Privateer's Commission -Ch 3- (Patreon)

There was a beep from the console in front of Ralph that caught his attention.

Looking at it he saw it was an active request on his ship for information. Which had likely come from orbit rather than the port since he was still utilizing the program provided to take him out of their space.

His brows furrowed as he mentally set Marionette aside and then reached out and nudge the speakers into the on position as well as the microphone that was part of his panel.

Then he moved his hand over to the digital display and tapped at it several times till he opened up the coms line.

“This is Privateer Turlan of the Smiling Siren, mercantile vessel listing as HT-Zero-Zero-Zero-Two-S-S. Departing Halasen out of polar north route,” stated Ralph. “This is broadcasting to all space borne Confed channels as I’m unsure of what’s going on out there between the Houses, but I’m uninvolved and declaring neutrality.”

“Received, mercantile Two-S-S. Continue along north polar route and exit Ginil space in a straight line in any direction. Do not deviate or you’ll be reclassified,” stated a firm and annoyed voice.

There was a lot unsaid there, but Ralph heard it.

“Turlan mercantile Two-S-S, continuing along north polar route exit and will straight-line out of Ginil space,” confirmed Ralph then flipped off the microphone.

He was most certainly going to follow those directions until he was in free-space.

Privateers had a lot of leeway but it also came down to how much someone wanted to piss off the Confed. If they were willing to get into a bit of a pissing match with the Confed they could certainly ignore Privateer rights.

Though in the past, the Confed had been quite angry whenever such a thing occurred.

“This is vice-admiral Fiara. How many people are aboard your ship?” demanded a new voice.

“One,” whispered Marionette, her eyes locked to the display. “Just-just say one. I’ve already told you I’ll be an amazing paramour. Just… tell them one. It’s not like they can tell.”

“They’re called ship-mistress and I’ve never had one and never wanted one. But… they’re definitely more common than I’d like to admit.

“I have no idea where you got that paramour term from though,” growled Ralph, finally getting ahold of his thoughts and the situation. “And you never want to lie to the military. They have a lot of toys they don’t tell people about.”

The simple reality was he had a stowaway. This was a perfect time to get rid of her.

Hesitating only a moment further, Ralph flipped the microphone back into place.

Then he ran a finger along the broadcasting settings and turned every single one on, other than the planet’s.

After, he angled his communication array back toward the planet and sent a ping.

One that every single ship that was within detection range would see. A communications signal traveling from the Smiling Siren to the planet he was leaving.

“Turlan mercantile Two-S-S, now broadcasting on all Confed channels, local channels, interspace channels, and even to any wi-fi signals that might pick this up like your cafeteria while they’re trying to serve one last hot meal real quick I bet.

“I don’t really want to continue this conversation and if it does, I’m sure more will be said than it should. Just about the only channel I’m not broadcasting to is the planet,” Ralph began testily. There was no doubt that the horde of military ships he was going toward didn’t want the planet to be aware of what was going on.

Ralph had just prodded them in the chest and he wasn’t feeling kind.

First, whenever he got prickly and started broadcasting on every signal, spectrum, and channel, people tended to remember a Privateer was indeed a Privateer.

They were noteworthy and everyone knew where they had been since there weren’t many of them.

Second, a veiled threat that he might let information slip that they didn’t want to. Like letting the planet know what was going on.

“On board is myself, Privateer Turlan, and my ship-mistress,” stated Ralph with anger bleeding into his words. “Why do you ask vice-admiral Fiara? I hope it’s out of courtesy to invite me to dinner, because you have no right to question me otherwise.

“Maybe you were going to offer me some credits since I hadn’t let anyone know about the traffic data I saw coming in before I left?”

Clicking his tongue in annoyance, and making sure the mic picked it up, only then did Ralph turn off the microphone.

He was fairly certain that would be the end of the conversation. The vice-admiral would most definitely understand everything that hadn’t been said.

