Warrior by Bill Nolan

Author:Bill Nolan [Nolan, Bill]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-06-22T06:00:00+00:00

The Princess

The four years Robert Allen spent in the To’Ach’an ship Padfry had not been wasted. OK, it had certainly ended badly, with him being banished, but he had learned a lot, and he had also ended up with a real starship, although that part was unintentional. Now, of course, he was mostly alone. Mostly, but not quite. Before the Empire attacked, he had bonded with the new ship, Shanna. It was maybe supposed to be someone else, but the ship had made her choice, and, once bonded, ships seldom changed their mind. So, in the three years since then he had hardly been in contact with the To’Ach’an, well, most of them. He had one To’Ach’an whom he considered a friend, and they did a lot of business together. He spent a lot of time on Earth, but most of the rest was spent where he was now, alone in Shanna. She had become a good friend. Still, he was alone in a spaceship 3000’ in diameter which had been designed with 1000 residents in mind. Hey, at least he had plenty of room, and he had wandered the ship until he knew every inch.

Robert (Shanna always called him Robert, not Bobby) was on his way to the central Empire planet, Kestra. This was the planet where the Empress maintained her palace, and it was also a major center for business of any kind. He’d made his usual deal with some farmers on a planet way out in the Forcal arm of the galaxy to pick up a bunch of freight. “Shanna, what do you think? I think two more jumps will do it.”

“Yes, Robert, two more jumps will do it. We will be there in two days, or in 20 minutes if we didn’t have to worry about your poor tummy getting upset. Poor baby.”

“Thanks, Shanna. You know, when I woke up this morning I was hoping I could find a starship to make fun of me. This is the central Empire planet. Do you think we will run into any problems?”

“Please! I monitor communications and Empire news all the time, and they have no wish for a confrontation with any To’Ach’an, and especially not with you. They may not be all that bright, but they are bright enough to know they don’t want to mess with the two of us again. They remember what happened last time. Besides, they are unlikely to even know it’s us. There is something else I want to talk to you about, though.”

“Shanna, you are my favorite girl. You can talk to me about anything.”

“Fine, we need more crew. Make it happen.”

Robert went silent for a minute. “OK, that’s not unreasonable. How many, and what skills, and, whom? I’m banished, so I can’t use To’Ach’an. Where do I find Tovena? Do you have an idea of how to go about this?”

“Yes, Robert, I have some ideas. I have contacts of my own who can put us in touch with Tovena without alerting any To’Ach’an to our location.

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