The Bright Black Sea (33 page)

'Aye, Skipper,' replied Tenry.

'Yes, but do you think so?' asked Vynnia. 'You don't
seem to be trying very hard to change her mind, especially since
you seem so well informed of her plans...'

In a society as small as a space ship, lies have a
short half life and bring only grief. I knew I couldn't lie. On the
other hand operational secrecy, is sometimes necessary. I'd a fine
course to thread, though the uncertainties in my own thinking would
likely provide the cover I needed.

'When I signed on, I did so after weighing the
strengths and weaknesses of my potential owner. The last thing a
captain wants is an unreliable owner. I felt that Min, though young
and inexperienced in the trade, had the counterbalancing attributes
of being smart, responsible, determined and very brave, so I
accepted her offer. You can hardly expect me, two months later, to
try to bully her into changing a course of action simply because I
don't think it's wise. She knows what I think and still doesn't
want to sail with us because she fears she'll be a danger to all of
us. I've tried to assure her any such danger is minimal and
manageable, but in the end it's her call as owner and I have to
accept that or resign – which I'd do if either of you would accept
this job.' I looked to them.

'That would serve no purpose,' said Vynnia. Not a
stirring vote of support, but well...

'Right. Now I've come around, reluctantly, to see
that she'll not settle for anything less than discovering the heart
of the mystery surrounding her parents. I think the advantages of
sailing with us to do so far outweighs any minor risks she brings,
and have tried to make that case. But haven't pushed my case
because I don't think the time is right.'

'And when will the time be right?' asked Vynnia
watching me carefully.

'The prospect of separation is too far in the future
to make the case. But logic of our case, with an emotional appeal
at the right time – which I believe is just before we sail – may
well bring her around. It's one thing to spend a few weeks alone,
it's another to say goodbye to everyone you know, perhaps forever.
I'm certain that between the three of us, we can make a logical and
emotional case that she should, at the very least, sail to LaTrina
with us, if only to save substantial credits on a sleeper-pod
passage. She could still go on her own way after reaching LaTrina,
though I'm confident that after two hundred days aboard, it'll be
home and she'll have come around to seeing the advantages of
staying on.'

'And what sort of emotional appeal are you planning
to make?' asked Vynnia with piercing look.

'Simply that the
Lost Star
is hers. It was
central to her parents' and uncle's early lives and that Hawker
gave her the
ship
for far more than making
a dividend. The mystery of the Four Shipmates begins here. She owes
it to her Uncle Hawk to take more than ownership – she must take
possession of it as well,' I replied readily enough. I don't know
exactly what Vynnia expected me to say, but I don't think she was
convinced since she said nothing, just watched me.

'You think that'll lift?' asked Ten.

'I do. I used a similar approach to get her to
consider signing on as pilot before she even knew she inherited it.
I think it will work because I think it's true, and she knows
it.'

'Maybe,' allowed Vynnia.

'We'll all work together when the time comes. I'm
confident our different approaches will tip the balance our way by
the time we sail,' I said, and leaning forward, I added earnestly,
'I give you my word of honor that all three of you sail aboard the
Lost Star
or none of you. If we can't get Min to change her
mind, I want you to stay close to her. However, I intend to do
everything in my power to convince her to sail with us. Can I count
on your support?'

'Aye, Skipper, replied Ten.

'I have your word of honor that we'll be free to
follow Min if you can't bring her aboard?' asked Vynnia.

'Yes. The three of you or none of you. However, I'm
as certain as I can be in this quantum universe, that we can bring
her around, Vyn. With the three of us working together...'

'All right, Captain, we'll play it your way. Not that
we have a choice...' admitted Vynnia.

I let out a breath, but only after they left. I wish
I knew my true course. Seeing Min freer and happier here on Lontria
had clouded the case I'd been making that I'd a duty to her and the
ship to decide, based on my more extensive experience, what was
best for both of them. The incident at the races had only made my
confusion worse. It brought home not only how much danger Min might
be in, but the reality of her concerns as well. Unless Min gave me
permission to tell the others of the assassination attempt, it was
left to me to decide whether or not to accept her decision. I could
find no clear channel out of that drift.

