Title: Alexadrius Drift
Author: colls (Pic)
Warnings: Implied sexual violence, but nothing explicit.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything. I'm not making a profit.
"So once again the mighty High Guard needs the humble little Eureka Maru? Forget it. You can't take her, you'll have to find another pack mule." Beka turned away from Dylan, hoping he hadn't seen the momentary distress in her face when he mentioned his plans.
"Beka, be reasonable. The Andromeda is too large to dock there and besides, she attracts a lot of attention."
Beka took a deep breath and turned to face Dylan. "Dylan, you know I normally go along with your plans, but you have to trust me on this one. If your goal is to go unnoticed, the Maru isn't the ship you want to use. Despite being a fabulous salvage ship, the Maru isn't always welcome everywhere she goes."
Dylan reluctantly agreed. He had noticed that her jaw was set and could tell by her body language there would be no negotiation. There's a story in there somewhere, Dylan thought as he left Beka on the bridge and walked down the hallway to meet Tyr in the slipfighter bay. He wasn't sure he wanted to know exactly what that story was. Ever since he met the Maru crew, he'd learned more about shady business practices than he cared to know.
"So, if we can't take the Maru to the Alexadrius Drift, we'll have to take a slipfighter. That means no replacement compression coils, we won't have the space" he said as he encountered Tyr.
"And why are we going there, again?" Tyr asked in a condescending tone.
"I'm beginning to wonder the same thing" Dylan replied as they climbed in and he begun the preflight sequence.
Beka breathed a sigh of relief when Dylan left the bridge. She had expected him to make more inquiries about exactly why she was unwilling to allow the Maru to dock at Alexadrius Drift. Truth was that there was really no longer an official warrant for the Maru or any of her crew on this particular drift, but that didn't mean there weren't unofficial thugs who would gladly put her and her crew in their sights just for spite. She figured Dylan didn't need that kind of headache and she certainly didn't want them impounding the Maru on some trumped up charge.
The doors behind her opened and Harper rushed onto the bridge, joining her at the operations console. He looked left, he looked right, he fiddled with his datapadd...
"What, Harper?" Beka snapped at him. His antics were getting on her nerves.
"What did you tell him?"
"That he couldn't take the Maru." Beka continued to work at the console, not meeting Harper's glance.
"And..." Harper prompted.
"And what?" Beka turned to him, "Was there something else I was supposed to say?"
"Well, what did you tell him when he asked why?"
"He didn't ask." Beka returned her attention to her console.
"And you don't find that odd? Dylan the inquisitive. Dylan the I-need-to-know-everything. Dylan the..."
"I find it odd," Andromeda's hologram appeared in front of them interrupting Harper's litany, "that the two of you are continuing to withhold information about the current political state of this region that could potentially benefit our long term plans."
"For your information," Beka pointed a finger at the hologram, "it's something personal and has nothing to do with politics of the region." She threw up her hands and laughed, "As if there were any 'politics' of the region. Let's just say that the last time we were there it was made clear that the Maru and her crew were not welcome to return." Beka side-stepped around the hologram, not quite willing to walk through her like she'd seen Rommie do now and then, and went to another console to study more readouts.
"That's essentially what you told Dylan, which is basically nothing." The hologram's arms were folded in front of her. Behind her on the main viewer, the image of Andromeda's core AI was taking a similar stance. Beka was convinced the effect was designed to unnerve her.
*****
Two years ago...
Harper had never seen so many strange and wonderful things in his life. Sure, the stories about some of the drifts resembled stories about Las Vegas way back in the day. The lights, the sounds, the bars, the girls... He was in heaven!
He walked up to the bartender in one of the seedier looking establishments. He figured his cuibits would go further and he wanted to party like he was just off the boat. Which, if you wanted to be technical, he was.
Things had certainly mellowed on board the Maru once the boss had gotten rid of her muscle-bound boyfriend. So far they'd hauled some electronic back massagers to Irradius X1 and from there some sort of woven material to Blandrake moon. Beka hadn't seemed too thrilled with the payment from either run, but Harper was thrilled that he was working on an actual ship.
