The Bright Black Sea (48 page)

I added, 'Finally!'

Still made my day. And though I may've come into my
own – I haven't been able to do it again, though I try it a lot
more often these days..

I can hardly take credit for the changes, most have
been forced on me by circumstances well beyond my control. I've
found a bit of ruthlessness in me, that I never knew I had.
Enforcing my Guild contracts with not only Min, but Tenry and
Vynnia as well, would've been well out of character for me a year
ago. Only my reputation for looking after details and being a slave
to efficiency gives this ruthlessness some cover. I'm far from
certain I like all this change, but I'm pretty certain it, and all
the other little ways I've changed are all quite necessary.

I'll conclude this entry, with a short description of
life aboard the
Lost Star
now that we're done with engines
and will be for the next two months.

Once the engines are shut down and we're no longer
accelerating, the atmosphere aboard ship changes. We settle into a
more relaxed and rather timeless routine – a nearly frictionless
groove – so necessary for a happy ship in space. When free fall
returns, life aboard becomes much slower paced. As in our planetary
runs, everyone still has their twelve hours of work, but with such
a long passage ahead of us, we take this very causally. The active
watch on the bridge is reduced to two people who act as lookouts
and can make course changes if necessary. Being tramp spaceers,
everyone onboard can steer the ship when it's coasting, correcting
the slight alterations or avoiding rocks using the steering
rockets, so everyone stands a single four hour watch on the bridge
each day, with the other eight hours spent working in whatever
department needs some extra hands. Twelve hours of work is
excessive on a Unity planet, but aboard ship, where the options for
using one's free time are very limited compared to a planet, the
casual work of a coasting ship is more welcomed than dreaded.

The engineering department absorbs a great deal of
this surplus labor. After a power run, much of the equipment is
gone over and refurbished, if necessary. It's not so much that the
equipment is frail, but rather that a failure can be expensive and
potentially catastrophic. And if neglect should disable a ship, the
ship's captain and the chief engineer usually end up flying taxis,
assuming they survived their neglect.

Usually these free fall days last no more than a week
or two when sailing in the planetary belts of the eight stars, but
we'll have two months of idle time before we'll be under power
again, and , for only a few days while we shape our course for
Zilantre on the far side of the Anjur Passage. After that it's back
to free fall for a month and a half until we begin our
deceleration. In short, idle days stretch far beyond our usual
horizon, so we've adopted a very easy pace.

Luckily, we have several big projects to keep us
busy. The first is the refurbishing of the three drones. If we end
up sailing in the drifts, we'd want a drone or two ahead to extend
the reach of our sensors which will allow us to travel at greater
speeds. Even now we have the old drone refurbished and sailing
ahead, since traveling at interstellar speeds creates that ionized
shell about the ship which considerably reduces radar range, though
in this well traveled space lane, it's not really necessary. The
sensor records of every Guild ship that travels this route is
downloaded and uploaded by all the following ships, so the survey
is always up to date.

With a great deal of time on our hands, Riv promised
he'd not only restore the drones as good as new, but rather, better
than new – with upgraded sensors and controls. Of course, when he
said he'd restore them better than new, he meant he'd direct and
supervise crew members who'd do the actual work. But , that's the
way the knowledge is passed along. And Riv gets his hands dirty
often enough – even while sitting atop a drone directing people can
be weary work after a while. Seeing that I hope to have the
opportunity of restoring a rocket boat of my own someday, I've
taken a hand in the rebuilding process as well, though I make
certain our three youngest crew members, Min, Molaye and Kie have
plenty of opportunity to learn as well.

In addition, I've been spending several hours each
day working in the garden and galley, and forcing myself to spend
an hour or two delving into the vast volume of shipping
intelligence reports Min had assembled on Lontria concerning both
the Amdia and Aticor systems and the Myzar Drift. Once our Zilantre
cargo is delivered, we'll need to find agents and shipbrokers if
we're to make our way in this new trade system, and finding agents
that'll serve our needs well, meant going through hundreds of
captains' reports to pick out the most successful agents serving
our trade. It was rather dry reading, and though I'd more than four
months to get through it, I knew that three months from now I was
unlikely to find them any more interesting, so I've kept on it.

