8 Erbe 1117: Jumpspace
I got up way too early. Saahna had come in somewhat after me, and we had spent some time together, which just made getting up in the middle of the night even worse. Neither of us bothered with the fresher and just pulled on our jumpsuits and headed for the Bridge.
Do’rex was still there, of course. “We should be at Jump Point in about 45 minutes, Captain,” he said as we entered.
“Thanks,” I replied as I climbed up to my seat. “Any problems?”
“No. Everything has been quiet.”
“You’ve been up here the entire time?”
He clicked dismissively. “I wanted to monitor in case our fuel supply proved to be a problem. Fortunately, Engineer Wistina has finished refining what we were stuck with.”
“Great.” I quickly checked the internals, then pinged Engineering. “Jami? We ready?”
There was a slight pause. “Sure, Captain! I’ve got all of that biowaste they gave us cleaned up!”
“Thanks. So… you get any rest?”
“Yeah, some. The automatics handled most of it.”
“So… you’re OK for Jump?”
There was a pause, followed by a sigh. “Hey, I’m on the ship too! You think I would risk us?”
“Of course not! But I’d be remiss if I didn’t ask!”
“Got it! We’re good, Captain! Let’s the hells out of here!”
“Right there with you.” I clicked off then switched to the Gunnery suite. “Varan, you there?”
There was a longer pause than I would have expected. “Varan?”
“Huh? What? Oh… Yeah, Derek. What’s up?”
I sighed loudly. “Were you asleep?”
“What?” There was a pause. “Yeah… I guess I was. It’s… kinda relaxing being in zero-g here.”
“Grab a stim-stick next time. If someone had been shooting at us, I wouldn’t have wanted to wait while you woke up. So… how do we look?”
There was a pause. “We’ve got about a dozen ships in the area. Most departing, though it looks like Girar has a pair of patrol ships out here. Got another Free Trader ahead of us, and a bulk carrier behind us. No one is at full power.”
“Great. Thanks. Just… keep an eye on things.”
“Hey! Gray would have woken me up if something was happening!”
And that may have been a few seconds too late! I thought, but I had taken a nap myself, so I really couldn’t say anything. “OK. Just… be careful, OK?”
“Yeah, sure.” When there was nothing else, I clicked off.
—-
We sat in silence for a while. I kept checking the sensors, wanting to know what was going on around us. I didn’t go active, that would have been too paranoid. But I was watching the passive readings from all of the ships ahead and behind us.
The Fesarius was still grounded on Girar. Why were they here? It may have been just a coincidence, but I wasn’t sure I believed in those anymore. Then, I started checking the ships behind us in the queue to the Jump Point.”
I suddenly froze. About an hour behind us was a ship showing Solomani registry. It was decently sized; about 2000 d-tons. It was broadcasting the ident of The Soul of India, but I was sure it hadn’t been at the Starport. I remembered being told that there were Solomani ships in orbit hiding in the Glimmerbelt.
Maybe the Fesarius didn’t need to follow us. I tagged the Soul of India on the computer so that we would be alerted if we reencountered it. The Fesarius was already on that list.
“We are at safe Jump distance,” said Do’rex.
“Well, let’s get out of here.” I opened the shipwide comms and hit the switch to dim the lights. “All passengers and crew, we are about to make our transition to Jumpspace. While we expect no problems, we recommend that everyone remain seated during the transition. Anyone wishing to watch the transition should switch to channel 5.”
I clicked off, then turned to Do’rex. “Let’s go.”
He tapped on his console. Immediately the stars started dimming outside while a glow built up around the canopy. The stars were replaced by the random patterns of Jumpspace and, once the transition was complete, I closed the shutters.
“We are now in Jumpspace,” I announced over the comms. “Please feel free to move around again.” I brought the lighting back up to normal, then climbed out of my seat.
“We good?” I asked.
Saahna was already shutting down her own console, while Do’rex waved a tentacle. “Everything looks nominal. I should have an exact time in a few minutes, but we should be at Gashuumi in a week.”
