Black Map (eBook)

Chapter Two

Colin Chinn pulled the Kristi into a geosynchronous orbit around M4b and let the big antimatter drive start to cool down. The K25523B antimatter drive had been pulled from an Old Realm frigate and stuffed into the salvage ship while it was at the old naval shipyard. The antimatter drive was twice as big of a power plant as the Osprey Class salvage ship had actually been designed for, and it made getting around the engine room a hassle. The Kristi had no problems handling the extra energy output, as the Osprey Class ship came equipped with a secondary exoskeleton. The exoskeleton was a design feature used to keep the salvage ship intact when it was inevitably over utilized by the military boys and girls. The naval yard crew stiffened it somewhat to handle all the extra torque that the new oversized drive put out.

The crew that fitted out the Kristi also saw fit to procure one of the frigate’s pulse cannons, and two tubes for plasma torpedo launchers. The tubes, mounted to the front of the salvage ship, were usually empty. Old Realm torpedoes were always in short supply. The pulse cannon was a different monster. Mounted on top of the exoskeleton, the cannon was fed directly by the antimatter drive. The cannon’s gimbal gave it a 180-degree rotation vertically, and a 360-degree rotation horizontally. With a 150-millimeter smooth bore, the cannon was capable of punching a hole through everything except Old Realm armor. That was okay, though, as all the Old Realm conflict ships that were left moving about the galaxy were not to be trifled with. Most all of them were in the possession of regional militias or the military of the Central Hub. There were a handful of ships, such as the Kristi, which were privately registered for commercial use. But none of them were the heavy conflict ships.

Originally christened the KXR-42, the Osprey Class salvage ship cruised the galaxy for some ten years before being moored down in the old naval yard and forgotten about. She had been later found, bought, and retrofitted just previous to Booker Ward signing on for his first salvage run. Renamed the Kristi, she was a salvage ship of the first order. A full three decks tall, with the bottom deck for salvage materials, the second for mechanical and storage, and a top deck for berthing. Observation areas on all three decks gave complete visual coverage of the ship’s exterior. With a command floor at the front of the third deck for daily operations and space flight, the Kristi also had a secondary flight floor to the rear of the ship for maneuvering during salvage operations. Where the whole vessel could be commanded from the main floor on deck three, only the primary lifting/pulling engines, and dual ion helium3/lithium infused plasma drives, were able to be controlled from the maneuvering deck.

From her oversized thruster cones in the rear, to her full exoskeleton, to her sexy nurse nose art, the Kristi was one hell of a vessel. A vessel currently full of arms and ammunition for sale.

“KXR-42, Kristi, hailing M4b spaceport central on operating channel twelve, over.”

Colin Chinn kicked his feet up on the edge of the comms console and waited for the return.

“KXR-42, Kristi, this is landing and approach tower two, we have you fixed in geosync and cleared for landing on pad six.”

“Roger that, tower two. Pad six.”

“Chinn, you old space pirate! How’s the salvage business these days?”

“It’s always good when you get to come back. Know what I mean, Manny?”

“Roger that. I completely agree. Once you land, and get the ship squared away, you can find your contact waiting for you at the central reception hospitality room.”

“Thanks, Manny. We appreciate the info. I’ll send you over a case of Grizzlys for your efforts.”

“And you are cleared to land. Have a good stay, for as long as you can.”

“Roger that, the Kristi is falling out of orbit.”

CC cleared the comms and walked over to the second chair, which was set in front of the Kristi’s flight controls. With deft hands CC let the Kristi rotate over some ten-degrees and begin her controlled fall into the outer atmosphere. The ionization visible in all viewing ports brought Booker Ward to the command floor.

“We’re headed in already?”

“Yup. You owe Manny a case of booze for getting us a good spot. We’re headed down to pad six. Oh, and our friend Lorenzo will be waiting for us at the bar.”

“So, send some Grizzlys to Manny, and make sure to pack a gun for the bar?’

“Sounds about right.”

“Why don’t you and JP come along for the meet, just in case? Aziz and Nelson can unload the cargo easily enough.”

