Cale Rider - Chapter 4
The Meetup
This is a new chapter of the Cale Rider serial series. Catch up on the previous story at: https://kylewritesscifi.substack.com/t/cale-rider-a-serial
Home had been just as he’d left it, albeit a few thousand miles from where he’d left it. Cale felt the anxiety in his stomach sloshing like an angry body of water. There had never been a plan to share his hidden asteroid with anyone else after his only prior experience almost compromised it. Someone he thought was a friend had literally stabbed him in the back before taking everything he had stored there. It was a big reason he wanted nothing to do with a clan. Yet he found himself letting this young woman in. In truth, he knew a big part of it was that Julia was about the age of his daughter, even though there was no real connection with this stranger to warrant such a risk.
They only stayed a few days in the hideout. Cale hadn’t been sure what he was going to do with her, but he felt a responsibility to at least get her somewhere that would give her a chance to start over again. He had her stay in his room, as he stayed in the ship itself. There was no way he was going to dangle the option to steal his ship and strand himself in his own hideout so freely. Even with the security measures that he could and did use to monitor things, he didn’t want that kind of egg on his face.
She’d kept to the room for the most part for the few days they were there. There was next to no conversation between the two, leaving an unsettling feeling hanging in the air. “You are not a prisoner,” he would remind her. She would only shyly nod, her body language acting like an embarrassed teenager that had moved back in with their parents after failing outside the home.
After three days in the hollowed out rock home, Cale had decided his course of action with the information and set up a meeting with a contact in a seedy bar on Europa. He asked if there was anywhere else she’d want to be dropped off, but there was no issue taken or alternative provided. So they headed for the moon.
Sitting under the shadows of Jupiter, Europa’s cold surface housed numerous mining operations, and many designated living areas. These areas sat under large domes that helped harness whatever heat they could from the distant sun so the entire area wasn’t as taxed pumping in heat. While surface living in the dome was something that was available, most of those luxuries went to the corpos that oversaw the moon’s operations. The glitzy topside provided elegant living for those high enough in the corporations to have to live there while maintaining the work. It also presented resort style get aways for the rich and elites. Below the surface lived the laborers. Whether operating in the mines or the planet that hung in the sky, these cities below the city are where the undesirables lived. With separated landing zones, the topside was very separated from the under world.
It was always an anxious situation landing within any real settlement. Pirate ships would come and go frequently, but no one wanted to get stopped or questioned after the ship had been scanned. While everyone eventually had to come to a place like Europa, it didn’t make it any less nerve wracking getting clearance to land, especially if there were goods to unload with the customers who lived underground. Fortunately, most of the people who were running the inbound flight checks were lower class enough with the corpos that they ignored most things and could be bribed if they didn’t, as long as they didn’t have a higher up sitting behind them. They lived above ground, but they were on the razors edge between the two worlds, and often traveled below for reasonable priced things they couldn’t afford above. Still, it couldn’t be assumed that one didn’t have an ambitious traffic controller or ground crew that wasn’t looking for a way to gain promotion. Fortunately on this day, no one gave them any trouble. Cale had also left everything at home, just in case. Even though he had goods to offload, setting in motion what to do with the valuable intel was far more pressing than a quick trade off for credits.
The living area of the workers was a maze of metal hallways. With no real city planning there was no regulation, so many of the living quarters resembled ramshackle shanty town homes or refugee camps. Many people shared apartments because the makeshift walls between two made less sense to keep up than just tearing them down and accepting living together for more space. These hallways weaved from apartments to larger open areas. Some of these were caverns that had been repurposed, some were just larger metal enclosures. Regardless of the type, there was the psychological feeling of the weight of the surface above pressing down that many felt in their chest. In truth, the underground provided a luxury that couldn’t be achieved above, and that was a much closer gravity to Earth. Park like areas surrounded by shops and restaurants, or schools and other public venues riunded out the open areas. Because the operations had been running for decades, many families lived in these underground conditions with children who knew no other life.
