07:51 (Seoul Local Time)
Wednesday, September 25, 2329
Executive parking lot of the Hyundai Heavy Industries shipyard
Ulsan, Korea, ASEAN, Earth
Stepping out of his chauffeured aircar, Park Ju-Yung stopped for an instant to look at the huge steel structure occupying over thirty hectares of land surface next to his ship construction yard in Ulsan. That structure, a round, squat tower mounted on eight short, fat legs, had been completed over a year ago and had then been his pride as manager of the Hyundai Heavy Industries. Now, however, the main thing the prefabricated city represented was wasted space and resources and the possible future bankruptcy of his corporation. By now, it should have been set in the place meant for it on the planet New Venice, in the Tau Ceti System, some 11.9 light-years from Earth. The reason it was not there today was what one could call a unique design flaw: it had been built with the idea of it being carried to the Tau Ceti System in a spaceship that no longer existed. Nobody could have imagined over sixteen months ago that the mighty KOSTROMA would be completely destroyed in a desperate Space battle, yet it had happened. That it had a heroic end and had saved a whole race and also possibly Humanity was small consolation for the fact that there were now no existing space cargo ships able to carry it. Park had tried his best to find a way to deliver New Baikonur City to the Tau Ceti System but all of the biggest existing cargo ships had proved unsuited to carry it without effecting some major (and very costly) modifications to it, so that it could fit into a spaceship. Since his shipyard could not by contractual engagement get the second half payment of its building contract with the Sverdlovsk Group, which owned New Venice, until it was delivered and set on its foundations, New Baikonur City was now a source of debts for Park, debts from the interests on the loans he had taken to finance its construction and from the rental of the land on which it was now sitting. Land rental in Korea had always been an expensive affair and things had not improved in that aspect in the last few decades. His only hope now to be able to deliver his product and get fully paid rested on the hope that Captain Forster’s new ship, the A.M.S. NOSTROMO, would soon enter service and then would carry New Baikonur City to New Venice. However, Park understood that, even if it had now been officially launched, the fitting out and testing of such a huge ship as the NOSTROMO was not a matter of only days or even weeks, but rather that of months. His problem was that the bankers with whom he had taken loans had grown impatient and were threatening to raise the interest rates on his loans, loans that the Hyundai Heavy Industries was finding harder and harder to pay. If he didn’t complete his contract soon by having the city delivered, his corporation could well sink into insolvency within six months. Still, Park couldn’t honestly blame Tina Forster for his present woes: she had done her duty to the utmost and had sacrificed her ship for the good of everybody.
Park was walking towards the main entrance of the executive headquarters building of his corporation when his wrist communicator buzzed, making him stop and look at it while opening a link. He then saw the face of his executive secretary, a beautiful but also highly competent young woman.
‘’Yes, Ji Woo?’’
‘’Sir, good news! Captain Forster left a call for us early this morning, saying that her NOSTROMO is now ready to start commercial cargo service. She would like you to call her back, so that she could arrange for a pickup of New Baikonur City with her new ship.’’
Blood rushed to Park’s brain as he felt immense relief wash over him.
‘’I’m about to enter the building now. Have all the relevant contract papers ready for me: I’m running upstairs!’’
With new hope now in his heart, Park Ju-Yung started running, slowing down only to pass the rotating glass doors of his building’s entrance and speeding past his surprised team of receptionists.
10:24 (Earth Universal Time)
The Moonlight Disco Club, ship’s entertainment complex
Frame level # 570, core section of the A.M.S. NOSTROMO
Docked to the Avalon Space Yards, Earth low orbit
‘’So, Tina, what do you think of my new digs?’’
‘’That you should be able to do some great business with your new disco club, Lester. I am sure that the 800 or so university students we now have aboard will be eager and impatient to come shake themselves silly in your disco club. Are you planning to continue playing some of those old 20th Century songs you found in New York years ago?’’
