Chapter 35

"Amaranti Control, this is "Sundowner" approaching yours, request onward clearance, over.

"Sundowner" zero four one zero tare easy easy, identified, continue approach until twenty kay klicks and then call approach on four eight seven zero."

"Sundowner" approach four eight seven zero."

TJ was in the pilot seat and Morg in the second seat,

"Advise the ship to man for entering harbour, please, Morg."

Morg activated the middle deck tannoy,

"Man your stations for entering harbour" flicked selectors and

"All decks, do ye hear there, prepare for manoeuvres to enter harbour."

Morg leant to the com console and selected 4870 on com 2 and pointed at the com; TJ acknowledged with a nod. As the crew moved into position, Dorothy Ember called

"Captain on the bridge."

"Ship manned for entering harbour, cleared to twenty kay clicks, all power boards in the green." TJ reported to Charles.

"Very good; carry on please Number One."

"Aye aye, sir. All stations establish long range all round visual holos please. Thank you. Morg decrease to forty percent power."

"Forty percent aye." And eased back the throttles.

Orville reported from the engine room,

"Engines answering to commands; all green here."

TJ locked the autopilot onto the guide path and "Sundowner" gave a slight squiggle as she settled into the electronic path.

Before the limit, TJ selected Com 2 and pressed the PTT,

"Approach, "Sundowner" approaching twenty kay klicks."

A heavily accented voice answered in galactic standard,

""Sundowner" decrease to five thousand klicks and maintain guide slope."

""Sundowner", five thousand klicks, guide slope", released the PTT and use the intercom,

"Morg, throttle back and we'd best use reverse thrust to take the way off us."

"Reverse thrusters aye" and pulled the throttles back to idle, selected the forward thruster nozzles, angled them to fire forwards and applied power. The deceleration was palpable.

""Sundowner" head three four one down one zero zero and decrease to one thousand klicks."

""Sundowner". Three four one and one zero zero down, one thousand klicks."

On D deck, Commodore Thorogh was examining his screens and comparing the track with the 'Galactic Pilot', and muttered to himself

"Where in Hades are they putting us?"

The same question was exercising Charles' mind. He had berthed in New Breslau several time during his early merchant marine experience, to Clare he remarked,

"We are heading for the long term parking orbit. The Amarantis have exquisitely precisely attended to our requirements but they could have done the same at a passenger berth and New Breslau ain't that busy that a berth alongside an orbital wouldn't be available. It means only those with access to private shuttles or can afford shuttle taxis can visit. I wonder if they have heard of New Harriers and disapprove? Nah. Dirtside here has some very raunchy establishments. What is it you say, Morg? Curiouser and curiouser."

TJ and Morg were too busy to join Charles in his ruminations, but both stored the mutterings for further use. "Sundowner" was berthed on the galactic western edge of the parking harbour with the usual two kay klicks clearance.

After berthing and standing down from 'entering harbour', Morg and TJ repaired to the lounge for coffee. Charles and Clare entered and joined them and the discussion was desultory and sporadic until Cedric joined them announcing,

"Finally cracked it. You were right, Morg, the generator couldn't handle the rapid change and that's why the breaker kept popping. Suits. The expanding defensive screen now works. I put a rheo with an inertia weight on the spindle making the rotation slower but smoother..."

"How much slower?" Clare demanded " you keep doing things to my ship ... suits, our ship but we do need to know about any changes."

"No problem, Clare, the spindle is also the switch; so rotation activates the generators and full expansion with spindle rotation needs half to three quarters of a second ... Here's the amended protocol for the defensive screen" passing across the chip.

"Very good. I'll have a shufti this afternoon after the Customs and Immigration have visited. Hang around after lunch, Cedric, I might need to talk with you about it. All other things being equal, I'll have lecture and demo for crew two forenoon tomorrow."

Orville joined them clutching his brew — a poisonous concoction he brewed in his engine room; Morg opined, the stuff needed at least two days radiation in the pile to get that bad.

"Charles, I had a look at the 'Pilot' and Paracelcus seems to be a bit light on bunkering..."

