by Susan Kelley
Vin spoke slowly. “You’re in the planetary system Merris on the fifth world. This region of space is called The Metal Belts.”
Emma snatched the bottle from his hand, unsure if he mocked her or tried to be funny. She was beyond amusement with worry and fatigue. Then her mind comprehended what her eyes saw on the bottle label. “Fusomycle! Is this real?”
Vin frowned and spoke slowly again. “This is a powerful antibiotic that has been in use in the military for almost two years.”
Heat climbed in Emma’s face. The lunkhead wasn’t mocking her. He thought she was a complete idiot. Lucky for him Jenny’s presence necessitated she control her temper. “I know what Fusomycle is but it’s impossible to get in any but the richest hospital wards. This little bottle is worth five measures of silver.”
“Closer to ten.”
“How did you get it?”
Vin stepped back from the table. “It will fight any infection. You’ll probably only need two doses.”
Emma followed his retreat, aware of Jenny stirring on the other side of the room. “How did you come by this?”
“I had it with me.” Vin turned his back on her. “Treat your patient, Dr. Emma Jones.”
Emma bristled anew at his brusque order and avoidance of her question. Even though his odd accent drew her name out in a way that played across her nerves. Between his deep voice and pretty face, she could almost forgive his insulting treatment. But not quite. “You had it with you? Because you expected to encounter a man with his legs nearly cut off? Does that happen to you often?”
He turned back to her, something flickering in his eyes. He glanced at Russ and then back to her. “Yes.”
“Yes? Yes what?”
“Yes, I often see injuries like this and am always prepared.”
Emma saw no mockery in his clear, gray eyes. And she began to suspect the slight crease between his eyes might be confusion. Sympathy and shame filled her. Vin’s rudeness and brisk manner likely were a product of emotional trauma or perhaps one of the horrid head injuries that afflicted so many former soldiers. Though he looked too young to have served for long, Emma saw the bleakness of great loss behind his cold gaze. She’d seen the look many times before. “I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“I’m sorry you had to see injuries like this one.” She reached out and touched his arm.
He jerked out of her reach this time. “It wasn’t your fault, and you have no reason to be sorry.” He stalked out, letting in another gust of cool air.
Emma looked at the small bottle in her hand. It could provide a miracle for Russ. Her friend would owe his life to Vin. She smiled at the closed door. The least she would do was save Vin in return.
* * * *
Vin entered the café next door to the surgery. Men occupied nearly all the tables. A rough lot of all ages, sitting in groups of three or four around the tiny tables and all staring at him. Conversation ceased as he closed the door behind him.
The last few months hadn’t eased Vin’s discomfort with civilians though he hid it well. Then again, Emma had deduced his military background easily enough. Being around her rubbed against the temper he’d discovered within himself since losing Yalo. Trying to fit in with these illogically minded people frustrated him further.
The large man Vin had met in the surgery two days previous rose from the table nearest the kitchen. He held his hand out in the common civilian greeting. “Sorry I didn’t take the time to welcome you as I should have with the emergency and all. Most name me the mayor around here though I hold no official office. Call me Vannie as the rest of them do.”
Vin took the mayor’s hand and shook it with a firm grip. It served to measure the man’s massive strength and gave proof of a hard life in his rough calluses and crooked fingers. “Vin Smith.”
“Smith?” Vannie smiled and raised an eyebrow.
Vin wondered if he’d chosen some notorious moniker. So many people acted amused upon hearing it. Perhaps it wasn’t the innocuous name he’d intended.
“What brings you to Merris Five?” Vannie gestured for Vin to join him as his table.
Vin had prepared a story. “I caught a ride on a transport ship after my last job ended. I didn’t care where it took me.”
Vannie’s smile stayed but it looked less friendly. “You’re a vagabond then?”
Vin’s mind raced to put meaning to the word. It sounded unsavory and he suspected he needed Vannie’s leave to stay in Hovel Port. “I do odd jobs while seeing new places.”
“There’s more chance of work at Hadrason Mining upriver.” Vannie leaned forward across the table, his scarred fists resting beside the empty mug in front of him.
“I don’t care for the large crowds at the big mines or the demands they make for past work histories.” Vin had scouted out the ugly town surrounding the deep mine. He hadn’t found Emma there but had heard about Hovel Port.
“What type of work do you usually do besides stitching up a man’s hide?” Vannie leaned back in his chair.
The big man Emma called Moe swept aside the curtain separating the kitchen from the dining area and walked through carrying a metal pot. He swept his gaze around the room and then lumbered toward Vin’s table. He snatched a cup off a shelf and slammed it down in front of Vin. Without asking, he poured steaming liquid into the cup. “Heard you helped our girl out and saved poor Russ’ life.”
The two men watched Vin as if waiting for his reply to a question. Such things confounded him about civilian conversation, but he tried. “I did what I could.”
