26 Sina 1117: Jumpspace
The week in Jump has started well, at least. I got up early, put on my Captain’s jacket, and made my obligatory visit to the passenger deck. Kolm and Thompson were still in their cabin, but the Phose were sitting near the front of the lounge with Dr. Korvusar and quietly conversing about something.
Shelly was cleaning up after breakfast. We usually just let the passengers grab whatever they wanted from the dispensers, but she had apparently set up a buffet on a table and was in the process of putting some of it back in the recycler. I frowned slightly but walked over.
“So, how’s it going?”
She looked up in surprise; I Do’rex and Saahna and Jami have given me? I want to be with you! I want to do this!”
She suddenly stepped forward and embraced me. I hugged her back, feeling slightly awkward. After the hug had gone on a bit too long, I pulled away.
“Well… I’m glad you feel that way. You’ll fit right in on the Grayswandir.”
She smiled. “Thank you, Derek. I mean, Captain.”
“Derek is fine.” I shook my head. “I’m trying to stand a bit less on protocol these days.”
Her smile widened. “OK, sure. Thank you.”
“No problem.” I looked around. “So, has Varan been helping you?”
She hesitated, then shook her head. “No. I haven’t seen him today.”
I frowned. “OK. I asked him to shadow you this week, but I guess he’s busy.” Busy doing what I didn’t say. “But…” I pointed to the buffet that she hadn’t yet completely cleared away. “What’s with all this?”
She hesitated then looked away, her face flushing in what I assumed was embarrassment. “Why? Isn’t… Isn’t that what I was supposed to do?”
I fought back another frown. “Did we ever have a buffet set up when you were a passenger?”
She thought for a moment. “No… No, you didn’t.”
“Yeah. We don’t do that. Why did you set all this up?”
She hesitated again. “Well… I just thought…”
Maybe they do it that way on-planet, or on the big passenger liners, but we’re a cargo ship first and a passenger ship second. The passengers should know that. That’s why they’re Jumping with us; they would be paying two or three times as much on an actual cruise ship.”
She frowned at that. “I… I just thought it would be a nice thing to do. You know, we’re stuck in here for a week, may as well try to make it nice. You know?”
I thought a moment. “Well, if you’re OK with the extra work then fine. If passengers say nice things about us on the nets, then it may help to pick up passengers for the next Jump. But if it does start getting us a bunch of extra passengers, then I may start expecting it of you.” I smiled. “You OK with that?”
She smiled slightly and nodded. “Sure. Thank you, Captain.”
“Derek,” I corrected her.
She smiled. “Derek.”
“Good.” I paused and thought for a moment. “OK, we need a crew meeting, and the sooner, the better. Can you come downstairs around 1400?”
She nodded immediately. “Yeah, sure.”
“OK. See you then.” I nodded then walked to the other end of the lounge.
“Hello everyone,” I said as I came up. “How is your Jump so far?”
Jakon looked up at me. “Very well, Captain! Thank you for taking us! We are glad for the opportunity.”
Tarin nodded. “Yeah, thanks.” He looked at his partner. “This is the happiest I’ve ever seen Jakon.”
I nodded. “I’m glad you’re having a good Jump..” I turned to look at Dr. Korvusar. “Listen, we’re having a meeting at 1400 in the crew lounge. Given that you’re a semi-permanent fixture on the ship, would you care to join us?”
She laughed lightly at that. “Are you certain, Captain?”
I shrugged. “Up to you.”
“Well, we will see.” She held up a glass. “Would you mind bringing me some more wine, Captain?”
I fought back a sigh and nodded. “Certainly, Doctor.”
—
Several hours later, I had managed to convince myself that there were no sensors on the bridge, in the crew lounge, or in my cabin. I wandered back to the crew lounge, grabbed a beer, and dropped into one of the chairs.
I had only been there for a few minutes when Jami came up from engineering. “Everything looks clean in back, Captain.” She made her own pass at the dispenser before continuing. “You really think they would plant anything as obvious as they did last time?”
I shrugged. “Nothing else we can do. Either they left something we can find, or they didn’t.”
“Or they didn’t leave anything at all. They have their person on board, after all.”
I frowned. “Who?”
“Carma?” She laughed. “I’ve only been here a few Jumps, but I can already tell that she has completely enraptured Varan. Or he’s completely enchanted with her. If the Spoilsports, or the Scouts, or whoever wanted to plant someone on us, then I’d do something like that. Hells, she probably would have gone after you if you hadn’t hidden yourself away all week.”
I frowned. “Maybe, but I wouldn’t have brought her aboard.”
“Really?”
