Owner's Share (Trader's Tales from the Golden Age of the Solar Clipper) (79 page)

“Yes, Captain,” she replied without a hitch. “Water, fuel, and maneuvering volatiles are tanked up and ready.”

“How about spares?”

“Our spares closet is fully stocked, Captain.”

“What’s the status of the major machinery, Chief?”

“Fusactors are on hot standby, and ready for change over from station power. Auxiliary engines are warming, and will be hot in time for pull out. Sail generators are secured, and safetied in accordance with CPJCT regulation.”

“Thank you, Chief. Is the ship ready for space?”

“Yes, sar. Engineering reports the ship is ready for space.”

“Ms. Maloney? Are we stocked on food and supplies?”

“We are, Captain. Full lockers and stocked freezers. We’ve food enough to last and more.”

“Is the ship ready for space, Ms. Maloney?”

“Steward reports the ship is ready for space.”

I smiled as she followed the lead set by Chief Stevens, even as I wondered at the theatre we created for ourselves and the benefit of the passengers.

“Ms. Arellone? Deck division ready?”

“Yes, Captain. Cargo is secured. Passengers are aboard. Deck division is ready for space.”

I turned to them and announced. “I’ve personally loaded the astrogation updates and laid in our plot for Diurnia. We have food, fuel, and are ready for space. I’ll call navigation stations at 1430 and we’ll get underway at 1500. I’d ask that passengers stay in their compartments during maneuvering, and suggest that your bunks would be a good place to rest. We don’t, typically, have much of a bump, but should something odd happen, that’s as safe a place as you’ll find aboard. When you hear the announcement to secure from Navigation stations, you’re free to move about the ship as you will. That should happen around 1530.”

I looked around the table and smiled.

“Any questions?”

The general shrugs and head wags indicated there were none.

I rose just as the chrono clicked up to 1300. “Thank you, then. I’ve got some chores to attend to, and I’ll see you at dinner.”

I took my empties to the washer to demonstrate for the passengers, Chief Stevens followed me, and Ms. Arellone behind her.

“We have plenty of time,” Ms. Maloney said to the passengers who looked around uncertainly. “Please stay and have some more dessert if you like while we put the final details together for getting underway.”

When we got to the passageway, Chief Stevens’ smiled and patted my shoulder. “Where would you like me for navigation detail, Captain?”

“Your call, Chief. Engineering? Bridge? Galley, if you want.” I grinned at her.

“Bridge, then,” she said. “I love seein’ where we’re going.”

I nodded, and climbed the ladder to the bridge while she headed aft toward engineering.

Ms. Arellone followed me up the ladder, but took one of the extra seats while I took the piloting console to double-check the course plot.

“Will you need me at the lock, Skipper?” Her voice seemed a bit tentative to me.

I looked over at her and shook my head. “No, Ms. Arellone. You’re our ship handler. You need to be sitting in the hot seat.”

She smiled then, and looked relieved, but I think she tried not to show it.

I locked down the plot, fed the course into the AI, and sat back. There was still a stan before I needed to call the crew to stations so I stood up and stretched. “I’m going to take a walk about, Ms. Arellone. Don’t leave without me.”

She looked startled for a moment, then. gave me a jaunty salute. “Aye, aye, no leaving without the Captain, sar.”

I headed down the ladder, and saw Ms. Maloney settling the passengers in their compartments. She gave me a smile before taking an extra pillow to the Usagis. I took myself down the ladder to the main deck and did a quick walk around of the lock, making sure both doors were sealed. I realized that there was plenty of room for tai chi there in the atrium. I wondered if Chief Stevens still practiced, but then I realized that she must, just based on the way she moved. Just the idea of getting back into the discipline made a knot in my back unwind a bit.

I walked down the narrow aisle between the cubes of cargo, and slipped into the back door of engineering, making sure to dog the airtight door behind me. In the engine room, I found the chief looking at the readouts on the portside auxiliary. She grinned in my direction when she noticed me, and jumped down from the observation stand beside the engine.

