11 Eamis 1117: Mupikaa – Tlianke/Hinterworlds – (1337 A426588-A ni 903 Na M2 V)
We entered orbit at about 1000 local time. Mupikaa’s rotation period was fairly long, so they had alternating “lightdays” and “darkdays .”We were, fortunately, arriving at the start of a lightday and would have daylight for most of the next 14 hours. There was more than enough time to get everyone, and everything offloaded and deal with whatever more problems the locals wanted to throw at us.
I had been back in the Captain’s chair for about an hour or so. Saahna had gotten up before me, and I let her clear the fresher before getting up myself. She was already in the gimbal when I entered the crew lounge. I thought about going up to the passenger deck, but I didn’t want to answer a lot of questions that I still didn’t have answers for. I checked in yesterday evening, and beyond yet another diatribe from Ms. Ceana about how she had been mistreated, everyone seemed fine. Kramon and Vitriman were obviously relieved; even Shelly seemed to have calmed down. The Lemmis were thrilled at the “excitement.”
The only one unperturbed was Dr. Korvusar, and she only asked for a wine refill.
If Saahna keeps complaining about my beer consumption, I’ll suggest she check with our Medic about her own alcohol intake.
—-
Fortunately, Mupikaa didn’t seem particularly concerned about us anymore. STC gave us a perfunctory greeting and assigned a landing pad and de-orbit slot. We descended behind another Free Trader, the Collumation Defect, and ahead of a remora from the bulk freighter Wakened Leviathan, which was, obviously, remaining in orbit.
The starport consisted of about two-dozen pads arranged in parallel lines on either side of a maglev line. Another dozen ships sat scattered on bare dirt up to a few kilometers away. We settled onto our assigned pad and switched off our internals.
“Welcome to Mupikaa, everyone!” I announced over the internal comms as a dome started closing over us. “We should have external pressure in a few minutes, at which point you are welcome to depart. We are about 50 kilometers from Seraphin, the capital, but a rail system will have you there in about a half-hour.
“Please make sure that you have downloaded the local app to your comp and linked it to your ident; all transactions here will be done through that app. We can’t help you if you haven’t done that already. Please ask our Steward, or any other crew member, if you need assistance. We cannot be responsible for you once you leave the docking pad.
“That goes for any crew members who have not set up the app too. And to avoid fees, we will need to vacate this pad in four hours, so we need to proceed with disembarkation as quickly as possible. Beyond that, thank you for Travelling on the Grayswandir, and I hope we will be able to provide transport for you in the future.”
Saahna clicked in on the comms. “Really?”
I shrugged. “You said I needed to work on my delivery.”
“Keep working.” I watched as the gunnery suite powered down. “Let me go pack.”
“Yeah, I’ll be there in a few.” I looked at my console, then responded to a few responses from the docking pad team and opened the cargo doors. Almost immediately, cargo-bots started entering the bay and picking up pods. I directed our cargo to a temporary warehouse and notified the local contacts that their Freight was now available for pickup.
With my immediate tasks done, I shut down my console and dropped to the deck. It was then that I noticed that Do’rex was still at his console.
“Is there a problem?”
He clicked. “Just local procedures. Once unloaded, we must vacate this pad and park somewhere in the surrounding vicinity. Their docking capacity cannot meet the demands of their local traffic.”
“Sounds like bad planning on their part.”
“Or a means for them to collect more fees.”
“Yeah, that’s probably it. Hey, look. You need a break. You head on in. I’ll stay here and move us over.”
He clicked. “I would rather take care of it myself.”
“Hey, I’ve got my basic Pilot certification. I’m sure I can move us a klick over.”
He clicked again and bobbed his head. “I am certain that you are capable. But… I would like to remain on board for a bit. After you and the others have left.”
I frowned. “Um… is there something…”
“You agreed to not interfere with my personal life, Captain. This involves that. Please do not press things further.”
A dozen questions immediately leaped into my head, but I did my best to ignore them. I couldn’t risk antagonizing anyone any more than I already had.
“Well, we’ll see you in town later. I’ll send out a location for our post-landing meetup in a few.”
He bobbed. “Thank you, Captain.”
“Certainly.” I headed for the iris. “Just ping me if you need anything.”
He clicked but said nothing else. I exited to the crew lounge.
I spent time there as the Lemmis, Kramon, and Vitriman left the passenger deck. I spoke with them briefly before they cycled through the airlock. The Lemmis still seemed to think this had been an exciting trip. They were apparently Captain Spaceways fans.
