Free Mapped Space 1: The Antaran Codex by Stephen Renneberg

cargo?”
    “Confirmed by customs inspectors.”
    Pan Core Shipping was one of the largest
shipping companies in Mapped Space. Why would they send such an expensive ship
out here empty when they had thousands of smaller, faster vessels in their
fleet? “What was her embarkation point?”
    “Shinagawa Station.”
    “That’s a long way to come for no
trade profit.”
    The big Japanese orbital shipyard
complex was over nine hundred light years away in Inner Cygnus, well inside Core
System space. No wonder Vargis wanted no competition. I’d be nervous too, if
I’d spent months staring at well decorated bulkheads for nothing. Whatever
Sarat was up to, it had been in the planning for a long time, long enough to
hook Pan Core and get them to bankroll sending one of their biggest ships to
the edge of Mapped Space.
    “The Soberano ’s maintenance history indicates she spent seven weeks refitting
at Shinagawa before departure,” Izin said.
    “Makes sense. Give her a refit
before a long haul.”
    “She’d undergone a major
maintenance cycle two months before that. A second refit in such a short period
of time should have been unnecessary.”
    Shinagawa Station was one of the few
major shipyards outside the Solar System, used by shipping companies and Earth
Navy alike. The station was famous not just for its robot dockyards, but its
vast stores of equipment, including naval ordnance. Suddenly, I realized why
the Soberano had docked a second time.
“They put naval weapons in her cargo holds!” It would explain why she was empty
– she had no room for cargo!
    Whatever Vargis was after, he
intended to protect it.
    “If Earth Navy found out,” Izin
said, “Pan Core would be in serious trouble.”
    “Can we see the Soberano from here?”
    “No, she’s in the southern
cavern, docked across berths S-36 to S-45.”
    She was so big, she took up ten
births!
    Izin called up her registry holo,
displaying it on one of his six screens. She looked like two stretched spheres
joined by a long oblong. The stern sphere held her twin energy plants and sixteen
maneuvering engines in four rows of four, while the bow sphere held command,
control and crew sections. Ten large rectangular doors were spaced along each
side of the hull, marking the location of her twenty cavernous cargo holds. She
was certainly large enough to have been transformed into a veritable battleship,
although with her cargo doors sealed, there’d be no visible evidence of it. Whatever
Sarat was selling, no pirate would ever get their hands on it, once Vargis got
it aboard the Soberano .
    Neither would I.
    “How many crew?” I asked.
    “Minimum complement of twelve,
life support for thirty.”
    I’d assume he had thirty aboard;
crew plus more like Jawbones and Scarface. The Soberano would be slower than the Lining bubbled and would wallow like a whale in flat space, but if I
was right about the refit, she’d hit like the devil.
    I started to leave, but Izin
touched a control and the image of another ship appeared. “This is the only
Caravel D class ship docked. Berthed at W-4.”
    I took one look at the old girl
and recognized her immediately. If the Silver
Lining was a tow boat, the Heureux was a barge. Her hull configuration was simple: three box-like cargo holds
ahead of a lopsided superstructure mounting a single large maneuvering engine
astern. Spaced along the top of the cargo holds were clamps for a dozen VRS
containers, although I’d rarely seen Marie use them. Like most work boats, it
was a simple, utilitarian design. The paint job was subtly different and her registry
number had changed, but the modified vector housings on her well worn engine were
unmistakable. No wonder Marie was nervous to see me. She knew I’d recognize the Heureux anywhere, no matter what
disguise she was wearing.
    “That’s her.” The Heureux had been in Marie’s family for
three generations. She was almost eighty years old, but thanks to tender care
and regular