Enjoy a quiet, restful, and enjoyable cruise on one of our luxury space liners. Our attentive and expert staff will make your journey a true pleasure. Get away from the hassle of everyday life as you travel between the stars.
-Excerpt from Dark Matter Cruise Lines travel brochure
"Dark Lady to Lovely Angel, request an ETA."
"Dark Lady expect us there in about ten minutes," Kei said into the com.
"Affirmative, have a safe trip."
"So what's taking so long?" Kei asked Yuri.
"One of the techs at air traffic control has some problem with my pilot's license, says something about a medical suspension," Yuri said angrily.
"Might be the fact you are missing an eye."
"Like that really matters."
"Well we don't have all day, let me fly her."
"Don't worry, we'll get clearance any second now."
"Tower to Lovely Angel, you have clearance," a man's voice came over the com. He sounded a little surprised.
"Thank you." Yuri shut off the com. "Geek." She stuck her tongue out in the direction of the tower.
"I wonder how that happened?" Kei asked knowingly as she began to make final course adjustments. "As if I didn't know."
"Little computer program I was saving for a rainy day." Yuri engaged the AG units.
"Isn't that illegal?" Tamikia asked over the intercom. She and her children were down in the ready room.
"Only if I'm caught. I'm such a bad girl." Yuri powered the thrust units up and the Angel began to climb steeply.
"Go faster," Susanne called out over the intercom.
"Yuri's too much of a wimp," Kei said.
"Wimp? I think not."
The Angel's thrust plates went from pale blue to almost black as the ship went ballistic. Kei and Susanne were impressed with the sudden speed, Tamikia groaned slightly, Catherine found herself torn between joy and terror. Yuri wished that the inertial compensators had a bit more power.
She watched as the internal indicators began to creep into the red. She began to wonder if exceeding the safety margin had been a good idea. Then, suddenly, they were out in space and Yuri took the opportunity to shut the engines off, letting the craft speed towards the Dark Lady on inertia.
"Approaching Dark Lady, alter our course two degrees to port, four degrees dorsally"
Kei told Yuri. Yuri made the corrections.
"Any problem getting the ship here?" Yuri asked into the com.
"None," Tamikia answered.
"What about the passengers?"
"Most weren't at all happy by the sudden change in plans but new tickets with a bump in level made most of them happy."
"Sounds expensive," Kei said.
"Minor expense," Tamikia told her. "I think I used up a weeks interest on one of the accounts set up for that sort of thing."
"Nice ship," Yuri noted as they closed on the Dark Lady. Information about the ship was being projected on a screen.
"Very," Kei agreed, as she looked at the information the computer was supplying.
The Dark Lady was a Darnell Three. It was just over a kilometre in length, had a shape like a rectangular box but with smooth curves instead of sharp corners. It looked streamlined, but no one would actually try to make planetfall with it. It was painted a light grey, and the many portholes along its length were points of lights.
No one said anything for several minutes, looking out at the spectacle in space. Yuri looked at the laser range indicators and she to cut her velocity. She had to be careful; in space there were so few other points of reference that it was too easy to misjudge distances.
"Dark Lady to Lovely Angel," came from the com. "Do you wish us to take over for docking?"
"That won't be necessary. Open the landing bay up, we're coming in," Yuri said.
"Affirmative, welcome to the Dark Lady."
Yuri slid the Angel under the much larger ship and slowed her ship considerably. They skimmed the keel for almost six hundred meters until a patch of light showed them the opening into the cargo bay.
She brought the ship to a halt under the entrance then activated the ventral thrust units on minimum power for half a second. The Angel drifted partway into the bay. Cargo clamps gently locked onto the ship and pulled it fully into the ship. The hatch below them closed, sealing the bay from space.
"Air pressure almost at standard level," Kei said as she looked at one of the screens.
"Very fast." Yuri began to power down the ship.
"How long would it take us to get out of here in an emergency?"
"Once we were in the Angel?"
