The Bright Black Sea (41 page)

I drummed my fingers on my desk thinking. The bloody
Neb of it was I could do as I pleased, I could let them go or force
them to sail with me. But by the same token, it made it my
responsibility, no matter what I decided to do, or not to do. I
needed to be ruthless, but I needed to be ruthless no matter what
course I chose, so ruthlessness was no help at all. Be careful what
you wish for. Me, I'm never going to wish for anything ever
again...

'If you'd just drop us downside, we'll be off,' said
Vynnia, as I continued to weigh my options in silence.

'Hold your jets a moment. We're all agreed that she
needs more experience before she goes off on her own?'

'Yes,' Tenry said, watching me closely. He knew
something was up.

'And I believe we understand that she may be in some
danger from the people who may have killed her parents and almost
killed her.'

'Perhaps, but we don't know that for certain,'
replied Tenry, with a quick glance at Vynnia that I took to be a
warning he'd not fully shared our concern with Vynnia.

'Right,' I said, to prevent Vynnia from asking any
questions. 'I believe the threat is real, so what I'd like you two
to do is go down to meet Tallith for a few goodbye drinks. She's
expecting you. Make sure she has more than a few drinks. Mistwine
should do the trick. You'll need to get her dead drunk by the time
you bring her up. I'll send along several sedative jabs to make
sure she's out of it until we're well on our way. I realize this is
a somewhat unusual request, but I'm sure with a hundred years of
Patrol service behind you, it's a mission you can bring off without
a hitch.'

Tenry settled back with the faintest of smiles.

Vynnia bristled. 'Is that your idea of a joke,
Captain?'

'Why, you're asking us to shanghai her!' Tenry
exclaimed with a wink.

'If you have a better plan to get her safely aboard,
I'm open to suggestions.'

'There are limits, Captain. Yes, I'd want Talley to
sail aboard the ship, but Ten and I are not about to shanghai her.
She's not a child and we must respect her choices however much we
doubt her wisdom. And by Neb, she's your owner! She trusts you,
Captain. You can't treat her like that just because she's young
and...'

'Foolish?' I suggested.

'She hired you,' snapped Vyn.

I smiled. 'Foolish. Or rather, impulsive.
Nevertheless, all I'm proposing to do will just clip her impulsive
wings for a passage or two. In Zilantre, or better yet in LaTrina,
she can go her way, alone, if she still cares to. But by she'll be
far better prepared, and, I believe, far safer than she is
today.'

'Why didn't you meet her, get her drunk and bring her
aboard yourself?' asked Vyn adding, 'You didn't even have the guts
to see her.'

'I think that explains why,' I said mildly. 'Which
makes you two far better suited...'

I could see Vyn fight to contain her protective
temper. 'I realize you're trying to protect her, but this is just
too demeaning. She deserves your respect,' she said carefully.

'Can I change your mind, Vyn?'

'No. Ten and I will find some other way.'

I turned to Ten. 'Ten? You've been very quiet.'

'You know Skipper, I've been on this side of the desk
far too many times in my career – such as it was – not to realize
you're just being diplomatic. What I or Vyn want is neither dust
nor gas. It's what you want,' he said with a slow smile. 'What do
you want?'

I thought again, before I answered. I took a breath,
which hurt. That finally decided it for me. I thought of Nadine,
blade in hand and ready to slip it into me though we were
surrounded by people. Everything that had happened validated Min's
concern – and mine.

'I want Min safe,' I said. 'Ten knows I'm not asking.
I'm giving you your orders. Call and arrange to meet her for drinks
and goodbyes. Get her drunk. I'll foot the bar bill. As I said,
you'll need to get her too drunk to know what's going on or to able
to sling orders about when you bring her aboard. We'll stop at the
medic bay to get some sedative jabs that'll accomplish what the
Mistwine doesn't. It's critical that she's unconscious when you
bring her on board, and will stay that way until we're well
underway. Any questions?' I hoped Vynnia was enjoying this more
authoritarian version of Captain Litang.

'We're not under your orders anymore. We resigned,'
said Vynnia. 'Let's lift, Ten.'

Tenry didn't move, he just watched us in turn. He
knew what was up.

