Free Privateer Tales 3: Parley by Jamie McFarlane Page A

face.
    “Oh … Oh you’re terrible.” Her medium brown skin gained a slight shade of crimson. “Not what I meant. Initiate contact with Precast and they’ll give us the exact spot to drop the string.”
    Establish contact with Precast Products, request docking instructions , I said to the AI.
    “Good, that’ll do it. Our job from this point out is pretty straightforward. They’ll give us a zone to drop it in, we just need to make sure the load has a zero delta with the refinery.”
    “We just leave it?”
    “Yes. They have their own tug system that takes the material to the refinery.”
    “How do the barges get back to the colonies?”
    “Precast will contract them.”
    “You have a contact at Precast I could talk to?”
    “You really want to talk to them? They’re jerks.”
    “Your lawyer was the idiot. That was a heck of a clause to mess up.”
    “I suppose ... I have a contact.” She swiped at her reading pad. “There you go.”
    I sent them a message with instructions about our intended destination and timing, as well as proof of our bond.
    As with most complex things on a spaceship, the AI did the vast majority of the work. It was our job to make sure we had instructed the AI correctly. The Adela Chen and its string of barges slid neatly into the pre-arranged location and the engines spun down. I instructed the AI to disconnect us and returned the cockpit to its normal forward orientation.
    “Well executed, Mr. Hoffen, and congratulations on your first official heavy freight load.”
    “Congratulations to you as well, Ms. Chen. I hope everything works out with Precast.”
    “Out of my hands now,” she said.
    Set course for Chen Family slip at Puskar Stellar orbital docking station .
    “You’ll want to let the AI take it in from here,” she said.
    “Why’s that?”
    “You’ll see.”
    Engage autopilot.
    The freighter pulled back gently, turned a graceful arc, and sailed toward the planet. Ada took joy in pointing out many of the different landmarks of Mars, both natural and manmade. The closer we got, however, the more traffic increased. It finally became almost unbearable. If I’d been flying manually I’d have been terrified. As it was, I felt a cold sweat break out on my back. I’d never been so grateful to stop sailing as I was once we finally docked. It would have been one thing with Sterra's Gift but the controls of Adela Chen were still too unfamiliar to me.
    “You get used to it, but I didn’t think a rock jockey like yourself would be expecting the traffic.”
    I punched her arm gently. “Careful who you’re calling rock jockey.”
    The spaceport above Puskar Stellar was gigantic - I estimated four kilometers long and a kilometer wide. At the center of the station, a tethered space elevator extended downward to the city of Puskar Stellar. I hoped we’d get a chance to visit. I’d never been in a city that was home to millions of people.
    “Cheap seats out here. We have a time-share arrangement. It takes longer to get over to the elevator but the price is right,” Ada said.
    “We’ve got to be a couple of kilometers out.”
    “Two point four kilometers to be exact. Don’t sweat it, there’s a tram we can catch.”
    “I’ve got work to do on Sterra's Gift . We’re planning to sail in ten days. That work for you?”
    “Yes. I’ll be ready. Let me know if anything changes.”
    “Roger that.”
    I helped Ada carry her bags off the ship to a tram platform.
    “Thanks Liam … for everything.” She gave me a quick hug and stepped onto the tram.
    It was 1630. Frak. My meeting with Qiu was in less than thirty minutes.
    Give me a route to Sterra's Gift .
    My AI projected a route, overlaying my vision. It was subtle, but it appeared there was a line of green vapor leading from my current position to where I needed to go. It was the sort of thing that could be configured according to a person's needs. Some people preferred to have it show up on the ground or as a blinking