Andre Norton - Derelict For Trade

He said to Jasper, "Carry on," and got up from his seat.

In the doorway to the hatch he met Tang Ya. The Martian colonist’s eyes were red-rimmed, his face lined with exhaustion. "My algorithms cracked that code," Ya said, grinning despite his evident tiredness.

Jellico let out a sigh of relief at the first break they’d had since Flindyk had given them the spool to speed along their business. "Good work," he said. "What did you find?"

Ya said, "I think you’d better know this first." He handed Jellico a printout on which he read the date of the insurance quitclaim, registered in local time. Jellico had seen that before. He swallowed his impatience and read on—freezing when he saw the date in Terran Standard.

He looked up at Ya, whose wide-set eyes were narrowed to slits of perplexity. "That’s not the only mystery," the comtech said. "The lab record is mostly a kind of diary mixed in with daily reports on the hydroponics. I haven’t read it all, only done a couple of searches. One thing I came up with," he said slowly, "is the fact that there’s no mention anywhere of the Starvenger , or of Olben Kayusha or Nim Miscoigne."

"Odd, but possible," Jellico said. "You could ask how often Frank mentions the ship he’s lived on for years—or my name—down in his logs."

Ya nodded quickly. "I thought of that, but none of it explains why the writer of the record called that ship Ariadne ."

Rael Cofort scrutinizedthe image on the screen: a woman, short gray hair, intelligent brown eyes, weathered skin, age probably somewhere in her seventies. Plain tunic in the Deneb-Galactic colors, its only ornamentation the captain’s bars on her high collar. A lifetime spacer, and probably at least half of that life a captain—probably the same personality type as Miceal Jellico.

And there was no mistaking the honesty in both face and voice as she said, "I questioned all three separately, Captain, and while details varied, one common fact emerged: they all had overhead someone discussing your ship and crew. Begging your pardon, they were told that, under the guise of Free Trading, you went about hijacking innocent ships. Though I don’t condone their actions, you can understand how that kind of gossip would rile them."

Jellico said, "I can indeed. Act first, questions later. It’s happened to my own crew. And they won’t stomach space pirates any more than the Company crews."

Captain Svetlana pursed her lips. Her expression was so very akin to Jellico’s—a distaste for the necessity of the encounter, but lurking humor at the vagaries of crew members—Rael felt a laugh bubbling up inside her, and controlled it. This incident might be explained, but the situation was only becoming more sinister.

"Did they say who told them this information?" Jellico went on.

Captain Svetlana’s brow furrowed slightly. "There is another of the places where the narrative diverges. Corsko insists she heard it from some Terrans up at the gym, but Kherddu says he got it in one of the eateries, from Kanddoyds, and Lu Nguyen swore that he overheard a Shver Monitor pointing out one of your crew—tall? yellow hair?—as a hijacker when he was passing back and forth to Trade Center."

Jellico’s mouth was now a grim line, all humor gone.

"I’ve brigged my three for seventy-two hours for brawling," Svetlana went on. "If you’d like to question them yourself, please come aboard anytime."

"For now, I don’t think it’s necessary," Jellico said, his words clipped short. "But I appreciate the invitation, and will keep it in mind. Thank you for your time, Captain Svetlana."

"You’re welcome, Captain Jellico," Svetlana replied formally, and the screens blanked.

Jellico turned around to face Rael, his eyes distracted. "What do you make of that?"

"She seemed absolutely honest. If she isn’t, then she’s one of the greatest dissemblers I’ve ever witnessed."

"That was my impression as well," the captain said. He fell silent, his gaze still on Rael’s face. His thoughts were obviously distant as he contemplated this latest twist in what was shaping up to be a strange puzzle.

Rael waited, and presently the ice-blue eyes focused, and saw her . And she felt the look, a visceral reaction that quickened her heartbeat and made her want to smooth her clothing and twitch at her hair, and then he looked away. A little wail of rueful laughter ran through her mind: how many times had this occurred since she came on board the Solar Queen ?

How many times would it still occur?

Many, and many, and it seemed all would lead to nothing.

He said abruptly, "I sent Van Ryke to Trade to run queries on all ships registered with Ariadne in their titles. I think I ought to run a double check against whatever records Ross keeps. Do you have the time to accompany me? I confess I want someone to talk this over with."

"I’d be glad to go," Rael said promptly. "Craig is on duty right now. I’m perfectly free, and to tell the truth, if I get any more curious, I’m likely to implode."

"The more I look at this, the more it seems that someone doesn’t want my boys to find out anything about the Starvenger ."

"Are you going to ask Dane and the others to drop the inquiry?"

Jellico stood in the hatchway, frowning. "Finding out the data doesn’t matter to me. The past is past. If it turns out there’s a wrong buried there, though, it does matter: we owe it to our brethren in Trade to right it if we can. I’m not going to pull the boys back, at least not yet. If we end up having to move to the heavy area to save money, then we will. In fact, when Stotz gets back, I’ll have him make the change. Meantime—" Jellico reached for the com. "Jasper, I’m going to run some queries by the legate."

"Aye, Captain," came the prompt reply.

They talked very little on the journey to the legate’s quarters, despite the fact that there was little to see.

"Moving to high grav has one other advantage," Rael said.

Jellico didn’t speak, but he glanced at her in mute question.

"We’d have better scenery on the ride." She gestured at the gray blur of the tube walls enclosing the maglev capsule.

Maglev routes from high grav cut through Shver territory on the surface, and, as the Shver did not like enclosed spaces, the view on those routes was said to be spectacular.

Ross was there, and he seemed incurious when Jellico asked if he would run a search on ships with the name Ariadne . The legate’s expression was oddly abstract as he keyed in the search parameters. Silence weighed in the office as they waited for the computer to run its search.

Presently the light flickered green, and Ross scanned rapidly the data on his screen. "Since the legation’s establishment three hundred forty-two years ago, twenty-six ships with ’Ariadne’ somewhere in their name have docked at Exchange, five in the last ten years: Ariadne's Web , the Diana and Ariadne, Ariadne's Star, Hellene Line: Ariadne , and Theseus-Ariadne . The Hellene Line is here repeatedly, about every six years."

"Any of those reported lost, stolen, or dead?" Jellico asked.

"I’ve no Patrol flags on any outside of Ariadne's Web , which was fined for attempting to smuggle in klifer-dust—an airborne scent which is lethal to Kanddoyd biochemistry," Ross replied. "To find out which have been decommissioned or otherwise taken out of service, your questions ought rightly to be submitted to your headquarters at Trade Central." He looked up, his long face narrowing in sudden suspicion.

"We’re doing that," Rael said smoothly. "It’s just that our stay is necessarily limited, so we thought we’d do a crosscheck here at the same time as our cargo master is at Trade."