Phantom Planet

Chapter 2

2

“That was flawless,” Alistair said as he and Keltie rode an elevator to the bridge. The cylindrical elevator car glowed blue as it ascended, illuminating them.

“It’s not over yet,” Keltie said.

She was glad for the lucky break. Now it was time for business.

“I know you’re not one to give yourself much credit,” Alistair said, “but that whole exchange made me a student of conflict resolution.”

Keltie laughed. “When we make the deal, feel free to ask me all the questions you want. Didn’t they teach conflict resolution in your space training?”

“Yeah, but not like that.”

Alistair unbuttoned his cuffs and breathed out deeply. “I’m pretty sure they gave me a digital manual that’s gathering digital dust on a digital shelf in my digital ‘training’ library that I’ve never used. I mean, come on, when you’re out here hustling, who has time for manuals?”

Keltie had read all of her training manuals. Twice. But she nodded and said, “I know what you mean.”

A screen next to the door showed security camera footage of the guests. They lined up on Deck Two, waiting for an elevator to the Sun Deck. Many of them looked excited and were smiling. Below the screen, several progress bars lit up and flashed green, showing that the ship’s systems were back online. They beeped, a welcome sound to Keltie’s ears after all the commotion.

“The mood really lifted when Emina made her announcement,” Keltie said. “Talk about perfect timing.”

“I’m feeling good about this,” Alistair said. “Can you imagine the commission?”

“Don’t talk like that,” Keltie said. “Not yet, okay?”

She hated when he talked about deals as if they were already done. It was bad luck.

Keltie knew better than to engage in that kind of thinking. Even though she and Alistair had partnered together many times, and she appreciated his easygoing optimism, she disliked his obsession over money. Typical loan guy. Planetary real estate was about the money, but there was much more to it than that. Some of it, you couldn’t teach. Sure, this deal would make her competitive in the company, and it would pay her a handsome commission—a year’s salary after expenses and overhead—but she found that it was just better to focus on selling in the moment.

God knows she needed the money. Already she was close to being underwater this year. She’d done a few luxury tours that didn’t amount to any sales. When that happened, the company put it against your future commissions. This was her last chance to stay profitable.

She dreamed of owning a planet one day. A place where she and her family could go without having to worry about anything. She wouldn’t even have to do real estate anymore. She could be the free spirit she’d always wanted to be, and her family would finally understand her.

But she hated thinking like that, especially when the money wasn’t in her account yet.

The elevator door chimed and opened into the bridge, a cone-shaped room on the top of the cruiser. Screens lined the walls, showing everything from the vitality of the ship via progress bars to radiation levels. Keltie rejoiced in seeing everything operating at normal levels. There was always something majestic about walking onto a ship’s bridge.

The gigantic gray ship, shaped like a pistol and smooth as an egg, loomed below, sailing through dark space.

Captain Emina Markovic sat in a swivel chair in front of a large control panel. She was the shortest space captain Keltie had ever seen, but her piloting skills made up for her lack of height—as did her sometimes fiery personality. Seeing Keltie, she stood.

“Miss Sheffield, how did it go?”

“Good enough,” Keltie said. She walked to the front windows, which revealed a dark blue planet wreathed in pale brown clouds. It gave the surrounding space a blue glow that reminded her of Earth, but not quite.

“The planet Kepler,” she said under her breath.

She started to think about all the possibilities, all the things someone could do with a planet like this. Excitement raced through her, and she wanted to hop on a corsair and start showing it off.

This was going to be her best showing yet.

“The weather is frigid,” Emina said, “but fortunately, one side of the planet permanently faces the star, so if we show them that side, it should be more manageable. If I were you, I would start on the bright side and then end in twilight.”

“To emulate a sunset,” Keltie said, grinning. She high-fived Emina. “Perfect!”

At that moment, the elevator door opened and several more men and women in suits entered.

Her team.

Keltie walked to the center of the bridge and everyone gathered around her.

“This is the moment we’ve all been waiting for,” she said, putting on her most optimistic tone. “Everything depends on this tour, guys.”

Everyone nodded seriously.

“Captain, any more information on the outage?” Keltie asked.

Emina slid into her chair and brought up a 3D hologram of the ship in front of her face. “I’ve never seen an outage like this. As far as I could tell, we were in empty space. No radiation, no spaceships, and no debris that could have caused it.”

“I wonder if it was a pulse blast,” Alistair said. “Wasn’t there a space battle around Provenance? Bunch of Arguses or something like that? A rogue pulse blast could—”

“The ship’s scanners would have picked it up,” Emina said. “We might have even been able to see a proton blast. But the ship is undamaged.”

“An outage just doesn’t come out nowhere,” Alistair said.

“This one did,” Emina said, frowning.

A fight was coming. Alistair and Emina always argued when it came to technical matters. Alistair didn’t have an aviation degree, but he always tried to argue based on logic. If Keltie had learned anything about space, it was not to look for logic. Sometimes things made no sense.

“Let’s not argue,” Keltie said. “Captain, I trust that you sent a notice to the Galactic Guard?”

“Yes,” Emina said. “I imagine they’ll send someone to investigate, just to be sure.”

“Then it’s settled,” Keltie said.

She snapped her fingers, and the hologram of the ship hovered across the bridge and stopped in front of her. She pinched the ship and zoomed in on a deck at the top of the cruiser where several orange dots twinkled like stars.

“The corsairs should be ready in a few minutes. Alistair and I will take the group leader. The rest of you will follow us. We will start on the bright side near the equator, and we will end on the dark side, just as the captain recommended. That means that we’ve got a short window to get into orbit.”

She glanced at a thin, dark-skinned woman next to her. “Kamala, have you heard from the staging crew?”

“They’re ready for us,” Kamala said. “They’ve even started introducing some greenhouse gasses. I’ll send the signal when you depart.”

“That brings us to selling,” Keltie said. “I sent the planet specs to everyone. There are plenty of selling points, but focus on the key ones: location, gravity, location, and freedom from most of the Zachary Galaxy laws. Here in the Rah Galaxy we care about freedom, so show them that. And location! Remember, say yes to everything. You can never say ‘yes we can’ too much on this kind of voyage. If they ask you about increasing the planet’s temperature, you tell them we can do it. If they tell you they’re afraid of the radiation, you tell them not to be afraid. You smile, you alleviate their concerns, and you always keep the conversation positive. About the only thing we can’t do is increase the brightness of the star, okay?”

The crew nodded as they took notes.

“That brings us to the land trip. The suits are charged and will protect us for long enough to show them around,” Keltie said. “Keep your eyes open and please don’t let anyone get hurt. That would be the ultimate downer.”

Keltie faced Alistair, who was standing next to two blonde-haired women—twins. “That leaves finance. Alistair, when we finish the land trip, I want you, the attorney and the insurance agent onboard. We will fly Charsworth and his leaders into twilight. That sounds like a pretty good place to close, don’t you think?”

“Love it,” Alistair said. “I’ll be ready.”

Keltie clapped her hands. “Let’s get going so we can all come home just a little richer.”

Everyone clapped, and a few of the team members patted her on the back.

A shrill alarm cut through the cheer, and it made Keltie’s heart sink.

Emina scanned the screens on her panel as everyone crowded around. Then the captain’s eyes went up to the window and she cursed.

A small, gray dot was moving around the planet, barely visible between the planet’s brown atmosphere and the black space.

Keltie knew it the moment she saw it, and she wanted to kick the control panel.

“No!” she yelled.

It was another luxury cruiser.

Competition.