“I see it. What do ya make of it kid?”
“Looks like there was fluid between the primary and secondary hull plating. It probably blew the plates part way apart when we entered the atmosphere and the liquid expanded.”
Captain Valance turned and looked to Ashley, who had set her chair down and was watching the crew set to work. “How busy are we? Do we have an extra man?”
Ashley looked up to him then back to her list. “We have some extra bodies. Other than a particle emitter that needs servicing and a little work on the hull there isn't much to do. Most of the crew will probably be out here getting some sun with me by the time you get back.”
“Have someone take care of this section, we have about nine centimetres of corrosion.”
“Aye sir.”
“Let's get going. The Ferret isn't far off,” Captain Valance said as he looked at a command and control unit on his left arm. It was three quarters the length of his forearm, black, and had a curving display as well as a pair of small hologram emitters. It was tied into all three of his ships, had independent communications systems and a basic information management artificial intelligence. Finn peeked at the screen on the black unit and saw that the Captain had found the Ferret III's transponder.
As they walked to the embarkation doors Finn took the opportunity to ask about it. “Captain, I'm wondering, if you can switch transponders so easily, why doesn't the Ferret do the same?”
“Good question. The Ferret is an Aprisa model small freighter. They're known for their power cores and engines, so they're popular with legal cargo haulers but the transponder is built right into the middle of the antimatter reactor. You'd have to uninstall the entire core of the engine and rebuild it with a new transponder.”
“Ah, I could see that being a problem. Glad the Samson has a mass reactor.”
“You're not the only one, lad,” Frost agreed. “Security checkpoint time,” he said before they stepped into an airlock that lead into the port expressway.
“This is your first time on an agricultural planet?” Captain Valance asked Finn.
“Aye sir. I grew up on Mercury Prime.”
“Ah, in a port city?”
“Yup, Perth.”
“Not much growing there. That's mostly refineries right?”
“Yup, ships coming and going from above, and thousands of different chemical products being refined below,” he said as the trio were scanned for dangerous foreign materials and weaponry by the automated systems.
The chamber lights turned green and the inner doors opened for them. “Dangerous city.”
“We've had a couple explosions since I was born, a few fires, but nothing too costly.”
“Do you have anyone back home?”
“A brother, sister and our parents. They all work in the refineries. I wanted to get out and see the galaxy though.”
“Welcome to the big, big universe Finn,” Jake said as they passed through the inner doors to the expressway walk. It was a large open space. The walkway was a broad balcony that ran along the entire inner wall of the massive port building. The empty space in the center was occupied by the skeleton of a massive sea creature, longer than the Samson. The walls, floors and ceilings were white and clean with no advertisements.
“Now these people know how to take care of a planet. I'll take this over the mad jungle outside any day,” Frost said quietly.
“Who owns it?” Finn asked.
“The Thadd Government. They named themselves after their founder when he died a couple hundred years ago.”
“Yup, everything is expensive unless you live here.”
“You get discounts if you're a resident?”
“Yup, about sixty percent but you're not allowed to barter with outsiders unless you're registered as a business. Then you're bound by the Resource Management Authority, who regulates your prices, the quantities you sell, who you sell them to, pretty much everything. Citizens are guaranteed quality housing, education, easy jobs and the best fresh food. They live like royalty but at a price,” Captain Valance said as they headed towards one of the twenty or so lifts set into the sides of the port tower.
“I'll take a cot in a shed on a dust ball over this any time. It's too alive, never know what's waiting in that jungle of theirs,” Frost commented.
“You were whistling a different tune when we took leave on the beach a few months ago,” Captain Valance said as they stepped into the lift. There were a couple of travellers in colourful vacationers clothing inside, and the trio were quiet as the transparent elevator car made it's way up. On one side you could see level after level of the walkways whip past. On the other the jungle met with the great ocean, a stripe of white sand created a visible border between. The various ships and landing platforms went by as well and Finn was torn between looking at their various designs and the sights past them.
Everything from high speed cargo haulers to pleasure yachts with large rounded windows and gently curved hulls were present and the port was very busy. The vacationers stepped out and the doors closed, leaving the trio alone.
“Okay, stay behind us Finn. The Captain of the Ferret hasn't made a lease payment in over six years and we're the fourth reclamation crew to officially go after him. He's shot someone before so if it looks like it's about to get dangerous, go for cover. No heroics, don't even poke your head out. If someone or something gets right in your face stun them, don't give them a warning, don't try to run, and don't give it a second thought. It's better to stun first and apologize later than it is to get an extra hole in you.”
“I thought this port didn't let people with lethal weaponry in, that's what the port laws said.”
“You're right lad, but you can carry whatever you want on your landing platform,” Frost filled in. “I'm guessin' this was never a fact findin' mission.”
“You're right. We have to go in light and fast on this. There's no where to hide on these platforms, if we go poking around they'll notice us so we have to go in before they know what's going on. The other retrieval agents failed because they didn't make it aboard the ship, so I'm going to walk in, act like I own the place and they'll believe me. Besides, Silver served on the Ferret a couple years ago, I don't know how close he is to his former Capitan but I'd rather not give him the chance to blow this on us.”
“Ah, aye Captain.”
Jake Valance took another look at his arm console as they stepped out onto the walkway. They were about fifty levels up from where they had left the ship and Finn couldn't help looking back out the window and down. It was looking down the trunk of some shiny, white tree, with spoon like branches extending straight out from the trunk in all different directions. The fact that they were various sizes only added to the aesthetic. He squeezed his eyes shut as vertigo threatened to overtake him.
“You all right kid?” The Captain asked.
“I'm fine, sorry.”
“Right, don't look down if it makes ya green,” Frost chuckled.
They walked along the causeway behind Captain Valance, who kept his command unit just high enough to glimpse at. He was surveying the walkway and the doors leading out to the platform where he expected to find the Ferret III.
They moved into the scanning chamber and the doors closed behind them. The outer doors were fogged, so no one could see in or out. The blue scanning beam moved up and down across the three, did a second pass, which was normal, then proceeded to do six more passes. “He jammed the scanning chamber,” Frost concluded.
“Yup,” Jake Valance said. “One minute.” He accessed the Port Master's channel through his command console and a moment later a round faced tanned fellow's head appeared holographically above his arm. “Port Master's Help Desk, Kala speaking. How can I help you?”
“We're a repossession crew trying to access platform 1245h and the scanning chamber is jammed.”