Pieces in Motion
Or (Rocky and Bullwinkle style): 'The One With a Hook for Steve if He Wants It'. I apologize in advance for the length of this. It kind of got away from me, but the story goes where it needs to go.—Andy
It was a chess piece unlike any other that he had seen before. He held the obisidan piece in the palm of his hand at eye level, closely examing the fine details. The king piece was shaped in the form of a dragon, which was only somewhat unusual. He had seen a couple of chess boards built around similar themes.
No, Valentine thought, the uniqueness was in how *weird* the piece was.
The dragon had one claw raised like it was going to cast a spell, but the other arm had the limp body of a princess clutched close to the body. The detail was exquisite. Looking close at her face, he thought he could almost see a tear coming from her eyes. And the rest of the set was the same way. Ivory and obsidian, carved in incredible detail in the service of the extremely strange and occasionally twisted.
A basilisk bishop with a come hither look.
A castle with Rapunzel’s hair trailing out the top window, a broken body laying at the bottom.
A knight with a shield in one hand and what looked to be a revolver in the other. There was even a thin trail of smoke coming from the barrel.
Valentine had come browsing in the little antique store looking for something to start replacing the collection he had left behind on Pacquin. He had enjoying collecting gaming related materials, both the beautiful and the odd. Decks of cards, chess boards, dice, you name it, Val probably owned an odd variation. Had owned, he clarified to himself. Best to consider everything in the apartment back on Pacquin lost to him.
He didn’t have a lot of money to start replacing his collection, with most of his personal share of the ship funds getting sent back to his mother (was she lost to him too?). But he had a small amount left and this store, entitled The Forgotten Friend, seemed like a place he might be able to find something. He had passed by it a few times and had been intrigued by the contents of the storefront window, but hadn’t made time until now to come in. It had only taken him a few minutes to spot the chess set on a back shelf.
Valentine brought the chessboard up to the front, where the store owner was carefully perusing a stack of receipts. The owner had at least sixty years on him, if not more. A thatch of unkempt white hair sat on top of a round, wrinkled face with black pebbly eyes that squinted at Valentine carefully. The eyes went down to the chessboard and back up to Valentine’s face. The words that came out of the owner’s mouth were rough with disuse.
“Fine piece of art, that is. You interested?”
Valentine nodded, not saying anything that might give the owner something to use to jack the price up. But as it turned out, the owner didn’t need anything, as he quoted Valentine a price about six times what he could afford to pay and probably four times what it was worth. “It’s an antique,” the owner said in explanation.
With an eyebrow raised, Valentine simply ran a finger across one of the pieces and then held up the layer of dust on it for the owner to see. “This board has more dust than you have hair, sir. I’m a betting man, by trade, and I’m willing to bet that I’m the first person to look at the board since you opened this shop.” He then quoted a price a quarter of what he could afford, knowing that would set the anchor somewhere around his range.
The bargaining went on for a bit, with the owner pointing out the quality details and Val replying that the details were indeed quality but extremely weird - the likelihood that anyone else interested would visit the shop was long odds, at best. Eventually, Val got out of there with the board and pieces in bag, having only paid a little more what he would have liked to have paid. But the old man had been stubborn enough to almost convince Val that the owner had carved the whole thing himself. It had been worth paying a little extra to get the set, even if that meant being broke for a while going forward.
As he walked out of the shop in the early afternoon, Val wondered what he’d actually do with the board and pieces on ship. Not in terms of playing it, mind you. He’d probably set up games with himself as he had done back on Pacquin. But the apartment had not moved about the way the ship did on take off and landing. Maybe Vikki could help him rig something up, or at least maybe build a nice container for the pieces.
He stopped for a moment in the street, which was not heavily trafficked. This part of town was not exactly hopping with activity, at least not during daylight hours. He set the bag down and pulled out a piece to look at it in the natural light of day, just to verify that he hadn’t just cheated himself out of his last few credits. He ran his thumb across the snakes that made up the black medusa queen’s head.
Lost in contemplation, he certainly didn’t see or even hear whoever it was that ran into him from behind. The person collided into him at full running speed. Both of them went down in a tumble and the black medusa queen went flying out of his hand. Someone’s knee slammed into the bag on the ground, scattering pieces in a wide arc. A little disoriented, Val only saw shoulder length brown hair and what he thought was a woman’s figure dressed in a nice suit scooping the content of their own bag back together before rushing off down the street. His first guess at it being a woman was confirmed both by the way she moved and her voice as she shouted back, “Sorry, can’t be late!” before disappearing down another street.
