COMPANY OF ADVENTURERS

The tall man strolled through the Flores Dockyard, followed by admiring feminine glances.

As he approached a group of shabby transport ships, he glanced at a gossiping group of women, sitting in folding lawn chairs and watching a gang of noisy youngsters playing a round game.

“Sissy!” he called. “Aphrodite!”

The tall dark woman’s head swept around as she responded to the call. “Dita Aglukak,” she corrected. Then “Perse!”

The tall man pulled his sister to her feet. hugging her leather vest to his own broad chest.

“How long has it been? “

“Near on fifteen years since.”

“And now ?”

“First mate on Bluebell here, You?”

“Working for a wholesaler, just promoted to manage my own franchise here on Quattro. ”

Dita nodded. “Steady work.”

“And are these ladies also part of your crew?”

“Mamie Dieudonne is our mechanic, the others are with other ships, but we meet up from time to time to exchange news and let the kids play together. Mamie, Lin, Cherry, this is my older brother, Perseus Aglukak.”

“Pleased to meet you all. I’m actually here to find some new contacts for hauling in and out-system. Good to find people with shared connections.”

“Bluebell is always looking for contracts.“ smiled the mechanic, switching her baby from one breast to the other. “Dita, maybe you should introduce your brother to the Captain.”

Dita nodded, turned and headed up the cargo bay ramp of one of the ships.

Perse Aglukak made a small bow to the other women and followed.

“Well,” said Cherry.” Who woulda thought that Dita would be the plain one in her family?” The other women started giggling lasciviously.

“It has been a long time. Have you been in touch with any of the others over the years? I have ansible addresses for most but we’re far-flung nowadays. Are any of those kids yours? Lord, girl, you look good.”

“Rand bought Bluebell partly through Alcibides. The others? No. The blonde girl is mine, Hope, she’s eleven.”

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The merchant looked back at the rowdy children and spotted a slender, composed pre-teen with blonde dreads and a deep tan rescuing one of the smaller children from their older rougher playmates.

“Another niece,” he smiled. “I think that means Mum and Dad would have about 29 or 30 grandchildren now. You know they have both passed?”

“Figured Dad. Tried to find the bastard when I was released, but got a “no account” message. Seemed appropriate. Mum was alive then, but Al didn’t give me her address.”

“Al’s not good at keeping up. He may not have had one. She kept the ship going for another few years after everything, then retired. Died about ten years back, mostly of boredom, I think.”

Dita waved to Rand, who was moodily kicking a defenseless bamboo crate.

“Rand, this is my brother, Perseus Aglukak”

“Brother? Randolf Hudson. Welcome to Bluebell, Perseus.”

“Perse, please, Captain Hudson. I understand you are looking for contracts”

“Always looking for jobs. Got a crew and some pesky kids to feed. Dita tell you about our setup? We’re based here but we make a regular circuit of worlds because we have a permanent passenger who does medical clinics on worlds too small to support a regular doctor. Makes us steady but still flexible in our scheduling. Means that we can afford to do small jobs that are on our route at a reasonable price. And we do some postal runs.”

“A doctor? That’s unusual.”

“Flying Doctors. The government pays him to run the clinics with his nurse. He’s gotta route, but he’s allowed to stop at other worlds as the opportunity or need arises. Useful sometimes when we want a reason to be somewhere.”

Perse grinned. “Sounds like your business is very much like the Aglukak Family Concern. Flexible. “

“It’s good to have a respectable reason to go dirtside sometime. Not always a good idea to land in the middle of nowhere. Sometimes the Feds notice, sometimes you’re meeting up with people whose idea of doing business is too flexible. Doc lets us land at the local shipyard and have a reason for being there.” Dita said.

A small boy with a mop of light brown hair, raced up the ramp and hugged the Captain’s leg.

“Daddy! Mummy says I can go to the chip truck if you give me the money. And for Hope too.”

Rand picked up the boy and kissed him, gave him an aluminum coin, and swatted him on his bum.

“Grownups are talking business, Derry. Git.”

“Kids travel with you on jobs?”

“Just the baby ’cause she’s nursing. The other two stay on here now when we are away. Their school has a scheme for the ship families. Kids can take classes through the ansible when they’re Out There, or board at the school if the trip might be dangerous, or stay shipboard with their parents when they are on Quattro.”

