by S. H. Jucha
“Judging by the emotions leaking from my sisters,” Nadine commented. “We’re all upset by the horrendous acts committed against Aurelia, but I, for one, am unsure of what you expect of us.”
“Previous to this meeting, I gathered our spacers and asked them to determine what it would take to move the Belle and remain independent for a year,” Harbour replied. She held her hands up to forestall questions and continued. “I have no idea what’s coming, but I intend to play an active role in the outcome. To do that, we have to be capable of self-determination by virtue of this ship’s movement and independence.”
Harbour let the women absorb the concept of separation from their connections with the JOS for that length of time, and the knowledge that Harbour’s plan would place them in direct opposition to the families who were their most lucrative clients.
“Each of you has a decision to make,” Harbour said. “If you want to transfer off this ship, I can help you with coin from the general fund, and you can set up services on the JOS. I would speak to security and ask that they keep an eye on you. If any of you wish to leave before we depart, providing we can move this ship, then I must request you leave as a group so that you don’t alert the JOS or the downsiders to my intentions.”
Harbour took a breath, but Nadine held a hand up, requesting she stop. She turned to the other women and said, “Does leaving the Belle appeal to anyone in this group?” When everyone shook their head, she asked, “Does anyone want more time to consider it?” Again, the women shook their heads.
“Guess you have your answer, Harbour.” Nadine said. “Tell us what we can do to make this grand plan a reality.”
“For now, it’s business as usual,” Harbour replied. “The more clients we see, the greater the general fund’s income. Most important, let’s take care of our spacers. Our lives might depend on them in the near future.”
-14-
Annie
“Samuels, I’m calling it,” Captain Yohlin Erring said. She was ensconced in her bridge chair aboard the Annie. The ship was in orbit over Pyre’s second moon, Emperion, and Tobias Samuels, the lead engineer, was supervising the processing of the previous days’ excavation. “The Pearl is on approach with our package. Finish processing your backup, pack up your equipment, and recover your people. We’re out of here.”
“Aye, Captain. It’ll take three, maybe four, days.”
“Understood, Samuels. Get started.” Yohlin closed the comm and thought on the message from Leonard. Per Jessie’s orders, she was to take on a newbie, train her, and use an alias for her records. If that wasn’t an odd enough request, Leonard relayed the girl’s background. What in Pyre do you think you’re doing, Jessie? she thought. The planet’s hot enough without you starting a fight with the families.
Yohlin saw her retirement plans blowing out an airlock. As the captain of the Annie, she drew a good salary. But it was her share of the company’s profits that would make her last years on JOS quite comfortable.
Each ship in Jessie’s fleet was specialized. The Pearl was a tanker, which transported frozen gases. The Spryte was designed as an all-purpose ship. It had holds for shipping rare metal ingots; operated as the company’s personnel transport; and enabled Jessie to travel between the mining sites, the JOS, and the YIPS.
On the other hand, the Annie was the company’s primary mining ship. Yohlin was responsible for the prospecting, assaying, and excavating of new sites. She smiled at the memory of the first time Jessie called her his talisman. She’d had a remarkable string of luck, finding valuable deposits of metal ores that added to the company’s ever-increasing profits. With another seven years, Yohlin intended to have saved enough coin to retire, if she chose to give up her captaincy.
Jessie hiding an empath, a murderer, put her plans in jeopardy, and this when Yohlin was about to take on her dream opportunity — to be the first miner to prospect Triton, Pyre’s third moon.
* * *
Leonard Hastings ordered the pilot to take up a position, 30 kilometers off the Annie. Once stationary, he retired to his cabin for a conference with his first mate.
“You called this meeting, Angie. Go ahead,” Leonard said amicably, taking a seat at his table.
“Captain, I was wondering if you have any idea how long the effects from Rules last. I mean it’s been almost two weeks that Belinda and she have been in contact. Do you think the changes for Belinda will wear off quickly or in days or what?”
“And you presume I have knowledge about an empath’s work on a human’s mind, why?”
