Chapter 4

The Captain's Lounge was far less formal than the Stateroom we'd been in for Dinner, but still very nicely apportioned. Full of overstuffed leather couches, card tables, a stereo system, and a vid player. It was less a formal dining room and more a rec room. A bar with all sorts of alcohol was set up, being tended by an Italian-looking man with pomade in his hair and a bit of stubble on his chin. He nodded to me as I entered and asked, "What'll you have, Skipper?"

"If you have Krupnik from Predlitz, I'll take a glass of that on the rocks, otherwise I'll have a double bourbon on the rocks." I nodded.

"Krupnik, huh? Captain Jankowski likes that, so we have a bottle of it somewhere back here. Un momento." Grinned the man, ducking down under the bar top and pulling out a ceramic bottle of Krupnik and a rocks glass. It wasn't a brand I was familiar with and I cocked an eyebrow as the Man chipped some ice off a block and poured a measure into the glass.

"I'm not familiar with this brand." I said.

"You oughtta be, it's your Old Man's distillery. He set it up two years ago after a Master Distiller just showed up at New Ålborg from New Warshaw one day." Explained the Man.

"That'd explain it. I was right in the middle of my third year at the Blackjack School of Combat when he set it up." I nodded.

"Here, give it a taste. You ain't gonna be disappointed." Grinned the Man.

I took the glass and took a sip, it tasted good the honey lending sweetness that was balanced by the spices that were added. It was clearly top-shelf stuff and I nodded in appreciation at the man who was busily pouring himself a glass of Grappa and then pouring another glass which was then snatched by Captain Cicerelli of the Lynx. Captain Cicerelli raised his glass and both I and the Bartender did the same.

"To good fortune, Salut." Grinned Captain Cicerelli.

"Salut." Nodded the Bartender.

"Na Zdrowie." I replied.

We downed our drinks and the Bartender poured another round for us as Captain Cicerelli regarded me. "So, Boss, I see you met Greaseball." He offered.

"Greseball? You an ASF Jock?" I queried.

"Damn straight. Squadron Commander Carlo Giovanni 'Greasball' Della Fresca, at your service Skip. My Squadron's usually the one working with Lynx and Hoplon taking the fight to any Pirates what wanna piece of us." Grinned the Bartender.

"If you're a squadron commander, how'd you wind up on Bartending duty tonight? Shouldn't they have gotten some Security grunt for that?" I asked.

"He busted out first last game." Drawled another voice from the doorway. I spotted a man in a tweed suit with a bowtie and a cocky grin on his face. He looked more like a University Professor than someone who typically would sign on to a risky venture like LosTech prospecting. Though from the way he was standing, he was clearly used to danger. I was guessing he didn't usually dress like this in the field.

"So the loser of the last game is on Bartending Duty for the next one?" I asked.

"You bust out first, you pay the price." Shrugged Greaseball.

"Doctor Harrison James. PhDs in Archeology, History, and LosTech studies. They didn't tell me the new Boss was a kid. Hopefully, you take after your Old Man, 'cause he had one hell of a lucky streak." Introduced the Man in the Suit, holding out his hand for a handshake.

"Jozef Poniatowski. I'm not my father, but I'll do my best." I nodded, shaking his hand. Doctor James turned to accept a glass of bourbon from Greaseball and took a seat on one of the overstuffed leather couches.

Just then, two more people entered, one a large, blonde, man with stony features covered by a beard. Peeking out from his rolled-up sleeves were the Urnes Style curvilinear tattoos favored by the Jarnfolk. He had them creeping down from his biceps to his forearms and had an exquisitely crafted, ornately engraved, pistol hanging off an embossed leather holster from his hip. He walked in with a smaller man wearing a tactical turtleneck with longer, platinum, hair and a slight beard. The pair bellied up to the bar and the Larger Man ordered Schnapps while the Smaller Man ordered a Scotch. When they got their drinks, the smaller man pulled out a clay pipe and pouch of tobacco and began packing the pipe for a smoke.

"You must be our new Leader." Nodded the Larger Man in accented Star League English. The accent was similar to the Norwegian one that had been favored by my mother, but it was subtly different as well.

"I am. Jozef Poniatowski." I nodded.

"Captain Torstein Haesteinnsson of the Hoplon." Grinned the Larger Man.