“Good.” Saahna had stood up and was waiting for me to get out of the way. “Get your final plot, then get some sleep. I’m doing that right now.”
—
I left the Bridge, followed by Saahna. Varan had just left the Gunnery suite as we exited.
“Glad to be out of there!” he said, stretching. “We’re good for the next week?”
“Unless Shelly needs some backup,” I said pointedly. “But otherwise… yeah.”
“OK, sure. Great. Goodnight.” He turned and headed for the ladder to the passenger deck.
“You’re… going upstairs?”
He turned with a smile. “I’m awake, thanks to my nap. I’m… just going to see if Karran is in the same mood.”
“Just don’t bother Shelly.”
He frowned. “I’ve got it. Captain.”
“Sorry, just tired.”
“I said, I’ve got it.” He headed up the ladder.
“Are we going to have more problems with Varan?” Saahna asked behind me.
I shook my head. “No. I think he’s got it.”
“Good. Well… let’s get to sleep.”
—-
I was awoken too early by Gray. “Captain,” she said. “I have a message from Steward Tharis. She indicates that it is urgent.”
I groaned and sat up, trying to focus on the chron. It was barely 0600. “OK, yeah. Put her through.” There was a click.
“Derek, Captain. Sorry to bother you, but… Ms. Steton is still sick and seems to be getting worse.”
I groaned again. “Yeah, I’m not surprised. But I figured they would at least value their sleep too. Hang on, I’ll get up there.” I clicked off. “Gray? Ping Doctor Korvusar’s cabin.”
“Doctor Korvusar has enabled privacy in her cabin. Do you want to override?”
“No. Send Percy up to the passenger deck. I’ll go up there and take care of it.”
Saahna rolled over away from me. “Wake me up when you get back, OK?”
“Yeah, fine.” I hit the fresher long enough to splash some water on my face and comb my hair, then pulled on my jumpsuit and headed upstairs.
—-
I arrived to see Damaris yelling at Shelly, who had backed up against the dispenser console. Percy was standing in the middle of the lounge, which was otherwise empty.
“I will not have that thing looking at my wife! Where is your doctor!”
“Asleep!” I said as I walked up. “Percy can make a preliminary scan and determine her status before we have to wake Doctor Korvusar up. I’m sure you don’t want a half-asleep doctor looking at her either.”
“No! I cannot trust a machine to make a proper diagnosis. There is something wrong with your Jump Drive! It has made her worse! And, believe me, I will be registering a complaint against your ship when we arrive at Gashuumi.”
“I will ask Doctor Korvusar to come to look at your wife,” I said, smiling as politely as I could. “But, if our Jump Drive has something wrong with it, we won’t be making it to Gasshumi.” I barely had time to see his shocked expression before I turned to the Doctor’s cabin.
I pinged the annunciator, and she responded surprisingly quickly. “Yes?”
“I’m sorry to bother you, Doctor,” I said. “But Ms. Steton seems to be suffering from Jump Sickness, and her husband does not trust our medbot enough to have it examine her. Could I indulge in your time again?”
“Really?” she said in a voice that indicated anything other than surprise. “I’m surprised that it took her this long to show symptoms. I had expected to hear from her within minutes of our tumble. Do not worry, I have been expecting this and am ready.” I took a step backward as the door slid open.
She was dressed and carrying her medic kit. Barely nodding to me, she quickly crossed to where Damaris was looking at us dubiously.
“I’m sorry to hear that Kyris is sick again,” she said. “Please, let me examine her.”
Damaris glanced around, then gestured her towards his cabin. Shelly and I watched as he waited for the biometrics to scan him, then as they went inside, the door sliding shut behind them.
Shelly turned as soon as the door slid shut. “I’m sorry, Derek. I… didn’t know what else to do. He was pinging me constantly and demanding that I come up to help!”
I shook my head. “Yeah, sorry. But… that kinda comes with the job sometimes. I’m glad you called me to take care of it. We need to take care of our passengers, but they aren’t our main focus. Anyone Jumping on a Free Trader should know that. And… I’m pretty sure this is more games from them. They desperately want us to look bad.”