Kramon, Vitriman and I spent a bit longer. We exchanged encryption codes and contacts so that we could get in touch later if we needed to. They had decided to take separate ships to their next destination, hoping to throw anyone following them further off their trail.
They were heading for Drosyodry, which I had planned to go next, but staying on board the Grayswaindir was obviously a bad idea. After a final round of thanks, they left.
Ms. Ceana had apparently disembarked when I had given clearance; I never saw her.
Once the lounge was clear, I went to Varan’s cabin, punched in the code, and opened the door.
He was already standing on the other side. “Oh, finally remembered we were here?”
I gritted my teeth but stepped to one side and gestured toward the airlock. “We’re here. Get your stuff and get out. Ms. Kane’s luggage has already been off-loaded and is in the docking bay. The maglev runs every fifteen minutes. Just… go.”
He glared at me. “Rut you!”
“You’ve complained about it in the past, but… you aren’t my type. Now, get off my ship. I’m activating anti-hijack in ten minutes.”
“Hey! I’m not packed!”
“Not my problem.” I turned and headed for the iris to the cargo bay.
“Rut you!” I heard from behind me.
“Yeah, you wish.” I stepped through the iris, and it closed behind me, cutting off anything else he may have had to say.
—-
Jami and Saahna were in the pad and helping coordinate the cargo offloading, though the cargo bots seemed to have almost everything under control. I looked around but didn’t see anyone who looked, official. The only local sophonts I saw were directing the cargo bots.
Saahna came up to me. “I had Ms. Kane’s luggage taken off first.”
“Probably best, though Varan is doing his best to delay leaving.”
“And what are you doing about that?”
“Activating anti-hijack in about an hour. Then I’ll dump his ass in the middle of the bay, along with anything from his cabin that doesn’t belong to us. He can figure it out from there.”
She stared at me for a bit. “Have you really quit defending him?”
I closed my eyes, remembering. Was that only a week ago? I opened them again.
“He. Pointed. A. Gun. At. Me. I can’t forgive that. I never will forgive that.”
“Yeah. Until a week from now when you invite him back. Because you need a Gunner.”
“I have a Gunner.”
“Who? Me? I’m your Navigator. Don’t make me call you on that!”
I sighed. “Fine. We’ll deal with it. Gray can run the turrets for a while. Until she shoots our own tail off.”
She frowned. “We need a Gunner.”
“Yeah, we do. But I don’t trust anyone that we might find here. Not now. I might feel safe in a Jump or two, but right now? We’ve had so much interference with our last few Jumps that I don’t want to risk picking up someone in a system that has already shown that they don’t trust us. Hells, I’m not going to get passengers here, and I’m dubious of any cargo or Freight we get offered. I may go out empty this Jump.
“Really?”
“Yeah. I need to re-think how we are doing things. We’ve rutted up badly. OK, I’ve rutted up badly. I need to start being more careful.”
“And Varan?” She tilted her head.
I looked back at the pad. Varan and Evel were standing in the middle of the pad and standing next to a pile of luggage while arguing with a cargo bot. The bot’s handler eventually came over and started talking to them. At this point, the bot picked up their bags and headed for the terminal.
Evel followed the bot, but Varan looked around until he saw me. He started to wave, but in mid-gesture, he stopped and switched to flipping me off. He then turned to follow Evel.
I sighed and turned back to Saahna. “I need to grab my downbag stuff. See you in a few?”
She nodded slowly. She didn’t look after Varan, but I saw the concern in her expression. “Are you OK?”
“As well as I can be. I’ll see you in about… thirty minutes.”
“We’ll miss the next train.”
“Yeah. We will.”
She sighed. “Sure. Fine. I’ll be here.”
“Thanks.”
—-
I took my time packing. The Law Level didn’t allow it, but I tucked my snub pistol under my vest. I knew they would detect it when they scanned me, but I hoped that if they caught it, I could just turn it in, and they not do another scan and notice the body pistol in the small of my back. And if they did, I could probably get away with a few dozen credit “fine.”
The tighter the laws, the easier it is to get someone to bend some of them.
As I left, I took one last check of our status. The engines were on idle, but our gravatics were still active. They would be needed when Do’rex moved us a few klicks away. I trusted that he would shut everything down after we moved.
