Jake rose early the next day to be ready to start his employment under Sid Kraft and Evangelyne Martini. Not that he was looking forward to the work. He didn’t like Sid from the instant he stepped on the ship, and he was almost certain that he wouldn’t like the pop star either. But they had erased his debts and were going to pay him well for his services. Jake felt that at the very least he ought to be appreciative, and that meant getting up early and appearing to be committed to his new employers.

As it happened, Jake’s effort was slightly wasted on them. It was midmorning before Sid contacted Jake to inform him that, “Evvie would be along any moment.” About an hour’s worth of moments passed between that call and the actual request to enter Skuld. Jake walked down the corridor to the airlock to meet them in person.

Sid was the first to come through the entrance. “Great to see ya again, Jakie.”

“Thanks.”

“Now, I’d like ya to meet the star of the hour, the sensation the whole family can enjoy, Miss Evangelyne Martini.”

Miss Evangelyne Martini appeared to Jake’s eyes to be a girl of nineteen going on sixteen. She was short, maybe five-one if she was lucky, with body hovering between average and petite. She had an inoffensive face, light brown eyes, and an almost-earnest smile. She was clearly a brunette, but had dyed her hair blonde, then dyed strands of it yellow and light orange. Her clothing was brightly colored, with yellow the predominant shade, and was styled “good girl” with a few hints of “young woman.”

Her look meshed with what Jake knew about her past. She was the only child of parents who had married, divorced, remarried, and were now separated. She’d shown talents for dancing and singing at a very early age along with a great deal of personal charm. At the age of ten she became the star of Captain Sandy, a kid’s show, entertainment computer program, and info-site that was popular on a half-dozen worlds for about a year and a half. At thirteen she was cast in HeritageNet’s Nice Ice Club, an entertainment show that doubled as promotion for the corporation’s indoor fun center chain.

It was there that “Evvie” began to emerge as a celebrity in her own right. Within a year she became the show’s star performer. Sites popped up devoted to her, media outlets began to pay attention to her offstage life, and her mother hooked up with a celebrity career advisor. Luckily for Evvie, her mother, and the advisor, one of the other, much prettier girls on the show became jealous of the rising teen star. The “good girl” persona being crafted for Evvie fit the situation almost too perfectly. When she was more-or-less forced out after a three-year run, fame was practically kicking down her door.

The next step in Evvie’s ascent came a year after she left Nice Ice. At seventeen she released her first music single, which quickly jumped into the top fifty. Her third release went into the top ten. Now, two years later, she’d had eight hits with her current release at Number One. These hits were to be combined with a couple songs that hadn’t charted and a few that were planned for release, as Jake understood it, to make up enough material for this live performance tour.

In short, Jake thought, she’s the typical “nice girl” pop singer on the standard celebrity track.

With that Jake returned to the present and the guest coming aboard Skuld. “Miss Martini,” he said, “I’m Jake Bonner. Welcome aboard my ship.” He offered his right hand.

She shook it once, more politely than his greeting had been. “Thanks.” She stepped around Sid through the airlock and into the corridor. She turned to Sid. “You coming?”

“Sorry, Evvie. I’ll be traveling with the crew.” He smiled to Jake. “Gotta keep the natives happy and the ball rolling, y’know.”

“Sure.”

“Well, Jakie, you take care of our little supernova. Evvie, I’ll see ya tomorrow on Angelus Two.”

“See you then. I’ll call if something comes up before.”

She stood up on the tips of her toes to kiss Sid on the cheek. He kissed the air next to her face. He gave Jake a decidedly nonmilitary salute, then turned headed back the connecting walkway to the space station. Jake tapped a keypad on the corridor wall next to the airlock doorway. The airlock closed, followed a second later by the doorway.

“All right, Miss Martini,” Jake began.

“Call me Evvie.”

“Okay, Evvie. It’s customary for the captain of a ship to give a new passenger a tour. Unfortunately, there’s not much to see. But it all works well. You’re in one of the best ships in known space.”

“Hey, I always like the best, Jakie.”

“It’s Jake.”

“Oh.”

