Freelance Traveller

Benni Loses a Case

by Timothy Collinson

This story originally appeared in the July/August 2025 issue.

It is often said of Benni the Brief that she is too good for the 400s. Personally, I say she is too smart for the 400s. Maybe she moonlights for the Credits on the upper decks, say some. Maybe she lies low after getting involved in the uncovering of something ignoble over on Capital. Here she is, however, at Mizzy’s telling a good tale for her kava which is always on the house on account of her once vocating for Mizzy when some traveller and his crew tried to cause trouble. Benni is on her way home from the court where she defends Loud Eneri from a dodgy abatement order. She is her usual charming self with stylus skirt showing off her calves and stylish blouse showing off a lot more. Not that Judge Jessick is swayed by such things. He is forty per cent blind and sixty percent old so the general thinking is that Loud Eneri might be the first witness he has heard in a while.

Benni draws quite a crowd around her as she tells of her High Passage back to Anther last week. She is in an adjournment from prosecuting The Squire, who reckons himself suitably noble for Capital even though – as anyone will tell you – his parents were a steward and a vacc welder. The adjournment is due to a loss of evidence. If it is not found soon the whole show will wash.

The liner covers the four parsecs from Capital in one Jump but that still means seven days to fill in time. “The navigating officer is a squarejaw and has quite the eye for filling in time with me,” Benni says. “He gives me the ten Credit tour of the boat and gets me a meal at the captain’s table. The grub is no great deal which is disappointing when I am on the company card, but I am sitting beside a Baron. Sounds as if he might need representation soon if his dealings go any further Rimward. I give him my professional comm. The Nav gives me the eye for this, but it does not slow him down. No wonder he is called six-parsec Slessidge. The less he speaks about his having a head for figures when he clearly means his eye, is for the better I tell him. This is not a line that is going down well with me.”

“Turns out,” Benni says, “that even his head for figures is somewhat on the void side of the Rift as he takes me to the casino on the lounge deck and I have to go easy so he earns at least some Credits this voyage. I do not know why I care as he is a big enough blooster to look after himself, but I visit Capital often enough that I may be on the same ship again sometime. He is surprisingly interested in my telling him about the style shops on Capital where I can spend Credits on wraps that even the upper decks on Anther do not bother with.”

While Benni brushes something from her sleeve which even I can’t see, Mizzy brings another mug of kava.

Benni insists on anteing up for this one.

I watch and listen, trying to figure her angle in telling us this as she does not seem to be a kiss and tell kind. Personally, I do not care for the kind that are kiss and tell, but you get all types at Mizzy’s. The sitmedowns are tight enough that you will overhear most things over time. Indeed, one overhyped lout near the bar is asking just that sort of personal question which is redolent of decks much lower than the 400s. Benni gives the lout a look which might wither Judge Jessick if he had any more withering in him.

Benni continues her tale. “All is well, and we emerge from Jump at Anther on schedule. We dock at the station in short order.” Benni gestures vaguely at the decks far off below us. “It is when I am collecting my baggage that I find the purser is shortchanging me. ‘There should be four’, I tell her. She looks again at my ticket. ‘You are right,’ she tells me. ‘I know that I am right,’ I tell her. ‘One moment,’ she tells me. After this exchange which scintillates as much as the stars from Anther which scintillate not at all under that cloud deck, she calls the captain.”

“The captain,” Benni says, “is busy as it happens, but the Nav is on duty and comes to see what the fuffle is. ‘You have lost your case?’ As I say, he may be a day short of a Jump. I see an incoming dawn slowly start to cross his face. Then he realizes what he is saying. ‘You have lost your case!’ Now he thinks it is the funnest line ever and the purser looks puzzled until she rechecks my boarding slate and sees my profession. They check the baggage hold. It seems there is one case that should not be there. It is not my bag. The Nav checks the idents and checks the manifest. He shakes his head, and I fear it might come loose. While we watch, he unseals the case and opens it.”

Now Benni the Brief is of course a star when it comes to spinning a tale in court. She stops to carefully stir her kava which is already half drunk and to my mind is in no more need of a stir than the Marches need another minor race. Her audience leans in, and I think it no shame that I do too. Benni takes a sip and savours the moment more than the drink.

Finally, she relents. “Turns out, when they check the manifest tagging, the baggage belongs to The Squire. A compartment in the bag contains just the drugs that is the evidence that went missing. No one has yet explained how it came to be on the liner but there are plenty of theories.”

Seems like Benni hasn’t lost her case after all.