Belle of the Ball - Chapter 3

The next morning found Beka in a foul mood. She had left the dinner immediately after the last announcement and went straight back the the Maru. Her sleep had been fitful, and she had awoken several times still seething in anger. Waking up the next morning bleary eyed and swearing imprecations at the Bellamys she showered, taking advantage of the fact that with the Maru docked to the drift water conservation was not an issue. Then, putting on her favorite flight suit she went out into the common room to get some coffee, and decide on what course of action she could take to evade the trap Richard Bellamy had laid out for her.

Harper and Trance were already in the common room and sharing a meal. Somewhat to Beka's surprise Harper was wearing the set of coveralls Trance had acquired for him to wear when he was going to do an exceptionally dirty job. Trance was dressed down as well, wearing one of her go-to-market jumpsuits.

"Tired of all the partying already?" asked Beka.

"We'll make up for it this evening," explained Harper. "But right now we have a few things to do. I talked to Erick Abernathy off the Sassy Sue yesterday. The Willow is having some problems with their AG system. It's an intermittent problem they can't find the source of. Being the benevolent genius that I am, I volunteered to help them sort out the problem in exchange for some of the spare GP cards the Sue has in her stores. It's probably a glitch in the software portion of the system, so it shouldn't take me long to find the problem." He touched the data port implanted in his neck as he said the last sentence.

"And of course you were thinking that you could take a peak at the Willow's databases while you were there. Don't"

Harper became serious for just a moment. "With anyone else I probably would. But not with the Abernathys."

"Remember that," ordered Beka. "If you end up on the Sue say hello to Carla for me. And, if you can do some discrete inquires, which I know is asking a lot, see if you can sound out how she feels about Patrick Bellamy these days."

"Discrete is my middle name, Boss," answered Harper. He gave his wife a glare as she made a rude noise after his statement.

"That takes care of Harper. What are you up to, Trance?" asked Beka.

"I'm going up to the commercial district with Hortense Winningtun. I want to see if I can help her find a decent dress and get her hair done nicely before the Ball."

Very shortly after that Beka's crew members left on their self imposed errands leaving her alone in the common room. She finished her coffee then got up and went back to her stateroom, where she called the law the Bellamys had proposed up onto her computer display. She began studying it and checking the other guild regulations and laws. With both the Bellamys and the Ephinghams in favor of the measure its passage was a foregone conclusion. But, every law has loopholes. There had to be a loophole somewhere.

With Harper's help, and the assistance of crew members from the Sassy Sue and the Puffer as well as the Willow's own crew, the repairs on the Willow went quickly and smoothly. After repairs were completed the group retired to the Willow's common room, where beer and conversation both flowed in abundance. The spacers talked about their exploits since they had last met, the tales ranging from the truth, to exaggerations, to outright falsehoods, but all highly entertaining, and a few even educational. Harper and Trance's relationship was one of the focuses of conversation with much of the conversation being of an anatomical nature, and the creative ways a tail could be put to use. Eventually, however, Erick reminded the others that Harper hadn't been paid for his assistance, and that they had best be heading over to the Sue for the promised repair parts. The other crew members decided to accompany the Sassy Sue's crew to the Sue, and relocate their impromptu party.

While each individual ship that docked internally in the drift had its own isolated berth, the berths themselves all exited into a common corridor. As Harper and the Abernathy family members traveled the corridors heading to the lift that would take them to the Sassy Sue they encountered more than one Guild member heading to or from their own ships. Pleasantries or curt nods were exchanged, depending on the relationships between the families, until Harper spotted a group of spacers wearing green and gold coming down the corridor.

"Slumming, Abernathy?" It was Michael Bellamy and his entourage of hangers-on. His voice was slurred, and Harper could smell the alcohol on his breath. "You'll give the Sassy Sue a bad name hanging out with the likes of him."

"What do you mean, Bellamy?" asked Erick. "At least Harper fights his own fights. How much help did you need to have when you killed Billy SaintCroix?"

"I took care of that punk all by myself. I showed him, I showed everyone what happens when someone crowds a Bellamy. But back to your friend. Our boy Harper and the Maru, have quite the criminal record, or didn't he tell you about it? Smuggling, fraud, grand theft spacecraft, interstellar flight to avoid prosecution; a pretty dismal record if you ask me."

"Compared to piracy and mass murder, I guess our record is pretty dismal," Harper retorted. "How many people died when that missile was dropped on the town after the raiders finished looting it? No inconvenient witnesses to identify the raiders' landing craft. Pity the pirates didn't know about the resource satellites that had been launched earlier. One of them got some really nice images of the pirates' landers. Amazing the similarity between them and the Belle's."

The shot struck home. Bellamy's face flushed, he clinched his fists and started towards Harper, who in turn began moving towards Bellamy. Erick quickly stepped between the two combatants. "Careful, Bellamy," he cautioned, steel in his voice. "Harper's our guest. If you attack him, you attack all of us."

There were more of the Bellamy crowd than Abernathys, but most of the Abernathy engineers had their tools with them, many of which could be used effectively as close quarter weapons. Deciding the odds were not in his favor, Michael Bellamy backed off. "We can settle this another time, Abernathy," he said as the two groups separated. "Sometime when you're not carrying a weapon."

"Maybe," answered Erick "but not here, and not now." The two groups moved on, going their separate ways. As they walked, Erick turned to Harper. "I think it would be a good idea if we went to the reception area instead of the Sue," he said. "I'll contact the Sue, the Puffer, and the Willow, and they'll send out folks to find your wife. Then we'll escort both of you back to the Maru. You'll be doing everyone a favor if you and your wife stay aboard the Maru until the Ball proper."

"I'm not afraid of that son of a..." started Harper, only to be cut of by Erick.