"Yeah."
"Let's say ten seconds for emergency start up, five to have the hatch open, two if we blow it, and six to get out."
"Sounds a bit too fast, I'd say twice as long."
Yuri shrugged her shoulders as she put the Angel in hibernation mode.
"Oh look," Kei said, "the welcoming committee is here. Let's go." She undid her restraint harness and got out of her seat. Yuri followed after her.
They met up with Tamikia and her children at the port airlock.
Kei overrode the safety features and cycled both doors of the airlock. A wave of air rushed into the Angel, ruffling hair and clothes, as the pressure within and without equalized.
Tamikia took the lead, walking down the short set of boarding stairs onto the hard deck.
Waiting for them were a group of people, all dressed in uniforms. The Captain was in a dress uniform; black pants, a white shirt with black tie, and a double-breasted, black jacket with the gold bars of his rank on his shoulders. It was a sharp uniform Yuri decided.
The Captain himself was a handsome man, rugged good looks. Tall, short brown hair showed from under his hat, hard blue eyes, and cleanly shaven.
Behind him were three men and two women. The uniforms they wore and the stun batons at their belts made it obvious they were ship's security.
The Captain was not smiling, and he was holding himself tense. This is not a happy man, Yuri thought.
"Miss Jinnas." He stepped forward and dropped his head slightly.
"Captain," Tamikia said.
"I am not pleased with the situation," he stated flatly.
Yuri was not surprised by his feelings, but that he stated them so openly was a little shocking. It was almost as if he forgot that it was Tamikia who actually owned the ship. She supposed that he must be very good at his job.
"I understand Captain Halson, but I had need."
"You are aware that quite a few passengers complained about the unexpected change in destination. More than half have left."
"And all of them have been compensated for the inconvenience and most will not hold any bad feelings towards this ship or the Line."
Captain Halson looked at her for a second, saying nothing. Then, "You must have a very good reason for pulling my ship off her scheduled run. I accept that Ma'am, but for the record, I don't like this."
"Noted, and I do apologize for this," Tamikia's told him.
His gazed flicked over to her children then passed them by to rest on Kei and Yuri. Yuri might have liked having him look at her if he had not narrowed his eyes suspiciously as soon as he saw them.
She supposed it could be the way they were dressed.
She wore a pair of loose black pants that were tied off just below the knee. White stockings continued down her calves, and she wore high-heeled black pumps. A white blouse with a black jacket, the sleeves rolled up past her elbows, completed the outfit. Yuri had added a pair of dark sunglasses to hide her missing eye, and her hair was drawn back with a white ribbon.
Kei had on a pair of faded jeans, low boots, and a red t-shirt with the words, 'KILLING FOR LOVE' in black letters on the front. Her leather jacket looked like someone had crashed a car into it several times, which was the case.
"If you will come with me." He said, before the silence could get uncomfortable.
"Certainly," Tamikia said.
The Captain sent two of his security personnel ahead of them while the other three fell in behind them. He led them into one of the service corridors instead of using the main passageways.
The Captain stayed beside Tamikia, answering the few questions she asked of him. Susanne and Catherine walked just behind their mother, talking quietly. Kei had fallen in behind the children while Yuri walked in front of the Captain and Tamikia.
Yuri noticed that one of the security people ahead of her was using a comlink, no doubt in touch with the bridge where personnel would be scanning these corridors. That pleased her, the better ship security was the easier her job.
They exited the service corridors into a public corridor near the centre of the ship.
"I've set aside the entire set of secure suites for you. You're close to the bridge so you share its security. You're far from the outside skin of the ship, there's a life support unit on one side of the suites and the main galley on the other. No one will be able to obtain entrance to the suites except through the doors, which will of course be guarded," the Captain said.
"What about ceiling or floors?" Kei asked.
"Above us is the ship's computer core, high security, below us is engineering, high security."
Kei nodded. "Sounds good."
