Free Independent Flight (Aquarius Ascendant) by K.L. Tremaine Page A

thunderclap of the firearm as by the actual retaliation; firing an unsuppressed firearm in an enclosed compartment without ear protection was almost as bad as setting off an actual flash-bang. Kellie was moving carefully between the crew members, looking at their visual tags. “For the biggest no-brainer in the history of the galaxy, Captain, they’re scared as hell.”
    Veronica motioned her away from the crew. “Well that much is obvious, Chief. I’m a little surprised at the condition of the ship, given that a meteor apparently passed through its #4 hold. As badly off as she is, I’d have expected a catastrophic failure a long time before we even saw her.”
    Kellie shook her head. “It’s a pretty common state for ships like this. You get a few payments behind, and soon you’re eating beans from a tin to make ends meet until you can get your ship caught up on its maintenance–which of course it never does.”
    “ That sounds a lot like the voice of experience.”
    “ Once upon a time before I joined the service, I had my own independent shipping company.” Alyse demurred. “Things got pretty thin a time or two.”
    “ Captain, this is Yeboah on Two-oh-Seven .” Veronica winced suddenly at the interruption. “I’m getting a squawk back from Four on the Floor . They were searching through the wreckage of the blowout. There was one intermodal container present, its hatch was blown off by venting air. There were two corpses, including one in a skinsuit, decapitated by the detached hatch. And a cloud of organic debris that was probably a corpse before it was mashed by a loose cargo container.”
    Veronica winced, “I’m sorry.”
    “ I’m sorry too, Ma’am. Commander Saitova is heading this way to rendezvous, but she won’t be here until tomorrow; our instructions are to make ready for her arrival to cover us with additional personnel.”
    “ Understood, Sub-lieutenant. In the meantime, we’ll continue to do our investigative work here. I’m going to pretty much assume that the whole remaining crew of this ship are joint owner-operators and probably best friends with the captain.”
    What Veronica left unsaid was that figuring out the captain’s identity was going to be a stone bitch and a half, since he or she was going to be legally responsible for this entire damned mess and had every reason to hide.
    “ There is really no rest for the wicked, is there, Chief Alyse?”
    “ No, Ma’am, there isn’t.” Kellie leaned against the doorframe with exaggerated casualness.
    “ … Of all the times I want you to disagree with me, you have to choose this exact moment to agree.” Veronica leaned her head forward against the bulkhead.
    “ Yes Ma’am.”

    Chapter 8
     
    Kellie picked up and sifted through cakes of compacted Alluvian silver. The stuff was fully processed and even already diluted down to street potency–nobody could even begin to claim that this was anything but a recreational drug. And the crew clearly knew all about it, given that the containers were scattered throughout the holds and covered with other cargo to try to make them less obvious.
    “ Here too?” Veronica’s eyes formed an unspoken question.
    Kellie shook her head angrily. “This is enough drugs to coat a city pretty liberally. Whoever’s shipping this stuff, it looks like they’re planning to set themselves up as some sort of kingpin. No sign that the crew’s been dipping into their own snuff, though. Whatever their other faults, they’re not addicts.”
    Veronica ’s mouth compressed to a fine line. “The rest of the crew, I’m guessing they’re hiding among the cargo in the holds. It’s a dumb smuggler or a desperate one who takes contraband cargo in brim-filled intermodal cargo containers, or an arrogant one. We don’t have enough people to do a full sweep of the ship, not and keep someone on Two-Oh-Seven to keep sensor watch. We’ve got twenty-one hours before Four on the Floor finishes her sweep and