by Jaleta Clegg
"Was it just you and Jasyn or was Jerimon in on it?"
"Ginni, not Jerimon. And I owe Jasyn and Ginni both. But not the whole bet. You left early, so technically they didn’t win. I’m still doing dishes for the next week."
I hefted the case. Clark grabbed one end and helped me lug it to the outside storage locker. We slid it in and fastened the hatch, locking it securely.
"So how did you know?"
"I overheard you yesterday."
"Are you going to break my arm or punch me in the eye?"
"I’ll just make you do dishes for me for a month." I leaned against the ship watching the sunlight pour over the wide plain below. "Am I that predictable?"
"Usually." He studied the town below. Even this early there were people moving around. "I think I’ve got a cargo for us. I’m going down this morning to check on it."
"Will you be sorry to go?"
"We’ve been here almost a week. If we stay any longer, Jasyn will make me learn how to hoe corn or some such thing." He pulled a face. "I spent three summers working on a farm. That was enough for me."
I laughed. "I think I would have preferred hoeing corn to making pies."
"That explains the jokes last night."
"What jokes?"
"Ask Jasyn. I’ll be back in a couple of hours." He headed down the path.
Was I sorry to be leaving Onipas? In many ways this had been one of the more peaceful weeks of my life. Even if they made jokes about my pies. They had been pretty sorry looking.
I walked around the ship, checking that all of the hoses were put away and the service ports were latched. We were done here. We could lift any time.
Ginni sat at the table inside. She looked barely awake. She blinked blearily when I stuck my head in.
"We’re lifting at noon," I told her. "Do you and Habim want to stay here? You’ve got friends. You’ll be safe."
She shook her head. "It’s nice here, but." She shrugged.
"I thought I’d ask one more time. You’re sure you want to come with us?"
"If you want us. Habim can fix anything, but I’m not much good at anything."
"You’re welcome with us, Ginni," I said.
"Jasyn said she’d start teaching me navigation, but I have to know how to read first. I can do numbers, a little, but not words." She looked ashamed.
"Then I’ll teach you. I need something to keep me busy while we’re flying."
"Are you sure?"
"Ghost will only play for a little while and we have days to travel. I’d love to help you."
She smiled, a real smile. The hope in her eyes made me blink and look away. Something thumped in Jerimon’s cabin. I heard him moving around.
"Tell Jasyn I’ll be back in a couple of hours." I headed for the door.
Ginni shot a look at Jerimon’s cabin door then grinned. "I’ll tell her. We’re really leaving today?"
"We don’t have any reason to stay." I left, before Jerimon opened his door.
I took the trail behind the ship that went diagonally up the steep hill, leading around to the far side. I’d been spending too much time in the ship, without doing my exercise routine. I stretched out my stride and went faster, enjoying it even if I was starting to breathe hard.
I reached the top of the hill and kept going. The trail cut across a rocky meadow and climbed another ridge. I wasn’t worried about getting lost, there weren’t any cross trails and I wasn’t going to go that far. I just wanted some time alone.
I climbed the second ridge and stopped at the top. I looked down on my ship, small on the flat ridge. The town was even smaller. The air was clean, just cool enough to be pleasant. I took in a deep breath and turned the other way.
Mountains rose in front of me, rising higher and rougher towards the sky. The trail dipped into a steep canyon. Dark rocks stuck up through the ever present grasses. I heard water running. I stepped down into the shadowy canyon.
The trail ended at a waterfall with huge ferns, delicate fans of green leaves that drank in the spray. I found a dry spot to sit. I watched water foam past. Small flying creatures darted and buzzed in the ferns. The sun caught on their wings, flashing bright blues and reds and the occasional pure white. I lay back and just let my mind drift.
The flyers cheeped loudly and fled into their bushes. I heard footsteps on the trail. I looked back and wished I hadn’t.
Jerimon walked up to me. He stopped and looked around the narrow canyon.
"What do you want?"
