The Outback Stars (19 page)

Timrin peered into the mirror and combed his hair. “Officers. Can't live with them, can't push them out an airlock.”

Myell's chest tightened. Don't be paranoid, he told himself. “I didn't say it was an officer.”

“It would have to be, wouldn't it?” Timrin grimaced. “Clumsy dongers, the whole lot.”

Myell leaned back and turned his face to the wall.

*   *   *

After dinner that night Francesco pulled Jodenny aside. “I hear there was a scuffle in the mess this morning. Chief Chiba and Sergeant Myell.”

And here she had thought the highlight of Myell's day had been getting flattened by Osherman. “Did you see it?”

“Not personally.”

“I'll talk to Myell,” she said.

That night she tossed and turned in bed. Osherman hadn't volunteered to make a safety report after his accident with Myell, which was uncharacteristic. The officer she remembered from the
Yangtze
had been meticulous about regulations and paperwork. Osherman had also been in a decided hurry to leave once Quenger showed up. Myell, meanwhile, should have told her about the mess deck incident with Chiba. The man had a definite problem with asking for help. The next morning she went to quarters early to discuss it with him and came across Strayborn and Myell arguing.

“You should have asked me,” Myell was saying.

“I don't need to—” Strayborn stopped when he saw Jodenny.

“Is there a problem?” she asked.

“No,” Myell said.

Strayborn said nothing. Jodenny eyed the two of them. “Sergeant Myell, I'd like to speak with you in private for a moment.”

He shook his head. “Can't, Lieutenant. I'm due on watch in ten minutes. I only came to leave notes for Ishikawa.”

Jodenny couldn't interfere with his watch schedule. She conducted quarters and reminded everyone about the rules regarding shore leave on Mary River. Afterward Strayborn accompanied her back to Mainship. As they waited for a tram she asked, “Was there an incident yesterday between Myell and Chief Chiba?”

Strayborn grimaced. “I heard there was. I didn't see it.”

“Why didn't he report it to Security?”

The tram pulled into their station with only a few passengers aboard. Jodenny and Strayborn retreated to a corner and held on to poles as it slid into motion again.

Strayborn said, “Anyone tell you about AT Ford, Lieutenant?”

“I heard a thing or two.”

“Myell was in the brig for a while while they tried to sort through everything.”

That information had most definitely not been in his record. “Was he?”

“Part of it was for his own protection. The girl who said he raped her was dating Chief Chiba. He runs a pretty mean crowd.”

“So I hear.” The tram began to slow as it approached Mainship. “Do you know that for a fact?”

Strayborn raised an eyebrow. “Don't tell me you believe the official position that there are no gangs on Team Space ships, ma'am.”

No, she didn't believe that. No matter how much she might prefer otherwise, gangs were a fact of life on Fortune, Baiame, and Warramala. Crew who came from rough neighborhoods didn't lose their allegiances when they signed up. If anything, the long Alcheringa runs strengthened the ties that cut across rank, rate, and position.

“So Myell was in trouble with Chiba and his people,” she said.

“Yes, ma'am. Meanwhile, a lot of people who didn't know better were already convicting him. The charges were dropped but there are hard feelings all around. That's what breakfast was probably about. If I know Myell, he'd rather cut off his arm than go to Security.”

The tram slid into the first station on Mainship. Jodenny paused in the open doorway. “When were you going to tell me all this?”

Strayborn's expression gave away nothing. “I wasn't. No disrespect, but there's never been a reason around here to get the DIVO involved in anything. Not until now.”

Jodenny accepted Strayborn's backhanded compliment with silence. She returned to her office, stared at her deskgib for a while, and went to a scheduled meeting with Lieutenant Commander Vu regarding purchase orders. The mess decks were empty but for two RTs trying to lower a dragon boat from its mount high on the bulkhead. Vu grabbed two cups of horchata and slid into a booth opposite from Jodenny.

“I hear you're causing all sorts of trouble,” Vu said, her eyes sparkling. “Uniform inspections. Taking away people's gibs. Making the ensigns study for watch. You're not going to win the vote for Most Popular DIVO.”

“I figured as much,” Jodenny said.

The comm sounded. “Attention all crew and passengers. Mary River transition commencing. Five, four, three, two, one.”