“She was quite a woman, wasn’t she, Captain,” she said. “Your engineer.”

I nodded, and was surprised that I didn’t need to fight quite so hard to keep my composure. “She was, Chief. She certainly was.”

The chief looked about the engine room, and nodded slowly before looking back to me, her eyes warm. She patted me on the arm without saying a word. She just smiled.

“See you on the bridge, Chief.”

She nodded, and I climbed the ladder that took me to the aft end of the passageway and made my way slowly to the bridge. I found the compartment doors all closed and I could hear muffled voices behind some of them. When I passed the galley, the smell of fresh coffee wafted out, and I detoured to grab a cup before heading to the bridge.

Ms. Maloney had just finished stowing something in the cooler, and straightened when I entered. “Fresh coffee, Captain!”

“Thank you, Ms. Maloney. I could smell it out in the passageway. Smells great.”

She grinned. “Thought you might like it.”

I grabbed a mug from the rack, filled it at the urn, and stood for a minute, my backside against the counter.

“You okay, Captain?” Ms. Maloney stood leaning back against the sink, arms folded.

I gave a sideways nod, and took another sip. “I will be, I think.” I shrugged. “I still feel hollow.”

She nodded. “I miss her, too.” Her face turned hard. “Jarvis will pay for this.”

“You think it was him?”

She gave me a level look. “Once is accident, twice co-incidence...” she said.

I finished it for her. “Three times is enemy action.”

She nodded firmly but her face softened. “I can’t believe the chief got involved in this, though. Even seeing the photos he took. Having him lying there on the deck, dead.” She shook her head. “He was one of my bodyguards for so many stanyers.”

“One...?”

She shrugged. “There are a couple of them that swap in and out.”

I arched an eyebrow.

“Were,” she corrected with a sigh. Her mouth flattened into a thin line. “I can’t even begin to say how betrayed I feel right now.”

“I’m sure. I’m even nervous about the passengers, but...” I shrugged. “We have a choice. We can live in fear, or not.”

She snorted a bitter laugh. “I’m pretty fearful right now.”

I grinned at her and took another sip. “Me, too. The question is really, what do we do about it?”

“What do you mean, Captain?”

“How real is the danger? What’s the probability that one of the passengers works for Jarvis, and will kill us in our sleep?”

“While underway?”

I nodded.

“Not very high,” she admitted. “Unless they’ve got a way to get off the ship.”

“That’s my assessment, too. I think that’s why Herring made his move on the orbital, and not aboard.”

“That still seems pretty backwards to me, Captain.”

I shrugged. “Maybe, but he had help and, as far as he knew, we were undefended. The chief never took Ms. Arellone seriously.” I sighed. “It was only luck that his plan didn’t work. It almost did. If he’d been a few centimeters deeper, or I hadn’t turned when I did, he’d have killed me. Where would that have left your standing in probate?”

She looked alarmed at that. “I don’t know, Captain.”

“Me, either. I’m just glad he didn’t use a standoff weapon or something simpler like poison in the coffee.” I took another deliberate sip, and saw the look on Ms. Maloney’s face grow alarmed.

“How would we protect ourselves against that?” she asked finally.

“I think we die, Ms. Maloney. The alternative is to put ourselves in a cage, and don’t let anybody in.”

“If it keeps us alive, Captain, isn’t it worth it?”

I pondered that for a few heartbeats, and sipped the hot, aromatic coffee. “I think, even if the door is locked from the inside? It’s still a prison, Ms. Maloney.” I cast a glance at the chrono, and turned to top up my mug. “But right now, we need to get this ship underway.”

I left the galley and made my way up to the bridge, settling in the captain’s raised chair. Ms. Arellone sat at the pilot’s console with her screens up and messages ready for transmission.

“You’ve got time to get a cup of coffee, Ms. Arellone.”

