"O'Rourke, I thought your derision to visiting with harbormasters and their political entourage would keep you well away from personal visits to my office until contract time," he joked.
"Bruner, one day someone's going to overhear that and think I really do dislike your office décor." She glanced around her pointedly waiting for an introduction. She didn't recognize any of the three from her previous visits.
"These are the new political appointees," he introduced off-hand. Since Bruner didn't give names it meant he was not happy with them and wasn't going to dignify them with introductions, however, he also didn't ask them to leave. "I take it your visit is official," he offered. "We heard your owner sold out."
"Ahh, news does travel fast. But no, that's not the why of my visit. At Port Sals first beacon we received a broadcast message…a pandemic warn off. Since we had not been able to get a confirmation we suspected it was not legitimate."
"What are you trying to imply?" demanded one of the men.
"I'm here to get a confirmation that your port is clear of any infectious disease. I have passengers and a crew whose health I'm responsible for."
"Well it sounds to me you're trying to spread a rumor, and we'll see that you lose you license to fly ever again!"
O'Rourke's eyes opened wide in the strength of the return and accusation, though it was serious to falsely proclaim such a warning.
"We have a copy of what was beaconed to us, we also spotted another ship, the Harrodidu just out of hailing distance. They didn't respond to our transmission as to whether the beacon was legitimate…"
"How dare you accuse the honorable Captain Alad of…"
"Be silent!" Bruner boomed. He looked at O'Rourke, "Calling that pirate honorable is really stretching credibility," he muttered. "It seems," he said in a louder voice so everyone would not miss what he was saying, "these three are here to besmirch your name and I found it a coincidence that you should want to speak with me on your arrival." He turned his back on the three and walked to his desk, sitting with a grunt. "Have your bridge send the recording to my security staff. I presume you have everything recorded? Good. I enjoy doing business with you O'Rourke, and so do those that have contracts with you on this space port. I will see that this riff raft does not cause any further embarrassment to our business relationships." He glared at the three who looked like they were caught doing something illegal. She wondered just what they had been saying about her.
O'Rourke nodded to Bruner feeling confident in their relationship and his past handling of port dealings. Before she had met him she heard from others that the twenty-three years Bruner and before him his boss Kliner, the space station was run with equanimity and even handedness. Under their combined leadership Port Sal had the lowest crime rate in and around it's control.
At the bottom of the stairs she signaled Sousa that all was well so her crew and the passengers could go about their business.
It appeared that Captain Alad and his pirate friends were making grand moves. They had been trying for ten years to move into this sector with little progress to show, so what changed? A shakeup in the pirates leadership? Usually such news made its way around the docks quickly.
While her crew was busy servicing their usual contracts, Sousa filled in as second and went drumming up more repair business by visiting the local dock pubs with a few of her seasoned crew. Being an engineer gave her an advantage of knowing what they could do and what needed to be directed elsewhere. They also ran diagnostics on ships to verify what refitters or others had told private yachts owners they needed done. Diagnostics wasn't expensive, since it gave them plenty of repair jobs.
Mack was left OOD, Officer On Deck, while O'Rourke went to dinner with Harbormaster Bruner to gather information on the local politics. That was always useful, and with the recording she gave him he felt he owed her.
Three hours later she was back at the Wesley, grateful she resisted Harbormaster Bruner's temptation to taste more than a glass of his special selection of wine. He insisted on giving her two bottles of the white lightning. It occurred to her as she stored the bottles in her quarters cooler, that maybe Diana would like to try it.
Dropping her coat on her couch, she watched her repaired maidbot respectfully pick up her coat and hang it up with the care in the cleaning closet and all without any comment on her personal habits.
"That's more like it." Turning to her terminal she dropped into the chair next to it. "Terminal on. Give me a visual of LeMarks," she ordered. A small flower appeared in the corner of her screen and then disappeared as a visual of LeMarks appeared. Jade was still skulking about.
"That must be uncomfortable," she said, looking at LeMarks with his head pillowed on his crossed arms, hunched over the table, snoring loudly. "How can he sleep with all that noise? At least he's neutralized. Time to relieve COB. Terminal off."
Rather than her usual route to the bridge she chose the tube. Being too unpredictable would upset the running of the ship but a few changes would be good for her safety. She glanced over her shoulder to assure herself that her personal bodyguard was on duty.
"Captain on deck," CPO Keen announced.
"Lt. Mack, I have the watch."
Lt. Mack rolled off the captain's chair, his retractable arms extending just enough for his fingers to reach his waist.