The Captain led them to a set of doors, outside of which stood a pair of security officers. They saluted when the Captain came to a stop in front of them. "These are the guests who will be occupying these rooms," he told them.
"Yes sir," the guard on the right said. The one on the left placed his hand on a security scanner and unlocked the doors.
The doors open, they passed through, into the corridor beyond. There were three doors on each side of the corridor, obviously leading to the suites.
"All of the suites are unoccupied, the doors can be coded to thumb, palm, voice, or retinal prints, or any combination of the above."
"Thank you Captain," Tamikia said.
"You're welcome ma'am, now if you'll excuse me." He turned and left the hall, closing the door behind him. The security personnel left with him.
Kei reached out and touched the lock plate of the door next to her. "Wait here," she said, drawing her pistol from within her jacket. She entered the room.
"Security sweep," Yuri explained.
After about a minute Kei exited the room. "It looks clean. You wait here, I'll sweep the rest of the suites." She herded Tamikia, Catherine and Susanne inside the suite.
"We're probably safe here," Yuri told Kei.
"Probably," Kei said.
"I'll run a detailed scan on this suite while you run a general sweep on the others."
"Works for me." Kei began to pull small components from her pocket and put them together into a 3WA scanner.
Kei left and Yuri closed and locked the door. She let her carry on bag fall to the floor and drew her pistol from its shoulder holster. Then she began to search the room, using a scanner of her own to be certain.
Yuri had just finished sweeping one of the suite's bedrooms when Tamikia called out to her.
"Yes?" Yuri asked.
"Why are you wearing those sunglasses?"
"I don't want anyone to know where my blind side is. These hide the patch." Yuri touched the frame of the sunglasses.
"Won't they hamper you?"
"No, the opposite really. They are full of visual enhancers and actually give me decent enough peripheral vision for the lost eye, not to mention IR, low light, flare compensation, and other things," Yuri told her.
"Crucial," Catherine said from the couch. "Can I get a pair?" she asked her mother.
"Maybe," Tamikia said. "Perhaps I'll have a factory construct them and start selling them." She looked at Yuri for several seconds. "I don't suppose that you would be interested on doing some commercial spots for me?"
"Me?"
"You'd be good for it. And once parent groups, and religious groups, and others of their ilk begin to protest, sales would take off."
"I'll have to think about it."
"Don't take too much time." Tamikia smiled. "Or I'll have to make the offer to Kei."
"Kei? I suppose if you want to attract a lower class of customer." She smiled. "Now let me get back to work." Yuri continued her search of the suite, checking out the small kitchenette.
"Can we look around the ship?" Susanne asked.
"Not yet," Yuri called. "Kei and I have to take a look around first just to make sure everything is alright."
"Oooooh," she whined.
"That's very unpleasant," Tamikia told her daughter.
"Were not going to have to spend the entire trip in here are we?" Catherine asked.
"Considering that the trip is only going to take eighteen hours all told I don't see that staying in the cabin for the entire time will be that much of a chore," Tamikia said.
"Don't worry," Yuri reassured the children. "I'm pretty sure that there won't be any problems but we do to be certain of that." She walked over where she had left her carry on bag and picked it up.
Taking a seat on the couch, Yuri opened the bag. She reached in and pulled out a sub-machinegun. She put it on safe and then began to strip the weapon.
Kei checked out each of the suites, running scans, looking for anything that should not be there. Stealthed assassin drones, information taps, explosives, and anything like that. It took her an hour and when she was finished she felt confident that the suites were as safe as any place.
She took the scanner apart as she stood outside of the doorway to Tamikia's suite. The door opened before she could put her hand on the call plate.
"Everything good?" Yuri asked her.
"Looks good."
"Okay. Tamikia and the kids are happy enough here. Want to take the suite directly across?"
"Sounds like a good plan. You want to look around now?" Kei asked.
"Sounds like a plan." Yuri walked over to the coffee table and picked up the SMG from it. She walked over to Tamikia, who was sitting at the suite's workstation, and handed her the weapon. "The breach is empty, use it if you have to."
