really be needed until later, when the dinner meal was served, so Pete let him go with the guards to ensure the meals’ safe arrival at their destination.