Jake pointed to their left. Two meters beyond the open corridor ended in a closed doorway. “That way is the heart of this ship. There’s an armory, the main power room, the jump drive housing, and at the end is the sublight drive.”

“Armory?” Evvie gave Jake a nervous expression, as if he was suddenly something to be afraid of.

“Skuld was built as a military vessel.” He worked hard to sound reassuring. “Don’t worry, there’s only a pair of blaster pistols, one laser rifle, an EVA suit, and some miscellaneous gadgets in there. It’s all legal for a private starship. I don’t collect weapons, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

“Okay.”

Jake waved at door opposite and to the right of the airlock entrance. “That room is the auxiliary bridge.” He started walking up the corridor with Evvie a few steps behind him. “Next is the communications and sensor room, and next to that is a teleport. It’s completely reliable. We can teleport you down anywhere; you never have to go through airlocks. I am pleased to say that this ship is the first private vessel to have a working teleport.”

“Okay.” Evvie waved at the sole door on the other side of the corridor. “What’s in there?”

Jake tapped a keypad to open the door. The empty room was painted a translucent black. “The holoroom,” he said casually.

“Oh, stars! You have a holoroom?” Evvie marched into the room. She looked around in obvious awe. An honest smile burst onto her face. “This is so cool! Y’know, I begged my mom to get us one when we moved into our new house, but she didn’t want to put down the creds until after the tour. This is beyond spiff, Jake.”

He walked in after her. “Thanks.”

“It’s not very deep, though. Well, maybe it’s as wide as my stage will be.”

“It wasn’t designed for recreation, Evvie. As I said, this was to be a military ship. Specifically, this ship was built to conduct espionage missions. Fortunately for me the original owners decided to abandon the experiment. Anyway, I have taken the time and expense to download some appropriate sims for this room.” He waved the other end of the room. “And over there are two immersion suits. Full body experience, if you have a sim you can’t play out in here.”

“Oh, this is so spiff. I’m glad Sid hired you.”

“Thanks. Can we continue?”

“Yeah, okay.”

Jake led her out of the room. He tapped the keypad to close the door. He led her up the corridor past four closed doors on both sides. “Ignore these rooms. They’re vacant, or being used for storage.” He stopped at the fifth pair of doors “This is my room,” he said, pointing left, “and yours is here,” he finished, pointing right.

“Can I see my room?”

“Sure.” He opened the door.

The room was basic, but not as sparse one might expect from a former military starship. There was an actual bed, drawers, private bathroom, walk-in closet, food replicator, in-room entertainment screen, and even carpet on the floor. The decor was nonexistent; the walls were painted gray, the sheets were navy blue, the carpet a clean off-white.

“It’s ugly,” was all Evvie could say.

“It’s not that bad,” Jake replied.

“The walls self-coloring?”

“Militaries don’t have a need for them, and I can’t afford the retrofit.”

“I’d pay for it.”

“And who would pay to have it removed? Evvie, I don’t make it my business to fly pop stars across human space.”

“I can tell.”

“Look, you can put up any pictures or holos you want. I’ll let you temporarily replace the sheets. Besides, it’s not like you’re permanently moving here. A few months, and you’ll be back to your stylish life at home.”

“I guess.” She took a few steps inside. “That closet doesn’t look big enough.”

“We’ve got eight other rooms for storage, if you need them.”

“Oh, okay. Maybe two will be enough. Or three.”

“Fine.” He motioned to her. “One more stop.”

She left the room. Jake led her through the open entranceway. “This is the main room. Couch, two chairs, big screen. Up there, where the two seats are, that’s the bridge.” He motioned for her to sit down across from him in the couch. He sat down in the chair next to the screen. “It’s small ship, but it gets the job done.”

“How much did it cost? I might like to buy one these for crusin’. Modify the bedrooms, of course.”

“It was free.”

“It was found property,” Odin said.

“Uh, what does it...er, what do you mean, uh...”

“Odin. And since I am sentient, and my namesake a male Norse god, you may refer to me as ‘he’ or ‘him.’ What I mean is, Jake did not purchase this ship. He found this ship in an uninhabited region of space with myself and my systems deactivated. He was kind enough to reactivate me.

