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Project Valkyrie
Chapter 7 - Greasing the Wheels
It took about fifteen minutes for another ground car to arrive, containing a young man in what looked like too heavy a coat for even this weather carrying a medical bag. He had the clean-cut look of someone who hadn't been exposed to the rigors of the universe and a very red face under his filter mask. Thyra wasn't exactly sure how she knew that, but his enthusiasm seemed a bit high for this kind of situation. He wasn't exactly ebullient, but he certainly was cheerful.
He extended his hand first to the customs officer and then to Thyra. "Jarvis Campbell," he introduced himself. "Cold enough for you? I understand that there's a medical issue."
Sef nodded, giving the young man a quelling look. "Tone it down, Campbell. We're dealing with a death here, so you don't need to look so chipper. Even if we weren't dealing with a death, you still don't need to look so chipper. It's unbecoming."
He grinned, seemingly unrepentant. "That's what everybody tells me, but I figure a smile has a place in just about any situation."
Even after having said that, he did tone his smile down some. "I am sorry that there's been a death and we'll get to the bottom of it as quickly as possible and with as little inconvenience to you as we can."
"Better," Sef allowed. "We've held off on going inside, but Captain Thorsdóttir tells me the victim is on ice in an AutoDoc. I hope that doesn't screw up whatever it is you need to do."
"Shouldn't be a problem. Depending on how advanced the unit is, it may even have information that will make my job easier. Can you tell me anything about the circumstances around the death, Captain?"
"The dead man is my husband, and he passed away suddenly during this jump, but I didn't know that he'd gone until too late for the AutoDoc to intervene. It says that he suffered a severe stroke in the brain."
The young man's face fell a little more. "I'm sorry to hear that. If I'd have known it was somebody so close to you, I would've been a little more reserved."
"When you're dealing with serious matters, Campbell, you should always be a little more reserved," Sef scolded. "Even if they'd only been friends, you don't need to make it worse."
"Got it. Sorry."
"As I told Officer Sef, my husband and I haven't been close for a very long time. Whatever was there in the beginning, it was certainly gone by the time he passed. Nevertheless, we were business partners, and I had a vested interest in making sure that he didn't squander our money."
And considering how much he had supposedly invested in her, she wasn't exaggerating, though she couldn't complain too much.
"It really isn't as much of a hit to me as you might think," she continued. "It's almost like our marriage was a past life."
"You'd better hope that the medical records back you up," Sef said. "Pro tip: that's not the kind of thing you want to tell an investigator looking into a potentially suspicious death."
"Probably true," Thyra admitted. "I'm rather new to this sort of thing."
"Then let's go settle this once and for all. After you, Captain."
Thyra led the two of them back to the lift. It was large enough for the three of them, and getting back up to the airlock was quick and easy. Once there, she opened the outer airlock door, and she and Sef stepped inside to allow it to cycle. Once they were inside, she repeated the process remotely and let the medic in. From there, they doffed their filter masks and headed straight for the medical bay.
"Wow!" Sef said as she stepped into the lounge. "Do you rent this thing out for parties? How many people do you have in your crew?"
"Not nearly enough to use this space, and that's one of the problems that my husband and I had. He was prone to spending money on things that made no sense. I suppose I'm stuck with it now because I don't want to spend the money to tear it all out."
"Hell of a problem to have," the customs officer said. "I suppose you won't get bored. Plenty of space to get around, even for somebody your size."
"If you don't mind my asking, Captain, how tall are you?" Campbell asked.
"I'm right at two meters," she admitted. "And before you ask, my parents arranged for a genetic modification before I was implanted. I'm their natural child, but with a few changes to make me bigger. Don't ask me why they wanted to do that, because I never got a clear answer to that question myself. All I know is that growing up was definitely a pain in my butt."
She wasn't certain if the two of them believed her, but it hardly mattered. A story was a story, and as long as Thyra stuck to it, who were they to contradict it?