“Why?”
“Because they have reason to not like us but no reason to actually do anything to us.”
“So? They’re just trying to annoy us?”
“Yeah.”
“But why? We were leaving! Hells, I know how hard it is to put on a show for my viewers, and if Ms. Steton is going to pretend to be sick this entire trip, then she’ll be putting in a lot more work than I would just to annoy someone! How is it worth their effort?”
“Because they…” I stopped abruptly, as a realization suddenly hit me. “Because they don’t realize that we got our ‘Preferred Trader’ status as part of our deal with Tahma and Kol’toti. And they’re looking for an excuse to take it away from us.”
“Do we need that status?”
“After Gashuumi? No. And anything that changes will be after we leave there. So… I don’t really care. Give the Stetons, and Ms. Trisk and Ms. Dradon, what attention you need to, but otherwise…? If the Stetons start acting up again, then tell him you will have to talk to me, then just let me know whenever it is convenient.”
She looked dubious. “Well… OK, Captain.”
“Hey, I’d rather just tell you to ignore them, but I don’t want to go that far. But… feel free to talk about them to your viewers.”
She winced slightly. “I… might have done that already.”
“Go ahead. Let everyone out there know what Travelling is really like. You may scare off a few people, but they wouldn’t make it out here anyway.”
She furrowed her brow at that but didn’t say anything. I was about to say I was leaving when Dr. Korvusar and Damaris exited his cabin.
“Wait… are you sure this is your only option?”
She nodded, still walking quickly towards her cabin. “This is the standard treatment for Jump Sickness. We can’t do anything while we are in Jump; once the tumble is complete, we’re in Jumpspace until it ends. She will be miserably sick until we reach our destination, and Jump Sickness can be fatal. By putting her under the entire trip, she will have a 99.8% chance of getting to Gashuumi alive. I can withhold treatment, but it is your wife’s life that is in danger, and she doesn’t seem to be able to make the decision on her own.”
“But putting her under medical slow for the next week? Is that safe?”
“Perfectly, as long as I check in on her hourly. It’s actually safer than a low berth, but those don’t require constant medical supervision.”
“Doctor, Mr. Steton,” I said as I walked over. I looked at Doctor Korvusar. “What have you found?”
“Ms. Steton is suffering from Jump Sickness,” she said, stopping outside the door to her cabin. “At least, that is what I can tell from the symptoms she is describing; there is no actual test that can show that, as I am sure you are aware.”
“Of course, but Jump Sickness usually doesn’t manifest unless there is a problem with the Lanthanum grid, and ours was just checked by the starport staff back on Girar.”
She nodded. “I know how Jumpspace works, Captian. But, I otherwise have no choice but to accept her self-diagnosis. The standard method of dealing with passengers suffering from Jump Sickness is to put them under medical slow so that the entire trip only takes a few hours to them. We cannot eliminate the symptoms, but we can see that subjectively, she experiences them for the minimum time possible.”
“Thank you, Doctor.” I turned to Damaris. “The Doctor seems to be recommending the best course of action. What is your concern?”
“Well… Medslow is dangerous! Why should we…”
“Things like this are what medical slow is for! She will be safe until we reach Gashuumi, at which point she will have full medical facilities available to help her recover. You are certainly worried about your wife’s heath, right?”
“Well, yes! But I…”
“Were asked to do a few things by the Relocation Ministry at the last minute?”
That seemed to surprise him. “What? No! I…”
I waved a hand. “Look, let’s make things easier on both of us. You need to make us look bad to someone. Fine. Tell your Relocation Ministry, or Tlianke Security, or whoever asked you to do this, whatever horror stories you want. I’ll just ask that you tell everyone else how we really treated you. Otherwise, I’ll have the Doctor here put your wife in suspension until we reach Gashuumi. Then I’ll complain to your Relocation Ministry until they agree to reimburse us for the drugs.”
I could tell he was shocked, and I knew that my guess had been correct. He glanced frantically between Dr. Korvusar and me.
