Wanderer - Millennium

Chapter 1

1

Kaira grabbed three dirty glasses from a recently vacated table, then threaded her way back through the dark bar to deposit them for cleaning. Once done she looked around, but none of the customers were trying to get her attention. She had a few moments to simply wait and listen.

That suited her perfectly. She’d only taken the job so she could listen to the ships’ crews as they drank, and so she could find one particular person.

She knew the name of the captain she sought, Tarkus, but not what he looked like. She hadn’t thought that would prove to be a major problem, but three hours into her shift she was still no closer to finding him.

She had been assured that Tarkus always drank at this bar when he visited the station, and that he was docked currently. Which meant he should be in the bar drinking at some point.

That might well be the case, but unless she went around asking for him, which would raise suspicions she needed to avoid, she was having to rely on dumb luck.

So far luck had failed her, and it didn’t look as if that was going to change any time soon. The only people talking loudly enough for her to hear were a group of seven sitting around a table and loudly discussing the legends of Jess and the Wanderer. Kaira shook her head. Nearly a thousand years had passed yet people were still arguing over the facts.

“I’m telling you, Jess was a damned hero!” said one of the men. “He saved the entire universe! You can’t get any more heroic than that!”

“Hero my arse!” replied one of the women at the table. “He was a bloody fool! Look at the damage he caused. Look at the harm he created.”

“Don’t tell me you’re one of those Church of Unity nutters! Are you about to tell me that the creature which tried to enslave all of humanity was misunderstood and Jess shouldn’t have killed it?”

“Of course not! I’m just saying he ballsed everything up! I mean, seriously, look at the ship he had. The Wanderer. With that ship he should have done a much better job! Maybe then we’d be able to travel decent distances in jump space like everyone could before Jess made such a mess of everything.”

“Ha!” jutted in another of the group. “Not everyone minds the mess Jess made.” He twisted in his chair, shouted out to a man sitting on his own at a corner table. “Hey, Tarkus! What do you think of Jess? You must like what he did. The state he left the Universe in is what lets you beat the rest of us on trading runs and lets you make so much money!”

Kaira froze for a moment, then forced herself to physically relax and keep sweeping her eyes around the room. But that was him! That was Captain Tarkus!

He’d been in the bar for two hours. She’d even served him three times without any idea who he was. She’d mostly noticed the nasty scarring from a burn on his arm, fighting not to wince at the old injury.

Tarkus didn’t respond to the group, and soon enough they turned back to talking loudly amongst themselves.

“He can’t be making that much money,” said another woman at the table. “Have you seen the state of his ship?”

“He makes good money,” said the first to speak. “But it all has to go into keeping that ship running. He’d be a rich man otherwise.”

“Then it’s time he sold that ship and got a better one. That way he could stop pouring all his money away.”

“Quiet!” hissed another of the group. “Don’t criticise his ship! The last person who did that ended up with a broken nose and three broken fingers!”

“What? Why?”

“The ship reminds him of his wife. The two of them flew it for years before the accident that killed her.”

“Accident? What accident?”

“Haven’t you heard? It was…”

The conversation continued, but in much quieter tones. Kaira had no chance of hearing any more but it didn’t matter. She’d found her target. She knew who he was. And from what the others had said to him she knew he had the skills she needed.

That just left deciding whether she should take a risk on him. He hardly seemed to have noticed her when she served him. He certainly hadn’t paid her the sort of unpleasant attention many of the other drinkers had, both male and female. That was a good sign.

Damn it. She had no choice really. She realised she was going to do it. She was going to take the risk. The first step was to get out of the bar before Tarkus headed back to his ship. That was easily done. He didn’t look like he was going anywhere in the immediate future. She slipped through the staff only door, down the grubby corridor, grabbed her pack, then headed out of the back door into the alley.

That was the easy part. Getting aboard his starship, the Glimmer, that was going to be a lot harder.