The Bright Black Sea (111 page)

'That doesn't sound good.'

'A precaution. If Vinden is using the proper
description and it is a true pilot bot, it's a very specialized
bot. A subset of the class of robots I am a member of.'

'You're a higher class robot,' I said rather than
asked.

'I am a far more expensive one. A pilot bot could be
a class 8, but likely a 7. It does not have a personality program.
All business, no chatter. Still, because it is designed for a
specialized purpose – to control the operations of a spaceship,
it's a formidable machine no matter what class it is.'

'Can you subvert it, if needed?'

'Not likely. Assuming it is a real pilot bot, it was
designed to prevent pirates or crews from hijackings the ship in
transit, so it has powerful wards to protect its program. I doubt
even a class 15 machine could corrupt it. I won't be able to touch
it.'

'Damn. Are you going to be safe aboard with it in
operation?'

'I'm going to have to remain in hiding amongst the
fuel tanks where there are few sensors. As long as I keep my
activity level low, I will be undetectable. Botts II will be
pinged, as one of the ship's machines, but will give nothing away.
However, since the pilot bot monitors radio transmissions within
the ship, I will soon have to break radio contact with Botts II,
and it will have to operate on its own when the pilot bot is
active. However, I don't see any need to be alarmed. The pilot bot
will see us safely to our ultimate destination. I think the crew
can safely take to their sleeper-pods.'

'Does it monitor the crew like
Explora Miner
did?'

'Yes, but with less insight. It could detect an
attack on itself and can use the service bots to defend itself,
though in the old days it would've had far more sophisticated
service bots to call on. Plus, being hidden and likely very
hardened, physically disabling it would be a major undertaking.
Still, I don't think we need to be too concerned. It will do its
job, and probably best left to do it.'

'It would be nice to know where we're going, and how
to get back,' I ventured.

It made a little movement it uses as a shrug. 'I'll
see what I can do, but I won't be able to report until the pilot
bot is taken offline.'

'Do what you can.'

We stood around in silence for a few moments, both of
us processing the situation, though I knew Botts was doing so much
faster and so much more effectively.

'This is a Neb-blasted affair,' I muttered.

'I wouldn't have missed it for the wealth of a Prime
World,' it replied. 'I wouldn't be surprised if we learned
something even the Directorate of Machines might not know.'

I gave it a wary eye. 'You're that familiar with the
Directorate, are you?'

It just brightened its eyes a little, and said,
'Vinden is now in the inner hulls. I'm going to have to break
contact, Captain. Good luck.'

04

I closed the lid on Molaye's sleeper-pod after the
stasis field took effect, leaving only Min and myself awake.

The pilot bot had taken control of the
Starry
Shore
and accelerated hard for 39 days, finishing up two days
ago. Min had decided that we could follow Vinden's example and
leave the navigation of the ship to the pilot bot. If the Four
Shipmates had trusted it, so would we. We'd spent the 39 days going
over, with a fine tooth comb, all the life support systems,
refurbishing all the sleeper-pods, putting the moss garden to rest,
gathering all our livestock, save the bachelor birds, and putting
them in their own sleeper-pods. The hounds shared a pod, the cats
another. I didn't bother to count how many cats showed up. Word
must have gotten around because there were more than seven, though,
having been captain for a decade, I must take my share of the blame
for their numbers. Of course, not knowing the exact numbers, I'd no
idea if we'd collected them all, but when they'd all curled up in
the box, Ginger looked up at me and
meowed
in a rather
commanding tone, which I took to be my orders, so I started the
stasis field and closed their box. We kept the automatic feeding
and sanitary stations running for the cats as well as the bachelor
birds. The bachelor birds seemed to regulate their own population,
so I didn't worry about them.

When we'd covered all the contingencies we could
think of, we started putting the crew to sleep in their pods, each
pod connected to the ship so they could be awakened if their
services were needed. Min, as captain, claimed the right to be the
last to sleep and I, whatever I was, claimed the right to be the
penultimate sleeper.

'Well, Captain, I believe you're next in line,' said
Min as we stood in the passenger strongroom looking over the racks
of sleeper-pods. 'Are you in any hurry?'