"I came to apologize. And because if I don’t work things out with you, Jasyn said she’d kick me off and leave me here."
"I find it hard to believe she’d kick her own brother off."
"You own half the ship, she can’t kick you off." He sat, within arm’s reach but not so close that I felt threatened.
"I’m sorry about the other night," he said. "I got a bit carried away."
"A bit? And just the other night?"
He glanced my way with a mischievous glint in his eyes. "You didn’t seem to object. Until afterwards."
I looked away. The waterfall had lost its charm.
"I shouldn’t have said that." He picked up a rock and tossed it into the stream. "I’m sorry for what I said about Tayvis. Even if I was right."
I stood abruptly. "I hope you enjoy living here." I turned away.
He was on his feet and in front of me faster than I thought possible. I glared at him. His eyes were so blue, and this time they looked serious. All hint of mischief was gone.
"That was rude, too, I know it. The whole time I was in prison, thinking about you was what kept me going. Knowing that when I got out, you and Jasyn would give me a chance. If it is just as friends, I can live with that. It isn’t what I want, but you know that. If it’s all I have, then I can be happy. No more cracks about Tayvis, no more cornering you. No more trying to kiss you. Unless you change your mind and want me to." He still looked serious, no smug grin sneaking onto his face. "I promise." He stuck out his hand. "Just friends, Dace?"
I looked at his hand. His skin was dark, tanned by years of space. His fingers were long, slim and delicate. Could I be just friends? Could he be just friends?
"Just friends, nothing more?"
"Unless you want something more, Dace."
I touched his hand. He wrapped his fingers around mine. And let go before I pulled away.
"Truce," he said.
"Truce," I agreed. I headed up the path, stepping around him. I didn’t want to push things by staying alone with him any longer.
"For what it’s worth, I really am sorry."
I paused and looked back. He stood where I’d left him. He had his back to me. I could read tension in his shoulders, in the way he had his head bowed to stare at the ground under his feet. Something was still bothering him. I squashed the urge to go back and find out what. I hurried up the trail. Sympathy could be dangerous. Let Jasyn find out what his troubles were. They couldn’t be my concern. I didn’t dare let them.
When I got back to the ship, Jasyn was there with a crowd of well wishers.
"Is it true you’re leaving today?" Omar asked.
"We’ve been here almost too long."
"Any chance you’d be making this a regular stop?"
The money would be good, but the future wouldn’t last very long. Not with the Sidyatha growing more reclusive. I shook my head. "Probably not."
"Well, if you ever change your mind, we would love to see you again." He shook my hand and walked back to the group.
Interesting, I thought. A planet that wanted me to come back. That didn’t happen often, not in my experience.
Clark came over the hill. He saw me and veered towards where I stood near the nose of the ship. "I found us a cargo."
Behind him, over the hill, came a dozen people leading animals on leashes and carrying cages with smaller ones inside.
"Tell me that isn’t your cargo," I said. "Live animals? Are you crazy?"
"Before you s
tart screaming, it’s only to Hegate. Just under two days."
"They have to be in the lounge. With us. Have you ever smelled live animals, Clark?"
"We’ve got help. We take fifteen—"
"You’re nuts!"
"Fifteen with us," he said, ignoring my outburst. "They take care of the animals. Twelve of them stay on Hegate. The other three we take on to Shamustel. They’re headed for the university. There’s three crates of mail, but that can go in the cargo bay."
"You are insane, completely. I refuse to carry live animals in my ship."
"We did plants. And made good money doing it." He held up a contract. "Three thousand, just to get them to Hegate. There’s another thousand for the transport to Shamustel."
"You already signed?" I closed my eyes and slowly counted to ten. I only made it to four before I gave in. "I must be as crazy as you are. Only to Hegate? And it’s only two days?"
"If we push the ship, we could do it in twenty seven hours."
"And eat up half the profits in fuel costs. Just this once, Clark. No more animals. Ever."
"It can’t be that bad."
