Chapter 64

"Lorn approach, "Sundowner", merchant trader, transponding zero four one zero tare easy easy, at the hyper with information November, request clearances and approach for the passenger terminal with a stay of eight days, over."

""Sundowner", identified, clearance not available at this time, continue approach, query ETA at the outer marker? Lorn control."

Dorothy raised eyebrows at Control answering,

"If direct. four hours twenty five minutes, "Sundowner"."

"Control."

Dorothy spoke to Morg who was OW,

"Morg, Approach isn't on the net; why?"

"Dorothy, there was nothing on November and the charts and the "Pilot" still indicate the separation."

"Not enough traffic?"

"Possible."

"Clare, could I have a moment?" Saint stood in the office hatchway.

Clare waved him to a liftchair and raised an eyebrow as he settled.

"I am not quite sure how I should broach this" Saint started.

"From the beginning is often the best way."

"There really aint a beginning or an end; rather a proposition. (Under Clare's encouraging nod, he continued) "Several of my patients spaced over to Comalee from here to obtain my services and suggested I would reap a fortune on Lorn if I were to be able to offer my services discretely. The problem would turn about privacy which when I investigated it further is rather difficult in a police state and of course working out of passenger terminals is rather in the public gaze. But the situation is rather different with New Harriers. I could organise, on short notice, clients for my services and they could come to my surgery either via the club and or by flivver onto C#5 airlock."

Clare was way ahead of him,

"Approved. We can't have our surgeon losing his skills, can we? Make sure Mercedes keeps a full accounting for Allie ... Doctor (reproachfully), surely you haven't forgotten so soon. You work for "Sundowner" now, and any monies you earn belong to the ship. Thank you, Doctor, for coming up with that idea. There'll be a bonus for your people and yourself, of course. Feel free to use Threep and Art on this as otherwise they might be underemployed while we are in port. Co-ordinate with the Bosun on traffic control, please"

and nodded dismissal.

""Sundowner", from your present position, proceed direct to the outer marker at fifty kay clicks, and from the outer direct to Terminal three at ten kay clicks. No other traffic. Remain this frequency. Lorn."

"Fifty kay to the outer and ten kay to Terminal three, "Sundowner"."

"Well, that answers that one, Dorothy," Morg commented, "I'll lock the track in for you and just follow the bouncing red ball."

"Oh, thank you so kindly, sweet Sir."

"Come in an' grab whatever seats you can" Clare said to the Daughters. "The men are going to be somewhat busy over the next several month because...

... so to be able to get the maximum out of them, you are going to be their understudies for their watchkeeping duties. Sort it out among yourselves ... Yes, Allie?"

"No one except Bolem can understudy the Chief, so why not kick Colin out of the hydroponics unit to cover Orville and one of us will work the vegetables."

Clare looked at the suddenly innocent faces of the Daughters and remembered their earlier interest,

"I really don't want to know, I really don't. Tell them please. Carry on."

"D'you hear there, d' you hear there, all hands, stations for entering harbour."

"Captain on the bridge."

"Ma'am, ship manned for entering harbour, all power boards in the green, Cox'n (PO2 Janice Dawson) on the helm, Bosun (CPO Dorothy Ember) has the berthing party, engine room answering bells (engines responding to the seats' throttle) and Control has given clearance"

"Very good, Mr Windsor; my ship."

"Your ship; aye, Ma'am."

Clare settled into the command chair.

...

One airbridge had been placed connecting to #4 (port side) on C which opened into the club.

'Nita James had hared off in the flivver to renew contacts to purchase yak and angora wool and fabric.

Orville had spaced dirtside in "Bulb" to metal merchants as he wanted to see exactly what he was getting as Derrin had laid down some tight quality parameters even if it was common metal. ("Sundowner" had plenty of the needed exotic metal — nearly two billets of it.)

Morg was supervising Dusty Miller and the birdies refurbishing the club and storing the provisions as they arrived.

Cedric, assisted by the Black Gang (less 'Nita), was putting the finishing touches to Derrin's connection into the cad cams' controllers.

Derrin was enjoying her newfound freedom by exploring every nook and cranny of "Sundowner" but hadn't been able to resolve the intermittent transients occurring in the enviro system and decided that she would have to: 1. learn speech; and 2. obtain audiovisual capability. It had coms with Threep and Art using machine language and made its request.

Threep was in the clean room setting up the mini cad cam and noted Derrin's request. Art was enjoying itself by slicing gold off the billet for Threep — the enjoyment came by cutting elaborate microscopic shapes and have Threep melt them in the crucible so it could make more.

Mercedes was working the PDA coms while the Doc and his human helpers were preparing the suite.

Dorothy and her Deck Apes were doing all those minor maintenance ship tasks that accumulate during a voyage — but not in the engine room, that was the Black Gang's domain and woe betide a Deck Ape who ventured there.

The Daughters were gathered about their "cauldrons" (or whatever) in the hydroponics' lab, not shrieking with glee but frowning with concentration as their mixtures frothed and bubbled and sent multi hued vapours up the extractors.

The Companions had gathered on E to relax and spin — and get out of the vents while the Daughters were playing.