"Captain O'Rourke, you have the watch."
The chair resized to O'Rouke when she sat. Not waiting to get comfortable she called up shift reports and extrapolated information an experienced officer would be able to piece together to know what was happening on all decks. Since O'Rourke never had a reliable Exec Officer, a second in command on the Wesley, she had studied the personnel files both legal and illegally gathered on her crew with fierce concentration. Merchant Marines were not like the military in all ways, but an outsider to both was easily hung out to dry if the rules were not quickly learned.
It was not until Osmona turned over the operational side of business leasing the Wesley to a management corporation that O'Rourke began to find herself getting her more skilled labor transferred off her ship by the front office than others that they managed. It took two years to learn the ins and outs of how to lessen the sting of being undermined without her quitting. The Wesley was to be hers if she hung on for five years. That was the arrangement she had with Osmona. It was not like Osmona to be the originator of the trouble, but people change. Whatever the cause, she was not going to quit. Wesley was hers the moment she saw it. It was a rather odd thing for a retired battleship Admiral to admit, but not for an O'Rourke. O'Rourke's were traders on land before star travel came to their planet and once they could, they moved their business into space. This was the closest she would come to admitting a kinship with her mother's family.
"Incoming message for you, Captain. Marked private."
"You have the bridge, Lt. Mi."
She almost laughed at the first lieutenant's expression. For both their sakes she hoped nothing would happen while she was in her ready room.
She tapped her com. An official notice from the Office of Merchant Marines Legal Department informed her they received her packet and they had begun reviewing it. They confirmed LeMarks was not a graduate of any Merchant Marine Academy or any officer academy they had records to. O'Rourke grinned. This was a break she was looking for.
"Facilities, this is the Captain."
"Facilities here, captain. Lt. Reca speaking."
"Reca, I have a job for you. I want you to clear LeMarks quarters. Pack his stuff in crates for disembarkment. Get the bots in those quarters scrubbed and reprogrammed."
"Aye, captain. I'm on it."
With that done she went back to her question on why would Captain Alad of the Harrodidu risk losing his sailing status in this neck of the galaxy with a stunt like that. Port Sal was a major space station and always had events going on with people from all over the galaxy visiting. If Captain Alad was involved and it could be proved, he would lose his captain's license. If he was involved and it could not be proved legally, he would not be given any legitimate business in this part of the galaxy with anyone legitimate, and it would mean no one would give him birthing rights even if he needed to stop. It seemed a gauntlet had been thrown down and she was just ripe to take them on.
Her thoughts moved on to Diana Rue. Her query on her had not pulled up anything other than identifying her as a Knock-About, exactly as her ID showed. Rising from her feet she was about to return to the bridge when her com dinged.
"Incoming message from MFC HQ, Captain. Another private message, Ma'am."
"Well it's about time HQ answered some of my requests," she muttered as the logo began to materialize. Startled when it was not Mapril Freight Company she was about to check her connection when a familiar face appeared.
"Greetings, Captain O'Rourke. Surprised at our new…" Killian waved at the background behind her. "Owners logo."
"When did this happen?" O'Rourke demanded dismayed.
Killian held up her six hands giving a pained look. "It was a surprise to us all. Osmona notified me late last night that she signed over her freighter business to Tipp's Conglomerate in exchange for a business she had her eyes on in the 6th Sector. You know Tipp's has been trying to establish a business in your sector for over ten years and all they have are crumbs."
"Well, that explains why the Harrodidu has been up to no good." O'Rourke paused wondering if she should say anything more. "So, where does that leave the Wesley?"
"Good question and I don't have the answer. As soon as it was made official this morning out pops a mole in our office that's been working for Tipp's as an insider for the last three years. She's swears that's not the case but no one believes her. That's when Osmona said she and Tips began negotiations. It also explains why you've been getting real losers for crew. Captain Alad of the Harrodidu wants your clients."
"Not with the Harrodidu and I know he's not going to give up his ship. He can't come close to replicating our service. He can't even transport other people's goods without pilfering some of it."
"I don't think they're going to be doing small ship repairs," Killian said.
"They won't make it."
She shook her head. "It's just a feeling. I'm not sure how long I'm going to be working here. As you can see, it hasn't even been announced officially yet and they're already moving their crap in."
"We'll keep in touch," O'Rourke assured her.
