"Something like that. Anyway, I've got a gorgeous yacht called
Azure Sky
sitting on your apron. She's exactly what I need. She's fast, luxurious, and best of all, she's got an AI advanced enough to let me run her alone."
Yan nodded again. "So what can I do for you?"
"Well, first of all, she needs a new identity. I would like her beacon to identify her as some kind of small courier ship or something. Second, she's
way
too fancy. She's obviously pre-Fall, but she has been kept in immaculate condition. I need her made to look old and beat-up. I'd like her to seem like something innocuous, that won't attract pirates.
"Finally," he continued, "I'm concerned about the ship's AI. I have never dealt with artificial intelligence that close to sentience. It scares me a little. I was able to convince it that I had bought the yacht from her previous owner, and that I was a businessman and was concerned about duplicity by my trading partners. That's how I explained running away from the Terror's fleet. But with the traveling I'm going to have to do and the things I'll need to do, I can't keep coming up with stories and muddling through. I need a top comp expert that can set a firm cover story, and maybe even make it loyal to me, if that's possible."
Yan leaned back in his chair and laced his fingers behind his head. "I saw you land," he said thoughtfully. "She
is
a pretty thing. I'll be kinda sorry to mess her up. A disguise, eh? Hmm."
After a moment, he swung forward again, dropping his arms. "Well, she's about the size of one of the armed couriers the Empire Fleet used to use. They called 'em 'stingers,' because they were small, but had some nasty weapons. There never were very many of 'em. They were mostly used for fast, secure communications and high-value shipments between Prime and the Sector Viceroys. They carried a crew of five, and had two Alliance-style quickfirers mounted on the centerline. Add a few extra hull plates to change her shape, and I think we can make her look like one of those. We might even have room under the phony hull plates to actually install those quickfirers!" He was becoming excited at the challenge. "The orbital scrap yard has all kinds of military junk." He straightened and grinned at John. "This is gonna be fun!"
John was not as excited. "What about the AI?"
Yan shrugged. "The best comp man on the planet is Rey Teros. He works as an independent consultant. Nowadays, he only takes on jobs he likes. But he owes me a favor, and if I wave enough quants under his nose, he'll do it.
"I've got money . . ." John started.
Yan waved a dismissal. "No, you don't. Not on this planet. You can't even buy a damned sandwich." He keyed a speaker on his desk. "Evie? Listen. I want a credit chit with, oh, say, fifty thousand quants on it. No, not a company chit. Strictly cash. When? Now, of course!"
He sat back and regarded John soberly. "So, can you tell me your plans? Anything I can help with?
John shook his head. "No, my plans are only firm as far as getting the ship modded and then heading for the Old Empire. I'll need to stop somewhere for some body sculpting to change my appearance. After that I'll either try to find courier runs or try to find a nice, quiet planet where I can retire."
Yan snorted. "Retire? You? You won't last a year. I think you'd better be working on a plan C, because you've already learned you're no trader, and your plan B is ridiculous!"
John smiled. "Don't count on it. I was once a quiet, civilized attorney, remember?"
Yan smiled. "Yeah. And you ended up in a slave coffle!"
Work began on the
Azure Sky
immediately. Yan's yard had the specs on almost all of the ships used by the Empire, and they decided his plans were feasible. The big man seemed to really enjoy the challenge offered by the conversion.
The orbital scrap yard had only one of the quickfirers, but by retrofitting a larger fusactor, Yan was able to fit a heavy laser under the dummy hull plates. "You'll have to aim both of your weapons by aiming the ship," he told John. "There was no room to fit turrets. We'll program the AI with all the targeting programs necessary, so you'll still be a one-man ship."
The modifications made the renamed
Scorpion
remarkably lethal for her size. The quickfirer fired tiny rockets some twenty millimeters in diameter. However, the rockets were plated with collapsed metal, and massed 100 kilos in a one-G field. They were effective on anything up to a destroyer, and had been one of the most effective general-purpose weapons in the Old Empire's arsenal. The laser Yan mounted on
Scorpion
had been removed from an Old Empire destroyer. Together, the two weapons gave John the firepower of an Old Empire corvette, in a much smaller package. John would have a surprise for any pirate that attacked him.