With more free time, our musically talented people
have begun an ambitious program of adding new pieces to their
repertoire. This means we have music either in the library – when
they're first working out the tune – or as a concert on the awning
deck under the dark glowing sky of the Nine Star Nebula. We'd a
million books and vids to read and watch, and everyone has a hobby
or two – many of which lie idle, save for long voyages like this,
so we've kept busy so far, but , we've only began.

Three days ago Rafe turned in the true log of the
Lost Star
and his report to Min. As I've mentioned, it added
little to the stories of the Four Shipmates, save the hints of a
Fifth Shipmate, which we rather hoped Min would never notice. Other
than that, its most notable feature was three several year
stretches of blankness – no ship readings at all – which shouldn't
be possible. Rafe admitted to being unable to explain how the
ship's automatic recorders could be shut down since they were so
deeply integrated with the operation of every system aboard the
ship. And yet, this very lack of evidence was a strong hint that
there was something in the Four Shipmate's stories. The problem was
that this evidence added little to our knowledge, save that their
voyages – even the blank ones – often started or ended in Kintrine
orbit, meaning it'd be a likely starting point to look for answers.
But that starting point was almost two years sailing away.

She thanked Rafe for all his work, and said she'd
look it over and if she had any questions, she'd get back to him..
So, with the report now in her hands, the question of what to do or
say to Dyn became more pressing.

Dyn, I'll admit, is a mystery. As close as he was to
Captain Miccall, he's always been a very shy and retiring person
with everyone else. He was essentially, Miccall's shadow. Perhaps
he was always a fragile soul, but with the death of Miccall, he's
closed himself in even more, so the last thing I'd want to do was
drag him into the spotlight. But not knowing how soon or how
closely Min would study the recovered log, or how closely she'd
grill Rafe, I wanted to have a word with him about the log if only
to make sure he'd not be taken off guard – even though, like Rafe,
he seemed to know just about everything that goes on within the
ship. I was, however, reluctant to summon him for a meeting, which
would be unusual for me and likely put him off. So I let it ride,
until I happened to find Dyn alone in the screen and status light
lit environmental control room working at his control panel.

'Evening Dyn,' I said, as he turned to see me at the
door.

'Evening Wil. Making your rounds?'

'Aye, useless I know, but it's a ritual now.'

He nodded. Never one for conversation.

'Are you very busy or can we have a little chat?'

He shrugged. I decided to take that as a yes, and
slid the door-panel closed behind me.

'First off, I want you to know that this is just
between you and me, and will go no further.'

'What's this about?' he asked watching me,
warily.

'I believe you're aware of my efforts to recover the
true log...'

He nodded.

'And I'm certain you realize that Rafe is not only
good, but can be relied on to keep secrets...'

He nodded again, growing wary.

'I'm pretty sure you can guess what Rafe found, but
I'll just say it anyway. He believes there was, in addition to the
Four Shipmates, one more crew member who was aboard the
Lost
Star
during all the years Captain Miccall was in command of it,
and possibly before. A Fifth Shipmate, so to speak, who is most
likely you.'

He said nothing, watching me. So I pressed on.

'You also know Min's determined to find out all she
can about who killed her parents and why. It seems clear that the
trail leads directly into the past lives of the Four Shipmates. And
I'll add that whoever is behind her parents' murder – and there's
do doubt in my mind that it was murder – is also determined to kill
her too, so this is not an exercise in academic curiosity. It's a
question of life and death. That makes it important for me to know
if you were along during those years and can perhaps throw some
light on the subject. I've no doubt about your loyalty to the ship,
Tallith or myself, but if Rafe is right, you'd seem to know a whole
lot more about all this that you've let on and so, you'd be able to
help Tallith to not only find the answers she's looking for, but
perhaps save her life as well,' I paused, but he just watched me, a
shadow etched in the lights of his control panel.

