* * * * *
Chapter 6: Izza Zan Fey
Phantom, Orbiting Omicron-Schoertchi
Glass of Florinette beer in hand, Izza left the others, minus Catkins, partying in the mess room. The engineer was on watch, snuggling happily with a case of his disgusting herbal firewater in his engineering space. He was also monitoring the recharging jump drives as they orbited one of the Omicron system’s outer gas balls.
The science station they’d salvaged the bias generator from was only 82 light minutes away in the inner system, but Omicron was such a nowhere place, they might as well be in deep space.
The memory of actually being marooned in deep space brought her feet to a halt. That episode still had too many gaps. Holes that Fitz had been unwilling to fill to her satisfaction.
“I’ll get the truth out of him in good time,” she told herself and headed for the privacy of her quarters.
On the way, she passed Phantom’s lounge. It was an opulent space, unchanged since Nyluga-Ree had used it. For some reason, the crew preferred to socialize in the cramped space of the mess room or the engineering eyrie. Perhaps, when they reunited with their missing Marines, that would change.
The corner of her mouth lifted. She’d partied in that lounge. Hard. Those had been good times.
She dwelt a moment in the past and then completed her walk to her quarters. She locked the door and activated the comm link to Fitz.
She thumbed the mode selector switch to video.
At the heart of the device was a lattice of material that was quantum entangled with a twin at Fitz’s end. Her science classes at school had taught her that faster-than-light information transfer between entangled particles was impossible. And yet the device worked.
She had asked the Nyluga about this inconsistency once. The Guild boss had responded with the smug pout that meant she was relishing secret knowledge she wasn’t about to divulge. All she had told Izza was that these rare and expensive devices were not entangled with qubits but with ch-bits.
Whatever they were, once a ch-bit had been used up, it was gone forever. They had no replacements.
A video signal consumed ch-bits much faster than voice, so she thumbed the device back to voice mode and clicked.
Fitz responded immediately. “Are you safe?”
Poor human man. He sounded exhausted with worry.
“We’re perfectly safe. Other than, you know…Nyluga-Ree ordering my capture and this Andromeda Corruption business. Aside from his cryptic comment about your mother, how was your meeting with Khallini?”
Fitz sucked in a breath. Never a good sign. “Exotic. Bizarre. Profitable. I think he’s lived alone for a very long time. Keeps himself sane by building pet AIs to keep him company. He was delighted with the location data of the buried ship you left for me at that desert temple. That was an epic location for a drop, my dear. Well done. In fact, we found that data for Khallini far quicker than I expected.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “We found it?”
“Yes, we. I graciously allowed you to throw me off my own ship like unwanted ballast. And that freed you to get your data while eyes were on me.”
Izza laughed. “Let’s see. You’re admitting that the more light-years between us, the more I can achieve. And I don’t need to split the proceeds with you. Tell me again why I should have you back.”
“Because your green heart doesn’t beat properly when we’re apart.”
She answered with a noncommittal grunt. He was right, of course, but he would be insufferable if she admitted it. “Perhaps this deep cover idea did work. And it has been fun running girls-only operations—”
“What about Catkins?”
“What about him? Anyway, like I said, it’s been fun—some of it—but it won’t work forever. Let’s call it a win and reunite.”
“Let’s not be hasty.” Fitz sounded extremely defensive.
“Tavistock, if you were about to say we should continue with this separation to keep me safe, then think very carefully before you open your stupid mouth.”
“Perish the thought, my lady. I accept I may have been in a panic back on JSHC when I initiated the deep cover protocol. And I might have contributed toward the slight miscommunication episode that led to the whole ballast-dumping thing.”
“Episode? Fucking debacle, more like.”
“You have such a way with words.”
“One of us has to.”
“Izza, our supply of entangled bits is finite. So, in the interest of moving on, let us assume we may insert a list of my numerous inadequacies here. However, deep cover has succeeded. My instinct was proved correct. Does anyone suspect the truth at your end?”
