Starship Swindlers: Outsiders Trilogy Book 2 Page 4

  He looked around slowly, then sat against one of the walls and wondered what his ship would look like if he ever got it back.

  *

  Another white room, slightly longer. An outgrowth of the floor formed a desk bisecting it, smaller outgrowths formed chairs. A quarter of it was filled with water, held back by the usual effector fields, in which Investigator Laodicean floated. Beside him, Investigator Illipa Vissivine sat, holding a tablet, making occasional lightning-fast gestures. On the other side of the table, Mero sat alone.

  “Mero Iskultine,” said Laodicean. “Place of birth, Ikaron Archipelago, Laikon.”

  “You got all that from my blood?” Mero said. “Impressive.” He slouched in his chair, his tail flicking back and forth.

  “That and more,” said Laodicean. “But right now I'd like to know about more about your history on the Outsider.”

  “Cap offered me a job. Paid well. I took it,” said Mero. He across the desk, grinning at Illipa. “You are a cute thing. How tragic it is that we're on different sides. Or … is it? I know why people take jobs with the GEA. It's an attraction to criminality, isn't it? A fascination. An obsession.” He idly inspected his claws for a moment. “When all this is over, how about you and I hire a little airship on Tethya?”

  Illipa held his gaze. She leaned forward, her nose twitching and her tail flicking. “It's not that I don't appreciate the offer. I truly do. But I already have someone to do that with.”

  “No reason to limit yourself to one,”

  Illipa leaned back and tittered. “Answer our questions, and maybe you'll get a shot.”

  “That's low,” said Mero, leaning back. “Here's my counter-offer. How about you both choke on my dander?”

  *

  “Kaivon,” said Laodicean. “Place of hatching, Hykean Sea, Laikon.”

  “Yes,” said Kaivon. “That is correct.”

  “When did you join the Outsider?”

  “Six years ago.”

  “Under what circumstances?”

  “I was working in a ship repair shop when the Captain came in looking for a replacement sublight engine. The original had been damaged in an attack. I had none matching his specifications, so I jury-rigged another. He appreciated the performance and offered me a job aboard the ship.”

  “When did you first encounter Sweetblade?”

  “I have never personally encountered Sweetblade.”

  Laodicean's tentacles twisted slightly. “Personally? I take that to leave open the possibility that you have encountered them indirectly. When did the Outsider and its crew first encounter Sweetblade?”

  Kaivon paused. “I'm sorry,” he said. “I can't answer that.”

  “Why?”

  “That would be the business of the other crew members. I will not betray them.”

  *

  “Doctor Anton Wolff, MD, PhD,” said Laodicean. “Place of birth, Skyview Habitat, Venus.”

  Wolff sat on the chair opposite, his bulk almost overflowing it, and smiled back. “Entirely right, my boy.”

  “I don't think it will surprise you to hear you have the most well-documented history of any member of the Outsider's crew. At least up to a point.” said Laodicean. “I have glowing records from several elite educational establishments. I have read a number of scientific papers in molecular biology and xenology, all very impressive, at least as far as I can understand them.”

  “Well, thank you,” said Wolff.

  “And yet, at the age of 32, at the height of your powers, a little after the War of the Ancients, you leave Crusher Laboratories. And then you vanish. Decades later, here you are, crewing a ship alongside a small band of criminals.”

  Wolff spread his hands in a friendly, innocent sort of gesture. “What can I say? Sometimes, later in life, you find your priorities change.”

  “Though rarely this spectacularly,” said Laodicean.

  “Individual variation is a wonderful thing, I find,” said Wolff. “It keeps the universe endlessly fascinating.”

  “Indeed,” said Laodicean calmly. “I find myself almost overwhelmed with curiosity and brimming with questions. For instance, there is over a decade between the time you left Crusher Laboratories and the time the Outsider came into service. What were you doing during that time?”

  Wolff sat back and rubbed his chin. “A lot of soul-searching, mostly,” he said.

  “Do you care to be more specific?”

