Chapter Four

The doors to the tavern slid open and captain Lovo of the transport Recurring Dream exited, counting the handful of credits he had left. He shook his head in disgust and vowed for the hundredth time never to play Calin Cards again. He had a strange run of bad luck every time he played in the tavern on Nebrassa, and this time he was sure the landlord had something to do with it.

The landlord’s burly Gamorrean guards had convinced him otherwise and he had been compelled to leave.

The landing area was covered in thick fog again, a new bank of mist had swarmed in from the sea and had made visibility difficult. Small vehicles drifted past at running speed, humming dimly through the gloom. Lovo squinted into the mist to get his bearings, the liquor he had consumed making him a little more disorientated than usual.

He reached for his token pouch at his waist, shifting his pistol out of the way to get to it. A couple passing by saw his weapon and hurried away, glancing at Lovo with fearful eyes. Lovo saw their partial scrutiny, and, misunderstanding their interest, waved heartily. He suddenly realised his composure, and his slightly muddled thoughts, and took a deep breath. Maybe he could make it to his ship without being questioned by the town militia. He had already been stopped twice concerning his weapon and had to show some form of licence for it. He didn’t want to get stopped for being slightly drunk with the gun.

He crossed the road without looking, getting halfway across before realising his mistake and feeling lucky there was no traffic. He took another deep breath to clear his head, and reached under his belt to take out a small container. Out of the container he took two metabolic boosters, and placed them under his tongue, hoping the drug would help clear his head.

It took him just under twenty minutes to make the ten minute journey back to his ship, the short walk lengthened by his interest in holographic shop signs and posters that he had not given a second glance before entering the tavern. As he started to cross the port entrance he was given a surly look from the Portmaster. He just smiled back and continued to his ship.

As he crossed the landing field he saw another transport, much like his own, parked just across from the landing pit the Recurring Dream occupied. He frowned as he looked at the ship, it’s red and blue paintwork and the obvious signs of impact damage it had suffered, judging from the strangely shaped panelling down the one side, the result of hurried repair work. He continued to look at the ship, oblivious to where he was going, and when the misty shadow of his own vessel fell across him he suddenly realised where he was and pressed a small button on his wrist chronometer.

The ramp to the Recurring Dream slid down and the airlock opened. Lovo ascended the ramp and entered, walking directly for the cockpit. He ignored his second officer’s cheery greeting from the cargo bay to his left.

He tried to make himself belch to alleviate the feeling of nausea he was starting to notice. Maybe he had overdone it with those last four shots of gretla wine.

He arrived on the command deck just as the metabolic boosters he had taken began to take effect. He felt his temperature rise and a sweat break out as the drug tried to eject all foreign substances from his body. As he slowly walked to his pilot’s chair, he noticed there was another in the room.

“How much did you lose this time?” Gordol asked with a gleam in his eyes, wiping a tool on his work clothes. An entire wall panel was open next to him and a jumble of wires and tubes fell from the hole.

“Not much,” Lovo replied, holding back a burst of wind. The drug was definitely kicking in.

“How much?” Gordol asked again, raising his eyebrows expectantly.

Lovo gave him a narrow-eyed stare. “Fifteen hundred.”

Gordol shook his head. “That’s a quarter of what we made on this trip. You can’t keep doing this, Lovo.”

With an abrupt change of subject, Lovo gestured out of the window. “Do you recognise that transport?”

Gordol slid the tool into an upper arm pocket and walked to the window. He looked out at the other vessel Lovo had noticed when walking back to the Recurring Dream.

“Sure. That’s the Keeper of the Secret, Captain Mullgit’s ship. Lovo, he was sat next to us when we were on Chinngard, remember?”

“Oh, yeah. Mullgit. Isn’t he the man who undercut me on the Leogard contract?”

“The very same. Lovo, I think you’ve had a little too much to drink.”

“No, I had a couple of M-boosters. I’m starting to get my eyesight back. What’s Echut doing in the cargo bay?”

“Exactly what you told him to before you went out. He’s preparing it for the shipment of alcohol to Zelon, we’re going there tonight.”

Lovo frowned in concentration. “Oh, right, the ‘mission of mercy’. How are the repairs coming?”

