by T. J. Berry
Jenny scooted around the colonel, heading for the windows with Gary still on her lap. Wenck dragged her back by the handles of her chair. She saw Jim off in the corner, still struggling with two COs. That man would never pass up an opportunity to punch an officer of the Reason. She gave him a whistle, which meant to get his ass over to her pronto. Whether he did that or not was a 50/50 shot.
“You’re not going anywhere,” said Wenck, spinning her to face him. “This Bala creature is the property of the Reason. I’m taking it with me.”
“It belongs to me,” said Jenny. Gary made a low growl at her phrasing. She flicked him in the ear and he went quiet.
“Not for long,” said Wenck.
Lieutenant Cy staggered out of the crowd. His uniform jacket had a Rorschach test pattern of blood on the front, but he was alive thanks to Gary. With the price of unicorn blood these days, it was likely the last time that man would ever taste it in his life.
“Sir, I’m not sure if you’re aware, but this is the Hero of Copernica Citadel,” said Cy, in a surprising display of chivalry.
Wenck didn’t miss a beat.
“I don’t care if she’s the Reverend Fucking Mother of the Sisters of the Supersymmetrical Axion. This Bala is coming with me.”
Jim sauntered over to Jenny’s side, wiping the blood off his knuckles and onto his denim trousers. Wenck and Cy sized him up instantly as a harmless old spacer without a rank. They were kind of right, but also not. Jim could be dangerous. Most often when he didn’t mean to be. It wasn’t as if she kept him around for his winning personality.
Gary’s neck had reassembled itself and he sat up. Jenny shoved his head back down so she could get a good view of Wenck. He had apparently come all the way here from Reason Command at Fort Jaisalmer to pick up Gary personally. The unicorn should have been flattered. These high-ranking guys never traveled to shitty planets like this. Especially not with strict horn rationing in effect. Turns out, if you slaughter all of the unicorns, you won’t have horn to power your FTL drives. Simple math.
The tablet in Jenny’s lap vibrated. She couldn’t see the response under Gary’s rear end, but she knew it was good news when the entire bar lit up with a bright light from outside. She could see every shaving nick on Wenck’s face as beams of light roved over his body and came to rest on the ribbons right above his heart.
“What is that?” he asked, shading his eyes.
Jenny pulled Jim down to the floor by the back of his shirt.
“That’s our ride,” she said. Her tablet buzzed again and this time she reached under Gary’s ass and tapped it. She pushed her face into Gary’s back and held Jim’s head below the level of her armrests.
Everyone standing, including Colonel Wenck and Lieutenant Cy, flew back into the far wall, landing in a pile of tangled bodies on the floor. It was a nonlethal blast – because Jenny did not have the time or energy to outrun a murder charge – but everyone in that pile would be coming out a little toastier than when they started. In the chaos of the blast, the bartender slipped out the front door with two immense bottles under his arms.
“Get up. Time to go,” said Jenny, pushing Gary off her lap and rolling toward what remained of the Blossom’s back wall.
Jim looked up at her.
“I need a little help,” he said. Jenny rolled her eyes and motioned for Gary to take Jim’s hand and pull. The men looked at each other without moving for a couple of seconds that they did not have to spare.
“Dammit you two, we need to leave now,” she said. Gary held out a strong brown hand. Jim put his bony pale one into it and pulled himself up with an unsuccessfully stifled grunt. There weren’t too many more years of life left in Jim, but she intended to keep him moving for as long as possible. It was the least she could do to make up for what had happened to his wife, Cheryl Ann.
Jenny wheeled through the mess of glass and blown-out wood. The full brightness of the Jaggery’s spotlights blasted them in the face. She waved at the ship and the exterior lights snapped off. A line of six purple circles dotted her vision. Jim stepped around the corner of the building and picked up the two duffel bags that contained everything they owned in the world. She liked to say she was a minimalist, but really they were simply too poor to have much to their names. There had been a time, not too long ago, when they’d sold off used clothes and food stores to make rent on the shuttle. But things were about to change. She could feel it.
