by Skyler Grant
“Kara, you’re bunking with Taki. Dela, you’re with the captain and I’m with Melody. Jinx, sorry, you’re on your own for the night,” Tamara said.
“Just like that?” Quinn asked.
“Only complicated if you make it,” Tamara said.
Quinn doubted things were that easy. With a family this large complications would be arising fast.
Taki cleared her throat. “Not to derail the conversation or anything, but I had an idea about what we should do next. I’d like to recommend we not waste our trip to this system and make planetfall.”
“Why?” Quinn asked. A world like the one below wouldn’t have anything in the way of contracts.
“Metal, sir. You’ve said they’ve rare ones. Most of those are probably spoken for by contract, but we’ve hard currency to offer anyone willing to bend the rules. If the galaxy really is about to break out in war, any industrial planet with a shipyard is going to be hungry for materials,” Taki said.
It was a bold thought. Taki was right, normally a colony like the one below would be so subsidized most of what they made would be spoken for, but cash was always king.
“We’ll do it, in the morning,” Quinn decided.
“I can bring us down tonight if you like. I’m a mediocre pilot, but I can handle a mostly automated landing and I’m not doing anything better tonight,” Jinx said.
Dela slipped out of her chair and moved behind Quinn, tugging at his arm. “Good, because your two best pilots are going to be busy.”
“Best and third best,” Taki said.
“Guess we’ll be seeing who can handle a stick better soon,” Dela said, as Quinn got to his feet and she tugged him away from the table.
Yeah, this was going to be a problem. Lines like that didn’t do anybody any good.
By the time they reached the door to Quinn’s quarters Dela already had his shirt off, fingers fumbling for the catch of his pants.
“Eager much? There isn’t any rush,” Quinn said.
Inside, Dela pulled his pants down and Quinn stepped out of them even as she pushed him back onto the bed. “Like hell there isn’t. I remember the last time we were in a bed together. We don’t seal the deal on this whole Centauri thing fast, maybe you’re going to start wondering soon about how you can run away from it all.”
Quinn watched as Dela got undressed. It was the second time he’d seen her this way, although the first time he’d been trying his damndest not to look. Five foot six inches in height, tanned from head to toe, brown hair and green eyes, and a moderately sized chest with small dark nipples. She was somewhere between the beauty of Tamara and the girl-next-door looks of Melody.
“I don’t pull runners,” Quinn said.
Dela stalked forward, moving to straddle his hips as she leaned in to press a kiss against his lips. It was playful, almost teasing, her teeth grazing his lower lip before pulling away.
“Maybe, but you sure pull unavailable. Not tonight, and I can do the math. If you stick with this whole thing, I get one night in every six, so we’re damned sure going to make it count when it’s my turn,” Dela said, her smooth hands exploring the muscled contours of his chest even as her hips shifted and she eased herself onto him.
Quinn hadn’t done the math, not really. Was that really how all this was going to go? For how long?
“Attention here,” Dela said, and leaned forward to press a kiss to his lips again. This time it grazed her nipples across his chest and Quinn felt himself growing flushed even as her hips began to rock, a roiling rhythm that was quite successful at putting all thoughts out of his mind.
The kiss grew heated, insistent, as was her body. Dela had a hunger for adventure—Dela had a hunger for a lot of things, and the heat in her kiss and her body made it obvious that right now one of those things was Quinn.
The others would all have some degree of awkwardness, Quinn was sure of it, but right now there was none of that with Dela. They fit together in an incredibly comfortable way and he could drown himself in that hunger, let himself be consumed by it. Forget what was to come—and even, for a moment, forget the past.
It was a relief when Dela’s nails dug small bloody furrows into his chest, when their hips spasmed wildly, and they each found their release.
It was the end of one chapter. It was the beginning of another.
22
There were no custom-made aphrodisiac drugs this time around, courtesy of Ice. Quinn and Dela came together twice more before the night was through and he had one of the soundest sleeps in years. And when he awoke he remembered everything.