"Orville" Charles snorted disgustedly, "not only are the points few and far between, both availability and quality leave a lot to be desired. In standard bunkered vessels you need to bunker with enough to be able to do the return trip on your own resources. Why, are we short?"

"Not with our system but as a matter of principle I don't like swanning around regions where I'm not sure about reliable top-ups and I don't know where I'm going to end up. We've not added anything to "Sundowner" since I first started the piles in Gorgipest and I'm sure we can get across Paracelcus and Harbouria to Bhute where I know the bunkering is good. Just in case we have to widely divert or use full power for a time, I want to top up before we leave Amaranti."

"Suits. Make the arrangements with Clare please."

Customs and Immigration was cursory as the voyage had been across the Empire and Clare worked on Cedric's chip. She noticed the slight tension in the bridge officers and realised she was edgy,

"Suits, tell me why I am edgy" Clare demanded looking about the mess.

'Nita James had just come off bridge watch — Charles had decided to man a bridge watch with both seats and a watch officer just as if "Sundowner" was at cruise rather than an anchor watch,

"Because there is a three quarter sphere out there and we are anchored in the middle of it?"

"True" Charles rejoined "I've got an itchy little toe that warns me..."

"That's not the only itch you have, is it Eva?" Emily Jones smirked at Eva Porter who smiled quietly back in reply.

"Ladies!" chided Clare and went on "Everybody is twitchy — Cedric wants to put the PD on standby; Morg is adjusting the visual holos; TJ is on the weapons' console checking missile programmes; Orville worries about bunker levels; Dorothy has done two EVAs inspecting the electromags; Charles' little toe is itching and I'm edgy."

"It's contagious" TJ explained "Morg and I feel uptight and our pheromones go up and they seem to be affecting you."

"Well, stop it TJ. Calm down ... Or tell me why I should worry. Aaaarrrggghhh, you're no help. Charles, I want to maintain cruising watch until further notice, suit?"

"Approved, Clare. Set it up."

"That is a lovely neck cloth" Julie remarked to one of her local help.

"Yes it is" replied the young women whose name tag read "Trudi Adophus" — she was one of the mobile mannequins — but was wearing a scarf which was not a part of the accoutrements of the House, "it's a bit of a family heirloom and I like it; it goes with anything."

"May I?" Julie asked and in response to the smiling nod, fingered the cloth, "the edging is woven back on itself" and Julie looked quizzically at Trudie.

"It's the cloth; you cant work with it — it wont machine stitch; breaks needles and nobody has been able to get it to seal so all you can use it for is scarves and pocketchiefs. The edges have to be backwoven and that makes the cloth too expensive for any commercial work." Looking about to see if any one could overhear, she leant into Julie and said very softly, "we even tried to make it into sailcloth but that didn't work either. The material is strong enough but we found out that boat sails are pieces of 'puter designed cloth sewn together and that put paid to that idea."

"Pity" Julie mused "It is a lovely cloth." And nodding at Trudi, continued her perambulations.

Several days later, Julie saw Trudi in an intense discussion with an older couple — the couple were well but conservatively dressed and carried themselves with that air of unconscious power that people holding real authority had. Julie moved across,

"Good day to you. Can I be of assistance? I am Julie Windsor, the Hostess"

The man turned to face her and very obviously did not look at t'other than her face; his female companion made a very obvious inspection of Julie's body encased in her almost translucent gold Bhute biological gown and grinned widely

"That certainly doesn't leave much to the imagination."

"Aunt Rudiker!" Trudie gasped.

Julie smiled at Trudi and then turned to Aunt Rudiker,

"But it's not meant to leave much to the imagination — just enough to entice."

"Pardon my great niece's rudeness in not introducing us- I am Chien-lu Amaranti and my wife, Rudiker."

"Your grace; I am somewhat surprised to find you on this deck." Julie replied.

Herzog von und zu Reiperbahn's eyebrows only slightly raised as he nodded acknowledgement.

"Come now, Sir. You didn't really expect to see the exhibits truly incognito. Commodore Thorogh made sure we all got the file on the local hierarchies and Amaranti is a very stable nation and not expected to change its senior officials that often."

