"You should have thought of that before you went out your hatch, Ms. Simeon," Dyson said, as he disconnected the automatic recording device.
"And before you opened your big mouth. And claimed an acquaintance you didn't have!" He cut the transmission with a decisive snap.
Dyson sat back, a satisfied sneer on his face. I enjoyed that! he thought. It wasn't every day that you got your own back with the blessings of Central Worlds Security.
He grinned as he recalled the look of sick horror on her pretty face. It's moments like these that make life worthwhile, Dyson mused.
The fine wouldn't stick, of course. In fact he wasn't even supposed to register more than a minimal fine. Ah, but what if the good Captain checks? he wondered as he entered the astronomical fine. I can always erase it later. He sat back again. If they tell me to.
He chuckled. Life is good!
Joat just stared at the blank screen for a moment, frozen in shock. "Ooops," she said.
Alvec cleared his throat. "I know what ooops means," he said. "It means, I screwed the pooch. Boss, you got something you wanna tell me?"
Joat opened her mouth, and then looked over at Joseph. He lifted his brows, and she nodded.
"Captain Simeon-Hap has arranged to visit Station Rohan," he began. "On urgent business."
Alvec choked on a mouthful of coffee. "That jackal's nest?"
Joseph nodded. "Exactly, my friend. A normal trading and freight-charter trip would appear suspicious; honest traders try to avoid Rohan. So, she-we-needed a plausible reason to take high-freight but, shall we say, questionable cargo on a run to a… questionable location."
"Jeeeze, Boss, how do you get into these things?" He shook his head in wonder. "I've never heard of a fine like that for such a piddly little infraction."
"Some piddly little bureaucrat in Health and Immigration named Dilton tried to shake me down when we came in, and I dropped Graf Dyson's name, pretended that I was a friend of his. Evidently Dilton checked up on it and now Dyson's leaning on me."
"How can this guy get away with that?"
"In this case, Alvec, it's timing," Rand said. "Before a hearing there is no opportunity to work off the debt, after the ship is taken, Joat will have neither the leisure nor the credits to file suit."
"And," Joseph put in, "our business is too urgent to delay. We cannot afford to tie ourselves up in a bureaucratic… process," he finished for want of a better word. He had one actually, but he would not utter it in front of Joat.
"I didn't think that it would be wise to claim acquaintance with him, Joat," Rand scolded. "Why did you risk it?"
"At the time," she said tiredly, "I never expected a petty crook to be so smart… or so efficiently vindictive."
"You didn't study the matter. You acted impulsively."
"Rand," she said, "shut up or I'll punch your lights out."
"I don't like the smuggling thing, Boss," Alvec said. "It's like a drug for some people. They get started for the profit and they get hooked on the excitement." He shook his head.
"I think I've got enough excitement right now to supply me for a lifetime, Al. And now I actually need the damn credits. No way CenSec is gonna spring for a hundred and twenty thousand. You could buy a corvette for that, used."
She brushed her hair back off her face and then flung herself back in her chair, gripping the armrests until her fingers turned white. "I'm gonna need something good," she said grimly.
"Joat, my friend, calm yourself," Joseph said. "Certainly the outrageous size of this fine will ensure that your troubles become known quickly. We will hardly need to exert ourselves to make our desperation convincing. Indeed, rather than having to seek someone out, they may approach you. And," he held up one finger, "Central Worlds has enough influence and authority to get this cruel fine reduced to something reasonable. Send a message to Mr. Sperin, and doubtless he will see to it."
"You're probably right, Joe." She gave him a weak smile and turned to Alvec: "Feel up to a pub crawl? Best way I know of making yourself available for an approach."
"Let me ask Rose where would be a good place to start," Alvec offered. "She might know some places."
"Where did you meet her?" Joat asked.
"Ah…" Alvec flushed. "The Station personals column."
"Rimrunners," Rose said. "Rimrunners would be a good place, up near the North Quadrant. But any bar in the same general neighborhood will probably do. They're all crooked as a Phelobite's elbow up there."
Joat studied the bed-sitting room behind Rose. It was fairly large for a Stationer; Rose was evidently a mid-level tech in a gas-refining outfit, and spent a fair amount of time out-of-habitat. The wall behind her was a slightly blurry holo taken over the flared bows of a scoopship, with the gas-giant filling the entire forward quadrant; Looking at it made Joat's piloting reflexes scream vector up! until she had to glance away.
"You need some help on this, honey?" Rose asked Alvec.
He shook his head. "Ship's business, darlin'. But thanks." He blew her a kiss and turned off the view-screen.
Maybe we should take her up on that, Joat thought. From the look of her, she'd be a good friend to have behind you in a fight.
No. That wouldn't be fair. Rose hadn't gotten them into this mess. Speaking of fair…
"Maybe you should take Rose out to dinner while Joe and I scope out Rimrunners," she said hopefully. "It's not like anything grudly is going to come down."
Alvec stood, stretched on to his toes and came down in a posture of relaxed alertness.
"You don't know nothin' about this stuff, Boss."
"And you do?"
Alvec looked down at his feet. "Yeah, some."
Joat studied him. Alvec had a mysterious past. He didn't talk about it and she paid him the courtesy of not asking, appreciating the fact that he returned the favor.
So we both have things we're happier not talking about, she thought. That might be a bit of a handicap now; they were probably both assuming a degree of naivetй in the other that wasn't justified. I'd better take him at his word.
She'd always had the feeling that at one time he might have been master of his own ship. His competence, his knowledge and the high rank of many of his friends argued for the idea. But whatever happened had left him quite content to be Joat's crew.
She shrugged.
"Yeah, well, I'm not doing so well on my own, so maybe you'd better come along. Between you, you and Joe should be able to keep me from making things worse."
"Your faith alarms me, my friend," Joseph said with a laugh. "But I shall do my best to earn it."
Alvec gave Joseph a long, considering look.
Joat laughed. The two men looked at her. "We're all of us bundles of surprises, aren't we?" she said, and linked her arms through theirs. "Let's get going."
How did they do it? Joat wondered. How did they manage to make a place that was built at the same time as everything else on this station look this dilapidated?
North Quarter was reasonable enough on its outskirts, comfortable low- to middle-income housing and the modest shops that catered to that group. It was the people that signaled the change as much as anything else. As you got closer to the unspun docking sections the clothes got plainer and grubbier, or more spectacularly flashy. Joat found her fingers curling instinctively around the hilt of her vibroknife where it was tucked into its charging sheath in the right sleeve of her overalls. It was a small movement, nearly undetectable… but half the people on the corridor moved a little farther aside when she did it. Which said something about their perceptions, even now in night-cycle, when the overhead ambients were turned down to let the shopfront glowers and holes shine by contrast.