Time dragged, and despite Yan's hospitality, John was getting nervous by the time Yan considered
Scorpion
ready for delivery after six weeks. By now, John had to assume that Townley had secured his command. Fat with the loot of Atlantea, the fleet would not be restive, and Townley would feel secure enough to come searching for John, and post bounties along the way.
John had been scanning the
Stellar Index
for possible havens when the comm buzzed. It was Yan, of course, and he had a grim expression on his face. “Two men just left my office,” he said without preface. They were looking for the owner of that small courier in the yard. They didn’t know his name.” Two security cam pictures filled the screen.
John snapped to attention. The faces were familiar, of course. “Yamesh and Barned,” he said. “They like to work as an assassination team. They enjoy the killing,” he added. Townley had found him already.
Yan’s fat face was stricken. “Then you’ll have to kill them, won’t you?” He would certainly have to try. At his wordless nod, tears began streaming down the ample cheeks. “John, I’m sorry, but I
can’t
kill someone. I never could, even on Peltir. I just
can’t
!”
Despite the dagger of fear in his own chest, he felt terrible for Yan. Yan was one of the gentlest people in the universe. Somehow, he had retained that gentility even through years of slavery. No, He’d have to face the killers, but no matter
what
the risk, he would keep Yan totally out of it.
“It’s all right, Yan. You know I would never ask that of you. Did they leave contact information?”
Looking somewhat reassured, but still worried, Yan nodded. “They’re staying at a hotel near the port in the club district.”
He was thinking hard. “Low rent area? Run down? Slummy?”
A weak smile surfaced on Yan’s face. “Very. Lots of cheap bars and hookers.” He brightened, “Say, I’ve got some pretty tough boys out in the yard . . .” he trailed off as he saw John's head shaking ‘no’.
“Not a chance, Yan,” John insisted. “I don’t want you involved if there’s any rough stuff.” Then, suddenly a thought occurred to him. “Say, Yan, maybe there doesn't have to be any rough stuff. Does Jackson subscribe to the Sector-Wide Wanted List service?”
Surprise lit his features. “Of course. Every civilized planet in the sector uses it. I understand the Patrol uses it to run the names of incoming passengers.”
John nodded, getting excited now. “I’m sure these two came in on fake papers. But they’re wanted as pirates on over a dozen planets in this sector alone; and pirates are subject to summary execution, without trial. Suppose a reputable citizen, say a shipyard owner, were to call the Patrol and report some suspicious characters asking suspicious questions about a ship in his yard.”
A slow smile grew across Yan’s features. “Why, I’ll bet they’d want to take another look at those characters’ papers, and maybe even run their DNA against the Wanted list. If they’re as bad as you say, the government probably wouldn’t even bother with a trial.”
John was grinning, now. “Yep. I can see the headlines on the Worldweb now: ‘Local Yard Owner Helps Capture Pirates’. They might even vote you a reward; these are
very
bad people.”
Relief was warring with a wide grin on the fat face. “And neither of us has to kill anyone or be killed.”
“Right,” John replied. And better yet," he added, “there will be a record of what happened to them. If they just disappeared, Townley might get suspicious and send another team. This way, I get a clean head start.”
Yan wrestled his face into a scowl. “Well! I think I had better do my plain civic duty. You might want to stick around your hotel room for a day or so. Theirs aren’t the
only
pictures on that list, you know.”
John smiled. “Don’t worry. I’m afraid James Yor-Tarken is coming down with something that will take at least three days to cure.”
Yan’s face took on a concerned look. “Oh, I’m so sorry, sire Yor-Tarken. The yard will of course send condolences. You are, after all, a rather substantial customer.”
By the time Yor-Tarken’s illness had passed, the pirates had been arrested, identified and the executions carried out. Yan was a local hero, which he was enjoying immensely, and
Scorpion
’s transformation was complete.
John's relief was palpable when Rey Teros finally introduced him to his new AI and explained its modifications.