02

Later that evening, I was keeping Illy company in the
dim-lit bridge during her watch when Molaye docked the gig on the
port gangplank. It was late and I'd just about gathered the energy
needed to detach my trouser seat from the engine station control
console where I was lounging to retire to quarters, when we heard
an urgent semi-hushed discussion, a rather one sided, coming from
the landing stage well. I glanced a wordless question at Illy who
shrugged. I swung my feet to the deck and slipped out into the
night-lit passage to see what warranted the urgent whispers.

Molaye and Kie drifted up the well from the landing
stage, Molaye very gingerly swinging herself on to the deck, while
Kie planted himself on the deck beside her. Molaye is tall and
willowy elegant, Kie is big and square, built like a spaceer dive's
bouncer. Despite his looks, he's a quiet, shy, and even tempered
young man with a prodigious knack for both system hardware and
software, a worthy student of Rafe. At this moment, however, he was
being neither very quiet or even tempered.

'You're not fine,' hissed Kie attempting to keep his
voice down.

Seeing how painfully Molaye seemed to move and how
Kie was so upset, I stepped out into the main traverse passage,
startling them.

'Are you alright Molaye?' I asked with concern.

Molaye nodded her head
Yes
but before she
could answer Kie exclaimed, 'No she's not. Just look at her
Captain, she can't move without something hurting. It's that Neb
blasted buggy racing. She won't listen to me...'

'I'm fine, Captain,' said Molaye, breaking in. 'I'm
just a little stiff and sore from getting jostled in the buggy.
Nothing serious.'

'It's all those bumps and crashes they want her to do
just to hide her skill...'

'I told you, that's part of the sport. Did it all the
time. I'm just not in shape yet...'

Kie was smart enough to appeal to me, 'It's all this
looking bad stuff, sir. This getting bounced by boulders and bumped
by other buggies just to get better odds on her. It's not fair she
has to take a beating just to win a few credits. You can't let them
do that to her, Captain!' he exclaimed, and , perhaps realizing
that he probably shouldn't tell his captain what he can't let them
do, added, 'I'm sorry, sir, but they're not treating her
fairly.'

'I want to do it. It's fun,' said Molaye gallantly.
'I don't mind, it's part of the game. If I'm to beat Az, I'll need
for him to underestimate me. It's all necessary.'

'I was given to understand that buggy racing was as
safe as sitting on a park bench. I've enough to worry about with my
other two pilots, I don't need to worry about you as well,' I
said.

'It is safe. I'm well secured in my seat and you
really can't damage the driver compartment in low grav racing. It's
just that when you get bounced, tossed, or bumped you find yourself
going several ways at once, and it takes time to get back into the
groove of automatically anticipating and adjusting to every move. I
just have a few aches from trying too hard to stay on top of the
situation. I'm this way at the start of every season...'

'You're a good shipmate, but you don't have to play
that game for the gang. They don't need the credits and it'll be
years before we cross orbits with the
Starsilver
again, so
even bragging rights means next to nothing.'

'I still want to do it. Kie is just being over
protective.' she said boldly meeting my gaze, but adding,
'Skipper.'

Kie was about to object, but I cut him off with a
somewhat grim laugh.

'Kie, if you grab the tail of a drift comet you can
expect a wild ride,' I said. 'Believe me, I can sympathize, I've
got my own share of comets keeping me awake at night. Still, she's
worth it.' I try not to have favorites, but Molaye was my first
apprentice and I admire her talent and her style. I'd not want it
crimped.

He looked at her and nodded.

But like Kie, I also didn't want her banged up just
to slip one over on the
Starsilver
. 'However,' I continued,
seeing my way out of this drift. 'I'm afraid duty calls. I've just
received the word – we're to sail as soon we exchange our missiles
and fuel up. The & Kin armory ship will be alongside in five
days, and I'll want everyone onboard by that evening. That leaves
you only four days to get that race against Az. I don't know if
it's possible, but I doubt you can afford to deliberately lose
another race if that's your final goal.'

'We're off in five days?'

