106-1117 – Gashuumi – Tlianke/Hinterworlds

21 Erbe 1117: Gashuumi – Tlianke/Hinterworlds (1206 B527769-7 O:1104 923 Na M4 V M9 D)

Ugh. I should go back to sleep–but I’ve been doing that for a few days now–so I need to get caught up on the logs. I see Do’rex has been keeping things updated, but I’m trying to record more than just the mundane, bureaucratic stuff here.

—-

I woke up sometime in the afternoon. I had no idea how long I had been out. I was a bit dizzy but otherwise felt better than I had in a very long time. Even that annoying pain in my knee was gone.

I tried to sit up but was held back by the restraints on my bunk. Looking around, I saw that I was hooked up to various machines, wires and tubes snaking from both arms and one leg. I tried to raise my arm but couldn’t.

I was about to yell for help when the door slid open, and a med-tech in a Tlianke jumpsuit and monocular entered.

“Ah, Captain Kodai! Welcome back!” He paused long enough to nod at some readings on the machine in approval, flipped some switches, and started disconnecting things. “Glad to see you’re awake! You’re a bit ahead of schedule. Otherwise, I would have been here waiting for you. It’s disconcerting to wake up with no one around.”

“Where?” I asked, then coughed. Not from my lungs, which felt fine, but from my throat, which was tight from disuse. “Where am I?”

He laughed. “You’re in the med-center at Gashuumi Downport. I understand that you were unconscious when you were brought in, so it’s not an unusual question. And to answer your next few, it’s the 21st of Erbe, and you are fine. The treatment has taken care of the damage to your lungs and neurosystem, and it has also probably fixed any other minor problems you may have been experiencing.” He smirked. “Well, you did pay for the good stuff.”

“Good stuff?” I was trying to remember what had happened. I remembered the chemical bomb, or whatever it was, on the Grayswandir. I remembered that we had a bad arrival in the system. And I remembered being taken off the ship. I remembered Saahna being with me, and I remembered…

“Wait! I had a crew member who was injured as well. Shelly. Shelly Tharis. How is she?”

He had finished unhooking one arm and was walking around the bunk to the other. “Ms. Tharis? Hang on.” He stared into the distance for a moment, checking the display on his monocular, then turned back to me.

“She is also recovering,” he said, resuming his work. “Her injuries were more severe than yours–her neurological damage had spread to her brainstem–but the treatment has also been successful for her. It will take another day or two for the physical damage to heal, but her neurosystem is back to normal.”

I felt relief at that and let myself relax. We had made it.

The technician kept muttering as he finished with my arm and started on my leg connections. “We’ll need you to stay here for another few hours, just in case something relapses, but you should be out in time for dinner!”

He pulled the last connection free and turned to me in satisfaction as the cables retracted. “So for now, just relax, and you’ll be out in no time!”

“Wait!” I said as he started tapping on his thighpad. “What happened? What… what happened to us?”

He shrugged. “You were exposed to a directed phage. A nano weapon designed specifically to target neural cells via respiration.” He shook his head. “There’s a reason that every major polity has banned nanotech. Well, besides anagathics. You got hit by a nasty strain of… something.”

He paused for a second, staring into the distance through his monocular. “Yeah, what you were infected with was obviously a military-grade nanoweapon of some kind. You’re lucky you got to us as soon as you did.”

“Military-grade?”

“Yeah. Nasty. That’s why TliSec wants to talk to you.” He winced as soon as he said that.

“TliSec?”

I could see him tense up. “Um… nothing.”

“No, it isn’t. What’s going on?”

He hesitated for a long moment, then sighed and slumped. He turned back to me. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have said anything.”

“Well, you already have.”

“Yeah. Don’t mention it, OK? Anyway, I was supposed to alert TliSec–Tlianke Security–as soon as you woke up and… I did. So, they’ll probably be here in a bit to talk to you.” He glanced up at something in his monocular. “And… they’re here now.”

He instantly became professional again. “Well, Captain Kodai, it looks like you’re good. We’ll keep you here for observation for the next few hours, and then you will be free to leave. In the meantime, some people here want to talk to you about what happened.”

