“No. Oh, I don’t think so.” Jem felt cranky. Ed was probably right and he should have eaten. “Do you need to get anything else?”
“My ship is buttoned up.” She didn’t say where, and Jem assumed it was somewhere on the port. “I have everything I need with me.” She had a duffel over her shoulder, and the cat in hand.
“Ok. I’ll let Ed know that when he’s ready...” Jem headed for the galley, and food. Jade followed, since her cabin was on his way. “Ed Garcia is the new engineer.”
Maria popped out of the galley just before they reached it. Her dress was clean, if patched and mended, and the mop of black hair had been tied back out of her face. A faint bruise lay along the lower curve of her orbital bone. She was carrying a wrapped burrito, and now she offered it to Jem with a worried glance at Jade.
“Maria, this is Jade, my, er, navigator. Jade, this is Maria Garcia, Ed’s little sister and the Tanager’s new cook.”
Now both of Jade’s eyebrows went way up. “I see.”
Jem was pretty sure she did see. All the clues were there, and Jade was wiser than her apparent age. “Maria, would you make another of these for Jade? And then let your sister know we are lifting off planet.”
Her eyes got very big, but she nodded and disappeared back into the galley.
Jade looked at Jem. “Does she talk?”
He shrugged. “I think so. Just... not that I’ve heard yet. Julia makes up for it, though. She’s seven, Maria is eleven.”
“Their parents?” Jade asked.
Jem unwrapped his burrito and heard his stomach growl loudly. It smelled delicious. Maria really could cook, despite her young age. “Mother is dead, I think. Father is a mean drunk. Ed tells me he gave him money, and he’s not come after them in the two days since I picked the girls up with him.”
Jade murmured, watching him bite into the food. “But does he know where you are?”
She was very perceptive. Jem assumed Ed had mentioned the ship’s name, but he hadn’t been explicit about that. Although, with the limited traffic coming into Loki, it wouldn’t be hard to figure out.
Jem just shrugged, his mouth full. He wasn’t going to go out of his way to talk to the Garcia pater familias. The man hit small children, and Jem’s code had been forged in the brutal fires of a slum. Jade nodded, agreeing with something Jem hadn’t said, and walked away, leaving him wondering just how much she knew of his past.
Jem headed for the bridge. He needed to file a flight plan, which shouldn’t take long, and check messages before they lifted. If they could be gone in an hour, that would be great. He didn’t think it was possible, but he’d try. He also needed to send Lt. Baker a timeline, he remembered. The encounter with the lawyer had driven that whole mess out of his mind for all of five minutes.
He didn’t taste the rest of the burrito. Hands flying over the boards, he sent messages, then read new ones. Nothing required his presence on-planet, so he toggled the comm to an all-ship announcement. “This is your captain speaking. We will be departing the planetary surface of Loki in less than one hour. Once we reach orbit, we will set course for the foldspace limit and make all haste to reach that in approximately 48 hours. Please check that all cargo is secure. Captain out.”
He headed for the galley to help Maria. He’d given her a brief rundown of what needed to be done, but he didn’t know how much of it she had taken in, or remembered. It was unlikely that the Tanager would lose the inertial dampener. If she did, it would be a mess, one Jem wanted to avoid.
He found Jade, Julia, and the dog had joined Maria in the galley. Jade was showing the girls what needed to be stowed. Jem comm’ed Ed in the engine-room. “How does it look?”
“All right down here, Captain.” Ed sounded calm, with an underlying hint of excitement. Jem remembered that he had never been off-planet before, it was just that he was older than his sisters, who were calming under Jade’s influence.
“Excellent. I’ll be in the bridge.” Jem nodded at Jade, who nodded back and carried on.
He was sitting there staring at the screens and the countdown timer he’d pulled up, when Jade came into the bridge. “Reporting for duty, Captain.”
He swiveled around to look at her. “Glad to have you.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Really?”