He thought briefly about chasing after her, but realized instead what had happened to his new purchase and quickly put himself to work gathering it back together. To his dismay however, after a thorough search of the area, the medusa queen was nowhere to be seen. While the street was not full, neither was it empty and he supposed that he or the woman could have kicked the piece elsewhere. There were multiple drains along the sides of the street. If the piece went into one of those, there would be no finding it.
Val returned back to the ship and put his new purchase in his room, minus the missing piece. If he wanted to play, he’d have to find a substitute. Irritated with the whole situation, Val threw himself into some minor repairs with the casino equipment he was installing in Delilah. He had put the whole thing out of his head and before he knew it, a few hours had passed. He heard one of the garage mechanics calling him from down below. “Boss, someone here to see you.”
Val brushed some of the dirt off of himself and wandered down the gangplank to where a woman stood waiting for him. Maybe a little shorter than him, she had wavy brown hair down to her shoulder and just enough curves to be interesting. She was dressed in a high quality blue blouse with a knee length black skirt that showed off her legs. Those legs, which Val noted were quite shapely, also were slightly scraped up. Was this the woman that he had run into? He hadn’t expected to ever see her again.
“Can I help you?” he asked, trying to keep the frustration out of his voice.He was a little upset with her for not looking where she was going, but he was really more upset with himself for being so stupid and not waiting until he had gotten back to admire the piece. He had gotten egotistical, stopping to basically revel in how good a bargain he had gotten and the loss of the piece was the price he had paid.
She took two steps forward and held out her arm. With a twist, there between her thumb and he first two fingers was the medusa queen! “Are you missing something?” she asked amusedly. With her other hand, she pointed to the creepiest part of the piece, a snake emerging from the queen’s cleavage with an apple between its fangs. “And are you sure you want to admit to owning it?” She didn’t sound particularly upset or disturbed by the feature, just indulging curiosity.
“Yes and...yes, mostly.” He reached out and took the piece from her, which thankfully didn’t look any worse for the wear. Val slipped the piece into his vest pocket, and then realizing something, tilted his head slightly and looked at the woman questioningly. “But how did you…”
She smiled, and when she did, it lit up her face. “I stop by Reld’s place everytime I’m on planet, so I recognized the piece on sight. When I realized I had ended up with it, I went back to the store and quizzed the old geezer about who he had sold it to.” She paused, a brief look of concern on her face. “I hope you didn’t pay too much for it, by the way. He trots out that line about it being an Old Earth antique, but it’s nothing of the sort.”
Valentine shook his head. “No, I managed to get it out of him for a reasonable price...or at least a price I could afford.”
She looked past him to Delilah and chuckled. “Judging by the ship, I should give you a lot of credit, because I’m guessing you can’t afford much. The mechanic said you were the captain.” She stuck out her hand to shake. “The name’s Mary Ann Valmont.”
“Mary Ann.” He shook her hand and smiled. “Valentine Quick, and yes, I’m captain of the Delilah. She’s not polished and she has her quirks. But also some things which might surprise you too.” Val thought about her going out of her way to return the piece when she hadn’t needed to. “Obviously, I’m not rolling in credits, so I can’t offer you a large reward for returning my creepy medusa, but is there anything I *can* do for you?”
She moved her eyes up and down his frame, making him mildly uncomfortable in a way that he didn’t think was possible any more. Then she smiled at him, that huge, charming smile of hers and she said, “How about you let me take you out to dinner? It’s my last night on planet, at least for a while. Rather than sitting cooped up in my rental apartment, why not let me spend it with the man who managed to get an actual deal out of old man Reld?”
This was a woman who knew what she wanted. Val returned the smile and said, “Absolutely. Did you have a place in mind? Because I only know what’s around this area.”
Mary Ann nodded and said, “It’s a little cafe style place, across town, near my apartment. I eat there at least once every visit and Lana would be upset if she knew I had decided to go anywhere else with a man in tow.” She took his arm in hers and started walking towards the front. “Now’s good, right?”
Val was hungry and besides, there was little chance that she was going to let him say otherwise. He just nodded as they walked under the large open garage archway. But he stopped when he saw a high end red luxury aircar. Sleek lines which exuded the feel of money. “Is that yours?” he asked, immediately following up with, “If so, I have to ask, why weren’t you driving that instead of slamming me into on foot?”
She opened the driver’s side door and motioned for him to go around to the other side. “Because, believe it or not Val, it’s a rental.” Straight from meeting him to a nickname, Val thought. As he got in, Mary Ann started the aircar and lifted off in a smooth motion that suggested real skill. “And,” she continued, “a replacement for the one that broke down ten minutes before the meeting that was the singular purpose for me being on planet.” She reached over and patted his hand. “See, it’s not just your ship that breaks down. I do apologize though.”