"I got more bad news for you…or your crew. They want to notify your staff and crew of the change of ownership themselves and they will have a head doctor there to take notes. They'll be sending packets along with tests that your crew must take to prove competency for their jobs. Which the only thing you can be happy about is they can't transfer any more new crew members your way because according to your contract, the quota was reached four replacements ago. Any crew replacement is at your discretion; however, they'll pay the lowest wage they can get away with to discourage you from hiring anyone worth their salt. I read Osmona's contract with her captains. I'm going to send you a copy and anything else you can use to stay profitable until your contract expires. You'll need ammunition. I think their intention was to crew your ship with losers so when this test packet came, you would loose too many to fulfill your contracts."
"Not likely. I still run a tight ship."
"Another thing…Don't let them tell you that with new ownership you have to renegotiate your lease. Osmona said all contracts will be honored to their fullest until they run out. That's also your five year agreement to acquire ownership of the Wesley.
"What do they plan on doing with the Wesley meantime? Decommission her?"
"Could be the plan. I noticed some paper passing between the new HQ board chairman and the spy. One of them had the title of sale. I'm not invited to the meetings, you know. Though in name I'm a board member they have a guard that politely lets me know I haven't been invited."
"Three years they've been working on this?"
"Looks like it. Could have been more than that, but I don't think so. Osmona was full tilt on building up her freight business with the Wesley as her flag ship, so to speak, up until she got involved with that DiRlin family, three years ago. Gods but did she have to fall in love?"
O'Rourke's expression got a laugh from Killian.
"She's not stupidly in love with the lazy husband of hers. She's in love with the new avenues of business that have opened up to her with this marriage in all new territory. They needed new blood in that family to bring back their business edge and she's bringing it."
"I didn't think she would sell us out," O'Rourke remarked softly. "I mean sell the Wesley out from under me? She's built for this business. She takes in more business than any other freighter and has more potential than any of the other ships out here!"
"You don't have to sell me, Helen. Just watch yourself. If they break contract, the Wesley is yours. Their purchase of her contracts does not null the contracts. I have to go. Stay tuned, gal."
The background logo filled the screen until O'Rourke angrily jabbed the off button.
She was about to make another call when a ding from communications came on.
"Captain, you have an official call from…HQ but…"
"Pass it through," she responded. This news was going to spread through the entire ship and docks in no time. She was going to have to work hard with the contracts she had, so they do not leave her with the new holders of her lease.
An unfamiliar face appeared with the new logo. He introduced himself as GroLomotn and began a long winded story of how Tipps Consortium was her new owner, except O'Rourke picked up something in his voice that gave her the impression he was not being exactly truthful. What was he hedging about? And why the heavy handed attitude? Her cautious side didn't want to grab the first easy answer, but her past history with pirates and one being related to Tipps gave her more than suspicion that for three years she was being set up…but for what? A take over of her customers? The galaxy was bigger than Tipps, though the idea of running away was not what she wanted to be accused of.
It took over an hour for GroLomotn, the new chairman of the board that oversaw the leases of freighters in her area to outline her schedule and the changes that were to be immediate. She let him go on about the change of the Wesley's home port to one that was in a notoriously known bad section of space where any supplies they needed would doubtfully be delivered, and about someone else taking over her customer stops, and how her visit to the shipyard that was long overdue was denied due to they wanted to review if the need was there. When he finally paused, looking too smug for his own good, she began, thanking Killian for the heads up.
"GroLomotn, let me be perfectly frank with you. Number one, legally you can't change the contracts I've signed with all my customers. I lease this ship and arranged all contracts. Number two, the shipyard visit is mandatory and overdue accompanied with an inspector's letter which HQ has in their files. If you cancel the shipyard overhaul the Wesley will get docked permanently until the maintenance work is completed and that will cost Tipps considerably more than he can afford in missed contracts and fines, to say nothing in the lawsuits. Number three, you are not changing our homeport to Rieland, neighborhood to your pirate friends. You will either leave it where it is or move us within our route. That is in my lease agreement with Osoma, which does not change with change of owner. You also can't fire me without paying me more than what the Wesley is worth and even then, you would have unmet contracts to pay off, and a lot of customers that don't forget things like that."
"Think you're smart, do you? I've heard all about you. Some kind of hero you think you are. Well this is the real world and your contract is coming due. Think well on that," his voice rumbled in a lower octave as if that would change her mind.
O'Rourke laughed. "I won't be without a ship for long." She leaned back chuckling. "I'm a money maker GroLomotn. I have a crew that is good at what they do and they do quality work. You don't have any ship that can match the services Wesley provides and as long as those contracts are in effect the Wesley sails."
"We have ships that can replicate what you offer," he sniffed.