I laughed. “Hey, would you want to spend a week in Jump with Saahna if I had done something like that? You’re either braver or more foolhardy than me.”
She laughed, grabbed a sandwich of some kind and another drink, then dropped onto the sofa. I pulled out my comp. It was getting close to 1400, so I switched to my comm and pinged the crew, asking them to head down to the lounge.
A few minutes later, Varan exited his cabin with Carma. The two went and grabbed some drinks from the dispenser, then headed for the sofa. Jami slid over, and they sat down beside her.
I frowned. “Ms. Quarez?” This is a crew meeting. Would you mind waiting upstairs until we are finished?”
Varan frowned. “Hey, what does it matter if Carma is here?”
“Because it’s a crew meeting?” I said, raising an eyebrow at him.
Varan frowned, then stood up. “See? I told you he was an asshole.” He stood up. “Let me walk you upstairs.”
Carma stood up, gave me a frown, and followed him. They went to the ladder where he gave her an overly passionate kiss, obviously for our benefit, then motioned her up. As she climbed, he gave me a look of annoyance before following her upstairs.
I rolled my eyes then looked around. Jami was looking at me.
“What?” I asked.
She shrugged. “Captain Barikus never let us openly associate with the passengers; especially down in the crew level. I’m surprised you’re letting him get away with it.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Really? OK, fine. But… why are you surprised about it here? I didn’t say anything about you and Amada, did I?”
She flushed but looked both surprised and wary. “Yeah, I… guess not.”
I shrugged. “Not the first time it has happened here. We pretty much just ignore it.”
She sat up a bit straighter. “Really?
I raised my hands. “Hey, if you’re getting your job done, I don’t care what you’re doing the rest of the time. Just don’t give the ship a bad rep, OK?”
She seemed to think for a moment, then nodded, smiling. “Yeah, got it! I can… I can work with that, Captain!”
“Yeah, I’m not your father,” I said. She nodded.
About that moment, Saahna came in from the Gunnery suite. “I think we’re clean,” she said. “There’s pretty much no way anyone got in there anyway and, if they did, they didn’t leave anything that I can find.”
I waved my hands helplessly. “Hey, they’re Scouts. Which means they’re IBIS. There’s nothing we can do there. All we can do is the best we can.”
She shrugged herself. “Yeah. I just hope we won’t have to keep doing this.”
“Yeah, me too.”
About 10 minutes later, Shelly and Varan came down the ladder. From the stiff way she was descending, she was frustrated about something.
“You could have at least told me how to change the menu settings!”
“Is there a problem?” I asked.
She angrily gestured towards Varan. “He didn’t tell me there were different dispenser settings for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
“Hey!” said Varan, glaring back at her. “That should have been obvious!”
She frowned. “I’m new at this… OK?”
I frowned. “I did ask you to help here. She’s new to the ship, remember?”
“Our ship,” Varan interjected, looking at me with obvious annoyance.
I frowned. “No, it’s my ship. As in, I’m the one the bank will be after if I miss a payment. Yeah, I’m giving everyone full input now, and fully sharing everything we make but, at the end of the Jump, it’s still my ship.”
He hesitated, then looked away and nodded. “Yeah, sure. I wasn’t saying that. I just want you to remember that we’re on this ship too, and anything you do affects all of us.”
“Yeah, I do. Which is why we’re having this meeting.”
He sighed, shrugged, and sat down on the sofa. “OK, then let’s get this over with.”
I raised my hands. “Yeah, as soon as everyone is here.”
As if on cue, Do’rex exited the bridge. “I hope I am not too late?” he said, waving a tentacle as he did.
“Nope,” I said, shaking my head. “Grab anything you want, and we’ll get started.”
I looked towards the ladder as he went to the dispenser, wondering if Dr. Korvusar would come down. No one appeared. I shook my head. Were we no longer important?
Do’rex sat down in the last chair, and I looked around. “OK, let’s get started. Did everyone check their areas for sensors?”
Everyone nodded or clicked. “There are no sensors on the bridge, as far as I am able to determine,” said Do’rex. The others gave similar responses.
“Good.” I then related my last conversation with Commander Winters, and with Captain Kellis.
Varan shook his head, saying something under his breath. “Gods damn it! Fine.” He glared up at me. “But we’re out of all this shit now, aren’t we?”
I nodded. “Yeah. I don’t want to deal with this stuff anymore.” I hesitated, then sighed. “But I don’t know if we can get out that easily.”
He frowned in palpable anger at that. “What the hells do you mean by that?”
By way of answer, I handed him the note that “Elijah Green” had left behind in my room.