“You see, Miss Martini, as Jake said before I was created with the purpose of conducting espionage missions for the government that built me. However, once I gained sentience, I noted the inherent moral complications of such activities. Furthermore, the officers sent to command this ship had an unpleasant habit of giving orders that were, shall I say, much less than perfectly clear.”

“To make a long story short,” Jake said, “Odin was so uncooperative that the military of Svedal Three decided it was cheaper and easier to abandon this ship than destroy it. As it happened, they left Skuld in an unsettled region of space. I found the ship while fleeing an enemy of a former employer. I came on board, reactivated Odin, and took possession.”

“I displayed my appreciation for Jake’s actions by allowing him to remain on board, to be a little more precise.”

“The ownership documents have my name on them, Odin,” Jake said over his shoulder, “not yours. This ship is my property.”

“A sentient being cannot own another. It is only because I like you that I do not press that question.”

“That, and the fact that without a human earning income, there isn’t a whole lot you could do on your own.” Jake waited for Odin to address his point. When Odin said nothing, Jake turned back to Evvie. “It’s a sensitive subject for him. Now, do you have any questions?”

“How many other bedrooms are there? Could I get my friends on board?”

“Those eight other rooms, the ones we’re using for storage. None of them have furniture in them. A little fire sale to pay off some debts a year ago.”

She looked slightly crushed. “Oh. You have any good interactives in that holoroom?”

“You’d have to check yourself. If you have any favorites, you’re free to upload them into our d-base. Odin can program sims himself, if there’s something special or specific you’re looking for.”

“Spiff.”

“Anything else?”

She thought for an instant, then shook her head. “Nope.” She stood up. “ I guess you can, what, beam my stuff up.”

“Yeah. That’s all you want to know. You don’t have any questions about the security systems, the teleport, how to operate anything,...”

“Nope. If I can’t figure it out it isn’t important. C’mon, Jake, I wanna get my stuff onboard and unpack.” Without waiting for him to stand up she jogged off to the teleport room.

Jake stood and shook his head. “Odin, I have a bad feeling about this.”

“My immediate analysis indicates you may be right. I shall raise all the emergency protocols to higher levels in my memory directory.”

***

Bringing Evvie’s luggage onto the ship was easy. Jake simply put on a teleport bracelet, had Odin transport him to where her bags were, and beamed back until all six were aboard. Evvie decided to eat lunch while she unpacked. Jake didn’t need her to urge him to leave her alone. He was happy to let her dig through her clothes and personal belongs; he feared seeing them might only make him crazy.

He ate his lunch on the bridge. He had other business to attend to, namely to find out what Odin had discovered about the planet his other employers called home. As he ate the screen in front of him came alive.

The first image was a digitized rendering of a solar system. “The Antioch system is comparatively small,” Odin began. “There are only five worlds in the system, including one gas giant and one habitable world, Antioch Two. Planetary surveys indicate that the innermost world and the third world have limited wealth potential, mainly in minerals used in various manufacturing processes. The fourth world may have greater potential, but it has an eccentric orbit and has no real atmosphere.”

Next came a rotating three-dimensional view of Antioch Two from space. “The second world does have a habitable atmosphere. It lies point-nine-seven AU from its star, leading to a warmer atmosphere than Earth standard. Science surveys did find native life, but evolution here is proceeding at a slow pace due to the warm conditions.”

The world that Odin showed Jake was a two-color planet known among spacers as a “wet rockball.” This was because Antioch Two had three continents and many islands, with the rest of its surface covered by water. The land areas consisted of rocky mountain chains, rocky deserts, and rocky coastlines. It was the sort of world that only a mineralogist could love.

Well, so much for appealing to natural beauty to stop this dictator, Jake thought.

After half a minute the rotating view of the planet stopped. The world then filled the small screen until an aerial view of a habitation dome appeared. The camera movement didn’t stop until the dome took up a screen area of ten centimeters. “All the human residents of Antioch Two live in this dome. It is located in the northern hemisphere in a standard desert environment. This location is the closest to the most productive gold and silver veins. It is the second such dome constructed; the first was removed seventy years ago due to mines in that area being fully exploited.”

“How long will it take to deplete these veins?” Jake asked.

“At the present pace, roughly twenty years.”