I frowned but nodded. “Sure, I understand. Thanks for the help.”

He nodded in return, flashed a quick but uncomfortable smile, and headed for the exit. As it slid open, it revealed a pair of figures standing beyond it. He took a half-step back, then stood aside to allow them into the room.

It was a man and a woman wearing matching jumpsuits with a pattern I recognized from Tlianke. “Thank you, Technician Galbert,” said the man. “We’ll be done with your patient in a few minutes. We appreciate your assistance.”

He nodded but didn’t say anything and quickly exited the room. The man took a position by the door as the woman walked over to where I was lying. I struggled to sit up.

“Don’t worry, Captain Kodai. I won’t take much of your time. You just relax.”

“No, I’ve been lying here long enough.” I got to a sitting position, only to realize that I wasn’t wearing anything. I pulled the sheets up to protect my modesty, then turned to her. “And you are?”

“Kaplan Jarns, Tlianke Security. We have a few questions for you.”

I tried not to let my annoyance show as I shrugged. “At the moment, you probably know more than I do, but sure. What do you need to know?”

“How much do you know about the Stetons?”

“They were passengers. There were some problems when they arrived because they had some personal possessions we weren’t prepared for, but we figured out how to handle them. Unfortunately for us, I suppose.”

“Do you always submit to last-minute demands from your passengers?”

“If we can, sure! I run a Free Trader. Getting a reputation as a ship that won’t work with passengers is bad for business. But, if we get a reputation for going out of the way to accommodate people…” I trailed off, shrugged, and smiled.

“And when you get a reputation for carrying dangerous cargo?”

My smile turned into a frown. “We had no idea what that cargo was.”

“Do you just let your passengers carry anything they want on board?”

I grimaced at that; we had tripped ourselves up there. “No,” I said with a sigh. “Not… anything. Usually, everything goes into the cargo bay, where we have scanners looking for anything dangerous. But this time, they showed up with an unexpected cargo at the last second, and I needed to find a way to secure it fast. As I’m sure you know, we had already lost a pair of passengers earlier that day. I put it in our air-raft and stored it in its hanger. Which means it missed the cargo scanners.”

Which I’m sure you know weren’t working anyway, I thought. But I want to get out of here, so I’ll play along.

She made a show of looking at her monocular. “Is there anyone who would have a grudge against your ship?”

“Do you want a list?” I laughed. “So far this year, we’ve stopped an assassination attempt, helped create a new polity, shifted the balance of power in a system, and gotten a bunch of rebels mad at us for not delivering their contraband. Have I missed anything?”

She was staring into her monocular again. “No, that’s pretty much everything we’ve learned about you already. You lead an exciting life, Captain.”

“I’m a Traveller. It tends to happen.”

” So… why are the Solomani mad at you?”

“What?”

She looked at me again. “We have determined that the nanophage that infected you and your crewmates was of Solomani origin.”

“What? How?”

“That is irrelevant. But we need to know why the Solomani were targeting you. We don’t want one of our Preferred Trade Partners doing things that would antagonize the Solomani. Especially given the problems the Imperium is facing at the moment. I’m sure you understand.” She smiled tightly.

“Solomani? As far as I know, we’ve had nothing to do with them. Wait…” I hesitated, then continued. “I helped a patron salvage a Solomani Courier, but it had crashed decades ago. And it was a legal salvage, by the laws of any polity in the sector, including here. Why would that make them want to try to kill us?”

She was typing something on her thighpad. “Was there anything on that ship that they may be worried about?”

Biowaste! I thought, but I kept my response stable. “Not at all. The courier was carrying a load of medical drugs. The patron handed them off to me in exchange for giving her full salvage rights to the ship. And yeah, I sold them. But I can’t imagine that the Sols would be that upset about a missed-delivery-by-decades cargo.”

She regarded me for a moment, then gave a barely perceptible nod. “We’ve reviewed your background, Captain. We know of your ‘exploits’ over the past few months. We have the standard info from Tlianke and Girar and see nothing actionable there. We have sent requests for further information to both, but because of Jump Communication Delay, we haven’t received a response yet.”

“I’ve told you what I know! I haven’t hidden anything!” Well, nothing they have any means of finding out about. “So what is all this about?”

