Grayson Sontang in Space - Chapter 1 Part 1
Chimera44
posted: 2017-03-19
views: 3082
DESCRIPTION: Grayson Sontang is a "spacer", the nickname for space freight crew. As an independent trader, loyalty and dependability are highly valued commodities. But even in the vastness of space, can she outrun her past?
TAGS: MF
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: You can read additional stories by the author on Literotica: Chimera44
WARNING: This story is for readers over the age of 18, and abiding by the laws in your locality. This story is a work of fiction and all characters and locations are not meant to represent any person or place in real life or other published works, except as parody.
You can leave a comment for the author at the bottom of this story, or talk to the author in the Tavern.
Chapter 1 - Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 • Chapter 2 - Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 • Chapter 3 - Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 • Chapter 4 - Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 • Chapter 5 - Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3
Grayson Sontang in Space - Chapter 1 Part 1
Grayson Sontang walked into the grimy spacer bar and looked around. It was crowded. It was always crowded since it was one of the few spacer bars in the only space port on the third planet of a very unremarkable star named Harmony - some allusion to the mythical music of the spheres. She waved to the bartending owner then pushed her way through the mass of bodies until she reached the counter. She had to shout to be heard over the din. "Got any of that brandy left, Jimmy?"
He poured her a glass of regular brandy. "Sorry. It went fast. You know how it is. If it's illegal, everybody wants it. I am in the market for more if you have any left."
"it's committed, Jimmy-Boy. I've got buyers to keep on the good side of."
"What about me? I'm a buyer that's soon to have his throat slit. All these nice people came here expecting some of that infamous Tantalean brandy. What are you doing here, anyway? I thought you were leaving."
"I blew a fuse. Had to replace it." She took a swig of the brandy and made a face.
"What's a fuse?"
"If you weren't such an ignoramus, you wouldn't miss so many of my best jokes. Look, throw those drunks over there out so we can have their table."
"I got enough people mad at me already," he protested.
"Then I'll do it." She shoved her way through the crowd again.
The man followed her at a discrete distance, smiling wryly. The woman never ceased to amaze him. She was small by spacer standards, nearly a head shorter than most of the men and only half their weight, yet they parted before her with respect if not deference. She had the carriage of a spacer - one of the vagabonds that crewed the huge freighters - even if she was an independent trader, now. And it didn't take a whole lot of brains to figure out that if she had survived as a spacer, she probably wasn't the sort to tangle with.
Grayson leaned over the table in question and eyed the three men that sat there. They leered back, hoping for an indecent proposal. "Hey, boys," she said, her voice husky and suggestive. "I'm in need of some drinking money. For a ten-spot, I'll tell you where I just saw some Tantalean brandy being unloaded."
Their leers changed to frowns of disappointment, then they reconsidered. Tantalean brandy was better than nothing. One of them tossed a ten note to her. She snatched it from the air. "Go out. Turn right. Two streets down. Only joint on that block. But keep it quiet, fellas. They don't have a hell of a lot. And you might have to be a little insistent. You know how places like that hate to share."
They stumbled eagerly from the bar as Grayson slid into the grubby booth. The owner settled across from her. "Sontang, that joint is where the Fed's hang out," he said.
"Is it really?" she asked innocently.
"Those spacers are going to be mad."
"I'll be gone before they get out of lock-up. You must have drunk and disorderly laws on this god-forsaken planet."
"So why aren't you gone already? I bet you got that damn shuttle parked in my backyard again. That grass is never going to grow back."
"Give me a break, Jimmy. I told you. I needed a few more things. Besides, you've been well paid in parking fees. Two crates of Tantalean brandy is nothing to sneer at."
"Like hell! It's barely enough to whet these drunks' appetites."
"That's not my problem."
"Look, you've been working on that ship of yours for a year now. When are you going to get it together and start running regular again? You've got to be losing customers."
