by Skyler Grant
Tamara laughed. "We're not clones. Not exactly. Transcription errors—copy the same information too many times and you get errors. We're more iterative. The Tourmaline Steele of one generation becomes the mother to the next."
"And I thought my family was weird. You're free of her?" Quinn asked.
Tamara frowned. "Probably. We compete to get her memories when it’s time, to get her accounts, her influence, her power. I was third, but now I must be last."
"You want to be erased by her?"
"It isn't like that. Iterative there, too. It’s the knowledge of all the winners of the past combined with the winner of today to become more than either. Each Tourmaline is unique, and always extraordinary."
"I don't think I understand, but I'm sorry," Quinn said.
Tamara gave a faint smile. "Don't be, husband. I promise you, if I’m not going to be Tourmaline, I'll be better."
Quinn believed her, so help him he believed her.
7
Margas Station was nicer than might be expected. The system didn't have much of an economy overall, a lone gas planet close to the sun followed by multiple layers of asteroid belts extending outward. Where they ended the scrap yard began, the discarded hulks of generations of travel.
Besides the unusually extensive dock facilities for repairs, there was a small but thriving entertainment district for asteroid miners and crew who had downtime while their ships were under work. Quinn was in no mood to be entertained, but after a string of miserable ports lately it was nice to see one with a bit of life.
The family gathered in the hold after having had a look around.
"A markup on everything here, but they're decently well stocked. I've never shopped for a museum heist before," Dela said.
"I'm rather more familiar with grand theft after the fact. What do we need?" Tamara asked.
"We won't know until we get in there and have a look around, but going in and shooting up the place isn't going to be the plan unless we're absolutely out of other options," Quinn said.
"Sensor spoofs, what we'll need for communication disruption. I can grab a lot from the nearby hulks. We've done it before," Melody said.
"Clothes," Quinn said with a look to Tamara. "You're the height of fashion in the Core, but they don't trust that out here. We need to get you looking like a local professional."
"Here I can only buy coveralls or a stripper outfit. I don't think that’s the sort of professional you're looking for," Tamara said.
"Could work, high-class whores are a thing," Kara said.
"Just do the best you can," Quinn said quickly.
"I can sew. Get something even close and we can do alterations," Dela said.
"Let me guess? You made yourself reproductions of alien fashions?" Tamara asked.
"Girl has to have a hobby," Dela said defensively.
"Who are you calling an alien? You’re the aliens and I have great clothes,” Kara said.
"If you want to look like a heavy-armored sex worker," Tamara said with a huff. "Fine, we'll try it. I'll pick up something suitable."
"It might help if we knew what approach you’ve got in mind. I've seen you plan just one job and that was at the estate. It got us shot and was a complete mess," Mara told Quinn.
"We were improvising. Which I know is exactly what we're doing now, but this is different. Somehow," Quinn said with a frown.
Mara simply stared at him.
Quinn had to admit that she had a point.
"I like to do things quiet, if possible. I prefer we get in and out without nobody ever knowing we were there. I don't think that’s going to happen with a ship theft," Quinn said.
"Nose and his friends might have been wimps, but they weren't wrong. Kick the door, blow a few guards away, take it and go," Kara said.
"If it even flies,” Melody reminded them. “It’s a relic, remember? We don't know if it’s operational. I doubt they are keeping a museum exhibit maintained and fueled up."
There were just too many unknowns. What they needed was to reduce things to known qualities. A plan based on fundamentals that could work no matter what they might encounter.
Quinn closed his eyes for a moment, wishing that Taki was here. For a long time she'd always been the stabilizing influence on him, the reliable linchpin of any plan. The crazy plans were usually his, yet without her here he was finding it hard to even come up with them. Still, he had to, and with the others here they had a lot of tools they could use.
"We'll run a con. We use what we have and don't waste the opportunity while we're here," Quinn said, beginning to pace. "Those asteroid miners. They'll all work for somebody. Find out who. Tamara, you're going to become one of their executives. I want you dressed accordingly and with a background in their mining systems."
"I can help with the last part, if you need it," Mara said.
"Dela, you're a consulting archaeologist. You already have the clothes to work the part. In order to promote the commercial side of the station here, you’re offering that the company is interested in doing repairs and maintenance on the older vehicle exhibits in exchange for spreading the word about your good will," Quinn said. “A kind of public relations exercise.”
"Not where my degree is aimed at, but you take the work you can out of college. I can pull it off," Dela said.
"See what decals I can steal to put on the hull for when we leave?" Melody asked.
Quinn nodded. "Fix us up to look like a proper transport and salvage ship. Rig us up with what we need to do a tow job. Once we hit the system we'll send the others in ahead of us in the Foxtrot."
Tamara pursed her lips. "I can actually start trying to sell it even now. Make the initial contact while we're here. I doubt they'll accept right away, but if we give them some time to get used to the idea before we show up ..."
That was risky. Quinn could understand the desire of it, but pulling a con was dangerous. The longer you gave people to think things over, the more bad things they could imagine happening. You had to get people eager to seize an opportunity fast, have them sell you.