Judging by their reaction to her size, she would draw a lot of attention going forward. She towered over them, and even a large human would be shorter than she was. As a woman, she was almost impossibly tall. It would be a pain in the ass going forward, just like she'd said that it had been in the past.
Once they were through the lounge, she led them straight to the medical bay and to the AutoDoc. "Here he is. I've got his identification right here so that you can verify that this is who I say he is."
"Campbell, you focus on the deceased, and I'll look at his paperwork," Sef said.
While the medic stepped over and began working with the AutoDoc, Thyra handed the old man's identification over. The customs officer examined it closely and then pulled out a reader to scan it. Then she began examining the results on the screen.
"Looks like you were through here about three months ago. Welcome back. You've got another couple of visits scattered out over the last five years, so you've been fairly constant in this area of space. No trouble in our records, and nothing has come in from elsewhere, so that's a point in your favor. What are you carrying? Speculative cargo or freight?"
"Freight," Thyra said. "Though I am curious what the difference would be between the two."
"Freight is straightforward," the other woman said. "All cargo exiting the down port has to go through an inspection before it's allowed onto Murphy proper. They have very strict import regulations, and you're lucky that freight is contracted by someone else, so all you are is the carrier. If there's any issue with the load once we've verified that the seals are intact, it's someone else's problem. If you'd had speculative cargo, we would have to do an inspection to at least verify the contents were what the manifests claimed before it left the port."
"Then I'm glad I don't have anything other than the freight to deliver," she lied. "It sounds like it would be problematic if I did."
"That really depends on the cargo. Some things are easy peasy, and other things are very difficult. The fines for bringing in something on the exclusion list are significant, and if the infraction is large enough, you could find yourself in legal trouble as well. All that kind of stuff can be dealt with—at least to a degree—but it's a time-consuming and expensive process that you'd be advised to avoid."
Campbell stepped back over to them. "That's a really nice AutoDoc, Captain. Top-of-the-line."
"Once again, an expense that I didn't have anything to do with," Thyra said with a fake sigh. "If it had been me, I think I would have gone with something cheaper."
"Considering that one of these units runs in the millions of credits, I can certainly understand that, and you've got three of them. That is a ton of money. Trading must be good."
"I can't complain."
And she really couldn't. It hadn't been anything that she had had a say in.
"Enough chitter chatter," Sef said. "What can you tell me?"
"The records from the AutoDoc are straightforward and clear. The patient was brought in already deceased. It did a thorough scan before it put him in the cryo, and it's clear that this was a natural event. The gentleman passed away from a massive stroke, and it's questionable whether he would've survived even if he'd been lying in the AutoDoc when it happened. No signs of foul play."
"Well, that's good news in a bad situation," Sef said as she turned toward Thyra. "It would be worse if the records were muddled. Campbell? Did you do a scan of your own?"
"No, ma'am."
"Do one, please. Let's make sure that we have our own records in case there are any questions."
"So, what do I need to do here to register all of the changes?" Thyra asked. "I obviously need to make sure that the ownership of the ship is updated, and I'm not sure who I should speak to about that."
"You'll want to go to the port master's office for that. She's a fair sort, and she'll have you squared away in short order, but you'll need a certificate of death before that happens. I'm afraid this is a very busy port, and it'll be a few days before we can get that handled, assuming there are no other issues. It's always possible that they'll kick things back, and that could cause you problems when it comes time for your departure."
"And what can I do to mitigate those kinds of circumstances?" Thyra asked.
"Well, the paperwork we're filing could be fast-tracked, but that means that I need to put other duties on hold while I deal with this particular issue. My superiors dislike it when I do that, so I try to avoid it unless I have a reason to risk annoying them."
Even though she had no personal experience with this sort of thing, her streetwise skill told her that this sounded like a request for a bribe. The problem was that if she was wrong and offered one, that could be problematic. She needed to be sure what she was dealing with before she went so far as to make an offer.
