Issue 13 - Ray Gun Revival

The Price of Conquest, by Mik Wilkens Pg. 2
Thorne’s final ramblings hadn’t been as delirious
as she thought. What had he said? Something
about his daughter...
“Connie?”
“Waiting.”
“Thorne had a daughter, right? Named
Teresa?”
“Correct.”
“He wanted to tell her— Uh...” She thought
back to the last moments of her encounter with
Cameron Thorne. “He wanted to tell her he’d be
back to take Teresa to the Carver Day parade.”
“Command acknowledged. Voice pattern
imprint recognition program activated. Awaiting
input of additional operator identity.”
Kressa smiled.
#
“Connie, we could be in trouble,” Kressa said
after supplying the information that made her
the ship’s operator.
The ship’s operator. She grinned at the thought,
and forced herself back to business.
“There were two Patrolmen in the terminal
when I got here.”
“They wanted to search the ship,” Connie said.
“I warned them away.”
“What kind of cargo are you carrying?” Kressa
asked.
“Assorted Terran spices and liquors, cloth,
gems, small electronic specialty items, trinkets. A
cargo manifest is available if you—”
“No, that’s fine.” It sounded like Thorne
planned for a trip through the colony worlds. So
why did he want her to take the ship to Arecia,
and why did the Patrol want to search it? “Was
Thorne in trouble with the Patrol?”
“Thorne’s record contains several shipping
violations.”
“What kinds of violations?”
“Concealment to avoid tariffs, transportation
of animals considered harmful to indigenous life
forms, transportation of unapproved items.”
“That’s all?” She doubted any free trader alive
hadn’t broken at least one of those rules. “Was
anyone else after him, someone who might try
to kill him?”
“Unknown.”
“So what do we do now?” she asked, and
then started to laugh when she realized she had
just asked a computer for an opinion. But she
swallowed the laugh when Connie answered.
“We should leave immediately.”
“Why not let the Pattys do their search? If
there’s nothing wrong with the cargo...?”
“That is not advisable,” the computer said.
“Why?”
“The Patrol is not likely to allow you to pilot
the ship by yourself.”
“Why not?” Kressa asked.
“Are you licensed?”
“Well...no, but I know what I’m doing.”
“The Patrol will not allow you to pilot the ship
without a license and proper documentation.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right, but couldn’t we just
tell them the pilot will be back soon?”
“They will want to speak with him when he
returns.”
Kressa sighed. This was the first time she’d
been argued into a corner by a computer. Come
to think of it, this was the first time she’d carried
on a prolonged conversation with a computer.
As far as she knew, computers capable of intel-
Ray Gun Revival magazine Issue 13, January 01, 2007