“No! She’s really…”
“Not sick,” Dr. Korvusar interrupted. “I could tell that instantly from my exam. Trust me. I’ve been a Medic, on a Starship, for a long time. I know what someone faking symptoms looks like.”
“No!” he repeated. “I need you to…”
“Look,” I said. “I don’t give any biowaste. As I just said, tell them whatever you want.” I paused. I could tell from his expression that I had read things correctly. “What did they ask you to say about us?”
He looked between the Doctor and me for another few seconds, then slumped. “They told us… they told us they would give us a housing upgrade on Gashuumi if we made this trip as difficult as possible for you. Most people who are relocated there are sent to expansion colonies. Some of those aren’t even pressurized! You have to hit your work quotas to even be able to take off your mask inside! They said they would locate us in an established colony.”
I shook my head. “I can tell that we really annoyed someone on Tlianke, but we don’t know why. Do you?”
He hesitated and looked around again. “They said… they say you are traitors.”
“What? Why?”
“Because we had given you preferred trader status, and then you went and formed an alliance with Boilingbrook as well. They, Boilingbrook, aren’t very popular around here.”
“Hey!” Shelly spoke up suddenly. “What’s wrong with Boilingbrook?”
He glanced at her. “You’re… from Boilingbrook?”
“Yeah! My whole life. Well… until a few months ago.”
That seemed to surprise him. “They say…. the people from Boilingbrook wanted to destroy us! That they can’t stand dealing with us!”
While they had been talking, I had been thinking. Whas that what this was all about?
“Here’s our entire connection to Boilingbrook. We were transporting one of their VIPs, but we had another passenger on board who wanted to kill him. We stopped that, and Boilingbrook rewarded us with a subsidy contract. We’re a Free Trader. We’re independent. But… I’d be a fool not to get a big chunk of my expenses paid off every month. So, of course, I took it.”
That seemed to surprise him further. “So… you aren’t working against us?”
“Against someone that I might do business with? Hells no! But I won’t turn down credits either.”
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
“I can’t tell them about this!”
“Then don’t. Tell them that we gave you crappy service just because you were from a Tlianke world. Tell them that we ignored your requests, that we ignored you when your wife was sick, and that we just generally gave you a hard time. We’re heading rimward, then spinward into the Old Expanses. It will be years or more before we come through here again. We’ll deal with it.”
“Then… how will you treat us?” I sensed hostility.
“Like every other passenger. Just let us do our jobs, and we’ll give you the same attention that we give everyone else. We really don’t care. Just… as I said. If someone unofficial asks about us… tell them the truth.”
He tensed. “You… won’t contradict us?”
“I’ll complain as loud as I can to your Relocation Ministry about sending us a passenger who couldn’t deal with gravitics or Jumpspace. They don’t need to know what happens on-board.”
He took another deep breath, then nodded. “OK. Fine. I… really wasn’t looking forward to fighting all week.”
“Neither was I.” I stuck out my hand. “Welcome aboard the Grayswandir.”
He smiled slightly. “Thank you… Captain.”
We spent a few minutes working out some details, just to make sure we had our stories straight, then he went back to his cabin.
“Very well done, Captain,” Dr. Korvusar said as she turned to me. “I was worried that this would be a difficult Jump, but you defused it quite rapidly.”
“I know when someone is playing games. I knew they weren’t good at that and called them on it.”
“I’m glad to see you are perceptive. Now, if my services are no longer required, will you excuse me?”
“Wait…” I glanced towards Shelly. “We’ve got our post-jump meeting. Around 1400? In the crew lounge?”
She sighed. “Captain. I am just a passenger here. I am not part of your crew. How does that affect me?”
“You’re a part of this crew in everything except name. So… we’re meeting at 1400. You’re invited, in case you want to show up.”
“Thank you for the invitation, Captain, but I think I will remain up here and wonder why no one is refilling my wine glass.”
“Fine.” I turned to Shelly. “Crew lounge at 1400. That OK?”
“What about…”
“Everything has been taken care of. You should be OK.”
She nodded. “I’ll be there, Derek. I mean, Captain.”
