“I know,” I said. I was always a little shy around Alice. She scared the crap out of me. She was the type of woman who would go walking through dark alleyways, confident that the night held nothing more dangerous than her. If I hadn’t known her reputation, I might even have asked her out on a date; Marines weren’t in the same chain of command. “It’s just beautiful.”
“You’ll also have a much greater chance of appreciating it in the future if you get on with the patrol,” Alice said, dryly. I nodded reluctantly. I might be senior officer on the shuttle, but that was only as long as I obeyed the Captain’s orders. “Which ship do you want to board?”
I looked down at the live feed from System Command. A handful of freighters had already been inspected by the local UN detachment and marked as clear. A couple more had immunity from inspection and had to be left alone. That left seventeen freighters in orbit that needed to be inspected. The smallest of them made our starship look tiny. It was going to be a long day.
“That one,” I said, finally. I pointed to the icon representing a massive bulk freighter. The manifest claimed that it was transporting vital farming machinery to Amish, something that made little sense until I recalled that Amish was a low-tech world with a thriving trade in illegal technology. The people who had founded the planet had wanted a life free of the corrupting influence of technology, but some of the settlers had disagreed when they’d finally discovered just what a low-tech life was like. The crew of the freighter would stand to make a huge profit if they delivered to the right people. “I’m taking us in now.”
The smaller the craft, the faster it could build up acceleration. I triggered the drive field and swooped down towards the freighter, transmitting our IFF signal ahead of us. By law, we had to keep a safe distance from any other craft while performing an intercept, but I skirted the border as close as I dared. Flying the shuttle was different to flying an ordinary aircraft. I could do things in a shuttle that would be impossible in a jet aircraft. I could even turn on a credit piece.
“They’re acknowledging,” Alice said. I allowed myself a moment of relief. We were legally authorised to inspect any starship, but the independent freighter crews tended to dislike us encroaching on their territory. It wasn’t unknown for shuttle crews to suffer accidents. In theory, all of the freighters were unarmed; in practice, there were dozens of interesting tricks freighter crews could pull to give them some teeth. The Captain would avenge our deaths, unless the freighter made it clear before the starship could intercept, but that wouldn’t save our lives. “They’re demanding a full copy of our authorisations.”
“Send it,” I ordered. The Senior Chief had warned me about that too. We harass them, they harass us… and the winner is the one who keeps his cool. “Order them to open a docking port for us and signal location.”
“Done,” Alice said. A new icon blinked into existence on my display. “They’ve opened a port, sir.”
I nodded. By law, all starships have to have compatible equipment, but I wouldn’t have put it past a freighter crew to tamper with it in some way to make docking harder, particularly as it wasn’t something I could charge them for. Freighters operate close to the margins and it wasn’t unknown for them to have maintenance problems that couldn’t be handled outside a shipyard. I slowed the shuttle, carefully matched course and speed, and linked the two ships together. A moment later, we were docked.
“Matching pressure now,” Crewman Frederick Jones said. He was a big hulking man who didn’t look as if he could be intimidated by anyone short of the Senior Chief. I had the impression that he was the real escort for me, as well as the real inspector. What did I know about searching a starship? I’d barely had a chance to inspect the diagrams of the freighter. “Hatches opening.”
I reached for my cap and set it on my head. “Come on,” I said. “Let’s go meet the neighbours.”
The freighter captain and two of his crew were waiting for us as we stepped out of the airlock. The captain reminded me of Captain Harriman, except he had a long beard — forbidden to UNPF naval officers — and a slight paunch. His expression was carefully controlled, but I was sure that I could sense an underlying anger and concern. The Senior Chief had briefed me carefully and warned me to ignore anything apart from actual smuggling, but the Captain wouldn’t know that. A proper examination of his ship would probably end up with his licence being confiscated on the grounds his ship was unfit to fly. The other two crewmen didn’t bother to hide their disdain.
“Welcome onboard my ship,” the Captain said, calmly. “I am Captain Scott, master of the Underlying Liberty, out of Williamson’s World. I also have a cleared window to depart in an hour, so I suggest that we move along with it.”
“Yes, sir,” I said, and then caught myself. He reminded me so much of my Captain that obedience was automatic. “Ah, we can clear a later window if necessary, but I’m sure it won’t be. May I see your manifest?”
The Captain nodded to one of his crewmen, who passed me a datapad. I pulled out my terminal and compared it briefly to the manifest System Command had sent me. It was largely identical, although two crewmen on the original list were missing, replaced with new names and faces.
“They decided that they would prefer another ship,” the Captain explained, when I asked. “There’s no shortage of berths around here for qualified crewmen and some other Captain made them an offer. I had to take on two more to replace them.”
“I see,” I said, puzzled. “Didn’t they sign a contract to work for you for several years?”
He smiled at my naivety. “Not in the real world,” he said, dryly. “A senior crewman can earn far more by advancing up the ladder owning to his experience, not to his political connections. No crewman would accept such a contract unless they were really desperate and probably unsuited for the job. This isn’t Earth, you know.”
I flushed slightly. “No, sir,” I agreed. On Earth, it was extremely difficult to get rid of an employee unless there was clear proof of criminal activity. The UN had finally granted the workers all the rights they’d sought since time out of mind. Things were definitely different outside the Solar System. “I’ll need to inspect the newcomers cards…”
“They have already been cleared by System Command,” the Captain said, still calmly. I wondered if he was mocking me slightly, but his face was still blank. “I can have copies fired over to your starship if you like, but System Command handled it for us.”
“Good,” I said. This was not going according to plan. “I believe we’ll start with the bridge, if you don’t mind…?”
The Captain probably did mind, but he led us down a long corridor, chattering away as if we were welcome guests. The interior corridors were surprisingly clean and tidy — I had been expecting something darker and unpleasant — and decorated with children’s scribbles. The Underlying Liberty was a family-owned ship, I remembered from the manifest; they had special licences to carry children and even give them education onboard the vessel. I envied them. I hadn’t known just how ignorant I was, despite the Academy, until I’d boarded the Jacques Delors. The bridge was neat and tidy, but compared to our bridge it looked primitive, with several consoles merged together and two of them open for inspection. I peered inside, just to be through, but I honestly couldn’t have told a working console from a useless unit. The Engineer probably could have, but he wasn’t with us.