Galactic Courier (The John Grimes Saga III) by A. Bertram Chandler

Author:A. Bertram Chandler [Chandler, A. Bertram]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction, General, Space Opera, Adventure, Fiction
ISBN: 9781451637632
Google: cbD0tgAACAAJ
Publisher: Baen
Published: 2011-12-06T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

THEY WERE DRAGGED into a small office in the spaceport’s administration block. Grimes was groggy, hardly able to stand, after the stungun blast. Fenella Pruin had been roughed up considerably by her initial captors. She had been stripped and would have been raped had the guards not intervened in time. Many women would have been cowed, humiliated, on the verge of collapse. She was not. She stood there in the ripped clothing that she had been allowed to resume, almost literally spitting with fury.

She screamed at the fat man in civilian clothes sitting behind the big desk, “I’ll sue! I’ll make this lousy spaceport pay and pay and pay for what was done to me!”

The fat man raised his eyebrows and smiled. “You will sue? But you are a trespasser. As such you have no rights.” He turned to the master of Willy Willy. “Captain Dreeble, do you know these people?”

“I know the man, Colonel Dietrich. He is John Grimes. The last time I met him he was captain of the Federation Survey Service’s Seeker. This woman I don’t know.”

“And what are you doing here on New Venusberg, Mr. Grimes?”

Grimes found it hard to talk; he still had not regained full control of his faculties. At last he croaked, “I am owner-master of Little Sister, at present berthed at Port Aphrodite.”

“And you, Miss?”

“I am Captain Grimes’ passenger. His charterer, rather. And people who can afford to charter spaceships are not to be trifled with. Especially not on this money-hungry mud ball!”

“Your name, please?”

“Prunella Fenn, a citizen of Bronsonia. Our ambassador here will be told of what has happened to me!”

“Bronsonia has no ambassador on New Venusberg, Miss Fenn. I doubt if such a minor colony has representation on any other world.”

“The Federation High Commissioner represents us.”

“And will the Federation High Commissioner bother his arse about a pair of trespassers? Trespassers, moreover, who went to the trouble of disguising themselves. Trespassers who did not enter the spaceport through the gate; the records have been scanned and nobody of your appearance was seen to enter. In any case you have no identity badges. A search of the perimeter fence has been initiated; we shall soon know how you did get in.”

“And much good will it do you!” sneered Fenella Pruin.

“And much good it will do you,” replied the colonel mildly. He picked up an elongated sheet of paper that had been protruded through a slot in the surface of his desk. “Ah, the print-out from Port Aphrodite . . . You get quite a write-up, Captain Grimes. Always getting into trouble in the Survey Service, finally resigning after the Discovery mutiny. Yacht-master for the Baroness d’Estang. Owner-master of Little Sister, which used to be the deep space pinnace carried by the Baroness’s Yacht. Quite an expensive little ship, your Little Sister. It says here that she’s constructed from an isotope of gold . . . You should have no trouble in paying your fine . . .

“And now, Miss Fenn . .

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