“I’ve got two of the kids working on the console,” Captain Scott explained, much to my astonishment. That contravened several safety regulations, but the Senior Chief’s warning hung in my mind and I disregarded it. I’d have to make a report to the Captain, but there was little point in harassing anyone now. “They’re learning how to carry out repairs without spare components.”
“Impressive,” I said, and meant it. We’d been taught that when a component becomes faulty, it has to be replaced. We didn’t know how to open a component and repair it if there were no spares available. It was no wonder that the First Lieutenant had so much paperwork to do. A missing component at the wrong time could doom the entire vessel and crew. “We need to inspect the cargo holds as well, and then we’ll leave you to your window.”
The Captain took us down a set of stairs — no intership cars for a freighter — and into the main cargo hold. It was a massive modular structure — normally, the freighter would simply unload them all in orbit, rather than trying to land — packed with cargo crates. A handful had been sealed by UN authority and I left those alone, but we opened up a couple more and checked them against the manifest. I wouldn’t have known a piece of farming gear from a cargo of illegal weapons, but the Marines seemed calm and the Captain didn’t look nervous.
“It all seems fine,” I said, finally. I had the legal authority to insist on a full search, but there were no grounds for it and the Captain would be annoyed with me. I’d be cleaning toilets for the next month with a toothbrush. “Thank you for your time.”
“You’re welcome,” Captain Scott said. I knew he didn’t mean it, but I accepted it graciously. “I hope to see you again sometime.”
We were back onboard the shuttle and heading away from the freighter before I realised what he meant.
“We’re picking up an order from System Command,” Alice said, suddenly. “They want us to inspect this freighter here.”
I blinked. The small freighter was pulling away from the planet. I checked the log and it had an open window to depart, but I took the shuttle after it anyway. System Command probably had a reason for it. There was no reason why the freighter couldn’t continue its journey after we’d inspected it, either. The concept of opening a departure window had been outdated centuries ago.
“Hail them,” I ordered. “Tell them to heave to and prepare to be boarded.”
“Done,” Alice said. The freighter’s drive seemed to increase in power. “There is no response.”
I stared. The freighter was trying to outrun us. They didn’t have a hope…unless they managed to reach a safe distance from the planet’s gravity well, where they could open a wormhole and vanish. I ran through the calculations quickly. If they managed to stay ahead of us for three more minutes, they could wormhole out and we’d never see them again. What the hell were they carrying that was so important?
“It must be illegal weapons,” Alice murmured. “What else could it be?”
I wanted the Captain to give me orders, but even if I called the Jacques Delors directly and asked for orders, the Captain would tell me that I was in command. He’d given me the responsibility and I couldn’t shirk it. It would have been easy to hesitate long enough to let the freighter go, but I remembered the battle on Terra Nova and shuddered. I wasn’t going to let more illegal weapons loose if I could help it.
“Pursuit course,” I said, engaging the drive. The shuttle leapt forward as if it had been stung by a bee. Under such orders, I could ignore most safety regulations and I took a hellish delight in skimming closer to another freighter. “Alice, charge weapons; prepare to engage.”
“Aye, sir,” Alice said. I was astonished that there was no sarcasm in her tone. She seemed confident that I could handle the task without prodding. “Lasers ready, sir; shields deployed.”
I nodded. On the face of it, we were engaging a behemoth, but the freighter couldn’t hope to outrun us, or even destroy us if we were careful. I looked down at the manifest from System Command and frowned. It didn’t list any weapons at all, but that proved nothing.
“Transmit a sterner warning,” I ordered, still puzzled. They might escape, but not without us taking a bite out of them. Maybe I was being foolish, but I wasn’t going to allow them to escape so easily, whatever they were smuggling. “Tell them to stand down their drives at once or we open fire.”
“Signal sent,” Alice said. There was a long pause. I was starting to wonder if I would have to fire into the vessel, or perhaps try to force-board them, before the drive field flickered out of existence. “They’re standing down their drives now.”
“I don’t understand,” I muttered, wishing — again — that I could consult the Captain. I tapped a key, sending a full data download to the Jacques Delors, but the Captain probably wouldn’t issue any different orders. The ball was still in my court. “Prepare to dock.”
The mystery was solved the moment we stepped onboard the small freighter, weapons ready. The Captain was surrounded by a group of unregistered men, their faces tired and desperate, pleading for mercy. I didn’t understand until we took their biometrics and compared them to System Command’s download; they were all listed as wanted criminals. Somehow, the Captain had managed to move over two hundred criminals onto his ship to transport them out of the system. I sent a signal to System Command, asking for reinforcements and a crew for the ship, and then searched the remainder of the vessel. We found several women and children, hidden away in various sealed compartments, but none of them were on the wanted list. I wondered if they were kidnap victims, but they seemed unhappy to see us. One attractive blonde even tried to kick a Marine in the groin.
Once the reinforcements had arrived and formally arrested the criminals, who offered no resistance, we returned to the Jacques Delors and I made a full report. The Captain listened quietly, without interrupting, but he wasn’t pleased. I could tell that he wasn’t pleased, even though he seemed unconcerned and even gave me a note of commendation for my file. There was just… a slow anger burning away in his eyes…
And I honestly didn’t understand why. What had I done?
Chapter Seven
Officially, the UN is a representative democracy, with everyone having a vote. In practice, it is run by a ‘political class’ and controlled by literally millions of bureaucrats. Although there is a certain pretence of elections and democracy, the senior personages are always from the same class and outside candidates are defeated by a complicated political selection process. Any political party must have the approval of the UN General Assembly to operate…and, naturally, no party is granted this approval without being firmly wedded to the status quo. The system is, quite simply, beyond reform. It is worth noting that of the last seven Secretary-Generals, three of them attempted to reform the bureaucracy…and ended up dying under mysterious circumstances.
“I thought I’d find you here,” the Senior Chief said. “How are you feeling?”
I shrugged. I had been sitting in the observation blister for the last twenty minutes, watching the stars. We didn’t get much free time on the starship — that was for leave, or so Lieutenant Hatchet had informed us — but what little we had, I tended to spend in the blister. There was just something about looking at the unblinking stars that put the entire universe in perspective.
“Lousy,” I growled finally, too tired to care about how I spoke to him. “What did I do wrong?”