Trade Secret (eARC)

by Sharon Lee

  A hand motion caught his attention, and there was Gaenor making it, a hesitant half-smile on her face as she looked up from beneath a scarf made to look like the head of a bird. She was wearing one of the more formal versions of her uniform, in a brave red that could mislead an untrained Terran shipmate to thinking it emergency crew rigging. He liked the style particularly since the deep square neckline showed off skin as well the necklace she so often wore . . . but this time, that too was not the family seal but another bird.

  She bowed a polite invitation, which made the birdface eyes come to him, and he juggled food and drink to take the seat close beside her since there was a pile of stuff on the other seats as well as on the table across from her. In front of her was a comm pad--with an image of birds on it. There was, staring at him from the place setting opposite, some creature with big eyes and facial side-tufts, also on a scarf like she was wearing and . . .

  Her smile got wider with his bow of acceptance, which technically he should have given before sitting but he'd been concerned with dropping food unceremoniously to the floor, which impropriety he'd committed several times in the early days of his sojourn on Elthoria, always with the largest possible audience. He wasn't a pilot, for all he knew his basic boards, and while his ongoing conversion to Liaden gentleman had helped him learn some measure of grace, he still felt awkward in front of some people, Gaenor--Elthoria's first mate--particularly among them.

  The smile got tentative again as she reached for her tea after nodding to his bow.

  "And so you have managed to find me here still, my friend. Is this an accident, I wonder?"

  His hands were unwrapping the first handwich with alacrity, but he caught an extra note of question, glanced up to see Gaenor's glance go from him to her cup. He followed the glance, to her hands around the cup, and on both of them were also birds--and her clan sigil which was a geometric representation of three cut jewels, red, green, and blue.

  Knowing her comfortably enough to enjoy some leeway in his manners, he finished his 'mite while he measured his actions and he fell into the mode they used so often, he speaking Liaden, with Trade to fill in the words he was unsure of, since she'd already spoken in Terran.

  "I suppose it is an accident I got hungry and didn't have rations to hand. Have I missed an order or forgotten an occasion, I wonder?"

  Learned from him, she shook her head Terran-style, but the tension around her smile relaxed somewhat.

  "I think, Jethri, that what you have done is worked without reference to the rest of the universe today."

  He felt his face warm, and cup in one hand and handwich in the other he bowed acknowledgment, dipping his head slightly and letting the dip turn into a nod.

  "That's true. I am learning the meaning of 'delivery.' It is not as easy as it seems."

  Comprehension in her eyes, and a sigh, with a slight grin.

  "The trade terms, they are like pilot terms. They mean exactnesses, don't they? I have had the short course on such things, but I am not a trader, nor aspire to be one."

  He laughed with a nod. "And I aspire to be one, one day when the rules and laws let me do the job instead of stand in the way . . ."

  "So, without the news, you could not see that Vil Tor and I today for the main midday mess gave a . . . a demonstration . . . of some of the ideas for the dressing of us the crew and of the ship's common area for the travel party, the ship's Festival we shall have between Lastovan and Taluda. We together looked for you with interest."

  As she spoke Gaenor's face showed an unexpectedly impish expression. She looked at him sidewise as she dipped her head a little, and then she reached up to the scarf, crossing hands to bring the sides together under her chin, and mischievously drew those hands tightly down across the chain and bird of her necklace, stretching the fabric of her blouse downward dangerously, seductively.

  By main force Jethri kept his lips together and targeted his eyes relatively safely, the pink of blush slowly rising up the back of his neck and under his chin.

  Breaking custom, he fell back into Terran for safety.

  "Elthoria will have a ship's Festival?" he managed, the while watching as Gaenor's clever hands tied a knot into the end of the scarf, drawing it and her hands somewhat recklessly lower and tighter. The sidewise look, and a touch of tongue between her lips making him draw in his breath slightly he felt the blush fade for something else, for now her eyes were on his, searching, and he wasn't sure he knew the words in Terran, either.