I also saw that Shelly was still on board. Well, she hadn’t abandoned us. Yet. I hoped Do’rex could convince her to stay. Her ‘casts–and those of Ontology Media–had saved us this Jump. I needed her to stay with us.
When I exited through the cargo bay, most of the cargo had been removed, but the bots were still active. Saahna was the only sophont I recognized still in the pad.
“Everyone else gone?”
“Yeah. What took you so long?”
“Just taking care of some last-minute business.”
“Oh?”
“Do’rex will move the Grayswandir after all of us are gone. And… Shelly is staying on board until then.”
“Didn’t you say that we needed her?”
“We wouldn’t be here now if it wasn’t for the reports that her friends from that media group filed about us. Yeah, we need her.”
“Good.” She thought for a moment. “Are you OK with that?”
“With what?”
“Her.. relationship with Do’rex.”
“I told you. I never did anything with her!”
“But… you had the chance?”
“Which I turned down!” I glared at her. “What? Are you jealous?”
“No, just wanting to make sure that you aren’t finding something else to get annoyed at.”
I sighed. “So… you’re jealous.”
“Rut you!” She picked up her downbag, which had been sitting next to her. “Let’s get out of here.”
I shifted my own. “Yeah. I’m as happy to be out of this as you are.”
—-
We actually got caught up in Customs for a while. I had expected them to meet us at the landing pad, but they were inside the Starport Terminal and between us and the maglev into town. And they had a lot of questions about where every piece of cargo and Freight and every passenger had come from. By the time I had given them the documentation they wanted, Do’rex and Shelly had shown up behind us.
Finally, they let us through. As we filed into the waiting area, I looked at the two of them. “We landed somewhere for the week?”
Do’rex clicked. “We are several kilometers out, at the coordinates they directed us to. We took the air-raft in and docked it at a local garage. It will accumulate fees there. I hope this is acceptable to you. Our alternative would have been to walk several kilometers while carrying our in-system necessities.”
I waved dismissal. “We’re fine. In terms of what this has cost us so far, I suspect it is minor.
He clicked. “Thank you for understanding.”
“Of course.” I turned to Shelly. “And how are you?”
She glared at me through narrowed eyes. “And how do you think I am doing?”
I tried to keep my voice level. “If I knew, I wouldn’t ask. So… how are you handling things?”
She looked at Do’rex, who clicked, then turned back to me. “Are we having our usual post-landing meeting tonight?”
“Yeah? Of course! Once I’ve had a chance to find a place.”
“Good.” He settled back in his chair, even though it didn’t match his anatomy. “We will reveal our concerns then.”
I started to say something, then realized that nothing I could say or ask would contribute anything. Instead, I just gestured toward the overhead holo.
“The next train to Seraphin is in about five minutes. I’ll find us a place once we are there and see all of you in a few.”
—-
The maglev was a lot faster than I had expected. With their atmosphere, there wasn’t any resistance to its speed. It even had internal gravitics, so we didn’t feel the acceleration as we shot out of the terminal vehicle airlock and sped toward town.
There were a few structures of the small Startown around the port, then we were speeding across an empty landscape of grays and browns. Mostly brown. Most windows were smeared with an oily sheen that seemed to defy cleaning.
In a few minutes, we were entering the outskirts of Seraphin. They had gone with the standard Fullerdome for most of their above-ground structures, hexagonal window frames forming a dome over individual buildings or locations. The first of them we passed seemed to be agriculture, though our speed and the brown stains on the windows and the domes kept us from getting a good view of the interior.
Then we approached Seraphin itself. A half-million sophonts lived here, the rest scattered at mining and other sites around the planet. There would be any number of megacorp indentures at those sites, but the Scout Service never counted those in the population count for a system.
Seraphin consisted of dozens or more domes connected by surface tunnels. Fullerdomes can only be so large before they can’t support their weight, so the Mupikaans spread their capital. A bit. Our maglev slid into one of the outer domes, and we waited as the iris closed behind us and the dome repressurized. In a few minutes, the exit flashed green, and the door opened. We gathered our downbags and headed out.
—-
I hadn’t had as much time as I would have liked on the way in, but I had tentatively settled on a place called Carrest. Saahna shrugged when I showed it to her, so we went in that direction. I had tried to speak to Do’rex and Shelly, but they had pointedly gone to a different car than the one we were in, and Do’rex had simply said, “Let us know where the meeting is tonight,” before walking away.