That and whoever was actually in charge of the invasion wouldn’t want the planet to suffer problems. Chances were they wanted all it’s resources intact, hence why they weren’t orbitally bombarding it.

“This is Admiral Beckswith aboard the flagship Magellan. First, we appreciate your understanding in this matter Privateer Turlan and would apologize for my subordinate.

“He’s a bit eager to show off and new to his position,” said a much more stately voice. One that was quite calm and jovial. “I believe I’ve done business with your family several times and I’ve only ever had positive experiences.

“It was unfortunate to hear of how you became the head, but I’ve heard nothing but positive news since you took over in the years since. I’d love to welcome you to my home sometime for dinner as well as to discuss trade.

“I’ve got quite a predisposition for some… less then polite goods I’d love to acquire.”

“Perfect,” Ralph said with a laugh. He always loved new connections with powerful people.

He quickly tapped at the screen, moving the communications array back into place and facing forward. At the same time he turned off all the broadcast channels he was on and redirected it to back to Beckswith alone.

With his other hand he directed his onboard AI to the name Beckswith.

Ralph didn’t trust AI at all and kept his to a text input only.

“I’d be delighted Admiral Beckswith!” Ralph said with genuine goodcheer. “I’m sure we can discuss all manner of things and will put in an itinerary with your household to determine when I could stop by.

“I keep an open line for communications at RalphTurlan at TurlansTravels dot com. I get quite a few emails dropped in from burner-accounts with random lists of items they’d love to acquire.

“I’d say this would be the… nine-hundred and fifteenth time… that it would likely happen. Nine-hundred and fifteen. Good number that. Almost like a customer number.”

Ralph had glanced to the screen as he tried to give the Admiral covert instructions to send him an email with what he wanted.

As well as including the number nine-fifteen to identify himself.

Smuggling was profitable and the bulk of where he made the most profits.

Doubly so since his Privateer title let him skip everything that’d normal root out a smuggler.

Admiral Beckswith was in his familys ledger and he’d done business directly with his father several times. He was trusthworthy as far as Ralph could tell.

The AI noted that he had a fondness for old Terra relics in particular.

“Just the other day someone sent an email to me about what I happened to have hidden away.

“I couldn’t help but brag that I just happened to acquire a new piece recently. One from Terra. I didn’t have a buyer so I put it away in one of my warehouses. It’s a minor thing, but I hung onto it because you never know how the market will go,” Ralph murmured as casually as he could manage. “A genuine working pistol from the lost era.

“It was an active service piece and given the moderate wear it saw combat or was trained with frequently.

“It’s stamped with the Council of the Sovereign Seven along with still having a serial number. Along with ‘Sovereign Earth’ on the paired magazine’s bottom.”

There was no immediate response to his statement but he knew he’d already hooked the Admiral.

The Siren continued right up into orbit and moved into actual space.

“That sounds like a very interesting piece,” the admiral said in a neutral and flat tone. The lack of emotion told Ralph everything he needed.

“Got a new client,” he mused to himself.

“— wish you good luck on your journeys,” finished the admiral. Then the communication went silent.

The light indicating he was being painted with sensors and communications arrays blipped off.

Ralph was no longer being paid attention to and if anything they were steadfastly ignoring his presence.

Turning his head he looked to Marionette.

“I just need two years on your ship. That’s all I need,” she said quickly, smiling at Ralph from ear to ear. “I’ll be your ship-mistress and handle any and all duties that they normally take care of.

“In-in the stories I read and the shows I watched it was usually just bedroom duties. Is that how it is in real life?”

Letting out a slow sigh, Ralph had been forced into this.

He could kick her out at the first stop along the way, but that’d be tantamount to handing her over to whoever saw her first.

She most certainly didn’t have any ability to defend herself that he could tell, she had no money that’d be available to her any time soon, and wasn’t a Confed citizen the moment the Ginil House was formally dissolved and absorbed.

Without his permission, she’d put her life in his hands and left herself entirely at his mercy.

