Project Charon 2 by Patty Jansen (brene brown rising strong .TXT) 📗

here, it’s clear when something is about to happen. A new ship arrived. There is excitement in the air. There are many strange people hanging around.”

She wondered how he could see this while he was blind. “What sort of people? How do you know?”

“I may not see much, but I got eyes everywhere. People tell me things. Like when groups of men start hanging around the docks. They’re pirates, waiting for something to happen, and usually that is the closing of the docks. When that happens, they usually let all the waiting ships leave as quickly as possible, payment or no.”

Tina found it hard to believe that they would charge people five thousand credits and would let others leave without payment, but then again, she had heard about this. Fancy that it might happen to them when they didn’t actually want to leave.

“But some ships get to stay?” She had also heard about that.

“No one gets to stay. When they clear out the docks, they literally clear out everyone. Arrivals get told to wait as well.”

“But I heard some people say that they waited around.”

“Only if the ship really can’t be moved. And then they don’t allow the crew access to the ships.

Well, crap. She saw herself trying to march five geese into crowded accommodation.

So this left her with little choice. Finn would have to take the ship, hang around the station until the docks opened again and he could come back. Meanwhile she could try to find out where Evelle was… but then she’d have no quick transport off the station if that proved necessary.

“How long does this closure last?”

“A few days usually.”

“What happens in the docks when they close?” Something that Rex could break into?

Thor grinned. “Officially, we don’t know.”

“Officially?”

He waggled his white eyebrows. “We wouldn’t go breaking the rules.”

“Of course not.”

“But if we did, we might have seen people being taken into the agricultural part of the station.”

“Which is also off-limits to the general public,” Tina guessed. Because those areas usually were closed for fear of contamination.

“That’s right. We can only get into the agricultural areas when we have a reason to be there.” Again with a waggle of the eyebrows. “Otherwise we might see that they’re usually taken through a door at the end that leads past the recycling, where we’d also have no reason to visit.”

“Except when it’s not working properly and one might be asked to fix something? I’ve noticed that the air is very stuffy.”

“There are never enough people who know the details of how to keep such an intricate recycling plant running properly. The pirates probably don’t care about it much, unless it becomes hard to do essential things, like breathe.”

“Nor do they have much knowledge about security.”

“Nope.”

Jens looked from his father to Tina. “What are you two talking about?”

“I think your friend’s mother and I understand each other very well. We were both in the Force and we know how to talk about things without actually talking about them.”

Jens snorted and glanced at Rex. “Does she do this to you?”

“All the time,” Rex said, rolling his eyes.

Now both of them looked from Tina to Thor and back.

Tina said, “But without kidding, do you have anything like the backup for what you’re insinuating?” If one could put together a crew to do “maintenance” on the agricultural plant, that was a way to get into the restricted part of the station, because pirate security wasn’t terribly good.

“I have, but many people lack the guts and will. They’re too afraid they’ll go missing as well. They have families to look after. They’re cautious.”

“Your partner was taken.”

He nodded. “I have little left to lose, but I’m just a blind loner. I have friends, but we lack numbers.”

“My daughter is crew of the SF Manila that was just brought in. I saw her being marched away. She’s probably in that restricted area.”

Thor sucked in a breath. “I heard about that ship. That’s a goldmine of Federacy tech and data right there. I think Artan will be very careful that he doesn’t waste the crew’s knowledge.”

“What do you think he’s going to do with them?”

“It’s hard to say. We all know something illicit is going on in the other half of the station and that a lot of people live there, but we never see any of them being brought in or taken out and we can only make guesses at what they’re doing.”

“Which is?”

But a sound at the entrance to the access tube interrupted the discussion. Tina got up to check, finding Rasa in the tube, her face bright.

“I got it.”

“What do you mean?”

“We got permission to leave. Stuff will be delivered later.”

“But no one has paid anything yet.”

“I know. But a man came in and just gave everyone a permit to leave and restock. No one paid anything. They said we would have to carry the supplies ourselves, though. There is some sort of warehouse where we’re supposed to pick them up.”

“What about fuel?”

“That’s getting done right now.”

“Without me signing for it and paying?”

“Yup. They seemed in a hurry. They want everyone out.”

“See? I told you,” Thor said.

Tina met Finn’s eyes. He didn’t seem to like it much more than she did.

He said to Rasa, “Did you get confirmation that we’re allowed to leave?”

“Don’t you believe me?”

“I do, but it could be that someone is trying to play a trick on us.”

Rasa took the reader that contained the station’s ship details, and flicked through a couple of menus. “Here it is.” She handed the reader to Finn.

He gave it a look, his face blank. Tina knew that blank look, though. It meant something bothered him. She held out her hand and he passed the reader to her.

Tina read through what appeared to be a pretty normal departure permission note. But she tapped the name at the bottom: Zia Partlow.

“That is the problem,” he said.

“She’s the station director,” Rasa said. She didn’t know about Finn’s prior relationship with her.

“I know,” Finn said, his