The Passenger Ch. 10

The Passenger

Chapter 10

"I've got to hand it to you, Deke," I said to the man sitting across from me. "I've seen you looking rough before, but never like this."

Deke said nothing, but I knew he remembered. Those had been his exact same words to me, the last time we met, and I'd wanted to thrown them back in his face for a long time now. I don't think I'm much into gloating, but I will admit that I did savor the moment like a fine wine, with steak, extra tender and medium rare, to follow. What made it even better was that I was as right about him now as he had been about me all those weeks ago. He looked absolutely awful. But I suppose having Raz' claws in your neck will do that to you.

We were in Deke's office, deep in the commercial section at the back of the spaceport. Deke was behind his desk; I was sitting in the rarely used visitor's chair. That chair is rarely used because Deke prefers to conduct his business in the various bars and dives that litter the port rather than in his office. It's easier to ply the marks with booze that way, and if things go wrong, cleaning up the mess will be somebody else's problem.

Deke was sweating. Raz was standing behind him, smiling his bad smile and simply radiating his eagerness to rip off Deke's face and feed it to him rectally. Or something like that. Gawrrans are generally civilized, polite, friendly, loyal to a fault, and very considerate. But they are also predators and voracious carnivores, as well as the embodiment of the ancient warning to beware the anger of a patient sentient creature. Raz' predatory and carnivorous side was very much in evidence right now, and Deke had gotten the point almost immediately.

"I'm kind of mad at you, Deke," I said. "And Raz is extremely mad at you right now. You set me up, you see. You used me. As a... mule, I think the term is. Isn't that right, Raz?"

"Rrrrrrr."

"Right," I continued. "And I don't think I like like that. I hate being used to ship extremely illegal AI technology, Deke. I don't like prisons, you see. The food is bad, the company sucks, and the view isn't much better, either. But you'll find that out for yourself soon enough."

Deke got his hard-man look out and pasted it on. It wasn't easy, what with Raz' claws in his throat and all, but after a few awkward moments he managed to smooth out most of the wrinkles.

"If you think I'm going to prison, you're wrong, Ross," he grated. "Long before that happens you'll find out that you agreed to ship that AI technology. Knowingly and willingly, I think the legal term is. And I'll have the documented evidence to prove it."

I smiled, but I felt how the smile failed to reach my eyes. Deke noticed it, too, and I noticed how he pretended not to notice.

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about that, Deke. Yes, I'm talking imprisonment, but not prison, or at least not as you know it. In prison a convict gets three meals a day. He gets guards, he gets medical care, he gets visitors every now and then, that sort of thing. You don't get to enjoy any of that. All you're going to get is... him." I glanced at Raz. "He's eager to get to know you better, you know. A lot better."

Raz rumbled, and his claws sank a little deeper into Deke's skin. It might have been my imagination, or maybe it was the light, but suddenly Deke looked very pale.

"But as for my passenger," I continued, "I'm less angry about her. Things worked out rather well with her, you see."

"The droid?" Deke croaked. "That's mine. Where is it? What happened to it?"

"She," I said, emphasizing the word, "is not a droid. Yes, that's right. Why do you look surprised, Deke? You shouldn't. When you put a vat-grown body around a bunch of prosthetics and you fit it with an AI brain designed to be as human as possible, what did you think was going to happen? She emerged, Deke, that's what happened. She has become a fully conscious, self-aware and autonomous being. You thought you were peddling nothing more than improved sex droids, didn't you? But you weren't. What you really did was to create an AI simply waiting to emerge. Leaving the sex droid software in place only meant that your AI will be good in bed right from the start, without all that awkward fumbling you had to go through as a teenager. But that's all."

Deke said nothing. He seemed to have trouble breathing, and somehow I didn't think that was just because of the way Raz' claws were holding him by the throat.

"Offhand, I suppose, it didn't look like a bad idea, Deke, as far as it went," I continued. "It just had one flaw: you. What the hell were you thinking?"

"Rrrrr," Raz rumbled contemptuously.

"Yes, you're right," I said, looking at him. "He wasn't."

Deke said nothing.

"Although I have to admit: your disguise as a small-time local cargo pusher was quite good, Deke. You had me fooled completely. I really thought Brax was one of the top guys at Vergence Sigma. I never would have guessed he was just one of your stooges while you've been heading their illicit AI program all along."