'No, I'm not sleepy yet. I'd like to take one last
look around, but you needn't wait for me.'

'I'm in no hurry myself,' she said glancing back as
we stepped out into no. 4 hold. 'The ship is ours. Is there
anything else you can think of to do?'

The line itself, was meaningless. We'd done
everything. But for only the second time in my experience with
Tallith Min, she let her eyes reveal her thoughts. And this time it
was deliberate. And like the time when the late Naylea Cin slipped
next to me with a glad smile, I knew in that instant what I needed
to do – and it wasn't to put two darts in her like I did to Cin.
Instead, I reached out, drew her close and kissed her. She kissed
back, and for some time, before pushing off – just enough to look
at me.

'Well done, Captain,' she laughed. 'You've changed.
You must have changed more than just growing your vaguely sinister
beard.'

'I may've, a little. Blame it on the drifts. But ,
for perhaps the first time, you revealed your thoughts to me.'

'I did?'

'Aye, clear enough, it seems,' I said and drew her
close for another kiss. 'Though the why of it, escapes me.'

'Does there have to be a why?'

'With you, there's always a why. So why?'

'Do you really need to know? Isn't this enough?'

'We're old shipmates. But we're not in love, so it
might be nice to know why.'

'We're not in love?' she asked quietly, watching me
closely.

I thought a moment and answered carefully. 'I care
for you. A lot. I once felt a strong need to protect you. You
resented that, and I don't blame you. Back I was rather reluctant
to name names, so I never called it love when I thought of you, as
I often did... And now, well, I don't know...' I didn't. 'Make what
you want of that.'

She shrugged. 'Does this seem wrong?'

'Not wrong. Inexplicable.'

'Hardly. Isn't this the first opportunity we've had
to make love, at least since that night in the
Ghost
on the
Yacht Club tarmac – without complications or consequences? We've
the ship, indeed, our lives to ourselves in this moment.'

'Yes, I suppose. Though I'm not sure it'd be without
consequences.'

She sighed. 'You're still your old cautious self,
Captain. You've not changed much, after all. But there will be no
consequences, for the simple reason that for the last eight years,
I've shared quarters with Ryth aboard a small ship that offered few
amusements and long passages. Old habits die hard,' she stopped and
gave me a wicked grin.

'Ah, yes...'

'Perhaps if I'd loved Ryth less, or he'd loved me
more, it would be him in my arms instead of you.'

'If you'd loved him less?'

'If I'd loved him less I might have let him come
along and face the dilemma of either betraying me or the Patrol.
And if he'd loved me more, he'd have resigned from the Patrol to
accompany me. So, my dear captain, you've become the object of my
carnal desire,' she added with a leer. 'Must be the beard.'

I pulled her close and kissed her again. 'An object
of carnal desire...' I muttered. 'Flattery.'

'I believe you could have had me the night we were
almost assassinated, if...'

'If?'

She shrugged. 'If you'd held me. But , I suppose
you've never been bold.'

'No, I don't suppose so.'

'You're holding me now.'

'Ah, yes. I guess I am,' I muttered, thinking,
as
ordered.

She leaned close to my ear and whispered, 'So what
are you going to do now?' and leaned back with a slow smile. 'It's
been a while.'

Well, yes, a while, a long while, for me, but I still
remembered what to do. I ran my hand gently along her cheek and
slowly down her neck, over her shoulder and along her smooth skin
under her blouse and jacket, pulling apart the tabs as I went. She
just watched my eyes, as my hand cupped her soft breast and hard
nipple before slipping lower. With my other hand I began to slip
her blouse and jacket off, watching her slim body become visible in
the dim light of the hold.

05

Her new, real legs were still wrapped around me as
she leaned back. I drew my hands along her sides to her hips
astride me. Her hair floated wild, pieces of our clothes drifted
about the hold.

'It has been a long time, hasn't it?' she asked with
a slow smile. 'It shows.'

'Thirty years, with a real woman,' I replied. 'I'm
used to companions, the spaceers' friends. No complications. And,
well, planetfalls have been fewer and farther between than they
were in the Azminn trade.'