"Name one. Be serious, GroLomotn. You want your ships to take over my route but your ships don't have the equipment nor what it takes to keep my customers happy and that's low cost and quality of service. If in the ten years you band of pirates haven't been able to wow anyone away from Osmona's freighter business, buying her out and getting rid of her fleet service still will not get you the business."
"You're a bit too arrogant, O'Rourke. You need a taking down a peg or two."
"Why not give it a rest and wait the year and a half out when my contract is up?"
Whatever he wanted to say did not get said as the transmission was cut with the logo fading.
She leaned back in her chair. "Well we both now know what the other has in mind. So maybe those anomalies are their doing." She shook her head at that thought. "They're not the type to add something annoying. They would add something debilitating and while we recover, wipe out everything else. They're not the type that has patience, though they've been working this for three years." She rubbed her chin. "Where the heck are you Vicky?" she asked softly.
Leaning forward she made a call to her financial manager. She had once been her captain. An injury during a battle had taken her out for too long. When the injuries had healed her interest in pursuing a career in the military was no longer there. Arie started in the financial world as a helper to her own parents and soon found she liked the predictable world of numbers.
"Hey Capt, how are you doing these days?" O'Rourke smiled at the woman's image. She had dirt streaks on her forehead and chin. No doubt she interrupted her gardening.
"O'Rourke! I was just mentioning you to my niece a bit ago. How are the currents in your neck of space?"
"Rough but rideable. I was thinking of taking a vacation to Meriod while the Wesley's in for an overhaul. Maybe shooting the rapids and doing the week long campout."
"Sounds like you need it. I'll look up what the rates are and make the arrangements if you like. Just give me a date."
"The Wesley's scheduled next month for dry dock at the Somono Yards."
"I'll keep in touch. Nice hearing from you. I gotta get. I have the kids today so we're all out gardening. I don't want them to dig pits when a small hole would do fine. Write!"
"Right."
O'Rourke closed her link and began reviewing her messages from her department heads…that is with the exception of her missing security officer. She checked again on LeMarks. He had not finished the first test and was sitting partially undressed in her chair. Security showed no more outside visits. Whoever his friend was had not figured out how to get him out or was not interested. That meant whoever was messing with her ship and crew, would step up their operation. They were in too deep to back out.
O'Rourke returned to her reports. Seventeen passengers disembarked. None of them asked for the difference in fares back and since she had no one to spare to interview each one to find out why they left she decided to rely on dock talk. That would have been something Jade would have been sent out to check up on.
"Lt. Mack, this is the captain, meet me in bay seven," she ordered. "Dressed for quiet shore duty," she added.
Mack was a charmer among other things, and he had done a stint in the security section. He would be ideal to scour the sailor bars and listen to talk. He would also know who to take with him that he could trust.
They had picked up six minor hull repairs to private ships, so the bay was bustling with bots and engineers to finish the work within a day's time. O'Rourke watched the work as she waited for Mack's arrival. A finished ship backed out and the next smoothly was moved in. Frowning for a moment she tried to interpret the burn marks on the hull of the next ship.
"Captain?"
Without turning to Mack she nodded to the new ship. "What would that remind you of?" she asked of the Conqueror.
"Looks like skunk burns."
"Uh huh." She turned to Mack who had two others with him. O'Rourke nodded at their respectful nods. "I want to know why we lost seventeen of our passengers."
The three looked embarrassed.
"Okay. Why?" she asked.
"Rumor among the crew is that we've been bought out by pirates. The crew has been bad mouthing them and…well some of the passengers overheard. It's been canned, Ma'am, so we won't be losing any more…but is it true?"
"Yeah. But we have contracts up until a year and a half so we have until then to figure out what we're going to do. I still want you to go down to the dock bars and see what's being said. You have two hours. If you need more time, get back to me."
"Yes, Captain." Mack turned to the others and gave them a hand signal. They followed Mack to one of the shuttles.
"Problems?"
O'Rourke turned to Diana Rue. "Nothing short of a challenge. What's life without them?"
"Tips Consortium started out as a pirate organization, didn't they?" Diana asked.
O'Rourke grinned. "I see you keep up with the scuttlebutt. In some sectors they still are."
"Trying to legitimize, hey?"
"Trying."
"You don't think people can change?"
"People with a lot of effort, yes, organizations, no. Planning on going ashore?"
"Nope. Been there, done that. Just came back with your engineers." She gestured to the shuttle, the Wave.
