"Me too, my friend. Me too." I nodded as we shared the moment. At twelve stans, he was older than most seventeen stans I knew. Growing up on the streets with a kid sister to fend for did that to a person.
"What are you guys doing on Descartes? Are you getting the Co-Op up and going again?" Ortel interrupted as his father, Frimunt entered the room.
I stood out of respect and as Big Pete had taught me, shook his outstretched hand.
"Nick has a proposal and wants to run it by your Dad and Selig," I said. I knew leaving Frimunt out of the discussion would cause problems, even though Selig was old enough to make his own decisions.
"Run along, boys," Frimunt said.
"Really, Dad?" Ortel asked. He was old enough to make his own decisions and I understood why he chafed at being lumped in with the wonder twins.
"You may stay," Frimunt agreed. "It is time your voice is heard in family matters."
Ortel crossed his hands over his chest and looked down at Ulran and Merley. "Move on, squirts."
It appeared that both boys knew they couldn’t successfully argue with Frimunt and cleared out. Frimunt, a man of few words, simply waited for the room to empty.
"Mr. Licht, Selig, We're moving the Co-Op," I started.
"That's nuts," Ortel said. "Moving it where?"
"Away." I said. "And we need help with a few things, like helping a man who'll be coming out later to install big engines on it."
"What about Big Pete's claim?" Ortel asked.
"Let them speak," Frimunt admonished. His voice was firm, but understanding.
"Mom still owns the claim. She'll keep it for now," I said.
"And the Kestrel?" Selig asked referring to the ship we'd purchased with the sole purpose of moving ore from our own Descartes claims.
"For your help, we'll transfer Kestrel's ownership to your family," Nick said. "Belirand has made it so we won't be able to come back here for quite a while."
"It'll be sad to see the Co-Op go," Selig said. "But I'm willing to help and you don't need to leave Kestrel behind."
"But we need it," Ortel interrupted. It wasn't news. We all knew the Kestrel was their only way of delivering ore to market and without it, they'd pay Belirand most of the profits to arrange for delivery.
"Ortel." Frimunt warned again. "Kestrel is not our ship."
"But you have been good friends," I said. "The offer stands. We have no use for Kestrel and would appreciate knowing it has a good home."
Selig held his hand out and we shook.
"I'll have our lawyer, Mr. Ordena, contact you with details," Nick said, also shaking Selig's hand.
"Frimunt, could we have a word, alone?" I asked.
He said nothing but waited for his eldest sons to leave. I hadn't said anything to Nick yet, so he was looking at me with interest.
"We're looking for crew for our ship, Frimunt. Ortel will be seventeen in a month. I'd like to offer him a position. It'd be hard work, likely dangerous. I won't make the offer without your blessing," I said.
"Peter would be proud of the man you've become, Liam Hoffen." Frimunt was the only one I knew who referred to Dad by his given name. "You may talk to my son, but first I must speak with Annalise."
We stayed with the Lichts for another hour, sitting with them for a meal. Annalise initially objected to the idea of Ortel leaving the family claim, but after talking with Frimunt, she finally acquiesced. Both parents knew Ortel had no desire to live his life on a mining claim. When I asked, he jumped at the chance to sail on Intrepid. I smiled as I studied the young man. He was the same age I had been when pirates first attacked Colony-40, which was just over seventeen stans.
It was a tearful goodbye as we loaded onto Hotspur and made our way back to Intrepid.
"I gotta be honest," Ortel said as we transitioned to hard burn, having snaked our way free of the asteroid belt. "When I woke up this morning, I sure didn't see this coming."
SCRUFFY LOOKING
"How do you think the kid is doing?" Tabby asked, referring to Ortel, as we jogged through the long passageways of Intrepid. She'd donned a weight pack and was carrying an extra forty kilograms of mass. Even so, I was breathing harder than she was. Ortel was back on Strumpet with Nick, Marny and Ada and I was curious how he was fitting in.