'My poor Captain,' she sighed. 'Too mighty to take on
an onboard lover?'

'What's fine and proper on an eight box trader
doesn't lift on a Guild ship, as you well know.'

She shook her head. 'You could've made it work if you
wanted to.'

'Perhaps, with the right person and the right
circumstances. However, at the moment, I rather think I dodged a
meteor in not finding that one.'

'So, do you miss your toys?'

I smiled, 'Oh, I suppose I might acquire a taste for
a real woman.'

She leered. 'I've a mission.' and drawing herself up
with her hands around my neck, kissed me and whispered, 'I won't
quit until you're good enough to have me calling out “Ryth” in my
passion.'

'I won't quit until you're calling out “Wil”,' I
replied.

'You're dear to me, Wil. But I doubt you'd last that
long.'

06

Min walked into the bistro where I was having a hot
breakfast and a mug of cha.

'Morning Talley,' I said with a wan smile. I wasn't
getting a lot of sleep.

'May I prepare a meal for you, Captain Min?' asked
Botts II, acting as the waiter.

'No thank you, Botts. I'm here to say goodnight to
Wil.'

'Aye, I should have guessed. You're fully dressed,' I
said.

'It is time,' adding with a slow smile. 'You're
looking a little worn and ragged about the edges, so I'll let you
recover. You can tuck yourself in to sleep.'

'I may be worn and ragged about the edges, thanks to
you, but you haven't heard me complaining.'

'I wouldn't have thought a mere twenty years
difference would have made such a great difference,' she said,
standing across the table looking down at me, dressed severely in
her classic blacks and whites, blouses, jackets and scarves.

'I'd prefer to believe that the explanation lies more
in the fact that you're in better training than I am in such
sports, rather than our inconsequential age difference,' I said,
standing. 'But as ragged as I am, I hate to see our time together
coming to an end.'

'But you know it must.'

'Aye. Much longer and the Drays will wonder where all
the boxed meals went to.'

'Hopefully they didn't keep that close of an
account,' she said with a smile, adding, 'Not a word to anyone,
Botts,'

'Of course, Captain,' it replied blandly. I'm sure
she said it as a joke. I wasn't so sure that order wasn't needed.
I'd be giving it the same order myself.

'You can finish your cha, Wil. I've made up my mind,
but it best be done while I still know it's for the best.'

'I'll go up with you to say goodnight.'

We made our way up the access well to no. 4 hold.
Outside the passenger strongroom she stopped and turned to me.

'I hope I haven't done more harm than good...'

'Oh, don't be such an egotist, Min. I've been an
eager partner. And I, at least, feel that I'm very much the winner
in our time together. You've let me see and share all of you, and
I'll treasure that memory. But it doesn't blind me to the fact that
the lines of our lives seem to be parallel rather than converging.
We've only cheated to entwine for a brief time. No
consequences...'

'Are you certain?'

'Should we announce our partnership when we
awake?'

She laughed. 'And if I said yes?'

I just smiled. 'I'd take my chances.'

'You've become a hard man, Wil Litang,' she said,
with a laugh, and got serious. 'If I loved you enough, I'd tell
Uncle Hawk to go, win the Cloud Throne for Olaeytha. Set up a
regency until her return.'

'And if I loved you enough, I'd tell you that the
finest thing in the Neb would be to die restoring you to your
rightful place on the Cloud Throne of Cimmadar,' I said softly.

We stood in silence. Could it have been? I drew her
close and kissed her. 'Goodnight, Tallith.'

She kissed me back, and well, unlike the first time,
she hadn't dressed for convenience, so it took a little work and
contortions to make love one last time. But we did in the dimness
of no. 4 hold.

'That wasn't planned, Captain. But I think I'd best
proceed before I change my mind. Do I look in order?'

'You look beautiful.'

'That'll have to do, though no doubt I smell of sweat
and you,' she replied. 'Lead me to my pod.'

As she settled into the pod she asked, 'Are you going
to follow me directly?'

'I think, my dear, I'll spend a few days regaining my
strength, as you suggested. Who knows what might trigger an
awakening. I'm not prepared to face any crisis in the condition
you've left me in.'