  “I worked for various people. The Outsider isn't the only ship that I've lived on.”

  “Very well. And at any point during that time, did you work for Sweetblade?”

  “No.”

  “You see,” said Laodicean. “I have here a record of an interview with an informant from that time, who told us that Sweetblade had poached a biomedical scientist from Crusher Labs. The dates match perfectly.”

  *

  “Eloise LaBelle,” said Laodicean. “Birthplace, Paris, Earth.”

  Eloise leaned forward, her elbows on the desk, and nodded.

  “And you are co-owner of the Outsider with Rurthk. Is that correct?”

  “Yes. We bought it together, Rurthk and I.”

  “So you were associates before you bought the ship?”

  “Associates?” Eloise laughed. “We were friends.” She shook her head and held up a hand to Laodicean. “Look, before we go any further …” she turned to Illipa. “Sorry about kicking you, back there in the shuttle. It's just, y'know, we were trying to escape and you were following.”

  “Oh .. no … it's fine,” said Illipa grinning. “I've had worse.”

  “I didn't break anything, did I?”

  Illipa shook her head. “Just some bruising. And the gel had that fixed by the time we arrested you.”

  “Good,” said Eloise.

  “If we may resume the interview?” said Laodicean.

  “Oh, no, you go right ahead,” said Eloise. “I was just occupied with the small matter of civil behaviour there.”

  Laodicean's tentacles flicked slightly. “When did you and Rurthk first meet?”

  Eloise sat back and wound some of her curls around her finger, thinking. “It must have been eleven or twelve years ago now. I'd just come out of what you might call a … bad relationship. I was visiting some of the worlds by the Glaber border when I met Rurthk.”

  “And you became friends?”

  “No, we had a huge argument about something … possibly about how to deal with trauma? Anyway, I hit him.” Eloise smirked. “But we met again in the same bar a couple of days later and started talking. We were both alone in all the galaxy. Didn't have anyone else.” She shrugged. “So we built a friendship on that.”

  “A heartwarming tale. What do you know of Rurthk's past?”

  “I think I'll pass on that one,” said Eloise. “Rurthk can tell you or not, as he wishes.”

  “Very well,” said Laodicean. “Have you ever associated with Sweetblade?”

  *

  “Catherine Chase,” said Laodicean. “Place of birth, Robinson City, Mars.”

  He paused to regard the wide-eyed, nervously-fidgeting young woman opposite.

  “And yet the name on your forged ID, and the name your crew mates know you by, is Olivia Finch.”

  “W-what?” she said. After a moment she seemed to give up any attempt at pretence. “How … ?”

  “Your genome is on record.”

  She slumped against her chair. “Of course it is.”

  “Would you rather I call you Catherine or Olivia?” said Laodicean.

  “What difference does it make?” she glared. “Look … are you going to publicise this?”

  “We are from the GEA. We are not in the habit of publicising what we know.”

  “No, no. I don't mean the news. I mean my father. If he finds out …”

  “What will happen if he finds out?”

  “He might kill them. Or destroy the ship, if you haven't already.”

  Laodicean considered this. “That is
indeed something to worry about it. I take it this is related to why you are not in communication with him?”

  “Yeah … you could say that.”

  “In that case … Olivia … let me assure you that records of this conversation and our findings will be stored in the GEA databanks, accessible only to high ranking Investigators. I am under no obligation to let your father know where you are.”

  Olivia nodded, looking slightly relieved.

  “However, given the weight of the evidence against you, it's easily possible for us to convict, in which case you, Ms. LaBelle and Dr. Wolff will be returned to Solar Alliance space to be subject to local legal codes. I don't know if your father would learn of your whereabouts … but given his status, I suspect it's likely. Whether we convict depends largely on how much you and your fellow crew co-operate.”

  She glanced once at Olivia, who was gesturing at a tablet silently, then stared into Laodicean's crystalline blue eyes. It was impossible to read any emotion in them.

  “To begin,” said Laodicean. “What is your association with Sweetblade?”

