Wanderer - Echoes of the Past

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Sal thought through what they had heard. She wasn’t sure how she felt about the whole idea yet, other than being concerned by the ship’s desire to return home. Maybe it would be for the best if the journey was impossible.

“Hey,” Ali said, in an upbeat voice. “We don’t have to do this. It’s not like we’re planning a rescue attempt to save people again. Don’t get me wrong, we should look into it, but there’s no rush and we don’t have to do it if the risk is too high.”

“Yes, I guess so.” Jess brightened slightly. “Yeah… you’re right. It still feels like a kick in the stomach, though. I thought we’d be able to fly straight there. Instead we could be looking at months or years just to get through the Quarantine Zone, if that’s even possible.”

“And I won’t be going,” Elizabeth said firmly. “I’ll help you prepare, and hopefully get the chance to pick up a ship of my own on the way, but I’m not going. Getting through the Quarantine Zone once will be a massive achievement. Making it back the other way… that’s really pushing it. I haven’t got any close family left but I’ve got a few good friends and enough drinking buddies scattered across systems to be quite attached to this side of the Quarantine Zone.”

Jess’s face dropped again.

“Ali,” he said. “If we go it might mean you can never return home again. Sal and I have no ties, no home to return to and no one to return for. You do.”

Sal’s stomach lurched at that. It was true that she had no home, but there was someone she wanted to return for – Markus, the man she had fallen in love with. It was impossible. She didn’t even know if he was still alive, life as a slave was often dangerous. Even if he was she had no idea where he was or where to even start looking. She had no pictures, other than those in her mind, and nothing to identify Markus other than his name.

Impossible though it was, she still longed to be reunited with him. Seeing Jess and Ali starting a relationship had made the pain inside worse. She was pleased for them, especially the fact they had a future, something no relationship between slaves ever had. She and Markus had managed only a few short weeks together. Pleased though she was, the relationship between the two youngsters was still raking over old pain.

Ali’s expression darkened for a moment, then she shrugged.

“I may never get to go back anyway,” she said. “Even if I do it won’t be for years, I’m sure. We can’t risk going there too often, it would put them in danger. I have no family left. The children I cared for are the closest thing to family I have, and they will have grown so much by the time we return they won’t be the same people. I’m certainly not going to miss out on such an exciting opportunity.”

“So how do we get started?” Jess asked Elizabeth.

“First thing to sort out is some official documentation for the ship. Until you have that you can’t risk going anywhere with more than a weak Imperial presence. Officially you can only get the documentation from Imperial officers. In reality there are many unofficial ways to get what we need, but they are expensive.”

“Unofficial as in illegal?” Sal asked.

“Of course. That’s why it costs. Not just for the documentation itself, we will also need to pay out to get introduced to the right people.”

“We’ve still got plenty of precious metals left on board,” Jess said. “It’s not limitless, though. If we keep burning through it quickly then we’ll need to find a way to earn some money.”

“Definitely. Once you have the documentation we can start on that. We will start to establish ourselves as traders, trading for ourselves and taking on haulage contracts where possible. Not only will that earn some money it will increase the contacts we have. Over time we can start to move towards the shadier end of the markets. That’ll give us contacts within the smugglers, and other criminal organisations.”

“Won’t they be the same as those giving us the false documentation?” asked Sal. “Why not just approach them directly?”

“First off, they’ll probably be completely different groups. Even if they aren’t there’s a huge difference between buying false documents and discussing running the Quarantine Zone. We’ll need to have some good, solid connections before we even begin to broach that subject.”

“I don’t know about this. Just what do you mean by shadier? There is no way we are transporting prisoners, or doing anything else that will lead to prisoners being taken. No way at all.”

“I agree,” Jess said firmly, a gleam in his eye.

“Whoa, hold your horses!” Elizabeth replied. “I’m with you. I never liked being involved with prisoners anyway, and my time as one, short as it was, really reinforced that. No. No prisoners. I’m thinking of things like smuggling, supply runs to illegal bases and things like that.”

“Good,” said Jess.

“That said… we are likely to come across prisoners quite regularly. I know you’ll be tempted to try to rescue every one, but that just isn’t practical. Before long no one would let you approach, and they would start killing the prisoners you wanted to rescue if you forced the issue. And where would you take any you did free? Very few places can absorb large numbers of people, other than those looking for slaves. Like I told you before, about the only way to stop slavery is to topple the Empire… and that ain't happening anytime soon.”

“All right, that’s a good point,” said Sal.

“But I’ll still try to save anyone where we can,” Jess insisted. “I know there will be plenty of times where we can’t, but there still might be times we can. If so, then we try to save them.”

“All right,” Elizabeth replied. “Just discuss it with us all first. Give us the chance to be sure it’s safe to do.”

“Sure.”

Judging by the stubborn look on Jess’s face Sal wasn’t convinced he’d stick to what Elizabeth asked. She understood how he felt. Having spent their whole lives as slaves both she and Jess found it exceptionally hard to see others stuck in the same position. They’d never expected to find freedom. Now they had it, and a powerful ship, it was impossible to see other slaves without wanting to free them. At only sixteen Jess’s emotions still had the ability to override more logical considerations. Sal realised she would have to keep a close eye on him when they were around slaves.

“All right,” Elizabeth continued. Sal didn’t think she sounded particularly convinced by Jess either. “Before we do that we need to get the Wanderer set up for trading. The overall size is about right, but the layout is completely wrong. We won’t be carrying people, we’ve just agreed that, so we need to clear out the main section and set it up for cargo.

“We should change the ship again. The pirates that survived the fight for Iona know this shape. Of course they also know that the Wanderer can drastically change its appearance, but that won’t help if they don’t know what the new look will be. We need to make sure it looks like a normal ship too – lots of external structures and a dirty exterior, no more impossibly smooth and shiny surface.”

“We can do that easily,” Jess replied, far more enthusiastically this time. “There’s some changes I want to make too, some more surprises for anyone if we do get into a fight. Could we make the ship bigger? Say half as large again?”

Elizabeth thought for a moment. “I suppose so,” she said finally. “Yes, that would still be within the normal size range for a medium cargo ship.”

“What changes do you want to make Jess?” Sal asked, her interest peaked.

“Oh… just a few tweaks. Nothing major.”

The grin on his face showed he was lying.

“Don’t worry,” Ali said, also grinning. “I’ll get it out of him later.”

“I bet you will!” Elizabeth replied.

Jess flushed bright red, which made Sal burst out laughing. Elizabeth joined in, as did Ali, though she too was turning red with embarrassment. Jess muttered something about finding some asteroids to mine for materials and escaped towards the flight deck, which only made the others laugh harder.