The slightest of bumps indicated that the
Aral Sea
had dropped into Mary River's solar system. The distance between the Alcheringa drop point and Mary River was much shorter than back on Kookaburra, and in just a few hours the
Aral Sea
would start releasing towers for local freighters to tow away. The first shore leave birdies would depart in the morning, each of them jammed full with sailors seeking to escape the ship for recreation and relaxation.

“Popular or not, you've got Grace Wildstein in a fit of jealousy. She thinks you're Al-Banna's new darling,” Vu said.

“That's silly.”

Over by the salad bar, one of the RTs trying to fix the dragon boat lost his grip. The boat slid down several centimeters before its safety wire caught with a loud snap.

“Careful!” Vu warned them.

“Sorry, ma'am,” the RT said.

Vu turned back to Jodenny. “Grace can be a little silly, I suppose. Ever since Matsuda disappeared back when we were leaving Kiwi, she's been a little insecure. You heard that story? About our old SUPPO?”

“I heard it,” Jodenny said. “What do you think happened to him?”

“I could give you a different theory for every day of the week. My favorite is that Team Space pulled him at the last minute as part of a criminal investigation. He was slippery that way, you know? Slimy under the surface. Grace is a good officer, runs everything by reg, but stains spread pretty wide on this ship. If he was involved in anything shady she might be held accountable for not catching on to it.”

“Shady like what?'

“Kickbacks. Bribes. Had himself quite a nest egg, but apparently didn't hide the data trail very well.” Vu watched the RTs finish their work on the boat and retreat to the kitchen. “I don't know for sure but he disappears, Al-Banna shows up out of nowhere, Umbundo puts you in Greiger's job—it's no wonder Grace is feeling undermined.”

Jodenny didn't want to talk about Wildstein anymore. “You should come to dinner in the wardroom tonight—we could do with some fresh faces.”

“I think my husband would miss me.”

Jodenny looked for a wedding ring, but Vu waved her hand and said, “I don't wear one. Neither does Mike. He's the master chief for Data.”

“You're married to a master chief?”

“You don't have to look so shocked,” Vu said. “It does happen, you know. More often than commanding officers like to admit. The decent ones overlook it. The uptight ones, they can make an issue of it, but they can't force you to get a divorce.”

“When I was in Supply School on Fortune, one of the ensigns in my class married a regular tech she'd known from childhood.” Jodenny sipped at her coffee. “They took away her commission.”

“An ensign at Supply School? Of course they'll come down hard on her. Too visible for Team Space's comfort, and they figure they can nip it early. A lieutenant commander and master chief married for ten years now, both of them on one Alcheringa run after another? No captain wants to take that on. Come over to our place for Sunday brunch and meet Mike. You'll like him. Bring a date, if you'd like.”

“I'm not seeing anyone,” Jodenny said. Her last date had been four months earlier with an easygoing pilot. They had walked around the
Yangtze'
s Rocks and eaten ice cream and then returned to her cabin, where they'd made fumbling love. Weeks after the accident, when she finally dared to look, she read his name on the list of disaster victims.

Vu smiled mischievously. “I hear Quenger's interested.”

Jodenny shuddered. “I'm not.”

“Oh, Dave's not so bad. A little full of himself. That's what happens when you get everything you want with the snap of a finger. How about someone else?”

Jodenny didn't have to think hard to come up with the name of someone she did find attractive, but a personal relationship with Myell was unthinkable. Despite Vu's personal story, regulations against fraternization existed for a good reason and deserved to be upheld.

“No,” she told Vu. “There's no one else.”

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

It took some creative maneuvering to avoid Jodenny, but Myell suspected she must have heard about the confrontation with Chiba by now and he didn't want to talk about it. Come morning he'd be sitting on a birdie and two hours after that would have the firm ground of Mary River under his feet. Until then he was satisfied to eat dinner alone on the mess decks long after most people had finished. He was reviewing message boards on his gib when VanAmsal slid into his booth.

“Did you do it?” VanAmsal asked.

“Do what?”

“Ford.”

“No.” Myell went back to his dinner of potatoes and beans.

“She said you did.” VanAmsal took his butter knife and scratched it along the table's surface. “One of you is lying.”

“It's not me.”