Gordol sighed heavily and took a seat on the arm of the co-pilot’s chair. “I’ve located the problem in the minor subsystems. We had a jury-rig blowout, from when I linked the main purging system to the backup with that old wiring we obtained from the scrapyard. I knew it wouldn’t hold but I expected it to last longer. Anyway, it hasn’t spread to any other systems and I...” Gordol stopped and stared at Lovo who obviously wasn’t listening. He was leaning forward in his chair, looking out and down of the window. Gordol frowned and followed his gaze, wondering why he was distracted and why he had a confused expression on his face.

Down on the landing field were four men, one of which was captain Mullgit. He was a large Sullustan, not in stature but in fatty deposits. He was talking to three men as they descended the ramp to the Keeper of the Secret. The other men listened as Mullgit was directing them with waves of his plump arms and pointing of fingers. The other men were nodding as they listened. Two of them were looking around with keen interest in their surroundings, while the other looked on Mullgit with a tired gaze.

Gordol looked at Lovo with a shrug. “What’s the problem?”

Lovo shook his head. “I’m not sure. I’ve seen that man looking at Mullgit before, on trips to Chinngard. I just can’t place the face.”

“I’m surprised Mullgit got off Chinngard. Last I heard Janos had banned all outbound and inbound traffic to the planet. He must have pulled something.” Gordol lost interest and continued his report on the ship. “Now, subsystem twenty...”

But Lovo was standing now, leaning forward as the three men walked from Mullgit with quick steps. As they departed, Mullgit started to walk back up his ramp but Lovo activated a system and held a microphone to his mouth.

The external speakers of the Recurring Dream wined into operation as Lovo spoke. “Hey, Mullgit!”

The captain of the still steaming Secret looked around, startled. The ship was venting gas that mixed with the swirling fog, which told Lovo it had only touched down in the last hour or so.

“Up here!”

Mullgit looked up as he identified where the amplified voice was coming from. He squinted as he saw the figure of Lovo in the window of the Recurring Dream, and waved nervously.

“Come in!” Lovo shouted. “The ramps open and I’ve got a full bottle of gretla wine in the cooling locker!”

The liquor was, Lovo knew, one of Mullgit’s weaknesses, and he smiled broadly as the large captain beamed with anticipation and walked to the ramp of his ship. Lovo deactivated the talker and sat back in his chair.

Gordol looked at his captain with undisguised surprise. “I never thought you’d ever invite Mullgit on board. You swore blind you’d skin him for that undercutting trick. What’s the problem?”

“I’m not sure.” Lovo lifted himself out of the pilot’s chair and crossed over to the locker where he kept his bottle of wine. “I’ve seen that guy Mullgit was talking to before. On Chinngard, I think he’s someone quite important. Something’s not right.”

Lovo looked at his engineer to see his confused face. “Look, just go and fix a drive or something down below for an hour, yeah? Mullgit’s got a big mouth and I’m going to try and find out who they were.”

Gordol nodded, still not entirely sure he understood, and then turned to walk to the elevator.

Lovo looked out of the window again, to see the three men walking out of the landing area. They were in a hurry, but trying not to attract any unwanted attention. One man took the lead, his face partially hidden by a high collar, an attempt at disguise, which was unnecessary with the thick mist that obscured most vision. The other two men walked behind together. Looking around at anything that walked or rolled into sight.

Lord Verid of House Familee allowed his disguise to slip slightly as he motioned for one of the men to secure a transport from a public hire park. The man crossed over to a vehicle and inserted several credits into a slot. The vehicle suddenly became alive with power, rising slowly as an energy surge activated its engine and pushed it off the floor. It hovered, awaiting its customers to enter.

The two men climbed in behind Verid, who took the controls in the forward seat. It was a simple affair, with a small control stick to instruct the vehicle to move or rise, and a pedal to control acceleration and braking. Verid gripped the stick, squeezed it to activate the thrusters, and pulled back as he depressed the pedal. The vehicle lurched forward and rose into the air.

The two men looked at one another and adjusted their weapons that were hidden under their coats. The Emperor-Priest had placed a huge amount of trust in them to make sure Verid completed his mission, and they were not allowed to fail.

They knew the cost of failure.