The Jaggery hovered a few meters off the sandy ground, leaving the air around it silent and undisturbed. Stoneship design was an engineering marvel. No other species in the galaxy could understand, let alone replicate, it. It looked like a giant rock, but the internal mechanics were so complex and enigmatic that most humans couldn’t determine if they were based on technology or magic. As far as Jenny was concerned, as long as the ship went where she told it to go, she didn’t care what powered it.
The Jaggery’s passenger ramp lowered to meet them and Jenny nudged Gary forward in front of her. Jim dumped the duffels in her lap and took the handles of her chair to push. She usually told him off for that, but her arms ached from dragging Gary around and whacking at pieces of singularity pie.
Jim leaned down, letting his old man breath waft into Jenny’s ear. She tried to stifle a gag and ended up coughing to cover it. She leaned as far away from him as she could, but he insisted on coming closer.
“So he won the ship?” he asked.
“He did, but Ricky put it in my name. Gary can’t own property any more.”
Jim laughed bitterly. When they’d made it halfway up the ramp, a voice called out from behind them. “I’m coming with you.”
Jim let go of the chair and Jenny started to roll backward. She grabbed her wheels and turned around. Ricky Tang struggled to pull four oversized suitcases through the debris of her destroyed bar. Jenny started to wave her off, but the suitcases clinked like a dozen bottles were rolling around inside. Jenny was suddenly interested in the prospect of taking on a passenger.
“How much?” Jenny asked, acutely aware of two facts. Number one, she had leverage over Ricky Tang for the first time in her life. And number two, the Reason officers in the bar were starting to climb out of the wreckage of the Bitter Blossom. Instead of feeling vindicated by her newfound power, it made her nervous. Like she was walking on a tightrope, trying not to fall. Ricky spent every moment of the day negotiating, cajoling, and leveraging. Jenny was far outclassed by that kind of social engineering. She was much better at the whack-and-grab school of negotiation and the unambiguous lines of programming within Reason systems.
“A bottle of angel tears,” said Ricky, and Jenny scoffed.
“Those were mine anyway. It goes without saying that I want them back.”
Ricky parked her suitcases and rested her hand on one of them protectively. In the stress of the moment, she wasn’t being careful with her tells.
“I want that suitcase,” said Jenny, knowing she’d hit the jackpot when Ricky’s forehead creased. Ricky glanced behind her at the smoking wreck of her bar. Wenck was on his feet, barking orders and climbing over injured patrons. Now that Ricky no longer had the protection of her agreements with the local Reason officers, the bounty on her crimes would be collected posthaste.
“Fine,” she said quietly. “But don’t open it until we get into orbit.”
Jenny spun around and continued wheeling herself up the ramp. Jim was too mesmerized by the clinking suitcases to help her out, but that was fine. You didn’t go fifteen years in a chair without developing a hefty set of biceps.
As Jenny pushed up into the cargo hold, a red-bearded dwarf stepped into her path, joined by two slightly smaller dwarves. She nodded to Jenny; an intentional breach of protocol. She should have been down on one knee for her captain, but Jenny let it slide. She intended to be a kinder version of the woman who’d run this ship last time, starting with the way she treated the Bala who ran it.
“Welcome aboard, Captain. Hello, Cowboy Jim,” said
the dwarf coolly. No matter how many times Jenny told that woman, she always insisted that “Cowboy” was a title. Jim never complained. He probably liked it, even though he hadn’t been an actual cowboy since he was a teenager back in the States. Back when there were states.
“Hey Boges,” said Jenny. “Good to see you’re still running things around here. I’m sure that means we’re ready to take off any second now.” The dwarf seemed surprised Jenny had bothered to remember her name.
“Yes, Captain.”
Boges spotted Gary and her left knee began to bend. Jenny saw her catch herself and nod instead.
“Welcome home, Captain,” said the dwarf, her voice hitching. Gary tugged on one of the dwarf’s russet braids that nearly matched the color of his skin. It was tough for humans to tell the female from the male dwarves. They both had braids and they both had beards. It was safest to simply ask.
“It’s good to be back, Boges,” Gary replied.
“It’s been a long time,” she said. She kept searching his face, probably looking for signs that he was the same man as the one who was dragged away so long ago. Jenny hoped for her sake that he wasn’t.