It was in one of these caverns that Cale had set up a meeting. The watering hole had no name, just a red retro “Bar” sign affixed above the door. It was a loud environment with music and chatter, perfect for hushed conversations in a back booth away from curious ears. Smoke seeped out of the door with the sound of the music.
“I guess this is the end of the line,” Cale said, opening the door. “Good luck to you Julia. Maybe we’ll bump into each other again someday.”
“Maybe so,” she replied. Her body language had relaxed a bit ever since they set food on the satellite. She looked him directly in the eye for what may have been the first time. “Thank you again for everything.” Without any more hesitation, she ducked into the bar, weaving her way through directly to the bar.
Cale smiled as he followed her through the room with his eyes, hoping she got better quickly at her chosen path or would leave it behind just as fast. Any other outcome would end in tragedy. He caught the bartender’s eyes, who pointed his eyes toward a booth. Cale had been to this bar so many times before over the years, done so much business, and still only knew the man as the bartender. That was purposeful. This bar had a reputation as a place for pirates without clans to meet and do business in a safe environment. Cale didn’t even remember how he’d heard of the place, but the bartender knew an awful lot of independent pirates and brokered lots of deals right there. He had become the most trusted contact in the pirate world, and everyone knew clans were not welcome. The story was, whether true or not, someone in his family was at the top of the largest clan, who beside the corpos was the group you least wanted to gain the attention of. It helped keep a balance that, as no one wanted to open confrontation between clans by wandering into a solo pirate bar.
Cale casually nodded and made his way to the booth. He wouldn’t quite call him a friend, but the man sitting there was as close to that as any solo pirate could have. Gord Hammond was as intimidating as you could imagine, making the almost friendship that much stranger. The tall man was built like a house, solid from head to toe with a gruff exterior to match. Compared to Cale’s average build, Gord looked even bigger. Gord nodded for Cale to sit down as he noticed him approaching.
“This better be good,” Gord said in a soft but deadly serious tone. “I had to set aside several other money making opportunities for this meeting. If it isn’t, we’re gonna have problems.”
Cale flashed a confident charming grin. “I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life. And I am absolutely terrified.”
The larger man grunted and softened his stance a bit and raised an eyebrow. “What does that even mean?”
“I’m going to tear everything down.”
There was a pause. It was followed by a large belly laugh.
“I’m serious. I’m not looking to just sell anything this time. I need to set up a network of trusted people throughout the independents and the clans. I trust you, and you know your clients. Can you help me set up a network? I have what I need to take down everything, but I do not have any way to do it alone.”
“And just how are you going to do that?” The reply was made through a drink swallowing laugh, laced with mockery.
Cale began to relay the story of the encounter with the terrible pirates and their bounty he had discovered. The laughter faded and the man’s color drained a bit. The noise hadn’t dampened in the bar, but neither party at the table seemed to have any awareness of it.
“You’ve made a lot of questionable decisions over the years with how you conduct your business, Cale. But this is suicide.”
“That’s why I’m paying you a more than handsome consulting fee,” he argued. “I can not do this alone. But with your help I can partition out things to collaborators and mitigate some of the risk.”
“Don’t talk like them,” Gord cursed under his breath. He thought for a second before softening his tone, “You’re not wrong though. It’s gonna cost you extra though.”
“I expected nothing less,” he grinned.
They spent the next several minutes working out codes for the two of them to continue working without having to make contact. They had to be covert enough to never make any sense if the corpos came across them, but tweaked enough that they wouldn’t raise suspicion of other pirates if they came across them either. Being old hat for the line of work, they established them rather quickly. Cale took a large swig to finish off his drink and prepared to leave.
“I trust you Gord,” he said. “Please don’t screw me on this, I don’t want to lose the only person I could loosely call a friendly acquaintance.”
“Don’t do that. You always make things weird.”