She waved a dismissive hand. “We’re just making sure that what you tell us and what your crew has told us matches up. You’ve been unconscious–or barely awake–since the incident, so it is unlikely that you have coordinated your response with them. You seem to be clear.”

She tapped a bit more, then focused on me fully again. “We have placed the Stetons under arrest. They will be executed. After all, we can’t allow anything to happen to one of our Preferred Trade Partners. Don’t worry, Captain; as far as we can tell, you have done everything we would have expected you to do. But we can’t have other ships entering our area of influence think that we don’t support our people.”

“Wait… executed? I don’t… were they involved? I’m pretty sure they didn’t know what they were carrying.”

“It doesn’t matter.” She glanced at her monocular again. “It was their cargo. They should have known what was in it. And they made enough of a scene that you had to load in such a way that it bypassed your normal security processes, implying that they were trying to disrupt your standard routine to slip something past you.”

She quickly raised a hand. “Don’t worry, Captain. We aren’t blaming you for what happened. We have the records from Girar. The Stetons have a history of being disruptive. And we’ve seen how your lift went. Yes, there was some confusion with ground control; that is also being dealt with. We haven’t determined what they thought they would accomplish by neurogassing your entire crew. Still, we have checked, and both of them had received a counteragent to the nanophage which infected you.”

“Our Medic told me that she had given all of the crew and passengers an antidote of some kind. That’s probably what you’re seeing.”

“Your Medic?” She tapped and stared again, then turned back to me. “Your Doctor Korsuvar? We show her as a passenger.”

“She is. We normally just use our medbot. When she came aboard, she said she just wanted to be a passenger but would be willing to help us if we suddenly needed a medic. She just made good on that.”

There was more typing and staring. “She has been with you for a while, correct?”

“Yeah. Since Venad. A few months ago. She said she was tired of being Imperial Navy and just wanted to spend some time wandering with no plan. Us Free Traders get those sometimes.”

She stared a bit more, then shrugged. “Given the current environment in the Imperium, I can’t blame her for wanting to be somewhere else. She was probably in the reserves and would have been recalled to Anaxias by now. You’re lucky that she was willing to help you. Still, even if she administered a counteragent herself, we cannot know if the Stetons had been protected earlier.

Given that Damaris Steton has a Pilot certification, they may have assumed that you and your entire crew would die. Then, they would have taken your ship… somewhere. We cannot dismiss that possibility. Especially given his history.”

“What do you mean?”

She smiled. “Internal Tlianke affairs, Captain. I officially apologize, on behalf of the Tlianke government, that you have become embroiled in this. Believe me when I say that we have everything under control. I am happy to see that you and your crewmate have recovered and hope you will continue to help and support us in the future, as you have in the past. And again, thank you for taking the time to answer our questions.”

I tried to be dismissive even though I had no idea what she was talking about. Helped them in the past? But I put on my best face. “You haven’t asked anything of us that I wouldn’t have expected. Thanks.”

She nodded. “Thank you, Captain. Many people I talk to aren’t as understanding.”

“You’re doing your job; I’m doing mine.”

She started to turn away, then turned back. “I will be honest with you, Captain. You seem to have become a victim of some internal issues we are having here. As one of our preferred partners, you know we value our independence. And the fact that you refused to deliver that contraband cargo back on Girar shows that you still support us. But the Imperium and the Solomani have been trying to infiltrate us for years, trying to make us one of their client states. We think the Stetons were working with the Solomani. That is all.”

I shook my head. “I still think they are innocent. You said you’ve reviewed our activities for the past few Jumps. Yeah, we do well for ourselves. And we couldn’t be doing that well if I was that bad at reading someone while negotiating with them. They were as horrified as we were about what happened. I really don’t think they knew.”

She shrugged. “Maybe they didn’t realize they were on a suicide mission? But we uncovered a connection between them and the Solomani, which was why we transferred them here. Perhaps their handlers realized they were compromised and wanted to silence them before they got here and could report what they knew. And would also have eliminated anyone on the ship they were on that they may have passed any intel on to. We should have just held them on Girar. We apologize for what happened to you, Captain. We are glad we had facilities to reverse the damage you received.”