Saahna hadn’t said anything until we had checked in and were in our room. It was far larger than needed, but I later learned that the Mupikaans enjoyed their space. A side-effect of having to stay inside all the time, I supposed.
And they had never expanded underground for some reason. They really liked to be able to look out a window and see the sky. Even if that view was through a brown-stained dome with only a few dozen stars visible through the purple of a very thin atmosphere.
—-
As usual, Saahna had managed to get her things packed away faster than me, even though she always had more than I did. She was looking impatiently as I finally closed the drawer on my side of the room.
“So… what now?”
“I need to find us a place to meet tonight.” I pulled up my comp and tried connecting to the local net. Of course, there were a surprising number of fee notices and disclaimers that I had to click through to get anywhere.
“We could just meet everyone here?”
“I’ve already checked that. There are fees for allowing anyone not staying here to access the restaurant. Well, even higher fees than we already pay to use it ourselves. Even with us being here.”
She sighed and rolled her eyes as I finally got my comp to run a properly-filtered query. I just pulled up the first hit.
“Bedrock Porch. It’s on the outside edge of the city. Reviews say that it is a bit ‘sketchy,’ but I get the impression that means people like us.” I tapped on my comm and was about to send out the notice, then at the last second, I remembered that Varan was on the list. I removed him, then alerted everyone to meet us there in about three hours.
Saahna was looking at her own comm but looked up when my ping came through. She glanced at it, then at me.
“So… who do you think will actually show up?”
I sighed. “The only sophonts I am sure of are you and me. Do’rex asked to meet so he and Shelly could ‘air their grievances against me. I don’t know about Jami; she’s more upset than I would have expected her to be. And the Doctor basically ignores everything.”
“Isn’t she part of the crew now? You can’t just order her to show up?”
“Yeah… I’m pretty sure that won’t work.”
“You could just kick her off the ship. She really can’t force us to keep carrying her.”
“We could. But… what if we need her?”
“Need?”
“I still think she saved our asses back on Kupikaa.”
“OK, yeah. But Kupikaa was nominally under Imperial control. At least the Scouts there were. But out here?”
“I don’t know. But I’m hesitant to cut off one of our only known assets.”
She sighed, then nodded. “Fair. So, what now?”
I glanced at my comp. Some of our Freight had already been picked up. I still needed to put our cargo up for bids, but I wanted to avoid sitting in the room while doing that.
“Let’s head on over to the Porch. I need to list our cargo anyway. We may as well be somewhere that we can get food and something to drink.”
She looked around. “Yeah… may as well.”
—–
The Porch was an outside place. Well, inside the dome, of course, but on the roof of a three-story building. It was near the south edge of the dome, so we had a clear view of the desert stretching to the south, interrupted only by a row of greenhouses. Well, a mostly clear view; the quickly becoming familiar brownish sludge blocked part of the view. I saw a few cleaner bots crawling outside the dome, but they couldn’t keep up with the continual downfall.
Places on the northern end of the dome were a bit more “upscale” than this because they had a view of the ocean. And subsequently
I looked around. There were a few other groups besides us here. The bar was empty, and most of them were sitting at tables or along a bar on the outside of the balcony. They were all humaniti, and most were dressed in as little as possible. As in, most of the men were only wearing jockstraps, and the women were in g-strings and bras. If they bothered with the latter.
It was fairly hot. Even inside the dome, the temperature was around 30°. Saahna and I were still in our ship jumpsuits and had set our thermals to cool. I didn’t want to face the temperature at which they were keeping their dome.
If they thought that this was comfortable, what must the outside be like?
It probably swung wildly. An atmosphere this thin would lose heat very quickly at night, even though the oceans and bare sand would retain a lot. And Fullerdomes are designed to maintain their internal temperature through the greenhouse effect. They probably kept it warm to make the adjustment easier when they did go outside.
I had tried ordering the local beer and some tama leaves, only to discover that the latter were not on the menu. The bored-looking human bartender recommended a “tuber-chip” as an equivalent. So, I grabbed a basket and a pair of beers as Saahna found us a table.
“Kinda open for a meeting, isn’t it?” she asked as I sat down and handed her beer.
“Yeah, I guess I should have looked a bit closer.” I pulled out my comp.
She shook her head. “They do seem to have spread out their tables here. And being outside… well, kinda outside, should work in our favor. And I’m pretty sure we aren’t doing anything suspicious this time. Are we?” She raised an eyebrow as she said that.