"If only you knew. But it's all set now. There were a few technical glitches but they'll be solved as soon as I get back. You think I like using this backwater planet as a base?"
He grinned. "There are advantages and you've used all of them. The Feds have little interest in us, and we all know that's why you chose this system, so quit running us down. You've had a very easy time of it. No inspections, no certification checks, no... "
"All right. All right. Don't remind me. As it is the damn ship is halfway to the next planet. This commuting is wearing thin."
"It must really be something, eh, Sontang? Give me a clue. What makes this ship so special?"
Her eyes glowed. "Ah, you can't imagine, Jimmy-Boy. She's beautiful. There's nothing like her anywhere else in the galaxy. Absolutely nothing."
"I've heard that before. What's the name?"
"Breathless Dragon."
He rolled his eyes. "What kind of name is that?"
"Too poetic?"
"Too pathetic."
"Don't judge too quickly. Someday, it will be the stuff of legends, and you'll hear them all, right here in this dive you call a bar."
"Yeah, right. More likely, I'll hear about the pilot. 'Feds arrest Grayson Sontang, AKA the Dragon Lady, smuggler extraordinaire. '"
"I like that."
"Being arrested?"
"No, dummy. Dragon Lady. It has a certain flair."
"It has a certain infamy. You'd better watch you step."
"I always do. Look, I'll buy the next round if you fetch it."
"I'll take you up on that. I have to save my money so I can resod my back yard."
"Tell you what. When I leave, I'll blast out and you can put a swimming pool in the hole."
"Sontang, I live on the fucking river. I don't need a swimming pool."
"Basement for a guest house?"
"I've had enough of 'guests' for a while, thank you kindly."
"There's no pleasing you."
"Just don't pick any fights while I'm gone. I just got the place fixed up from the last one."
"I didn't start that."
"You didn't stop it, either. Sit there and be a good girl."
"How boring." She began to dig through her bag as he left, counting her money. It was painfully little and her galactic account wasn't faring much better. She had practically emptied it just to refuel the shuttle for the long trip back to the ship.
But soon, she would be in the game again, at the helm of a ship that had been a longstanding dream during her spacer years. She smiled to herself in anticipation. The dream was about to become a reality.
"Hey, bitch!" Grayson grimaced. Jimmy was about to be very disappointed with her. She didn't look up as the three men elbowed their way to her table. "Hey! We're talking to you."
Grayson sighed and put her money away. "You can't mean me. I don't answer to that name."
"Maybe you'd better start. We got halfway down the street before we realized what that place was. You tried to get us busted, bitch."
"Come, come, gentlemen. I must have gotten my directions wrong. I never could tell right from left. Here. Here's your tenner back."
"Not good enough. You owe us."
"Owe you what?" she said coldly. "I bear no responsibility for fools."
One of them leaned over her, his breath rancid with sour whisky. "I figure you owe us about an hour each. That's what we would have spent in the Fed jail."
She noticed Jimmy standing a short way off, his hands on his hips, his head shaking in dejection. She shrugged helplessly at him, then turned back to the men. "Look. I don't owe you anything except maybe a kick in the teeth for slurring my good reputation. Now get lost or I'll be forced to pay up."
The man grabbed her shirt front and yanked her out of the booth, tearing the fabric. Grayson calmly examined the damage. "Now you've done it. That was real cotton. You've gone and made me mad." She tossed her bag to Jimmy. "Hold this for me, man. Oh. And these, too." She kicked her shoes to him.
"What the hell are you doing?" one of the three demanded.
"Getting ready to fight. That's what you want, isn't it? Let's see. I'll save you for last." She turned sharply to face one of the others. "You. Where do you want to land?"
"Not the windows, Sontang," Jimmy shouted. "Keep it inside this time."
