Stormcrow: Book Two: Birds of a Feather

by N. C. Reed

  “I don't think I could deal with that,” Faulks admitted after a minute. “I probably couldn't do it.”

  “I'd have said the same thing,” he shrugged. “Had to though. Only way to get it done.”

  “Well, it's done now,” Meredith tried to make him see the up side. “All we have to do now is see him again in ten days and you should be good to go. Then we'll be back in space where we belong,” she added firmly.

  Where you belong, Lincoln thought but didn't dare say aloud. He enjoyed their work, but Meredith's overwhelming need to be in space instead of on the ground sometimes wore on him a little.

  They made small talk until their food arrived, after which Linc was too busy eating to talk.

  -

  “Yes?” Tony answered his com unit, assuming it would be the Captain and preparing to tell her some kind of lie to cover himself.

  “Hey!” Jessica's voice surprised him. “Listen, we lost our cook and medic and we wondering if you'd seen him? Tall guy, dark hair, preppy dresser, smiles a lot? Hard to miss even in a crowd.”

  “I'm not a preppy dresser!” Tony shot back.

  “Oh, hey Tony!” Jessica feigned surprise. “I thought I had called the Port Police. Was going to file a Missing Persons Report.”

  “Oh, aren't you just the funny one!” Tony shot back.

  “Seriously, Linc went for his surgery this morning,” Jessica turned to business. “We're expecting them back soon and wondered if you were going to come by. Or if you were coming back at all to be honest,” she hinted. “Are you?”

  Tony hesitated for a few seconds, unwilling for some reason to lie to the girl. Damn it why couldn't he lie to her? He could lie to anyone else!

  “I'll be there in a bit,” he told her finally. “I was about to head that way in a few minutes anyway,” he almost lied. “Just had a few last things to finish up with. Sean make it back?”

  “Yeah, he's here. He's in engineering right now working on the injectors. Wanna talk to him?” she asked. “I can carry the com down to him,” she offered. “Won't take a minute.”

  “No, he's busy sounds like. I'll catch him at the ship. I'll see you in a bit, okay?”

  “Okay!” Tony cut the call and took a deep breath, then went to tell his family that he'd be back for supper.

  Probably.

  -

  “How'd it go!” Jess asked as soon as the trio cleared the lock.

  “Fine. I'm a pirate now,” Linc deadpanned, pointing to his eye patch.

  “And a dashing old pirate you are, too,” Jess smiled, hugging him. “Seriously, how did it go?” she asked Meredith.

  “It went well,” Meredith smiled at Jessica's antics. “He should be good to go in about ten days if no complications develop. Assuming they don't then we can head out after that. But we're definitely grounded for the next ten to twelve days.”

  “Well, I've got the injectors ready to put back but we can leave that til tomorrow,” Sean shrugged. “I'd say we have to celebrate this somehow,” he added, smiling.

  “If only we had a cook,” Jessica sighed. Before anyone could answer the alarm from the air lock buzzed again and Tony Giannini entered the bay. He smiled as he saw Lincoln's eye patch.

  “Ahoy, matey!” he called, walking over and wrapping an arm around the pilot's shoulder. “I'm assuming it went well? Gotta wear the patch about a week or so, right? Then back for a check up? After than you'll be released if it's all good?”

  “Did you talk to the doctor?” Meredith asked/demanded. “And where the hell have you been?”

  “No, I read up on it,” Tony said truthfully. “If something goes wrong I'd be the one who has to care for him after all. And I had some family issues come up I had to deal with. Spent a lot of time talking,” he hinted that he'd been doing his 'business' over the com without saying so. “I think things are okay now, at least for the moment. I hope it stays that way,” he said honestly. “So, I need to prepare some kind of magnificent feast in celebration of good news or what?” he grinned at Linc.

  “I'm game for that,” the pilot nodded.

  “And you owe me a goulash,” Faulks pointed out with good humor.

  “So I do, so I do,” Tony agreed at once. “And yeast rolls,” he remembered. “I'll make it for you tomorrow. All yours, I'll make something else for the rest and you can store the left overs to have when you want. Sound like a deal?”

