Part 2 - Emergence
There was little Lei could do over the cycles that followed. The docks got busy, as a damaged salvage vessel dropped out of underspace, flush with trade and in need of work. The dock came alive when there were repairs to be done, and if the patron was also looking to fill spots in their crew? Well, people really went the extra parsec to make an impression. With so many bodies around she kept a low profile. This suited her, as she hadn’t fully worked out what she was going to do next.
The ship needed plenty of repairs, fortunately, so Lei wasn’t suspicious to anyone that didn’t know her, quietly working away. The problem was that Trik did know her, and quiet was lightyears out of character for Lei.
“Ho there”, said Trik walking up the boarding ramp. “How’s my favourite client? Found something good, have you? You always hold out on old Trik!”
“Shik”, breathed Lei before she turned with a grin. “Ho, Trik. What brings you all the way out to the honest part of town?”
“Just checking in”, he said, helping himself to a protein bite from Lei’s lunch and leaning against the bulkhead.
“Since when do you check in on your clients. People as shady as your customers don’t normally take kindly to snooping.”
Trik held his hands to his chest in mock injury. “Oh my dear, you do wound! It’s a new policy, for when my one honest client suddenly starts hiding.”
“I’m not hiding”, protested Lei, gesturing with the comm panel conduit she was holding. This led to her second problem. As well as knowing her, Trik also knew old tech. There was a lot of money in it.
“Holy Shik. Is that what it looks like?”, he said dropping the food he’d stolen in his excitement. “How old is th…?”
He tailed off and started to look at his surroundings. Seeing, as she had, the shape beneath the disguise. Like a new model Sundipper under a cover at its launch party
“Lei. What have you done?” Trik sounded worried.
“What do you mean?” Lei tried to sound indignant, but Trik’s tone had spooked her.
“This ship is old. Isn’t it? Really old. Tell me you haven’t connected it to that speech interface you got from me?”
Lei indicated a box at her feet. “Not unpacked yet. Why? As if you supply traceable goods! ‘Tricky’ Trik Hassan, the best fixer in the quadrant?”
“Not for my other clientele. They do lots of illegal shik. But you don’t, so I took a shortcut. I’ve not spent the last 90 years getting rich by wasting effort and cost.”
Trik pushed his jacket back from his hip, and ostentatiously showed the butt of a personal laser that probably cost as much as Lei paid for the ship. “Now, let’s talk about what you have here, and what we need to do next. For both our sakes.”
Lei held up her hands. “I don’t think the lasers necessary.”
“Necessary?”, Trik spat. “I’m old enough to remember what happened the last time they found someone with tech this ancient. The Guild cleared house. Killed them all.”
Lei swallowed. “On who’s authority?”
“Does it matter?”, Trik replied. “They killed them, their family, their neighbours, their neighbour’s families, and on until the trail was cold eno--”
He stopped, as the door behind him started to close, and the reactor spooled up.
“What the hell?”, he said drawing the very expensive, very deadly weapon, and pointing it a confused Lei.
His answer was Lei’s next, and largest problem.
“GUILD INSPECTION”, buzzed the intercom for the dock. “POWER DOWN. PUT YOUR ID AND DEEDS IN THE SCANNER”.
Trik was quicker on the uptake than Lei. He went pale. “The ship. The ship started itself. It knew the guild was coming, and it chose to...shik!” He started to head for the closed door.
Lei might not have got there quickest, but she caught up fast. As the ship emerged from the dock, heading for an unlicensed launch, with no flight plan, Lei thought about how many laws she’d broken recently. She had no way to stop the situation, but she could break one more law to stop Trik. Whether to protect him, or save her own skin, she would puzzle over later, but she pulled a Stunner from her pocket and gave him a flash. Trik crumpled, hitting his head on the bulkhead on the way down. She winced. He’d not be happy about that, she thought. But given that she was kidnapping him, or at least owned the apparently conscious ship that was kidnapping them both, she hoped it would be low on the priority list.