We'd entered fold-space twelve hours previous and would sail for another eighty before reaching Ophir. While Intrepid was fast in local space, her engines did nothing to overcome the effect mass had on fold-space travel.
"Makes me wonder," I said with a laugh. "Which will Marny hit first? Physical training or ship etiquette and systems?"
Tabby grinned at me. She knew exactly what Marny was capable of. "Think about it. Marny is on a ship with only Nick and Ada as possible workout partners. That kid is in trouble. She'll grind him into paste, then sit him at a gunnery station and run him through battle simulations. Speaking of, ready for some sparring?" We slowed to a walk and pushed through the hatch that led through the crew mess to the gym.
"Sure," I said, although I meant anything but. I was still wearing med patches from our last few bouts and anticipated a new round of thorough pummeling.
She patted my back. I hate to admit that I flinched when I saw her hand come up. We were in her territory now and I would never compete with that body. She tried to encourage me with, "You're getting stronger." It might be a true, but I understood her statement for what it was. She was concerned for the beating my ego was about to take. As a slower, weaker opponent, combat in a boxing ring didn't offer many options for overcoming my shortcomings.
"Thanks, but I doubt Ortel is the only one who is looking forward to you and Marny being on the same ship again," I said.
I'd caught her off-guard and her laughter was unrestrained. It was one of the many things I enjoyed about being with her. When she smiled, the whole universe lit up.
An hour later, it was time for me to be back on watch and Tabby to get some rest. I'd sacrificed sleeping next to her for spending a shift together while we were both awake. The headaches I’d been battling lately made me suspect I wasn’t applying the right dosage for the mild concussions I’d self-diagnosed, so after watching her walk away, I stepped into the upright medical scanner in sick bay.
"Prosthetic replacement recommended." I'd been focused on my new injuries and was surprised at the full body scan the Medical AI performed.
"Out here in the deep-dark that isn't possible. What do you have for this headache?" I asked the AI.
"Dispensing medication now. Please apply as indicated." The screen showed two semi-circular patches that were to be applied behind my ears. "Intrepid is sufficiently equipped to replace your amputated foot, Captain Hoffen. Medical oversight is recommended."
The relief from the freshly manufactured med patches was immediate and welcome. "Thank you." Thanking an AI for its help wasn’t a regular habit, but my mind was suddenly occupied with the possibility of having my foot back. The prosthetic had become part of my life, but even though I’d become accustomed to its fit, it was a poor substitute for a truly manufactured limb.
I made my way back to the bridge and palmed my way through the hatch.
"Captain on the bridge," Mom said.
"As you were," I responded, mostly out of habit. Marny required bridge entry protocols on Sterra’s Gift, but we'd dropped many on Hotspur out of practicality. Still, after months of practice, the habits were hard to shake. Technically, bridge staff were to come to attention when I entered and I wanted to avoid that as much as possible.
We exchanged helm transfer protocols and I took my place, then lost myself in thought for two reasons: the possibility of the medical procedure I'd just heard about and the bliss at having my headaches well treated for the first time in several days.
"Marny sent along real coffee," Mom said, interrupting my reverie. "I was going to brew a new batch. Would you like some?"
"Sure," I agreed.
"Moon?" She turned to Jonathan's replacement. He was slow to r
espond and the reflection on his eye of a vid playing on his HUD gave him away.
"What? Oh. That'd be great, thanks," he replied.
"What are you watching?" I asked once Mom and Jonathan had cleared the bridge.
"Just a vid I picked up while we were in system," he said.
"We need to be careful with that," I said with just a touch of warning. "If Belirand catches communication between you and your family, it could be bad for them."
He stopped the vid. "Understood."
"I wanted to talk to you about a few changes we'll be making once we return to Ophir," I said. "We'll be picking up new crew and need to establish a more formal system of rank."
"Does that mean you want me to clear out of the captain's quarters?"
"You're good until Ophir, but that'll be part of it."
"So, when do I get my share of Intrepid?"