“Bedroom duties are the starting point,” agreed Ralph while shaking his head. He couldn’t believe he was doing this. “Everything else is determined between the captain and the mistress.

“In most situations it’s like having a wife on board. She would handle most things domestic, in the bedroom, and handle some ship-tasks as well.

“An allowance would be agreed upon in advance as well as limitations. You’ve kinda short circuited all that though.”

Marionette smiled at that sheepishly, tilted her head to the side, and lifted up her left hand. She stuck a finger to her lower lip and shrugged her shoulders.

“Ah well. I’m sure you’ll forgive me after I attend my duties for a few days,” she said innocently. “I’ve got a really low body count and I’m really vanilla but I’ll do all I can to take care of your needs if you just tell me what they are. Did you want to go to the bedroom right now?

“I can definitely make anything happen for you! I did say I had three ways I know of to pay immediately, didn’t I? You can help me figure out other ways to pay you.

“Don’t you want to make me a Privateers ship-mistress here and now?”

There was a flicker of deep interest from Ralph and he couldn’t help but want to do exactly that. To take her off and into the bedroom.

She was a beautiful woman the likes of which he had only met a handful of times in his life.

Women like Marionette weren’t common for one to just stumble across.

“We’ll have a long trip ahead of us. I’ll also have to add in a stop as well as change our rate of progress,” Ralph declined as his thoughts ran ahead. “Feeding two people instead of one changes things a lot. Not to mention the variety on the ship is… uh… I’m not exactly head down in bachelor-chow stuff all day, but it isn’t exactly what you’re probably used to.

“So we’ll speed up a bit, add a stop, and then continue on to where I’m picking up my next set of cargo and selling what I have left there.”

“Ah! Yes. That’s wonderful. Thank you so much!” Marionette chirped, turned sideways, and put her hands together. It gave him a perfect profile of her as well as made her look once more, incredibly cute.

With a light clap of her hands she turned to face him fully again.

“Would you show me around in a quick tour? I only really hid beside your bed when you came in and waited for the door to close up. I didn’t look around at all. I was just laying there hugging my luggage and staring at the ceiling,” Marionette admitted with a rueful laugh and a hand wave.

Laughing as well, Ralph really had to admire her drive. Her absolute conviction to carry out her plan to the end result regardless of anything else.

Admire it as well as envy it.

Standing up he gestured at the cockpit.

“The cockpit,” he said simply.

It was a two seater affair that was made for a pilot and navigator/co-pilot. Both seats had the same controls but only one had an active “master” setting at a time.

“Mm! It looks just like it does in the shows. Is there a witty AI that makes snarky comments?” asked Marionette reaching over to touch the unused co-pilot seat.

“There’s an AI but I keep it to text input only and restrict it on what it can access,” Ralph admitted. “It’s a low grade AI that isn’t really self-aware. It’s helpful to search through all my records and the like though.”

Moving away from the front of the ship he moved toward the back.

“Gravity is in this deckplate, runs throughout the ship. Its an old model so it doesn’t have an off function,” explained Ralph as he moved to the dinning and kitchen area. It wasn’t large but it was good enough for him. “Kitchen and dining. All the normal things you’d want.

“Water is limited so we kind of have to ration that. We’ve got a water reclamation system that can convert a good portion of it back into usable water again, but it can only do so much. Best to never put ourselves in a position of it being a concern.

“Heating is a runoff from the engines when they’re running, or pulled from solar batteries when we’re in transit and running silent. Thankfully heat is not something we have to ration. Energy isn’t an issue either so there’s no need to be sparing with it.

“Otherwise the ship was built to bleed all heat as fast as  possible. A lot like those fancyWalker’s that’d end up an ice-cube in space due to their materials.”

“Oh thank goodness for that. They always talk about having to really be careful with their energy usage,” murmured Marionette, trailing along behind him.

She must’ve really fallen in love with the glamorized Privateer life.

I’ve never really looked into those stories.