“So my niece mostly lives here?”

“On the ship or in the school dorm,” her mother said.

“Well, well. I’m glad I found you. The family will be happy to hear too. Can I invite you and the crew to have dinner with me? Being new, I don’t have much of a social circle and it would be good to talk.”

“The crew is six adults and two kids. Plus the baby. If you can handle that…?”

“My job comes with a house and a housekeeper. Tomorrow evening? About 1830? And perhaps I will have some work for you by then.”

“Must be real sweet for you, meeting a long-lost brother after so long.” Mamie smiled. “You two

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will have so many stories to share.”

“Mmm. Not my favourite brother.”

“He’s really handsome, too. Do you have any pictures of your family? How many kids were there? Rand says you started him in this business when the two of you were got outta jail.”

“There was nothing left for him on Madonna. I knew my family business so we went that way.”

“Rand never told me that! I guess I never thought of him as anything but a ship’s captain. Was the crime your idea too?”

“My dad never liked going through customs posts much. I reckon most small transports do some smuggling. Our ship had even more hidey-holes than this boat,” she chuckled. “We lost Theseus for a couple of days once when he got wedged into a duct.”

Perse was all charm with the crew. Mamie was already entranced by his good looks, Michael by his fine Home World manners. He and David kept exchanging glances, as if they were making some plan.

Hope and Derry were on their best behaviour, as was Marco, who managed not to make any crude remarks by the simple expedient of not talking at all. Fortunately, there was plenty of food to keep his mouth busy.

Rand was expansive, pleased to have found a new contact who needed a trustworthy shipper. He and Perse spent much time discussing the plans of Perse’ company to expand in the New Worlds.

“They like me because I’m not from the Home Worlds, and know more about the culture out here than their usual employees,” Perse told him “They understand that rules are more like guidelines here. And they see a strong future as the New Worlds develop and get more prosperous. A strong middle class is what these worlds need, not just rich owners and poor workers.”

“What kind of cargo do they need moved?” asked Rand.

“Well, at the moment, we have a cargo of frozen bull semen for the ranchers on Summerfair. Needs a little TLC, but doesn’t take up much space or the value. Taxes on it are high though.”

Rand ignored Marco’s guffaw. “Better than an entire herd of beeves. We’ve done that and it took a month to get the stink out of the cargo bay.”

“There’s a couple of worlds where the crops were too good this harvest, and they have surplus fruits for sale. Shipping on a big transport would be expensive, price the fresh fruit right out of the market,” continued Perse. “Or glass. Not fancy stuff, but jars and the like for canning plants on some of the agricultural worlds. Bulky and pretty cheap, so the shipping gets to be the expensive part.”

“We could handle most of those cargos. One thing, we don’t want to deal with slave worlds. Those folks have strange ideas about what a contract means. And they don’t just shoot you if you disagree. You can end up working out your days for some bastard with a whip.”

“Understood. “

“They don’t look for clinics either,” Michael added.”Their workers are just worked until they die.”

“Doctor Chen, what sort of services do you offer at these clinics of yours?”

“Not what I was planning to do, which was surgery. But we handle general care, prenatal care, David gives vaccinations, we do a lot of immunizations and he has a gentle hand with a needle.” Michael stroked the big nurse’ arm. “Give kids their annual exams and actually I do some cosmetic surgery.”

“Cosmetic? Like nose jobs and tummy tucks?”

“Well, I correct for deviated septums and poorly set breaks. But what we do a lot of comes from burns. Some New Worlds use solid fuel for heating and there are a lot of burns from careless handling and even house fires.”

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“Hydraulic ram pumps!” exclaimed Perse, “Those new worlds need small scale hydro plants and ram pumps are perfect for the homestead user. Electricity is much safer and cheaper than burning pellets or candles.”

“Old Earth had petroleum, and they used it for everything.” Hope suddenly interjected.“They could break it down and turn it into stuff they could mould , like glass or ceramic jars, and the like.

But they also used it for fuel, just burning it up. They had a rock that burned too, coal. We don’t have those here because the worlds here didn’t have any life until we terraformed them and petroleum and coal were made from the dead jungles and huge aniRands that lived there billions of years ago. “

Perse gave his newly met niece a bemused look. “Huge animals?”

“They were called dinosaurs.”

“Interesting. You should show me more about them, Hope.”