He felt he had done a lot in the past couple of months to prove his worth. He'd overhauled her outtake pods and plasma injectors and increased the Maru's efficiency by 15%. All without purchasing any supplies. He'd also boosted the sensors to levels that were questionably legal and Beka seemed impressed.
So now, he was going to take his first paycheck and in a true salute to his Irish heritage, piss it away on some ale.
The strange girl eyed the small human out of the corner of her eye. He didn't seem to be worth much, probably just out of some work camp. For over an hour and a half he sat drinking alone, no one joining him. For all appearances, it didn't look as if he was expecting anyone either.
She continued to watch the human as she tried to decide what to do. She recalled Kabar's words. Just get a replacement, and I'll let you out of that contract. She knew she was lucky to get the offer. She had eight months remaining on her indenturement and no way was she getting sub-contracted to a Nightsider. Everyone knew they sold short-timers to slavers and she wasn't about to let that happen to her. Thankfully, Kabar, the Chichin who actually owned her contract, saw worth in getting two contracts for the price of one. If she could wrangle some unsuspecting bloke into her place on the Nightsider's cargo manifest then he could set her up on that cushy little job playing maid to some Drago's fourth wife.
Not used to using her feminine wiles, she hoped the small human was as back-water and desperate as he seemed. She finished her drink, took a deep breath and walked over to stand next to the small human and gave him her best smile.
*****
Beka woke up to a quiet ship. Too quiet. The scruffy looking human from Earth was constantly making noise. Whether it was from fixing something, talking to himself, or rifling through her music files and playing them loudly. She didn't know where he got all his energy, but when he walked into the room, everything suddenly became lively, intense. And he could talk in long paragraphs without breathing. Sometimes she'd start counting the number of words between breaths - an especially useful past time when he got rambling on topics that made no sense. He certainly knew how things worked, even if he sometimes didn't know what to call them.
It's not like the Maru's living space was overly large, but it still took a while to search. After she made sure he wasn't sleeping under the plasma console in the engine room again, she thought to check the ship's hatch. As she was beginning to suspect, it hadn't been opened since she had locked it up last night.
The little dirt-monkey probably forgot his access code, she muttered to herself. She opened the hatch, expecting to see her new engineer curled up in a ball near the airlock between the Maru and the drift. Instead, there was a strange girl.
The girl looked up to Beka with large, pleading eyes. "I think I've done a bad thing."
*****
Harper woke up in a small, dark room. A few moments later, his mind registered that it was also cold and that he was lying on a hard surface. He slowly pushed himself up to a sitting position and took a mental inventory. He didn't seem to be injured, but he had the kind of headache that folks wrote home about.
Outside the hatch he heard two people arguing. He flattened himself against the door and pressed his ear to the seam to hear better. Thankfully they were speaking common.
"My buyer isn't looking for a scrawny human male, I don't care how quick and nimble you say he is. The contract was for an exotic young female and you switched the merchandise."
"Buyer!!?! The contract was for someone small enough to move the contraband cargo through your ventilation shafts, keeping it out of sight from the Free Trade Alliance inspections. The contract is to last for six months. A lease!" the man then burst into a stream of Chichin that Harper couldn't understand. "Just as I suspected! You planned on stealing from me all along. Well, the contract is off! I'm taking my servant and you will be removing your vessel from Alexadrius Drift. Permanently."
He now had enough proof to satisfy himself that the Nightsider was getting too bold. It was time to find another partner to haul goods through this sector to the Drago Katsov territory without paying the Free Trade Alliance tariffs. The door opened and Kabar grabbed Harper by the arm. "Let's go, you useless human. I suppose I have to find some other job that you could be remotely qualified for."
"Look... there's some sort of misunderstanding here guys...."
"Shut up," Kabar hissed and shoved him towards the exit. All through the passageways back to his main offices, the damn human kept arguing and pleading. As long as it was out of earshot of the Nightsider, Kabar didn't care. He let his bodyguards deal with most of it anyway. Where in the world did that girl find such an annoying little man?
"Should we put him in one of the back rooms, sir?"