‘’Hell yes!’’ replied enthusiastically Lester Barnaby, DJ and owner of the new Moonlight Disco Club, which was now going to succeed his old Moonlight Dance Club, destroyed along the KOSTROMA sixteen months ago. ‘’Those songs proved to be a huge hit from the start with my customers and are still very popular. To be frank, today’s songs and music too often rely on showy visual effects and sexual attractiveness, rather than on pure singing and musical talent. I still find it hard to find many contemporary singers or musical bands with the pure talent and voices of the likes of Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Sarah Brightman, Enya, Celine Dion and Belinda Carlisle. The older part of my clientele in particular preferred those old songs over what is being produced today. The old pieces of classical music and film themes I found in New York are also hard to beat, being truly ageless masterpieces.’’
‘’I agree! I myself love to relax by listening to some Sarah Brightman or Enya song. Their voices were pure gold. I must say that I love the way that you decorated one of your dance floors in the old 20th Century style. Your ‘Golden Oldies Room’ should be a hit with your adult clientele.’’
‘’I hope so, Tina! Well, when do you expect to undock from the Avalon Space Yards?’’
‘’In two days, once all my supplies and commercial stocks will be in. My first task then will be to go pick up the prefabricated New Baikonur City at the Hyundai Industries shipyard in Korea. Following that, I will collect more cargo at the Las Americas Orbital Station and will also embark the 19,000 people due to become the first batch of occupants for the New Baikonur City once it is in place on New Venice. You should thus have plenty of customers for your disco club on our first commercial interstellar trip. Since it will take a couple of weeks before the prefab city is properly set on its foundations, those new colonists will have many days to enjoy our ship’s facilities.’’
‘’Sounds great to me!’’ replied Lester while rubbing his hands together.
‘’And when will you be ready to officially open your club to the clientele, Lester?’’
‘’Tonight, at seven! I already have my team of DJs, barmaids and waiters assembled and ready.’’
‘’Excellent! I will make sure that everybody on the ship knows about that. Well, time for me to go visit Madam Lee at her club.’’
Lester Barnaby grinned at the mention of Madam Lee, the owner of the ‘Jupiter’ sex club.
‘’I heard that she hired a brand-new crew of dancers, strippers and massage specialists for her new club.’’
‘’She indeed did, Lester.’’ replied Tina with a smile. ‘’After some fifteen years on the job, most of the members of her old group of strippers and dancers have decided to retire from the sex business, both because they are not as ‘fresh’ as before and because they made enough throughout the years to retire in comfort. The majority of them are now permanent residents of New Haven. However, many of the support staff, including Mark Cisco, have stayed on. For those staff members, experience counts a lot more than their looks, although I would be the first to say that Mark Cisco is worthy of a long look.’’
‘’Tsk, tsk! Don’t tell that to your husband, Tina.’’ said Lester while shaking his index at her.
‘’That’s actually okay with Michel: he and Mark are good friends.’’ shot back Tina before turning around and leaving the disco club.
Once out in the wide circular hallway that ran around the entertainment center of her ship, Tina passed in front of the ‘Pinball’ video-arcade center, where technicians were finishing to connect the hundreds of video game stations filling it, before entering the ’Jupiter’ sex club by its main entrance, where she shook hands with the big, muscular doorman, Mark Cisco.
‘’Good morning, Mark! Is Madam Lee around?’’
‘’She sure is, Tina! You will find her in the main show room, where she is briefing her employees in advance of our official opening tonight.’’
‘’Thanks!’’
Entering the club and passing by its cloak room, Tina walked into the main show lounge, the largest room of the establishment, with its dance/strip stage, multitude of small tables and bar counter. Seeing Madam Lee, the manager of the ‘Jupiter’, talking with about thirty men and women near the bar, Tina went that way and approached the group. Seeing her, Madam Lee stopped talking for a moment and greeted her with a nod of the head.
‘’Good morning, Captain, or should I call you ‘Admiral’?’’
‘’Just ‘Tina’ will do, and that applies to all of you: I am no egocentrist and hate formalities. I just wanted to ask you if you saw the message I forwarded to you about a troupe of dancers booked to travel on the ship in three days. I was wondering if you could make temporary use of those dancers during the two weeks they will be aboard.’’
Somehow, her question brought a sober expression on Madam Lee’s face, who then looked at her employees.
‘’We will continue this discussion after lunch, my friends. You may go now.’’
The 67-year-old procurer waited until her employees had left the lounge, then invited Tina to sit down at her table before starting to speak to her in a most serious tone.