"I certainly wouldn't want to do anything to negatively impact your schedule, but on the flipside, I need to do what I need to do to get this squared away as rapidly as I can. If there's anything that I can do that would speed things along..."
Sef smiled. "A woman who sees the realities of life. That's refreshing. Yes, I can certainly take steps to help you out, but anything worth doing requires a little greasing of the wheel."
"And exactly how much grease are we talking about?"
"I think that ten big for myself and five for my young associate would be more than enough to cover our assistance in this matter, and potentially other matters that might crop up during your visit, so long as they aren't too serious. This is something we'll have to devote time to outside of our normal working hours in order to make sure that your schedule remains intact, after all."
Thyra doubted that, but while it was a significant sum, it was something she was willing to pay to make this particular problem go away quickly. After all, it wasn't as if she was going to be completely on the straight and narrow during this visit. She had an illegal cargo that she somehow needed to get off this ship and to whoever was expecting it. Worse, she might have to sell it herself in some underworld deal. She had no idea how that would go.
She reached into her pocket and pulled out the clip of paper credits, peeling off fifteen thousand. She headed it over without any fanfare whatsoever, and the woman stuffed it into her pocket.
"It's a pleasure doing business with you, Captain. I'll see that we do everything necessary to have this paperwork filed away and certified within the hour. Your ship will be assigned a communications node attached to the landing pad, so you'll be able to receive calls and connect to the down port data net. I'll make sure you get the premium service with higher bandwidth and unlimited access to the local network outside of the down port."
"Thank you. I'm sure that will prove useful." And it would likely be very useful.
"I'll send you a message once everything is clear and you can head straight to the port master's office," Sef continued. "Now for the official fees. Berthing is the standard 3,500 credits and will be good for a week. If you need longer, you can pay a prorated rate of 500 credits a day. You'll need fuel and can call for a truck at your leisure, paying once you're topped off. Refined is 500 credits per displacement ton, and unrefined is 100."
Campbell stepped back over. "All done, Officer Sef. My handheld shows the same information as the AutoDoc: natural causes."
"And that's an open and shut case," Sef said, closing her notebook. "If you need anything else during your stay, Captain, don't hesitate to contact me. I'm in the directory, and I'd be happy to act as your intermediary for any local issues, though there may need to be an extra fee. You're with me, Campbell."
"Would you like me to take care of processing the body?" Campbell asked her. "That would take some of the stress off of you, and I'd be happy to do that."
Thyra shook her head. There was too much potential information that might be present in the old man's body. If her nature could be hidden, so could augmentations, and she wanted to see it all.
"No, he's my responsibility," she said. "He left specific instructions that he was to be dropped into the nearest sun and burnt to a crisp, so I'll keep him in the deep freeze for a bit and then drop him in a commentary orbit in the outer part of some system to drift around for all eternity."
Sef laughed. "Talk about getting your revenge. Look, as somebody who's involved with investigations, let me request that you leave a note in his pocket that explains who he is and why he's out there. Eventually, his body will turn up, and someone will have a lot of questions. Include the death certificate you get and my investigator's notes. That'll save someone like me a ton of work just by explaining the basics. Do the working stiffs a solid."
"I'll do that. Thank you both."
Thyra escorted them back to the airlock and cycled them through. That had been less painful than she'd expected. She didn't like having to pay people to do their jobs, but it seemed corruption was a fact of life here. Perhaps everywhere, she supposed.
It would be best to wait until she received word that the paperwork was done before she went to the port master's office. In the meantime, she could contact the shippers who were waiting for their cargoes.
She supposed she needed to figure out where the cargo loaders were so she could get the containers off the ship and onto whatever transportation they brought first. It would be embarrassing if they showed up and she had no way to get anything off the ship.
Well, she'd best get to looking for them, then. The sooner the normal business was done, the faster she could get to locating the smuggler's hold and dealing with her illegal cargo.