"It isn’t, if your ship is designed for it. If we had pressurized holds with grav units, maybe I’d think about it. No, I wouldn’t. Animals are tricky and a lot of work." I took the contract agreement from him. "You can figure out where to put all of them."
I took the paper to Jasyn and tried to smile at the group around her. "Your husband is insane," I said through my smile.
"He already talked to me about it, Dace. Who do you think signed the papers?" She smiled sweetly and took the contract away. "Did you work things out with Jerimon or is he emigrating to Onipas?"
"He’ll be here. He promised to behave. Live animals, Jasyn? Do you have any idea what you’re getting into?"
"Do you?"
I shook my head and went to see how well Habim rebuilt the engine.
It took three hours to get the animals settled and their handlers situated. All of them were young, late teens to early twenties. They were only a few years younger than me. I felt centuries older. They were everywhere. All of the empty bunks were claimed. Every chair in the lounge was taken. Chickens cackled in cages stacked in the small cargo hold aft of the lounge. A makeshift pen containing six piglets sat on the floor next to the galley. Three sheep and a bull calf bleated as they were tied to the chairs around the table. At least a dozen more assorted larger animals that I wasn’t familiar with were tied up various other places in the lounge and in the end two cabins. Six cages of large furry rodents with big ears were strapped down in the middle of the floor. It was organized chaos. And the smell already clogged the filters and assaulted my nose.
I shut myself in the engine room, where Habim hid. I patted his shoulder. "You can clean the air filters all you want on this trip."
He didn’t seem to hear me. He twirled his hands and muttered. I pulled on a headset and did the preflight. Jerimon was in the cockpit. We both stayed professional as we put the engine through its paces. I checked all the gauges. Everything was right where it should be.
"Are we ready to lift?" Jerimon asked.
"Everything checks." I looked down at Habim. He was trying to wedge himself into a storage bin. "Get Clark to help you lift off. I’ll stay back here with Habim."
"You sure about that?" Jerimon asked.
"Send Ginni back here," I said and switched the headset off before he said anything else. I crouched next to Habim. "Habim," I said his name and reached for his hand.
He went still, frozen into place by my touch. "There’s too much of them."
"I agree, but it’s only for two days. And then they’ll be gone."
"And me? Do I have to be gone?"
"You can stay as long as you want, Habim. You’re my engineer. You want a uniform and engineer stars?"
"Really?" His eyes went huge. "I can be a space man?"
"You already are, Habim." The engine purred to life. "You did a wonderful job on the engine."
He smiled and curled up on the floor. His eyes closed as we lifted off. He was sound asleep, still half wedged into the low storage locker when we made the jump to hyperspace.
Ginni came in after the jump. She looked at Habim sleeping on the floor, still clutching my hand, and smiled a tight, forced smile. "He trusts you."
"He still prefers you."
"I was busy. The rabbits got loose. I’m sorry I wasn’t down here."
"Don’t be, Ginni."
She settled on the floor on the other side of Habim.
"You aren’t mad?"
I shook my head.
"You’ve done so much for us, for me. I can’t ever pay you back."
"You don’t need to, Ginni. Especially not after Habim saved me thousands in repairs." I grinned. "You can always help Jerimon scrub bathrooms if you still feel guilty."
She laughed.
"How old are you?" She looked younger now than when we first picked her up.
She shrugged. "Maybe fifteen, I don’t really know."
"Old enough to be an apprentice navigator. Welcome aboard."
"You’ll let us stay as crew?"
"I don’t see why I shouldn’t. We’ll see if we can get you registered and legal when we reach Shamustel."
That planet seemed farther away than ever. Especially when Jerimon called me back to the lounge in a panic. Ghost was stalking the chickens.
Chapter 16
Those two days were pure hell. The animals were demons bent on escaping their tethers and cages. The sheep got loose and ate one of Jasyn’s cushions. The rodents got loose and chewed a through a full set of wiring before we got them rounded up again. It was just the lights, fortunately. I gave the two women in charge of them an earful about keeping them caged. And then spent three hours rewiring all of the circuits. I got shocked twice. I burned out two fixtures, but Habim said he could fix them when I took them into the engine room.