“Yes. I’d still be stuck back there on Tianjin without your help, and I am grateful for that. The level of, er, mystery in my life since then has been a little harder to handle. But I’d have died and lost the ship twice over without you, so I owe you more than I can repay.”
She waved a hand. “Some of this was my fault to begin with, so I was obligated to help clean up my own messes. And I keep pulling you in deeper.”
Jem shrugged. “It’s certainly interesting.”
Jade laughed, then sobered. “Something you should know, as Captain.”
“What?” Jem shot her a look. What was she about to unload on him now?
“Neither of those girls can read.” Jade was looking at her board, not him. “In either English or Spanish. I didn’t ask directly, but I suspect they have never had any school.”
Jem gaped. “Doesn’t Loki...?”
“Yes, there are schools, and a required education level. It’s possible Garcia never registered them in the system. Which would be fine, had he taken care of their learning in some other way.”
“Well. We will have to do something about that.” Jem pointed at the countdown clock. “Once we are underway.”
Jade just grinned and shook her head. Jem toggled the comm and intoned. “This is your captain speaking. All hands, prepare for liftoff.”
Chapter 34: Lalibele
The notable thing about Lalibele, Jem reflected later, was that nothing happened. This wasn’t strictly true, but nothing that was dramatic or galaxy-shaking happened. He’d had a polite conversation with the RCMP ship, who had loitered at long-range from the Tanager the entire time she was in-system. The reactions at the station ranged from excited about the pirate attack, to not knowing a thing about it. Jem had decided that when he got that response, he’d pretend it hadn’t happened. It wasn’t, after all, a good thing for a trader to seem like they were going to be attacked and robbed when you were promising safe transport for goods.
The only tidbit of any interest to pass back to Lt. Baker he’d been able to send her before they left orbit, the visit and strange behavior of Lawrence Southard, lawyer. Lalibele itself had been smooth enough to be nearly boring. Ed’s cargo handling was genius, and Jem was already wondering if he should hire another engineer and just hand the loading and offloading to Ed. Ed seemed to thrive on the pressures of doing both, though, and Jem himself knew he’d done it all, so Ed should be able to keep up his end.
Jem had spent much of his time during the transit beginning to teach Julia and Maria to read and write. He remembered how Walter had approached it, which had mostly been to convince him why he needed to read, and then to throw everything he could find at Jem when Jem showed any interest in a topic. This was working for Maria, who had figured out that with numbers and words, she could deduce the mysteries of recipes. That had led to some... interesting meals, and Jem was already regretting sparking that passion, but there was no turning back.
Julia was being oddly stubborn about it. Nothing Jem had tried out on her got her past sounding out letters woodenly and resisting any attempts to coax her into learning numbers. He’d tried dog books, thinking that since she adored Eby, that might work. Jade had tried putting word stickers on everything, which Jem didn’t think had worked, except there was one little thing... the word ‘cat’ had turned up on Twenty, the actual cat. Jade had asked him, and then Ed, if it was their idea of a prank, but neither of them had done it. Which left either Maria, who was a very prim and proper good girl... or Julia.
Jem, as they left Lalibele, pulled out all the stops. He’d collected a very interesting specimen in the market there, and almost casually, he presented it to Julia.
“Th
is is a Pteromys momonga.” He was holding a ball of fluff, smaller than his palm. It blinked huge, sleepy eyes at the little girl when he held it out to her.
“Teromise?” She attempted the word he’d said.
“Close enough. We have a bunch of these guys, to sell as pets. I need you to take care of this one, though.”
She took it from his hand, holding it gently in both of hers. The little gray furball uncurled and grasped her thumb with its tiny hands, flirting its tail and chittering. “Ooh!” she held it out.
“I think it’s hungry.” Jem casually set the booklet he’d printed out down on the table. “I’ve got, um, stuff to do.”
Jade intercepted him outside the galley where this had taken place. “She’s only seven, you know.”
“And?” Jem asked, not hiding his grouchiness. He still wasn’t happy with her for withholding so much information from him.
Jade sighed. “She has time before you push her. Many children don’t learn to read even by her age.”