"Then you should be. He won't come after you face to face. And, even if you did kill him, the Bellamys would demand weregild, or declare feud, and the Maru can't afford either. This isn't about bravery; it's about looking out for your ship and family. If you tangle with Michael Bellamy, no matter what happens, you loose. Now let's go."

Muttering curses under his breath Harper agreed.

Beka's mood wasn't improved by having her crew returned to the Maru under escort. Upon hearing the story, she promptly restricted them both to the Maru until the night of the Ball. Their protests that they hadn't done anything wrong fell on deaf ears. Her comments echoed the ones Erick had given Harper. Tangling with the Bellamys was a loosing proposition for the Maru, and she had enough to worry about with out adding a blood feud or funerals to her list.

The promised parts arrived the next day. The fact that they were delivered by a pair of the more experienced members of the Abernathy clan both of whom were, in direct defiance of drift regulations and Guild law, armed did nothing to improve Beka's disposition. If it wasn't that she had something she needed to do, she would already have left the drift, Ball or no Ball. But she had found her loophole, and she was going to do what she had told Harper and Trance not to do. She was going to tangle with the Bellamys. She was going to ram Richard Bellamy's new law down his throat. The guests at the Ball were going to have something to talk about besides whose gown revealed the most cleavage, or who was going to have a shotgun wedding in their future.

Fortunately for Beka's sanity, the Ball was the next evening. Between talks with advocates who seemed determined to make what should have been a simple procedure inscrutably complicated, and two crew members who were pouting like six-year-olds who had been told they couldn't go outside and play, her patience was being stretched to the breaking point. It came as a huge relief to finally be able to say. 'OK, time to get dressed'.

The Ball itself was a contrast between the rich and the poor families. Trance was wearing a peach colored halter top dress with a hole cut in the back for her tail, while Beka was wearing a black backless gown she had purchased when she had bought the clothes she had given Trance and Harper earlier By the standards of most of the Guild families they were both stylish and well dressed, but their outfits paled in comparison to the gowns worn by even the lowest crew women of the ships owned by the prominent Guild families. Rumor had it the crew women didn't buy their dresses, but that the Ephinghams and the Bellamys, along with the Sokolovs and the Takahashis, rented the gowns for their crew women to wear for the occasion. But rent or buy the effect was the same, a display of wealth and standing in the Guild hierarchy.

Security was present in abundance, and not just drift security. Beka noticed that most of the larger families had several senior crew members who were watching the celebrants rather than participating. These observers were also refusing the alcoholic beverages that were present in abundance.

Beka rebuffed Patrick's one attempt to dance with her, but was pleased to note that he and the crew of the Enchantress weren't mingling with the rest of the Bellamy's. Not surprisingly, Trance and Harper were chatting and dancing with the Abernathy clan. Trance had even managed to get Hortense to join the festivities. The Winningtun girl looked, if not attractive, at least presentable. Trance and Harper were both flushed from excitement and exertion from the dancing but sober. Good, she needed them to be able to give a good impression. It was show time.

Over the years a tradition had developed that halfway through the Ball the festivities would be paused for announcements. The announcements were declarations of engagements, apprenticeships, and pregnancies, with each head of family who had announcements to make coming up before the gathered Guild membership and delivering the family news. Naturally enough the senior families spoke first but eventually it was Beka's turn. She stepped up to the microphone and motioned for Trance and Harper to join her. This was unusual enough to cause a stir of conversation among the gathering.

"Fellow Guild members," began Beka. "As you know our newest Guild bylaw states 'All heads of families must show that they have an heir designated to assume ownership of family assets upon the death of said head of family and that current heads of families not having heirs be allowed one year to produce an heir.' So, I am very pleased to inform you that I am in full compliance with the new law. May I present to you Trance Gemini Valentine Harper, my lawfully adopted daughter, and designated heir to the Eureka Maru."

Epilogue

Time: CY 10090 AD Dec 5166
Location: The Andromeda Ascendant's officers' mess

"I see," said Andromeda. "Your loophole was that the law stated that you simply had to produce an heir, not that you had to give birth to one. I imagine that Bellamy wasn't pleased that you had outmaneuvered him. So Trance really is your daughter then?"

"Legally, and in every other way except biologically. I guess I was smart enough to let someone else do the diaper changing."

"But what happened to the others?" asked Andromeda. "Did the Bellamys get away with mass murder? What about Hortense, and your patrons the Abernathys?"

"When the Gilded Lily left Winnipeg Drift they accepted a mail and cargo run to Strinberg. According to the authorities on Strinberg, they never arrived. It could have been pirates, mechanical failure, lost in the slipstream, or maybe the authorities on Strinberg simply killed them and confiscated the ship, but no one has heard from them since they left the drift.

"We ran across the Puffer on Sinti IV shortly before we met you. They were all fine then."

"And the Bellamys?"

Beka shrugged her shoulders. "No one was able to prove that the Belle was the ship that attacked Herrick's World. As Patrick said, it could have been an attempt to discredit the Belle and the Bellamys. The Belle does seem to be a very fortunate trader though, leaving with nearly empty cargo holds and returning with full ones. Michael Bellamy was found in an alley on Bathsheba with his throat slit. Maybe he slapped around the wrong prostitute, or maybe it had something to do with the Audacious having been in port a few days earlier."

Andromeda shook her head. "Piracy, murder, revenge, blood feuds. That's not the way it's supposed to be."

"Maybe in the world you come from, Andromeda," said Beka tiredly, "but it's the way it is in mine."

"We're going to change that, Beka," said Andromeda earnestly. "Dylan, me, my sister self, you and the others. We're going to make things better."

"I hope you're right, Andromeda," said Beka. "I hope you're right."

Chapter 2