Maybe I should’ve.

Or I should… that is.

“Yeah, not an issue for us,” Ralph gestured at the fridge, stove, oven, microwave, dinning table, and four chairs in turn. “Any questions on this?”

“I’m a terrible cook, I can barely do my own laundry, and I’m not really useful at cleaning,” confessed Marionette, a wince creasing her beautiful face as she looked at him sheepishly. Her mouth twisted to one side and she put her hands behind her back. “I brought my tablet though and I bought a number of cookbooks and recipes books while I was waiting in the port! As well as a lot of home and house books.

“I haven’t had a chance to read any of them but I’ll make it happen! I’ll make it all happen. I’ll learn, adapt, and overcome. I just need you to give me the chance.”

Ralph smirked at all that.

He’d had to learn to cook with whatever he could find on long voyages in backwater-space. Her not being able to cook wasn’t that problematic in the grand scheme of things.

“It’s fine. I don’t mind handling the cooking,” murmured Ralph and then moved the tour along to the living room. “Sofa, computer desk and computer. There’s a stereo in the ceiling if you want music. The big display on the wall, of course.

“It gets anything the communication array can catch if we’re not running silent.

“I’ve filled way too many hard-drives with media though so… probably won’t be bored anytime soon. The AI records anything that it thinks I’ll enjoy. You can look it up in the ‘new’ stuff in the home screen.

“All the other stuff is in the ‘library’ function.”

Marionette was once more following along behind him. Nodding her head along with his words.

There was a general unease he felt from her that was growing.

Or trepidation perhaps.

Her pretty face had a look of nervousness to it, as well.

“Bedroom and attached bathroom,” said Ralph and pointed at it then looked to Marionette. “Your luggage?”

“It’s in the bedroom in the corner. Why?”

“There’s a dresser along the wall. Right there,” said Ralph and pointed. “I’ll push all my stuff to the far left drawers. You can have the right ones. There’s also a very small hanging closet that I don’t use for anything other than storage. I’ll empty that out and you can use that as well. I think there’s some cloth hanging drawers I can put onto the bar as well if you need more of that.”

“Oh! Thank you. I admit I was planning on just using the suitcase as a trunk of sorts,” blurted out Marionette. “You’re being so kind to someone who quite-quite literally committed several felonies against you.”

Ralph frowned at that.

It wasn’t wrong.

He was being rather nice to her all things considered.

Walking into the last area he gestured at the cargo bay. It was larger than the living compartment of the ship by a significant margin.

“The ship is built in a standard military style. Thin, narrow, and flat. Black exterior, no lights, and all the materials are old tech attempts to block radar and the like,” Ralph muttered as he looked into the cargo bay. Everything that he expected was there.

Along with the new cargo he’d purchased and had paid to have loaded.

Turning he looked back to Marionette.

“That’s the tour, I guess,” finished Ralph. “There’s not a lot of room. One of the easiest ways to fuck this… working relationship all up is a lack of communication.

“Even if we’re mad at each other, even if we’d rather not even look at the other person, it’s best if we talk it out. Even if it’s screaming to start.

“Better that we’re angry at one another and the lines of communication are clear, then avoiding one another in this small space and staying angry.”

“Uhm… in-in the shows they usually yelled a lot, had sex, then went to the living room. That’d work? Right?” Marionette suggested.

Ralph laughed at that, then shrugged.

“I don’t know. I’ve never had a ship-mistress, remember? Nor have I read the stories or watched the shows you’re talking about,” admitted Ralph. “Privateer life is a lot of inbetween time moving from place to place. A lot.

“It’s honestly genuinely boring most of the time. Spent on hobbies, reading, or anything else wise. A lot like being a space-trucker.”

“Or… or spending time with the ships-mistress,” Marionette put in quickly, her head moving slightly to the side and looking at him pointedly.

“Or with the ships-mistress,” agreed Ralph. He couldn’t deny that there was a distinct possibility he would end up surrendering to his needs and spending way too much time with Marionette in a bed.