“Green Fish worked it out almost immediately. I blame the Kurlei’s influence. By the way, she recovered from her wounds enough to help at our last salvage job. She saved our butts. Sinofar knows our secret too, but only from overhearing Green Fish. Lynx has been acting ever more peculiar of late, but who can tell what that means?”
“You need to hold our secret a little longer.”
“Or maybe I don’t. I tell you, we need to kill this deep cover business while we’re ahead.”
“There is one thing I must ask you to do before we finish this charade.”
“I know.” She groaned. “Visit your mother.”
“Well…yes. Speaking of which.” Fitz sent across an image he’d taken of Khallini in his lair. “Okay, two more things,” he said. “This other one might be unsafe.”
“Spit it out, human.”
“There’s a princess needs rescuing.”
She laughed. “Just like the good old days before we picked up a crew.”
“I use the term loosely and irreverently. The princess is Vetch, who has become the unwilling guest of Nyluga-Ree. I want you to free him from her palace.”
“Oh. Is that all?”
“No. I also want you to fail.”
“Are you going to tell me why?”
“It’s best that you don’t know.”
“Keeping me in the dark. How did that work out for you last time?”
“Dumped on a beach to be shot at by angry Marines.” There was a long pause at Fitz’s end. “I do think it’s best that you don’t know, but I foresee that you’ll persuade me to tell anyway. So, I’ll save ch-bits and come out with it. It’s like this, my love. I had a very interesting chat with Lord Khallini.”
“Is that why our outer shell of accounts has been credited eighty million?”
“I see you’ve begun to discover the transactions. There should be nine more like that, although the transaction updates will be carried by data couriers. We won’t know for sure for a few weeks, but I trust Khallini to pay up.”
“Eight. Hundred. Million.” She purred. Noisily.
Large sums of money had the same powerful effect on her that her pheromones had on humans. It wasn’t the goods and services money bought that particularly interested her, although Phantom’s consumables and maintenance did cost eye-watering amounts. It was the thrill of winning so copiously that was making it hard for her to speak.
Eight hundred million credits. For most people in the Federation, that was a thousand lifetimes of earnings. She and Fitz were playing in the big leagues now. And they were winning!
“That’s payment for the location data,” Fitz said, “plus a third upfront for me—for us, because you’ll help with distraction, of course—to borrow Nyluga-Ree for a while.”
Izza rattled her tongue against the roof of her mouth. To abscond with Ree…that was a very high stakes game.
“Ree adores you,” said Fitz. “You’re like a favored niece. It’s not without danger, I admit, but I don’t think she’ll hurt you. Not permanently.”
“You’ve committed us to this insanity,” she snapped. “To kidnap the Nyluga? You should have consulted with me first.”
“Your words wound me. The sorcerer paid a third up front just so we would think seriously about it. We could still take the money a
nd run. Maybe run so far that Kanha Wei, Khallini, and Ree can all suck on our rift space trail and never find us again.”
Izza knew she should hold her tongue. But the words were too electrifying. She had to speak them. “How much, Fitzy? What’s the balance if we pull off this craziness?”
“Another eight hundred mil.”
Izza shuddered with a powerful mix of delight and horror.
Fitz’s breathing was ragged with excitement too. “One point six billion,” he whispered, ruthlessly pressing against her weakness. “You aren’t seriously thinking of turning that down?”
“No.”
“So, we’re going to kidnap Nyluga-Ree?”
“Yes.”
They enjoyed a few moments of silent contemplation. “We both know we’ll take the job,” said Fitz. “I just wanted to discuss it first. But it’s the closest to a suicide mission we’ve ever taken on, so I’ll ask once more. Should we go ahead?”
“Yesss.” Her lungs seemed to be overflowing with hot air. “Fitzy,” she gasped, “tell me again how much Khallini’s paying us.”
“One point six billion credits.”
“Oh, yesss.” Her body tingled in ways that were sweet torture with Fitz’s touch being light-years distant.
“I need you here,” she said, her voice husky with need.