"You won't get away with this," Deke said, his voice soft but menacing.

"Oh, I don't know, Deke," I said. "I can see two possible ways for this to end. First, we can make sure that certain people find out how badly you botched this. We both know how these things work, don't we?"

I hadn't, originally, until Layne, back on Manaka, had given me a little crash course in The Way Things Work. But Deke didn't have to know that.

"We both know there's no way you did this on your own," I continued. "You've got some serious investors backing this project. The sort of people who don't mind sinking a few billion credits into a highly illegal scheme. The sort of people who do mind when they lose those billions as a result of your bungling. The sort of people who will want to speak to you about that at some length, not to mention the other things they'll want to do to you. The sort of people who will kill you, but only after you have begged them for it. And they will do this, Deke, all of this and much more, because I will personally see to it that they'll find out how this whole thing went south because you tried to be too clever and too greedy. And you also know you won't be able to hide from that bunch, or at least not for long."

Deke tried to swallow something that seemed to have lodged in his throat. He knew exactly what I was talking about.

"The other option is that we take care of you," I continued. "You do get to live longer that way, and it will be less painful. A lot less painful. I know that my associate here," and I glanced at Raz, "would love to see what you look like on the inside, but such an operation will not be necessary if you cooperate. You simply come with us, you tell us everything we want to know, and you will continue to breathe."

"Simply come with you?" Deke grunted. "If you think that's going to work, you're as stupid as you look, Ross. Security will know something's up the moment you walk me out of here."

I leaned back and smiled. He didn't like that smile at all.

"Well, now, Deke, that's the beauty of the whole thing. You see, I'm expecting a delivery. Oh, look! There it is, right on schedule."

Through the single transparent panel next to the door I could see Anne coming down the corridor. She was dressed in a cargo handler's baggy coveralls, and she had her hair tucked into a greasy uniform cap. She hadn't balked at any part of this whole thing, least of all at the risks she was taking, but she had had much to say about having to put that filthy cap on. The word 'disgusting' had been just about the mildest word she'd used. But even she had had to admit that it worked. Her posture was slouchy, her face was grimy and dirty, and the expression on her face was a very authentic-looking mixture of laziness, reluctance and boredom. Nobody would have given her a second glance. She was just a run-of-the-mill laborer who wanted to be anywhere but here, doing anything but this.

The hover-plate she guided down the corridor had a big old air purifier on it. It was a piece of junk any way you looked at it, except you wouldn't look at it, and certainly not twice. Which, of course, was the whole point.

"There you go, Deke," I said, smiling broadly. "Your luxury conveyance has arrived."

"What..." Deke started.

That's when Raz hit him with the sedative. He slumped back in his chair like a bundle of wet rags. He'd be out for quite a while. Eventually he'd wake up with a massive headache, but by that time we'd be halfway to Manaka.

"Rrright on time," Raz complimented Anne. "Did you have any prrroblems?"

"None at all," Anne said. "Automated security checks only. My badge was scanned once that I know of, and there were a few cameras that I could spot, but that's about it."

"Good," I said. "Let's load the bastard."

"Rrrr. My thought exactly," Raz rumbled. "And therrre's no need to be gentle."

Anne helped me to open the side panel on the air scrubber while Raz grabbed the unconscious Deke by the ankles and dragged him to the hover-plate. Together we lifted him and shoved him into the air scrubber's housing. It took a bit of pushing and cramming, because an unconscious person is much more difficult to handle than most people realize, but Raz' complete indifference as to the patient's condition simplified things considerably. Deke did pick up a few scrapes and bruises during the operation, but that's what the anesthetic was for. When he woke up it would hurt plenty, but I felt little sympathy for him. Abrasions and cuts would be the least of his problems.

We closed the air scrubber's housing and locked the fasteners in place. There was no chance that Deke would choke in there, because the whole point of an air purifier is to provide ventilation and the housing was fitted with multiple vents for that purpose. This model had originally been intended to recycle the atmosphere of a ship roughly twice the size of the Slowboat, so airflow was not going to be a problem.