  “More than,” Faulks agreed, happy as a clam.

  “All right then. Linc, tell me what you want and I'll get started on supper. Since we're in port, it'll be easy to get pretty much anything you want, so name it and it's done!”

  Sean Galen didn't hear the rest as he departed quietly, headed back to engineering. He had other work to do in preparation for returning the injectors to battery the next day.

  And he really didn't want to talk to Tony Giannini/Delgado right now.

  -

  Tony delivered on his promise of a celebratory feast, featuring fresh ingredients from the merchants around the port. Everyone gathered around the table as Tony loaded it down with food and soon the crew was eating heartily, celebrating the first really good news they had enjoyed in some time.

  Sean had already congratulated Lincoln of course and was quick to do so again as he raised a cup for Tony's toast to a successful surgery, but otherwise he ate quietly and then excused himself, headed back to engineering. He wanted to finish up his work so that all he and Faulks would have to do the next day was replace and align the injectors. With Jessica's help in the cockpit that work would take only a few hours. With that done he would content himself with odd jobs of maintenance and cleaning until it was time to head back out.

  He was still fuming at Tony's accusations despite trying to get over it. Lucia was his sister after all, and he had every right to be concerned about her. Sean himself had told the girl that he wasn't a good choice of company, hadn't he?

  And yet the anger still simmered. Tony's accusations about him and Lucia weren't the cause of that, he realized. It was the flat declaration that Sean was lying that had infuriated him so. The implication being that Sean would dishonor the home of his host in such a way, then lie about it.

  In the culture he had been raised in such behavior was enough to have you cast out of their society completely. You simply didn't do it. The virtue of a woman was hers to do with as she pleased once she was of age, but a woman who cast her virtue away was always looked down upon.

  Likewise, a young man who took that virtue would be looked at in the same way. If he would do something like that now, then he would do it again after being joined in marriage. No family would consent to have a daughter married to such a man.

  Crimes like rape were virtually unknown among Sean's people. The penalty for such a crime was far in extreme of anything you would find anywhere else and that tended to make even the most foolhardy young man think twice before committing such an act. On the reverse side, false accusations were dealt with just as harshly. If a woman's charge of a sexual crime was found to be false, then she would suffer the penalty that she had tried to have imposed upon the man.

  Many might consider all this far too stringent in polite society but the fact was that such harsh penalties kept those same acts, and accusations, far lower than the galaxy at large.

  This was at the core of Sean's seething anger at his erstwhile 'friend'. He knew that Tony had no idea how badly he'd insulted him and tried to use that to calm himself, but it wasn't working very well. The least the man could have done was extended Sean the benefit of the doubt given all that Sean had done with and for Tony the day before.

  “So are you going to tell me what's eating you or not?” Jessica's voice broke him from his circular thinking. He turned to see her leaning on the hatchway, arms crossed beneath her breasts.

  “Eating me?” he tried, knowing it was doomed to fail.

  “You've been in a funk of one kind or another since you got back,” Jessica said flatly. “You and Tony haven't sp
oken five words to each other and now he's left the ship again without even saying good-bye to you. You two were together off ship when we first got here and now you can't seem to stand one another. So yeah, I think eating at you is a good description.”

  “Of course it's probably not any of my business to begin with, and you can feel free to say so with no hard feelings. I'm just hoping I can help,” she told him. “I'd like the old Sean back, at least for a while,” she added with a soft smile.

  “The old Sean,” he repeated, mulling that over. “I'm not sure I know who that is,” he admitted suddenly, with no idea why.

  “Oh?” Jessica raised a fine eyebrow.

  “I've pretended a lot over the years, hiding. Trying to fit in,” he sighed, taking a break. Once again he found himself talking to Jessica without knowing why. It bothered him and yet he still did it.

  “I don't know that there is an old or 'real' me, honestly,” he shrugged. “There's just whoever I'm pretending to be at the moment, I guess.”

  “Are you pretending now?” Jessica asked.

