Calculated Risk

by Zen DiPietro

  “Is there anyone in particular I should be watching out for?” he asked.

  “All of us. Every one. We will cut you if it serves us. You have some protection from the smaller concerns like people stealing from you. But if someone sees a chance to eliminate you to improve their own position, they will.”

  “Why tell me this?” He had no doubt of where her loyalty lay—it was with Ditnya.

  “Because you can help Ditnya, and it’s my job to make sure she gets what she wants.” Her expression changed, becoming sly. “Plus, I know how much you love me, and it makes me a little soft toward you.”

  “Is this crush on me a tactic to make me let my guard down?” he asked.

  “It could be,” she said. “It’s a good trick. But no. I really like you.”

  “And you said not to trust you,” he reminded her.

  She gave him a dazzling smile. “And you listened. See, this is why I like you.”

  He laughed. “Fair enough. I will follow your advice.”

  “Or maybe you shouldn’t. I might be lying.”

  “I guess I’ll just have to be careful, then.”

  She nodded. “You do that. Talk to you later, love!”

  Shaking his head, he joined Nagali and Omar in the corridor.

  Shortly after returning to their cabins, Nagali had a small breakdown.

  A pounding sound on his door interrupted his study of the ship’s design schematics. No sooner had he opened the door did Nagali come stomping in.

  “I have no voicecom access!” she wailed.

  “None?”

  “None! No outbound connection, no access to onboard communications—nothing! I can’t even send you a message from next door. Instead, I found these.” She waved a stack of infoboards. “Literature to read, basic ship schematics, and some silly digital games. That’s it!”

  “I see.” Was this an issue he wanted to press with Ditnya? On the one hand, it was her ship and he actually agreed with her decision. They’d all be safer if Nagali had no voicecom access. On the other hand, Nagali would hound him until he promised to do something.

  He decided to be proactive about it. “When I see Ditnya in private, I’ll talk to her about it.”

  “You will?”

  “Definitely.” He wouldn’t plead Nagali’s case, but he could certainly tell Ditnya that he approved of her decision. “And if there’s something you need to send or look up, I can do it for you.”

  Her annoyance disappeared. “That means I’ll have to be over here a lot.”

  “You’ve found a flaw in my plan,” he deadpanned.

  She laughed. He had to hand it to Nagali. Though she could be maddeningly irritating, she tolerated a lot of irritation in return. It was also almost impossible to hurt her feelings or offend her. Her skin was so thick it was probably more spaceworthy than some ships he’d been on.

  “Well, I feel better,” she said. “Maybe I should sleep over some nights, too. You know, just in case I’m expecting some sort of communication.”

  “That would certainly be a big step forward.” Their dating had not progressed beyond typical date activities like dinner or going for a walk. He liked the low-key thing they had going right now and wasn’t eager to see it change. “I guess if something important comes up, we can think about it.”

  She stepped in close and booped his nose. “That’s the spirit.”

  “I was going to check in with Fallon, though, so I’m afraid I’ll have to ask for some privacy now.”

  “Ahh, tell the old ball and chain I said hello.”

  He froze. “The old what?”

  “It’s a human phrase. It means something that keeps you down, kind of chained in place, you know?”

  He shook his head. “Yeah, I don’t think so. I’m pretty sure that refers to an oppressive spouse.”

  She grimaced. “Really?”

  “Pretty sure,” he said again.

  “Damn.”

  “What?”

  She waved her hand in an oh well gesture. “I might have offended someone recently with that phrase. Nothing I can do about it now. Call me when you’re done. We can find the mess hall and have some dinner.”

  “Should we invite Omar?”

  “No. He’s having dinner with Ditnya.” Her nose wrinkled. “Why he likes her, I’ll never know. He’s such an idiot.”

  She walked out, muttering about her brother’s undesirable qualities.

  Smiling, Cabot sat and opened a channel to Fallon to update her on his current situation.

