You may or may not be familiar with the layout of Fairelawn station. If you aren’t, the station is a triple wheel and spoke design with an interior docking bay that spans the lower wheel. It is one of the older stations, with one of the stable designs. The Realm’s new station over Rangolin, The Helix, is a work of art, but frankly, I have no idea why anyone would want to live there. I don’t think anyone does, and it is just for show because it’s the Realm, and well, it’s the Realm.
Crazy, rich people live in the Realm. Rich is fine; I can deal with that, but crazy…not so much. The central “arm” of the station was incredibly busy. There is always a party on any given “night” on Fairelawn. The Realmese love a party, so the station caters to the Realmese, and any other tourists with enough credits, to spectacles and exotics throughout the central section of the station. I happened to walk through the section joyously celebrating the Fairelawnese harvest. The beings and humanoids around me ebbed and flowed in flowered gowns and masks of scarlet, russet, and gold. A group was singing loudly and throwing orange flores at random. They captured a giggling young woman and poured the flowers into her hair. I glamoured myself into something drab and random in an effort to blend into the floors. I was making good headway toward the docking ring and was almost across the central atrium when I noticed the beings around me were looking up and pointing.
I followed their fingers and shook my head in disbelief. Fairelawn has a massive observational atrium that faces away from the planet and into the surrounding system. From there, you can see Rangolin, Parchense, and if you squint, the star of the Ualune system is faintly visible. The first time I entered the atrium I remember thinking, “how in the seven hells do they keep such an expanse of plexisteel and force screens functioning? Aren’t they afraid of meteor bombardment?” As it turns out, Fairelawn doesn’t use any of that technology. I have to admit when I found out, I was a bit in awe.
Anyway, I followed the beings around me and looked up. Some chucksa martinara was outside in an enviro suit dancing around like they could hear the music. Maybe they could, for all I know, the station was broadcasting the sambacita blasting from the invisible speakers and the suited individual could hear it. Of course, the lunatic’s actions set off the station alarms in earnest and I had to jog to make it to the docking ring.
~~~~~~~~~
By the time I reached the ring, the first docking station alarms had started. This means the yellow warning lights start rotating, and everyone starts scurrying for their ships or a decompression closet. Fairelawn has an interior docking stand, and they release ships two or three times a day. The yellow alarm means ships are preparing to depart, and anyone on the docks needs to get to safety. The station has four docking sections, and as they rotate new ships arrive and depart. The system is automated so I’ve never seen them hold up departures although they can. Fairelawn’s AI is semi-sentient. Fred told me about him. I guess they play cheske while the rest of us run around the station. Fred also said Fairelawn’s AI’s a gossip. So, the first thing I did when I got inside was ask Fred for an update and change into my ship suit.
“There are ten active security bulletins, all of them critical. Sections une and deue are in pre-flight checks. Would you like me to start our engines?”
I jogged to the flight deck and started pressing buttons. “Lockdown and seal everything but the primary doors. Start warming up for departure, Fred. We may have to blow out of here fast, so make it quick.”
“Aye, Ellora. Shall I track Winter for you?”
“Yes, please. She’s not in com range.” I flopped down into my chair and checked the supply of nutrients in the chair arm. I didn’t need jump drugs like some species, but I did need to keep my vitamin and blood sugar levels stable during long jumps.
“Would you provide a news update please?” I asked and Fred flashed station vid feed directly to my station screens. “Just a summary is fine.”
Fred hummed along in my ear as I donned my halo. “Station temperature is holding at..”
“Fred, skip and look for information about a casino shooting.” I uncoupled the fuel lines and sent the appropriate credits to the dockmaster. I untethered the mooring lines, and the Fred floated free, the repulsors held the ship steady at the dock.
“Fred, get me station control, please.” My screen immediately flickered to the AI shell that ran the docking rings.
“KNJ9835 Fred, Ualune, requesting permission to depart.”
“Ellora, I find no information on a casino shooting. Would you like me to check security channels?”
I frowned. The commotion at the casino should have been a top news story. “Yes, check security for me.”
I tapped my ear com. “Winter? Are you there?” I waited but there was no reply.
It is nothing for us to maintain silence after we’ve hexed a casino. Both of us are free to find our way back to the ship in the most expedient way possible. I don’t know how many times I’ve helped Meriloo carry Darryl back to the Fred. I’ve always suspected that Winter was the one that actually ran the Fred, and Darryl captained in name only. I’ve never understood their dynamic, and I’ve been on the ship for 10 standard cerens.
I’d been fighting a feeling of unease ever since the fight. I chewed on my lip and thought.
“You have instructed me to remind you not to do that,” Fred said brightly as if sensing my worry.
Station control interrupted my musing. “KNJ9835 Fred Ualune registry. We are on a docking hold. Please do not proceed to the release doors and power down your systems, please.”
