Priestess of the Eggstone (7 page)

“What was I supposed to think? I woke up to find some guy with a gun standing over you in the cockpit.”

“So you decided to save the poor helpless female.”

“He had a gun on you. How was I supposed to know it was an excuse for a stunner? Next time I’ll just let you handle it by yourself.”

“Do that, please!” I turned to my locker. I banged the door open before remembering all of my clothes were still in the cleaner.

“You’re bleeding,” Jerimon said as I turned.

“I know.” I pulled clothes from the cleaner, throwing them into my locker. “I’m going to clean up. Keep an eye on Leon.”

“Is that an order, Captain?”

I slammed the door. “Is that the way you want it?”

“Are you going to threaten to shove me out the airlock, too?”

“Don’t push me. You know why I don’t want him loose on the ship.”

“Yes, sir. I’ll just sit out here and keep an eye on the prisoner.” He snapped a mock salute.

“Do that.” I shut the door of the bathroom in his face.

I stripped off my filthy suit then stepped into the shower. On such a small ship, artificial gravity couldn’t cope with running water. The shower was just a cubicle lined with nozzles that sprayed a very fine mist. The warmth soothed the ache in my head. I gently wiped blood from the gash on my scalp.

Why had I gone blasting out of Viya? It seemed the best choice at the time. Looking back, it was rather stupid. I didn’t trust the Patrol to believe me and I didn’t want to spend months in their custody. I didn’t think I could convince them I really didn’t know what was in the boxes in my cargo bay. Jerimon could probably convince them. He was, after all, just a hired pilot. That argument wouldn’t work for me. I was the captain, I was responsible for what happened on my ship.

The water shut off automatically. The nozzles blew warm air instead of mist.

What story could I tell on Tebros that the Patrol would accept? We had at least two crates of highly illegal blasters on board. Leon was much more convincing as a hijacker with that evidence handy.

The engines hiccuped. I froze, waiting for them to smooth out again. The ship shuddered slightly then resumed its more normal vibrations. I grabbed up my underwear and suit and got dressed.

I prodded at the cut on my head. Blood still trickled down my neck but it wasn’t serious. Another scar wouldn’t make much difference. The burns on my hand from the fluid were superficial. I gathered my boots from the floor, rinsing them in the sink. I left them in the corner to dry. I could handle it for a couple of hours, I hoped. I had a phobia about being barefoot. I picked up my dirty suit from the floor then opened the door.

Chapter Five

Leon lay on my bunk, wrapped head to toe in cargo nets. It would take him at least an hour just to work a hand free. I shoved the dirty suit into the cleaner, ignoring his wary stare. Jerimon slouched in the cockpit, watching dials. I sat at the table and punched up the dispenser menu. I stared at the short list for a minute, then thumped the machine on the side.

“Why are the only things available chicken soup and fish curry?” I said.

“Because that’s all Tebros would give me,” Jerimon answered. “Some screw-up in their ordering system. Everything else has already been eaten. We didn’t have time for supplies at Viya.”

“I think the universe hates me. I can’t stand either.”

“I like curry,” Leon said tentatively.

“Give me one good reason why I should feed you.” I hit the button for the chicken soup. It was better than fish, but not by much.

“Because I’m hungry,” Leon said.

“Because you’re not really sadistic,” Jerimon added. “Temperature’s fluctuating again.”

“How bad?”

He gave me the numbers. It wasn’t serious yet, but I’d have to adjust the valves soon. The dispenser beeped, delivering reconstituted chicken soup with a package of smashed crackers on the side. I pulled a face as I found a spoon. Leon watched me eat, trying to look pitiful and succeeding.

“Tell you what, Leon.” I spooned up one of the shapeless lumps that vaguely resembled chicken. It wobbled. “You testify against Belliff, getting charges against me and Jerimon dropped, and I’ll feed you. We won’t say anything about you and a gun and Viya Station. Agreed?”

“Will you untie me?”

“Only to eat. I don’t trust you, Leon. Not yet.” He sighed. “I agree. Although I’m going to end up in prison for the rest of my life. How am I going to explain to my wife?”

“You should have thought of that before hijacking my ship.” I finished eating the soup. I leaned over Leon, wagging my finger in his face. “You double cross me in any way, and you’re going to wish I had shoved you out of the airlock. Got it?”