“I’m just worried for Belinda, Captain. She’s qualified for second mate and would have been there by now if it wasn’t for her developing signs of dementia. With Rules, her rehabilitation has been amazing, but without Rules what’s going to happen to her?”
“All I can tell you, Angie, is that according to discussions with other captains, who’ve known people who’ve had the coin to employ empaths, the conditions that determined the effectiveness of an empath’s ministrations were the contact time of each visit and the frequency of the visits.”
“Based on those variables, Belinda should be set for weeks, if not months.”
“That’s a strong possibility.”
“Captain, what if we kept Rules and Belinda together?”
“And how do you propose to make that happen? My orders are to hand Rules over to Captain Erring.”
“The way I see it, Captain, we’re supposed to ensure that Rules is trained as a spacer, right? And Belinda has been doing a spectacular job at that. Rules already has three superlatives in her file for basic level competencies.”
“Any qualified officer would be capable of delivering the same quality of training.”
“Yes, Captain, but would Rules prefer someone else over Belinda? Remember, it was Rules who came to me and asked what was wrong with Belinda, and since then, the two have been thick as thieves. It’s obvious that Rules wants to help Belinda.”
“You make a good argument, Angie, but I can’t force an extra third mate on Captain Erring.”
“Maybe I can help you with that,” Angelina said, smiling. “I mean here’s this temperamental young girl who’s a powerful empath and is responsible for the death of one man, and she’s established a rapport with our third mate. Wouldn’t it be for the good of the Annie’s crew that the pair is kept together?”
“Angelina Mendoza, that’s close to fabrication.”
“I ask you, Captain, do you know for sure that Rules is stable and able to mingle with the crew of the Annie without incident?” Angelina could see that she had hit on a touchy point with the captain. As an empath and downsider, Aurelia remained a mystery to them.
“Your argument is convincing, but that still leaves the problem of adding Belinda to Erring’s crew.”
“And for that, I say, we don’t add, we exchange. Scuttlebutt has it that Captain Erring has filed several disciplinary reports on Schaefer, the second mate. According to my sources, the captain is about ready to put him on station if he doesn’t straighten up. I say we offer Captain Erring a swap. She gets a third mate, who is due for promotion, and we take on Schaefer. Demote him to third mate, which is a great way to show him how close he is to being dismissed. If he doesn’t work out for us, we set him on station.”
“What’s the status of Captain Erring’s third mate?”
“A new officer recently promoted from engineering. He’s too new to move up.”
“Okay, that’s one hurdle down, but I don’t need a headache on this ship.”
“Captain, Belinda deserves a break. She’s been with us for twelve years, and, with Rules, she’s got a fighting chance for more years and maybe a cure. And don’t you worry about Schaefer. I’ll handle him. We’ll have Erring’s reports. You warn Schaefer that he can’t step out of line once for the next six months, and I’ll ride him every step of the way, and I’ll be there if he missteps.”
“Okay, Angie, I’ll try to sell this to Erring, but no promises.�
��
Angelina smiled and closed on him, but Leonard held his hands up to ward her off. “No hugging or kissing, Angie. You know I don’t like that.”
“Aye, aye, Captain,” Angelina said, delivering Leonard a big grin.
* * *
Leonard enabled the transfer. Fact was, Captain Erring loved the idea of getting a seasoned third mate, who could be promoted, and ridding her ship of her second mate, who had failed to understand the extent of his poor attitude.
“Should I be concerned about this girl, Leonard?” Yohlin had asked.
“I admit I was, initially,” Leonard replied, his feet up on a small footstool in Yohlin’s cabin. “But I can tell you three things. One, Jessie wouldn’t ask us to do this if he thought the girl was an immediate danger to us, other than we’re hiding a murderer from the families, I mean. Two, the girl understands that she might be a permanent fixture out here, never to return to the JOS. In which case, three, she’s adamant about becoming a spacer.”
“I read her qualification reports. She achieved three superlatives in a short period of time.”