  “I don't really know,” he was honest. “I can't seem to separate one from another any more. I made up this personality to hide from my enemies and for a while I thought it was my real personality. I think we all saw a few months back that wasn't the case,” he said wryly, referring not only to his run-in with Faulks, but also with the erstwhile kidnappers and hijackers who had injured Lincoln.

  “Well, those were extreme cases,” she reminded him.

  “True, but they still exposed the 'real' me, or at least as much of me that's real as I know of,” he sighed again, this time sadly. “I'm getting to the point where I'm confused about who I am, I think.” Why in the hell would he tell her that?

  “You're Sean Galen,” Jessica said at once. “That's exactly who you are.”

  “Yeah, but what does that mean?” Sean asked her. “What does it mean to be Sean Galen? Who is he? What is he?”

  “He's a really good guy who has had a really hard time,” her voice was gentle. “Yeah, he's a little rough around the edges, sure. But he's loyal, he's intelligent, and he's straight as an arrow honest. Any of those three qualities are enough to make a man sought after and respected Sean. All three of them together? I'm shocked some girl hasn't snatched you up and made an honest man of you,” she grinned.

  “No woman needs a man like me,” he told her flatly, thinking back to Lucia Delgado. “I'm nothing but trouble, Jessica. No matter how good a guy you think I am, I'm still nothing but trouble. No matter what I do or where I end up, I'm going to be a trouble magnet, especially anywhere near the Commonwealth.”

  “It won't be that way forever, Sean,” she tried to encourage him.

  “It will be for long enough that I'll be old and gray before it stops,” Sean snorted. “Anyway, nothing's eating me at the moment. I'm just working now so I don't have to work later.”

  “Sure,” Jessica nodded, her voice indicating she didn't believe a word of it. “Well, if you need any help let me know, okay?”

  “Will do.”

  -

  “Are you still mad at me?” Tony asked his sister. He was standing in the door to her suite, leaning on the door frame.

  “Yes,” she replied at once, though without heat. “I asked you to stay out of my business and you didn't. You might have ruined things for me before they even got off the ground. Thanks for that by the way,” she added, this time more acidic.

  “Look, Luce,” Tony straightened. “Sean is not the kind of guy-”

  “If you finish that I will be mad,” Lucia told him flatly. “I mean really mad. I already told you I'd find out what kind of guy he is or isn't on my own. I don't want your opinion of him, I want my own.”

  “Lucy, Sean is-”

  “One more word, brother, and we are done,” her voice was flat. Final. “I'm not playing. If you can't even respect me this little bit, then there's no real reason for me to continue treating you like my brother. I'll just start treating you like you usually do others. Try me,” she added when he started to object.

  “Don't say I didn't try to warn you,” he settled for saying finally. “Good night,” he added, walking away angrily. She watched him go before closing her door and locking it.

  She had work to do.

  -

  Antonia sat back in her chair, having made the arrangements that her daughter had requested. The mother in her felt a tendril of unease still at what he daughter was planning, and yet the woman in her that had left her entire way of life behind for a man she wanted admired her Lucia for her strong will. She would not be denied and was not above using a bit of to get her way.

  Her father would have a fit of course, but Antonia was sure she could handle that. He would have to accept sooner or later that Lucia was grown. While she would always be their little girl, she was not in fact a little girl anymore. Jerome would have to learn to treat her as a grown woman. Antonia had made some security arrangements for this plan of her daughter's in any case that should ensure her safety as she carried out her bit of subterfuge.

  She smiled slightly as she imagined a future where Lucia really did get Sean Galen to settle down. Seeing Jerome with a son-in-law he could in no way buffalo or dominate would be worth whatever trouble helping her daughter caused her.

  And making up was always fun, too.

  -

  Tony was back in time to make breakfast the next morning and stayed with the ship afterward, checking on Linc during the day and applying his drops for him, as he had the ointment the previous evening before departing the ship.

  “Looks good,” he told the pilot. “I'm not the surgeon of course, but I don't see any swelling and not much irritation or redness. Can you see at all?”