He glanced at it, then stood up, angrily throwing the paper to the ground. “What the rutting hells? Where the hells did you get this?”
I sighed. “‘Elijah Green’ left it in my room after I talked to him.”
“And why the hells didn’t you tell us about it the other night?” He took a couple of steps towards me, and I noticed Saahna tense up.
I pointed to the note on the floor. “I’m telling you now. It’s the first chance I’ve had.”
“No, it isn’t!” He took another few steps forward, getting almost in my face. “You could have mentioned this two days ago, but you waited until we were in Jumpspace and couldn’t get out of this? Who the hells do you think you are!”
I was about to say something when Saahna stepped between us. “Sit down, Varan.”
“But he…”
“Sit… The rut… Down…” She glared at him until he took a step back, lowered his head, and returned to his seat.
Saahna didn’t move but extended her hand towards Jami, who had picked up the paper. She had obviously read it but, after a glance at me, handed it to Saahna and retreated to her own seat.
Saahna read the paper and turned to me. “OK… So apparently we aren’t out yet.” Her voice was carefully neutral, which I knew was a bad sign. “Why didn’t you mention this earlier.”
I sighed. “I told you this on the bridge yesterday. Because Commander Winters was having us monitored and followed.”
She frowned. “So?”
I shook my head. “Think about it. If I give the impression that we are doing everything we can to get out of this, and that we are no longer of interest to anyone else, then maybe she would leave us alone. But… But! If I give even the slightest hint that we’re still involved? We may never have left Kupakii.”
She looked at me for a long moment, then nodded and returned to her seat.
“OK, fine. I get it. So… what are we going to do?”
“Ignore it. We’re heading Rimward. Neither the Imperium, the Ral Rantans, or even these ‘JEDI’ people will be interested in anything out that way. The further away we get, the less they will care about us. We’ll be fine.”
“So we’re just ignoring that?” That was Jami, pointing at the paper Saahna still held.
“Yeah,” I nodded. Saahna handed the paper off to Shelly, who then passed it on off to Do’rex. He clicked and returned it to me. I shrugged and tossed it back on the table.
Varan still wasn’t satisfied. “You could have done something,” he said, voice tense. “Told us somehow. Given us a choice before we left.”
“A choice?” I asked. “What kind of choice?”
“To not go along with this kind of shit anymore!” He stood up, shouting. “To find another ship and go somewhere else!”
I sighed. “Yeah? And how do we explain that? Again, we were being watched. If we did…”
“And whose fault is that!” He stepped towards me again. “If you hadn’t been so determined to play the hero and sleep with Shelly then…”
“Watch it!” I said, stepping forward to meet him. “You know full rutting well that I had no idea where any of that was going! And, for the record, I have never slept with Shelly, no matter what she is telling her viewers.”
Shelly winced. “Well… we slept, but…” she stopped as I waved her off.
Varan snorted. “Yeah. What about all those ‘people-reading skills’ you always claim you have. Were none of them working that day?”
I gritted my teeth. “I’m a Broker, not a Zhodani! Even I can’t read everything.”
He glared at me. “Then maybe you should learn how before you do something that involves someone else!”
Saahna sighed from where she was sitting. “We were trapped from the moment we picked up that datastick on Fugitak, and you know it.” Varan turned to her, but she held up a hand to stop whatever he was trying to say. “And you know full rutting well that any of us would have done the exact same thing. We’ve all done the exact same thing in the past.” She gestured around the room. “We’re a Free Trader crew, it’s what we do. So don’t take it out on Derek. Hells, he’s been trying to get us out of this mess ever since he realized what was going on and he still managed to get a fifth of the ship paid off.” She paused and glanced at me. “That does give all of us bigger shares, right?”
I nodded.
“Good.” She turned back to Varan. “So what the hells would you have wanted us to do differently? You want off? Fine. We’ll be at Gimisapun in six days. Leave when we get there. Until then? Shut the hells up.”
Varan turned his glare from me to her and held it for a long moment, but he was the one who looked away first.
“Fine,” he said, shaking his head. He stood up and headed for the ladder. “I’m going to go get Carma. Don’t expect me to do anything until we hit normal space again, OK?” Without stopping, he went up the ladder.
There was a long silence in the lounge. Finally, Do’rex stood up and clicked.
“I will return to the bridge to monitor the ship, unless you have any more to share with us.”
I turned back from where I had still been looking at the iris above the ladder. “Yeah, fine. I… guess that’s it.”
“So… what now, Captain?” asked Jami.
I shrugged. “Business as usual. We’re in Jumpspace. Not much else we can do.”