She paused. “Please remember that. We take care of our own. Yes, you had a hand in creating the Hinterworlds Alliance, but you were defending yourself and your ship. And yes, we have seen the official reports from Kupakii regarding that incident. We understand politics. And I trust you do too.”

She smiled tightly at me, then turned and nodded to her companion, who touched the annunciator beside the door. “Thank you for your time, Captain Kodai. We will be in touch if we need more information from you.” With a final smile and nod, the two of them exited.

I looked at the closed door for a moment, shaking my head. What the Hells have I gotten myself involved in this time? I had no idea what I could do next, so I stood up and stretched, then tried walking around. After days of being prone, my legs and back protested, but I finally found a closet with my clothes. I pulled on my shipsuit, then found my comm.

“Anyone there?”

I got an almost immediate response. “Derek! Are you OK?” It was Saahna.

“Yeah, I’m awake. They’re telling me that I’m fine as well, though I still feel like biowaste. And as soon as I woke up, I got a visit from Tilanke Security. How are the rest of you doing?”

I heard a faintly spoken “Thank the gods,” then she returned entirely online. “Listen, Varan and I are on our way. Just wait for us, OK?”

“They haven’t let me go yet,” I said. As if on cue, the door slid open, and Galbert entered.

“Did that… go OK?” he asked. He hesitated when he saw I had my comm out. “Sorry, didn’t mean to intrude.”

I shook my head. “Just checking in with my crew. When can I get out of here?”

“Well… now, I guess? I was supposed to give you a final checkout, but I suppose the fact that you’re up and dressed shows that you are fine. I’ll submit your exit paperwork, and you can leave as soon as that is accepted.”

“Great. And… when will that be?”

He hesitated, then looked at something through his monocular as he tapped on his thighpad. “Well… now. If you think you are ready.”

“Just get me out of here.”

He nodded. “Of course.” He tapped for a long minute, then turned to me. “OK, you’re ready to go. But… everything went OK with Security?”

“Would they be letting me go otherwise?

“Well, no? Oh. Yes! Of course!” He tapped a bit more, then pulled out a remote. “I just need to send the official paperwork to you.”

I held up my remote. “Transfer away.”

He flicked, and my comp beeped. I had no idea what was on it, but I could figure that out later. “Thanks. Now, how do I get out of here?”

“Um… out the door to the lift. Go down to the 4th level. That’s the actual exit.”

“Thanks.”

He looked at me for a few more seconds. “Are you sure… that went fine?”

“Um… yeah? Unless you know something that I don’t?”

He quickly shook his head. “Oh, no! Just… you know.”

I didn’t, but he quickly turned away and started doing something with the equipment. “Well, you’re free to leave.” He was pointedly not looking at me but gestured towards the door. “The lift is down to the left. 4th level.”

When he didn’t say anything after a few seconds, I nodded even though he couldn’t see me. “Well, thanks again. I’ll… just go.”

He waved a hand over his shoulder without looking at me. I shrugged, then left.

—-

I found the lift with no trouble and went down to what seemed to be a lobby. A few bored-looking sophonts were sitting behind desks, but the one I approached just told me that I was fine and could leave.

I was about to wander outside when Saahna and Varan entered. Both started walking in my direction, but Saahna broke into a run and grabbed me in a painful embrace.

“Derek!” was all she said before burying me in what might have been the most passionate kiss I had ever received in my life. “I’m so glad you’re OK!” she said once we came up for air.

“Yeah, me too!” said Varan. He too embraced me before pulling away. “We… we were worried about you.”

“Thanks.” I looked around. “Let’s get out of here.”

“Where?”

“Anyplace with a bar. I need a drink.”

—-

Fifteen minutes later, we were at Western Wind Overload. I had no idea what it meant. I saw a couple of people out on a dance floor dancing to a relatively uninspired brahminboy band. We quickly found a booth and flicked on the sonic dampeners. Varan was furiously typing on his comp. Saahna gave me another hug and kiss, followed by an incredibly painful slap.

“Hey!” I said, rubbing the side of my face. “What the hells was that about!”