Habim wouldn’t leave it. Ginni had to take him his meals. He refused to come near any of the animals. As long as he left the engine alone, I didn’t care if he wanted to live in there. I wished I could join him.
My cabin was taken over by four of our passengers. They ignored my attempts to get them to leave. Until the party started in Jerimon’s cabin.
Halfway through that night, not long after I’d finally managed to get to sleep, I was woken up by something warm and wet and slimy licking my foot. I screeched and sat up. The lights came on. The calf started bawling. There was absolute chaos for about ten minutes until someone hauled the calf back out and found it something to eat. It left me a present on the floor.
The man in charge of the calf came in and very apologetically cleaned it up. The smell lingered. I went to the cockpit and shut myself in. I slept in the pilots chair.
The next day dragged on. The timer counting down to the shift to normal space crawled extra slowly. When I went back to my cabin the party in there took one look at my scowl and wrinkled nightgown and beat a hasty retreat to Jerimon’s cabin. I shut and locked the door and took my time taking a shower and getting cleaned up. The smell of cow crap lingered. I did my best to ignore it.
The reentry alarm finally sounded. The ship looked and smelled horrible. The animals had been doing what animals do and despite the big recycling bin that had been lugged aboard for the wastes, it smelled. There were food wrappers and odd bits of clothing strewn around as well as fifteen young people. I felt old and grouchy. I ignored the mess and went into the cockpit only to find Jerimon sitting in the pilots chair.
"Move," I said.
He looked up at me. He had dark circles under his eyes and a shadow of stubble over his chin. "I hate to sound critical, Dace, but you look beat. You shouldn’t be flying."
"You don’t look any better, Jerimon. Get out of my chair."
"Yes, ma’am." He flipped a salute as he moved over to the copilots chair.
I dropped into my seat and flipped the switches. Jasyn slipped in behind me to the navi
gators seat. The final alarm sounded and the ship slid back into normal space. Not even a hiccup. It was the smoothest transition I had ever experienced. Habim was a miracle worker. Even the stabilizer that had been flaking out worked perfectly.
"Hegate ahead, bearing two point six," Jasyn said.
"Two point six," Jerimon repeated.
I dumped speed, the ship responded beautifully. Not a single yellow light glowed on my board. I shut off the hyperlight drive.
"Forty five minutes," Jasyn said.
The pigs squealed.
"Not soon enough," I said.
"The live animals were a bad idea," Jasyn said. "You were right, Dace. Are you happy now?"
"Not until the smell of manure is gone and the ship is clean again."
"We’ll have to replace the fibermat to do that," she answered. "Hegate control, this is the Phoenix Rising."
We waited. She repeated the call. And again. I hoped it wasn’t going to be like the approach to Onipas. As nice as the planet had turned out to be, I didn’t want to spend five hours holding orbit. Especially not when I heard someone barfing in the lounge.
Jerimon yawned, a jaw cracking stretch. He didn’t have my sympathies for missing sleep. He set me off. I yawned as well. And tried to stretch out the kink in my neck.
"This is Hegate," a voice answered. "What ship are you again?"
Jasyn repeated our call signal and then got involved in a long discussion of who exactly we were, where we came from, what we had on board, and why we wanted to land. She finally leaned back in her chair, yanking the headset off. The planet loomed in the viewscreen.
"We get to ride the com beam down again," she said.
I swore.
Jerimon reached over his shoulder. "Give me the headset."
"You sure about that?" I asked.
"Easy, I could do it in my sleep."
"I’d rather you didn’t."
He grinned as he settled the headset over his ears.
"Frequency set." Jasyn moved across the cockpit to the scanning boards.
Jerimon nudged the ship to one side then settled us in a shallow glide towards the planet. There was another racket from the animals. Jasyn reached over her shoulder and slid the door shut. It cut out most of the noise, but it did nothing to cut the smell.