"Thanks." Tamikia said absently as she took the weapon and laid it on top of the computer, hardly slowing her work.
"Yuri and I are going to recon the ship, make sure everything is good."
"Have fun," Tamikia called, not looking away from her work.
Kei and Yuri exited the room, making sure the door was locked behind them. They left the suites and had a quick conversation with the security personnel, just to make sure they were all on the same page. That done, Kei and Yuri split up to cover more ground.
Yuri worked her way from mid-ship to the bow. Her first stop was in the casino.
She visited the cashier's window and charged ten thousand in chips to Tamikia and then made her way to the roulette table.
She didn't pay too much attention to where she placed her chips, more interested in the people. People who frequented casinos were often in need of money. If Melkar had an agent on the ship they could possibly find the bodies they needed here.
Most of the people in the room were passengers, just interested in having a little fun. Some were professional gamblers. The professionals would be the ones she had to worry about.
"Ma'am," the man at the roulette wheel pushed a stack of chips at her, "would you like to make another bet?"
"No thank you," Yuri said as she placed the chips on a tray and left the roulette wheel for a better vantage point.
A place opened up at the crap table so she took it. She took the dice and began to bounce them across the table.
Several throws later she had over a hundred thousand and had seen enough. She was about to put down the dice when a woman in ships uniform approached her.
"Excuse me Miss, may I speak with you for a moment?"
"Of course," Yuri said in a friendly tone as she passed the dice to the next shooter.
"Please, come this way."
She led Yuri to a small, private alcove near the pit bosses station. "May I see some ID ma'am?"
Yuri took her 3WA ID from her pocket and handed it to her. The woman frowned as she looked at the card.
"Miss, according to our scans you are in possession of a cybercomputer."
Yuri suddenly knew what the woman's concern was. "Oh. Well, it is not active."
"That my be so, but we have strict guidelines about such things. As your ID does not list any of your modifications..."
"That's 3WA policy, with permission from the United Galactica."
"I am aware of that, but without that information, we cannot be certain that you are not, well, taking advantage of an unfair ability. I'll have to ask you to leave." She handed the card back to Yuri. "I'm sorry."
"Alright," Yuri said as she shrugged her shoulders, picked up the tray with her winnings, and went to the cashier's window. After getting them credited to a ships account she left the casino to continue her examination of the ship.
She had seen everything she needed to see in the casino anyway.
Kei headed for the first class lounge at the stern of the ship. She stopped at the pool for a quick look, personal reasons prompting her, before continuing on.
There was a crewmember at the entrance to the lounge and he took it into his head to stop Kei. Kei was not too surprised at his actions, considering how she was dressed.
"Excuse me Miss, I'm sorry you can't go in there."
Kei considered her options. She could place her palm on the reader by the door; since she had already recorded it into the lock of the suite, her palm print would verify her as a fist class passenger. She could pull out her 3WA ID and explain to the man there were few places that she could not go. The same could be done if she pulled out her pistol, but it would be less pleasant, for him at least.
She locked her gaze with his and simply stared him down. He began to look nervous, even scared. Finally he stood aside to let her past. Kei smiled and drew her hand across the palm reader as she passed, so he would not call security. She did not want to give security any unneeded distractions.
The lounge was big. Its far wall and the roof were part of the ship's hull, and those were transparent, giving everyone in the lounge a panoramic view of the space behind them. She could see the pale blue glow of the Dark Lady's huge engines to either side of the window. It had a dangerous beauty to it, Kei thought.
Deftly removing a glass of champagne from a passing tray for a bit of camouflage she began to move through the crowd. She dipped a finger into the effervescing liquid and placed the finger in her mouth for a taste. Not bad she thought, but she did not drink any.