“I know.” His words came sticky as molasses.
She swallowed hard and licked her upper lip. She began picturing each member of her crew in turn, transporting them from the mess room to her quarters and dressing them in more interesting ways. Or undressing them. Who could best satisfy her buzzing? Green Fish was fresh and pretty…
No! Crew was family. They must forever be off limits. Bylzak! Her season was approaching fast, and if they didn’t resolve this soon, Fitz wasn’t going to be with her when it happened.
But she could bring him a little closer.
“Tell me again about the money, Fitzy,” she breathed. No longer caring about the skragging bandwidth, she thumbed the comm selector to video mode.
* * * * *
Chapter 7: Izza Zan Fey
Phantom, Orbiting Omicron-Schoertchi
“Here’s the plan,” said Izza. She scanned the faces in the mess room. They looked drained and half drunk. All except Catkins, who was on the flight deck listening in over the intercom, and Hubert the basten goat, who was happily munching something he probably shouldn’t underneath the table.
A mellow crew. Fitz once told her the best time to hit them with bad news was when they were relaxed.
Or was it the worst time? If she got him back, she would take notes in case she had to throw him out again.
“Thanks to our success in acquiring the package—”
Sinofar gave a hearty cheer and held the quantum bias generator high in one hand while squeezing Green Fish’s shoulder so hard it made her new best buddy wince.
“Our next stop is to deliver that fine antique to our client on Flux City. Officially, Phantom is a marked vessel, and its crew is to be seized on sight by the Guild. But they only know me and Sinofar, so we’ll borrow another ship for the handover, and send in our B Team.”
Fregg rolled her eyes, but the other member of the B Team wasn’t taking it as well.
“Your labelling is divisive,” Catkins scolded. “Captain Fitzwilliam was never so rude.”
“Yeah, he was,” said Fregg. “You just liked him better. The boss is only joking.”
Green Fish got to her feet. “Catkins, you and Fregg are both Guild members too. You might not have been on Flux City recently, but you may be recognized. I think we should deploy Team C. Me. I’ve never set foot on Flux City. No one knows who I am.”
A thousand objections went through Izza’s head. The human had done well back in the inner system, but she was reluctant to send her on a solo mission in such a dangerous environment.
Dangerous it might be, but venturing into Flux City was the calm before the storm compared to what she’d cooked up with Fitz.
And beyond that…the galaxy seemed to be on a one-way trip to the crazy zone.
Everyone here had to up their game, and, deep in their bones, they all needed to know they could rely on each other to do so. The very fact that Izza had doubted Green Fish was all the reason she needed to send the girl.
“All right, Team C.” Izza forced a grin. “You get the job.”
Green Fish smiled back, deep dimples forming in her cheeks. She looked so young!
Sinofar gave the girl a comradely slap on the back, which made her cry out in pain.
“My bad,” said the Pryxian. “I forgot you had a barbed ritual spear sticking out of that spot.”
They gave Green Fish a moment or two to recover. Then she said, “When I’ve made the exchange, and I’m back with the money, you’ll need to celebrate properly. I’ll snag us takeouts. What are y’all having?”
“I like this human girl,” said Catkins, a little too loudly. “Give her a year or two, and she’ll make a better skipper than you, Captain Zan Fey.”
Izza laughed at that with the others. Everyone was laughing, she noticed, except Green Fish herself. She sensed the girl was imagining herself in the captain’s seat, and not for the first time.
Young she might be, but she was ambitious. Nothing wrong with that, but she needed to be watched.
And I need to tell my crew the mission Fitz and I agreed on.
Izza hadn’t the heart. The crew was happy. They were bonding with their newest member, and that was important too. There would be plenty of time to tell them about Vetch and Nyluga-Ree later.
* * *
Phantom Flight Deck, Jump Space
“Treat it as a learning lesson,” Izza told the most junior member of her crew later after Green Fish returned from Flux City and had given her report. “Even without Fitz around to throw his customary chaos bomb into the works, the best plans can fall apart. The important thing is that you adapted and completed the mission.”