“I really think she already can, and she’s just being naughty. Who else would have labeled the cat?”
“Don’t be so irritated with her. She’s not the one you’re mad at.” Jade pointed at her open cabin door. “Step into my office.”
Jem stepped. Her cabin was nearly bare, no great surprise since she had no possessions that he’d seen other than the cat and a few changes of clothes. She closed the door behind them and pointed. “Have a seat.”
She sat on her bunk, and he took the only chair. “Look, I know you’re resentful of the way I dole out data.”
“I know there are things I’m not supposed to know. Which is, yeah, an irritant.” Jem shrugged. “It’s mostly that I feel like I’m flying with a blindfold on. Might have been easier if I didn’t know that I was blindfolded.”
“I’ve told you... more than I’ve told anyone now alive.” She buried her face in her hands for a minute, pushing her fingers through her hair. “Moskvin doesn’t even know all of how I came to be... what ever I am.”
“If it helps,” Jem offered, his voice low, “I think you’re very human. Which is probably part of the problem.”
She tipped her head and looked up and him with one eye through her fingers. “Oh?”
“You’re a creature of habit. And you’ve gotten into the habit of keeping everything a secret, and anyone who gets close, you push away.” Jem leaned back, tipping the chair until his back was against the bulkhead. He hadn’t been in this cabin for a while, and it seemed smaller. Or maybe he’d grown. “Look, I know you aren’t really crew. And that you’ll go jauntering off again with your mystery ship. And cat. I’m just puzzled why you’ve stayed on so long. Once we were clear of Tianjin you were free to go.”
“Ready to be rid of me, I can tell.” She sat up and smiled at him. “You remind me of someone. I knew him a long, long time ago. You’re right, there’s no need for me to stay. I’ve stayed because I needed you. Well, you and the dog and now? The girls and Ed. Family used to be the core of my life, and I haven’t dared look at that fact for a long time.”
She sat there staring at a spot over his head for a long moment. Jem kept his silence and let her think. She spoke again, slowly. “I got close, with Thaddeus and his family. It was tempting, they were so welcoming. But I didn’t yet know what I was. Who I was. The person who had become Jade Star died out there, before the Lemurians found what was left. I was lost, and confused, and very, very afraid. Afraid I’d infect this wonderful family with the alien I’d encountered. Afraid...”
Jem sat still, wondering if she would finish that. Jade shook herself visibly and looked him in the eye. “I was afraid they would reject me when they realized what I had become.”
“You killed a station.” He said it very quietly.
“I killed a world. I destroyed an alien being that for all I knew, was lying about humans on the planet. I chose to be judge, jury, and executioner. And then? I couldn’t die. Still haven’t died. Immortality is not all it’s cracked up to be, kid.”
Jem had been trying to wrap his head around how she must feel since she had first told him the story. “It didn’t make you inhuman, though. Just... practical. You were protecting your family.”
“I told myself that.” She nodded while she spoke. “That it was for my family, for Earth, for all the colonies so far. I didn’t know, then...”
She trailed off and shrugged. He understood. Two hundred years was a long time for humanity.
Jem leaned forward, letting the chair hit the deck with a thump. He leaned his elbows on his knees, so they were only inches away from one another. “Let me make something clear.”
Jade raised an eyebrow. Jem shook his head and chuckled. “Nope, that’s not working on me anymore.”
This got her to laugh softly. He kept talking. “You are always welcome aboard the Tanager. I know you have super-secret spy missions and need to spend time out chasing aliens across the galaxy. But when you feel less than human or, heck, more than human, you can come back here. We’ll hand you a greasy rag or a kitchen towel and put you to work.”
“Thank you...”
Jem interrupted her ruthlessly. “But there’s one condition. First, you need to tell me everything. I don’t like this blindfold. Because I can help you but only if I know it all. I can’t see patterns in the data if I am missing puzzle pieces. You wouldn’t have told me some of it if you didn’t have a reason. You might not have known what that reason was right then, but now you do. You need me.”