"In that case, I can deposit my wife here and toddle off to see what goodies Sol can provide. We have the Durander reports and they were quite complimentary about New Harriers. Perhaps I can join you for dinner, as I'm sure Thorogh will expect me to lunch with him."

"We can certainly entertain her. The Commodore is next deck down and I'm afraid you'll have to use your shuttle. This vessel is very badly designed for a convention ship but we picked it up for scrap value..."

"But as a treasure ship, the design is not of importance, is it?"

Julie could not prevent her reaction showing and with the slightest smile, he bade his adieus and walked to the force field and his shuttle.

Rudiker laughed openly,

"Oh dear, you answered a question he had" and in respone to a questioning tilt of Julie's head, she went on, "we had heard the rumours — our attaches in both Gorgipest and Settlement had reported them and in certain circles there was open discussion of them. As they did not affect the Empire, certain high ranking officials speculated as to whether there was treasure and made some wild guesses as to how much there was if any - and you just confirmed there was treasure. (Chortle) Now the speculation will really run riot."

Julie was half smiling as she regarded Rudiker Amaranti, reached a mental decision and beckoned 'Charley' over and introduced them instructing Charley to entertain the Countess and the grand niece and excused herself.

Trudi demurred claiming that as a mere temporary employee, she had to continue working and besides it was time for her to change into another creation of the House. 'Nita James walked past just then in her little black thing and the mammary elevation made Rudiker blink. Charley led the Countess across to a side table indicating to a hired waitress to bring refreshments — the local recognised the Countess, bobbed a curtesy and scurried off.

Julie found Clare and TJ in the lounge and quickly recounted the recent event and the fact that she had probably revealed the secret of the treasure. TJ thought about it for a while before saying,

"I don't think there will be a problem as the matter is held at a high level; it would take a long time for the speculation to spread to the local media and in this Empire, the media do as the Emperor advises or the offender goes off on a long holiday somewhere. It's a benevolent dictatorship but still a dictatorship. Lets call a conference of the Sundowners to discuss it. The Windsors can hold the fort or rather the House for a while..."

The PDAs beeped and the Sundowners strolled back from their peregrinations about the Club. TJ briefed them on Julie's speculation and opened the matter for discussion. The lower deck's attitude was 'so what?' — there was no metal on the ship — well not much particularly compared to the original. On board, they were defended by the ship's weapons and if there was a kidnapping if anyone went dirtside (and why would you need to do that — everything they wanted was on middle deck) the implanted locators would bring assistance (and vengeance) quickly.

Morg had not immediately responded to the call and had been paying his respects to the Countess when his nostrils began to 'twitch'; he looked more closely at the Countesses eyes and detected the double layer of contacts with the tiniest sliver of natural yellow iris exposed at the upper edge of the hazel coloured ring on the contact. He chirped and received a cocked head and a smile in response. Charley also chirped and the smile got wider. The Countess visibly relaxed, not that a norm would have detected it. Morg explained the presence of the group of 'muties' on board and excused himself to inform TJ and Percy (when Morg found him).

Morg transmitted a text sim to TJ and then joined the conference. TJ was just pocketing his PDA as Morg entered the lounge. Clare briefed him. Morg thought on it but couldn't come up with a suggestion — well not one to the conference in general. He did make one suggestion and that was to show the Countess the billets in the clean room and explained his reasoning as allowing the wife to be 'one up' on the husband — a motive of which the females mirthfully approved. Morg and TJ were directed to give the Countess the tour of "Sundowner".

The Sundowners might have been horrified as just how extensive that tour went. Ruduker Amaranti was impressed with the House and very closely inspected the collection but warned Trudi not to let her uncle or grandfather see her in 'that' if she ever wanted to enjoy a visit to anywhere outside the Palace again. Trudi laughed and advised her aunt that the hostess on the force field had been persuaded to give Trudie advance warning of her uncle's return. The tour continued through the accommodation block with only the one disaster — shown Morg's cabin, Rudiker's face became diplomatically blank on seeing 'Nita's thongs on a drying line in the fresher. Morg just shrugged. The clean room truly impressed the Countess — an Admiral's wife who had herself served — appreciated the facility.