"No, keep him in the front room. I'll attend to him shortly." The front room referred to a small room just off Kabar's office that contained an exam table. He used it to assess the worth of "goods" he came across. Kabar usually didn't attend to the human variety himself, he found them somewhat distasteful. He would at least make sure there were no communicable diseases and that the thing was in reasonably good health. Sickly goods were of no use to him. Besides, he thought he knew someone who would be interested and that someone would be showing up soon. "Has Reena returned?"
"Not yet, sir."
"Send her to me the moment she does. I still have that nursemaid job for her and it looks as if she may have a companion."
*****
"So why come clean?" Beka asked after the girl had told her story.
The girl shrugged, "Seamus seems nice. Kinda cute, even. I don't really want him to get sold, I just needed a replacement long enough for the manifest to be signed off on. Once the Nightsider realizes he has the wrong... type... he'll complain to Kabar and the contract will be canceled. But now it seems like something worse."
"Won't you get in trouble?"
"Oh no. He's got another gig all lined up for me anyway. There's a Nietzschean he does business with who has a pregnant wife in need of a maid. I'm really good at that kind of thing."
Beka stood above the girl with her hands on her hips, not looking convinced. She then thought of Harper. The kid might be a nuisance sometimes, but he was smart and a hard worker. He certainly didn't deserve slavery, not after all he'd been through. Besides, he was her responsibility. She was the one who brought him here in the first place. She reached to activate the comm to contact Kabar's office. "So, I tell him I've got his girl, how will he know which one?"
The strange girl smiled, "He calls me Reena."
Midway through arranging a meeting with Kabar, Beka realized this meant that Reena had to return to eight months of servitude and it made her angry. The girl probably signed up for a couple years service in exchange for getting off some rock, it happened all the time. Sometimes they knew what they were getting into, sometimes not.
Whatever the case, Beka had planned to go alone. Beka reminded herself again that it wasn't any of her business, that she just wanted to make sure Kabar wouldn't hurt the girl. Besides, the girl was her only bargaining chip for getting Harper back.
Beka entered Kabar's office just as the he was dragging Harper into the room and presenting him to a slimy looking Nietzschean with beady eyes and a scraggly looking mustache. "The girl will be along shortly. In the meantime, Mr. Malkov, I thought this might be of interest to you."
Harper, for once, remained silent. Beka decided it was due to the predatory look on the Nietzschean's face, which just made the bad situation even worse. "I know you're not talking about my engineer" Beka stepped forward, crossed her arms and glared at Kabar "because he's not for sale."
*****
An hour later, Beka stormed through the corridors and through the docking hatch onto the Maru. "I can't believe that smarmy sleaze ball!"
Basically the deal had come down to money, as Beka knew most things in life did. Beka had to beat the Nietzschean's price in order to get her engineer back. The Nietcschean, Nicholas Malkov, had unfortunately increased his price before leering at Harper one last time and making his dramatic exit. Beka recalled how the man actually licked his lips. It was more than a little disturbing and it clearly unnerved Harper.
Beka worked at her data pad for a while, simulating the movement of mythical funds around in such a way to fool Kabar into thinking a transfer has been completed. Unfortunately, 'mythical' was the operative term as none of her bright ideas had a chance in hell of working. After throwing the data pad against the wall in disgust, she checked into which gaming establishments on this drift would accept a stake for credit and set off.
"Where are you going now?" the strange girl startled Beka, she'd forgotten she was on board. In fact, so had Kabar and Malkov. Now that's rather odd.
"We", Beka said and gently pulled Reena to walk alongside her, "are going to go have some fun. Do you like to gamble?"
Beka won several games of darts, but the process was slow and tedious. Needing cash fast, she thumbed the data disk holding the title to the only collateral she could stake.
"Can we play over there?" Reena pointed to a blackjack table. Beka knew she was only delaying the inevitable, but decided to sit in for a few hands anyway. Much to her surprise, she began to win. Every now and then, Reena offered a bit of advice or signaled the waitress for more beverages. But mostly, she stayed by Beka's side throughout the next several hours.