As she said that, she had just taken a bite of a tuber chip, and her eyes went wide. “Damn! These are good!” She grabbed another handful and shoved it into her mouth.
“Really?” I grabbed a few for myself, took a bite, and… suddenly had a new favorite snack. She was right. These were really good.
And irresistible. She was grabbing for another handful as I finished mine and grabbed what was left. I immediately held the bowl over my head and waved it at the sophont behind the bar. He waved a hand in acknowledgment, then disappeared into the back.
“We could make a fortune on these!” I said as I finished eating what I had taken.
Saahna was nodding. “Though we really need to get them checked. I could get addicted to these really fast.”
“Yeah, me too!” I was looking away to see where the bartender had gone.
“Addicted to what, exactly?” I turned to see that Jami had arrived
I tried to hide my surprise as I shoved the seat opposite me out with my foot. “Hey! Glad to see you here. And you have to try this snack they have here!” About this point, a waitbot hovered over, carrying another basket. I took it, grabbed a handful, then handed it to Jami. I then turned to the retreating waitbot. “Just keep bringing those!”
Jami frowned, took one, looked dubiously at it, and popped it into her mouth. I saw the same look of shock that I had experienced, and she immediately grabbed a handful.
“What t’e ‘ells are t’ese!” she mumbled through a full mouth. “And ‘ow do we ge’ more!”
“Hey, save some for the rest of us!” Saahna grumbled, grabbing the basket from her. She dumped half of it in front of herself, then grabbed another handful before putting the now almost-empty basket in the middle of the table.
I was about to say something, but the waitbot arrived with three baskets and dropped one in front of each of us. I turned to look at the bartender, who waved in my direction with a smile.
“Welcome to Mupikaa!” he yelled before retreating to the far side of the bar. I shook my head. That was one way to identify new arrivals.
Jami was already halfway through her basket and waved at the waitbot for a drink of her own. When it arrived, she downed half of it in one swallow, then looked around.
“These things are insidious! Tasty but salty enough to make you want to get a drink. And starchy, so you want to eat more and order more drinks. Someone has a lanthanum mine here!”
I nodded, trying to ration my own basket. “Yeah. We’re definitely stocking up on this stuff before we leave. How is this not a major export?”
Saahna had pushed her own basket into the middle of the table. “It’s probably illegal in other systems. Any place serving these would get constant business. And I don’t want to think of the long-term health effects. Salt and starch? Can’t be good for you.”
“Yeah, which makes it the perfect trade good.” I reached for another handful, then hesitated and turned to my comp.
“OK, we’re about five minutes out, and no Do’rex, Shelly, or our Doctor. And Varan apparently isn’t going to try to crash us. So… let’s go ahead and get our actual orders out of the way.”
We spent a few minutes sorting out our orders, and by the time we were done, we were well past our meetup time. I looked at the other two, then shrugged while trying unsuccessfully to keep any reaction off my face.
“OK then. I guess… yeah. OK, I accept my part in all of this. I never wanted to be in this situation. I never wanted to wind up in some conspiracy. Or multiple conspiracies, given what I have heard. So… I can’t blame anyone for running as far away as they could. We’ll… be fine. The Grayswandir will keep Jumping. We’ll just… have to adapt.”
Saahna was looking down. “I… really thought Do’rex would be here, at least.”
“I think he is more worried about Shelly than himself now.”
“You’re probably right.”
Jami was looking between us. “Wait… I knew she had been staying in his cabin to avoid Varan, but… really?”
“Looks that way. And come on, you’re a Traveller. Never judge.”
“Wait… That far?”
“Jami…”
She tilted back. “Hey, I’m not judging. Just… surprised. I mean, I had been Travelling four-or-five years before I started… thinking outside. She’s been a Traveller for what? Four-or-five months?”
“Yeah. But I could tell when I first met her. She’s a natural Traveller.” I sighed. “I just wish things had worked out a bit differently. She could have really helped us. She has helped us. So… yeah.”
“She never forgave you for not getting rid of Varan after that… you know.”
I looked down. “Yeah. I know. But… he’s gone now.”
“Yeah. Only a month or so too late.” I looked up to see her glaring at me.
I just closed my eyes and nodded. She was right. There was nothing I could say.
“You know he kept hitting on me too.”
I looked back up. “What? No? Why didn’t you say anything?”
She shrugged, then paused momentarily, seeming to be lost in thought.