"Lieutenant Jan Jozef Adamski of Alpha Squad. We're usually the ones to board Pirate Dropships for intact capture. It helps pad out our budget to sell one every now and then." Introduced the Smaller Man, before lighting up his pipe and taking a draw from the tobacco.

"Ugh, you're smoking already? Shite. I was hoping to show up afore the room started to reek of smoke." Groused a Feminine Voice from the doorway.

I turned to see a Curvy Redhead in a black jumpsuit. She stalked up to the bar, careful to avoid Adamski's smoke, and grabbed a scotch before turning to me and looking me over with a critical eye. She must have liked what she saw because she nodded and said, "Good. You look like you know your way around a scrap. I was hoping you'd not be too soft, LosTech Prospecting ain't for wee bairns with faint hearts, after all. Linda MacTavish, Captain of the Hoard-Hauler."

"Jozef Poniatowski, nice to meet you. As to fights, I don't always start them, but I do finish them." I grinned.

"He'll do just fine. And Helena was worried." Scoffed Linda.

"We haven't seen how he acts under pressure yet. Give it time." Came Helena's Voice from the entrance, as she stalked in with a cigar in hand and grabbed a beer from Greaseball.

"That's one of the reasons I invited him." Pointed out Captain Cicerelli.

"Giacomo's right. You can tell a lot about a man by how he plays poker." Rumbled Chief Jankowski as he walked through the door moments after Helena had, grabbing a drink before taking a seat on one of the overstuffed couches.

"Speaking of which, we might want to get this show on the road." Nodded Doctor James from his seat on the couch opposite Chief Jankowski. 

Doctor James was shuffling a deck of cards. The cards were Lyran-style ones that used Knaves instead of Jacks, I noted. Jacks were more of a Federated Suns thing, though several duchies in the Free Worlds League also used them, as did Canopian and Taurian decks, judging by the games I'd played at Blackjack with Esteban Valdez and Erin Raventhir, the sole Taurian and Canopian Cadets in my year at Blackjack respectively. Of course, card games in the Draconis Combine were very different, same for ones in the Capellan Confederation, but I doubted a group with this many people from Lyran Space and with Rasalhague Heritage would willingly play a Combine game like Hanafuda. As we took our seats, Doctor James spoke up again.

"The Game is Texas Hold 'Em. Buy-in is three-hundred-fifty C-Bills, winner takes all." He said. I was struck suddenly by an idea that might help my standing with these guys.

"Tell you guys what. Since I'm the new guy here, I'll offer to put up additional stakes out of my own pocket. Say, C-Bills equal to half the pot for the Runner-up, and third place gets their buy-in in C-Bills?" I asked.

"You don't have to do that, lad." Frowned Linda.

"Seriously, Kid. It's a nice gesture, but you ain't obligated." Agreed Greaseball.

"I know I don't. Call it a New Boss Bonus if you have to." I hedged.

"You know, I hear the Marian Hegemony does something similar whenever a new Imperator comes to power. He pays his generals a bonus on his coronation." Piped up Helena.

"If they do it's 'cause that was something the Romans used to do back on Ancient Terra." Shrugged Doctor James.

"They do love copying the Romans a lot. Down to the slavery." Scowled Chief Jankowski.

"Could be worse, I guess. They could be actively killing and torturing their populace." Offered Captain Cicerelli.

"The Dracs do that, so do the Capellans." Agreed Linda.

"Don't remind me." Grumbled Adamski.

"It is a bit of a sore subject for the Rasalhague Diaspora. My father wouldn't have been any happier than Adamski is to be reminded of that. My grandfather might've have punched you in the face for mentioning it, Woman or no." I nodded.

"I like this kid already." Grinned Chief Jankowski.

"Of course you do. We all know how you feel about the Combine." Chuckled Greaseball.

With that, the game started. As we played, I got to know these officers better. Chief Jankowski and Lieutenant Adamski were risk-takers, prone to taking risks on river cards if the payouts were good enough. It was pretty consistent with their pasts, as Chief Jankowski was a Rasalhague Nationalist and former member of one of the branches of the SPA on Predlitz. Meanwhile, Adamski was a trained commando whose training emphasized daring in planning. Apparently, the motto of the Combat School he went to was 'Who Dares Wins', taken from the SAS of Old Terra. 

