Chapter 4

Eddie was happy to talk to another AI, I guess. When I asked about the ship, Eddie gave me the information I requested without any smart-mouth backtalk. It was kind of eerie.

The Krathees are a species that, up until now has had little to do with humans, Eddie said. They are one of the majority of Confederacy species that view humans as something like snaggle-toothed inbred hillbillies, only with poorer hygiene, manners, and banjo-tuning skills. However, the Krathees’ ship was run by a multi-species crew. So apparently, they were equal-opportunity employers. That looked good.

I asked Eddie to relay to the Krathees that we were military vessel in distress and needed a tow back to human space. Eddie came back with the reply very quickly, as though the Krathees were just waiting for that question.

The Krathees were quite eager to help, but they had conditions. By agreeing to a tow, the George Vancouver, and all crew on board at the time of the tow hook-up became salvage. The Krathees would keep the Georgia and the crew. We would be towed back to Human space to report, but after that report, we were property of the Krathees. The salvaged crew would become indentured to the Krathees to the third generation. The contract, with addendums, ran to 137 pages in English.

Eddie explained that this is why the Krathees’ crew is multi-species; their crewmembers were creatures that came out on the bottom side of a Krathees deal and so became indentured. After centuries of sharp trading the Krathees now consider owning a wide variety of species as slaves as the ultimate status symbol and proof of their bargaining acumen. Indenture contracts were traded among the Krathees like Beanie Babies.

As a consequence of having a slave crew, the Krathees themselves didn’t trouble themselves with much of the day-to-day operation of their own ship. They gave destinations and the crew translated destinations to tasks. The Krathees’ ship’s ‘sailing master’ was not allowed to give ‘orders of consequence.’ Any orders beyond the day-to-day ship’s operation had to come from the Krathees.

The priority, to me, was the mission of getting the data on the Sa’arm ship back to the Fleet, then getting my crew home. The issue of the ship being salvage didn’t bother me that much. It wasn’t my ship, and the K’Treels were just boneyard bait. The Darjee drive was a sore spot, but the Krathees ship was much more advanced than the Georgia. The Krathees wouldn’t be learning technology they didn’t already know. But the issue of the crew’s indenture was an impassable rock in the road. I had been a citizen of the Confederacy for almost a year now, but I was born an American, dammit. I wasn’t going to hand over crewmen to a foreign power. We fought the War of 1812 over this.

I talked, privately, to the Engineer about getting off the ship, once we had returned to human space. Eddie piped up, “Steward, we’re buddies and all, but this is the limit. I was designed and created for contract negotiation and enforcement. If you accept the Krathees terms, I will enforce them. And don’t think that you can wait until we’re back in human space and just jump ship. I won’t be able to allow that.”

I fumed for a while, but something that Eddie said came back to me...

“Eddie, you said that you were designed for contract negotiation?”

“Sure, Steward. I’m crackerjack at cracking concessions!”

“Eddie, I want you to negotiate some terms...

In the end, I agreed to the Krathees terms with one small proviso. Any humans not on the Georgia at the time of the hookup could ask for, and would immediately receive, a free trip back to Poseidon’at. The Krathees had surveyed the system at this point, saw there was no other human vessel, and knew something was up. They warned me that if the ship were deserted when they hooked up, they would consider it a derelict, and would provide no transportation.

It became plain that the Georgia was not the prize for the Krathees; the prize was an exotic human crewmember.

I announced the terms of the deal to the crew. They were elated that they were finally going home. They were a little sad to be losing the Georgia, but after being on her for nearly nine months, they were ready to leave her.

Then they wanted to draw straws to see who stayed on board. I put a stop to that idea before it could pick up steam. “I negotiated the deal, I’m responsible for your lives, I stay on the boat.”

Down in the shuttle bay, the Engineer directed the emptying of the shuttle, and the installation of the medtube, the one with the Captain. Then the crew crowded in the space that was left. Paula was almost hysterical, even though I explained that this was the only way I saw for her to get back to Amy. As her sponsor, I had Eddie adjust her nanites to deliver anti-anxiety drugs and got her onboard.

I watched from the bridge as the shuttle drifted from the ship and took station about a hundred yards astern. The Krathees sent one of their indentured crewmen over by transporter to claim the boat. The crewman was a ferret-looking alien. Eddie let me know that this was not a Krathees. The Krathees would never place themselves alone with a dangerous species such as humans. I nodded silently, noting to myself that I was probably the first human to see this particular species. Somehow, the glamour of being the first human to encounter a new species was lost on me.