  The fabric of her blouse slowly rebounded as her hands pulled the scarf knot down, down to perhaps her waist or belly button, and she stretching her shoulders.

  Her eyes were still on him. Jethri knew only one other Liaden woman who'd had shared that look for him, and that woman had been drinking, and openly inviting his company as a bed partner . . .

  "Yes, since the ship has no matching Liaden port time soon with a planetary Festival, certainly not in the next Standard, the crew has gotten permission from captain and Master Trader, for a small Festival, of ten shifts. There will be food and singing, a hall parade, perhaps, and . . . and wine and liquor and other inebriants and even all-shift Festival tents or playrooms!

  "Since the ship is doing well, Ixin will be sponsor. Each of the department heads will host or co-host a party, and some will gamble and some will music and dancing and contests of . . . accomplishments."

  Inebriants and Festival tents? Accomplishments? All-shift tents? It sounded like a shivaree to make a Terran gathering proud . . .

  "Vil Tor and me," she said, touching herself in that valley between her breasts, "we are of the leaders of the committee with arrangements. The ideas, we wished to discuss with you, and perhaps . . . a party with your stamp upon it."

  "I didn't know," he admitted. "I have been . . . busy, I haven't been trying to ignore crew-stuff . . ." He felt the reddening of his face, knowing she must have seen his glances.

  She made one of those pilot-style hand motions--meaning off-alert, or stand down, if he read it right. Something other showed in her eyes, and he realized he was reading tension in a Liaden.

  "And yes," she bowed, "I was remiss in not placing the information on the social lists before the start of the ship-day. So, we shall talk of this event again soon, I hope, or perhaps Vil Tor will find the time. If you excuse, my shift begins quickly."

  *

  The rest of Jethri's meal was heavy on his stomach, the news of the upcoming Festival overwhelming any study thought he might have had. Somewhere there he'd been gifted with clues he hadn't caught, despite his training with Ray Jon tel'Ondor, the ship's practiced protocol master. There were things he needed to know--and he'd purposefully left his trader comm pad in its holster, on his desk, trying to get a time away from study.

  Festival--a big party, a big blow-out kind of a party where folks could just let go, where for many the object was to bed a special partner or to share as widely as you could, a shivaree, all for one ship. He'd been too busy to get involved with anyone, really, and too uncomfortable to just plain ask--

  He glanced down, both of his cups empty, and the chernubia dish as well. He had been going over the conversation in his mind, and also thinking on the fleeting smile and wide eyes, and the hints of skin and scarf.

  Yah! That's what Dyk would say out loud when confusion reigned, or . . .

  "Mud!"That, said out loud in Terran, brought him back to the room, now down to him and a couple staff members doing the 'tween shift cleanups. For good measure, he added "Yah!"

  The chernubia . . . well he regretted that going by so fast.

  "There is no need to stint your meals for others, on this ship, young Jethri," he recalled tel'Ondor telling him, "or indeed, at any entertainment you are invited to. Yes, you should eat gracefully. No, seeing that there is a single item of a treat sitting lonely, there is no need to leave it, for you are worthy, and if it beckons, you should partake."

  He knew this, or should have known it, for Stefeli Maarilex, Delm Ta
rnia herself, had been over these points with him: in polite society, if dinner is served, assume it is sufficient for the invited. His time in Tarnia's clanhouse had shown him the sheer wealth of that clan. Even with Ren Lar being called stingy, he'd hardly been seen as that among the shipfolk Jethri had grown up among, in fact the economies he'd seen at Tarnia and on Elthoria were sheer extravagance on-board a Terran ship . . . and now a shivaree, out of foodstuffs and party supplies, and people on hand?

  Yes, that was it. The Terrans on their loop ships and family routes were running their lives as Gobelyn's Market always had: one bad trip from disaster, one good trip from an upgrade, with enough crew to do the job and no more, enough food on the table at a meal to hit the calorie count, enough 'mite to cover for emergencies. In fact, he'd from time to time mentally lamented not being on the refurbished Market, where Dyk had expected new bread machines and ovens, and a new galley layout with the half-century old underfloor replaced and vents, by golly the new grade vents that would have cut the stinks duty in half or more, by all he'd been promised.