His watery eyes bulged as he tried to focus on my finger. He nodded.

I didn’t like turning him loose on the ship, but I didn’t see I had another choice. I untangled the mess of netting. Leon slithered off the bunk, sidling around me to sit at the table. I shook out my blanket and pillow before stretching out on the bunk. I crossed my arms, fixing Leon with a glare. The dispenser beeped. The unmistakable odor of curry and fish filled the cabin.

Leon twitched nervously while he ate.

Jerimon joined him, yawning as he came out of the cockpit. I did my best to ignore his disheveled good looks. I found him much too attractive.

“The temperature stabilized,” Jerimon said. “Must have been an air bubble.”

Leon darted a glance at me, chewing a wad of fish curry. He swallowed before speaking to Jerimon. “Is the ship safe? I heard you talking about repairs. Shouldn’t we be stopping somewhere?”

“We’re stopping at Tebros.” I twitched the blanket over my feet.

“No.” Leon blanched. “Not Tebros. You’re just heading into worse trouble.”

“We don’t have a choice, Leon,” Jerimon said. “Unless you happen to know how to navigate?”

Leon shook his head so vigorously that sweat drops flew from his cheeks. “You can’t take me there!”

“Feel free to get out and walk, then.” I wondered just what kind of a mess waited on Tebros.

“She really isn’t that mean when you get to know her.” Jerimon leaned across the table.

“How would you know that, Jerimon? You’ve been on my ship for less than two weeks and most of that I wasn’t functional, thanks to you.”

“I apologized for that. I really didn’t think they would go after you.”

“I wouldn’t have hired you if I’d known anything about it.”

“What was I supposed to say? By the way, I think I’m being hunted by eight-foot-tall lizards, so don’t be surprised if they show up.”

“Do you always fight like this?”

“Shut up, Leon,” we said together.

“You never told me you were smuggling for Belliff. So we’re even. Let’s call it a truce, I’m too tired to fight.”

“Only because you’re losing.”

“You’re the one losing the argument.”

“No, I’m not.”

“Yes, you are. You just don’t want to admit it.”

“I am not the one losing the argument. You’re the one losing.”

“Now you’re resorting to repeating things. Shows you’re losing.”

“You’re just saying it because you don’t want to admit you’re losing. I outrank you anyway, so I say I’m winning. Are you finished, Leon?”

He nodded quickly.

“Good, because your buddy Jerimon is going to tie you back up.”

“How about I lock him into the privy?” Jerimon suggested.

“Fine, I don’t want him loose in the ship while we see what other surprises Belliff packed for us.”

“You aren’t opening the cartons, are you?” Leon swallowed hard.

“Why shouldn’t we?”

“Because, because, because they’re not your property. You’re violating your contract.”

“As far as I’m concerned, I no longer have a valid contract. Belliff voided it when they used me to smuggle their goodies.” I kicked off the blanket, pushing to my feet. I leaned over Leon. He shrank back in his chair. “You know what’s in those crates, don’t you?”

Leon slid low in the chair, guilt written clearly across his face. “I didn’t know for certain, I suspected.”

“And that’s why you hijacked my ship. You knew what shipment I had.” I slammed a fist on the table before turning away in disgust.

“In there.” Jerimon pointed at the bathroom door.

Leon edged past, keeping as far away from me as he could get, which wasn’t far. The ship was barely big enough for two, three was really crowding it.

Jerimon clapped his hand on Leon’s shoulder. “Move it, unless you’d rather have her shove you in.”

“Head first,” I said and smiled, showing lots of teeth.

Leon tripped over the chair as he scuttled across the floor into the tiny room.

Jerimon shut the door. “How did you want me to lock it? There aren’t any locks on any of the doors in this ship.”

“Like this.” I fished a screwdriver out of the tool locker. I unscrewed the panel that housed the door controls. It only took a moment to disconnect the wires that opened the door. I left the panel dangling.

“I hope you know how to fix it,” Jerimon said as he watched. “It’s going to be a very long three days if you can’t get it back open.”

“Didn’t you ever hot wire doors?”

“I don’t think I want to ask how many times you did it.”