“I told you!” She said tightly. “I told you I didn’t want to get too close to you because I couldn’t stand the thought of being close to someone again and then losing them. Again. And what is the first thing you do? You try and get yourself killed!”

“What are you talking about!” I said, still stinging from the blow. “I had nothing to do with this—this time. Yeah, I’ve made a few questionable decisions on my own before, but everyone has been on-board with everything I’ve done for the past few Jumps. What do you think I’ve done!”

“You pissed off the damn Solomani!”

I thought, remembering what Jarns had told me. “OK yeah, the nanophage that hit us was of Solomani origin. But hells, I don’t know that I’ve ever had any dealings with an actual Solomani. I may have, though, given how they all tell you their ancestry as a matter of pride, I’m pretty sure I would have known. How could I have done anything to make them want to kill us!”

“You helped your ‘girlfriend’ from Gimisapun salvage one of their ships.”

I rolled my eyes and stared at the ceiling. “A salvage that was legal on every polity in the sector. Including here and the Solomani Sphere! Why the hells would they be upset about that?”

“And the cargo?”

“Medical drugs that were decades old. I’m sure they paid their penalties on those long ago. No matter where they were supposed to be delivered, I’m sure the recipient wasn’t waiting on them anymore!”

She sighed and looked away. There was a brief, awkward silence, and then Varan spoke up. “I alerted the rest of the crew to let them know you were out and to come here.”

“Yeah, thanks. We’re a few days behind on our landing meetup anyway.” I frowned. “Actually, I’m not even sure what is going on. How are we?”

He glanced at Saahna, still staring at the overhead holo, then turned back to me. “We got down safely. Obviously. One of our zuchai crystals cracked on Jump exit–probably due to the mass discrepancy caused by us jettisoning the air-raft in Jumpspace–but we’re taking care of that. Everyone other than you and Shelly… Steward Tharis got an injection from Doctor Korvusar to protect us from… whatever that was. We got escorted in, and TliSec questioned everyone. They let Trisk and Dradon go and arrested the Stetons. Do’rex got the ground crew to start repairs and to take care of you and Shelly. Steward Tharis. Sorry.”

“Well… I’m glad it didn’t go as wrong as it could have. How are Trisk and Dradon?”

“They’re fine. They’ve already caught another ship heading out-system. I think they left… yesterday?”

I shrugged. “We got them here. They’re on their own as long as they didn’t have any problems from the attack.”

Saahna finally turned back to me. “They left something for Ms. Tharis.”

“Oh? Well, scan it. If it’s OK, let her know when she is released.”

“And if they caused the attack?”

“Then they give up easily. We’ll scan it. With scanners that we know work. If it is safe, we’ll give it to her. If not, we’ll dispose of it. Why is this a problem?”

“We got attacked.”

“Yeah, we did, And that was because someone tampered with our scanners. I’ll have Jami make a check on them before we take another cargo. And our airlock scanners because I’m paranoid now. So why the hells are you mad at me?”

She turned away. I looked at Varan, who shrugged and then looked away as well. I shrugged in turn and waved the waitbot over.

—-

I had just finished a beer called a “Gashisplit”–not bad, but a bit more fruity than I usually like–and had ordered another, as well as another basket of tama leaves, when Jami entered, looked around, and saw us. Before I could stand up, she hurried over and bent over to give me a quick hug.

“Glad to see you up and around again, Captain!” She pulled back, gave a sloppy salute, and then snagged my beer from the waitbot as it arrived. The bot bleeped in anger, but I waved at it and just ordered another. It left as she dropped into a chair.

“That was mine, you know.”

“Yeah, and you’ve been sleeping for the past few days while I’ve been getting your ship back into spaceworthy condition. I can snag a few beers.”

“Fine. Whatever.” I rolled my eyes exaggeratedly. “So, what’s our status.”

“Good! The Starport here can handle what we’ve got, so we aren’t bringing in techs from out-system. They can’t make this stuff themselves, so it’s a bit pricey–I’m not about to Jump in a ship with a fabricated zuchai crystal–but they had a few replacements so we’re good. I’m running calibration checks now, but we can’t do those fully until we’re back in zero-gee. But that can wait.”