  But that ship style was not this ship's style. Not his ship style. He was among Liadens who frankly expected all to go well and frankly expected to be comfortable in ways his ship family could have barely imagined. This ship's lead cooks were chefs, and there were three of them. The ship's protocol master was an attorney as near as Jethri could tell--not Paitor with a half-out-of-date manual!--and he, he--he was no longer just a crew member. He was, by necessity, not just acting like a trader, he was a trader. He was not just acting like a member of Clan Ixin, he was the son of Ixin's Master Trader.

  It was not quite like being a captain, but it was quite like having a say and exerting himself and--and it meant hosting Festival parties. Whatever that meant . . .

  And that meant he had to learn more, quickly. And put himself forward, soon.

  He stretched his way from the table, and glanced toward the food display. Leftovers were rare on the Market, but here, if they weren't used, they would likely just get recycled . . .

  Well, duty called. Study called. He'd promised Norn ven'Deelin that he would do his best to be a proper son to the house, that he had.

  The single dish of chernubia remaining he took away with him to study with, and a cup of tea, wondering the while if he had left a dish or two sitting lonely after all.

  Chapter Three

  Clan Ixin's Tradeship Elthoria, in Jump

  Born and raised on a spaceship, rarely did the feeling of being pent up fall so heavily upon Jethri as it did now. He strode to his small suite, chernubia in hand, his mind full of the promising and confusing vision offered by Gaenor, and perhaps by proxy, by Vil Tor.

  It wasn't certainly, that he was against the idea of such a personal time with them--either or both--other than the idea that they might not understand exactly what it was they were getting into. Yet he urgently wanted not to disappoint them--either or both--for aside the passing attention he'd been able to pay to Freza DeNobli back on, umm, on . . . not Vincza, but the other one in that system--must have been Chustling--he hadn't had that much experience. There'd been some casual bundling he'd been part of back in that year or so he'd been seen to be closing in on adult size, but that had been pretty tentative all around.

  And Freza, on Chustling! By then he'd been dreaming pretty often about her, because they'd been on parallel course there for a while, the Market and Balrog, and they'd been pretty comfortable with each other, comfortable enough to talk as well as touch. That's where he was still frustrated because not only had they liked each other, but they'd agreed that it would be a good time to wander off together while the older folks were drinking and doing their shivaree setups and they'd be able to be out of the wild rudeness some of the older folks clamored for and just have their own time, figuring it was time.

  Shaking his head, he remembered Dyk rounding the corner where they were standing nose to nose, holding hands, and Dyk saying, "You have to be quicker to disappear than that, Jeth! Captain said if I didn't find you for hatch duty, why, I'd be doing it myself by shift-start. I can see it ain't convenient, maybe, but I found you. Best meet me at the dock for turnover in seven minutes. Seeli's already been calling for her get-out-now."

  And Freza had made sounds something very like, "Mud and stinks," and not too quietly, either, before she said, "Six minutes!" and kissed him, hard, like they'd both been thinking about, too, while Dyk ducked his head and said, "Hi, there, Miz Freza . . . sorry!"

  Seeli'd seen him come in all grunch-faced, said, "Some ports are like that!" and left him to stare at the boarding screens, Dyk not having bothered to even step aboard.

  Freza . . . They hadn't matched shifts again, and ship-to-ship wasn't hardly the same, even when they could at least smile at each other. Not nearly the same when it could be four years before they were on the same route again. Then, of course, he'd shipped with Elthoria and it was likely Mac Gold or one of his brothers was all she'd been left with the next portside, and hollow comfort that was!

  He sighed, gustily.

  *

  First things first, he enabled the mail run, and found three other things he ought to have seen earlier, too, and the first Festival message from Gaenor, plus a lilting and seductive voice reminder for him to check his mail from Gaenor, that hint from Vil Tor! He shook his head, grim-faced against the missed offer to see the pair of them in their suggested Festival rags . . .