  “It's a little blurry still, but yeah,” Linc nodded. “Honestly, I think I can already tell a difference. But then I don't know if that's cause I want to so badly, or because there really is one,” he admitted.

  “That's just natural,” Tony assured him. “I'll do this again after lunch.”

  “Are you going to leave us, Tony?” Linc asked as he stood.

  “What makes you ask that?” Tony asked.

  “You've been gone a lot, and you didn't make any secret about how excited you were to be here,” Linc shrugged. “Just curious. If you are I don't and won't hold it against you,” he promised. “I'm just wondering.”

  “I'm not planning on it,” Tony said, more or less honestly. “I can't promise that if the right thing, or the right girl,” he grinned, “came along that I wouldn't, but at the moment I'm not planning on it.”

  “I'm glad,” Linc replied. “We'd miss more than your cooking around here.” With that Linc departed, leaving Tony alone with his thoughts.

  He had to go talk to Sean sooner or later. He'd put it off this long hoping that Sean would come to him, but that apparently wasn't going to happen. He had hoped to have some semblance of high ground when dealing with the assassin, since that was about all he could hope for.

  He knew he'd pissed Sean off in a major way, just not exactly how he'd done it other than it was something he'd said the morning he'd seen Lucia coming out of Sean's room. He had more or less called Sean a liar, he remembered. A man with Sean's background might take that a lot harder than the people Tony was accustomed to dealing with.

  And then there was still the issue of his sister. No matter how good a friend he considered Sean Galen, seeing the man hook up with his baby sister was just not something he was willing to deal with. Sean's hands were covered in blood, literally, and Lucia didn't need that in her life. For that matter, she was still unaware that Sean was the one who had killed Roberto. He wondered how she would react to that. Was it worth the risk to tell her himself? Risk her wrath or that of his parents to get her to drop this infatuation she had with the former assassin?

  That would be a pretty sorry thing to do he admitted to himself a minute later. And it might get his mother in a world of trouble if word got out. No, bet
ter to let that cat stay in the bag, he decided. He'd have to find some other way to turn her attention away from Sean.

  But he still needed a way to fix things between him and the engineer. Especially if he was planning to stay.

  -

  He found Sean in engineering, he and Faulks wrestling the last of the injectors back into place while Jess worked the attitude adjustments from the cockpit ensuring that everything was aligned properly.

  “One more time like that, Jess,” Sean was saying, his eyes on the intake before him. The engineer's eyes followed something Tony couldn't see as Jess did whatever it was she was doing up front.

  “That's it, Jess,” Sean called over the wireless. “We're good to go looks like. Thanks for your help.”

  “You're welcome,” her voice came through the speaker a bit tinny but clear. “I'm shutting the system back down now.”

  “Okay, we're done here all but the cowling.” He set the radio aside, looking at Faulks.

  “Thanks for the help,” he told her kindly. “I could maybe do it alone, but it would be a real bitch to do.”

  “No problem,” Faulks assured him. “Gotta earn my pay some way or another,” she shrugged. “Need help with that?” she asked. Sean looked toward the hatch to see Tony standing there and frowned slightly before he could catch it.

  “Nah,” he shook his head after a few seconds. “I can get it. It's not nearly the problem that the rest is. Besides, I need to clean up here first and there's no point in you having to hang around for that. If I do need help I'll shout.”

  “Fair enough,” Faulks nodded and departed, leaving the two men some privacy.

  “What do you want?” Sean asked neutrally. “I'm busy.”

  “I can see that,” Tony managed to bite off his usual sarcasm at the last second. “I just wanted to talk for a minute. I know I pissed you off, but I'm not sure exactly how. I'm guessing that it was because I questioned your story about Lucia being in your room at the mansion. Right?”

  “Yes,” Sean's voice was flat. “Not that it matters. Like I said then; your house, your rules. That it?”

  “Sean, man, don't be like that,” Tony tried again, using his 'like me' tone of voice and trying to strike a reasonable pose. “I said I was sorry, and I meant it. Seeing my sister coming out of your room like that just wasn't something I was prepared to see. Gimme a break here.”