Perse was as good as his word and the next day the crew had a contract to fly a load of agricultural implements, hoes and shovels mostly, to September for a homesteading ship that was heading out to a newly opened world. The strictly legal cargo was supplemented by a few dozen sealed steel boxes stowed in the hidden compartment off the cargo bay.

David came aboard with a crate of vaccines, picked up from the Central Medical Depot, which Michael would be using on their next stop, a scheduled clinic on Summerfair. Michael had been on ansible for a few hours conferring with the local midwife on an eclampsia case which would make a caesarian delivery necessary when their clinic arrived.

“Then we pick up a shipment of dry beans and of that syrup they make from trees, and back to Quattro,” Rand informed the crew.:

“Syrup from trees?” asked Mamie.

“Maple or mebbee birch,” Marco put in.“Good on porridge or on pancakes. We made it back home. Takes a powerful lot of sap and very particular weather.”

“Luxury trade stuff. Compact for the value. The beans cover our costs for the run back here. Syrup is our profit. Doesn’t even have to be in the hidey-hole. Purely legal.”

“So we can take the kids, no problem?” asked Mamie “Perse offered to keep the kids for a visit if we wanted.”

“Nothin’ wrong with the school dorm,” said Dita. “The kids have friends and we know all the staff.”

“Yeah, Nice of him to offer, but what fun can little kids have with an old bachelor?” said Rand.“Let’s stick to the plan. The whole family travels this run. Mebbee another time they can spend some time with Uncle Perse.”

The jobs went smoothly. Perse’ company, Business Solutions Unlimited, was known to the authorities, even if one or two of the customs agents gave Bluebell the fish-eye, having investigated their other, more problematic, cargoes. Rand took delight in being the “by the book” captain for once, providing his strictly legal and by the book paperwork. The hidey-hole with its “special’ crates went unobserved.

At Summerfair, Michael deliver the endangered baby at the midwife’s clinic. Once the baby was safe, treatment for the mother’s eclampsia could be left in the capable hands of the nurse-midwife.

“Having a trained midwife to back me in surgery is a blessing,” Dr. Chen told Mamie. “and let’s face it, I’m not really the most empathetic person for a worried prima partum.”

“Calling someone a prima partum proves that, Michael,” laughed Mamie. “Davie is sure more of a people person. You picked a good man there.”

“Your opinion is very valuable to me, Mamie.”

Mamie hugged a startled Michael and kissed him soundly. “Your opinion is valuable to me too.”

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Rand entered the kitchen at that moment with David and Dita in tow.

“Hey! That’s my wife you’re fondlin’!”

“And my husband!” added David.

“Husband! When did that happen?“cried Mamie, hugging Michael even more enthusiastically.

“To be, actually. Turtle Island is David’s family home and we hoped to go there on our next voyage to be married in the same church where he was baptized and confirmed.”

“Aw, that’s so romantic, ain’t it, Rand?”

“Congratulations to both of you. and if you would get your hands off my wife, I would appreciate it.”

“Actually, Rand, I wanted to talk to you about this. I’d be honoured if you would stand up for me as my witness. .David’s father and brother will be his witnesses. My family won’t be attending.”

“Still waitin’ for you to stop fondlin’ my wife, you know,” Rand laughed and hugged Michael himself. “I preciate the askin’ and I ’d be happy to witness for you.”

Back on Quattro, Rand and Dita conferred with her brother.

“The job went well,” said Rand. “No problem. The special cargo was paid in cash money. The rest was a bank transfer. We prefer cash payment ourselves, if at all possible. Got in the habit, eh?”

“Not a problem although I will need a receipt for Head Office. The real money, that’s ours, not the bigwigs.”

“You’ll find it’s all there, as agreed. Bur if we can get paid, we got fuel cells to buy and school fees due.”

“I’m serious about the kids staying with me, if you want to avoid the dorm fees. when you are Out There. It gets lonely in a new place and I would enjoy the company.”

“Perse,” said his sister. “The kids love the dorms. They have friends there. Not that we don’t thank you, but they don’t get to meet other kids when we’re Out There so the school dorms are part of their education.”

“Of course, of course. Just a suggestion. So Rand, where is your doctor off to next?”

Rand and Perse immersed themselves in plans for new jobs, leaving Dita to her own thoughts.