‘’Yes, I got that message you forwarded to me from this Selim Rakmadov, Tina. However, I must warn you at once about that man. While he pretends to be a talent impresario from the Sudan who is sending a troupe of 86 girls and seven aides to New Venice, where the girls will be employed as strippers and exotic dancers, he is in reality a criminal of the worst kind who deals in human sex trafficking.’’
That left Tina staring with a bit of a shocked look at the procurer.
‘’Why would you call that man a sex trafficker, Madam Lee? He has a formal contract signed by the Sverdlovsk Group, which is saying that he is a regular provider of exotic talent to their various clubs and resorts. Do you know the man?’’
‘’I certainly do, Tina, and I can tell you that he is a certified sadist and psychopath. I first met him when I was only sixteen and living on Hygiea. At that time, I had just run away from my family, which wanted to forcibly marry me to a man I loathed. This was at a time when the Sverdlovsk Group, which ran Hygiea, was still in reality a giant crime syndicate masquerading as a local Space asteroid government. The Sverdlovsk Group perfectly knew the kind of man Rakmadov was but was covering him in order to participate and profit in his sex trafficking. To make a long story short, I fell into the grasp of Rakmadov, who then forced me to prostitute myself and treated me like a slave. Thankfully, I was able to escape him after a two-year nightmare, by clandestinely boarding a ship visiting Hygiea. Thankfully, the captain of that ship was a most decent man and he gave me asylum and quickly started to treat me like I was his daughter. I ended marrying him and we were happy together, until he died of a sudden cancer in 2302. I then inherited his ship but, being no space captain, decided to sell his ship. With the money I made from that sale, I joined the sex entertainment industry as a ‘Madame’ and started my own sex club on the KOSTROMA, which belonged at the time to your uncle before you inherited it in 2315. You may ask yourself why I decided to enter the sex entertainment business after living through such a horrible time as Rakmadov’ sex slave. The answer is however quite simple: I had seen what sex could bring out of people: basically both good and bad. Good if you used it to voluntarily please yourself and others through sex and to further your love towards someone; bad if used to abuse and exploit others. There are still quite a few people who genuinely like sex and are proud of their bodies and I was one of them. That convinced me to start a sex club, but one where the strippers and sex providers would be treated by me with both fairness and respect. So, that’s my personal story and how I happen to know Rakmadov, Tina.’’
Tina was silent for a moment, digesting Lee’s words, before she spoke in a subdued tone.
‘’I am sorry to hear what you had to live through, Madam Lee. However, I wonder how such a bad man could have won a contract with the Sverdlovsk Group, whose present leadership I believe to be honest.’’
‘’How? Don’t delude yourself, Tina: while the higher leadership of the Sverdlovsk Group is mostly clean and decent these days, there is still a lot of rot hiding through its middle and lower ranks.’’
‘’So, are you saying that I should refuse to let this group of dancers board my ship?’’
‘’No!’’ replied at once Lee, surprising Tina by the vehemence of her tone. ‘’If you do that, those poor girls will then simply be rerouted elsewhere while staying under Rakmadov’ control and you will miss a golden opportunity to take that bastard down.’’
‘’So, what do you suggest that I do, Madam Lee?’’
The old Madame then bent forward while looking Tina straight in her eyes.
‘’You are the captain of this ship, the owner of a planetary world and a member of the High Council of the Spacers’ League and thus have many legal powers. Use them for the good of those poor girls.’’
14:44 (Earth Universal Time)
Saturday, September 28, 2329
Container storage deck, Frame level # 1070
A.M.S. NOSTROMO, docked at the Las Americas Orbital Station
Low Earth Orbit
Michel Koniev, at the head of a small security team and accompanied by one of the ship’s loadmasters, stopped next to a pile of cargo containers stacked three-high which had been brought aboard less than one hour ago. Reading their serial numbers painted on their sides and comparing them to an electronic list shown on his data pad, he then pointed four of the containers to the members of his team.
