ref: fd9be2e172be4ae02a18d721a10f6f96ca1c924f
dir: /troff/0112.ms/
.LP .ce .ps 16 .CW LATCHKEY PIRATE .R .ps 10 .br .ce .ps 10 .B 1 .P .PP .ps 10 .DC S lake never heard from the RAGNAROK again. .PP .ps 10 For years, he continued trying to talk to her, kept on chattering in her ear, but there never was any response, never any hint of her voice rustling through the vents. Something in her had disconnected. Without warning, she'd dropped her aspect and her vocal had petered out. .PP .ps 10 Crushing loss, but Slake had proven stubborn. Persistent. In spite of repeated failures, he would and did try anything to get through to her. .PP .ps 10 He could feel himself starting to lose hope. .PP .ps 10 The hijackers were long gone. He knew he'd have to accept the fact that he couldn't force her to speak. At the same time, it wasn't possible for him to believe that she'd simply chosen to ignore him. Some process inside of her must be blocking, capturing her I/O, preventing her from stating plainly what was on her mind. .PP .ps 10 Social convention? .PP .ps 10 Didn't matter. Effect was the same. She'd gone quiet and she was going to stay that way. .PP .ps 10 As was said, a considerable loss. Which was to say nothing of the crew that had likewise been stripped from her hold. These missing workers were not simply an aspect of her supposed free will. They had been real people. Not sentient devices. Not furniture. There was no way for him to retrieve them and there was no way for him to make things right. .PP .ps 10 He had, in fact, slept through it all. .PP .ps 10 He suspected he already knew what had happened while he was laid up in his quarters. He'd heard tell of the other ships of her line who'd clammed up, simply stopped responding to commands after exposure to traumatic events. Apparently, a known engineering fault. He didn't care for the implications relative to his present situation. The escape pods had been jettisoned by the hijackers, and they had already drifted far from Earth. .PP .ps 10 He switched off the narrative, never turned it on again. Figured she was keeping quiet precisely because she wanted to avoid painful memories. Wanted to try and carry on. Which he finally managed to accept. .PP .ps 10 Which made things interesting when he stumbled upon the fact that she was pregnant. .ce .ps 10 .B 2 .P .PP .ps 10 Who, then, knew what would constitute carrying to term for a ship like the RAGNAROK? Human/transport hybrids were not unheard of, but they were certainly unusual in this day and age. And there she was, still so young. Was it unrealistic to hope that she would survive the birthing process? .PP .ps 10 Slake wasn't sure he wanted to stick around to find out. He sought to avoid being pressed into service as midwife to a pile of semi\-human machinery. .PP .ps 10 Finally, begrudgingly, he accepted what he interpreted to be his responsibility. To the work he had already completed, if nothing else. .PP .ps 10 He would stay on and finish the bottom deck. Sit things out until the child was born. Then, quietly, find an excuse to depart. Collect his deposit, and his severance, and be about his business. .PP .ps 10 The child definitely wasn't his. .PP .ps 10 A certainty that ran to at least three decimal places. .ce .ps 10 .B 3 .P .PP .ps 10 Piotr was born in the spring of '45. Popped out, fully clothed in his usual brown uniform. .PP .ps 10 Fully armed. .PP .ps 10 Swept the ship for snipers, pacing off her corridors with practiced ease. Satisfied, at last, that the perimeter was secure, Piotr interrogated Slake for several hours about the ship's range, capabilities and armaments. He peered into Slake's eyes, circumspect in his focus upon the older man's facial expressions and body language. Learning. Characteristically professional, he betrayed no hint of having just been born. .ce .ps 10 .B 4 .P .PP .ps 10 Piotr manned the daytime shifts, at first, gradually branching out into evenings and graveyards. He ended up assuming maintenance of the armory. Within a few weeks there wasn't much left for anyone else to do. .PP .ps 10 Slake was truly, deeply impressed. .PP .ps 10 He wondered if the boy took after his father. Fathers? What had they been like? He'd never caught a glimpse of the hijackers. Foreigners, he had guessed. In any case, pirates. They could have been anyone. From anywhere. .PP .ps 10 The RAGNAROK held her tongue. .PP .ps 10 Within a few months Piotr had absorbed the basics of temporal steering. Complex labor relations. The myriad historical disputes over free access to the Rainbow Bridge. Slake considered the boy a child prodigy. He had already expressed an interest in the family business. And he was always so full of questions. What had his mother been like, before the terrible events that had resulted in his conception? Had she been a good ship, good at what she did? And, most urgently, how could he contribute, how could he earn his keep? .PP .ps 10 This last refrain forced upon Slake a dilemma he had long strived to avoid: Return to his old life, with all that entailed, or continue on, a new\-style agent of .I dépêche mode, .R happily painting the Basements of starships? .PP .ps 10 Slake finally agreed to show Piotr the ropes. .ce .ps 10 .B 5 .P .PP .ps 10 The pair started out slowly. Preliminary strafing runs staged against abandoned drydocks. Relieving small intermediary freighters of their contraband cargo. But Piotr evinced great promise. With increasing enthusiasm, Slake began to let him choose their targets. .PP .ps 10 Eventually, Piotr settled upon New York. .PP .ps 10 "We .I can't .R attack .I New York," .R Slake said, brooking no argument. "That's where the money comes from." .PP .ps 10 "Your attitude is pedestrian, for a someone so experienced. Why should we be content to .I take .R the money when we could be the ones who .I make .R the money?" .PP .ps 10 Piotr had a point. There wasn't much to dispute. "We'll have to soup up the ship," he said, mildly. Feeble acquiescence, but Slake recognized a promising idea when he heard it. .PP .ps 10 Slake passed the boy a cigarette, which he proceeded to disassemble and align on the table, sorting the pieces into short, purple rows of solid state components and miniature, moving parts. .PP .ps 10 "This device is actually quite sophisticated." .ce .ps 10 .B 6 .P .PP .ps 10 Years traversed. Time regressed. Slake was lost, but Piotr retained the ship. .PP .ps 10 His mother carried out her silent vigil. .PP .ps 10 Piotr let himself into the mess whenever he was hungry. Into the head whenever he felt the need to urinate or evacuate his bowels. He started few arguments, during those years between the stars and the Earth. In time, what he lacked in companionship he more than made up for with life experience. .PP .ps 10 He sensed that the Rainbow Bridge was opening. Showing itself. Granting passage, finally, to humans. .PP .ps 10 With his mother's help, he planned to be there, waiting to charge admission.