  But that had to wait, after all, because if business was on deck, there was a complicated missive and even more complex set of files from Tan Sim, being the record of a dozen or more trades, side financing, short leases, storage and shipping contracts, all executed on the fly between the opening of the jointly bought pod that had begun their partnership and the departure of the Scouts, much of it real catch-as-can of hurry. The worrying part was that a few pieces of this and that had gone missing in the hurry . . .

  Literally on the fly this had all happened, as Delm Rinork had created and sold Tan Sim's trader contract and exiled him to a long-route tradeship with little hope of success. Tan Sim parted out the pieces using a contractor and there'd been some assumptions that needed to be tested and worked out, seeing that it might be the partner contract between them wasn't as straight as it ought to be if they were both going to be able to hold their partnership responsible--not that Tan Sim hadn't done them proud, considering the whole of the problems they'd faced.

  Then another note, this from Scout ter'Astin, very formal and very curious, and very short, especially compared to whatever it was Tan Sim was on about, admitting that ter'Astin would be happy to make an appointment to see Jethri Gobelyn soonest when Elthoria made next port, and that in fact he was applying to the Master Trader as well as Pen Rel for assistance in such a meeting and looking forward to an open discussion . . .

  That bothered mightily, for ter'Astin of all people knew the change in Jethri's circumstance from acrobatic Terran apprentice to acknowledged son of the clan. Even the digital wrapper showed the Scout had purposefully aimed it to him as a Gobelyn, which meant . . .

  It meant something, and he was darned if he could figure out what. He supposed a careful question to tel'Ondor might give him a clue--a reason to visit Vil Tor!--or perhaps a deep-search of the Liaden Code of Proper Conduct might show an answer.

  Was he in trouble? Was Tan Sim? Or had Miandra's training gone wrong--a concern of his since he'd been the intermediary in defending her from the overzealous "healing" of a Healer more concerned with order than with people gone awry, with her now loose in space. With her apparent power and known affinity for trouble . . .

  That thought had more interest for him than he'd expected, but surely he wouldn't be the first refuge Miandra might seek if --but there, she'd sought him on Irikwae, after all, when friends and family were all about her.

  "Clear the board of reds before you move to the first yellow," he said, recounting out loud an ancient dictum Paitor swore was handed down from the days the Gobelyns had first r
isen into space from a rumored seafaring past.

  So, he had to consider Gaenor and Vil Tor's offer and confusion, as recent as it was, to be down in the yellow side of the problems. Without knowing exactly what it was about, he'd have to figure that ter'Astin's necessity was a flashing yellow, and so not quite red. That was a problem he hadn't thought about too hard before--he was double or triple or worse tangled in the Scout by now, between the weather machine and Miandra, and the save against the ugly Scout and the loan of his childhood "logbook" with cryptic notations from his father and, truth told, who knew what else might have been snuck under those covers? It was clear that he'd missed some kind of training his father was to give, and he wondered if the book held keys to more of that birthright that he'd considered before. A heavier tangle: ter'Astin had seen his father's shattered body--which was more than Jethri had--and recalled him for a brave man, stoutly facing chaos with thoughts for the injured and endangered, a worthy man across any of the races of men.

  For all of the tangle, ter'Astin was coming to him. The Scout hadn't said where, but given that he'd just got the news from Thringar, and Boltston was up in a bare six-day meant that it was likely they'd be looking at Caverna or even Grammit before he saw the Scout.

  So if his board had red lights on it, Tan Sim was wearing them: contract issues, missing objects which tied to money they were owed or expecting, possible conflicts with -

  His protocol mentor would be proud of him, he reckoned, if he could see the resolve with which he closed the files and the most pressing thing was Tan Sim, and that was all his stuff, not things that ought to tie into his duties with the ship. The stuff with Gaenor and Vil Tor, that was personal stuff, and that could take time from the ship. And whatever ter'Astin was about, if it was for anyone named Gobelyn, that too, wasn't properly ship stuff, but his.