“Don’t you think…?” She trailed off.
“Yes?”
She sighed and looked around. “Well…” She finally looked back at me. “Don’t you think you should, you know, work things out?”
“I don’t think Varan is interested in talking to me right now,” I said. “Unless one of you have something you want to say to me as well.”
“Um… no?” she said, looking around. Saahna was looking at something on her comp and Shelly was looking anywhere except where I was standing. I sighed.
“Do we have a problem?”
She seemed startled by that. “Oh? No! No, of course not. I just…” She looked around again. “I just thought you might want to…”
I waved her off. “Not much else I can do right now. As I said, we’re in Jumpspace for another five days. No one is going anywhere. Once everyone has calmed down a bit, we’ll talk. Until then?” I shrugged. “We’ve got a ship to run and passengers to take care of.”
“Got it, Captain!” She jumped up and gave me her usual sloppy salute. “I’ll… go make sure everything is fine in Engineering.” She looked around one last time then quickly left for the aft hatch.
Shelly looked around and stood up as well. “I guess… I better go check on the passengers.”
“Yeah,” I said. “No telling what Varan said when he got up there.”
She frowned. “Yeah, I guess.” She looked around. Besides me, Saahna was the only one still in the lounge. “He didn’t…” She said, looking at Saahna. “Varan’s wrong. Derek… He and I… We never did anything. Really!”
Saahna waved a hand, never looking up from her comp. “Yeah, I know. But… thanks.”
“Sure,” said Shelly. She looked at me one last time, then hurried up the ladder and into the passenger lounge.
I turned to Saahna, still looking at her comp. “So…” I asked. “You want to tell me how I’ve messed things up too?”
She shook her head without shifting her gaze. “No, I won’t. I can’t. I wasn’t lying when I told Varan what I thought. You got us into this completely innocently, and since then you’ve been making what seemed like the best choice at the time. I can’t say I’m happy with where we’ve ended up, but I can’t see how we could have come out any better. So… I’m fine.”
I stood there for a long moment. “But you’re still annoyed.”
She sighed and looked up at me. “Yeah. No matter how we got here, it’s still a mess. And… you’re the trigger.” She shrugged. “Sorry.”
I looked away. “If I had known…”
She cut me off. “Honestly? If you had known you may have done the same thing. I know you well enough.”
I gave a slight smile. “Yeah? Well… I think you would have done the same thing as well.”
She shrugged. “Yeah? Well… yeah. Probably.” She looked at me with a smile. “But it’s still better when you can blame someone else.”
I smiled myself. “Yeah, got it. So… What now?”
She shrugged again. “As you said, there isn’t much we can do right now. We’ll figure it out when we get to Gimisapun.”
“I hope so.”
“We will. We’ve been through a lot together. We’ll get through this.”
I nodded. “Yeah. We will.” I looked around. “I… guess I should check on things.”
She nodded as well and stood up. “Yeah, I agree. I guess I better do a checkout on the guns; I don’t get the impression that Varan is going to spend much time on them this trip.”
“Yeah, probably.” I started towards the bridge. “Check in with you later.”
“Oh, Derek?” she said. I heard the change in tone and turned back. “Yeah?”
“I knew nothing had happened between you and Shelly. She told us about it but… you aren’t that good.”
I frowned. “Really?”
She smiled. “Well… let’s just say you’re an acquired taste.”
I smiled in return. “I aim to please.”
She nodded. “We’ll talk about that. Later.”
Back on the bridge, I climbed up into the Captain’s chair and pulled up my console, flipping through the onboard feeds. Everything seemed to be normal. Gavin was following Shelly around the passenger lounge, and Dr. Korvusar was still talking with the Phose. I didn’t see Varan or Carma.
I tapped for more info and frowned. Varan had upgraded Carma’s amenities to High. Well, not the space–we hadn’t reconfigured cabins–but she had full access to all other cabin amenities.
I thought about taking the difference in passages out of his share then decided against it. Life support was a fixed cost, so we really weren’t losing any credits on it. And he was already angry enough about things; no need in making it worse.
Hopefully, a week in Jumpspace with Carma and another week in Gimisapun would let him calm down. The further away we got from Kupakii and all of the intrigue on the coreward end of the sector, the happier he would probably be.
I stayed up there for a while, mostly watching some net-vids I had picked up back on Boilingbrook. I hadn’t thought to grab some more on Kupakii. The whole situation there had rattled me.
Varan wasn’t the only one who would be happier the further away we got from all of this.
After a while, I left, grabbed some food from the dispenser, and headed for my cabin. This was going to be a long week.