"What do you mean?"
"I've helped you take two ships. What's my take?" he asked.
He had me there. With the exception of Moon, we were a close-knit group, working on a single objective. We didn't really think much about pay.
"Good question and one I haven’t given much thought. You get that our mission is to provide aid to the people Belirand abandoned, right? I'll be honest, I'm not sure how we'd pay you."
"If I heard things right, you're looking to bring on more crew. Is that going to be your sales pitch? Come with us, save the universe and go broke?" Moon Rastof had a smile on his face, but the tension in his voice was significant.
A whistle broke the moment, alerting me to Mom standing at the door with coffee and cupcakes. I waved her in.
"That smells amazing," I said, accepting both from her tray. I still hadn’t taken time to explore the ward room.
"Moon?" She held the tray for him.
"Thanks," he grumbled. When she turned back she gave me a questioning lift of her eyebrow.
"Thanks, Mom," I said.
"I set up a course for you on ship handling. It's four hours, but you should work through it until you get a ninety-five percent or better," she said over her shoulder as she left the bridge. I chuckled and shook my head. It wasn't like I'd planned to sit on my hands for my entire shift.
"Is this the pay you're going to offer? All the coffee and cupcakes you can eat?"
"You've made your point, Moonie. But don’t hang this on anyone else. You're angling for something. What is it?"
"By my count, you have over seven hundred million credits in ships, mostly due to my efforts," he said around the bite of a cupcake. "All I really want is a way home and enough money to stay below Belirand's radar. I'm thinking hard currency, like gold or platinum. Sixty kilograms of gold would do it."
The math wasn’t hard. "You're looking for a buyout of two million Mars credits?"
"It's a steal for seven hundred million in ships," he agreed.
I nodded thoughtfully. I was annoyed because he’d ambushed me, but he had a point. Any crew we brought in deserved to know what was in it for them. I could sell them on lofty objectives, but my experience with people was that they needed more.
"We don't have those kind of resources readily available, but at the same time, you're entitled to some sort of compensation. I'll bring it up with Nick," I said.
The guy was not going to give up. "Surely, you've pulled precious metals on that asteroid you're floating back to Ophir."
"Maybe. Wait, how'd you hear about that?" I asked. "You haven’t been in those conversations."
"You guys aren't exactly quiet when you're exercising," he said.
"You've been eavesdropping?"
"You were talking in a public space. It's well established that's not eavesdropping."
If I hadn't been so tired from exercising, I'd have considered throttling him right there. He was right, by normal conventions. Speech in public areas wasn't protected for privacy. Being a spacer, however, I'd learned that to get along well with others, you respected people's privacy as much as possible. This was a lesson in human relations that I didn’t like learning.
***
"He said that?" Tabby asked. Her eyes flashed with fury.
I'd kept most of the conversation with Moonie to myself for several shifts and had reached a point where I couldn't keep it in anymore. I'd updated the ship's privacy protocols and made it so a person couldn't listen in on public conversations if the involved parties weren't in their chain of command. I wasn't willing to admit to Tabby that Moonie had likely seen her very naked entry into the public showers on more than one occasion.
"Yeah. Some of it's valid, but I don't think we'll be dropping him at Mars anytime soon. He could reasonably expect prize money for the ships. Two million isn't that far off, either. We wouldn't have either ship without his help."
"I'll give him his gold. Right up his…"
"So a weird thing happened to me the other day while I was getting scanned by the medical AI," I interrupted.
"Why were you getting scanned?" She jabbed, catching my chin and I blinked away the pain I'd become used to. The real irony was she didn't recognize the cause and effect.
"Been getting headaches, but that's not the thing," I said.
All of the cocky flooded out of her and she sagged. "Frak. I've been hitting too hard, haven't I?"
"Like I said, I'm looking forward to Marny being on board. But listen to this; Intrepid has a med-tank that can replace my foot. It's already started manufacturing a new one."