“Good.” I looked around. Except for us, the passenger lounge was empty. “See you in a few.”
—-
I could have gone back to the Bridge or my cabin, but I decided to hang out in the crew lounge for a while. Saahna was there, but she was reading something on her comp. She waved as I came down but otherwise didn’t look up, so I left her alone.
Instead, I sat down and pulled up our entertainment status. And frowned. I had forgotten to get the updates for Inquisitor. I knew I would hear about that.
I looked through our standard entertainment downloads and finally found a net-vid I hadn’t seen. I pulled it up on my comp and started watching.
Over the next while, the others filtered in. Jami was first, and she and Saahna started playing that game that I had seen them play before. It seemed to be for two players, so I didn’t intrude. Shelly came down a bit later, but she immediately pulled up her own comp and started reading.
Just before 1400, Varan came down and went to the dispenser.
“Grab me one!” I said across the lounge.”
“Got it!”
“And me!” Saahna looked up.
“OK?”
“Sure, I’ll take one, too!” added Jami.
He sighed, then looked at Shelly. “You want something too?”
“What? No! Wait… No. It’s fine. I’ll get something in a minute.”
He frowned. “I’m standing here getting something for everyone else. Taradam, right?”
She glanced around, then nodded. “Yes. Thanks.”
“As I said, I’m here anyway.” He punched in all of our requests, then circled the lounge, handing them out. He settled into a chair a bit away from the rest of us and opened his own drink. “So… what’s up?”
“Waiting on Do’rex,” I said. I hadn’t finished the sentence before the door to the bridge opened and Do’rex exited.
“Sorry,” he said as he looked around, then leaned back against the bulkhead beside the door. “I’m taking care to monitor our Jump. While I trust Engineer Wistina, I am never totally comfortable with a non-standard fuel load.”
Jami frowned. “Hey! We skimmed at Kupakii!”
He clicked. “That was under our control. Based on our interactions with them, I do not trust those at Girar to have properly fueled us.”
“They didn’t,” I said. “But Jami has taken care of it for us.” I looked at her. “We’re good now, right?”
She shrugged. “If we have to do a lot of maneuvering, or if we get attacked and have to spin everything up, then we may have a problem. Otherwise, we’re good.”
“Best I could hope for,” I said. “OK, I guess everyone saw the mess we departed under?” Everyone nodded or gestured agreement.
“Well, what some of you may have missed is that we had a brief encounter with an old friend as we were leaving. The Fesarius was arriving as we were departing.
“What!” Jami jumped up. “Hells! You could have warned us!”
“They were landing as we were lifting for orbit. Wasn’t much either of us could do to the other, so we just traded a few comments. Innocuous ones, since we were on an open channel.”
“And?” She was still angry. Well, they had hit the engine room she was in when they shot at us.
“I called them on being with the Spoilsports. And… they didn’t deny it. In fact, they suggested we might think of being Spoilsports ourselves.”
“Oh, hells no! Aren’t we involved in enough shroud-and-vibroblade stuff as it is! You want to get us involved with everyone!”
“No!” I sighed. “I thought if I let them know that we knew who they were, and weren’t doing anything with that information, that they might leave us alone. I… I actually don’t know if that worked or not.”
Saahna looked up. “Really?”
“The last thing they said wasn’t hostile. Which means they are, maybe, not considering us as an opponent at this point. Which I consider as a win.”
Jami didn’t look convinced but sat back down. Saahna just shook her head.
“What are you going to do if they ask us to join their secret conspiracy? Join it as well?”
“How much do they pay? Wait, no. That was a joke. ” I shook my head. “No. We’re heading rimward. I’m pretty sure the Spoilsports are here because Tlianke is scrambling to further their ambitions while the Imperium is preoccupied. And, given that the Sols are already poking around here, I’m just as happy with letting them deal with it.”
“Solomani?” Saahna had started to relax but jerked forward at that. “You never said anything about the Solomani!”