The people in the lounge were rich or famous. Or they wished they could be. She recognized two simsense stars, an aging rock musician, and a talk show host amongst the many people in the lounge. Most of the people in there would not even consider getting involved in anything highly illegal. And most of them would be bad at if they did.
The ones who were not rich or famous could be dangerous. Some people would do almost anything to get their next first class ticket.
She wandered through the room, turned down several offers ranging from dinner, to something involving leather and chains. Satisfied there was nothing else worth checking she made for an exit. Before leaving she dropped the champagne glass and its contents into a potted plant.
There were other places she had to check out.
Almost two hours after starting their sweep the trouble consultants met mid-ships, in the lower decks.
"What do you think?" Kei asked.
"If Melkar has an agent aboard she, or he, will be able to find bodies. I doubt they'll find any talent."
"I agree, though as cannon fodder they could still pose a problem. Do you think its probable he has an agent aboard?"
"Tamikia owns several Lines, each with a large number of ships. I think putting one on every ship would be expensive but he still may have done it."
"I myself doubt he has anyone aboard," Kei said. "I don't think he'd waste time with a cruise ship."
"I suppose. Here, keep watch for a minute, I want to try something." Yuri removed a slim wallet from an inside pocket of her jacket. She approached a door marked 'DATA TERMINAL' and 'AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY'.
"Want me to time you?" Kei asked.
"No need," Yuri told her.
She flipped open the wallet and took out a card key. She slid the card into the key slot. Slipping a small laser pick over the card into the slot she triggered an override protocol. The door slid open. Yuri put the key and pick back into the wallet and the wallet back into her pocket.
She took a seat in front of the computer terminal and hacked into the system. It took her only a few seconds to call up the data she wanted: A list of everyone who had brought weapons aboard, who had turned them over to the crew and who had retained them.
The list was short, and she discounted most of the names almost instantly. It always surprised her that so few people carried weapons. Didn't they know that the universe was a dangerous place, she wondered, as she called for a printout.
"Will that be of any use?" Kei asked from the doorway.
"Doubtful, but you never know." Yuri shut the computer down and got out of the chair.
"Can you be sure that no one snuck any weapons onboard?"
"Pretty tough. They have chem sniffers, weapon detectors and general scanners in the walls of most of the corridors. They even have a complete list of the weapons we brought aboard, right down to that ceramic, Gerber, lock blade of yours."
"You're a useful thing to have around you know," Kei said as Yuri closed the door. "Makes having to constantly save your life almost worth it."
"Thank you ever so much," Yuri said sarcastically."
"Let's go."
They did.
"I think I'm going to hit the pool for a while before dinner," Kei said as she stood up from the couch. They were in Tamikia's suite, having just talked over what they had discovered in their recon.
"Well since the casino is no longer an option for me I think I'll go with you," Yuri said.
"What did you do?" Kei asked her.
"It was more what I didn't do, but they were afraid I might."
"What?"
"Don't worry about it."
"You don't mind a third?" Tamikia asked. "For the pool?"
"Not at all," Kei said.
"What about me?" Catherine asked as she came out of the bedroom. "I don't feel like going to the pool."
"Me neither." Susanne chimed from where she had been playing a video game. She had obviously decided she wanted to see the ship now.
"We can get bodyguards from ship security." Kei told Tamikia. "I doubt that they will be in any danger anyway."
"You'd trust the bodyguards?" Tamikia reached for the phone.
"I'll know when I see them."
Tamikia picked up the phone and made the arrangements. Kei and Yuri went to their suite to change.
Kei had changed into her black, string bikini and put a robe on over it. Then she returned to Tamikia's suite to await the bodyguards. When they arrived she gave them a look over.
Both women wore ships uniforms, their rank insignia indicating ensigns. They looked like any other member of the crew. It took Kei a few seconds to pick out their concealed weapons and she could see the way they held themselves in a relaxed, yet ready manner that spoke of professionals. Kei nodded at Tamikia.
Tamikia gave each a few quick instructions then let her children go.
"Why's Yuri taking so long?" Tamikia asked.