*****
While Kabar was happy enough with the deal he struck between the salvage captain and Malkov, he was growing weary of having to deal with the Nightsider. Nicholas Malkov was one of the most profitable business partners on the drift, he could intermediate directly with the Drago Katsov clan in the next sector. Over the course of several months, Kabar had learned that Malkov had an unusual appetite for small, young, blond human males. He never accused him outright, because that would only get him a bone blade in the neck. However, he did keep his eye out for specimens that he thought the Nietzschean might enjoy, making his knowledge of the man's darker appetites known in a more subtle way.
While Karbar had a formidable power base on the drift, he shared the Nietzschean contracts Malkov arranged with the Nightsider because he lacked a cargo ship of his own. The contracts were becoming more and more lucrative and he really disliked splitting the pot three ways. He pulled up the schematic of the Eureka Maru on his display and grinned. He turned to one of his subordinates, "Change of plans. Tell Mr. Malkov he can come pick up the kludge."
*****
In a good mood and flush with credits, Beka marched toward Kabar's offices, ready to pick up her engineer and buy out Reena's contract. Reena hung her head and followed. "Cheer up, it'll all be over soon and you can go back to doing whatever it is strange girls like you do."
"If you buy out my contract then I will work for you for eight months. But you said you don't need any more crew. I don't understand."
"Look, you helped me win this money. I don't know how. You're like some sort of... good luck charm or something. Whatever. The point is that you deserve a piece of it. You. Not Karbar, not me. You're buying out your own contract, I'm just managing the transaction."
As they turned the last corner and walked towards Kabar's office, four armed guards closed in behind them, blocking off the corridor in both directions. Beka's good mood vanished. This can't be a good sign, she thought as she walked through the door and confronted the Chichin.
"Thank you for bringing my employee back to me, Captain Valentine. I'm sorry to say that I have decided to go with an alternate buyer for the other merchandise we had been discussing. You understand, of course."
As far as plans go, Karbar's plan had been rather simple. First, give the human to Nicholas Malkov in a gesture of goodwill. Then get Reena back, she was ever so clever and he always had schemes that benefited from her influence. Finally, charge the salvage captain with theft and have her detained by drift security. If she never made it out of jail, how was that his concern? He had already set in motion the purchase of the soon-to-be-abandoned vessel.
He hadn't counted on Beka outwitting and outgunning his henchmen. Nor had he counted on Reena betraying him and running down the hallway with Beka, breaking the bulkhead door locking mechanism on the way which prevented his henchmen from pursuing the pair as they fled.
Furious, he contacted drift security and demanded an immediate docking lock placed on the Eureka Maru. He also instructed the security chief that the pair where to be detained and brought to him immediately.
However, he also hadn't counted on the fact that Beka wasn't fleeing to the Maru. Instead, she went straight for the Nietzschean. With a determined look on her face, her back ramrod straight and her nostrils flaring - she marched right into the lion's den.
"Kabar continues to cut you out of your portion of the profits by operating with that Nightsider. They're at odds for the moment, but that won't last. Their greed is stronger than their momentary spat over one servant. What you need is to rupture their business relationship permanently."
"That's exactly what Kabar proposed when he agreed to steal your ship and incarcerate your... 'crew'."
"The thing is, you don't want my crew or my ship."
"And why is that?"
"Because I will ruin you. You think I don't know why you agreed to have Harper play nursemaid to your fourth wife in place of the girl you originally 'ordered'? What do you think the heirarchy of Drago Katsov would think if they knew your preference for young kludge males? Tell me, is homosexuality still considered a genetic defect among your kind? Do you think you'd be allowed to supervise the pride business operations in this lame ass-end-of-nowhere sector if they thought you 'defective'?"
Malkov said nothing, just folded his arms over his chest and glared at her.
"I'm willing to help you drive a wedge between Kabar and the Nightsider. In exchange, you return my engineer. And if you play nice, I won't ever mention to anyone what you wanted him for."
"That doesn't sound like a very good deal to me."
"It's the best offer you're going to get."
"How do you propose to drive this wedge between them?"