Moe set the teapot on the table and pulled up a chair. He stuck out his hand toward Vin. “Moe Hallis. You intending to stay on here?”
Vin took the offered hand, finding it without the calluses of Vannie but just as big and strong. “I’d like to find some work.” He gestured around the café. “But I see no one is working today.”
Vannie cursed with a gift to equal a soldier. “We’re being cautious after what happened to Russ. He’s the second victim of those cursed man traps. We’ll lose three days of work waiting for the water level to go down so we’ll have a better chance to spot those damn things. We found two after the first man stepped in one and felt safe. Until it caught Russ and that was on a shallow water day.”
“Who puts them out there?” Vin had seen traps used to capture wild beasts but hadn’t imagined any coward would use them on men.
Moe slapped his hand on the table, quieting the conversations near them. “No proof, but it can only be those greedy bastards running Hadrason’s mine up on the mountain. They tried to tell us the silver we take should be theirs when we first started this settlement but even in this lawless corner of the universe, they can’t enforce such an idea.”
“Why they care is beyond our figuring.” Vannie refilled his mug from the teapot. “We manage enough silver to keep us in food and clothing. None of us are getting rich.”
“It’s pure maliciousness,” Moe spat. “They have their tons of silver and resent our ounces.”
Vin lifted the tea to his lips, knowing the expected behavior. He’d rather have pure water but wanted to continue his act of fitting in. The hot drink surprised him with a rich taste of honey and cinnamon. Not as good as water but not horrible. “Can’t you set guards on the stretches of water you pan?”
“We cover about three miles of stream, too much for us to watch. And it’s not safe out there at night,” Vannie said. “Moe and I traveled to see the big boss up the mountain. He told us they knew nothing about the traps and if the work was too dangerous for us we should pack up and leave.”
“If they want to get rid of you why don’t they kill everybody? Twenty armed men could take this town.” Vin wanted to call the words back when he saw their expressions. “I meant from a military viewpoint, it seems expedient for them to just attack.”
Moe looked at Vannie and received a nod before answering. “We feared that very thing after they ordered us to leave and we told them t
o go to hell. We fortified our walls and purchased some weapons when we could gather enough silver. They haven’t come at us yet so maybe we’re only a minor stinging insect to their great hulking beast. Killing or injuring one of us here and there is just them taking a swipe at us.”
Vannie shrugged. “I’d like to think they have some hint of humanity and don’t want to outright kill us. There are many women and children here. And lot of our people keep in contact with relatives in the civilized systems. An outcry for an investigation would occur if all these families were killed.”
“I think Hadrason Mining could make us disappear completely and the hell with any protest. They’d throw out bodies in some deep branch of their mine or dump them in the middle of the jungle to be eaten. If anyone came to investigate, they’d find us gone and no hint to what happened,” Moe said.
Vin sensed the two burly men had argued this before. “Hadrason Mining doesn’t wield the power it once did.”
“We heard those rumors a few months back.” Vannie leaned toward Vin with an intense gleam in his eyes. “Is Hadrason in prison?”
“Yes.” Satisfaction shot through Vin as it always did imagining the rich bastard suffering in some dank cell. Joe and the other Recon Marines had taken care of Geoff Hadrason. The mine owner deserved death but Vin would accept the prison sentence for now. All of the soulless men who had manipulated and used the Recon Marines were either dead or in prison. Except for one. Did that man protect this little town because his daughter lived here? “I don’t understand how the mines keep working when the owner is incarcerated.”
Vin caught the look exchanged by the two men. Damn, he must have said something stupid again.
“Big business like that runs itself, lad,” Vannie said. “Hadrason is probably still raking in millions every month. I bet his prison cell is a plush resort. Money buys almost anything.”
“This is true?” Was it possible that the pieces of human trash he’d delivered to the doors of various military outposts weren’t suffering for their crimes in dark, lonely prisons?
Again the men exchanged a glance. Moe answered. “You’re rather innocent of the world, aren’t you?”
“I’ve never been around rich people,” Vin muttered, lifting his cup to hide his discomfort. He was sure he’d said all the right things.
“You’ve proven yourself handy with emergency care, what other skills do you have? I have to tell you, lad, I wanted to send you on your way. But I’m thinking of giving you a chance,” Vannie said.
Vin wondered how anything he’d said had changed Vannie’s mind. At least he’d prepared clever answers for this question. “I’ve done hunting before and guarding for other settlements.”
“We could use another hunter,” Vannie said. “With Russ out and Larry gone, we’re down two panners. We’ll be short on coin for supplies until we replace them. Especially if we’re afraid to go back in the water. Don’t suppose you have any experience panning for precious metals?”
“No. But I’ll help clear the water of traps.”
“How?”
Vin thought of all the things he had back in his camp and even more on his ship. It would raise too many questions if they knew he had the latest weapons technology available. “I have some ideas, but I’ll need to see what you have available.”
Vannie held out his hand again. “Welcome to Merris Five. When can you start?”