  After giving Fallon a status update, Cabot started to open a channel to Nagali’s room to let her know he was ready to go to dinner. Then he remembered she had no voicecom link, even within the ship.

  No doubt Ditnya had made that decision just to irritate Nagali. Giving Nagali local access to limited ship’s systems like internal communications would have been simple to do without risking anything.

  Chuckling, he pulled a cloak from the back of his door and settled it on his shoulders. Ditnya kept the Bona Fide a bit colder than he preferred. Whether that was her personal preference, a cost-saving method, or just a way to torture people and keep them on edge, he couldn’t guess.

  Perhaps it was all three.

  Before he reached the door, the ship lurched, knocking him off-balance. He leaned his weight to the side and braced himself against the wall. After a momentary shiver in the deck plates, the ship returned to normal.

  What was that?

  A quick check of the voicecom showed no announcements, and calls to the bridge, to Ditnya, and to Pigie went unanswered.

  He’d have to investigate himself.

  In the corridor, Nagali and Omar bolted from their rooms, looking concerned but not alarmed.

  “I’m going up to the bridge to find out what that was,” Cabot said. “I’ll let you know what I find out.”

  “I’ll come with you,” Omar said, slanting a taunting look at Nagali. “You know, because I can.”

  She glared at him, then whirled around and returned to her quarters.

  “You’re going to pay for that later,” Cabot told him as they hurried to the bridge. Given their VIP quarters, they didn’t even have to use a lift to get to a different deck, so the trip would be short.

  “In a way, yes, I will.” Omar’s voice had a philosophical tone. “But if you think of it another way, she’d give me shit no matter what, so why not get in a dig here and there when I can?”

  “I see your logic,” Cabot conceded.

  The bridge had a sense of heightened activity, but remained controlled and professional. Not too different than he’d expect to see on a PAC ship, really, which came as a surprise.

  Omar addressed Ditnya as they neared. “Did your pilot hit a bump in the road?”

  She acknowledged his joke with a wry smirk. “Our hangar bay spontaneously decompressed. It looks like an electrical malfunction.”

  “That’s a pretty crappy malfunction,” Omar said. “I’m not a fan of being somewhere that spontaneously decompresses. I’ve always been a stickler for a precise level of compression.”

  Cabot elbowed Omar. Even if Ditnya liked his odd brand of humor, Omar was wasting time. Cabot wanted answers.

  “We’re six hours from Ankarta at our current speed. Their orbital docking station has excellent full-service repairs. We’ll increase speed and get there in three hours.” Ditnya looked grim.

  “Is it common to have this kind of malfunction on the Bona Fide?” Cabot asked.

  “No!” Ditnya snapped, then took a breath. “No. My crew keeps the ship in perfect condition. This is probably a faulty component.”

  Apparently, he’d struck a nerve. He’d never known Ditnya to snap like that. “Is there anything Omar and I can do?”

  “No. Thank you. The engineering crew is on it. They’ll notify me of any additional problems, but we should get to Ankarta just fine. You’re welcome to stay up here if you like, but there won’t be much to see. Just coordination among my
crews and status updates.” She turned her attention to her voicecom.

  In other words, they were in her way. In this case, Cabot was willing to concede. He could do little but complicate matters right now. “I see. If there’s anything I can do, let me know. Otherwise, I’ll get out of your way.”

  She looked up and nodded. “Thank you.”

  As Cabot retreated, it occurred to him that they had just established a certain level of trust and respect. How people behave in an emergency revealed a great deal.

  He’d have expected frayed tempers and angry retorts, but Ditnya and her crew remained poised and professional.

  Maybe his time on board wouldn’t be as fraught with conflict as he’d anticipated.

  In the corridor outside Nagali’s room, Omar edged close and murmured, “They’re watching Nagali, right?”

  Cabot followed his friend’s train of thought and laughed. “Yes. Intently. Whatever happened in that hanger bay, it wasn’t Nagali.”

  “Right. Just checking. I’ll catch you later.”