Izza narrowed her eyes. Green Fish was sitting in the copilot’s seat. Her seat. The girl had nearly died making the exchange on Flux City and had nearly lost the quantum bias generator. Nearly. But she’d won in the end and seemed untroubled by the close call.
“You did well, though. All the others are waiting for you in the lounge to give you a proper welcome. Congratulations. You’ve proven that you deserve to be a part of my crew.”
Doubt clouded Green Fish’s eyes. “Am I actually part of the crew? I mean, what happens when…?”
The girl saw Izza’s glare and shut up. The two of them in the flight deck knew the split with Fitz was temporary, but it was not something to speak of. Ever.
“Sorry,” whispered Green Fish.
Izza felt a glimmer of satisfaction at seeing the young human stumble. After a few seconds, she felt guilty and moved to wrap things up. “Was there anything else to report about Flux City before we go celebrate?”
“Yeah.” Green Fish sucked in her lip. “The client sends her compliments and says that once things are smoothed out with Nyluga-Ree, she…ahh…wants you to come back.”
“Why? Does she have another job for us?” Izza asked innocently, picking up on the hesitation.
The client had been the Guildswoman, Pyruula, and she had flirted hard enough with Izza the last time they had been on Flux City that it was obvious what the lungwoman wanted. It seemed their little Green Fish had an amusing weak spot.
“Not exactly another job,” the girl said, blood flushing her cheeks.
“Well, spit it out then. It’s vital that you tell me exactly what she said. Word for word.”
“Pyruula said she wants you to visit her when the season is upon you and you’re in full bloom. She wants to rub her—I think she means her neck fins—through your head blossom. And then she…”
“Yes? What then?” Izza couldn’t hold it in anymore. She collapsed into laughter.
“Oh, you can go to hell, boss. If you want to hear the fish woman’s sex talk,
you can ask her yourself. All I’ll say is that the scenarios she planned were extremely detailed. She’s obviously spent a lot of time thinking about what she’d like to do with you. And stop teasing me. It’s not fair.”
“Very few things are, Green Fish. Seriously, you gotta lighten up. The Smugglers Guild is filled with randy-as-fuck animals. And I refuse to butcher my body by taking hormone suppressants. Which means we’re all going to have to deal with me coming into season soon. If you can’t even say the word sex without heating up like a supernova, that’s gonna make you stick out. I can’t be having that.”
A tear rolled down the girl’s cheek.
“What the hell is this?” Izza asked, furious. So, the child was missing her Kurlei boyfriend. Izza was missing her husband, and she didn’t cry about it. “Stop that. Now!”
Green Fish didn’t. Tears became sobs.
“You and your damned human exceptionalism. Wait…” Izza wondered if she’d misread the situation. “Humans reach sexual maturity a lot later than Zhoogenes. Is this…this weakness because you’re inexperienced with physical intimacy?”
“I’ve only done it once.” The human’s crying subsided, and she chanced a smile. “The boy I took a fancy to had his DNA corrupted. He still recognized me at the end, just before he rammed a spike through my chest.”
“Meatbolt. Green Fish, I’m so sorry.”
“Yeah?” She glared, defiant. “Then act like it.”
Izza watched her storm off the flight deck. Damn. She’d meant to praise the girl. Normally, she left it to Fitz to screw up managing the crew. He was welcome to that job when he got back. Maybe he could understand Green Fish. He was the right species, after all.
Humans! Life would be so much simpler without them. And what a sorry galaxy that would be.
* * *
Phantom Lounge, Rift Space
Izza waited a few minutes for Green Fish to calm down and then joined the others in the lounge.
True to her word, Green Fish had brought back gifts from Flux City. There were cured meats, brandies, and sweets suitable for a variety of gut enzymes. There was fragrant synth-coffee too, and she’d given Catkins gaming dice carved from the polished skulls of small lizards. Izza thought the vegetarian Gliesan would be revolted, but he was gushing his thanks.
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