“I never got caught. My roommate used to lock boring teachers into stalls at the Academy. Until they finally rewired the system. Then she found ways to reroute the plumbing instead. I watched and learned.” I pocketed the screwdriver. “Want to come open some boxes with me?”

“Answer me a question first, Dace.”

“What?”

He was only a step away. The door to the cargo bay was behind him. He watched me closely, his blue eyes hard as glacier ice. “You went to the Academy. That means you come from money somewhere. Are you expecting someone to buy off the Patrol on Tebros?”

“I earned my way to the Academy on a scholarship. I don’t have any family to buy off anyone. I don’t want to mess with the Patrol because I have a record, I got involved in an investigation. I was lucky to get free before. I don’t want to push that luck, but I don’t see any way around landing on Tebros.”

“You think they’re going to believe Leon?”

“What other choice do we have? Do you have a rich father who can buy them off?”

He turned away abruptly, slamming the button that opened the cargo bay door. When he turned to see if I was following, his face was a mask.

“Truce, Jerimon. You called it. Did you mean it?”

“Are you agreeing to it? No more arguing?”

“It’s the only way we’re going to able to work together and if we don’t, we’re not going to live long.”

“Not with your flying.”

“I thought you just called a truce.”

“I’m teasing you.” He grinned. “You’re one of the better pilots I’ve ever flown with.”

“Just one of the better ones?” I pushed past him into the cargo bay.

“You weren’t kidding about guns, were you?” He’d just caught sight of the mess on the floor. “I see why you wanted Leon locked up. I thought you were just overreacting.”

“I never overreact.” I crouched down and righted a carton, then started dropping blasters into it.

“If this is what’s in two of the cartons, what’s in the rest?” Jerimon retrieved a blaster from the floor, checking the power strip. “No power charge inside.”

“Safer for shipping. We can say these cartons fell off and split open. We can say that what we saw made us more suspicious, after being attacked and hijacked by Leon. That’s why we opened some of the others. So we could see just what Belliff was trying to pull.” I folded the flap closed before handing the carton to him.

“I think you’re just curious,” he said as he stacked it with the other large crates. He pulled the netting over them.

“Something wrong with that? Maybe there’s something useful in one of those boxes. You never know until you open them.” I flipped open the bin where the smaller packages were stowed. I pulled one out of the stack then slit the seal with my screwdriver. The contents fell onto the floor—a big sheaf of papers and several small bags of loose gemstones.

“Jackpot.” Jerimon scooped up the gems. “What do you want to bet these aren’t registered anywhere in the company accounts?”

“I don’t take sucker bets.” I picked up the papers, quickly scanning through them. “Why do you think Belliff would be sending papers detailing the shipping methods and schedules of other companies?”

“This isn’t just about smuggling.” Jerimon dumped the gems back into the packet. He took the papers, shoving them on top of the gems. “Don’t you see it?”

“See what? So they’re watching their competition. Only the blasters are illegal.”

Jerimon stuck the thin box in the bin, shutting the door as if he were locking a big poisonous spider inside.

“Think about it, Dace. Blasters, gems, details of shipping contracts. Lists of what cargoes and what routes the ships will be on. Belliff is paying off pirates to cripple the competition. In exchange, the pirates leave their ships alone. Other companies get attacked by pirates because Belliff is providing the pirates with all the information they need. It all makes sense.”

“So how do we convince the Patrol that we aren’t involved? I don’t know if Leon knows what’s really in here. I suspect he doesn’t.”

“If he knew for certain, he would either be dead or off with the rest of the executives.” Jerimon frowned at the crates of guns. “Are we going to go to the Patrol when we land on Tebros or are you going to run away again?”

“That depends on how much of my hide they want. I don’t know where we’d run to anyway. We’ve got the course between Tebros and Viya Station. Nothing else.”

“I think Belliff was setting you up. The Patrol isn’t going to let us out of this, even with Leon.” Jerimon thought furiously. I could almost see his brain working behind those deep blue eyes. “I think you were right to run.”

“What did you just say? You were the one who told me running away from Viya was a mistake.”

“How many pirate raids have you heard about in this sector in the last year?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. I haven’t been paying much attention. Although I did hear a few rumors when I was on Rucal about increased pirate activity.”