'Six or so depending on fueling. But I'll want
everyone onboard before fueling, so our idle days are fast coming
to an end. Buggy racing and downside leaves are going to have to be
wrapped up in the next couple of days.'

She considered this and nodded. 'It can be done. Is
that all? I'd best stop at the medic bay before getting some sleep.
I'll be right in the morning.'

'Right. Good night, ,' I added, nodding to each.

'Good night, Captain,' they said.

I watched Molaye gingerly make her way to the main
well and disappear into the darkness.

03

Our idle days were over. Everyone now had not only
their professional duties to look after, but personal details to
attend to as well – like routing their mail to LaTrina, moving
their credit to accounts they could access in the Aticor out of
system, and buying anything they thought they'd need to get through
the long voyage, as well as wrapping up their social lives and
saying goodbyes to their mates.

We were about to set out on a whole different type of
voyage than I'd known. The Unity Standard astronomical unit (au) is
150 million kilometers, and during the course of one 180 day
journey around Azminn, cutting corners, we covered a bit over 3 aus
or about 450 million kilometers depending on our planets of call.
(Our cross system Calissant to Tiladore run of 2 aus took us 14
days, by comparison.) Of course, more than half that time was spent
in orbit, with only two to six days under power sailing planet to
planet. Our passage to LaTrina, on the other hand, would take,
according to the optimal fuel/time course Vyn and I worked out, 201
days, with 15 days of acceleration and a similar amount to
decelerate to cover the 151 aus or over 23 billion kilometers. Our
average speed would be nearly an order of magnitude faster than
even our Tiladore cross system run.

The Azminn to Aticor is not a densely traveled space
lane even in the best of times, so we'd be on our own most of the
passage. There's only so much maintenance that needs to be done,
only so many fuel pumps and circuit boards that could be rebuilt or
swapped out and reprinted, so we'd all have a great deal of time on
our hands to tackle all the things we'd been putting off. I'd
probably offer to rotate four of the crew at a time the option of
sleeping several weeks in a sleeper-pod if things got too
boring.

Rafe put one last effort into finding us a cargo. He,
after all, had his reputation for finding cargoes to uphold. I
didn't really want to know what exactly he was doing, but whatever
it was, he came up empty. We could do the run in 180-190 days with
a paying cargo, but that was just too long a passage when the
liners did it in 130 -150 days for the same rate we could
offer.

I was running down to PortCity on a daily basis,
looking after the ship as well as myself. I was in and out of Vix
Fange & Co and exchanging frequent radio-packets with Min &
Co, who was still handling the business end for Tallith Min,
arranging for fueling, and other supplies.

My plans for purchasing some large lots of Azminn
system luxury items on the ship's account had to be abandoned. We
simply didn't have the credits with the upgrades and the fuel we'd
need. I considered asking Min for the credits – since it would be a
very safe investment as the demand was well established, but feared
we were already dipping into her personal fortune, and not knowing
how large or small it was, or how many more times we might have to
tap it once we got to Aticor, I decided not to.

I did, however, encourage the crew to stock up on
their Guild trade goods, (with their previously paid credits)
telling them they could have all the space they needed in hold
no.4's strongroom if they ran out of room in their
cabin/locker.

I was surprised later in the day when Dyn drifted
into my office with a very large credit voucher on his com link
that he wanted me to use to buy trade goods for the ship. Dyn's
reclusive nature allows him to slip under the radar, but the fact
of the matter is that as Miccall's heir, he inherited all of the
proceeds from the sale of Miccall's half of the
Lost Star
,
which alone had to make Dyn the wealthiest person on board and
perhaps even wealthier than our owner herself in terms of credits
in the bank. It'd never crossed my mind to approach him for a loan
but it was an offer I couldn't refuse, though I insisted, over his
objections, to recording the credits as a loan. He refused any
return on his loan, saying that the ship could repay the loan from
the eventual proceeds when we were more flush with credits,
assuring me he'd more credits than he'd ever use and he could think
of no better investment than this new phase of the
Lost
Star
's career. I hoped he was right, took his credits, thanked
him profusely, and spent the rest of the day buying a quarter
container's worth of trade goods. I had it lifted and stowed in
hold no.4.