Nika nudged the calibrator straight and turned both inputs down. She’d have to clean the left jet. But they were on course and wouldn’t need the jets for a while, so she silently followed Roystan.
She was more tired than hungry. It had been a long day and now that she had stopped all she wanted to do was sleep. From the whiteness around Snow’s mouth and eyes, he probably wanted to do the same. Would it be rude if she asked where their cabin was?
The appetizing smell of hot coffee and freshly baked bread wafted across to them as they entered the crew room. Snow brightened. So did she. She was hungrier than she realized.
The crew room was circular, with three doorways, and a central round table. An unusual design. Something to consider for Nika’s next studio, something she could use if she needed a fast exit. Screens lined the walls.
Jacques dumped a plate piled with steaming buns into the middle of the table and poured coffee for them. “Eat while it’s hot.” He patted Nika on the shoulder, awkwardly. “Not a bad job, for a modder.”
Nika snorted and took a bun. It was chewy, hot, and melt-in-your-mouth delicious. She nodded appreciatively. “For a calibrator controller, you’re a far superior cook.”
From the looks of him, Jacques was almost certainly too fond of his own food. She didn’t blame him if this was the standard he produced, but her first job for him would be a basic rejuvenation to get rid of most of the fat, and to fix any problems his unhealthy lifestyle had introduced.
His nose, at least, was a snub. The only one on the ship so far whose nose didn’t need work. Excepting Josune, but she’d had work done.
Carlos entered through one of the other doors. “Cargo’s fine. The fastenings in the large cargo hold moved but didn’t break.”
Nika took time to study him, as well. His body was covered with arcane symbols, inked, not part of a mod. Religion, or visual effect? She couldn’t tell. The image was marred by a thick pink line down his left arm. He’d spent time in a Dietel.
Carlos’s shoulders were narrow, his neck long. At a guess, he’d once been a she. If Nika had done the mod, she’d have given him broader shoulders and a more prominent Adam’s apple, to take away the slight delicacy. He didn’t look female, but the tells were there.
Josune followed Carlos. She looked ready to drop. The nerveseal was wearing off.
“Let me check you before you sit down.” Nika stood. “Outside.” Most people didn’t want an audience.
“Here will do.” Her voice was hoarse. “I need food.”
Nika checked her over quickly. Snow had done a good job. She was pleased.
“Nicely done, Snow. You could get a job as a doctor any time.”
“I didn’t study six years to become a doctor.”
She thought it might be a sore point with him. “It’s useful to know how to fix a body.” She got a mug of warm water and gave it to Josune.
“I’d prefer coffee.”
Roystan got up to get her one.
“No problem,” Nika said, soothingly. “As soon as you finish your water. We need to keep your fluids up.” She watched Josune drink. She couldn’t do anything about the burns except ensure they didn’t turn septic before they got her to a genemod machine, and keep up the fluids in the interim.
More worrying was the slight tic in her right eye.
When Leonard Wickmore had used the sparker at Nika’s shop, he’d fried all the electronics that hadn’t been protected. That little piece of electronics in Josune’s eye connected directly to her brain.
“Who did your last mod work?”
Snow sighed.
Roystan laughed. “Nika takes a serious interest in her work. She can probably tell you where you had it done.”
“I can tell you what type of machine was used. I can’t necessarily say who did it. Not unless you went to one of the big names.”
“Nika Rik Terri?” Snow asked.
Nika couldn’t stop her wince.
Josune looked at her.
Nika covered it. “Josune didn’t go to one of the masters. I’d recognize their work.”
“I went to Mattise on New Earth.”
Nika might check them out. They’d done a competent job. “I’m more concerned about the bioware. Did they do that as well?”
Josune shook her head.
“You had that before?”
Josune hesitated. Roystan moved restlessly but didn’t intervene.
“Yes.”
“The shop you went to. Either they’d had no experience with bioware or they can’t integrate other people’s designs into their own.” Nika studied Josune’s face. “It’s a nice job, but—” Right now that was working in Josune’s favor, for had it been fully integrated, the sparker jolt would have fried the electricals, possibly destroyed the eye.
The eye looked to be fine.
“It is hard to integrate bioware,” Snow said. “That’s why they have shops specializing in tech. They never do a good modding, but they don’t have to. That’s not their specialty.”
“A good modder should be a generalist as well as a specialist, Snow. There’s no excuse for shoddy workmanship.”
“They’re two different fields.”
Roystan’s handheld pinged. He picked it up. “When you open your new shop, Nika, I’m coming to you for all my work.” He flicked the channel open.
“Does the bioware still work?” Nika asked Josune.
“I haven’t tried it.”
Jacques and Carlos looked puzzled. Roystan—on the communicator—looked as if he wanted to shut her up. That meant they hadn’t known about the implant. What a waste of cutting-edge electronic equipment.
“Do you want to continue this conversation outside?”
Josune looked around the table. Shrugged. Shook her head.
