Chapter 3

Councilor Trevor Estebahn, second council to the Empress. By all rights the third most powerful man in the Empire.

The reason I didn't put one and one together was I never knew the guy's first name, all I'd heard him referred to was as Councilor Estebahn. Second, while Estebahn wasn't a common name, it wasn't uncommon either. Hell I knew of two or three Estebahns or Estefans. Lastly, I heard him referred to as one of the most eligible bachelors of the Empire. I didn't know or care about his personal life much less that he'd had a daughter. Unless I did something, I knew this was going to turn into a hassle.

"OK, well, it was very nice meeting you. Goodbye," I was saying as I started to back up and hopefully out of the cabin.

Annalynn came forward and tried to stop me by grabbing my arm.

"Don't touch me!"

Annalynn took a step back, a hurt expression on her face. Katherine and Mari both took steps towards me with very angry faces.

Before it got any worse because of my quick mouth I explained "Look, nothing personal and sorry for yelling. Really. I'm just really dirty, sweaty, and nasty. I may even have some of the dead crew on me. I don't think so, but I don't want to take a chance, OK?"

That last part stopped them in their tracks. All three looked at my pressure suit and nodded. Katherine spoke up.

"No apologies necessary. I understand. Let's all go to your ship and we can talk there after you clean up."

I stood there and blinked a couple of times. 'What the hell just happened?' I asked myself.

At that moment, Sam came across. "Party! Maybe if you're lucky it'll turn into an orgy."

"Shut up, Sam." She just laughed at me.

Annalynn and Katherine looked at me strangely.

"My AIA sometimes has an annoying habit of making off color comments." From my implant a raspberry was transmitted. Let me tell you the vibrations make if feel like something crawled in your ear. It's usually what Sam wakes me up with because she knows it drives me nuts.

"Uh, look. My ship may not be the best place, it's cramped and sparse. Besides, I'm sure you have better things to do."

"Nonsense. We've been cooped up on this ship for close to 2 weeks with only a couple of days on Denarrus4. We could use a change of scenery," Annalynn told me.

"Besides," Katherine said, "it'll get us away from that pompous ass."

"The freighter captain?" I asked.

"Oh, you met him."

The way she said it I didn't need to respond. We all seemed to feel the same about the captain.

"Fine, let's go. But don't say I didn't warn you." Keying my private channel to Sam I asked her to inform 'Virgo' that I'd be docked with her for what could be a couple more hours and that a few passengers had requested a tour of my ship. Sam acknowledged and passed the word.

Almost immediately I heard the captain's voice over the ship intercom. "Privateer, call the bridge. Now!"

"Mind if I use your comm panel?"

Mari stepped forward and said "Let me handle this."

"Please. Less I have to talk to him, the better. I already want bust his head open and I don't need the additional aggravation right now."

She stepped up to the comm panel. She pointed at me and then pointed to a spot on the floor. "Stand there, please." I walked over and stood there. This would put me into view of the camera. The other two young ladies stood away from us, out of the camera's field of view. Mari then stood to the side, also out of camera, and keyed the panel to call the bridge.

The captain's image came up and his eyes locked on to me. "What the fuck are you still doing on my ship? Get off and get out of here!"

At that point, Mari swung into view of the camera. The captain looked confused for a moment and then you could almost hear the flick of the switch as the smarmy attitude kicked in.

"Ah! Ms. Delero, how is everything? Is Lady Estebahn in need of anything?"

"Yes, Captain," Mari said in a very cool voice that made the captain's image flinch, "she has asked to see the privateer ship and Maxwell has graciously agreed. We will be over on his ship for a little while. Will that be a problem?"

"Ah, no. Please extend to Lady Estebahn to take all the time she wishes. Uh, while I have you Privateer, have you contacted Amethyst system control? Our long range comms were damaged."

"I sent messages to them before I jumped out here. That was about 6.5 hours ago. They should have gotten the message about 1.5 hours ago at Amethyst4 and I'm sure security is on its way and a salvage tug is being prepped. I'd guess security to be here in another 16 hours from their post just beyond Amethyst5's orbital path and the tug in a couple of days."

"Ah, very good. Thank you. Ms. Delero, once again ple-," Mari cut off the comm.

"OK, I really need a shower to get the smarm off me," I said to no one in particular. I looked at Mari with a smirk. "'She asked to see' my ship?"

"Be nice. She is right there you know."

I looked over at Annalynn. She did have the grace to look a bit embarrassed. I shrugged and headed out the hatch.

"Well, now that the captain knows what's what, let's get moving. My clothes are about to riot because it's so nasty in this suit."

We made our way to the airlock that my ship was docked to. The hatch slid open at my command and I stepped through to the transit shaft between the freighter and my ship. Just outside the freighter's outer airlock gravity ceased and I let inertia carry me across in a practiced move that I had done many times. When my ship's gravity caught me, I stood on a small platform provided and keyed in, opening the airlock. I turned and watched the ladies as they made their way across. They used the provided handholds but the fact that they didn't swing into the walls showed they had some zero-g skills. I stepped through and into my ship waiting for the ladies to arrive. When they did, their knees almost buckled and I remembered something.

"Sam, drop gravity to one-g."

"Right. Gravity at one-g."

All three women looked at me with frowns of confusion.

"I keep the gravity at little high. Good leg work out," I explained. They looked at me a little strangely. "What? Lots of privateers do it. Gives us a workout and burns off excess calories."

They looked at my pressure suit which did not have to most flattering shape. Because of my height, it was hard to find a suit that would fit so I usually had to use one that was for, shall we say, husky builds.

I shrugged and led the way in. As soon as they were clear, I closed the inner and outer airlock hatches then made my way to the hold. There I moved to a closet where I could safely remove the pressure suit without touching the outside of it. I then exited the closet, closed the door and started the decontamination and wash cycle.

Next to the closet was small chest bolted to the wall. I opened it, grabbed a 2 liter bottle of water and started drinking it. My clothes were soaked with sweat and I really wanted to get out of them but I needed to hydrate first. Turning, all three women were staring at me.

Looking down to see if my pants were undone and I was swinging free. I wasn't but the synthcotton was plastered to me and not leaving really anything to the imagination. Good thing I'm not bashful. Looking back up at them I asked what was wrong.

"Your Pariclesian!" was Annalynn's response.

"Orphan actually. Probably have at least one parent from Par3, maybe both, but I've never set foot in the system," I told her.

"I just didn't..." she trailed off.