Dela was asleep behind him, blankets tangled around her. Quinn quietly slipped from the bed and headed for the shower. By the time he was done and stepped out, Dela was sitting on the bed and looking blearily about.
“Morning,” Quinn said.
“Should have brought a change of clothes with me. Mind if I use your shower?” Dela asked.
“Feel free, I’m going to make sure we didn’t crash and die overnight.”
“I think I felt us come down last night. It was a bit rough, but we were uh, busy, at the time.”
Quinn remembered.
The smell of synth-bacon was wafting through the ship as he made his way to the bridge. Nobody was in the pilot’s seat. He could see they had landed inside a hanger. The view outside was all just gray support beams.
“Jinx did a decent job, sir,” Taki said, poking her head in behind him. She sounded in an unusually good mood.
“How was Kara? Do we talk about that? I think we can talk about that, right?” Quinn asked.
“Don’t see why not, sir. Girl is all muscle and as I was reminded last night the tongue is most definitely a muscle. Also completely lacking in any trace of shyness. Made things easier.”
The same with Dela. Quinn hadn’t been certain what to make of her “assignments” last night, but they seem to have worked out. Quinn wasn’t happy with the idea of splitting any of his authority on this ship, but he had to admit, she’d done a good job with it. If he’d tried to assign pairings they would have been different and might not have worked nearly so well.
“Word from the surface?” Quinn asked.
“I told them we’re here to trade and had cash. They’re willing to talk and show us what they’ve got. I explained we’re on the end of our ship’s day cycle and to give us a little time to rest.”
That worked.
“We’ll want Kara and Dela with us. We’re not carrying cash without extra protection, and Dela has an eye for value,” Quinn said.
“I’ll let them know,” Taki said.
The colony stank. While enclosed to protect it from the fierce winds, they didn’t need to be fully insulated against the air outside and so they weren’t. It was unfortunate, given the atmosphere was high in both methane and sulfur. It smelled like the very worst parts of a swamp.
“So this is what adventure smells like,” Dela said, looking squeamish.
“We have these bogs back home that smell like this. There are these serpents with razors on their spines that will wrap around you and cut someone in half. Think they have those here?” Kara asked hopefully. Today she was carrying a massive double-barreled shotgun.
“We are never visiting your homeworld,” Taki said.
Everyone else had an armored vest beneath their shirts—best to take no chances—and at least one pistol.
The man who came out to greet them was massive, seven foot tall and yet somehow still dressed in a suit at least two sizes too large for him.
“I’m Overseer of this colony. You can call me Brecht. I understand you’ve hard currency and are looking to buy. Most of what we have is spoken for, but we’ve some surplus you might have an interest in,” Brecht said, motioning with a massive arm, and two men only slightly smaller pushed a cart laden with several crates.
Brecht tore the top off the first one. “They’re all unrefined. This one’s Batan ore, our main export.”
Dela stepped forwar
d, a magnifier on one eye and a scanner in her hand. She ran the sensor over the ore.
“Low grade, mostly used to help jump-start colonies on worlds without much in the way of their own mineral resources. We’re not interested,” Dela said.
“Like the lady said,” Quinn said.
Brecht made a flourish with one hand. “Fine. People of taste. You’ll like the next one more.” Tearing the lid off another crate, the interior was filled with a blue dust.
Brecht didn’t introduce this one. Perhaps he was testing Dela.
She said, “Isirium. Utilized in the production of several illicit pharmaceuticals. He thinks we’re drug runners, Captain. Still, for the right price ...”
“Two hundred and fifty bits per ton,” Brecht said.
“Market rate, not supplier rate. We’d have no margin on that,” Dela said.
“There may be some room for negotiation,” Brecht said.
“Show us what else you have first,” Quinn said.
Brecht tore open the third crate to reveal jagged chunks of reddish stone with white flakes.