“Any other problems?”

“Beyond you telling us who you annoyed this time? None. Well, our ship’s funds are better off than I knew. You ever think about raising our payout cap?”

“I’ll think about it. But without that reserve, how would we have repaired the ship? Or take care of Shelly? Or me?”

She nodded at that. “Yeah, when we heard about your treatment cost, we were stunned. I mean, wow! I knew we were doing well, but… I’m impressed.”

“Thanks.” I think. Our finances were not the first thing on my mind at the moment, but I still didn’t know what was going on. How much had we spent? I was saved from having to say something by Do’rex, who I hadn’t seen arrive.

He came directly up to me and placed tentacles on my shoulders. “I am formally returning command of the Grayswandir to you.”

“Um… OK? Sure,” I said as he continued to stare directly at me. He immediately stepped back.

“I am glad to see that you are well, Captain. Would you like a report?”

“We’re fixed. Trisk and Dradon are fine and have Jumped out. The Stetons have been arrested and are in detention. Shelly is recovering, and I’m out and here.” I paused. “Anything else?”

He emitted a few clicks, then bobbed in a nod. “It appears that you are aware of our status. But again, I am thrilled that you have recovered.” He found a chair and sat down.

I looked around. “Did anyone alert the Doctor?”

Varan frowned. “I just pinged the crew. Did you want her here as well?”

“She’s effectively part of the crew, so yeah. She’ll probably ignore us, but she needs to at least know what is going on.”

“Why do we still have her on board?” Saahna asked, looking at me for the first time in fifteen minutes. “Do we get anything but problems by having her with us?”

“We’ve acquired most of our problems on our own,” I said, pulling out my comm. “And she saved our asses back on Kupakii. I’m not convinced that she is causing our problems.”

“Her involvement got you connected to that criminal network, or whatever it is, back on Boilingbrook. And they were the ones who got us in trouble on Girar.”

I shook my head. “I don’t think that was it. TliSec seems perfectly happy with our report of what happened back there with that illegal cargo. Hells, when they met with me an hour ago, they seemed happy that I hadn’t delivered ‘contraband’ on Girar. And they have never questioned our ‘Preferred Trade Partner’ status either. I don’t think they know more about what is going on than we do. They’re just going through the motions to show their support for their other preferred traders. Whatever is going on this time, it has nothing to do with us.”

She held my gaze for a few more moments, then shrugged. “I guess. But then… what is this about?”

“They think we got tangled up in some Solomani scheme. Which didn’t involve us but involved the Stetons. Somehow. Beyond that, I have no idea.” I tapped on my comm for a moment, then put it away. “The Doctor will ignore us, but at least she was invited.” I then pulled out the scrambler and held it up. “Does anyone want to order before I turn this thing on?”

There was a brief moment as everyone ordered. I got another Gashisplit, some spicy meat rolls, and another basket of tama leaves. The others made their orders as well. We made small talk until the waitbot brought our food. When it was gone, I activated the scrambler, tossed it on the table, and looked around.

“OK. So… how much did this cost us?”

Everyone winced slightly, but Do’rex immediately spoke up. “8.7 MegaCredits—2.6 for repairs to the ship, and 6.1 for you and Steward Tharis. Your expenses were the majority of that; her injuries were more severe than yours, but your age is greater, resulting in a much higher cost. I did not think that you would disapprove of the payment.”

“What? They said they were going to give me anagathics. Which are, what, ten thousand a dose? Even out here? How does that turn into 6 million!”

He clicked and twitched his tentacles. “You did not receive anagathics. They had to give you a full rejuvenation treatment.”

I was stunned by that. “Rejuve? That’s illegal! Well, most places. And forbidden for anyone titled.”

“Good thing it isn’t here,” Varan said with a laugh. “And that you aren’t.”

“Yeah. Good thing,” I said, after hesitating slightly. “Though I’m not sure why they would care about that out here.”

Do’rex spoke up. “They offered the availability of the treatment after they learned we had preferred partner status. Otherwise, I am not sure it would have been available.”

Thank the gods for any favors at this point.

“Well, I’m glad they have advanced, probably illegal, longevity treatments here. I wonder how many other systems have certain ‘special’ drugs hidden aside that we have never known about.”

