The shorter chapters aren’t a trend, I promise 😉 I’m just writing as much as I need to write to make happen what I want to happen when I want it to happen. Or something.
If you missed chapter one and chapter two, you should read them first. As usual, this story is free to read and distribute, as long as you don’t change it, don’t pretend it’s yours, and don’t profit from it. See the license on the chapter one post if you need clarification.
Catch
Ellis sat at his computer, re-watching the recording of Frank’s conversation with Commander Farnsworth. They were discussing fish. One phrase stood out in Ellis’ mind. It was a phrase that had occurred six times during the conversation.
Farnsworth would clear his throat, and then say, “and then we reeled in the fish.” Frank would express disbelief, and the Navy Commander would say “oh, it’s true.” Frank would grin in satisfaction.
It had to mean something. Could Farnsworth have located the raiders responsible for attacking the Stargazer? Ellis decided he should assume that to be the case.
On that assumption, Ellis started digging up Farnsworth’s whereabouts since his last meeting with Frank. Someone Farnsworth talked to would lead Ellis to the Stargazer raiders.
* * *
Nick sat at the controls, carefully aligning his transport, the Orchid, with the docking clamps of the GNRP distribution center. It was as easy for him as breathing. He had in fact been piloting since before he could walk, though the vehicles he had driven then were merely simulations. Piloting ran in the family.
He seated the craft against the station with barely a nudge. He always hated how other pilots just assumed the station’s momentum could absorb a bump from a docking ship; it really just meant the station would have to correct its orbit more frequently.
The station dock administrator appreciated Nick’s attention to detail; as a result, Nick always got efficient cooperation from station personnel. Nick didn’t do it for the cooperation, though; he simply thought any job worth doing was worth doing well.
That gave him pause. The layoffs always seemed to target the best and brightest at GNRP, and no segment of the company was skipped. The best janitor had been fired right along with the foremost nanotechnology researcher and the most efficient cafeteria manager. Why then had he been kept on so long?
Nick was almost certain the man he had met back at Alpha Centauri station was Frank Jameson himself. Traveling undercover, to be sure, though how that was possible was beyond his understanding. GIDs should make hiding one’s identity impossible, and nobody could go into an airport without having a thousand advertisements shout his name to the universe.
He had learned a fair amount from the exchange, though. He had not known about Frank’s wife and child, for example. There were rumors about their disappearance, of course, but until now most people simply thought the Jamesons had separated. Nick would not reveal the truth, but it did change things. He was starting to see company policies in a new light.
Frank had given him an entirely new perspective on the situation, after all. The layoffs were not Frank’s doing; that much was clear from his reaction to the subject. That left the other founder as the culprit, but why would Ellis Mitchell, who had personally taken such good care of his employees, undermine his own company from hiding?
Nothing made sense anymore. Of course, Nick doubted he would ever really know what was actually going on.
After leaving the cockpit, he stood overlooking the cargo bay, watching his crew unload the ship. He doubted he knew more than half their names, though the majority of them had been with him for more than two years. Most ship captains spent a lot of time with their crews, to build trust and friendships. He was not sure why he had never done so. He had not avoided it, precisely, he just never got around to it. It wasn’t even his personality — on his last ship he spent a lot of time with the crew. There was something about this ship in particular that kept him separate.
His mind kept wandering back to his conversation with Frank. The man was in pain. He did not appear to blame his partner, but the loss of the Stargazer was what had sparked the conflict between them. Clearly that was the catalyst for everything that happened afterward, for Ellis Mitchell leaving GNRP, for the layoffs, for… for the war.
The idea was so incongruous he was not sure how his mind had made the leap. How could a nanotechnology company start a war? But then, he himself had delivered classified cargo from GNRP to various military organizations, so there were plenty of ties between GNRP and the Navy. The Navy even publically cited the Stargazer incident as providing the impetus for their decision to hunt down every last outlaw raider they could find.
It was not a war, not really. It was more like a galaxy-wide game of hide-and-seek, where the penalty for getting caught was incineration. It was only called a war because it was the closest thing to a war the galaxy had seen in three hundred years. Oh, there were occasional border skirmishes and interplanetary fist-fights, but the Yartol — the entire race — had dedicated themselves to peaceful diplomacy and dispute arbitration, and they had quite effectively kept tension very low.
So the Navy called its little game a ‘war’, and their corporate partners sold them supplies, and their constituent planets sent them personnel, and they continued their hunt.
A Navy officer stepped through the cargo bay door, looking down his nose at everyone. “I am looking for the pilot, Nick Collins?”
“You found him,” Nick replied, waving down at the man. “How can I help you?”
Rather than respond, the Navy man merely gestured for Nick to follow, then stepped back through the door.
Nick sighed. Visits from the Navy were not uncommon, but he had rarely been bothered himself. He took a ladder two rungs at a time down to the cargo bay floor. He caught the arm of his second-in-command. “Jim, the Navy wants to see me for some reason. Don’t leave without me.” Jim barely smiled. Nick definitely needed to spend time with his crew.
The Navy officer was waiting near a doorway on the other side of the unloading bay. When Nick got close enough, the officer pulled out a set of handcuffs. “Nick Collins, you’re under arrest for orchestrating the attack on the Stargazer.”