  Chapter 11: There May Be a Way

  “Rurthk,” said Laodicean. “Place of birth, unknown. Hive of birth, unknown.” He angled his body towards Rurthk and seemed to focus in on him – though with his six blue compound eyes, it was impossible to tell. “Perhaps you could fill us in on those details first?”

  “Perhaps I could,” said Rurthk. He leant back in the uncomfortable chair and rubbed one of his giant incisors idly.

  “You refuse to answer?” to said Laodicean.

  “Guess,” said Rurthk.

  “Very well,” said Laodicean.

  Illipa gestured at her tablet a few times.

  “Perhaps we might do better to answer a few of your questions first,” said Laodicean.

  Rurthk kept rubbing his tooth, but he glanced up at Laodicean. Bait was being offered. Both sides knew that. The only question was whether it was worth the taking. After a moment he leaned forward. “Okay,” he said. “Let's start simple. You had the Outsider tagged all along, didn't you? You wanted us to escape.”

  “Yes and … not necessarily,” said Laodicean. “If you had chosen to come along peacefully, I would have taken you and your ship separately. But I was not troubled by your attempt to escape. It was certainly easier to collect your ship, yourself, and all your crew together.”

  “Always have a backup plan,” said Illipa cheerfully, as if she were giving Rurthk advice over a drink. “Preferably one your opponent doesn't know about.”

  “Thanks,” said Rurthk, giving her a dark look. “I'll keep that in mind. So, what's this evidence you have against me and my crew?”

  “I said I would show you if you came aboard the ship. I will keep my word,” said Laodicean.

  As he spoke, a square section of the desk changed colour, turning into a screen. It showed a video recording: Rurthk and Mero talking to a human. It was subtitled in Isk, the interstellar common language.

  Rurthk recognised the occasion. It was from a couple of weeks ago when he had delivered some stolen reactor parts.

  The view switched to him and Mero unloading the same. And after that, a previous mission, sapphiroid bottles of Varanid intoxicants. And then another, and another. A side bar opened to show him additional evidence – genetic verification that he had been at the spaceport, cargo manifests that didn't match the goods he was unloading.

  “Will that suffice?” said Laodicean. “What I have shown you so far is sufficient for us to impound your ship and convict you and most of your crew. As a Glaber you will be held on Tethya. The humans aboard your ship will be sent to Earth where they will be subject to imprisonment and possibly neural rewriting to increase prosocial behaviour. Mero will face the same on Cantor. Kaivon is likely to face forced dissolution, his individual components separated and integrated into other Albascene. The Outsider will be held for evidence and then scrapped.”

  “So … why am I here?” said Rurthk.

  “So that we may interview you.”

  “No. Why am I really here? You have enough to convict us all. You don't need to interview us. So what's your game?”

  “Well,” said Laodicean. “There may be a way for you to keep your ship and your crew. Small time smuggling and theft are not our concern.”

  Illipa leaned forwards. “But there's something odd about your recent past.”

  You bastards have rehearsed, haven't you? Thought Rurthk. Here's the point, at last.

  “Sweetblade,” said Laodicean.

  “They've been quite busy lately, haven't they?” said Illipa. “Internal politics. A scuffle over the leadership.”

  “Quite so,” Laodicean answered. “And what surprises me is that during that period, your ship, Captain, kept turning up at critical locations. Volpone. Nereus. And why do you suppose that is?”

  “Bad timing?” offered Rurthk.

  “It would be unfortunate for your crew and your ship if that is so. Why don't you start by telling us what happened on Hagbard?”

  Rurthk sat back and weighed his options. For all the psychological manipulations he'd expected from Laodicean, the actual plan was quite simple, laid out fully on the table. Laodicean could crush him – so either he let them, or he told them about Sweetblade and hoped for the best.

  I'll give the bastard what he wants, Rurthk thought. And then I'll give him something he wasn't expecting.

  “Instead of that,” he said. “How about I just tell everything we had to do with Sweetblade in one go?”

  “That would be preferable,” said Laodicean.