“Let’s get underway,” said Jenny, hearing Wenck’s voice carrying out of the Blossom.
Boges turned to her with a pained expression. “Should I prepare the restraints?” she asked. Everyone watched for Jenny’s reaction. This was a question she had not been prepared for. She assumed Gary would come willingly and be part of the crew. It didn’t occur to her that she’d need to restrain him again. Her stomach turned at the idea.
Boges read her hesitation as an affirmative and set her lips in a thin angry line. Gary rubbed his forehead. Jim nodded, clearly willing her to say yes. She needed all of their cooperation to complete the delivery for the Sisters, but she couldn’t possibly appease them all. She didn’t want to hear Gary’s anguished screams again as long as she lived, but she’d understand if he didn’t want to cooperate. It would serve her right if he simply ate her out of spite.
Jim stuck an elbow into Jenny’s shoulder to nudge an answer out of her. That settled it. If there was one thing you could count on these days, it was that whatever Cowboy Jim decided was probably the worst course of action you could possibly take.
“No thank you, Boges,” she said. “Gary has agreed to power the FTL willingly.” She looked over to confirm. Gary stopped rubbing his head and nodded. Boges’ sausage fingers patted her knee.
“I do agree to power the drive,” said Gary. “However…”
“Always a catch,” said Jim, shaking his head in disgust.
“I have only enough horn growth to get us halfway through the Scutum-Crux Arm. Unless we don’t mind being stranded at sublight speeds near Alicante 8, we will need to stock up on bones or trisicles. Lest we strand ourselves between systems… as we have in the past.”
Cowboy Jim spat on the floor of the ramp. One of the smaller dwarves took out a rag and wiped it up.
“Goddamn horse-man,” said Jim, “You’re just dying to murder someone else, aren’t you?”
CHAPTER SIX
FTL Jaggery
Gary stepped into the cargo hold of the Jaggery and closed the door behind him. The familiar smell of his stoneship had nearly incapacitated him with a flood of relief. For ten years, he’d dreamed of this moment. It had kept him going when all he’d wanted to do was give up. Of course, he hadn’t imagined returning with the two people who had held him captive all that time ago, but, by Unamip, he was home.
Gary ran his fingers across the bare stone wall of the hold. When the ship had been his, there had been a thick layer of moss on the floor and all manner of flowering vines clinging to the walls. All of the ship’s foliage had been torn out by Jenny after Copernica, but it still smelled faintly of soil.
Jim rushed toward the cockpit to prepare for takeoff, but Jenny stopped her wheelchair and waited for Gary.
“Come on. We need you up front,” she said.
“What do you need him for?” asked Jim incredulously.
“To pilot the ship,” she replied.
“That’s what I’m here for. Best pilot in the system,” said Jim.
Jenny closed her eyes and began again in a softer tone, one reserved for children about to have a tantrum.
“Jim, the ship has been dormant for ten years and I don’t know if it’ll even talk to the new tablets. I need Gary up front to watch the Bala controls. You and I don’t know what any of them mean. Start us on a heading toward the pickup coordinates and we’ll be right behind you.”
Jim let out a great harrumph and stomped off down the hall. Ricky rolled her four huge suitcases along behind him.
“Where’s my room? Is there a suite I can reserve? Or a penthouse? I heard this place has a pool,” she said. Jim grumbled something that Gary couldn’t hear, but made Ricky gasp.
“You don’t have to be rude,” she said, tiptoeing over the metal grating on the floor so her heels didn’t sink in. Boges’ dwarves followed Ricky, pointing out the way to the crew quarters. With only Jenny, Boges, and himself, the cargo hold quieted.
“Do you really want me to pilot the ship?” asked Gary. The last time he was here, Jenny had kept him chained in his room. He wasn’t prepared to trust her yet.
“Absolutely. And the Sisters want to speak to you at the pickup location,” she said.
“The Sisters asked for me by name?” he asked.
“Yeah. They made it abundantly clear that I was to get you on the Jaggery by any means necessary. You don’t think I wanted you here for your fashion sense?” Jenny asked, gesturing to his ragged, damp prison uniform. He blinked at her attempt at humor. He didn’t find many things very funny any more.