“Because… this was a good berth?” she said, finally. “You know I was with the Cygnarus for a year or two before joining up with you. And the Stolam for a few years before that. You, at least, seemed to have some idea as to how to run things. It was nice to be on a decent crew.”
I grimaced. “Yeah. And we see how well everything worked out.”
“Hey, it did! What are you talking about?”
I looked up in surprise. “Huh?”
“Look, I wasn’t happy when that Custom’s team came on board. And, I’ll be honest, I told them the truth about everything. And then they… just left?” She laughed. “I thought I was throwing you under the ground rail, but… it worked out!”
She sighed. “I was right. You do know what you are doing. Captain Barikus would never have gotten us out of that mess. But… you did!”
She looked down. “And that made me think of all those weird things Doctor Korvusar keeps saying. Maybe… there is something about the Grayswandir. About us!
“I can’t… If she is right, I need to be a part of this! Hells think of the stories we’ll be able to tell! So… I’m in. For however this goes, I’m in.”
I was surprised and didn’t try to disguise my relief. “Thanks. Seriously. That… means a lot.”
She shrugged. “So… do I get a bigger crew share now?”
I looked around. We were now well past the meetup time, and there was no sign of anyone else. “Well, we seem to have a much smaller crew to divide shares between, so for here, at least, yes.”
She smiled, then stood up while giving me a sloppy salute. “Thanks, Captain!”
“Thanks for staying with us.”
“And miss all the fun? No way!” She looked around. “Now, if you will excuse me?” She turned and started walking toward a table a few dozen meters away. There were three sophonts there, two men and a woman, and one of the men seemed a bit surprised but held out a drink for her as she joined them.
—-
Saahna saw my expression. “He’s… been trying to get her attention for several minutes now.”
“I missed that.”
“You would.”
“Hey!”
She sighed. “So… we have an Engineer. Do we need to replace everything else?”
“OK, let’s think,” I said to cover the need to think myself. “I have my Pilot and Navigation certifications. You have Gunnery and Navigation. And Jami is our Engineer. So… we can get out-system with just the three of us if we ignore passengers. And I’m going to assume the Doctor will be with us, even if she didn’t show up. I didn’t expect her to.” I sighed and looked around.
“We can get to Drosyodryu with just the three of us. Well, us and the Doctor. It’s a B port with a decent population. We should be able to find someone there.”
She seemed surprised. “You’ll… just let everyone else go that easily?”
“I don’t want Varan back. Yeah, I let him get away with… things far longer than I should have. But he burned all of my goodwill.” As I said that, I felt a swell of regret, but I forced it back down.
“And Do’rex and Shelly?”
“Do’rex… hurts. But… He’s trying to protect Shelly. And I didn’t.”
I shook my head. ” She has been telling me how she felt for several weeks, but… I let that go on longer than I should have. I had hoped to reach some kind of compromise, but…” I looked down and shook my head. “That was never going to happen.”
“I tried to warn you. We all did.”
“Yeah. I accept that. This is on me.”
There was a brief silence.
“So… we’re down to the three of us?”
“I… don’t know. We’ll be stretched a bit thin, but… we’ll be OK.”
She sighed and nodded. “Yeah. But… I really don’t want to be our Gunner forever.”
“A few weeks. Or a month or so. But if you really object, we’ll just let Gray handle everything. She’s been running the missile turret for a while anyway.”
She sighed again. “I… guess I can handle it.” She looked around. Jami was now in a deep conversation with the guy who had invited her over. Who already had an arm around her. Most other tables were full, and I didn’t recognize anyone.
“I… guess we’ll just call the meeting then.” I waved for the waitbot and started tapping on my ident as it arrived. I frowned when I realized I had apparently bought a round for Jami’s new table but didn’t feel like challenging it.
“Let’s go.”
“It’s still a bit early. And we need to get some local clothes.”
“What?”
“We had a deal, remember?”
I sighed. “Yeah, sure. Tomorrow. Let’s… just go home.”
She didn’t say anything but stood up and headed for the exit. I followed.
A brief air cab later, we were back in our hotel. While I stopped in the lounge, she went to our room to finish this entry. And to have a few more beers.
I was unhappy with how few of the crew had shown up. At least Jami was still with us.
It has been a bad last few days. OK, a bad last few weeks. Hopefully… things will work out better for us going forward.
I hate having to depend on hope. But it is all I had left.