I sighed. “Because I couldn’t talk until now. Look, sometimes covert contacts don’t work as well as you would like them to.” I told them of my meeting with Darrin and Kanar, and my later meeting with Samone, and what I had learned.
“So, Tlianke is considering Sol as an ally. These Spoilsports, even if they are looking after themselves first, have to be a better option than them. So, I’ll welcome them coming in here as long as they keep the Sols away.”
Saahna leaned back and stared at the ceiling. “Solomani? Here? This close to the Imperium?”
“Yeah. This is apparently where we are. Apparently, more than just Doctor Korvusar’s computer models are showing problems for the Imperium.”
“That… isn’t comforting.”
“It isn’t. But there’s not much we can do about it either. So…” I tapped my comp and flicked the display to the overhead holo.
“Gashuumi, our next stop. Not a particularly bad place. Decent temperatures and plenty of water. Less than a hundred million people, so it isn’t too crowded. It would be great if you didn’t need to breathe.”
Varan groaned. “Another one of those?”
“They’ve got a very active volcano zone on one of their southern continents. So most everyone just lives in the northern one. But there is a non-insignificant amount of particulates in their not-particularly-thick atmosphere. And instead of building under domes or underground like a reasonable planet, they’ve got everything scattered over the surface. Probably because they’re another of Tlianke’s colonies and they don’t want to spend the credits on them. But the locals deal with it, so we will too.”
“Even the starport?”
“It’s a Tilanke starport. Draw your own conclusions.”
He groaned.
“Why are we still dealing with them?” asked Jami. “Haven’t they made it clear that they don’t like us.”
“Yeah, but…” I frowned. “Here’s the weird thing. They somehow haven’t realized that our ‘Preferred Trader’ credentials are fake. The reason we’ve had so much trouble over the last few days is that they’re trying to find an excuse to take them away from us. So…” I trailed off with a shrug.
“As long as it helps us, who cares?”
“It saved us a bunch of credits, but cost us a bunch of hassle for Shelly.” She looked up at that but didn’t say anything. “So… it’s a tradeoff, basically.”
“Wait… they didn’t catch that?” Saahna was leaning forward again. “They know we met with… those people back on Tlianke. They know we took an ‘illegal’ cargo for them. But they didn’t realize that they gave us an illegal permit as well?”
“I don’t get it either, but… yeah. All of our problems over the last few days have been from them wanting to make us look bad. They want to strip that status from us? Fine, As long as they don’t do it until I’ve done making deals on Gashuumi. After that, it will be a long time before we come here again.”
She was shaking her head. “No. They did a full check on us. All of us. They know how to look at their own records for gods sake. They must know that they never gave us their preferred trader status. They have to know. So, why are they acting as if it is real?”
“As long as their pretending helps us, who cares?”
She was still frowning. “There’s something else going on here. It doesn’t make sense.”
“Most things here haven’t. I’m just doing the best I can.”
I could tell she wasn’t satisfied, but she leaned back again.
“So, where are we going after Gashuumi?” asked Varan.
I tapped my comp, and the holo changed. “Mupikaa. Another place we can’t breathe, but at least they have the decency to cover their cities. Mining colony, mostly lanthanum. We should do well there. And they aren’t Tlianke, so we’ll finally be away from them.”
“Didn’t you pick this route?”
“It seemed like a good idea at the time. So… anything else?”
“Are we going to have any more problems with the Stetons?”
“I don’t know, but… I don’t think so. They were promised something in exchange for giving us a hard time. I called them on it. I said that I would tell everyone ‘official’ that they were horrible passengers, as long as they told everyone else how we actually treated them. So… as long as they go along, we should be fine.”
He was nodding. “OK, so we should be good for a while, but may have problems. Why don’t I… I’ll volunteer to play Steward this week. I’ll… I’ve got more experience in dealing with problem passengers than Shelly.”
Shelly glared at him. “Hey! I’m doing the best I can!”
“And she’s doing fine,” I cut in. “She’s got a few jumps behind her now and has the hang of it. Why? Do you want to take over her position again?”
“What? No! I’m… just trying to help.”
