by Jaleta Clegg
"See if you can track down the right configuration," I said. "We'll go pick them up as soon as possible."
"You'd better change," Beryn said. "It's snowing outside."
What I said would have made an engineer proud, or blush. I went to change into the warmest outfit I could find.
Larella clutched the bunk frame with white knuckles. She had a bruise forming on her cheek. "Are we safe?"
"Did you forget to use the safety webbing?" I asked.
She looked at me blankly. I reached over her and snagged it out of the wall. It was several straps that crossed to form a harness that kept you safe in your bunk. I pulled it over her and showed her how to fasten it to the bunk frame.
"That's what it's for," she said.
"Sorry, I should have explained it to you earlier."
She shrugged. "You were busy." She played with the straps. "Do I have to use these whenever I sleep?"
"No, but it's a good idea if you hear the reentry alarm. Usually it isn't necessary. We lost three of the stabilizers, so it was rough."
"Is that bad?" She gave me a dewy innocent look.
"It will delay us a while, maybe a day, hopefully less."
"I dreamed Lady Rina died," she said, small and serious. "We can't afford to delay."
"We don't have a choice." I pulled on my shipsuit and dug out the thickest sweater I could find to go over it. I jammed my feet into my boots. I left the red nightgown in a puddle on my bunk.
Jasyn and Clark were fine, they knew enough to strap in and hang on. Mart had managed to knock himself unconscious. Clark was checking the lump on his forehead when I came out.
"Stabilizers," I said.
"Beryn told me," he answered.
Jasyn handed me a pile of credits without a word. She had a pot heating on the stove.
"Don't freeze," Clark called as I headed for the hatch.
Beryn was already waiting in the airlock. He had a thick coat with a built in heater. I was jealous. If we kept going places where it was cold, I was going to have to invest in something a lot warmer.
The outer door slid open. It was night. White flakes of snow swirled past us, dancing into the ship on gusts of wind. I tucked my hands into my armpits, ducked my head, and followed Beryn into the cold.
Beryn had either been to Jewel before or he had some kind of built in beacon. He took us right to the shipyard that had the parts for us. It was a rundown shop full of bits of starship engines and the smell of old grease. I didn't care. It was warm inside.
The owner picked up a greasy box and plopped it on the counter. I shook melting snow out of my hair as I folded back the lid. It was a stabilizer, an old crusted one, but it was the right shape. The only question was whether it would work or not.
"Good as new," the owner announced.
"And I'm stupid," Beryn answered. "Save it for the tourists, Lhun. You said you had three working stabilizers like this."
"It does work," Lhun protested.
I hauled it out of the box and poked at the inside. Bits of dirt and crud fell out, joining the general glop already on the counter.
"This works as well as the ones on my ship," I said and dumped it back in the box. "We're wasting our time here, Beryn."
"No one else has anything close to this," Lhun said. "Your ship is an antique."
"It's not a yacht," I agreed.
"It's Family," Beryn put in. "I'll just have to tell Caid not to recommend you anymore."
"Caid Norris?" Lhun said, eyes widening. "With Lady Rina?"
"One and the same," Beryn said.
"You should have said." Lhun dug through a pile of cartons behind the counter and pulled out a large one that was only a little moldy. He put it on the counter and popped the flaps open.
Beryn reached in and pulled out a stabilizer, the right size and configuration for my ship. It looked almost new.
"They quit making those two years back," Lhun said.
"So why were you hiding it?" Beryn asked. He put it back in the box.
"I only got two," Lhun said. "That's the third one." He pointed at the first one. "Take it or leave it. Those are the only ones within ten light years of here."
"You try and gouge us, and Lady Rina will hear about it," Beryn threatened.
"I heard rumor she's in the hospital," Lhun said as he rummaged for another box.
"Which is why we're trying to get to Besht as soon as possible," Beryn said.
Lhun's brain must have finally made the right connections. He stared at me and the name of the ship on my sleeve. "I'll be shoved through a strainer backwards. Never thought I'd actually get to meet the famous crew of the Phoenix." He held out a greasy paw and grinned. "I heard stories about you."