  So he did. Rurthk recounted being summoned by Sukone, how he'd stolen from Tommy Egliante, how Sukone had turned on them – and finally, how he had found Albert Wells and destroyed Sukone's base. Occasionally they would ask for clarifications, but otherwise they let him talk.

  “So you killed Sukone?” Laodicean asked, finally.

  “Not quite. His own guy, Felix Zino, killed him. But we did help ruin his day beforehand. And blow his base afterwards.”

  Illipa's hand had been racing across the tablet as Rurthk spoke. “It matches pretty well,” she told Laodicean. “The story, the timing of critical events, and the transit times for a vessel like this all line up.”

  “That's because it's true,” said Rurthk.

  “We shall see,” said Laodicean.

  “Uh huh. And if it is, what happens then?” said Rurthk.

  “I see no need to convict you,” said Laodicean. “You and your crew would be allowed to go free.”

  Rurthk settled back on his seat and nodded.

  “However, the money you took from Mr Egliante, the shuttles you bought with it, and the Outsider itself would be seized as evidence.”

  Rurthk sat up. “I've told you what you want to know!” he said. “And you still want to take my ship?”

  “Yes. You are resourceful, Captain. I'm sure you will be able to obtain another.”

  “Not without any money, we won't.”

  With a flick of a tentacle, Laodicean turned towards a hole opening in the wall. Illipa stood up.

  “The interrogation's over?” said Rurthk.

  “Yes.”

  “So you don't want to hear about my most recent interaction with Sweetblade?”

  Rurthk knew it was a slim hope. But it was better than nothing.

  Laodicean turned to face him again. The hole in the wall closed. “Have you held something back?”

  “Not quite, no,” said Rurthk. With Laodicean's attention on him, he sat back. “It's the mission I was on before you swooped down to grab us. You see, Sweetblade used to have this secret lab. I'm not sure exactly what they were doing there, but I'm sure it was very illegal. They shut it down years ago.”

  “And?” said Laodicean. Rurthk could read the Tethyan's interest from the tension in his tentacles.

  “It might have been restarted. We were about to meet a contact who would show us the lab, so we could find out what was going on
.”

  Laodicean was silent for a few moments. “Why would you do this?”

  “You may have gathered we're not on Sweetblade's side.”

  “Yes. And I do not see why you want to face them.”

  “Look,” said Rurthk. “We're certain this lab is bad news, so we don't want it active again. Simple as that.” He shrugged. “Besides, active or not, it's likely to have a lot of valuable equipment.”

  “Ah,” said Laodicean.

  “So here's the deal,” said Rurthk, leaning forward. “You give me and my crew our ship back and let us finish that mission. In return, we'll lead you to the lab. You expose it.”

  Laodicean was silent. One of his tentacles flicked.

  “You two want to play the cool interrogators, that's fine,” said Rurthk. “But I know what really motivates GEA Investigators. It's one of two things. Either you're obsessed with being a great hero, helping to take down the great crime lords. Or you're obsessed with climbing up the career ladder as fast as possible, running the entire agency. Either way, this is a big prize. Investigators Laodicean and Vissivine, who found Sweetblade's secret lab. I imagine that's worth both self-congratulation and a promotion.”

  “What about those of us who simply want to serve the Lex Galactica, uphold interstellar law, and play by the rules?” said Laodicean.

  “Let me ask you this,” said Rurthk. “Is there anything in the rulebook that forbids working with minor criminals to get to the bigger ones? Because as I understand it, that's what you guys do most of the time.”

  “We will return shortly,” said Laodicean.

  A hole appeared in the wall behind him, and a door appeared behind Illipa. They took their respective exits, and the wall sealed behind them.

  Rurthk stood up and stretched.

  Chapter 12: Will They Explode?

  “What do you think?” said Illipa.

  They strolled and swam down a corridor that was divided down the middle by a wall of water.

  “If true, it's an enticing offer,” said Laodicean.

  Illipa bounded up to grab a handhold from the ceiling and peered down at him, scrambling along the ceiling. “But?”