I sighed and tapped my desk, calling up my crew list.
I pulled up Vynnia & Tenry's Guild contracts. I noted that
there was now a notation on them, Resignation Pending. That was
new, but neither dust nor gas.

'Ah, I see you've gotten around to officially
requesting a termination of your contracts. As I'm sure you know,
any resignation within 48 hours of sailing requires the approval of
the captain. Your resignation is only, ah, some six hours old, and
since we'll be sailing inside of ten I'd have to sign off on it,
and well, I'm not going to do that. Sorry,' I said, and with that I
touched the notation on her contract calling up the short
resignation request and denied it. I did the same for Ten's and
looked up into Vynnia's furious face. '... so you're still under my
orders, and you have 'em,' I added.

'Why, you...' stuttered Vynnia, searching for a way
to say what she thought without being crude...

'I believe the word you're searching for is Yes,
sir.'

'I took you to be a gentleman. A man of his word. A
man of honor...'

'You took me to be lazy, careless, and spineless,
Vyn. Or you'd have taken the simple measures needed to avoid
this.'

'It wasn't that. I though you were working with us.
You gave us your word, and I accepted it. To think I took you to be
a man of your word. To treat us this way is bad enough, but to
treat your owner in such an underhanded, disrespectful way, not to
say illegal...'

I pulled up the pilot contract Min had signed back on
Calissant and pushed the image over to their side of the desk.

'As you can see, Min also overlooked resigning her
pilot's berth. I overlooked the breach of contract when she skipped
on Calissant but I'm not prepared to do so twice. I've the legal
right to bring her aboard, drunk or sober, and by duress if
necessary. And I've the legal right to order you to do it, as you
know full well, Captain enCarn. And I should also point out that I
gave you my word that I'd keep the three of you together. My orders
will keep the three of you together, as long as you do your duty,
which, I might add, is more than you can promise me.'

'At what price?' she snapped. 'Anyway, Talley can
simply order you to void that contract. And she will, if I've
anything to do with it.'

I shrugged and winced with the twinge of pain. 'True,
if she can reach me. But I'd not advise it. She wants you aboard
the
Lost Star
so she's not likely to order me to void your
contracts. Tip her off and she goes her way alone and we go
ours.'

'We'll go our own way whether or not you release us.
We don't need the Neb-blasted Guild...' said Vynnia.

'I haven't threatened you with Guild sanctions. But
you're ex-Patrol and you know regulations are regulations, orders
are orders, and you know honor as well. Like it or not, you'll
follow my orders.'

Tenry spoke up, 'Wil's right, Vyn. This plan should
work, and it'll be Wil here who gets shoved out the airlock when
Talley comes around and realizes what happened. Plus, method aside,
it accomplishes what we all want.'

'Then he can get her drunk himself. We'll come down
to pick them up.'

'If she should get wind of what I was up to, she
could order me to stop. I don't know if jabbing an owner with a
sedative constitutes mutiny or not, but I prefer not to take the
chance... You can ignore her orders as it's customary for the owner
to deal through the captain in operational matters. You're just
following my orders and she can take it up with me when she comes
around,' I said. I'd it all worked out for weeks. It seemed pretty
slick at the time. Now, it just seemed ugly but necessary.

Vynnia glared at me and Tenry. 'I'm not going to do
it.'

'Right. I believe she's in immediate danger, I
wouldn't be doing this for any other reason. However, you have a
far stronger claim to protecting her than I. So if you're willing
to assume complete responsibility for her security, I'll release
all of you from your contracts and just go about running this ship.
You keep her safe – whether she wants you to or not. And good luck
with that. Your choice, Vyn. What do you say? What should I
do?'

She glared at me, furious. I called up their
contracts again and waited.

'We'll bring her back,' said Tenry, quietly. 'We
don't have a choice. It's for the best, Vyn.'

They shared a look, and she gave a slight nod.

'Right,' I said, 'You've your orders. You know what
you have to do. Min is waiting and it must be getting late in
Bramble Vale...'