My words stopped her cold and she dropped her guard. I was sorely tempted to punish her, but I knew better. She wasn't above paying me back if I got her with a cheap shot.
"That's incredible, how long will the surgery take to reattach?"
"If you and Mom would suck up my last two shifts, I could have it finished before we're out of fold-space."
"Done. No way does your mom say no to that," Tabby said. "Have you told her yet?"
***
I strained to see, but my eyes were covered with small goggles. The feeling of a respirator tube being withdrawn from my throat caused me to gag and I dry heaved as medical suspension fluid drained from the tank. When the fluid level lowered sufficiently, my back came in contact with the soft mesh that kept me from touching the back of the tank. Slowly, the tank rotated until I was in a fully upright position. I naturally favored my right foot, as I was used to taking showers without my prosthetic.
Warm fingers tugged on the opaque goggles. "Close your eyes. We've turned down the lights, but it's still going to be really bright." Tabby's voice was nearly a whisper. "I'm just going to pull these off, okay?"
The tube had dried my throat so I couldn’t talk so I nodded my head. Gently, she removed the goggles and stroked my cheek. "Give it a try, love. Open your eyes."
I did as she suggested and saw that the medical bay was crowded. Seeing Nick and Marny, I realized we must have already dropped from fold-space. I’d missed out on at least one event of the smeary colors. Worth it.
"What happened? Did we drop out early?" I croaked.
"Program had to run a little longer than expected because of more damage on your leg. Apparently, you've been stressing it too much," Tabby explained. "We've been orbiting Ophir for about a day."
"Wiggle your toes, Liam," Ada said. She was leaning against my mother, with her arm wrapped around Mom's waist. They both stared at me intently; Mom's eyes red and puffy.
Seeing a foot at the end of my left leg was both strange and familiar, but when I envisioned wiggling my toes, nothing happened. I looked up at Tabby. I wasn't sure what I was doing wrong.
"It might be easier if you put it on the deck," Tabby said, trying to reassure me. She was the only one who knew what I was sensing … or not sensing. "I recall needing to feel feedback before things started working," she said.
I did as she suggested, putting my arms out to her, and attempted to step forward with my right foot. The feedback from my new extremity was initially more than I could take, but then it all started making sen
se. I'd grown up with a normal foot and those memories took over. With hands on my family's shoulders, I limped around the room, each step more solid than the previous. It felt like I'd sat on my foot, put it to sleep and was having to walk it off until circulation resumed.
"Sweet!" I said.
"Think you could make a meeting on Ophir?" Nick asked. "The council has a proposal for us."
"About what?" I asked. Such was my life, not even a few minutes to celebrate the restoration of a completely new foot, but then I wouldn't trade it for anything.
"About recruiting crew for Intrepid," he said.
"How's that?"
"Long story. I'll explain on the way down," Nick said, handing me a towel.
Twenty minutes later, we found ourselves in the chamber of Yishuv's Town Council. Captain LeGrande approached with a broad smile. She'd gained five or six kilos since I'd last seen her and no longer looked like the refugee she'd been.
"Greetings, Katherine," I said.
"Captain Hoffen, so good to see you. I understand your fleet has grown."
"It has indeed. Have you had a chance to visit Cape?" We'd landed Hotspur next to Strumpet just outside of the city's walls, Intrepid being too large for atmospheric entry.
"Who gave her that name?" she asked.
"That was Moon Rastof. Last act before we abandoned her back in the deep-dark," I said.
"He has an odd sense of humor."
"Has Nick talked to you about using her as part of Yishuv's defense?" I asked. "We expect to retain ownership, but she was once yours and you seem to be the natural choice to put her to use."
"We'll probably take you up on that," she said with a nod. "I'll put it before The Council in our next meeting. We won't want to muddy the waters today."
"What's this meeting about?" Nick asked.
I was pretty sure I knew what they were thinking. “The Council doesn’t want to approve recruiting without concessions?"
Give No Quarter (Privateer Tales Book 10) Page 5