We made our way back down the corridor one at a time. I went first, scouting ahead. A minute or two behind me came Anne, guiding the hover plate and looking like any other cargo pusher. She was followed at some distance by Raz, in case we ran into any trouble. But nothing happened, and after what seemed hours of trudging through endless and bare corridors we reached the section of the port where the landing bays were located.

At a junction of corridors Anne and I went right while Raz went left. Two corridors later we reached the passage leading to the cargo platform where the Slowboat was waiting for us. I slowed my pace a little, so that Anne caught up with me by the end of the corridor. I got out a data pad and made a show of peering at it in case anyone was watching, while Anne parked the air scrubber on the platform.

The Slowboat had her gull-wing cargo doors open. Her hold was empty, but several standard shipping containers stood on the platform waiting to be loaded, next to a much larger Biohazard Containment Unit that only just fitted into the hold. That BCU was another idea of Raz', and once again it made me wonder how far the influence of his wealth really reached. He'd had it ready in storage when we landed, along with other cargo destined for Manaka. If anyone would bother to check, they'd find a regular shipment that could have been hauled by any tramp freighter, and it just happened to end up in the Slowboat's hold.

The containers held basic computer components, essential pharmaceuticals and a whole range of other simple things that a tired little backwater planet would have had to import for lack of local production facilities. The Biohazard Containment Unit, on the other hand, was one of the keys to our little operation. Both the Slowboat and the Starman's Pride are regular small freighters, and of course they don't have anything like a brig. Having Deke in a spare cabin during the entire trip appealed to none of us, which left the cargo hold. But the 'Pride is an older model, which means her hold is not pressurized, which meant that Deke would have to make the trip in the Slowboat's hold. We could of course have chained him to a shipping container and let him use the head every now and then, but that plan had too many disadvantages to suit us.

So the BCU would serve as an impromptu brig. It could be hermetically sealed. it was self-contained, and it could support two medics and a patient. Deke would easily be able to last in there for a few weeks, and Layne would be able to make good use of the BCU itself once it arrived on Manaka. At least that's what Raz had said, although he hadn't gone into any detail as to what sort of use that would be.

We parked the air scrubber on the platform like any other regular piece of cargo. Deke would be unconscious for at least several hours, so we had ample time. We'd transfer him from the air scrubber housing into the Bio Containment Unit once we'd entered hyperspace. As usual, we'd serviced the ship at the earliest opportunity, so all that was left was to load the cargo, to fuel the ship, and to file a flight plan with Traffic Control. Transferring the cargo from the platform into the hold would take a regular autoloader unit less than two hours, plus another hour or so for fueling. We'd be on our way soon.

We met Raz at the Starburst bar. As always, it was more than half full with customers from all over the galaxy, because it is one of the few good multi-species watering holes at Mainport 6, catering to at least a dozen or so humanoid and semi-humanoid races. Raz was sitting on a heavy bench while Anne and I drew up a couple of chairs.

"The last time I was here, I was looking at Deke across the table," I remarked. "The view has improved considerably."

Raz nodded.

"Dealing with that piece of excrrrement has been long overrrdue," he rumbled. "What arrre you drrrinking?"

"We're buying, Raz," Anne said.

He smiled his good smile.

"Thank you, Anne, but I just happen to have an unrrregisterrred crrredit chip, and I think we should keep ourrr trrracks coverrred as much as possible. Therrreforrre, allow me."

"We owe you tons already, Raz," I said, punching our orders into the table's central panel. "And this little operation increases that debt even more. It's starting to worry me a little."

His good smile grew even wider.

"If I am to believe the rrreporrrts I have rrreceived frrrom Doctorrr Por'krallarahrrr, you will have ample opporrrtunity to worrrk that off. He ensurrres me that a... prrroduct... forrr the human marrrket is well within the rrrealm of possibility, but its development will hinge on willing human rrresearrrch assistants. I underrrstand that the two of you have been, shall we say, perrrforrrming some rrresearrrch and rrrecorrrding cerrrtain data durrring yourrr flight herrre?"

"You could say that," Ann said, smiling.

"Good. In that case you'rrre both employed, as of rrright now. Please continue yourrr rrresearrrch. Rrreturrrn to Gawrr afterrr you leave Manaka. The good doctorrr will need yourrr data and I am surrre he will want yourrr active parrrticipation in furtherrr studies as well."