She gazed at him steadily. “Why's your face all bruised?”

Myell touched his cheek. “This wasn't—”

“Everyone knows you were ambushed the day we dropped,” she said. “Shevi Dyatt went to Sick Berth this morning with a black eye that she claims she got from walking into a door. Someone needs to teach Chiba's men a lesson.”

“Tisa—”

“I'd stay in my cabin tonight if I were you,” she said, and walked away.

Myell went back to Supply berthing. The lounge was empty and Gallivan didn't answer his gib. His uneasiness increasing, Myell trammed over to the Rocks. Music spilled out of storefronts, colonists ate sumptuous meals under the starry dome, and children darted in and around their parents' legs. The evening's game, Dunredding vs. Notting Bay, played out in every bar and on the Rocks' main vids. An exceptionally bad call by a referee caused a riot of boos and heckles. Myell checked the clubs where Gallivan's band played and the theater where old Earth films were shown on an old-fashioned flat screen. He ran into Lieutenant Francesco from Disbursing at the popcorn counter.

“Something wrong, Sergeant?” Francesco asked. “You look worried.”

“No, sir,” Myell said. “Have a good evening.”

On his way out he saw Chief Vostic duck into a corner. There were rumors about Francesco and Vostic, but he had no interest in seeing if they were true. For the next hour he scoured the Rocks but returned to his cabin in defeat. Timrin, standing a Fire and Security midwatch, pinged him at oh-three-hundred.

“There was a fight down near the Flight Deck,” Timrin said. “Security's sorting them all out now. Your guys and Maintenance.”

“Shit,” Myell said. “Does Lieutenant Scott know?”

“She's on her way down.”

“Should I come, too?” he asked.

Timrin gave him a humorless smile. “If I were you, I'd go crawl under a rock. The less anyone sees of you, the better for everyone.”

*   *   *

Jodenny had spent most of her afternoon attending meetings, answering COSAL data requests, and reviewing the final May inventory, which held at ninety-five percent. After work, she popped aspirin for a headache and had dinner in the wardroom. Then she gathered Hultz, Gunther, and Ysten to tell them any liberty they'd been granted for Mary River was canceled because their watch qualifications were unfinished.

“That's not fair!” Gunther said.

“I've been planning a trip on Mary River since deployment began,” Ysten said.

“If you'd finished up like Sanchez did, you wouldn't be in this predicament,” Jodenny said. “Besides, you're not liberty-starved. You all had time off on Kiwi and Kookaburra.”

“Can't you talk to Commander Al-Banna and change his mind?” Hultz asked.

“It was my idea,” Jodenny said.

Hultz threw herself back on the sofa. “But it's all so dumb! Ship's velocity, Alcheringa coordinates—I mean, really, when will I ever be in charge of the bridge when there's not seventy people who know what they're doing better than I do?”

“When those seventy people are dead or dying,” Jodenny snapped.

That night she had a nightmare in which she could hear Dyanne telling her not to be so hard on the ensigns. In her dream Dyanne was standing right behind her. “Turn around and see,” Dyanne said, but Jodenny wouldn't. She knew the thing behind her wasn't human anymore, but instead a monster of crushed bone and flesh. The buckled decks of the
Yangtze
stretched all around her, the bulkheads burning and ripping apart—

Holland's voice said, “Lieutenant, please wake up. Security has informed me that RT Gallivan, RT Chang, AT Kevwitch, and AT Ishikawa have been taken into custody for fighting.”

Jodenny stared at the ceiling for a moment, unsure if she was awake or still dreaming. She asked Holland to repeat what she had said and then called the duty sergeant, Sergeant Timrin. He told her that sailors from the Maintenance division were also involved in the fight. He said, “Lieutenant Quenger's been notified, and Chief Chiba's on his way. Do you want me to call the SUPPO?”

“No, don't bother him. I'll be right down.”

The situation was bad enough without the added detail that Osherman was the Command Duty Officer, and his grim expression was the first thing Jodenny saw when she arrived in Security. Her four sailors were sequestered in one cell sporting a variety of bruises and cuts. In a separate cell sat Spallone, Engel, and Olsson, each of them equally banged up. Chiba had already arrived and acted mad enough to throw a few punches himself.