“What? Station control, we’re on a system ellipses. I need to get my shipment on to Altamira, or I lose my payment.”
“Understood KNJ9835 Fred. Fairelawn station will recompense you for your losses.”
“Yeah, at a quarter of value I bet. No, we are not powering down. Release us, or we blow your ring.”
Honestly, it was a bluff. I did not think Fred had enough firepower to take on the plexisteel outer hull of the station.
“Fred, see if you can locate Winter again. Her life sign beacon should show up somewhere. You may have to scan the entire station, not just the casino level.”
“Aye, Ellora. Shall I search the outer hull as well?”
The outer hull? No, that would be ridiculous…except I remembered that figure dancing on the atrium. Could that have been Winter? Surely not. I’ve never known her to do anything that stupid or obvious.
“I don’t think…no, go ahead and search it. Maybe she…”
“Incoming transmission. On-screen.” Fred interrupted.
“All ships in sections une and deue are required by stationmaster authority to power down. We have a major coolant leak, and we cannot open the doors until the hydraulic systems are….”
“Chucksa Venerati, I don’t think so!” I snapped. “Fred, go engines live.”
“Aye. I find one life sign beacon on level 35, scrub locker 16, environmental division.”
Seven hells, she’d removed the beacon and left it in some poor subbers locker and stole his enviro suit.
“Fred, where’s the nearest airlock?”
“Section deue, but we are still in decompression hold, so the doors won’t open.”
“See if you can override and bring up main screens.”
I suddenly had a view of the entire docking area as the massive screens in the front of the flight deck activated and a holo of the deck system schematics spun to life across the display mesa in the middle of the floor.
The rotating indicator lights changed to red and were whirling angrily. From my angle, I could see four other ships with their cables loose and repulsors on. “Good to know we aren’t the only ones anxious to leave.”
Fred murmured an agreement. “The Corvair is owned by the Ke’ranni family on Navarran. The shipliner is a long-haul freighter registered out of Yeltsin, the other shipliner is a Trinastar-Halcyon registry, and the snubnosed carrier is an ore hauler, also registered in Yeltsin. No one is powering down.”
“They want us to stand down, yet the decompression cycle is still on.” I checked the atmo outside the ship, and we were at one quarter. “They need to make up their minds.”
The warning klaxons began, even as the station master advised again against leaving the docks. I wondered if Winter had managed to override their system somehow.
“Attention all ships in port. You are ordered by the Master of Fairelawn station to stand down and reengage your bowlines and tethers. This station is in lockdown until further notice. Your compliance by the accords of Navarran…”
“Oh, chuksa! Something big is going down.” Fred rarely swore, so I knew he heard more from his interface than I was.
“What happened?”
“Well, Fairelawn shut up real fast, but he did say something about the assassination of a well-known cabal member before the master of the station shut everything down.”
I glanced at the screens, “Uh, the Corvair is really anxious to leave. They’ve fired their engines.”
“Lot of chatter. Let me see if I can filter some of it for you” The sound in my halo dropped out for a second, and then I was bombarded with hundreds of voices all at once. “Navarrani Corvair, stand down…”
“Not in the seven hells!” I presumed the speaker was the captain of the Corvair. “As a Sovereign member of Navarran, we have diplomatic privilege!
“I do not have your diplomatic papers on our registry, Captain. If you would be so kind as to transmit…”
I listened to the fight for a few minutes and even laughed out loud as the captain of the Corvair tried to get the intractable Fairelawn AI to let them depart. Meanwhile, the main holding doors were still opening to space. I wasn’t the only one that noticed, as several other ships around the Fred also untethered and floated free of the docks.
A flashing indicator light on my panel caught my attention. The aft airlock of the Fred was cycling open. I flipped the switch to the internal monitors. I couldn’t make out who or what was in our airlock. It wasn’t the first time someone tried to board us, so I fired up the internal deterrents. Whoever was in the lock had on a solid black envirosuit with an opaque helmet.
“We may have a visitor,” I muttered to Fred.
“I see.” Fred switched to an external and internal view. I could hear the blast doors closing all over the ship. I took out my sidearm from the holding case built into the arm of my chair.
The lock finished the cycle, and the black-suited figure stepped out. The being reached back and shut the airlock, and hit the full close sequence. They pried the catches off the helmet where it connected to the suit.
Winter had dyed her hair shocking pink. She stared up at the cameras and tilted her head. The heavy black kajal around her eyes made their brilliant color stand out. She trailed a faint line of sparkles behind her.
I breathed a sigh of relief and hit the internal door switches to let her access the rest of the ship. “Welcome back.”
She stopped in the corridor and donned one of the temp halos we left in various locations around the interior of the Fred.
“Fred, light the fire once the doors hit the greenway signal. We’ve got to be out before they learn they’ve been completely sabotaged.
“Hello to you too,” I muttered and put my sidearm back in its holster.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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