Dela studied these for a bit. “The stone is local and not very valuable. The flakes are Selexis, useful in electronics.”
There was a slight shift in her tone. This was what they’d come to find.
Quinn said, “Still not what we were looking for. We might just leave with an empty hold. Is your price as extreme on this as the Isirium?”
“One thousand bits a ton. The corporation can’t get enough of this stuff,” Brecht said.
“And they’re not buying it from you by the ton. Not at those rates, given the low yields in this rock. Two-fifty,” Dela said.
“Completely unreasonable. Seven-fifty,” Brecht said.
“Five.”
“Seven.” Brecht placed his hands on his hips.
“Meet you in the middle,” Dela said.
“You’ll meet me at six-fifty, you silver-tongued vixen and not a bit lower,” Brecht said.
Dela shot Quinn a questioning look and he gave her a tiny nod.
“Six-fifty if you top off our fuel,” Dela said.
Brecht frowned. “Long as you take at least two tons. Deal.”
“Deal,” Dela said.
“It will take my men some time to get it together. How much will you be needing?” Brecht asked.
Earlier, everyone had gathered their resources, some they had as a ship and some as individuals. Between them all they had 2,231 in real currency.
“Three tons,” Quinn said.
“We’ll meet in three hours so you can inspect the cargo and we can confirm the money? Then we’ll start loading and get you fueled,” Brecht said.
“Sounds like a plan,” Quinn said.
Perhaps he should come to the middle of nowhere more often? It was so refreshing and unexpected for a deal to actually go off without any hitches. Just people doing business.
“Lot to hope for, but I don’t suppose you have any shops with anything worth buying?” Dela asked.
“Beer’s not bad, but you want anything better you’re out of luck” Brecht said.
They bid him goodbye for now and made their way back aboard.
“What were you hoping for?” Kara asked, “You want better guns, I can sell you one. I mean, not one of my good ones, but one of my backups. They’re all better than those tiny things of yours. They’re like toys.”
“They are not,” Dela said, pulling one out from a holster to look at it. “Is it?”
Quinn wasn’t getting in the middle of this one. He left the two to their discussion and went in search of Tamara.
Not finding her in the cargo bay or the kitchen, he soon found himself knocking on the door to her cabin.
“Come in,” Tamara called.
The cabins weren’t the most roomy of affairs, although for a light transport they were decent. Affordable hotel rooms on a Core world were around their size.
Tamara sat on the bed, a tablet on her lap.
“Stuck using primitive tech?” Quinn asked.
“I hate it. Did we get a deal?”
“Selexis. Electronics production.”
Tamara tapped away at the tablet. “Ohh, major component in targeting computers. That was a good find. How did last night go?”
“Well, you made a good choice. Dela was …” Quinn was lost for the right words.
“Easy, and not in a bad way. I figured she would be. You two are a lot alike. Another day and another life, and you’d have fallen for her.”
Quinn wouldn’t go that far, would he? This was all so damned odd.
“I didn’t come here to discuss that. I wanted your input on where to unload the ore,” Quinn said.
Tamara pursed her lips. “Out of the Duke’s reach, certainly. Some place gearing up for war, but where we won’t get caught up in it, and somewhere with the resources to offer us a decent price.” Her fingers flipped through screens on the tablet.
“The shipyards at Ixol?” Quinn asked.
“Maybe, deep in the Core and we’d all enjoy the luxuries. More law than you’re comfortable with though.”
“True. You have an alternative?”
“Sobek, under the rule of Baroness Salome. Edge of Imperium space.”
“No shipyards there,” Quinn said.
“No, but she has a huge merchant fleet and is a close ally of the Gilono family and their shipyards at Rixus Prime. They’ll have the cash to pay, they’ll know what it’s worth, and we don’t have to wander into the middle of a military fleet,” Tamara said.