  Before he could disappear into his quarters, Cabot said, “We were planning on getting some dinner. Do you want to go with us?”

  “Nah. Thanks. I’ll go solo. Maybe I can make some inroads with members of the crew.” His door closed behind him.

  That left Nagali to him. He wondered what kind of mood she’d be in.

  Of the planets in the Zerellian system, Ankarta was one of Cabot’s least favorite. There was nothing wrong with it, exactly. Since the planet of Zerellus had been settled first, the system as a whole was known as the Zerellian system, and all of the outlying planets shared a fairly similar culture. Though human cultures had strong differences from the Rescan culture he’d grown up with, for the most part, he liked the human-centric places he went to.

  Ankarta was different. The people there always seemed a little too quick to take offense, a little too eager to pick on the weak, and a bit too focused on vanity.

  Since the place didn’t have any particularly interesting opportunities for trade, Cabot simply avoided the planet.

  Unfortunately, upon arriving at the orbital station above the planet, they’d learned that an entire set of potentially faulty electronic relays had to be replaced, and the job would take two days.

  In the meantime, Ditnya had an assignment for him. He knew on his way to the meeting room that he probably wasn’t going to like it. Because of that, he chose to see her alone. He would present the situation to Omar and Nagali in a way that best suited the circumstances and was most likely to achieve the desired outcome.

  As he entered the meeting room and found that Ditnya had already arrived and taken a seat, he wondered if it was a bad sign that she hadn’t kept him waiting.

  “Cabot,” she acknowledged him, looking inscrutable.

  “Ditnya.” He intentionally used her first name rather than her last. He wanted her to know that he considered them equals in this venture.

  “Apologies for being vague over the voicecom. I wanted to discuss the matter in person.” She sat with her legs crossed and her hands folded in her lap. Very businesslike.

  “What’s the situation?”

  “One of my crew has a personal problem. No. Not personal. It’s medical. But she doesn’t want to get this issue treated on board, because she has concerns that the doctor will sell her private information to other members of my crew, who might use it against her.”

  “Is that a reasonable concern?” he asked.

  “Since she’s concerned, then probably.” Ditnya shrugged. “The important thing is that she needs treatment, but won’t get treated on the ship. I want you to escort her down to the planet to get the issue resolved.”

  “Why me?” he asked.

  “I can’t send down one of my crew. They’re the ones she’s hiding this from. And I can’t send her down alone, either.”

  Cabot thought about why that might be. “Because she might have a medical emergency?”

  “Because she might be planning to sell information to someone, or do something else counter to my interests.”

  “It’s Pigie, right?”

  Ditnya’s forehead crinkled. “No. Why would you say that?”

  Apparently, she didn’t find the comment humorous, as he had.

  “It was a joke.”

  She frowned. “I don’t get it. Pigie is my most devoted employee. Oh, is that the joke?”

  Glad for an out, he nodded. “Yes, that’s it.”

  “Leave the humor to Omar,” she advised. “Anyway, will you accompany my employee to the hospital on the planet’s surface?”

  Was this a setup? He’d have to be careful. “Apparently you need her, so I suppose I will.”

  “Good. I’ll tell her I insist on having someone nonessential to ship’s operations accompany her, for her safety. You should maintain that story as well.”

  “Don’t tell her you have concerns that she might stab her in the back. Got it.”

  She squinted at him. “You’re acting strange these days. What’s going on with you?”

  “Nothing serious. I simply realized that life is short and I should live it the way I want to. You know, making sure I have some fun and enjoy a few things before I die.”

  “Midlife crisis?” she asked.

  “More like a possible end-of-days crisis, maybe. But I don’t think it’s that. I think I played it safe for a long time because of a brush with death, and now I’m breaking in the opposite direction.”

  She traced her finger over the edge of an infoboard on her lap. “That makes a certain kind of sense. Just don’t take unnecessary risks with my crew and my ship. We’ve always had a cordial relationship, and I’d hate to see that end.”