"Simple. Each of them will blame the other for losing a prime piece of business. To me. I'm going to haul your latest batch of nano processors to Drago Prime. They blame each other for losing your business and your costs magically decrease. Oh.... and you're going to pay me the current going rate. In advance."
Malkov weighed his options and slowly nodded his head. "You drive a hard bargain, but I like your style." Ever the arrogant one he added, "I don't suppose we could make this arrangement effective in, say, three days?"
Beka glared at him. "Where the hell is my engineer?"
Malkov opened a door to a small room containing a large bed and a naked, bruised and scared Harper.
"Don't look at me like that. I'm not the one who beat the kludge. That's Kabar's work. In fact, I was merely assessing the damage to see if it required medical attention."
"Oh really?" Beka picked up a tube of lubricant. "With this?" She took off her long, black leather coat and threw it at Harper. "C'mon, Harper. We're leaving." Resting her hand on her holster, she turned back to Malkov.
Malkov stepped into Beka, with a finger raised to her face. "I'll go along this time. But if you ever return, I will own you, your ship" he shifted his gaze to Harper, "and your crew."
It took every ounce of willpower for Beka not to unholster her weapon, shove it his face and pull the trigger. Knowing that would only result in getting herself killed, she settled for glaring at him as she followed Harper out of the room.
*****
As predicted, the Nightsider was furious at being cut out of the deal. He undocked and left Alexadruis Drift without cargo. Kabar wasn't as easily persuaded.
"So you just let them go?! I still don't understand why our original plan wasn't going to work. Then we'd have our own vessel and no middleman. Now we'll have to hire out to salvagers and freelancers."
"We have achieved our mutual goal of removing that Nightsider from our operations. We can scout for another vessel that may suit our needs." Malkov paused as the image of the Maru crew crossed the monitor and glanced at the young engineer. "In the meantime, should that vessel ever return there will be nothing to prevent us from confiscating it and chopping it up for parts. All of her crew will be remanded to the mines, escorted there personally by me."
Kabar backed away. It was never a good idea to be that close to a Nietzschean intent on "claiming" something. When he returned to his office, he entered a warrant into the security chief's permanent notice board for the Eureka Maru and opened a comm link to Reena. She's not really running out on me, is she?
On board the Maru, Reena ducked behind a crate near the galley to answer her comm.
"Reena, darling. I see the Eureka Maru is undocking. So, I can expect you to be returning soon?"
"No. I don't think so."
"Need I remind you that you have eight months remaining on your contract. I would hate to have to send a bounty hunter after you."
"Captain Valentine purchased that contract. I'm no longer obligated to you."
"That deal has been made null and void. Besides, I'm issuing a warrant on that vessel shortly and on Captain Valentine's entire crew should she ever attempt to dock that bucket of bolts here again. You'd be best to return, little one, before something bad happens to you."
"But I'm on Captain Valentine's crew now. Does that mean you're issuing a warrant for me? I've never had a warrant issued for me before. That's exciting, isn't it?"
Kabar sighed. Sometimes conversations with Reena were trying at best. "Life on board a salvage vessel and cargo hauler is not so glamorous. Besides, Mr. Malkov's fourth wife was so looking forward to showing off her exotic servant during her convalescence with the main pride. It should be an easy few months for you."
"Mr. Malkov's wife is a bitch and I'd rather take my chances on a bucket of bolts. Besides, you are no longer useful to me." She quickly disconnected the comm link.
A voice from the forward compartment called back to her, "Reena, we're preparing to enter slipstream. I need you to buckle up."
She stood still for a moment, contemplating the comm link on her wrist. With a sly smile, she pried off part of the screen, dropped it to floor and smashed it with the heel of her foot. She then bent to retrieve the pieces and threw them away in a receptacle in the galley before dashing onto the bridge.
"Entering slipstream now. Reena?" Beka turned around to insure the strange girl was holding onto something.
"You know, I said that Kabar called me that, I never said it was my name." She smiled and steadied herself by grasping the railing behind the pilot seat with her purple tail. The Maru buckled and shook as it crossed into slipstream and far away from Alexadruis Drift.
...end...