“I need to see that it’s not damaged. Turn it on.” Nika would have preferred to wait until they were close to a genemod machine, or forbid Josune to use it, but who could stop someone from blinking, even by accident. Especially as her eye was already noticeably twitching. “It might have shorted. Can you still see out of that eye?” She wasn’t going to mention the potential for the sparker to short out brain synapses. There was no way Nika could pick that up without equipment.
Roystan clicked off. “Can you see, Josune?”
“I think so. But my vision has been different ever since it was put in.” Josune blinked five times. The color under her eyelid changed as light and images passed through.
“Can you access anything?”
“I don’t . . . I haven’t tried.” Josune looked at Roystan. “I’ve never tried to use it here.”
Jacques crossed his arms. “You’ve had that spy thing in your eye all this time and you didn’t tell us.”
“Nonsense, Jacques,” Roystan said. “I knew about it. Josune, you’ve linked to my handheld before. Try that.”
Carlos crossed his arms, too. “No one would have that technology and not use it.”
They’d moved together, in an unconscious solidarity.
“I want to know how she got it, and why,” Jacques said. “She said she came from a rim ship.”
“With company-quality electronics like that?” Carlos looked around at them.
Roystan said calmly, “I know where Josune’s from. I know where she got the credits for the technology. I know why she has it. She’s welcome aboard my ship.”
“She lied to us. You lied to us.”
“Roystan did not lie to you,” Josune said. “I told him after I arrived on board. You know him better than that, so don’t even think of it.”
Carlos and Jacques looked at each other.
Nika ignored them. “Can you contact Roystan’s handheld?”
The light under Josune’s eyelid brightened momentarily.
Roystan’s communic
ator beeped. He glanced at it, then nodded at Josune. He glanced at Carlos and Jacques but didn’t say anything.
“Answer it.” Nika held her breath until Josune answered Roystan, with no visible effects. “Headache?”
“A little. I’ve got face ache, and I’m starting to hurt, but that’s not the bioware.”
No, it wasn’t, but something about the way the lid drooped had changed. Nika didn’t trust the change. “Don’t use it until we can get you into a genemod machine. You’re lucky few people can integrate bioware properly. Otherwise your brain would be fried right now. And you wouldn’t have an eye.”
Snow said apologetically to Josune, “Nika doesn’t have a good bedside manner.” Like Nika, pretending there wasn’t any tension in the room.
Nika turned to Roystan. “Do you have any more nerveseal?”
Back in her studio she had a four-liter container of it, and she’d only ever used it for Alejandro’s scummy friends. In that same studio, she had two beautiful Songyans. Josune would have been in and out of one by now.
Tamati would still be in the other, almost halfway through a total body remodel. Nika rubbed her arms, cold suddenly.
“A little.”
“Josune will drop shortly. Once she starts to feel the burns.”
Roystan nodded and stood up. “And that’s soon, from what you’re saying. Come on, Josune. I’ll escort you to your cabin.”
“I’m fine.”
“She’s not fine,” Snow said. “She’s in shock.”
And he said Nika had a bad bedside manner.
“Captain’s orders,” Roystan told Josune, and indicated the door.
He stopped on the way out. “Almost forgot. That call, Jacques. That was Bellatrix Station. We have to take the secondary landing bay. The main one’s in use.”
Jacques scowled after him. “Now he tells us. We’ll have to use the small crane, and the small carts. Everything’s set up for the big one. The loads have to be rearranged.”
He stomped out.
“He should have told us about Josune,” Carlos said. “We don’t need any more lies on this ship, not right now.”
“Don’t you trust Josune?”
“I do, but that’s company-level bioware, and we’ve a company after us.”
“Would Roystan let Josune stay on the ship if he thought the two were related?” Nika didn’t think he would, but she could see he cared for her. Would he be thinking clearly?
“I suppose not.” Carlos stared broodingly at the table. He sighed, and straightened. “We’re lucky we have a calibrator. Even if it isn’t a proper one. We have to curve around the station. You can bet our flight path isn’t set for that.”
Snow collected Roystan’s and Josune’s empty plates. “You don’t need a calibrator for that. You need an experienced pilot.”
“A calibrator’s still going to make it easier.”
Nika yawned. “So if a good pilot can do it, why do you need a calibrator at all, then?” She wanted a bed.
“Nullspace.” Carlos drew a circle on the table with his finger. “Start here.” He placed his finger in the center of the circle. “Go a little way, like around a space station.” He moved his finger but didn’t lift it off the table. “Nothing. You can correct with the jets, and like Snow said, a good pilot can do that. Nullspace now.” He moved his finger to the edge of the circle. “Out by a fraction of a degree.” He moved another finger thirty degrees around the perimeter. “When you get where you’re going, you find you are a long way away from where you want to be.”
That was the last Nika heard. She fell asleep.
12
JOSUNE ARRIOLA
The nerveseal was wearing off, the pain starting to seep into Josune’s bones, scratching at her nerves so that she wanted to scream.
“How bad is it?”
She jumped. Roystan’s question in his deep voice buzzed through her body. She’d forgotten he was there.
Roystan reached out to steady her. “Careful.”