“Isn’t that what you’re supposed to be finding out about while making all of these trade deals of yours?” Varan laughed. “Never mind. The only important thing is that you and Shelly are back to normal.”

“Yeah. I won’t argue.” I paused as I pulled up our finances on my comp. We had taken a big hit that wiped out most of our profits from the last few Jumps. But… we still had enough that I should be able to make a few deals here. More than enough. We had gotten lucky.

I turned to Jami. “When can we be ready to go?”

She shrugged. “We need a full systems checkout. And they haven’t fixed the scanners in the airlocks yet. But… maybe a week?”

“I can work with that.”

“And we do not have an air-raft anymore,” piped up Do’rex. “Since it was not essential, I did not feel confident purchasing one.”

“Yeah, it isn’t essential, but I’d rather have one. It will pay for itself the first time we need one for a pickup. Otherwise, are we ready to go?”

“I’ll want to do some final calibrations before we break orbit,” Jami reminded me. “Other than that, sounds good.”

“Well, I’ll start looking for cargo and open us up for passengers. Seven days?”

I looked around. I saw a few dubious looks, but everyone nodded.

“Great. Minus any further disasters, we lift on the 28th. Have fun until then.”

—-

We spent the next hour or so eating and just catching up. Everyone else seemed to be more exuberant than I expected; I guess all of them had been tense for the last few days and felt that they could finally relax.

I wound up dancing for a while with Saahna. And a couple of times with Jami. And Varan, for one song. I’m a terrible dancer, almost as bad as I am at singing. Still, I felt better than I had in a long while, and it felt good to get up and move, probably because I had been in the med center for so long.

We eventually left, and Saanha and I caught an air-cab back to her hotel. It was called the Arkenstell and was quite a bit further away from the Starport than the places where we usually stayed. I didn’t ask. The city seemed to be pretty spread out from what I could tell from our trip over, though it was late enough that most places may have just turned their lights off for the night.

We barely got into the room when she turned and grabbed me in a painful, silent embrace and held it for a long time.

“Hey,” I said, finally. “I missed you too.”

She pulled away but kept her arms around me. “You scared the hells out of me!”

“I wasn’t particularly happy about it either!”

“I know.” Turning her back to me, she pulled away and took a few steps into the room. She continued to look into the distance for a bit.

“If you… hadn’t come through. I… I was working on a way to keep the Grayswandir flying.”

I took a step forward but sensing my movement, she took a further step away. “Well… yeah. I… hadn’t thought about it, but I guess all of you would have kept going.”

She shook her head. “Not them. Me. It… the ship is important to you. Maybe the most important thing to you. I… wanted to keep it Jumping for you. Because that is what you would have wanted.”

It was my turn to shake my head, even though she couldn’t see me. This isn’t like you, I thought. What else has happened while I’ve been out?

“No…” I said slowly. “It isn’t the most important thing.”

“Then what is?”

“You.”

She turned, anger in her eyes. “Really?”

“Yes!” I wasn’t sure where her anger was coming from. “Of course! I keep telling you that!”

“Then sell it. Sell the ship. Do you want a contract? Fine. I’ll give you one! All you have to do is pick a system, any system, and go there. We’ll stay there and just live our lives there. Will you do that?”

I hesitated. A bit too long.

“I didn’t think so,” she said, turning away again. She walked towards the bunk, pulling off her jacket as she did. “And you’ve been gone a few days. Let’s fuck.”

—-

The rest of the night was spent in silence. Well, not really, but there wasn’t any conversation. It was a strange mixture of intimacy, relief, and anger, and I couldn’t tell which one was more prominent.

Eventually, we went to sleep. I felt good. Physically, at least. Better than I had in a long time. But, I also felt a faint pit in my stomach. I should have been ecstatic over Saahna wanting a contract. It was what I had wanted for years. But, I had always assumed that it would be the two of us on the Grayswandir. Settling down? On a planet? Was I ready for that? Was that really what it would take?

I lay awake for far longer than I should have, though I guess I had been sleeping for a while. I even snuck off to the fresher to record this.

What did I really want?