“Boarding will now commence. Please be sure to check that you have all your personal belongings.”
The disembodied voice came from the intercom system. The voice recording needed some work Esther Manning thought. The vowels were too flat and who ever had programmed the speech patterns, had forgotten to give the voice the ability to inflect. Despite the lack of artistry in the voice’s commands she nevertheless took her case, the black matte one full of stolen diamonds, and waited for her turn to disembark.
The trip had taken seventeen Earth hours. No, Esther corrected herself. Seventeen standard hours. Standard hours. She had to get used to saying it that way. The people of Betelgeuse, where her buyers were from did not like to be reminded that old Earth measurements were the basis for the galactic system of measurements. Particularly not something as silly as a time measurement system based on the rotation of a backwater planet around its tiny little sun.
It was her turn to get off the starship. Gravity pumps, installed quite recently if the shiny Armson-Flaganelli logos on their sides were any proof, hummed away in the background, keeping the ship in dock, and allowing everyone else to walk.
“Have a nice trip Mrs. Cortanario.”
Esther blinked and then nodded. The steward had used her fake name, the identity that she had assumed for this trip. And Esther had almost forgotten it. She had made it to Betelgeuse, but that didn’t mean she was home free. She had to buckle in. No need to flub the job when you were so close to the goal. Esther flashed her winningest smile, no blue ribbon, but a third-place one if the judges were feeling lucky.
“Thank you. Long trip, huh?”
“Always is.”
Already the steward had stopped paying attention to “Mrs. Cortanario,” and was saying goodbye to the people behind her. Esther walked down the rest of the dock and into the heat and squalor of Gabron, the port city of Betelgeuse.
Humanity, even after it had lived among the stars for thousands of years, still maintained a few hardcoded practices. Things that were innate to human nature, unchangeable. One of those things was that port cities were seedy. Pits of depravity, refuges for scum, hotbeds of immorality, and also quite a bit of fun. If you knew where to look.
That was part of the reason that Esther had wanted this deal done on Gabron. For one, there wasn’t a police force to speak of, whatever local authorities there were had long ago decided that it just wasn’t worth it. Secondly, she didn’t need specialized entry documents to get off the plane. Betelgeuse was an open world, proclaiming no allegiance to any of the multiple interlocking political bodies that tried to rule the inhabited galaxies, and maintaining no laws around citizenship, natural-born or otherwise. Anyone was free to come and go, as long as they could afford the trip there. And didn’t mind having to live in a city run by various mostly criminal organizations. A perfect place to do a deal for stolen diamonds.
Esther walked toward the meeting-place. She had a map of Gabron in her head, put there by her handler two Standard weeks ago. It marked a path for her, showing the turns she’d need to make and when to make them. It updated itself automatically, trawling through local newsnets, and where it could, dipping into other people’s maps to see what they had. Not everyone could afford the high-level encryption software that she had. Might as well take advantage. It was a short walk from the dock, and she was soon standing in front of the meeting place. Just as well, the sooner this was over, the better.
The bar where she was headed, The Kicking Dog, specialized in providing privacy for its patrons. Scanners at the door made sure that no one had any weapons as they entered the premise. Each booth was a sealed environment, able to open and close only for the hotel staff, and the people in the meeting. They were supposedly sound and bug-proof though Ester was sure that the owners of The Kicking Dog had installed a few listening devices of their own throughout the building. Purely for their own safety of course.
She was late. Or at least her buyers had arrived before her. One of the bar staff informed her of this and led Esther to the booth where they would be conducting business. Her guide through The Kicking Dog was humungous, muscles bulging from his frame in unreal proportions. VatTech really had come along in the last couple of years. The guy, he was silent for the rest of their trip, motioned her to bubble number Twenty-Four.
Esther took a moment to compose herself and then walked in. There were two people in the room, one an old white-haired man, sitting with quite good posture despite his age and the deep wrinkles on his face. The other was a much younger woman, closer to Esther’s age than the man’s. The woman had long blond hair, and very striking features, but Esther couldn’t quite make out what they were. They seemed to shift minutely every few moments. A bio-insert face shield. Interesting. There was money behind this. The woman sat at the head of the rectangular table, the man to her left.
“You’re late.”
Esther had already decided to play this one casual. She sat down at opposite the blond woman and put her briefcase on the table.
“Had a slow down near a nebular cluster. I’m here now. So let’s get this done.”
“You have the goods?”
“Thirteen Earth diamonds. All at least fourteen carats. Mined. Not machine made.”
Esther keyed the combo into the locks on the case, opened up and spun it around. Inside the matte black case there were fourteen diamonds, each in its own custom molded depression in the padded felt lining of the case. She made sure that both the man and the woman saw the diamonds than she closed the lid and shut the locks once more.
“The combination to the lock is yours once I receive confirmation that my payment is available.
The woman looked as if she was about to say something, but the old man held a finger before she could. The finger was remarkably steady for someone of such an advanced age. He spoke with a clear unwavering voice.
“You did well. This was a hard, some would have said impossible task. Yet you did it with aplomb. The Armson-Flaganelli family wishes to extend its thanks to you.”
The old man reached into his pocket a pulled out a card. It was paper, thick. There was just a name and a number printed on the card. He gave it to the woman who walked it over to Esther. The blond woman had a sour look on her face as if she’d just eaten a lemon, but she gave it to Esther anyway.
“Call that number if you ever want something more steady employment wise.”
With that the old man stood up and walked out of the room. The other woman returned to the head of the table.
“Your brother is waiting for you at the Hotel Arte. Room 239.”
Esther nodded and gave the combo. She took the card, memorized the name and number and burned it using her lighter. She went to find her brother.
That’s the story of how Esther Manning came to run the universe.
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