The Wesley's repair crew had a maintenance contract for a heating plant that Reuters, a small local company from the planet below DiAEeon's used to rotate its engineers and maintenance workers to keep up. It was too expensive to keep the amount of highly trained engineers on site for everything, or so O'Rourke had reasoned with the manager of Reuters, so her crew won a contract to stop by on their run and give the place a thorough work-over including replacing any parts the aging plant needed. Port Sal was going to have to start replacing their sixteen plants because they out lived the manufactures warrantee and ceased making spare parts.
O'Rourke watched as the returning crew moved out parts that were no longer working with the grav lifters. They hoisted them onto working frames where they would try to refurbished the part as much as they could.
PO Colo glanced at her and gestured to the part and then gave the thumbs down. It could no longer be fixed. O'Rourke nodded she understood. Their stores chief would have a talk with their equipment manager and discus the no longer repairable part and then start bartering for a new one. Always prepared, their chief had been looking for bargains, in anticipation of this. It was not just replacing the plant, but the housing, ducts, and everything else that connected to it. They had stuck with the old model so long, that even adapters were no longer made. O'Rourke frowned at the cost her customer was going to have to incur. Someone's political career was going to take a dive.
O'Rourke turned her attention back to her passenger. "We plan on staying another two hours."
"It's not all that interesting to visit. Their shops are overpriced for visitors and they hold back the good stuff for the right buyer. I also noticed a heavy emphasis on security."
"Oh?" O'Rourke tried to appear as if it didn't mean anything, but maybe the harbormaster was expecting trouble after that false message. It was wise to prepare for it.
"If I were a spacer captain that is competition to Tipps, I would be mounting extra cannons and screening everyone on board, just so Tipps doesn't pull one of their mutinies."
"You seem to know a lot about pirates and their tactics."
"I travel a lot, see a lot, and hear a lot. I don't want to be aboard a ship that is targeted by a pirate crew. I like the one-on-one type of encounters, if it were to come to that."
"Well, what we have in armaments, thanks to our previous owner who was not military minded, is not enough to stop a boarding party… but we'll get by."
Diana smiled at what was left unsaid, like since the previous owner left, what did the military minded captain add.
"So, you plan on doing anything else for excitement?" the captain asked.
"After a perusal of your ship and Port Sal, I find that I have just about everything I need in my quarters. I wasn't able to reach you or Commander Jade to see if it was alright if I disembark," she mentioned.
"I read the disembarking list and didn't notice you on it. It would be wise to let the Yeoman know when you leave and when you plan on returning, though I'm glad you don't feel trapped," O'Rourke returned, with irony.
Sometime late at night the ship was back in space, moving at higher gs to make up for the time they spent on extra jobs and information gathering. According to Mack and his group, dock workers were talking about a pirate cartel that was trying to muscle in on legitimate ship routes. It didn't do well for the future business of any of the planets in that area, and O'Rourke knew her bit of information put fire under Port Sals' leaders to demand a heavier military presence to clean up their part of space, since they were paying taxes. It meant scams would increase. Pirates would be posing as military boarding crews, rumors would spread scaring businesses, and customers, and the political officials whose popularity was based on no problems that the public could hear about would take a beating. Then the pirates would buy up the businesses that went out of business, cheap. It was already tried in Borik Sector but didn't get very far. It didn't mean that because it failed in one Sector it would not be tried again elsewhere with greater success. They had ten years to try various schemes and maybe they decided to go back to the old method of buying legitimate businesses up and then resume their scams.
O'Rourke was sitting on the bridge watching her crew when the elevator's humming had her turning to see who it was. Her hand moved to her weapon that she had taken to carrying.
"Good evening, Capt," Lt. Ham reported. His crew behind him all nodded to O'Rourke, looking a lot less strained at having Ham as their new CO. Until she could rearrange her officers a lot of the lower ranks would be filling slots normally reserved to the more experienced. The moment she had dismissed LeMarks, she had promoted Jade as her Exec. She hoped Jade was keeping up with her messages, because she did not want her to think someone else filled the slot.
"This is Captain O'Rourke, OOD, turning over watch to Lt. Ham OOD of the third watch."
"This is Lt. Ham of third watch, I am now OOD."
"Have a quiet shift, lieutenant. But don't hesitate to call me if anything you don't recognize turns up. Do you understand me?"
"Loud and clear, Captain. I caught up on the briefs, Ma'am. We'll all be looking sharp."
O'Rourke gave him one of her wide smiles. "I do believe we're in good hands. As you were."
She stepped into the elevator feeling for the first time in a long time, relieved that she didn't have to worry about LeMarks commanding her ship. Concentrating on the less obvious, who he took orders from was her next priority.