"She has a few things to take care of, she'll be here momentarily."
As if on cue Yuri came through the door.
"Well, let's not stand around, we have leisure time to use," Yuri said.
Tamikia grabbed a medium length robe and followed the trouble consultants out of the suite.
Both Kei and Yuri were wearing bikinis, Yuri's blue, and shorter robes than those the ship supplied.
Tamikia felt herself beyond the bikini stage and instead had chosen a one-piece bathing suit that flattered her.
The pool was in a large space near the stern of the ship, almost completely filled by a competition sized, swimming pool. There were three bars in the pool area; one was in the middle of the pool on a raised island. The three women seated themselves in comfortable lounge chairs near the pool's deep end.
On the ceiling was a holo projection of a blue sky with a sun that bathed the room in harmless light. Impossible to tan, and more importantly, to burn.
After several minutes Kei attracted a waiter so they could order drinks.
Tamikia relaxed, obviously wanting to take advantage of the peace of the moment.
Kei watched the people with more then a casual interest for a short time before deciding that no one there was going to offer much of a threat. She also suspected about a quarter of the waiters were really ship's security. Nice to know they were around.
Yuri took an info pad out of her bag, set it on her lap then turned it on.
"I could get use to this," Kei said, taking a sip of her semi-alcoholic drink.
"I hope you didn't set me on this course just because you wanted to lounge around a pool," Tamikia told her.
"This is just a fringe benefit." Kei smiled.
"Nice to know. Of course after this is all over you'll have to go back to your drab existence."
"So true," Kei lamented. "You don't think you could adopt us do you?"
"Might not be a bad idea. At least then I could beat some good manners into you two." Tamikia said it as if she was savouring the thought.
"Would you really?" Kei feigned excitement in her tone.
"Careful what you say Kei." Yuri didn't look up from her info pad. "All we need is some scummy reporter to hear you and the gossip rags are printing up sick stories about us... Again."
"Is that why you're reading a trashy gossip rag?" Tamikia asked Yuri as she looked at the info pad. "Elvis spotted on Alpha Centauri. What the hell is Elvis?"
"I'm not reading it," Yuri told her.
"Oh I see, your just staring at it while contemplating the mysteries of the universe."
"The info pad is a very powerful hacking deck," Yuri said. "The information is being projected on the inside of the lenses of my glasses."
"You're kidding?"
"No. Earring comlink gives me a wireless ling. A fine fibre optic cable runs from the earring into the arms of the glasses into an interface plug in my neural jack."
"That sounds very impressive. 3WA issue?"
"No. Yuri came up with the design herself a few years back when she realized that pulling out a deck was a bad thing to do in certain situations," Kei told her.
"Such as?" Tamikia asked.
"Such as when a friend tells you it's perfectly alright to borrow a car and an hour later a cop has pulled you over and is running a check on the car which is in fact stolen," Yuri told Tamikia.
"That was so choice though. You used the cop's own link with the police computer to purge all the charges and records then send him away on a false report so he can't even give us a ticket for speeding."
"You two are going to be a bad influence on my children aren't you?"
"Probably." Kei said, leaning back in her chair. She was really enjoying herself.
"I wonder where they are?" Tamikia asked, a slight hint of worry in her voice.
"Just give me a sec." Yuri said. "All of the public areas of the ship are monitored. It take long to find Susanne and Catherine."
A few seconds later Yuri said, "Susanne is in the ice cream parlour on deck two putting a reasonable dent in a large desert."
"She's going to ruin her appetite for dinner," Tamikia said.
"Catherine is in one of the observation decks talking to her bodyguard. Let me activate the directional mike on the camera and, yes, that's got it. Seems right now sex is the topic." Yuri said nothing for several seconds. "Pretty harmless, but Kei, the bodyguard is really cutting up your previous advice to Catherine."
"Bitch."
"I'm going to have a very hard time fixing all this," Tamikia muttered.