"I'll do my best. Look, fella, you want your booth back? Here. It's all yours." She took his wrist, twisting and sweeping his feet with her leg at the same time. He landed on his back on the table. One of the others lunged at her. She kicked out, doubling him over. The third one grabbed her from behind. Grayson buried her elbows in his over-inflated stomach, freeing herself, then applied the heel of her palm to his chin. He swore, spitting blood from his bitten tongue. Grayson backed off, giving them a chance to cut and run, but they were too drunk to recognize a good opportunity. Besides, their shipmates were pushing their way through the crowd to lend assistance, having realized that a healthy brawl was in the making. Within minutes, half the patrons in the bar were fighting and the other half were cheering them on. Jimmy had retreated behind the bar to watch, leaning heavily on his elbows and sighing. Grayson got in a few more good blows to her antagonists, then slipped out of the melee and went to join Jimmy. She pulled her shoes back on as she watched. "Good fight, huh?"
"Why is it every time you come here, a fight breaks out?"
"Just lucky, I guess. You want me to break it up?"
"No, please. You've done enough already."
"Feds coming down the line," someone shouted in warning.
"Oops. Gotta go, Jimmy-Boy."
"Hey! Who's going to pay for all this mess?"
"Put it on my bill. I'll pay you next year," she shouted as she slipped out the back door.
* * *
An hour later, Grayson was rounding Jimmy's house, headed for her runabout shuttle in his back yard. She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw the Fed standing at the door to her shuttle. She straightened, took a deep breath and strode toward the man. "What do you want?" she demanded as she drew near. She noted that the strap over his blaster was undone.
"I heard a rumor you were running Tantalean Brandy," he replied.
"It's illegal on this world," she stated, stopping in front of him with her hands on her hips.
"Yes. It is," he agreed. "So are you? Running it?"
"If I were I'd be pretty foolish to bring it here. And if you were sure, you'd have a warrant."
He shrugged. "On the other hand, you could just open your shuttle and show me that it's empty. Call it good faith."
She shook her head. "That would be setting a really bad precedent, for me and other traders. I'd be blacklisted."
"You aren't already?" he asked, cocking any eyebrow.
"Only on some worlds. Look, it's starting to rain and I have no intention of opening my shuttle in your presence, so are we going to stand here all night getting wet or are you going to go find some drunks to bust?"
"We could talk in that boathouse over there."
"You have a warrant for that?" she asked skeptically.
He shrugged. "It was unlocked."
"Really! That was very careless of Jimmy."
"Shall we?" he asked, gesturing to the boathouse, his other hand firmly on the butt of his blaster.
Grayson gave him a slow look up and down. The man was big, square-jawed in a very Fed sort of way, and obviously familiar with her reputation. He hadn't taken his eyes off hers from the moment she walked up to him. She sighed and turned toward the boathouse. "I have places to be," she called over her shoulder as he followed at a safe distance.
"Do tell. Where?"
"My ship," she answered with a toss of her head.
"Perhaps I should get a warrant for it," he suggested.
"It's in orbit around Harmony, not this god-awful planet. You don't have jurisdiction."
"I have friends who do," he replied, stepping cautiously around her to open the boathouse door.
Grayson eyed the speedboat rocking gently at the dock. She knew Jimmy ran illicit goods to the city upriver from the spaceport under the guise of recreation, but she was sure he wouldn't be careless enough to leave anything incriminating behind on it. "That storeroom back there," the Fed said, still keeping a cautious distance between them. That 'storeroom' happened to be Grayson's guest quarters when she was borrowing Jimmy's backyard to park her shuttle. She knew she had left it locked, but the door stood open now. No doubt by the same lock pick that had opened the boathouse door. Grayson scowled as she headed toward it.
When she entered the storeroom, she did a quick scan. She wasn't the neatest person in the world, but everything looked in place, including the half-empty bottle of brandy on the table that may or may not contain some Tantalean brandy, despite what the label said. She turned and looked at the Fed, who had paused in the doorway. His hand was still on the butt of his blaster. "Now what," she snapped.
Continued in Chapter 1 Part 2...