Innes in Command
Copyright© 2026 by Lumpy
Chapter 24
“Inbound vessel,” the nav crewman said. “Mid-size cargo hauler requesting transit clearance in system.”
“Downlink specs and begin scans,” Innes said.
He switched his console over to the incoming manifest and watched as information about the ship, a Meryd-flagged vessel called the Bani Beryn out of the Vestra system, appeared. The thing that stood out to him right away was that, while it was headed for Hokkaido, it listed a stop at one of the smaller mining platforms inside the belt just off the trade lane.
While it wasn’t completely unheard of for a cargo ship to stop by the belt, in the month since he’d been here, he’d never seen it happen. And considering the pirate activity around that area, it was an immediate red flag.
Another actual red flag came up a moment later as the scan finished and the information on it was checked against the ship’s manifest. The ship was listed as carrying industrial machinery parts, which was at least something a mining station would use. What didn’t match up was the mass, which was almost seventy-five metric tons more than the cargo mass certified in their manifest.
“Sir, I’m seeing...” the ops crewman started to say.
“I see it too, crewman. Can you detect any signatures of something that shouldn’t be there? Weapons or other contraband?”
That was a long shot, he knew, but he thought if he could at least get real proof, he would have a reason to board it. Unfortunately, there was almost no chance the smugglers would leave something like that out in the open, rather than in a shielded compartment like the one they’d found on the Pioneer Spirit.
The only thing he could do was send his sensor logs ahead and suggest to Hokkaido control that they do an inspection when the ship got there, but the odds were that if it was carrying contraband, it would be delivering it to the mining platform and not taking it all the way to Hokkaido, which would make a later search moot.
“No, sir. Just the weight variance.”
Innes didn’t say anything else for a moment. While they had cargo ships come through since he’d gotten his new orders, this was the first one that had made him second-guess whether he should follow them or not. The others, while they would have rated a search, were the type that, even if he found something wrong, would result in a warning to correct it and be sent on their way.
This was the first one that was likely to have real contraband and all but demanded a search, if his orders hadn’t been so cut and dry.
“Sir?” the crewman prompted when Innes didn’t say anything.
Innes hated to give the order, but he’d been left with no choice. “Log the ship and the discrepancies and forward the data to Hokkaido and the Illustrious, with recommendations that it get a customs inspection there.”
“Sir, there is enough variance that it’s almost certainly contraband. Are you sure you don’t want to search it?” Chief Baker asked.
“Orders are orders, chief. Launch the shuttle and have it do a flyby. Maybe they will get a better read. Tell them to keep at least five hundred meters distance.”
“Aye,” the chief said, although the way he said it, it was clear he didn’t think that was sufficient. “The cargo ship is asking for clearance to continue in system.”
“Tell them to hold.”
Knowing Tan, he would probably submit a complaint that they didn’t just pass the Meryd ship straight through, even if he hadn’t boarded it for an inspection, but the captain had said he could scan and log any ships coming through, and if that’s all he was allowed to do, then damnit, that was what he was going to do.
Seven minutes later, and after two more calls from the cargo ship, the shuttle reached her and began a slow flyby around the vessel, looking for any signs of extra holds or gaps in potentially shielded holds that might slip through.
“Anything?” Innes asked.
“Nothing yet, sir,” Baker said. “Although there is a call coming through from the Meryd Trade Consul.”
“Tell them we’re busy,” Innes said.
He already knew what Tan was going to say. Tan had almost certainly gotten word that his ships could come through uninspected, or he wouldn’t have had one with such an obvious red flag show up. Actually, now that Innes thought about it, one of the borderline ships that he’d let go without being inspected earlier had been a Meryd-flagged ship also.
Possibly a trial run, something minor that they knew Innes would have pulled for inspection before, but that, if Innes didn’t have the orders or if he went rogue and was breaking them, they wouldn’t lose much. That ship had gone through without being checked, so it was likely that this was the next step in the test. The contraband on it was probably parts and not anything that would cause a huge uproar.
Maybe undeclared money.
Whatever it was, the cargo ship captain would have called to complain to Tan that he was being held in pattern, and Tan was now calling because he’d ‘heard’ that they weren’t doing direct inspections anymore.
Let him wait.
“Scan complete. Nothing beyond the same variants in mass we found. The shuttle is requesting orders.”
“Recall the shuttle and give the cargo ship clearance to leave.”
Baker didn’t do it immediately, just looked at him like he hadn’t heard him right.
“You heard me, chief.”
“Aye, sir,” Baker said hesitantly.
Baker had been in the service almost as long as Pierce. He didn’t have quite the stellar record and hadn’t made it to master chief yet, but he had enough time in to know what they should be doing in this moment. He’d gotten Innes’s orders to change their stance on inspections, and maybe he even realized it had come from the captain, but he didn’t know the full extent of it.
To him, he was seeing a young ensign letting a ship that clearly was carrying contraband go. The Bani Beryn began its acceleration in system as the shuttle made its way back to the station. Tan would see this as a win, and his next ship would push the line even further; maybe it would even have illegal contraband on board.
The idea made Innes sick, but what could he do? His father and his ilk had played their hand and pushed Innes into a corner, and there was not much he could do about it without landing in a mound of trouble.
So all he could do was watch and log as pirates were armed with weapons that would kill more people.
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