“I believe that’s due to her rapport with Belinda, my third mate.”
“Leonard, my first mate tells me Belinda was showing signs of space dementia. Sounds like I might be trading one headache for another.”
“Have you ever attended an empath session, Yohlin?”
“Nope, and I hope I never have need of their services.”
“That’s my hope too, but I can tell you I’ve never seen the likes of it. Belinda is her old self. She was always a hard-nosed, wise-cracking officer, who I wanted to promote, but there were good people above her. I thought that Jessie might build a fourth ship one day, and I would have great people to send his way to fill the officer positions.”
“And you say that Belinda is a steadying influence on Rules.”
“I think the two women have bonded for different reasons, and my first mate and I think it’s a smart move to keep them together.”
“Okay, Leonard, you’ve got a deal. You inform the women of the transfer, and I’ll do the same for Schaefer. I have to admit, I’m looking forward to seeing him off this ship. I don’t know if you can straighten him out, but maybe the transfer and demotion will manage to sink it into his hard head how much trouble he’s in.”
* * *
Belinda and Aurelia sat aboard the Pearl’s shuttle. The seating was along the hull, with their gear strapped at their feet. They were ensconced in vac suits. Freighter shuttles were not premier transport service.
The pilot edged the shuttle onto the docking collar. It was located on the spine of the Annie between the equipment bays aft and the ship’s gravity wheel toward the bow. He made a solid connection, and the collar mechanism sealed. Once the airlock was pressurized, the pilot announced to Belinda that they were free to exit.
Belinda gave Aurelia a thumbs-up, and, while she opened the collar hatch, Aurelia unhooked the gear. A spacer poked his helmeted head through the opening and announced, “Welcome aboard the Annie, I’ll be your host during your stay at our extravagant resort.”
“Well, host, stay right there, and we’ll pass our gear your way,” Belinda retorted.
“Aye, aye, ma’am,” the spacer replied.
After the gear was sent through, Belinda gestured for Aurelia to go first, so she could dog the hatch behind them. Once both women were in the airlock with the gear, the spacer ensured they had a tight seal and then opened the hatch to the ship’s axis, which extended from the bow communications antennas through the gravity wheel, aft through the equipment holds, and finally to the engine housing.
“Uh-oh,” the spacer muttered. “I thought we’d clear the axis stem before our second mate boarded the shuttle. Careful, ma’am, he’s mad enough to chew aggregate.”
Schaefer stomped down the axis corridor, his mag-boots smacking the deck, while he floated his gear behind him. The Annie’s crew member stepped far aside to give him room, but Belinda had no such intentions. Unfortunately, Schaefer had mass and velocity. He slammed a shoulder into Belinda and unseated her mag-boots, floating her off the deck.
“Pardon,” Schaefer said, with a dirty chuckle. Then he stopped in his tracks. Something forward of him, past the last spacer, gave him pause for concern. He stared down the axis corridor, and the harder he looked the more convinced he was that he had a right to be worried.
“Apologize and your fear will go away,” Aurelia said.
The Annie spacer reached up and pulled Belinda down until her mag-boots clicked on the decking. She could see the worry in the young spacer’s eyes. Obviously, Captain Erring had warned the crew who would be coming aboard.
Schaefer stared down the corridor and took a couple of tentative steps backward.
“The longer you look, the greater your dread will become. Apologize,” Aurelia said, taking steps toward the man.
Schaefer’s rancor over his transfer and demotion were swept aside by an increasing, unreasonable panic. He hung on the girl’s words, which offered him a way out. He turned to the spacer he’d dislodged and mumbled, “Sorry.”
“Not good enough,” Aurelia said.
Schaefer dearly wanted the ugly darkness that was closing in on his mind to go away. “I’m so sorry, ma’am, for the insolent way I treated you. It won’t happen again.”
“Make sure of that,” Aurelia said.