"No, better to hold off. Spend the time now figuring out how to sell it once you're there," Quinn said.
There was a real risk in having Tamara do this. Pulling a con was as much art as science. There were classic moves, but an approach had to be tailored for an individual. It required being able to read someone quickly, figure out what they were afraid of, what they wanted.
Which explained why Mara wasn’t looking impressed.
Quinn didn't need her to speak up to know what she was thinking. Whatever else Mara might be, she was a spy. Lying and conning was second nature to her, he should have given her this side of things. However, Tamara needed to learn. She might be matriarch of this little family, but she still needed to learn the business.
"Mara, Kara, you're the backup plan. You'll visit in Kara's shuttle," Quinn said.
"The Whiskey," Kara said.
"My suggestion. It fit the theme," Dela said with a grin.
Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot. It would do.
"We shooting up the place after all?" Kara asked hopefully.
"That is going to be Mara's call. Get in, take the tour. Observe security, alarm systems. If our people get made or things for some reason go to hell, get us that ship. Taki's life depends on it," Quinn said.
Between them Mara was their best infiltration expert, and she was almost as formidable as Kara in a fight. The last time they'd gone head-to-head it had been closer than Quinn expected. If the main plan went awry they'd be the two most capable of implementing another solution.
"What if we do get made?" Dela asked.
"We protest our innocence, shut up, and if pressed are waiting for counsel," Tamara said crisply.
"Listen to the lawyer," Quinn said with a nod. "I'm not trading Taki for any of you. If a member of this family gets taken we are going to come for you. Do whatever you have to in order to stay alive and safe until we get there."
Tamara looked
between them. "Not the time for this, I know, but I wanted to plant the idea. These transponders of yours aren't doing the trick. This is twice now that you've lost your first officer even with one."
It wasn't the time, it was also true.
"I'm open to options," Quinn said.
"Sub-dermal implants. Charged from your own biochemistry and a good one can be tracked from systems away. If Taki and Jinx had them installed we'd have known exactly where they are already."
"And they cost a small fortune," Mara said.
"You have them and I doubt you're purchasing them open-market," Tamara said.
"I'm not sourcing technology for you. That isn't negotiable."
"Any other reasonable options?" Quinn asked.
Mara frowned and let out a sigh. "I won't source what I use, but my sisters are busy people. If any on the public market come into our possession, or can be found for a particularly good deal, I'll see what I can do."
"If that happens I might be able to find some valuable data to give them as payment," Tamara said.
"All things for another day. You've got your assignments, people. Let’s make this happen," Quinn said.
8
Thirty hours later they got a call that Jinx had been left on Indoc. It was a miserable little world with its few colonies located beneath large domes shielding them from a harsh sun. Only the presence of rare minerals made mining a thriving concern.
Jinx hadn't been harmed except for a stunner blast. Confined to a cabin on the ship, but fed well and not mistreated. She reported she'd been separated from Taki as soon as they were captured. Quinn had been right though, she'd been carried on one of the heavy agricultural transports.
The entire thing made him feel a bit better about those who had taken Jinx. Nose's behavior hadn't been acceptable, not in the slightest. Professionals, even criminals, had to have some standards. Do the work you’re paid to do, pay up when the work is done. There were always exceptions obviously—Quinn hadn't delivered his cargo of girls frozen in stasis pods for Maiden when it turned out she had lied.
Kidnapping a member of someone’s crew was bad, but not mistreating them, seeing they were taken care of—it was at least possible that Nose's employers were a higher class of criminal than Nose himself.
Endelmar was an unusual system. Technological facilities were valuable on the Rim, where resources were plentiful but the ability to shape anything into things usable was rare. Once a system was civilized it tended to stay civilized, growing until all the worlds supported as much life as they could and then spreading a new wave of colonists. In contrast, Endelmar was a system that had once teemed with life, but was nearly deserted now.
The one major planet had resources in abundance, and had once hosted thriving cities and a trading station in orbit. A string of suddenly active volcanoes had filled the atmosphere with ash and rendered the planet nearly uninhabitable. A few underground colonies continued, but what had once been a major hub of civilization was now empty.
Endelmar Station was beautiful from a distance, an attention to aesthetics often ignored in modern stations. It had a decorative scrolling mural that gave the station's exterior the look of perpetual motion.
Quinn jumped into the system but held back from moving on the station, instead letting the Whiskey and Foxtrot go in first on their respective missions. The plan had been that they would both hopefully go unnoticed despite arriving around the same time, but this sector of space seemed really quiet.
Jinx joined Quinn in the cockpit to watch the sensors.
"You're sure you're okay?" Quinn asked.
"I'm pregnant, not made out of tissue paper. I can handle a kidnapping," Jinx said, then added after a moment, "Actually it was pretty scary. I didn't know what they were going to do to me."
"But you got through okay," Quinn said.
"Because of you. Not because of me. I'm going to have Melody teach me some things about engineering. I don't want anything like this to happen again."