“And the fact that native life exists never deterred mining?”

“Apparently not. I have accessed projections that don’t suggest any higher lifeforms will evolve on Antioch Two.”

“How reliable are they? Or were they corporately funded?”

“Their pedigree is reasonably solid. The most unfavorable projection, as far as mineral exploitation, estimates that intelligent life might evolve in a seven to ten billion year timespan. The others state the probability of such an evolutionary course at fifty percent or less.”

“All right. Tell me more about that dome.”

 “Of course.” The dome image was replaced on the screen with a surface map. “The dome is located within three kilometers of a substantial river. That river is dammed to provide for both water and power.”

“No fuel cells?”

“Any native natural gas or other such sources of energy are extremely small. There is geothermal activity on the planet, but not where the mineral veins are located. The aqua-cells are not as efficient, but seem to provide adequate power for planetary needs. All other standard facilities, such as water reclamation and pollution conversion, are present.”

Jake looked at the image of the dome for a few moments. The exterior appeared fairly standard. It was a gray structure spiderwebbed by black support beams and silvery panel joints. “Dome” was the common name for such structures, but in reality it was a cylinder capped by an actual dome. The cylinder appeared to be about five or six stories tall, with the dome an additional story. It resembled every other habitation dome on every other rough planet that Jake had been to or heard about.

“All very above board, it seems,” he said at length.

“’Seems’ being the operative word, Jake. I cannot locate any detailed data on Antioch Two, such as the types of systems used, exact mineral output, or even if the world has been inspected for health and safety violations.”

Jake frowned and shook his head. “Odin, that doesn’t make sense.”

“Ordinarily, you would be correct.”

“But?”

“But it seems that in this particular case, you are incorrect. Interstellar law does exempt privately owned exploited worlds from most regulation.”

“But that law is supposed to cover asteroids and uninhabitable worlds.”

“So is Antioch Two. It appears from my investigation that the world is the personal property of Sordius Maxis.”

Jake leaned back in his chair. It took him a moment to digest what Odin had just said. “One man owns one of the richest worlds in human space?”

“That appears to be the case.”

“How could that be? How could one man own a planet? How could any corporation have let this gem slip away?”

“I have no information at this time, Jake. It appears that Maxis, or possibly his father, found the ideal loophole.”

“Or pulled off the con of the millennium.”

Jake suddenly smiled. “Which means beating him is going to be beating a con man. I may actually enjoy this after all.”

“Happy to have been of service,” Odin responded, with just a touch of digitized sincerity.

***

As the day came to an end, Jake stretched out on the couch. He rubbed his hands together in anticipation. “It all comes down to this,” he said quietly.

“Did you say something?”

Jake turned. Evvie was standing in the entranceway connecting the main control room to the rest of the ship. She was dressed in a peach nightshirt and lavender pajama bottoms, and on her feet were fat bunny slippers. Jake wasn’t quite sure what to make of the sight. From what little he knew of her, the outfit almost seemed believable.

On the other hand, he thought, she looks too much like a teen actress from a bad comedy series dressed for a bedroom scene.

“Did you say something to me?” she asked again.

“Uh, no. The finals for RoboJoust are just about to come on.”

“RoboJoust?” Evvie frowned. “Isn’t that show for lonely loser geeks?”

“I think it’s time for you to go to bed,” Jake snapped.

“And a good night to you, too, Jake.” She shook her head, turned, and wandered back to her room.

“Screen, on.”

“Volume?” Odin asked.

Jake sucked in an angry breath. Damn, but I am tempted.

“Medium low,” he answered, “just this once.”

The screen came alive. The first image to flash on was that of an oversized old-fashioned circuit board painted gold. The “board” sat at a tilt, and rotated on a pedestal. An unseen male voice came up to set the stage.

“This is the Motherboard of Victory,” it said, “long a symbol of the nastiest, most vicious, and most triumphant robot combatant of the season. Tonight, live, you will see which ‘bot team gets to claim the Motherboard. It’s time for the RoboJoust season finals!”

The image of the “trophy” was replaced by inset images of small armed and armored vehicles racing into each other on grass and on dirt. Some crashed into bushes, while others