I couldn’t find the painkiller. I looped the small pack around my waist and followed the gendarme down the corridor.
Winter stood impassively waiting, arms folded, her eyes covered by mirrored glass. She handed me a painkiller, which I swallowed dry and tried not to choke. The Fairelawn station Conservator guided us down the brightly lit plexisteel hallway to the Magistrate.
The Magistrate was an AI, one of those fancy kinds with the gold faceplate and multiple arms. It was meant to look impressive, with all the fancy screens, and info discernments, but to me, it smacked of typical Fairelawnese ostentation. Plus, the light bouncing off its highly polished frame hurt my eyes.
“Order in the court!” the bailiff announced to no one in particular. The Conservator had withdrawn the moment we set foot in the room, so it was only Winter and my soggy self.
“Nevahly Ecarg Finesse, you are accused of disturbing the peace, resisting arrest, disorderly conduct in a governmental office, and non-payment of warrants, particularly those listed against your ship, The Fred. How do you plead?” The AI had one of those uninflected voices. It was neither male nor female and was like someone speaking in a long tube, at least to my ears.
“With all due respect, your honor” Winter said. “My associate was attempting to pay said impound fees on our vehicle. Arresting her in the offices of the spaceport registry seems counter productive. I realize the fees are extensive, and I am prepared to pay the impound fee. But, if you arrest me as I stand here, you won’t get your money any faster. I suggest a compromise. You drop the charges against my associate, I’ll pay her bond, and I will pay any and all impound fees and debts lodged against the Fred.
“Our records indicate that Darrylyn Kestrian is the Captain of the Fred, and as such the debts owed are against her. Are you Sirra Kestrian?” The AI cocked its metal head and regarded Winter. “I am not. Darrylyn Kestrian is deceased. I have with me the will- in- trust agreement that she and I signed. I am the first mate Eira Oran. The trust agreement was signed at Ualune and has been honored at all docking stations we have traversed so far. Will this agreement be honored here or do I need to engage counsel?”
The AI regarded her unblinking. “Do you have a death certificate or any other warrant stating that Darrylyn Kestrian is indeed deceased?”
“I do.”
As Winter presented the documentation to the AI, I wondered where she’d acquired the paperwork. I knew for a fact that our late Captain, wasn’t dead at all. She’d decided to settle down with her smuggler boyfriend on Taverna. I knew it was because her debts had exceeded her ability to pay for them. She had a compulsive gambling addiction that a stint on a non-gaming world might straighten her out. Winter and I were honor-bound not to reveal her location to anyone. She had plenty of enemies.
I should note that by the time anyone reads this, Darryl will have successfully hidden herself. So, me telling you about Taverna makes no difference. Taverna isn’t the actual name for the planet either. You’d have to know the name, and the smuggler’s route to get to the planet. So, there’s that.
I had no idea what story Winter told about Darryl’s alleged death, so I kept my mouth shut and quietly dripped on their floor.
The AI magistrate seemed to be taking a long time. I assumed it was attempting to contact the Ualune records division. Winter seemed calm so I made an effort to appear just as serene. Finally, it straightened and addressed Winter. “Sirra Oran, this court will accept your offer and set bail at forty-five thousand marks. The impound fees are seven hundred thousand marks. All other outstanding debts are to be paid to the individual debtor.
I winced at the amount. We’d salvaged four freighters caught in the crossfire of a despute between the Miratosh and Saurtan Empires. The amount we’d earned from that job was just enough to cover this mess, but only just. My dreams of finding a decent restaurant after eating salvage rations for three months evaporated. Winter calmly handed a Nueva Sevilla bank draft to the magistrate and waited.
“We don’t accept…” The AI began but Winter interrupted. “You will accept this one, please look again. This is an Auran note, guaranteed by Nueva Sevilla and the Governance of The Realm. If you would like to verify it, please contact Keran Dofram at Navarran.”
I glanced down at the floor, mainly to keep the look of surprise on my face from being obvious. I let my hair fall in my face while I wondered where in the seven hells Winter got the Auran note.
The AI called the human attendees to run the note through the scanner. It must have thought the bank draft was counterfeit. Hells, I thought it was counterfeit and any second now, they would figure it out and arrest both of us. Goo, thick and viscous dripped out of my hair and plopped on the floor. The nearest guard made a face but immediately schooled his expression into blankness when I glanced at him. I glared at him and stood straighter.
I wanted to fidget and there was a part of me that wanted to bolt for the doors but I tamped the instinct down. Instead, I watched Winter as she calmly stared down the AI. Finally, after standing there in the drab gray juidiciary room for more than a quarter of an hour, the AI magistrate activated again.
“We accept the Auran note drafted from Nueva Sevilla. Please consider the debits and impound fees discharged to Sirra Oran. All charges against your crewmember are dropped and you are free to leave, Sirra…” The AI paused as it looked up my prisoner identification number. “Ecarg-Finessse Please see the adjudicator for directions to the storage facility to pick up your personal effects.”
Winter bowed slightly to the AI and gestured to me with a lift of her chin. We walked in silence to the adjudicar concierge. The AI there directed me down the hallway. “I’ll wait for you here,” Winter said as she folded her arms and leaned against the wall.
The attendant was, surprisingly, a human male. He took one look at me and blinked. “The fresher is that way.” He pointed to the small medical bay down the curving corridor. “There’s a bath. Use it.”
Behind me, a small flotilla of cleaning servitor bots floated along, mopping the floor. I took one look at myself in the mirror in the medical refresher and winced. My face was a massive bruise, and when I peeled out of the jumpsuit, my side wasn’t much better. The water let me know where the rest of the injuries were, but at least I was able to get the chucksa out of my hair. Real water, not the recycled and processed stuff that still smells like the gray tanks and cleaning fluid. No expense is spared, not even for prisoners of Fairelawn station and The Realm.
I didn’t want to think about how much it must have cost.
siriusmoonlight 