‘’The containers with numbers ending with 336, 337, 560 and 225 carry items shipped by Selim Rakmadov and destined for New Venice. According to the official manifest of these four containers, they contain a variety of furniture, machine parts and processed food from Africa. Let’s check if their manifests are legit and their content legal. Shaka, you check Container 336; Bruce, you check out Container 337; Lakshmi, you check out Container 560, while me and Mister Ramsay check out Container 225. Use your scanners and make sure to thoroughly check the content of those containers. Let’s get to work, people!’’
His last sentence brought a knowing smile on the face of Jack Ramsay, the loadmaster assisting him for this cargo inspection job: those security agents named by Michel Koniev were actually androids, not living persons. Still, those androids had proved up to now to be highly competent at their job and also surprisingly easy to socialize with. Going to the large steel double doors of Container 225, which measured twenty meters-long, four meters-wide and four meters-high, Ramsay then used a pair of cutters to cut and remove the customs seals placed on the door, while being careful to film and document the operation for legal purposes. Opening wide the double doors of the container and shining a light inside, Ramsay saw a tight pile of large boxes marked as containing furniture.
‘’Hum, there is quite a lot of stuff in this one, Mister Koniev. It will take some time to check this out in depth.’’
‘’We will take the time needed to do the job, Mister Ramsay. Let’s start by scanning the inside of these boxes with our penetrating radar scanners.’’
The two men then started their scanning work as the three androids accompanying Michel opened the doors of their assigned containers, using their integrated directed gravity propulsion systems in order to get at the ones stacked over other containers. It didn’t take long before Michel’s scanner showed him something suspicious.
‘’Woah! This box, which is supposedly containing a work desk, shows something small and metallic filling its drawers. Let’s unpack that desk to check it out.’’
Working quickly while being careful not to ruin its packing material, they took a few minutes before Michel could finally touch the desk itself and open one of its file drawers. What he found inside that drawer truly shocked him.
‘’Heavy disintegrator pistols? And they have no serial numbers or manufacture stamps. These are not only illegal weapons: they are also prohibited weapons! Only the military forces of the European Union, the North American Union and the ASEAN are legally allowed to have disintegrators, a weapon type we gave them in order for them to be able to fight off any Space Predator invasion. Now, we are finding disintegrators inside a container shipped out of the Sudan by a sex trafficker?’’
Opening in succession the other file drawers of the desk, Michel found six more heavy disintegrator pistols, along with spare energy cells and cell recharger units.
‘’THAT’S IT! WE NEED TO EMPTY THOSE DAMN CONTAINERS AND CHECK EVERY CUBIC CENTIMETER OF THEM!’’
‘’I will go get my overhead crane remote control unit, so that I can unstack those four containers.’’ said the loadmaster, making Michel nod his head.
‘’Please do that! This is extremely serious. HOW ARE YOU DOING WITH THE OTHER THREE CONTAINERS, GUYS?’’
Shaka was the first to answer him from the container stacked two levels above that being searched by Michel.
‘’I found large bags filled with some kind of pink pills. I am now running a chemical analysis of a sample pill and… Wait! I have the results now, sir: these are methamphetamines, illegal stimulant drugs. The bags I found to date contain about 60,388 pills.’’
‘’About 60,388 pills, he says!’’ said Michel while rolling his eyes. He then regained his seriousness and activated his security communicator, calling Ahmed Jibril, his superior and Security Officer of the NOSTROMO. He got Jibril online nearly at once.
‘’Did you find something interesting in those containers, Michel?’’
‘’You could say that, Ahmed. We have barely started our search and we have already found heavy disintegrator pistols and illegal methamphetamine drugs. We are now going to empty those containers and search them with a fine toothcomb.’’
‘’HEAVY DISINTEGRATOR PISTOLS? PRODUCED WHERE?’’
‘’That’s another problem, Ahmed: these weapons bear no serial numbers or manufacture stamps. They are totally illegal weapons produced on the black market on Earth. Do you want me to advise Tina about this or do you want to do it yourself?’’
‘’Do it! You have the proofs and details in front of you. What I will do is to put more people and surveillance on the members of that troupe sent by this Rakmadov, once they board the ship. They in fact are due to show up at our registration gates at any time now. I will also advise Spirit of this, so that she could organize a round-the-clock tracking of those people.’’
‘’Good call, Ahmed! I will advise you as I find more things here.’’