Quinn looked over at her to make sure she was serious, she looked like it.
"Engineering? Not shooting a gun or throwing a punch?"
"Way I see it, Taki can do both those things and they captured her too. I mean, I want to learn them, I will, but right now I feel like the weak link and I hate that. I figure if I learn what would have helped every time something goes wrong, and soon, I'll be really strong," Jinx said.
It made sense. It made a lot of sense.
"And you think engineering would have helped you to escape?" Quinn said.
"Escape, signal for help," Jinx said with a determined nod. "Then we wouldn't have to pull this job. Well, we wouldn't if they had just taken me."
"People are always going to prey on your weak spot. Threaten the things you care about to get what they want out of you."
"Why did you pick me? Instead of Taki, I mean," Jinx asked carefully.
Jinx was only a few years younger than him, but somehow Quinn felt worlds apart from her at times. The magic, her lineage, and the enormous differences in their experience. Everyone else on the crew had seen a lot of bad in their lives. Jinx had lived a very normal life until she'd had to run. Quinn hadn't been the one to deny her that life, but he couldn't give it back to her.
Quinn sighed and turned to face her. "Lifeboat dilemma. Imagine you’re on a ship that’s losing atmosphere and you've got a lifeboat that can hold ten people and you've one hundred crew. You're the captain, and the only one with a gun. You decide who lives and who dies. How do you make your choices?"
Jinx frowned. "It is a terrible question. I don't like it."
"Good," Quinn said wryly. "That means you're actually thinking about it. But do you have an answer?"
Jinx stared at the console, her arms folded and deep in thought. "I'm tempted to say something like youngest first, all the children. But what if one of the other passengers is a doctor? If I let them die, I might cost a hundred children their lives later."
"You might. I think getting all the kids off is a good answer, you're saving potential. Still, who else do you save?" Quinn asked.
"Expertise. Potential might amount to nothing, but expertise has merit already. Any noted scholar, professional, those with irreplaceable skills. Is that right?"
Quinn shrugged. "There isn't a right except that you are able to answer it. Not everyone can. Not everyone in charge of something can, which is a travesty. How would you rate as worth saving, by your own standards?"
Jinx smiled sadly. "Taki is a better engineer, a better shot, your first mate. I've some schooling though—nobody else on your crew does—and the magic. The magic probably seals the deal. But that wasn't what you were thinking was it?"
Quinn shook his head. "It's a fine way of looking at the world, but it isn't mine. When backs are to the wall and someone has to be saved, pregnant women and kids come first. The fact it’s my child you're having just amplifies that."
Jinx gave a laugh that sounded almost pained. "I've been thinking of myself a lot. I needed a husband and a baby to reduce my eligibility in the political maneuvers for that damned throne. Apart from agreeing with Tamara that you were, uh, suitable, I never really thought about your side of things."
Quinn hadn't had a lot of time to think himself. Like the art of a good con was hitting someone fast and quick, and forcing them to make a decision before they could think of the thousand reasons no, in hindsight it was how Tamara set up his acceptance of the Centauri.
"I think we're all a little guilty of that," Quinn said.
"Are we really, doing this? I don't even know what this is," Jinx said.
"You know about Kat, I think everyone does by this point. I loved her, I married her, and I decided there would never be another quite like her. I can be a stubborn fool, kind of righteous, and a pain in the ass, but I'm loyal. I'm going to do right by you, our child, and the rest of your family for as long I'm still drawing breath."
Jinx rose from the copilot seat, moving to Quinn's seat and s
lipping between him and the console so that she could wrap her arms around him. Given how voluptuous Jinx was, Quinn found himself rather distracted.
"When we get Taki back we celebrate. Big time. We are all way too serious and families shouldn't be all about solemn declarations of eternal loyalty, though I do like that," Jinx said.
"When we go to get Taki back there’s a fair chance they try to kill us all again."
"Then we don't let them, and we’ll celebrate them being so very bad at their jobs," Jinx said.
Quinn had to laugh. Jinx was right, things were often too dour. During brighter days there had always been something fun going on for the crew. Dinner was about the only thing that survived of those days.
"If things work out we'll find a way to celebrate," Quinn promised.
"I'll put together a movie night too. Tamara blew all the family budget on our data receiver, we should get some use besides business out of it."
Jinx seemed much cheerier than she had a short time ago. Quinn wondered if it was his reassurances. Had she been that worried? Of course, she must be—like she said, they were virtual strangers really. Quinn resolved to make sure that her, and all the girls, knew just how much the Bliss was now their home too.
9
Only a few hours before Tamara from aboard the station signaled that Quinn could bring the Bliss into dock. Melody used the time to work on the exterior—being an android she didn’t require a suit to work outside the vessel. They were marked now with the symbols of the Ares Mining Consortium.
The station port had room for over one hundred vessels to land, and only five docks were currently in use including those for the Whiskey and Foxtrot. The main thoroughfare into the station was filled with shuttered storefronts, a few bearing the signage of better days.