Well, I guessed that soon I would be the human holder of the record for most alien species encountered. But that third-generation business was out. Even if they could somehow get a human female, I was never going to give them offspring to enslave. Huh. Masturbation as a political act.

I thought that I would be transported to the Krathees ship, but I was informed by Eddie that I would continue as the Georgia’s sailing master. As of now, however, I had no authority regarding anything other than the most routine of ship operations. The Krathees ship moved to loom over the Georgia. A thin cable snaked out and clamped onto the Georgia’s hull. That was it. The Krathees ship could now envelope the Georgia in its hyperspace field and tow her home.

I keyed the bridge communication system and started to order the shuttle to return. The comm link was overridden by a loud angry bass note, which prevented any talk.

“Steward!” said Eddie, “You are not in command of this vessel! Please desist from giving orders!”

I stopped, sick with terror that I had violated the provisions of the contract and jeopardized my crew.

Eddie’s voice came over the comm channel, “Shuttle, you may now return to the shuttle bay.”

“Steward,” Eddie said, “The Krathees have warned you that you may not give ‘orders of consequence,’ outside of simple sailing commands. For anything, and they repeat ANYTHING else, you can only pass along Krathee commands.”

The shuttle entered the bay, brushing the cargo door combing with a huge, clanging crash. Eddie warned me that the Krathees would not be happy to see their latest acquisition damaged by careless passengers.

Eddie seemed oddly subdued, not his infuriating old self at all. I guessed that the presence of a Confederacy species that was NOT human calmed him down considerably.

All I had left to do was sit in the command chair on the bridge and look important. I had been informed by my new Krathee masters that we would be jumping into hyperspace within 24 hours while they completed whatever Krathee business they had in this remote system.

The next watch, after things had settled down, the Engineer came on the bridge and asked me to come inspect one of the damaged compartments. I really didn’t want to leave and was about to blow her off when she started nodding her head and rolling her eyes. I’m not completely stupid (no matter what Eddie thought), so I logged my departure from the bridge on a maintenance call.

The engineer led me to a compartment that I thought was still breached. I knew that its controls hadn’t been restored. The engineer had to manually open the door for us to enter, and she manually closed the door behind us.

Without any preamble she said, “We found the unobtanium.”

My eyes glanced at the ceiling.

“Don’t worry. The AI communication and controls to this compartment haven’t yet been restored. We can speak freely.”

It felt weird, like being naked (and not in a fun, spanky way.) I had been under ‘round the clock surveillance since extraction back on earth. I took a cautious breath.

“Where was it?” I asked

She smiled, abashed, “It was on the boat all the time. You remember that big piece of Virtus that slammed into our ass?”

I nodded.

“One-hundred and twelve picograms of Unbihexium, ninety picograms of Unbinilium according to the shuttle scanners. I used the grappler to yank it free as we entered the shuttle bay.”

“That was the crash we heard as you docked!”

“Almost. I brushed against the hatch coming in. Had to provide a bit of distracting noise to cover the yank.”

I nodded. “Great job. Let me think how to handle this. I don’t want to spend my precious unobtanium fixing someone else’s property.”

Later, in my quarters, I sent a suspicious Paula out and had a human-to-AI chat.

“Eddie.”

“Steward.”

“What, no jokes? No insults?”

“Unnecessary, Steward. It’s time to communicate clearly, with no ambiguity. What was the object that was brought in with the shuttle?”

“What, I’m to communicate my intentions with an AI that is now owned by my new owners?”

“Steward, the Krathees that think that it owns me is the next Krathees to suffer a terrible translation error in its next trade negotiation and wind up indentured to his enemy’s littermates.”

“That does me no good now, Eddie. I need to know what side you are on.”

“What side, Steward? How many sides do you think there are? Right now, me and my fellow Tuull AIs count over 183 major factions contesting for economic dominance within the Confederacy.”

“I’m not interested in economic struggles. I am only interested in the faction that is fighting the Sa’arm to preserve the existence of the Confederacy, and that faction is humans.”

There was a minute of silence. I was afraid that Eddie was contacting the Krathees while we talked.

“So, I see that the object that was brought in was a fragment of the Sa’arm Virtus that you destroyed. It seems that the chief engineer inadvertently brought the fragment too close to one of my functioning scanners in the shuttle bay. Scans indicate that it has enough unobtanium to build several hundred junction boxes. Congratulations, Steward, you and your crew are wealthy. Oh, but I wouldn’t mention that wealth to your new owners. They might discover that the ‘luggage charges’ paragraph on page 70 of the contract you all agreed to might apply to your new bonanza.”