In contrast, Captain Haesteinsson played conservatively, literally conserving his chips to keep playing. It was a reflection of the more conservative Jarnfolk culture on his thinking, even after he no longer lived among the Jarnfolk. He mentioned how, for a Jarnfolk, he was actually more moderate in his thinking, and how that was one of the reasons for his exile, though he refused to go into specifics. I got the sense that there had been a woman involved, though. There usually was in those sorts of stories, speaking from experience. I did actually duel more than one other Cadet over a woman in my time at Blackjack, after all. Not that any of those relationships lasted more than a couple of months.

Linda MacTavish was odd, betting big on poor hands a time or two, seemingly just for the thrill of it. I got the sense that she had a bit of a gambling issue. Every time she did that, she wound up losing because, of course, she did. She complained each time, but it was good-natured complaining like she was only doing it for the formalities. Helena on the other hand, put actual heat on her complaints when she lost. She swore up a storm, like a sailor, or rather, like a mercenary every time she lost a hand. She got creative with her swears too, seemingly inventing curse words whole-cloth. I'd never heard someone be called a 'jag-bag' before, but I supposed when you swear that often, that creatively, you tend to get some unique words out of the deal.

Doctor James was calm and collected, though a bit sarcastic, and tended to use flirting with Linda and Helena as a method of psychological warfare to win hands against them. It generally worked too, because he was actually pretty smooth when he wanted to be. Beyond that, he shared some of Chief Jankowski and Lieutenant Adamski's daring. Hands between the three of them tended to rocket up in chip count as each tried to outdo the other and force their opponents to fold. It only worked out for him some of the time, since Chief Jankowski seemed to have a pretty good bullshit radar, Adamski less so.

Captain Cicerelli played like a Bulldozer. He was an effective bulldozer, but he was still a bulldozer. His saving grace was that he had a pretty good head for the odds, but that sort of thing, while great for a Dropship Captain, only took you so far in a card game. There was always a chance he was wrong about the odds, after all, and deception was a big part of poker. That part seemed to be where Greaseball thrived. He had the same daring streak as Doctor James, Chief Jankowski, and Lieutenant Adamski, but was a good enough bluffer that he could make anyone believe he had better cards than him. Only Chief Jankowski seemed to be good at detecting it, and if I was any less perceptive, he'd have busted me out long before I'd actually gone out. It made me wonder just how exactly he'd lost the last game.

Speaking of busting out, as we played, it was, surprisingly, not Linda MacTavish who busted out first, but Helena. Doctor Jones had gotten in her head after flirting one too many times and she just said fuck it and went all in on a pair of Knaves. Unfortunately, Doctor James had pocket Kings. The flop came King, Knave, Seven, the turn came Seven of Diamonds, and the river came Two of Clubs. Doctor James got a full house to Helena's three Knaves. She swore up and down the room in a string of creative profanity before heading for the bar to drink away her problems.

Captain Cicarelli busted out next, going head to head against Linda MacTavish when Linda had pocket deuces and he had Ace King Suited. The river came Four of Hearts, Ace of Spades, and King of Clubs, Captain Cicarelli had two pair to Linda's pair of Deuces. The turn came of Knave of Hearts, but the River came up Two of Spades, giving Linda the hand she needed to pull out a victory and Bust Captain Cicerelli out. Captain Cicerelli took the loss in stride, shrugging and heading to the bar. Linda was beaten next after being bluffed out of a hand after betting significantly before the turn by Greaseball and then busted out the next hand by Chief Jankowski, his three Aces to her two pair of Kings and Nines.

Captain Haesteinsson busted out next. Going head-to-head against Adamski. Adamski bet big and Captain Haesteinsson called, figuring Adamski was bluffing about his hand, as he usually was, only for Adamski to reveal he'd actually had a good hand. A full house, Jacks over Sevens to Captain Haesteinsson's Jack High Flush. Captain Haesteinsson was gracious in defeat and went to grab a Schnapps from the bar.

Speaking of Greaseball and Chief Jankowski, Greaseball tried bluffing big-time two hands after that only for Chief Jankowski not to buy it. The River came King of Diamonds, Queen of Hearts, and Ten of Clubs. The Turn came Six of Diamonds, and the river came Six of Spades. When hands were shown, Greaseball had a pair of tens from his ten-four off-suit, meanwhile, Chief Jankowski had three Sixes. Doctor James busted out next, getting beaten in a three-way pot with Lieutenant Adamski and me. His six high straight beat Adamski's three fours, but both were beaten by my Ace High Flush in Diamonds.