Because that’s what he was already doing it seemed. He wouldn’t have protected her or given the tour otherwise.

This was actually happening and he felt nervous in the deal they were going into.

The tacit agreement that she was brokering her body to him in exchange for the protection of his ship as she worked to establish a new identity elsewhere.

“I’m… being nice because while you definitely abused me of my trust in getting you into the lounge… then… violated it, your reasons are… understandable,” grumbled Ralph, leaning up against a bulkhead that separated the cargo from the living area. “I empathize. Went through a shitty time in my life where I had no one to rely on and I threw my chances into the wind and bet on someone else. Rather than me.

“Feels like you’re doing the same thing that I did.

“Now I’m going to help despite the fact that I had-had failed to do so when you had asked me to begin with.”

“Oh? Oh! Well… what happened to all that gruff, ‘I’m not trusthworthy’ stuff?” Marionette teased, one hand coming up to idly twirl a lock of her long black hair around a finger.

Ralph had no idea where all the mannerisms came from, if they were intentional, or all of them just part of who she was. What he did know though, was that she had a way of moving and being that invited him to take notice of her.

“You trusted me despite all that so there’s no point in saying it further. That and the data slate you forged my name and thumb-print on was where you were more or less an indentured sex servant with no rights other than a minimal amount of pay and only me being the beneficiary of your work.”

Marionette winced at that, let her gaze hit the deck-plate, sighed, nodded her head, and looked back to him.

“I mean, yes. That’s essentially it,” she agreed. Then her mouth turned into a grimace and her brow wrinkled partially “Though… that means… you really do accept everything? You’re really alright with everything? I get the job?”

“Yeah… it’s fine. You’re the ships-mistress. Two years minimum,” confirmed Ralph with a grunt.

“Good, good. I’m… so glad to hear that. I’m so glad to be off Gin. I was nearly certain I’d be taken as a prize after the fact or spirited away.”

As she spoke, the strange feeling of concern that hovered around Marionette fled in a flash. It just about melted off her like a candle under intense heat.

“Mm… how’d you know about the invasion by the way?” Ralph asked.

Marionette had been at the port, ready, with her luggage, as if she’d known it was happening. He didn’t believe for an instant that it was random happenstance.

“I like to listen to communications. In space, that is,” Marionette said with a straight face. As if it were perfectly normal as a hobby for someone like her. “I had a really great laser-telescope and I could tune it around a considerable distance! I’d spent a lot of money on it and it was my pride and joy.

“I accidentally, somehow, dropped into an unencrypted conversation between what felt like a freighter and a military person a few days ago.

“They were family and talking about the deployment he was getting ready for. That they were going to go into Ginil space.

“When I tried to bring it up to the mayor of Halasen. I was ignored and kicked out of the building.”

Ignored?

That’s interesting.

Does that mean the mayor was in on it?

It didn’t seem like they used all their defense force after all.

“After that, I bought a ticket to get out of Ginil space,” Marionette continued. “Then I found out that they revoked my passport. When I tried to call others to talk them about it, I found my phone disconnected all on it’s own every time.

“It… wasn’t… hard to guess that someone in charge wanted it to happen. Or at least the mayor.

“Someone wanted things to keep going as they had. I was going to be disappeared once that went right or they got tired of me trying to warn people.”

“Well, you certainly got off lucky then. People have most certainly been vanished for less,” Ralph agreed. Then he gestured at her and the rest of the ship. “My ship is at  your disposal my Lady Smiling Siren, as long as you serve me as the master of it.”

“Oh my gosh I really do get that title?” Marionette asked in an excited squeal, her hands clapping together rapidly.

“That’s a real custom, yes.”

“Mmm! I’m Lady Smiling Siren and you’re my Privateer,” she said, then smiled at Ralph in a way that certainly made him feel like he was being tempted out into the darkness between the lanes.

So she could void him into space as her new title’s namesake would.