"They aren't true," I said automatically. I shook his hand. He had a grip like a set of pliers. He left black marks on my hand.
"Still won't change how many stabilizers I've got," Lhun said.
"You have an Einzeg four twenty and an extra thick collar?" Beryn asked.
Lhun blinked a couple of times, staring at Beryn and wiping his greasy hands on an even greasier rag. "Might," he said. He tapped on a computer. "Should have one in the back." He trundled away through a door.
"Are you sure these will work?" I asked, poking the two boxes Lhun had left on the counter.
"We'll have to make them work, won't we?" Beryn replied. "Lhun's the only one who even listed anything close. The others cater to rich yachts."
"They'd have a ball with Lady Rina's Swan." Her ship made mine look brand new.
I poked through the assortment of bits that littered the counter while we waited. Beryn read notices posted to the walls. Lhun eventually came back carrying a filthy box. It was still sealed. I hoped that was a good sign.
"Spilled a bit of engine grease on it a while back," Lhun said as he slit the seal. "Couldn't sell it because the box was dirty. You won't believe how picky these rich people can be." He opened the box and displayed the stabilizer as if it was a jeweled tiara.
Beryn took it and turned it over, checking the connectors. Lhun proffered the extra thick collar. Beryn set the stabilizer back and examined the collar. "Same specs as the other," he said to me.
"Can we make it work or will we just blow the new ones?" I asked.
"As long as they're balanced in pairs, it should work. Might handle a bit differently."
"It has to handle better than no stabilizers. We'll take the three," I said to Lhun.
He typed on his computer. "Five twenty," he said.
"That's either way too low or much too high, depending on where you put the decimal," I said.
"Family prices, Lhun, or I talk to Caid." Beryn gave Lhun a grin with lots of teeth.
"Three seventy," Lhun said with a sigh. "That's a loss for me."
"You're moving merchandise that would otherwise just rust." Beryn collected the two older stabilizers with relatively clean boxes and the collar.
I forked over credits. Lhun made them disappear. He smiled. I wished he hadn't. His breath smelled awful.
"Good doing business with you," he said.
I picked up the greasy box. I had to hold it next to me, stabilizers are heavy. Good thing I wasn't attached to my sweater. I wasn't sure I'd ever get it clean. I picked my way through ankle deep snow back to the ship. Beryn was a shadow in the night ahead of me.
Jasyn waited for us outside. Snow caught in her long hair, white crystals that stood out against the dark silk. She looked gorgeous, as always.
"It's beautiful," she said. "I love fresh snow."
"It's cold," I said. "If you like it so much out here, you can help with the stabilizers. Someone has to be outside." Sitting in the snow most likely, I thought but didn't say. It would have to be Beryn because I was the only one small enough to squeeze into the access tunnel to reach the inside part and no one else knew enough about engineering.
"I get to help unload cargo," she said. "I already took care of port fees. The transport should be here soon. They're bringing us cargo for
Besht. And before you ask," she said opening the hatch for me, "Clark, Larella and Jerimon are helping with the cargo. You get Mart and Beryn."
I carried the greasy box inside and down to the engine room. Two of the access ports were on either side of the engine. The one we'd already replaced was the easy one to reach. The other one required crawling under the engine and down a cramped tube. The other two were squeezed in between the small cargo bay attached to the lounge and the bigger aft cargo bays. More tight tunnels to crawl into.
Beryn was in the engine room, filling his pockets with tools. "You all right with the inside?" he asked me.
"I'm the only one who'll fit," I said. "Besides, it might actually be warm."
Mart came down the steps into the engine room. "Jasyn sent me to help."
"You know any engineering?" Beryn asked.
Mart shrugged.
"Take these," I said, handing him an armful of tools. "You can pass me things." I nudged the greasy box with my foot. "Let's do this one first."
I squirmed in under the engine and popped off the access cover. It was going to be a long night.