“I’m fine.” Her voice was scratchy. Had the inside of her throat been burned as well? Neither of the modders had mentioned it. “Thank you for using the calibrator to save us all, rather than just to save me.”
“Can’t say I liked it. Especially since you saved us beforehand. And you saved the calibrator.” He stopped at Josune’s door and waited for her to enter. Followed her in.
Josune sat on the bed, glad to do so. She rested her head on her knees.
Roystan knelt at her feet. “Let me get your boots.”
Josune lay back. She was too sore to argue, even though she planned to only rest a short while. “How long before we reach Bellatrix Station?” Bellatrix was next on their delivery route.
“Six hours.” Roystan hesitated over the boot he’d pulled off.
“You don’t know if it’s six hours?” But then, six hours was what it would take to get to the world if the jump had been optimal. Most jumps weren’t. Not unless they had high-level, fine-tuned, computer-controlled jets and a processor that could react in a fraction of a millisecond. Which the company ship must have had, for it had taken only two jumps to reach The Road.
He shook his head. “It’s definitely six hours. Spot on. As accurate as I could have done with brand-new equipment. She’s good, this modder of ours.”
More than good, given Nika’s handling of the calibrator.
“So what’s the problem, then?”
“We need to get you to a doctor. We can get to Atalante in two days if we skip the deliveries and go direct.”
Josune sat up fast. The pain made her dizzy. “After all that fuss about delivering our goods, don’t use me as an excuse not to do so.”
Roystan steadied her. “Maybe you should lie down again.”
“Don’t give me that, either.” The effort to stay upright was exhausting, but she wasn’t going to lie back and accept it. “Don’t make me something special because you feel guilty.”
“I’m not.”
“When I came around you were talking with Nika about getting medicine for me, when you should have let Carlos get at the calibrator. You’ll get your crew killed.”
“I’ll get my crew killed either way. Josune, please. Two minutes to listen.”
She kept her mouth shut, but only because she couldn’t talk through the pain that assaulted her after the sudden movement. She was almost grateful for Roystan’s hands, gentle against her burns. That centered her and dulled the other pains.
“Thank you.” Roystan sounded as if he’d run a marathon. “I’ve been thinking. If we deliver that load we’re walking into a trap.”
She looked up at him. He was serious.
“The company knows who we are. They know our route. They know where we’re going.” He scrubbed at his eyes, tiredly. “Us finding the Hassim won’t be a secret forever. Everywhere we go, people will be waiting for us. Just in case we did find something. Not just that company.”
They had found something, and anyone who attacked them would get that something. Josune wasn’t going to let just anyone get the Hassim data. She’d destroy it first.
The Hassim had built its reputation as a fighting ship. Deepak and Reba had both been trained in warfare. They’d trained the others. The ship itself had been heavily armed. People thought twice before attacking it. Not like The Road, which had a nonfighting crew, one cannon, and three havoc bombs.
“We need more weapons,” Josune said.
Roystan laughed. “It’s not always the solution, Josune.” His face showed naked exhaustion. “We can’t keep running. I’ll sublease the run. It’s too dangerous to continue.”
“To whom? You’ll never get your run back.”
“Captain Kahurangi will be good for it. We go way back. And she will be happy to have the work. She runs close to the breadline sometimes. Once we
drop off our modders, we’ll get new identities. Start again. A long way from here.”
Josune leaned into the warmth of his chest. It was unexpectedly comfortable. “We’ll work something out. You’ll keep your run.” Since he wanted it so much. “You’ll keep your ship. You’ll keep your crew.”
She could feel his smile, rather than see it. “Aren’t I supposed to be encouraging you, not the other way around?”
“Even captains need support.” If Feyodor had got it, it hadn’t been from Josune. “You know, until I came on board I never realized just how autocratic the Hassim was.”
Roystan chuckled, deep in his chest. “Taki Feyodor was a born dictator.”
She wanted to ask how well he’d known the other captain but didn’t want to spoil the moment. There was time enough for that later.
Provided they survived.
Roystan sighed, and gently eased her back down onto the bed. “Get some rest, Josune, since both our modders are convinced that’s what you need.”
The pain he’d been holding away by his touch came back in waves. “Airy-fairy artist types, Carlos would say.” Josune tried not to sound breathless. “What would they know?”
“For modders they make damn fine doctors.”
“I won’t tell them you said that. I believe it’s an insult.”
Snow was a surprise. He’d known how to use the cannon. He’d been in battles before. He’d dealt with battle-injured people. Josune might talk to him later, see if he had any strategies for staying alive.
Roystan knelt at her feet again. “Let me get your other boot.”
“I wonder what Nika is running from.”
Roystan grunted, which told her he knew, but he wasn’t telling.
There was also the way Nika had been so uncomfortable when Snow had mentioned the modder Nika Rik Terri, whom even Josune had heard of. What had that been about? If she hadn’t been so sure Snow would know Rik Terri, she would have considered they might be one and the same, especially with the same first name.
Stars Uncharted Page 15