"As you requested," the wizened little man began, "We retained the name of 'Tess' for your AI. We have programmed her to be loyal to you only. If you sell the vessel, I'm afraid some major reprogramming will be required." He looked disapproving. "I do not approve of loyalty circuits. They render the Artificial Intelligence vulnerable to amateur and unintended program conflicts. However," he continued, "the circuits were present, and the programming has been completed. To her, you are a secret agent being pursued by pirates. Your 'secret agent' identity permits her to accept apparently contradictory inputs and supposed 'cover stories' without establishing programming conflicts." His look of disapproval turned into a scowl. "To a certain extent, it will also allow her to deal with the conflict between her basic programming concerning human safety and the presence and use of the lethal weapons with which you have equipped her." He paused and turned an intense glare on John. "I emphasize that she is not a military AI, and does not have their basic programming. The more often she is confronted with the fact of the destruction of human life, the more likely she is to suffer injury."
Teros paused, as though deciding whether to continue. "The AI is pre-Fall Alliance manufacture, and is the most advanced one I've ever seen. I suspect it contains capabilities I do not understand. There are also memory repositories I was unable to access." He admitted reluctantly. "Should you get to the Alliance, you
might
find someone there qualified to deal with those anomalies. But I doubt it." He shook his head. "I would love to spend years studying it, but I know that is impossible. All I can do is wish you good luck, Captain."
John assured Teros that he would take good care of the remarkable AI and did not intend to use
Scorpion
's weapons any more than necessary. Teros merely grunted before striding out, slamming the door behind him.
At last, Yan gave him a final tour of
Scorpion
. "We simply gave her a forged Old Empire ident beacon that says she's
Scorpion
, originally registered to the Viceroy of the Callisto sector. All the onboard papers and ident plates agree with that. We did not paint her name on the hull. But John," he continued in a warning tone, "We found a sealed compartment aboard her. When we broke into it, we found what I swear must be an old subspace initiator!"
John started. Only three or four planets outside the Alliance still had the capability of instant subspace communications galaxy-wide, mostly former sector capitols. Subspace receivers had been common in the Old Empire, but the initiators required to establish the connection were so expensive that they had even been rare there. He doubted there were more than a dozen techs in man-occupied space who could service one.
"Oh," Yan continued, "I think it was long dead, and we left it alone, since we had no idea what might happen if we tried to remove it. But given what Rey told us, I think what you've got is an Old Empire Viceroy's yacht, built by the Alliance or the old Rim Sector before it became the Alliance." He laughed aloud. "If so, we're not the first to forge papers for her! Maybe she really
was
registered to a Viceroy!"
Yan's fat face faded to serious. "Be very careful with it, John. We can't know all of its capabilities for sure, and with what Rey said . . ."
The changes in the appearance of the ship were remarkable. The ship's contours had been reshaped to resemble the courier she claimed to be, and her antirad coating looked scarred and worn. Inside, age and wear traces had been carefully emphasized or simulated. Previous attempts to conceal
Scorpion
's age had been removed. The sybaritic luxury of
Azure Sky
remained, but now the luxury carried an element of age and shabbiness. Dozens of coats of paint on bulkheads and fasteners reinforced the impression of age. John was impressed with
Scorpion
. She resembled
Azure Sky
only in general size and engine configuration. John suspected that even her previous owner would walk right past her on a landing field. Moreover, John would need that anonymity. He had business to attend to before he could search for a refuge, and some of the Old Empire worlds had become insular and suspicious since the Fall. Some had fallen below the space-travel level, and some had even become dens of pirates. There were reports that an entire Empire Fleet battle group had gone rogue during the Fall, and had seized control of nearly a dozen systems. Calling themselves "The New Empire," their descendants reportedly still ruled those systems, enforcing their rule with their aging warships. So, one entered Old Empire space carefully, gathering as much intelligence as possible before committing oneself. John was not ready yet for anything but the fringes of the Old Empire.
The newly renamed
Scorpion
was some 150 meters long, streamlined to operate in-atmosphere. In keeping with her design as a super-luxurious yacht, both her inertial drive and her jump drive were oversized, and made even more so by Yan. She could berth twelve in her six large staterooms, each of which had a private ‘fresher and a large viewscreen that could be set to provide panoramic views of hundreds of worlds and moons, as well as familiar starfields, even if the ship was in jump.