Clare was catching up on the reports necessarily generated by departments in a space going vessel and warship.

TJ? When not in the gym or sparing time out of his cabin in the fresher, on watch, or in the mess, TJ could be found at his numerous 'puters receiving and sending information or flaked out on his king size bunk; none of his partners (seven of them now Julie was in 'Pest) could tell whether he was cogitating while he restored his energy or just plain zedding off restoring energy.

It was almost a relief to open the club and slow down to a frenzy:

except for St Luke's which went into overdrive - non stop; Threep was now able to work non stop and left Luke to do the bedside stuff; Art wandered between the surgical pods and the clean room as needed:

except for Orville and Cedric with Derrin who were organising the metal ingots as they arrived and readying the workshop to produce the robos;

except for the crew who staffed House of Tulip, New Harriers, the galley or stood bridge watch and kept the gangway watch.

A relaxing time otherwise.

...

After the necessary two days to get things ready (in all departments) except St Luke's which took only a day, business was brisk in both House, Club and Surgery. Both House of Tulip and New Harriers were fondly remembered from the prior visit and things had become easier with the loosened ties to New Liege.

The Sundowners became aware of a thread of conversation of the locals about the whereabouts of the naval elements which had spaced out some five or six months previously leaving behind only an n space guard. — TJ had noted to the officers the size of the local force contrasting it with the size during the last visit.

It was never revealed who started the rumour about the tragedy in Mountserrat's Home Space — it was TJ, who had put the information on his FTL net and arranged for a local contact to whisper the rumour.

By day two's trading, the locals were asking the Sundowners for information. The reactions of the Sundowners and their lack of precise knowledge (except for the officers who were not approached) fuelled speculation.

Day three trading, TJ's PDA binged. Message from a local contact, properly authenticated, "expect this plenipotentiary" with identifying vid. TJ informed Clare and they hatched a plan. It worked with a few tweaks.

Morg met the lady and her friend at the entry port — he happened to have strolled by at just that instant and the friend introduced herself as the USW Charge d'Affaires on Lorn, Judy Earlight, and Judy introduced her friend, Dorothea Meiers, " a bureaucrat, a top bureaucrat, mind you..." They had come to see the garments as Dorothea had missed them last time. Morg seated them, arranged refreshments and suggested they look at the garments being displayed and select a style. The ladies looked critically at what was on offer and by the time Morg returned (from fabricating garments in the holo corner) they had some ideas as to what they wanted.

Morg escorted them to the cubicles where several other clients were in varying stages of nudity, ahh, the process, and of course the chatter was not only about the garments but the anti grav pads; and the on site implantation of the wiring was also being tittered about.

Judy and her friend worked their way through the process of having gowns etc made (actually they completely refurbished their wardrobes) and were fitted with the wires. Much later in the day, after suitable refreshment, the ladies departed, with breasts held high, trailing stacked boxes on an anti grav trolley.

Dorothea Meiers suffered from her ordeal over the next several days but what would you expect when Threep had done a quick and dirty implantation with minimal local anaesthesia and the woman had got out of the pod immediately to hold a short conference with Clare and TJ in the hydroponics unit.

The conversation was necessarily brief so points were made succinctly. Dorothea was covered by a bathrobe and, as the introductions were quickly made, broke open a plastic(?) ovoid to extract a chip handing same to Clare and discarding the ovoid fragments into the trash.

'That robe don't have pockets ... no, I don't need to know how she carried that around in the measuring cubicle' TJ thought.

{It was... }

'Don't'

{Oh.}

'Yeah'

Dorothea had her amphibs in a row: not for public dissemination — to be kept close — need to know and then I kill you sort of level of secrecy - Lorn wanted full member status in the United Solarian Worlds; Lorn requested home basing of elements of USN Home Fleet — Home Fleet not those thieving bastards in Frontier, thank you, let them stay over in the southwest; Lorn is basically self sufficient but industrial investment welcome; the chip was the Charge's and had her reports and the details of low level negotiations. Gotta go, I'm having such a good time, and Dorothea returned to the dressing cubicle.

Clare looked at the chip and gave it to TJ,

"This could benefit from a quick reception to one of your friends in high places and I don't need to know any more. Teeth, TJ, why was I needed, anyway, you're the intel weenie on this bucket, I'm just a recycled ship's master."

"Cover, Boss, cover. You are the senior and presumed to know all. Its no secret we carry Letters of Marque from the Senate and a reasonable presumption is that you as Master have powers from the Senate; so you get approached for back channel coms. I know just the person to send this to; no she ain't in USN, she's Enklan Foreign Office."

TJ had inserted the chip into one of the standalone 'puters and proceeded to examine it. The addressee was a USW Senator, one of the correct links for such a com, but TJ was aware that such a com to him would mean that the contents would take about a nanosecond to spread over the planet. The high level diplomatic code took a few seconds to break and TJ spent a minute or so admiring the manner in which Judy Earlight managed to convey information without specifically saying anything definite — a masterpiece of misdirection. The Senator was a very shrewd politician, well versed in double speak, and would have had the kernel as quickly as he read the message; it was a pity that his office leaked like a fractured weir.