Tenry looked to me. 'I've got'a hand it to you,
Skipper, during my Patrol career I've been dragged into one
Neb-blasted quantum-fuck-up or another by some desk-bound CO more
times than I care to count, and I must say yours has been a classic
performance. If Talley decides not to shove you out an airlock, you
should consider a career in the Patrol. You've got the deviousness
to go far,' adding Tenry with a sly smile. 'I'm sure Vyn here is
just mad she didn't think of it on her own,. Which earned us both a
glare.

'Thanks, Ten. I think.'

'Right. Now let's get this mission lifted and on its
way,' said Tenry, rising.

'Good. See to the gig, First. I'll issue some
sedative jabs to Ten,' I said carefully getting to my feet. It hurt
just breaking magnetic contact with the chair.

Vyn turned and stalked out – a hard thing to do in
free fall.

'She'll get over it,' Ten said in a low voice.

'I'm sure she will,' I said, adding as I followed him
out. 'You can pull this off?'

'It should be easy enough, I can't imagine she'd
suspect that we'd come to shanghai her.'

We swung up one deck and made our way to the medic
bay.

'Here's the jabs. You might want to use one even if
the Mistwine works, just to make sure. I don't want to have to
choose to obey her orders or not.'

'Right.'

'And, Ten, I wasn't bluffing about the danger. I
don't know if your reserve status allows you to take weapons
downside, but keep a look out for a slim, dark haired woman. I
don't expect you'll see her, but she's dangerous and desperate, and
Min's her target.'

He was watching me closely now.

'We need to bring her off. It's the old Four
Shipmates thing, and I've said too much already.'

He nodded. 'Aye, we'll bring her aboard.'

03

I stayed in the medic bay after issuing Tenry the
jabs, and programmed the robotic treatment table's healing fields
to greatly accelerate the natural process on my cuts. It took
twenty minutes under the accelerated healing probes to reduce the
wounds to faint scars, which I decided to keep, if only as a
reminder to be more careful in the future. I also had the system
find and remove the sliver-sized tracer from the nape of my neck,
and make certain there was nothing else in me that didn't
belong.

Illy turned and watched me closely as I entered the
bridge after the treatment – feeling a whole lot more alive. 'Your
orders?' she asked.

'Let me know when the gig or the quarter box arrives.
We'll sail directly after both are aboard.'

'I thought Ten and Vyn were leaving us. Are they
bring up their replacements?'

'Just a pilot. The one we already have on the
books.'

'Who would that be?'

'You're the purser, Illy.'

'Talley? You sent Ten and Vyn down to collect Talley?
How in the Neb did you manage that? And more important, how in the
Neb do you think you can get away with it?' she asked, watching me
with her shrewd eyes.

'I can get away with it because I'm the captain of
this packet. All three of them neglected to formally resign before
the Guild limit. I'm simply choosing to enforce their Guild
contracts.'

'Have you gone crazy, Wil? You can't force the ship's
owner to honor a Guild contract. For one thing, she can just cancel
it. And for another, she can find a new captain.'

'A contract is a contract, Illy. A pilot or a ship
owner needs to pay attention to all the little details... And as
for the rest, she'd have to be awake and reasonably sober to do all
that...'

'Wil, you're not...'

'Nope. Vyn and Ten are. And they've orders to make
sure she's neither when they bring her on board...'

'She'll sober up...'

'Not before we'll be well on our way.'

She sighed. 'Why?'

'Because the
Lost Star
's past has caught up
with it. The Mins were certainly murdered, and Tallith, for some
reason, appears to be a target as well. She knows this, but doesn't
want to bring that danger to the ship. I, on the other hand, think
there's no safer place in the Neb than aboard us. Failing to talk
sense into her, I've decided to act.'

'And you think this is all going to lift?'

'If I had any better choice, I'd have taken it, but
the danger to Min is real and immediate, and getting her away from
Lontria now seems the best option,' I replied with a shrug. 'We'll
just have to see how it plays out. Speaking of which, we'll need to
switch watches since Vyn is on ship's business. Ask Molaye if
she'll take the first watch under power. I'll take the second since
I doubt Min will be in any condition to stand it. Vyn should be
able to take Molaye's third, and I'll take the fifth, if necessary.
Would you see to that, Illy?'