I shook my head. “First, maybe talk to me first? Second? You know how well I can read people. I hate to call you out on it in front of everyone, but… I know you’re lying. So tell me what you really are wanting.”
He blanched at that and leaned back, so I continued. “So I’m right. Again, maybe talk to me first?”
He was both embarrassed and angry. Embarrassed won.
“I… may have said a few too many things about us to Karran. I… just wanted to make sure she keeps her good impression of us.”
I sighed loudly. I was already irritated with him over the surveillance thing, and he wasn’t doing himself any favors. “What did you say?”
“That we had saved the life of a Boilingbrook High Minister. That we had contacts with a sector-wide criminal network. That we had been attacked by a rogue Imperial Navy operation. And… that we were working with a… different Naval Intelligence operation.”
“So… everything?”
He slumped, looked down, and nodded. “Yeah. I was trying to be… interesting.” I heard Saahna groan audibly.
“Hells, have you never done this sort of biowaste before?” Jami was staring at him. “You want to appear appealing? Lie! You’re a Traveller! It isn’t like you’ll still be in-system by the time they get to check on what you said. Assuming they even bother. I can tell you why most ‘opportunities’ are hanging around the Starport. Hells, they’re just hoping that you don’t check up on their ‘interesting’ stories!”
“Hey, I’m not used to playing these games on my own!” He looked up at me as he said that.
I tried to hide my annoyance. “OK, fine. We’ve all made mistakes. But we need to stop that. Now. We know what we’ve gotten ourselves involved with. We just… need to remember that when we talk to each other.”
“What you got us involved with!” he snapped back angrily.
I paused, looking around at everyone. “OK. I’ll take that. And if any of you can convince me that, with the information that I had at the time, that you would have made a different decision. Then I’ll apologize yet again. But… this is the reality we are in. And, if any of you have looked at your credit balance in the past day or two, you’ll see what I’ve done for you, mistakes and all. So… we’ll do what we need to do. Every Jump takes us further away from this mess. We’ll be fine.”
Everyone was unhappy, I could tell that. But no one wanted to contradict me either.
“OK,” I said. “That’s where we are. A messy jump, but we’ll deal with what we’ve got. Varan? You can spend as much time with Karran as you want, but I want Shelly acting as Steward.” I turned to her. “And you’re free to come downstairs with the rest of us whenever you aren’t busy. Everyone up there knows how to call for you. And… if Varan wants, he can deal with passengers Trisk and Dradon, and you can pass the Steton’s off to me. But… do what you can.”
She wasn’t happy but nodded. “Of course, Derek. Captian.”
“Good.” I looked around again. “Does anyone else have anything?”
Most of the crew glanced dubiously at each other, but no one seemed to want to say anything. Do’rex clicked once and returned to the Bridge as the rest of us stood up and started walking toward various hatches.
“Hang on a minute,” I said, stepping toward Varan, who was walking towards the ladder with Shelly.
“Are we not done?” he said, sounding annoyed.
“Just give me a second.” I quickly entered my cabin and grabbed the bottle of Scotch I had picked up on Girar. They had claimed that it was actually from Terra–and had charged accordingly–and I had decided to believe what they were saying.
Back in the lounge, I grabbed a pair of glasses from the dispenser and held up the bottle. “Cargo bay?”
“Um… sure,” he said, instantly on the defensive. But he went to the iris and waited as it opened, then waved me through ahead of him.
—-
I went to our usual corner and opened the secret hatch. It was empty. That inspection on Girar had been thorough, and they hadn’t missed a chance to poke at us. I poured us both a glass then put the bottle on the deck between us.
“What is this about?” he asked, equally annoyed and apprehensive.
I held up my glass and clinked it with his. “Why did you initiate surveillance on Shelly’s cabin?”
He glared at me for a moment, then slammed his glass down, spilling half it’s contents. “What the hells?”
“I found out about your surveillance. I told you to back off from her. Why didn’t you?”
He gritted his teeth, then picked up his glass again. I waited as he drained what was left, then refilled it from the bottle. “I… didn’t think. I haven’t looked at it since.”