By dawn, I'd managed to skin every single one of my knuckles. The bolts were, of course, corroded on. The only way to get them loose was to bash them with the biggest wrench. Several of them broke off. It wasn't a night I wanted to remember. Cold air blew in constantly through the open fittings. I was shivering and frozen long before we were through. There were only two things that were even remotely good about it. I learned new swear words from Beryn, and we found out Mart knew something about tools. He gave me exactly the tool I asked for. Every time. Without asking what it looked like first.
It was snowing again when we finished. The others had unloaded the cargo and loaded the new cargo hours before. They were waiting in the cockpit when I finally emerged from the access tube. Mart took the tools to put away.
"Ready to calibrate?" Clark asked me. "Beryn said he just had to pick up bits and he was done."
"Then we're ready." I hovered behind them.
"Go get cleaned up," Jerimon said. "We do know what we're doing."
"That sweater is a total loss," Jasyn said.
I looked down. I was covered in greasy blotches. Large loops of yarn dangled from the sweater. "Next time we get uniforms, we get heated jackets to match."
"Nice sturdy ones that don't stain," Jerimon said, grinning.
"Give me the reading on the lower starboard," Clark said.
Jerimon swiveled back around.
I left to shower.
Chapter 13
The trip to Besht was short, not quite two days. There were no further revelations from or about Mart. Larella wore normal clothes. Jerimon refused to play cards with me. They set up a four way Crystals game that lasted the whole trip. Mart played with Ghost, who was ignoring me for some catly reason. She moved slower, her belly getting noticeably thicker. Larella spent most of the time imitating Jasyn and doing her nails. Jerimon had a hard time concentrating on his game. He spent too much time ogling Larella.
I made a new hiding spot in the control room, disguised to look like part of the underside of the control board. I didn't have anything to hide in it. There were two others in the control room already. And a dozen others in different spots in the ship. It kept me occupied until the reentry alarm sounded.
Besht was very busy. I was very glad the stabilizers worked. The top ones were overpowered and tended to push the nose down. It took a few minutes to figure out how to compensate without stressing the lower pair. The approach vector was convoluted, putting us in a holding pattern with a dozen other ships waiting for berths at four of the five orbiting stations. The last station was Patrol only. No one landed on Besht in anything larger than a transport shuttle.
Besht was a crossroads between the inner worlds, where we'd been, and the outer worlds, the frontier and fringe worlds of the Empire and the few scattered worlds beyond. Space around it was clogged with a huge variety of ships, vast tankers and cargo ships; enormous passenger liners, glittering with lights and every luxury possible; private yachts that ignored traffic directions and set ground control to squawking; smaller ships like ours transporting every item imaginable; and of course a full complement of Patrol cruisers and couriers. They weren't chasing us, so I tried to ignore their presence.
Jasyn called ground control back and tried to argue them into giving us priority docking clearance. She didn't have any luck.
"Time to call in favors," she muttered. She placed another call.
"Give me another reading ahead," Clark asked Jerimon who was running the scans.
I kept the engines and stabilizers balanced while Clark maneuvered us around and through traffic. I heard Larella talking with Mart in the lounge. Ghost decided she liked me again and tried to jump into my lap. I pushed her away. She stalked out of the cockpit, offended and swishing her soft tail.
"Tenison," Jasyn greeted someone over the com, she put it on speaker so we could listen in. "How's business?"
"That you, Jasyn Pai?" The voice was deep, thick with an accent I couldn't place. "Business isn't too good. You heard about Lady Rina?"
"It's why we're here," Jasyn said. "How is she?"
"It was bad," he answered. "She was in the hospital three days before she recovered enough to bully her way back out. She's in retreat at her estate. She sent out a priority call to you ten days ago. What took so long?"
"Ship trouble, mostly, and we were at Verrus. It's going to be another six hours before we can even dock."
"Let me talk to control," Tenison said. "Station Four is the least busy today. I'll get you set up with a private shuttle waiting at Frenkom's berth."