“No harm done.” It was easy to be gracious with the chess set intact again. Sitting in a luxury car getting taken to dinner by an intriguing woman didn’t hurt either, he conceded.
Mary Ann shot around a couple of other aircars in a crazy tight maneuver that he thought Rachel would at least have respected, had she been there. And to his own credit, he didn’t even flinch. She briefly looked over at him. “No, but I’m still going to apologize. If I didn’t run, I was going to be late and the seller had a reputation for being fussy about punctuality. He didn’t really appreciate my presence there, even as necessary as it was. He would have used being late as an excuse for who knows what. So even though I’m apologizing, I would do it again.” She paused thoughtfully. “Although next time, I would miss you.”
That got a laugh out of him. “I imagine you would.” He ran those last couple of statements through his head, trying to figure out what she did. If she was a buyer of some sort, normally the seller wanted them there. But this one was looking for reasons to give her trouble. A bit of a mystery.
He was about to ask her what she did, when the aircar started to lower. “We’re here,” she said and Val raised an eyebrow. If they had made it across town that quickly, they must have been moving even faster than he had thought they were. Mary Ann pulled the aircar down into a parking space along the street. The area was made up of older building, but older in a way that suggested antiques and money. Getting out of the car, he saw what had to be the cafe in question and pointed over. “That the place?”
The first thing that caught his attention was the large outdoor seating area with elegant black iron tables and chairs. The second thing that caught his attention was the distinct lack of indoor seating. The only building attached to the seating space could only be large enough to hold the kitchen and maybe an office. Mary Ann noticed him giving the place a curious glance and said, “Yes, it’s completely outdoors. It caters to the wealthy. It has a force field generator for the rainy days.”
Val just shook his head. “I thought I had seen everything.”
She grabbed his hand and dragged him across the street. “Just know if you want to eat here on a rainy day, you might want to get a reservation. Or know the owner.” They wandered up to the maitre d stand, where Mary Ann had a brief conversation with the tall man standing there. He seemed to recognize her, and before Val had really even taken in everything, they had been seated at one of the two person tables away from the street.
“You know how to romance a man, I must say.” Val smiled at her and she just shrugged and smiled back.
“I’m on the company dime. I don’t abuse the privilege often, but my employer doesn’t really mind.” She slid the menu that she had been given aside. “I recommend the roast chicken. Every time, I tell myself I’m going to get something different and yet here I am, pushing the menu away because I’m going to get the chicken again. It’s just that good.”
He opened up the menu and scanned the contents briefly. But then he set it aside as well and when the waiter came by, they both ended up with the roast chicken and a bottle of the house red. “So, what do you do, Mary Ann? Curiosity will kill me.”
“I certainly hope not. Because I’m going to make you wait a little bit longer. A woman has to have her mysteries, after all.” A second waiter came by with their bottle of wine and popped the cork for them. Mary Ann waved the waiter off and poured Val a glass before pouring herself one. “You’ve not always been a ship captain, I’m guessing. The way you dress, your manner of speech...it feels like you’re new to the game. So what did you do before and how did you end up flying that moving pile of parts you call a ship?”
Intuitive to go along with confident and attractive. In Val’s experience, that made her a catch. Or dangerous. Or more likely, both. “I am...was the casino manager at the Golden Dragon on Paquin. I know you haven’t been, because I would remember you.” It wasn’t flattery, just a simple statement of fact. This was the kind of woman...the kind of person one noticed.
“You’ll make me blush,” she said, but Val didn’t notice any actual blushing going on. “You’re right, I’ve been to some casinos on Paquin, but not that one. So...give me the rest of it. How did you end up going from casino manager to ship captain? Seems an odd career change.”
“I inherited the ship from my father and due to some complications, I ended up having to quit my job to take on the captain’s position. Unexpected, but some of the best things in life are unexpected. Like this dinner.” He raised his glass up for a toast. “To the unexpected.”
She clinked her glass on his. “Hear hear to that. Life would be dull if we could see it coming all the time.Just set your spear and ready for the charge and it works itself out.”
The waiter brought their food and the next few minutes were spent eating it. Eating might not be the right term, Val thought. Devoured was perhaps more appropriate. They were both clearly hungry, but more than that, the chicken was everything she said. Just the right amount of spices to complement the real chicken taste. Val made sure to try and savor every bite, to put it into his sensory database. Once they went back into space, real food would be scarce and certainly nothing like this dish. He’d use the memory of this food when actual food really was just a memory.