Jade tipped her head back and let a throaty laugh roll out. “Getting big for your britches, Captain Raznick!” She crowed.
Jem glared at her.
She sobered. “You’re right, kid. I think I intend to make you my successor.”
He shook his head. “I can’t be a spymaster. I’m willing to be your data manager.”
“That sounds so prissy.” She cocked her head. “Yeah, ok, for now. Data, research, pattern-seeker. Whatever you want to call it.”
“Investigator.” Jem suggested.
Her eyes glinted. “That works. And you are correct. If I am not immortal, I cannot be the bottleneck through which everything has to pass.”
“There’s another word for that.” Jem murmured, smirking.
“Oh, you!” She punched him gently in the knee. “Bad. Bad man. Just for that, I’m done talking. I want a cuppa tea.”
“Seems reasonable, I’m dry too.” Jem stood up and reached for the hatch. “Just so long as you do feel like talking, soon.”
“I promise.”
With that, they headed out to the galley, where they found Julia coaxing her new pet with an array of garden greens. It was holding a small nut in its tiny paws, which it quickly stuffed in a cheek as they came into the room.
“The book says...” Julia began, only to stop in confusion when Jem started laughing helplessly, Jade joining in after a speechless moment of open-mouth shock.
Chapter 35: Altair
The problem with Altair, Jem explained to Jade as they started their final approach, was that it was a rich world. Which in theory meant there was money to be made here, buyers for the cargo in their holds, but... “Really, it means they can afford to pick every little nit with regulations out the wazoo.” Jem paused. “Wow, that was Walter coming out of my mouth just now.”
“I thought it sounded like him, yes,” Jade offered. “You don’t channel your father often.”
“I, um, didn’t realize I did it at all.” Jem still wasn’t sure how he felt about calling Walter his father. Or thinking about him that way. He usually just opted not to think about Walter, since the wound in his heart ached when the old man came up.
“Mostly with the girls. Sometimes Ed. Once, with me.” She grinned at him.
“I came all paternal with you?” Jem didn’t remember it that way.
“Nah. Grumpy... This is Jade of the Tanager, speaking.”
Jem realized she was talking with Altair Traffic Control and shut up
. This was one place where having a navigator came in very handy, especially one who didn’t even have to consult the regs while she spun out a conversation with ATC and typed on her boards at the same time. Jem would be checking and double-checking his every move to ensure he didn’t cause a traffic violation if he were conning.
He tuned out her chatter and checked his messages. He already had consigned cargo slots being filled. Rather than a gaggle of clients showing up for loads at once, he and Ed had set up a schedule so each load would be taken, and then the next, and so on. Much more efficient for the Tanager, wasted less time for their clients. Now, he was checking that schedule to make sure they didn’t double-book anyone. In addition, Jem was making appointments to go and see cargo. He had a few clients who had regular consignments with the Tanager and they would fill much of one hold, leaving him with the other hold and some odd wiggle-room for more speculative stuff.
The tone of Jade’s voice changing got him to pay attention to her again.
“No, no. Thanks for letting me know, I’ll pass it on.” She pressed a button and fell silent.
“I thought you were talking to traffic control?” Jem could only hear her side of the conversation, since she had a headset on. She looked over at him.
“I was, but then I got a private channel ping.”
“And?” Jem prompted her.
“Moskvin sends his best.” She said reluctantly.
“But he needs you.” Jem filled in what she wasn’t saying.
“He does. He’s got a weird situation out past Flinders. Do you know Aphrodite?”
“Um.” Jem realized she wasn’t talking about mythology. “Oh! Yeah, there’s a station around Olympus. Pretentious names, poor planet.”
“That sums it up. But it’s one of the places we’ve been watching. They had an unexplained influx of funds recently.”
“Pirates?” Jem asked. He was still wondering what had happened with the men he’d captured.
“No... well, maybe. Moskvin says he hasn’t gotten enough info, which is why he needs me to come play innocent little girl.”
Tanager's Fledglings (The Tanager Book 1) Page 31