“So you came to my aid at the request of the Sisters,” he said.
“Yes, and because…” She faltered and stopped.
It certainly wasn’t an apology or even an admission of guilt, but there was an expectancy about Jenny that spoke of a consideration for his feelings that had not been there previously. Last time around, she had barked orders at him. And when he failed to comply, she stopped speaking to him altogether and simply treated him like an animal.
The cargo hold shook as the ship lifted away from Broome City. Boges stayed nearby, watching protectively over Gary.
“No one’s getting locked up on this trip,” said Jenny. “It’s all going down nice and easy.”
“Why don’t you explain to me how it’s all going down,” said Gary, crossing his arms across his chest. Jenny lifted her hands in mock surrender.
“Listen, I don’t even want your ship. You can have it back after we make this delivery. You have my word.”
Gary scoffed so hard he nearly choked. Jenny’s cheeks went red.
“I get it, I really do. You have no reason to trust me. Back there when Ricky deeded me the Jaggery, I could have just rolled out of that bar and left you to Colonel Wenck. But I didn’t. I made sure you got out too.”
“Along with horn to power your FTL drive,” finished Gary.
“There is that. Listen, besides your horn and the Sisters’ request, I genuinely wanted you along. I know you only have a bit of horn, but I saved up enough cash to make a stop at Beywey for trisicles. There’s just enough time for you to grow us the fuel to Fort Jaisalmer. I have it all planned out to the minute. It’ll work perfectly.”
“What task have the Sisters hired you for?” he asked.
“A simple delivery. A pair of boxes to Fort J in time for the Century Summit. That’s it. Very easy.”
Nothing was ever “very easy” where the Sisters were concerned. There was always an ulterior motive. Their order had its own FTL ship and enough horn to power it for several lifetimes. It made no sense to contract the Jaggery for such a mission. It meant they were moving people like pieces on a chessboard, getting them in position to coax a particular outcome into being. It was a dangerous game, playing with the future.
Jenny must have seen his skepticism, because she
let out a heavy sigh.
“I need you to get me to Fort J.” She let her fingertips drift across her tablet, swiping through pages without looking at them. “Last year, during a regular cargo run, the Reason picked up Kaila. They said her papers were out of date, but they weren’t. I checked them myself.” She rubbed her eyes. All of the exhaustion of the last ten years had gathered there. “I don’t even know if she’s alive any more, but I have to get back there and look.”
“I’m sorry to hear it.” It was the truth. Jenny’s wife Kaila had been one of the few kind souls who came aboard with Jenny last time. He wished no ill toward the tree spirit, even if she was married to a bully. A lot of families had been torn apart by harsh Reason penalties for intermarriage between humans and Bala, including his own.
“They brought her to the harvesting center,” continued Jenny. “With no access to an FTL drive, I haven’t been able to get back to Fort J.”
Certainly not with horn rationing in effect. No one but the Reason was able to get horn these days. Kaila had been taken from Gymnoverium as a young tree and Jenny had rescued her from an auction. Cheryl Ann had told him every detail about their story. As overbearing as Jenny was, she and Kaila had been inseparable for thirteen years. He’d been there for their wedding. As a captive on the ship, not as a guest, of course.
“Yeah, so. I could use your help getting back there.” She twisted her hands in her lap.
“I’ll get you to Fort Jaisalmer,” he said. “And then you’ll give me back my ship.”
“Deal,” said Jenny, wheeling toward the cockpit. “I need to get up there before Jim flies us into a jetliner or a mountain.”
Gary followed her through the stone hallways toward the cockpit. Boges followed at his heels.
“We attempted to replace all of the flora and fauna while in storage,” the dwarf said, apologetically. “But we contracted a blight during year three, which wiped out most of the basic feed crops. We were able to breed a strain of foxberries with resistance, but the pin flowers didn’t fare as well. I have seeds in stasis, but it’s not worth germinating them until the bayfly population comes back. And they’re not surviving on the lake at the moment. I believe the vek population has expanded too far. The gravity load is too much. So we decided to keep the foxberries in the hothouses until we can fix the lake. I’m wondering if it would be prudent to begin replanting the hallways, now that you’re back on board.”