When the forks had gotten put aside with a bit of clatter, Val looked up at Mary Ann and said, “Are you always right?”
The attractive brunette took the question in stride, simply nodding. “More often than not. You’re a casino man. When the stakes are high, I wouldn’t bet against me.”
Val chuckled. “I don’t think I have ever met anyone quite like you. It’s refreshing. So spoil the mystery and tell me what you do. Complete the picture for me.” He framed her face with his hands to make the point.
“You’re going to be disappointed. I’ve raised the stakes too high.” But she smiled and made a small flourish with her hands. “Meet Mary Ann Valmont, itinerant appraiser. Formerly at large, but as of late, consistently working for the same employer.”
“So…” Val rolled all the information over in his head. “You go places and appraise items for other people? Establish authenticity for off planet buyers?”
“That’s it in a nutshell. I also generally, where necessary oversee the transport of the purchased items and complete the financial transaction, within established limits.”
He nodded. “Do you search for items for the buyer or do you always come in after the buyer and seller have connected?”
Mary Ann shook her head as she held her glass up to her lips. “Normally, I’m the final check. But my current employer may end up changing that. Make me into a hound dog.” She didn’t sound unhappy about the prospect, though.
Val’s first thought when she said she was an appraiser were those...what was the term...records sitting in a sealed container on Delilah. But the minute he had the thought, he also abandoned it. What he had told the crew still remained true. Too gorram dangerous. And for all that he found Mary Ann intriguing (and attractive), he didn’t know her. And the way she subtly but carefully danced around her employer’s name indicated someone with real wealth and desire for secrecy. She hadn’t even mentioned a gender or whether she worked for a person or company. Those were the kinds of people Delilah didn’t need to be messing with right now. He brought himself back to the conversation. “Do you have a specialty?”
“I’m good with art and with antiques in general, but I’m knowledgeable across a broad variety of disciplines,” she said. “Broad in a lot, but not incredibly deep in too many. I’m only one person after all, but I also like to think I’ve got a good instinct. And I know how to research. I even have my own small collection of random things acquired over years of being out and about. Do you mind me showing them off to you?” She pointed off to the north. “My apartment is in walking distance that way.”
Val smiled, thinking of his own collection sitting back in the apartment in Pacquin. Or perhaps it was in some storage box somewhere now. No matter. He would start again. “I’d like that, Mary Ann. I’m willing to bet they are as intriguing as you are.”
She gave him a sly look. “They can only hope, Val.”
The walk to her apartment was nice. The sun was just setting, the golden light shining on them as they shared work stories. Val’s stories were of some of the craziest casino patrons he had run into over the years. Mary Ann’s on the other hand, involved all the strange scams and tricks people tried to use to fool an appraiser. Somewhere along the way, her hand had slipped inside his. When she had to let it go to retrieve her keys and open the front door, he found himself disappointed.
“Have a seat anywhere you want, Val.” She set her purse down on a table in the small foyer area. The apartment was moderate sized, clean and well furnished, but without a lot of sense of personal things, which surprised Val. He would have expected a place where a woman liked Mary Ann to be brimming over with her energy and presence. It was then he remembered that she had said she was in a rental apartment. Which made sense, but then what about the collection? Would she have valuable collectibles in an apartment she didn’t own?
Meanwhile, he could hear Mary Ann in the kitchen getting glasses out and the clink of ice being put in them. Her voice came drifting from that direction. “You’re clearly a smart man, Val, so you’ve probably realized I was fibbing a little about the collection. I mean, I have a couple items that travel with me, but mostly I was just looking for an excuse to prolong the conversation.” He could hear her filling the glasses. “I promise I’m not a serial killer.” She came into sight around the corner, a small glass in each hand.
“You didn’t have to make an excuse, you know.” Val smiled at her as she came up to him, still standing in front of the couch. “I’m enjoying this too. If I didn’t make that clear, I’m sorry. Never as good at my personal life as my work life.”
Mary Ann smiled in return and handed him one of the glasses. “Can I offer you a drink?” She took a small sip. “And a one night stand?”
Val was just thankful he hadn’t taken a sip yet when she said that.
She went on, “I’m leaving planet tomorrow. We couldn’t do a long term commitment, even if we wanted to. But I don’t see why that has to get in the way.”
Val put his finger to her lips, and then put their glasses down on the end table near the couch. “You don’t have to explain.” And then he kissed her, long and sensuous, a kiss that he didn’t let go until well after they stumbled into the bedroom, leaving the drinks and the rest of the world far behind.
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