They wouldn’t get best value that way, but Tamara made good points. And if Dela and the others wanted shops, a merchant hub would have everything they might desire.
23
Both sides brought muscle to the exchange. It was the part most likely to go wrong, with the miners fearing the Kathryn would fly off with their cargo after the temptation of just killing them and stealing the cash was too much to ignore.
Kara covered the exchange with a shotgun while Taki had a rifle. The miners had crude-looking rifles that were probably manufactured locally. Quinn made a note if they ever came this way again to bring some proper guns and ammunition. They might fetch a good price.
Things didn’t quite go as smooth as might be hoped. Dela insisted on the replacement of one ton of the ore which she deemed too low quality and the miners expressed their dissatisfaction with a two-hour wait to swap it out. Still, in the end the cargo hold had new crates and the miners had new coin.
It was already mid-afternoon by that point. The rest of the day was spent transitioning between two Runestones to another fairly quiet bit of space. It left just one jump until Sobek. There was a steady flow of ships through the local Runestone, traders running cargo. The station was a safe place to dock for the night and take on new fuel before finishing the journey in the morning.
The crew gathered for dinner. Melody had made lasagna.
“Does anyone else find it odd that the one of us that can’t actually eat is the one who does all the cooking?” Tamara said.
“I like cooking. It is like engineering. You put everything together just right and add a little love and everything turns out like it should,” Melody said, making her way around the table filling plates.
“So, I want to discuss what we’re going to do with the money we’ll make,” Tamara said.
“Split it seven ways?” Dela asked.
“I’m getting mine back, and then some,” Kara said.
“This isn’t an equal division. Ship has needs,” Quinn said.
Kara started to dig into her lasagna.
Quinn sampled his and discovered that Melody had really outdone herself this time. She hadn’t cooked dishes like this when there were just two who needed to eat.
Tamara said, “I’d like to make a suggestion. Out of the profits, we pay back anyone who chipped in. Forty percent goes to the things the captain thinks it needs spent on. Fuel, whatever repairs Melody needs to make. I’ll manage thirty pe
rcent for comfort items for the cabins and some improvements inside. The remaining thirty percent gets divided into three shares for the captain and myself. Two for Taki and Dela, as our seconds. One for everyone else.”
Quinn thought it over. Apart from the funds specified for internal comforts it was pretty standard. And, although he wasn’t exactly thrilled at Tamara getting a share equal to his, in the setup of this family it worked. While he might still be trying to figure out how, exactly, a recently fired lawyer with her accounts closed had half-taken over his ship, she really had.
“That is only slightly over two percent for most of us? I’m not saying I did much to help, but that seems low,” Jinx said.
“The princess has a point, she can also do math,” Kara said.
“Don’t call me that. It doesn’t apply,” Jinx said.
“We’re none of us paying room or board. It is a reasonable division. Captain, this is a ship decision and that makes it your call,” Tamara said.
It being his call hadn’t stopped her from presenting exactly the solution she wanted. The most damnable thing was that he didn’t have a better one to present in turn. Quinn knew exactly what Tamara was doing—she was further establishing herself as his partner. They might be one family, but they had two heads.
“We’ll try it out this time and if it needs adjustment next time, we’ll reconsider,” Quinn said.
“What sort of household supplies did you have in mind?” Taki asked.
“The bedding in most of the quarters is disgusting. When you last loaded up on toiletries, it wasn’t with six women in mind. There are a lot of little things that can be done that can make this ship a lot more livable,” Tamara said.
“I can’t wait to hit the shops. Get some decent clothes. My best set that isn’t gray got melted awhile back,” Dela said.
“I had to run with what I had on my back,” Jinx said wistfully. “I miss my closet. I really miss my closet.”
“I’ve been thinking of branching out into knives. Think they have nice knives?” Kara asked.
“I’m sure they do,” Tamara said.
Kara had already demolished her own pan of lasagna, and the rest had worked their way through its equal.