“Okay, no worries. Let me get the old girl down on the pad, and we’ll see what happens next.”

“Okay. I’ll go tell the crew what’s going on.”

Booker made it to the blast door that separated the flight deck from the access way leading to the other decks, as CC flared the ion plasma drives to slow the big vessel’s entry.

M4b, the fourth moon, and one of a binary pair circling the planet Mellonetary, was a good-sized planetoid, as moons went. It was possessed of an iron-metal core that consumed approximately 75 percent of the moon’s volume. As such, M4b’s gravitational pull was twice what one would expect of a moon of similar mass. The extra gravity was a prime reason that the Terran fathers chose it for terraforming and colonization. With a gravity of 1.2-Terran, it was a prime location for an outpost.

As all outposts often start out, the quaint little spot started as a landing area. The landing area quickly turned into a spaceport. The spaceport developed into a city. And then – the fall of the Realm. Nowadays, M4b was a spaceport again. Holding some thirty or forty thousand souls, it was the best situated heavy landing area in the outer edge of the spiral arm. It was also home to an office of The Company, and to The Company’s voice of authority, Lorenzo Sanht. If such a thing as organized crime still existed in the galaxy, then The Company was what it looked like. And as such, Lorenzo Sanht was the godfather of crime in the outer spiral arm.

Where The Company was definitely seedy and criminal, it was also businesslike. It paid fair and double-crossed only when it was absolutely necessary. They also had an interesting love-hate relationship with the Command Authority. They didn’t like or play well with each other, but they seemed perfectly content to leave each other alone if there wasn’t any conflict involved. It kind of kept one out of the other’s business. So, that love-hate kept the Central Hub out of the day-to-day workings of the spiral arm. Still, they were not to be overly trusted. That went double for Lorenzo. You didn’t turn your back on Lorenzo Sanht, unless you wanted a slug in it.

But it was still a business. And a salvage team did business with whoever wanted to pay. So, the crew of the Kristi spent a fair amount of time interacting with The Company. They just did their best to keep it all business and not let it turn into something else.

Both the front and rear loading ramps of the Kristi dropped in unison as the big antimatter drive was finally cooled enough to shut down. Two men from the spaceport crew came over with power cables and coupled them to the ship’s front power ports. With green power lights now shining all across the flight console, CC began powering down the ion-plasma drives as well. Soon enough, the sound of Aziz and Nelson could be heard echoing up the accessway into the flight deck. The unloading had officially begun.

JP came trotting down the front ramp and over to where Booker was talking with one of the spaceport’s ground crew. Semi-automatic pistols stuffed under each arm and a small pulse rifle strapped across his back, JP was ready. He had cut the stock down on the pulse rifle and fashioned it with pistol grip, making it a very functional weapon for bar fighting. It could blow a hole in a man wearing body armor, or puncture a blast door, whichever.

Booker inspected his weapons man and patted the large caliber pistol in the holster on his own side. Booker finished his conversation with the ground man and turned to yell at the ship. CC coming down the ramp made him pause. His second-in-charge had three semi-automatic rifles slung over his one shoulder, and a full belt of grenades over the other. His two companions just stared at him as he approached.

“You’re packing heavy today, I see.”

JP tried not to laugh as he spoke.

“Well, we’re selling weapons. We probably should show up with some weapons. Don’t you think?”

“Seems a valid point,” Booker said nodding his head.

“Okay then, let’s go have some Grizzlys and try not to get killed.”

The three men turned and filed out the door separating landing pad six from the spaceport’s central corridor. More a kind of roadway than it was a corridor, the central corridor ran straight from the entry point to the main business and reception area, up through the dozen landing pads and the tower at its far end. Two more large corridors containing power and service conduits ran along the outside of the landing pads. The pads were laid out from the tower end and ran in an ascending fashion down one row and then up the next. As such, landing pad six was directly adjacent to the main reception area, on the near side of the spaceport. The walk over to the central reception took only a minute.

Booker led the group into the entrance of...