"You've got it, boss," I said, raising my glass.

"You can count on us, Raz," Anne said. "Anything we can do."

Raz' good smile grew wider than I'd ever seen it.

"Yourrr enthusiasm is noted with apprrroval. Herrre's to ourrr success. May we all become obscenely rrrich."

And we all happily drank to that.

* * *

Our trip to Manaka was uneventful, which in space travel is always a good thing. As we had promised Raz, we spent a lot of time on "research" along the way. In fact, we researched each other practically every single day and night. Not that that was anything new for us, of course.

"Wouldn't it be a shame if these little recorder disks ran out of data storage space and we'd have to do this all over again?" Anne said one night, after one of our better research sessions.

"Terrible," I agreed as I held her, my hand cupping her breast. "But sacrifices are sometimes necessary. That's what research is all about, after all. Try and try again."

"Do you think you can try again tonight, my captain?"

"Have mercy, my loyal crew. This is a marathon, not a sprint."

I gently squeezed her breast, found her nipple with my fingertips. It responded, swelling slightly as I ran my finger across its sensitive surface, but it didn't quite grow hard, which told me she was sated as well for the moment. She sighed contently as I held her; her back against my chest, the sticky residue of our lovemaking between us. We lay there for a while, basking in the afterglow.

"It's interesting, though," I said then. "I think we've already found something important here. We've been using less and less of that stuff Por gave us to try out, and we've sort of reached a point where I no longer want to rip your clothes off and take you as soon as your pheromones hit me, but it still makes a big difference."

"I'd say so. You came, what, four times tonight?"

I nodded.

"Yes. We've definitely got something good here. There's always a market for male performance enhancers."

"And your performance has definitely been enhanced."

She squirmed against me and my cock stirred, but it wasn't really being serious about it.

"So Por will have to take these results and turn them into something that you take and that works directly on you, right?" she asked.

"I would think so," I agreed. "But it wouldn't stop there. It makes sense to do it the other way around as well. Something I can take that you, ehm, respond to, shall we say?"

She chuckled.

"Respond to? You sound like a clinical researcher already."

"Alright," I said. "Let me put it this way. What I'm thinking of is that the average guy will definitely want to pay good money for some pill or whatever that will make women make want to rip his clothes off him, and that will give those women enough volcanic orgasms to make them both loose count, once they get down to business. I can't think of anything that would sell better than a one hundred percent guaranteed chick magnet and ego booster all in one."

"Well, if you put it that way..." she said, her voice already sounding sleepy.

"I do. I know how we guys think."

"I know that as well as you do," she said, relaxing against me. "But... Would you buy those pills?"

"Hell, no," I said. "I've got you. And that's all I need. I want you, and only you. I don't want anyone else."

"Good," she said softly. "I'd like that."

"Deal," I whispered.

I felt her body relax against mine as she drifted off into sleep.

* * *

Manaka hadn't changed. Not that it would have, of course.

"Deja vu all over again," Anne said, looking at the brown and dusty world hanging before us.

"Yes, it does bring back some memories," I agreed.

I slotted the datacard that Raz had given us. It contained a coded squirt transmission for Layne, so he would know to expect us. The computer beeped as it sent out the data pulse, condensed into a fraction of a second. A few moments later it beeped again as whatever receiver setup Layne used acknowledged that the data had been received, decoded and stored.

I set the navigation computer for a standard approach and aerobraking trajectory. We didn't have to worry about local procedures and regulations because Manaka doesn't have any, so we might as well take it easy. Over the next few hours the planet slowly grew before us and then below us. Eventually the first traces of the upper atmosphere began to tickle our hull, and the ship grumbled in response. Like all ships, the Slowboat has her own personality. Sometimes she sings, sometimes she grumbles. Today she appeared to be in a grumbling kind of mood.

The surface of the planet gradually flattened below us as we descended, but it remained as brown as it had appeared at altitude. Unerringly the computer homed in on our final coordinates and the landing field appeared on the horizon. A few minutes later we set down in the huge cloud of dust that seemed to be inevitable on Makana. Fortunately there was some wind this time, and the dust dispersed fairly quickly.