“Sorry pal. You’re stuck with me. Unless, you know, you screw me over.”
“Keep your voice down Cale,” he said suddenly aware of the relaxed nature the conversation had taken on. “No one needs to know there’s anything going on. And if you are right, screwing you over would only cost me what I’d make helping you. You may not bring me the most business, but you are by far the most reliable, so I am not gonna mess up my money train.”
“It almost sounds like you think of me as a friend,” Cale said as he leaned forward to stand. He opened his mouth to say something when a fight at the bar stole his attention.
There had been a scream followed by shattering glass. As he looked in the direction of the noise, he saw Julia holding the neck of a broken beer bottle in her hand looking down. Without thinking he quickly moved through the gawking crowd toward her.
As he reached the edge of the crowd a bloodied man struggled up to his feet. The man wobbled a bit, and touched his hand to his head to verify the blood. He chuckled then fumbled around until he pulled out a gun with his right hand, followed by a corpo badge in his left.
“You messed up big time,” he said, his language a bit slurred. Whether it was from the head trauma or booze, Cale wasn’t sure. “You’re under arrest lady. We’re heading topside.”
“You groped me after I told you I wasn’t interested,” she said loudly. She didn’t flinch with the gun being trained on her, nor did she put up her hands. She was holding her ground. This was not quite the same shy girl that he’d had around the last few days. “That badge barely gives you a right to claim any type of authority. It certainly doesn’t give the right to do whatever you want.”
“You’re wrong lady, that’s exactly what it gives me the right to.” His eyes stayed perfectly locked on Julia, leering as if to openly mock her. There was no mistaking what he had planned if he could cuff her and remove her from prying eyes to be alone.
“I think you’re missing some details,” Cale found himself saying. “You are outnumbered, and I believe this bar is full of pirates who don’t play well with corpos.”
As the man’s attention changed from Julia to him without moving the weapon, Cale motioned for him to look around. Slowly he realized he was surrounded with no escape route and over fifteen weapons pointed at him directly.
“I see,” he said, as he slowly pointed the weapon upward and his hands above his head and grinned. “I can let it slide this time.”
Cale smiled. “Yeah, that’s the thing. This young lady here is kinda my adopted daughter.” He could see confusion on Julia’s face out of the corner of his eye, but didn’t let it stop him. “I don’t know that I can let it slide.”
Quicker than he knew he was capable of, Cale threw a punch and the man was out on the floor again. The pain seared through his fist and his whole arm ached. He had never punched a man that hard before, and was honestly surprised he could hit him that hard. He looked over at the bar
“We got it from here,” the bartender said. “Get her out of here.”
He hadn’t needed the confirmation as he’d already been moving to put an arm around her shoulder to help usher her out. She tensed, but didn’t resist as she followed his guidance. Cale looked to signal a goodbye to Gord, but he had already disappeared.
As soon as they were out of the bar he removed his arm from around her shoulder “Sorry about the arm, instinct just kinda kicked in,” he said as they continued to walk away from the bar. “Are you ok?”
She nodded sheepishly. “You didn’t have to save me again.”
“Sorry if that’s what it felt like,” he said. “You certainly had it all handled.”
“So why did you step in?” she blurted out as she abruptly stopped.
He looked at her. It was another moment of choices facing him. He chose to tell her the truth. “I have a daughter who’d be roughly your age I’ve never met back on earth. I guess the thought of what if my daughter had been in that situation was in the background of my mind and instinct kicked in.”
She seemed to relax around him for the first time as she took in what he said. “I guess that’s a good explanation. As long as the why you’ve never met your daughter is a good reason.”
“It is,” he said, “but right now we should get out of here before anyone else gets the idea of calling in heavies on us both.” He paused and made another decision. “I got a job or two coming up I could use some help with, and you clearly need a mentor to teach you how to not get into trouble everywhere. What do you say?”
She fought to keep a smile from forming and nodded. They quietly continued toward the ship.