'Neither I nor Rafe have mentioned this possible
Fifth Shipmate to her, or your possible connection with those old
days, and, I assure you, neither of us will do so voluntarily –
without your permission. Truth be told, I'm not anxious for her to
find those answers, at least not right away. I think it'd be best
just to let them go, and with Rafe's help, disappear into the
Unity's 900 billion. But... But that's not going to make orbit with
her as things stand now. And, well, it's possible that in looking
over the recovered logs and reading Rafe's summary, she'll discover
the Fifth Shipmate on her own and either confront you, Rafe or me
about that. With that in mind, I'm wondering where you stand. Are
you willing to help Min? Or will you help me somehow steer her away
from danger? In any event, I want to emphasize that your secret is
safe with me and Rafe. It's your choice how you wish to deal with
this. You're an old shipmate and my first loyalty is to you, Dyn,'
and I left it at that.

He sat in silence for what must have been a minute or
more, and staring off into the darkness, he spoke.

'The shipmates kept their secret simply by not
telling anyone,' he said at last in his quiet voice turning to me.
'At the beginning, when they needed his help, they – the three
others – told Fen everything. You see, he was not originally part
of the struggle the others were enmeshed in. He was brought into
their secrets only because it was necessary for him to know. He was
their pilot and navigator. He needed to know. But he also knew that
the others would stop at nothing to preserve their secret. Stop at
nothing. The rest of the crews never knew about the underlying
dynamics of what was going on. As far as they knew, we were just
drift traders with dealings with all sorts of ruthless people, and
much of what went on was typical of such dealings. If you deal with
pirates, you can expect to have to deal like pirates, if you get my
drift.

'Anyway, the core conflict, the one that drove the
shipmates, was always an internal affair. And however deadly the
conflict was waged, both sides were in agreement that the essential
secret had to be preserved, though the other side could never be
certain the Shipmates would keep it. Which is why, I suppose, Min's
parents were killed a half a century after giving up the
fight.Their enemies could never be certain the secret would be
kept.

'As for what the secret is, well, I doubt it's
important to the Nine Star Nebula. A curiosity to most, I suspect,
a gold mine to a few, but for those involved it was of the utmost
importance. Even as they fought fiercely and to the death, they'd
all die rather than reveal the shared secret.

'And as I said, the crews of those ships – and the
Lost Star
was only one of the ships that the Shipmates
sailed on – were often entangled in the fighting of those early
days, but were more or less innocent bystanders – but hard cases –
well paid smugglers, pirates or mercenaries, but they had no
knowledge of what was really going on. And since the struggle, on
the surface, anyway, was a familiar one to those involved, the real
issues could remain unsuspected. But in the end, the four came to
realize that they couldn't continue to fight head on, and needed to
get lost before they could resume the fight. They got lost, and in
the end, got old as well, and perhaps even wise, and the embers of
passion cooled to grey ashes.'

He turned to look at me. 'So you see Wil, I've
nothing to offer, except a warning. The secret leads to death. The
more you know, the closer to death you stand. If you can keep
Tallith from pursuing it, you'd be doing her a great favor. If I
thought I could keep her from pursuing it, I'd try. But I know her
pretty well, if only because I knew her parents very well, and if
you can't, I certainly wouldn't be able to either. And if I tried,
I'd be putting myself in the position of either lying to her or
defying her. I'd rather not find myself in that position.'

'Do you know their secret?' I asked quietly.

'Oh yes. But I'm no different than anyone who does. I
can't tell you. And really, if there's anyone who can discover it,
it's likely Tallith, for I'm certain some provisions had been made
to carry on the struggle, though what exactly they'd be, I couldn't
say. But, you see, I was never interested in the struggle. I was
only interested in Fen. Tallith will have to find her own way.'