In an instant, Schaefer felt the distress disappear. His mind cleared, and he was his old self, once again, but without the hostility. The captain hadn’t included him in the announcement of an empath coming aboard, so he was ignorant of whom he’d faced.
Aurelia pulled on her duffel and said, “Excuse me,” when she came up behind Schaefer, who quickly stepped aside to let her past.
Schaefer would stand in the axis tunnel for several minutes after the others left, while he continued to stare aft down the corridor, expecting the darkness he feared to return. When nothing showed, he grabbed his gear and made his way to the collar airlock. It would be a while before his confidence returned, but without much of his old arrogance.
The young spacer led Belinda and Aurelia through the axis to the interlock transition to the wheel. Once they transited into the gravity hub, they deposited their gear in the vac suit room. Then they were led to their assigned cabins, gravity growing to 1g as they strode the spoke to the outer wheel.
Belinda glanced inside Aurelia’s cabin and commented, “Hmm … private quarters.” As a crew trainee, Aurelia should have been assigned a cabin with bunkmates, but apparently the captain had other ideas about that.
“Probably just as well. I wouldn’t want to kill anyone in my sleep,” Aurelia said, so matter-of-fact that the spacer, who accompanied them, didn’t know whether to be alarmed or laugh.
“She’s kidding,” Belinda said, ushering the spacer out the door ahead of her and frowning at Aurelia.
The crewman led Belinda to her cabin, and when she dropped her duffel on the cabin’s deck, the spacer said, “If you please, ma’am, the captain requests your presence immediately. If you’ll follow me, I’ll take you to her quarters.”
At the captain’s door, the young spacer nodded politely and quickly disappeared. Belinda knocked and entered at the invitation she received.
“Third mate Belinda Kilmer reporting as ordered, Captain.”
“I appreciate the formality, Kilmer, but you can relax. You’ll find the same style here as with Captain Hastings and the same demands for job performance.”
“Understood, Captain.” Belinda was aware the captain was intently watching her. She’s probably looking for signs of space dementia, Belinda thought.
“How you feeling?” Yohlin asked.
“Probably better than I’ve a right to expect, Captain.”
“Sit down, Kilmer. You and I need a spacer-to-spacer talk,” Yohlin said, taking a seat at her cabin’s table. “I want to know how concerned I should be about this girl.”
“Before we begin, Capta
in, I should tell you that Rules already used her powers aboard this ship.” Belinda had to give the captain credit. She didn’t flinch or bat an eye. “The second mate took the opportunity to express his displeasure at his demotion and transfer by knocking me free of my purchase on the deck in the axis tunnel.”
“He did, did he? Do you wish to file a grievance, Kilmer?”
“Negative, Captain, no harm done, but Rules took umbrage of his treatment of me. While I’m not sure what she did, it resulted in the second mate frightened enough to apologize to me.”
“I presume all of you were in vac suits, and the girl wasn’t in contact with Schaefer.”
“Affirmative on the suits, and her actions took place at about three meters distance. From the shoulder bump to the apology, I’d say no more than three minutes, if not less.”
“I’ve never heard of an empath that powerful except for Harbour and Yasmin. By the way, was Schaefer’s apology sincere?”
“Not at first, Captain, but Rules got him there.”
“I missed it. I would have loved to have heard that. So, tell me, Kilmer, any incidents like that on the Pearl?”
“None, Captain. The only use of Rules’ power has been on me, I’m pleased to say.”
“What’s it feel like?”
“I don’t feel anything, Captain. I’m not sure when Rules starts or stops. I do know that after I started Rules’ training, my anxieties occurred less and less, until they disappeared. I’ve been many days without any sign of my old symptoms.”
“Sounds as if Rules and you have a solid rapport.”
“I’d say we do, Captain.”
“Excellent. Good to hear. Okay, Kilmer, let me lay out your duties. First, you’ll be in charge of continuing the girl’s spacer training. That’s an order from Captain Cinders. Second, you’re to keep that girl calm and under control. I want no more ad hoc empath sessions, except for you. Do you copy?”