“Well, it’s gone now anyway. Look… I get it. I’ve been in your position before. But… there are lines I can’t deal with. Even with our problems, I never tracked Saahna. I could have since Tlianke. Captain’s privileges. But… I never have.” I refilled my own glass. “Varan, you’re my friend. Probably my only friend other than Saahna. But… I’ve got to take care of my ship too. I get it. I really get it. But you’ve got to back off from her. I really don’t want to lose either of you, as friends or as crewmates. Or both.”
He frowned angrily. “Oh? You just want to make me look bad in front of everyone else?”
“No! Hells, if that was what I wanted, I would have brought this up in front of everyone else. Which means that you need to make sure this conversation never gets out, or I’ll lose everyone else. They’ve chosen their side. I just need you to recognize that it was a mistake and move on.”
“So… me and Karran?”
“That’s between you and her. I just need you to do everything you can to not make Shelly upset. I want her on my ship. Her netcasts about us are going to do more for us than you would believe.”
I saw emotions battle on his face. He finally settled on annoyance. “I was just trying to help us and Shelly.
“Then talk to me first next time, OK? I don’t care what you do with Karran, beyond downplaying any of this biowaste we’ve gotten involved with. Just… don’t drive my own crew away from us. That’s all I ask.”
He looked down, grimacing. “OK. Sorry. It won’t happen again.”
“That’s it then.” I picked up the bottle. “Another?”
He gave a weak smile. “Yeah, sure.”
—-
We actually stayed there for a few more glasses, and neither of us was completely stable when we got back to the crew lounge. Still, we left with most of our differences behind us. I was feeling better than I had in a long time.
Saahna and Jami were back to playing their game, but both looked up as we came in. I nodded and headed towards the dispenser while Varan headed for the ladder to upstairs. I noticed that he missed the first rung the first time. I wondered how his meeting with Karran would wind up.
Saahna was glaring at me as I punched in for a beer. I didn’t need it, we had gone through too much of that bottle, but habit took over. Beer in hand, I sat down in the chair opposite them.
“Are you OK?” she asked dubiously.
“Just working out some things. I think we’re good now.”
“Are we?”
“Yeah. I think we understand now.”
“We?”
I sighed and glanced at Jami. “Yeah, he gets it.”
“Good. Do you?”
I looked at her. “You know me better than anyone here. You tell me.”
She held my gaze for a moment, then sighed and shook her head. “Yeah, you do. I just thought…”
“That I would take Varan’s side? Yes, he’s my friend. So are you. All of you, actually. And you’re all my crew. Yeah, he’s my friend, the oldest friend I have. But I won’t sacrifice the rest of you or my ship for him. Especially since he’s wrong. We talked about it. He gets it. Shelly won’t have any more problems with him.”
Jami looked dubious, but Saahna relaxed. “I’m… glad. Varan is my friend too. I hated to think that this was what tore us all apart.”
“It won’t. We’ll get past this. And anything else that comes along.”
Saahna smiled and held up the bottle in front of her. “To the crew of the Grayswandir!”
I held up my own bottle. “The best crew in the Imperium!”
“Or out of it!” Jami chimed in, raising a glass. “Don’t worry, Captain, we’ve got this!”
“To the Grayswandir!” I said, raising my bottle. The moment was ruined immediately when Gray pinged in.
“Captain? We have a situation on the passenger deck. Steward Tharis wishes to speak to you.”
I groaned. “Sure, Gray. Shelly, what is it?”
I heard her sigh. “Varan came up here, started talking to Passenger Trisk, then suddenly started running towards the fresher, and then threw up all over the lounge. Then he fell over and passed out.”
I closed my eyes as Saahna rolled her. Jami laughed. “Get the utilitybots on the mess. I’ll come upstairs and get him to his bunk, then make the appropriate apologies to the passengers.”
“Thanks,” she said. The comms clicked off.
I stood up, a bit unsteady myself. “Well… back to work, I guess.”
Saahna held up her bottle again. “Welcome aboard the Grayswandir.