She looked over her shoulder at me with lopsided grin. “I’m good for now, Skipper.”

“Well, then make the announcement, Ms. Arellone. Navigation stations, if you please.”

She looked surprised by the change, but clicked the announcer on, and I could hear her voice echoing up the ladder.

In a few ticks, the chief trotted up the ladder and took her place at the engineering console, firing up the electronics, and running through some diagnostics before settling on the ship’s status display.

“We ready, Chief?”

“We’re ready, Captain.”

“Request departure clearance, Ms. Arellone.”

“Aye, aye, Captain. Requesting departure clearance.” Her fingers clicked a couple of keys and we waited. In less than a tick the response came back. “We have clearance to depart, Captain.”

“Pull the docking clamps, if you would, Chief.”

“Aye, aye, Captain. Undocking now.” Her fingers moved across her keyboard, and I saw the locking ring status change from green to amber to red. “We are unlocked, Captain. Umbilicals have withdrawn.”

I turned to make a formal eyeball survey astern, and gave the command. “Take us out, Ms. Arellone.”

She gave the maneuvering thrusters a tap, and we slipped backward gently. I watched the skin of the orbital retreating into the distance, and felt the confusing illusion that the orbital was backing away from us. I stared at it, knowing she was gone already, that there was nothing of her there besides the physical remains of her body awaiting shipment to her father. In spite of that sure knowledge, I couldn’t help feeling that I was leaving her, and my breath caught in my throat for a heartbeat. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. It simply wouldn’t do for the captain to be crying on the bridge. In my head I said, “Good bye,” and turned my chair to look aft, watching for traffic but seeing only sapphire studded smiles.

Chapter Seventy-Six
Greenfields System:
2373-July-13

By the time we were four days out of Greenfields, the ship had settled into a nice rhythm. Ms. Arellone and I could have covered the bridge with a 12 on 12 off schedule, but the reality was that we really didn’t need to. During the day, we kept the repeater from the bridge running in the galley. Between the four of the crew, somebody was always there to keep an eye on things. I kept the pilot’s console slaved to my tablet, and could run the ship from where ever I happened to be. As Greta had pointed out, I didn’t really need to see out of the ports. I did make it a point to spend some time on the bridge during the afternoon and early evening, and Ms. Arellone usually put in a stint in the mornings. The passengers didn’t seem bothered, or perhaps they just didn’t realize when there wasn’t anybody at the helm.

Ms. Maloney out-did herself keeping the passengers happy. She dispensed food, drink, and entertainment on demand as well as serving what might have been the best food in the quadrant during meals. I admired her ability to turn out interesting menus day after day from the same basic pantry.

Chief Stevens was a blessing. Not only did she write the book on engineering—quite literally, since Port Newmar still used her textbook for engineering classes—but she had a patience, a calmness, and a wry sense of humor that I found quite soothing. Of all the things she did for the ship, she did something more important for me.

She joined me at
tai chi
.

The vestibule just inside the lock and outside the cargo hold proper might have provided extra cargo space but it lacked the proper tie-downs for cube storage. As such, the open deck made an excellent space to practice
tai chi
. The decking gave good footing. The openness left room to move freely. The high overhead made the space feel airy.

I made good on my promise to myself, and started doing a bit of
tai chi
after breakfast our first day out of Greenfield. It felt good to be moving again, and I regretted not starting as soon as I had taken over the ship. For a little while each day, I focused on the movements, on my balance, on my body—without thinking about Greta.

My technique was rocky at first. There were some places in the routine that slipped my grasp, and I had to work to remember them, but when the chief started joining me for a stan or so each morning, my practice improved greatly.

She smiled over at me while we warmed up with some stretching. “You know,
Sifu
Newmar thought you had great potential, Captain.”

I snorted. “Give me a few more decades, and we’ll see if she’s right.”

She grinned. “Well, I’d bet you’re the only one in your class with your own company, Captain. That’s rather impressive.”