Michel then closed that link and shook his head while staring at the eight heavy disintegrator pistols now lined up on the top of the desk.
‘’Disintegrator weapons produced on the black market, possibly in Africa. Somebody inside the European Union, North American Union or ASEAN must have sold their design around the criminal underworld. What a mess this implies!’’
16:03 (Earth Universal Time)
Western ring reception area, frame level # 710
A.M.S. NOSTROMO, docked to the Las Americas Orbital Station
Low Earth Orbit
Eve Silisca, manning one of the registration counters of the Western ring reception area, which was linked by a large tunnel to the western docking arm of the NOSTROMO, smiled to the young and very pretty African teenager who had just stepped forward to be registered. While appearing at ease and friendly, Eve was in reality on maximum alert mode and was watching closely every facial expression and body language of the girl as the latter presented a Sudanese passport and a boarding pass to her.
‘’Hello! I have a ticket to fly with my group to New Venice. Here is my passport and my boarding pass.’’
‘’Thank you, miss!’’ said Eve, taking the two documents and scanning them quickly while keeping a discrete eye on the girl. The teenager was definitely nervous and showed no trace of the kind of enthusiasm that someone emigrating to a new world, supposedly to go live a better life, would be expected to show. Eve then gave a ship’s access card to the girl while smiling to her again.
‘’Here you are, Miss Amine. You will occupy Cabin 548-2305, in our Habitat Ring section. After recuperating your luggage, you will be able to take an automated taxi cart that will then take you to your cabin.’’
‘’Will the members of my troupe have cabins close to mine, miss?’’ asked the African teenage girl, some apprehension detectable in her voice. Eve immediately understood the reason for her question but made a show of typing on her registration computer while answering her.
‘’Let me check, miss…’’
What Eve then typed was however not something the girl would have expected.
BOOK ALL THE YOUNG WOMEN FROM THE RAKMADOV TROUPE TOGETHER ON LEVEL 548 OF THE AUSTRALASIAN/AFRICAN FOREST HABITAT SECTION, BUT DISPERSE ALL THE MALE MEMBERS AND ANY MATURE WOMEN OF THAT GROUP WELL AWAY FROM THE SAID SECTION.
At the same time, Eve communicated via radio link with Spirit.
‘We need to have at least twenty security androids to guard the Australasian/African section of level 548 and prevent the male and female escort staff from intimidating the girls of the Rakmadov troupe.’
‘Two sections are now on their way to that section and level, Eve. I will be closely monitoring the movements, actions and words of every member of that troupe. Tina is in turn going to monitor the situation closely through me. Know that illegal disintegrator pistols and rifles, along with large quantities of illegal drugs, have been found inside the shipping containers sent by Rakmadov’ company to the NOSTROMO.’
Not visibly reacting to those silent radio messages, Eve then made an apologetic smile to Zara Amine.
‘’I am sorry, miss, but due to the high numbers of passengers who already boarded, your cabins will be dispersed around our Habitat Ring section.’’
‘’And that Habitat Ring, how big is it?’’
‘’It has an internal circumference of 3,770 meters, measured at the wall facing our forest habitats.’’
Eve was not surprised to see the teenager seem to relax a bit on hearing her answer. If anything, her reactions to date only confirmed the suspicions about that exotic dancers’ troupe and their ‘escorts’. Registering the teenager on her computer and letting her go through the access turnstile, Eve then signaled the big man next in line to come forward, making him pass through a detector frame. Contrary to what unsuspecting travelers would think, that detector frame was a lot more than a simple magnetic metal detector: it also incorporated a body-safe penetrating radar and a thermal scanner. A red light started flashing on her computer screen as the man went through the detector frame, while a text and two red arrows appeared on the image of the man sent by the detectors: the man was armed with a type of non-metallic pistol, probably made of composite fibers and ceramics, plus had a non-metallic knife sheeted in a scabbard tied around his right ankle. Knowing that the security section of the ship would be instantly notified about this, Eve simply greeted the man with a smile, despite that man looking a lot more like a thug than like an entertainment specialist.
‘’Good morning, sir! May I see your boarding pass and your passport, please?’’
The man didn’t say a word then and simply handed over the two requested documents to Eve, who scanned them, memorizing the name and face of the man before handing him a ship access card.