Adamski went out next, getting taken out by betting large on the chance of a gut-shot Queen-high straight only for the turn and river to come up without the ten he needed to fill out his straight. In the meantime, Chief Jankowski managed to get a full house, Queens over Jacks. Unfortunately, I only had three Queens, which meant that I technically also lost, but I still had chips in the game. By that point, it was closing in on eleven at night, ship time and everyone had duties to get to in the morning. We only played for twenty minutes afterward, when I busted out against Chief Jankowski, my Jack High straight to his Nine High Flush.

"Not bad, kid. Looks like you won't have to pay out for second place after all." Grunted Chief Jankowski, grabbing the stack of C-Bills used as buy-ins from the table where they'd been sitting.

"Yeah, not bad at all." Nodded Adamski, as I handed him three-hundred-fifty C-Bills from my own wallet for his prize.

"I think you'll do just fine as boss with that kinda luck." Nodded Greaseball, who was pouring Captain Haesteinsson one last drink.

"Indeed. I think he will be a good boss." Agreed Captain Haesteinsson.

"For a frakking kid, anyway." Grumbled Helena, still a bit salty about her loss.

Doctor James and Linda had already left for the evening, though from the chuckling Captain Cicerelli did when I asked where they went, they probably had gone to hook up. Apparently, Doctor James had gotten Linda all hot and bothered with his mind games and he wasn't about to turn down a bit of consensual fun between two consenting adults. I nodded at everyone, bidding them good night, then headed off to my bunk, exhausted from the day's events. I shucked my armor, weapons, and clothes, then headed for my bunk. A proper bed and not crew bunk, as befit my position as CEO. I lay down and fell asleep before my head hit the pillow.

That night, I had another dream, of that other person living that other life on Old Terra. The usual boring day followed by a session of sword practice with his local HEMA group was followed by starting a pair of new novels. The first was from a series called Star Wars, which I had never heard of before getting these dreams, though it was interesting enough, with its many alien species, unlike the Inner Sphere. The second was more immediately interesting to me as it detailed events on the Lyran Commonwealth world of Trellwan in the Year thirty-twenty-four. The novel, Decision at Thunder Rift, involved a sneak attack by Oberon Confederation Mercenaries at the behest of the Draconis Combine under the guise of reinforcements.

In the novel, the Combine attack was ultimately thwarted by Grayson Carlyle, who proceeded to form the Gray Death Legion Mercenary group out of the survivors, but Trellwan took heavy damage and much of the forces on-planet were wiped out. When I woke up the next morning, the memory of the dream was fresh in my mind, as was the opportunity presented by it. If I could warn the Lyrans when the event occurred in the real world, it would go a long way toward gaining legitimacy versus the Oberon Confederation, which would no doubt help solidify my position.

I made a note on an encrypted data chip in my noteputer about it, then went to the en-suite bathroom to start my day. . .

XXXX

AN: So a few things here, meeting the Dropship Captains and the officers that most frequently work with them, getting a feel for everyone at the Poker game through gambling, and more importantly, dreaming about the Trellwan Incident that could be used to his advantage a few short years from now. Granted, it's possible that the Lyrans come to him for Mercenary Reinforcements instead, but by thirty-twenty-four, he'll still be something of an upstart compared to Hendrik Grimm III, even if he'll have reclaimed Butte Hold by then. Hendrik Grimm will still have the experience and legitimacy he gained during his rise that not even the defection of Maria Morgraine and Redjack Ryan put a damper on.

If Jozef can help steer the Lyran Envoy away from the Oberon Confederation as a source of Mercenaries, or even just warn them of the intent to backstab them, it will increase his standing versus that of Hendrik Grimm in the eyes of the Inner Sphere, which means more support for an eventual takeover of the Oberon Confederation, which is a necessary step toward unifying this section of the Coreward Periphery in advance of the Clan Invasion.

At any rate, the next chapter will be a brief time-skippy chapter detailing the events of the trip to Iron Land and what everyone gets up to, now that Jozef has met everyone.

Stay tuned. . .