  “Barely veiled threat received, loud and clear. Don’t worry. I’m not going to get reckless.”

  “Good. You’ll get a notification when she’s ready to depart.”

  “I can take Omar and Nagali, right?” he asked.

  “Only if you’re prepared to take responsibility for anything Nagali messes up.”

  He waited an extra beat to give that additional thought. “Recently, I’ve found that having her around is more helpful than not having her around. From a bottom-line perspective.”

  “I find that hard to believe.”

  Cabot ran his hand over his ponytail, thinking carefully about his next words. “For every negative aspect, Nagali has a positive one. She’s unpredictable, but she’s resourceful. She’s selfish, but she’s never afraid to dig in and do what needs to be done. She’ll go all-in on something that other people wouldn’t even consider.”

  “She can be clever,” Ditnya admitted, “but she oversteps her bounds.”

  “She’s daring and shameless, to be sure,” Cabot said. “And sometimes that’s exactly what you need a partner to be.”

  Ditnya smiled grudgingly. “I get what you’re saying. You have to use the right tool for the job. Even if it’s a terrible tool.”

  “One of these days, I’m going to have to take exception to you badmouthing her.”

  “Oh?” This clearly struck Ditnya as funny. “Is today that day?”

  “No. She is a terrible tool.”

  They laughed together, then Cabot grimaced, feeling a little guilty. Then he reminded himself of the time she left him for dead, and how often she insulted him, and his guilt disappeared.

  “You and she have a complicated relationship, don’t you?”

  He closed his eyes and shook his head. “You have no idea.”

  3

  Cabot hadn’t expected to recognize the crewmember Ditnya had assigned to him for escorting down to the surface of Ankarta. He’d thought it would be some member of engineering that he’d never met, or some low-ranking member of the bridge crew.

  When Astrid walked up, carrying a small duffel bag worn across her body, Cabot felt a jolt of surprise.

  Ditnya wanted him to safeguard her head of security? Was that standard paranoia, or did she suspect Astrid of somethi
ng?

  Or was Astrid even more valuable to Ditnya than it seemed?

  He squashed all of his questions down and went into friendly shopkeeper mode. He smiled and dipped his head in greeting. “I see you’re the one we have to thank for getting some fresh air.”

  He hoped that, behind him, Nagali and Omar were playing along.

  “I suppose, though we won’t spend much time outdoors, so I’m not sure how fresh the air will really be.” Astrid looked at each of them in turn, wearing a slight frown. “I’m sorry to bother you. I told Ditnya I could take care of myself, but she insists that crewmembers not go offship alone.”

  “All ship captains have their protocols.” Nagali sidled closer. “Frankly, I’m glad for the chance to get out of my room. It’s so boring, having only infoboards. You wouldn’t be able to do something about that, would you?”

  Cabot smiled inwardly. Nagali knew Astrid wouldn’t help her. She was simply pushing Astrid’s thoughts down a different path to distract her.

  “No, I’m afraid not.” Astrid didn’t look apologetic.

  “Didn’t think so. Was worth a try, though!”

  They exited the ship through the airlock and made their way to the orbital elevators. All the while, Omar and Nagali maintained lighthearted conversation. Astrid remained wary, but the set of her shoulders eased slightly.

  Cabot used the wait time to subtly observe her. She didn’t fidget or show any other signs of nervousness or restlessness. She seemed determined and certain—though certain of what, he wasn’t sure. She also showed wariness. He suspected that was aimed directly at him and the Freeborn siblings.

  She glanced at him just as he glanced at her and their eyes caught.

  “You’re probably wondering what’s wrong with me, right?” Without waiting, she plunged on. “I have a mitochondrial disorder due to my multiple heritages. Just a rare, bad luck thing. They can fix it in the short term, but DNA is what it is, and when my cells replenish themselves, the disorder reactivates. I start getting tired.” She pressed her lips together. “It’s not a big deal, really. Just a periodic annoyance.”