"Thanks, Tenison," Jasyn said warmly. "You're a doll."
"Right back at you, sweetheart," he said. "Give me five minutes."
Jasyn clicked the connection off and leaned back, smiling smugly.
"Who's Tenison?" I asked.
"I'm the one who should be jealous," Clark said. "He called you sweetheart." He shot a quick glance at Jasyn.
"He calls everyone sweetheart," Jasyn said, "or something I refuse to repeat. He's one of Lady Rina's business managers. She borrowed him from the Lutherian clan years ago and he refused to go back. You two really should pay better attention."
We stuck to our holding pattern. Control called, ten minutes later, to give us a priority course and docking berth on Station Four.
"That was fast," Jerimon said.
"If you listened you'd know," Jasyn said. "Most of the station crew is Family. Not Lady Rina's clan, but they still respect her. She's the richest person this side of the inner planets."
"Who's going down?" I asked. The cockpit was full of silence. "Someone has to stay with the ship." I still hadn't quite forgiven Lady Rina for meddling in my love life.
"Mart shouldn't be seen," Clark said.
We watched the station grow in the viewscreen.
"I don't want to leave him here alone," I said.
"Lady Rina will curse us if any of us stay here," Jerimon said.
"I'll stay with him," Larella said behind us.
"What about it, Mart?" Clark asked.
"Someone has to take care of the cat," Mart said. He frowned over my shoulder at the station. "I've been here before."
"All the more reason you should stay hidden," Clark said.
"Larella and I will stay here," Mart said.
"While the rest of us go to visit the dragon queen," I muttered.
"Be nice, Dace," Jasyn said. "She hasn't said anything about your soul mate in almost a year."
"Yes, she has, but you weren't there," I said as I slowed us, waiting for the autodocking sequence to kick in and steer us the rest of the way. "And, for your information, she wasn't referring to Jerimon."
"Which is why you're still on speaking terms with her," Clark said and grinned.
"We still could have made it work," Jerimon said.
"Only in your dreams, Jerimon," I answered.
> "I think you've found different interests," Jasyn said.
Larella blushed. Jerimon looked guilty. I laughed.
"Good for you, Larella," I said.
"I haven't done anything," Jerimon protested.
"Yet," Jasyn said. "Just be warned, Larella, he'll probably try to kiss you next time he gets you alone. It's his standard method of dealing with females under the age of forty."
"No, it isn't," Jerimon protested.
The station took over control for the last fifty yards. We drifted closer to the docking clamps. I swiveled partway around. Jerimon's ears were pink.
"I learned better," he muttered, keeping his back firmly turned to Larella. He wouldn't look at me, either.
"Ask Lady Rina about Jerimon's soul mate, sometime," I said to Larella.
"Don't be mean," Jasyn said to me. "She admits she might have misread the cards that time, although she says it was most likely your uncertain aura that messed up the reading."
"I can think up a better excuse than that," I said. "She just doesn't want to admit her matchmaking skills are terrible."
"I dare you to say it to her face," Clark said.
"If either of you say anything of the sort," Jasyn said as the docking clamps locked around the ship, "neither of you will eat anything but freeze dried chicken noodle for the next month. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner."
"That isn't fair," I protested. Jasyn knew how much I hated the stuff.
"Then be nice," Jasyn said.
The ship nudged home. We shut it down in record time and gathered what few belongings we needed for several days away.
"There's plenty of food," Jasyn told Larella. "Just heat up what you want. If you need anything, call Tenison directly." She wrote down the contact information for Larella.
"And keep Mart out of sight," Larella said, smiling.
"Why do I feel like the naughty child?" Mart asked.
"Have you been one?" Jasyn teased.
I felt a cold shiver in my belly remembering Mart telling me he'd killed the children.
Mart smiled back at Jasyn, like any male would. "I'll be good."
"And we'll see what we can find out," Jasyn said. "Quietly and discreetly, which means Dace won't be the one asking."