‘’Here you are, sir. You have Cabin 503-3261. You can now proceed downstairs to the baggage room to recuperate your suitcases.’’
‘’The girls who belong to my group, are their cabins near my cabin?’’
‘’I cannot guarantee that, sir, as over 15,000 other passengers have already boarded the ship and taken cabins. We now have to give the cabins that are still available in our Habitat Ring section.’’
‘’But that’s unacceptable! I must be close to our girls: I am tasked to assist and protect them.’’
‘’I am sorry, sir, but that is not possible. We simply don’t have a large enough group of adjacent cabins left available right now.’’
‘’Then, I must know in which cabins our girls are.’’
‘’I am sorry, sir, but divulging the cabin number of a passenger to another passenger, unless that concerns parents and their children, is against ship regulations. We take the privacy of our passengers very seriously.’’
‘’THAT’S CRAP! I WANT THE LIST OF CABINS OCCUPIED BY THE MEMBERS OF OUR TROUPE!’’
As if on cue, a severe-looking armed security officer came forward to Eve’s counter and stared hard at the man, speaking to him in a warning tone.
‘’I will ask you to control your temper and to show respect to our receptionist, or you will have to turn around and disembark, sir.’’
At that moment, Eve saw a woman in her thirties waiting in line seemingly speak to herself while looking at the angry man, whom she knew to be wearing a miniature radio transceiver. Eve thus contacted silently Spirit as the man suddenly and unexpectedly calmed down.
‘Mother, I am presently looking at a tall woman with blond hair and of Caucasian ethnicity who is presently standing three places in line behind the man I am presently dealing with. That woman appears to have a radio transceiver on her and to have just talked to the customer in front of me.’
‘You are correct, Eve. I just intercepted her message in Russian to that man, ordering him to calm down and obey you. I am now tagging her for close surveillance.’
‘Thank you, Mother!’
‘My pleasure, Eve.’
That was when the irate man contained his anger and gave up.
‘’Alright, alright, give me that access card and let’s forget about this.’’
‘’Thank you for your understanding, sir.’’ replied Eve in a suave tone of voice that nearly enraged the man again. The thug then grabbed the access card offered by Eve, then stormed through the access turnstile. He was quickly replaced at her counter by a beautiful teenager of Semitic type who was about as nervous and apprehensive as Zara Amine had been. Eve took her travel documents and quickly registered her before giving her an access card while speaking in a low volume, so that the tall blonde some ten meters away couldn’t hear her.
‘’You have Cabin 548-2303, Miss Suleiman. You may now proceed downstairs to pick up your unaccompanied baggage. You will find automated taxi carts that will then drive you to your cabin in the Habitat Ring.’’
‘’Thank you, miss.’’
As yet another young woman from the Rakmadov troupe came forward, Eve saw the tall blonde pass through one of the detector frames, triggering a silent alarm signal in the process by the fact that she was wearing a non-metallic pistol on her.
‘I knew it!’ thought Eve to herself.
When Zara Amine stepped out of the taxi cart that had driven her and another girl of her group to their cabins, she felt lost at first: this was all so new to her and also frightening. She came from a small village in Uganda and had seen comparatively little advanced technology before in her life. This ship, apart from being huge, was simply beyond her imagination. There was also the fear that one of the men tasked with guarding her and the other girls would eventually find where her cabin was. The other girl who had traveled with her in the taxi cart, another African teenager, seemed about as lost as her. That was when a small, young woman wearing the blue coveralls, equipment vest and weapons belt of a ship’s security officer approached them and saluted them both with a nod of the head.
‘’Excuse me, misses. Could you please follow me for a moment: this won’t take long, I promise.’’
‘’But, what for?’’ protested Zara. ‘’Are we being arrested?’’
‘’Not at all, Miss Amine. We simply want to help you and your female companions. This way, please!’’
Not seeing the utility of resisting that further, Zara picked up her single suitcase and followed the security officer, imitated by the other teenager. To her surprise, the security officer actually led her to the door of the cabin assigned to her, opening it and inviting the two teenagers to come inside with her. Now completely mystified, Zara nonetheless kept following her to a fairly spacious and comfortably furnished lounge. To her surprise and that of h