A Brother's Debt (13 page)

Chapter Twenty-Four

A groan signalled Step’s return to consciousness.

“Thank the Gods; I was beginning to think you were never going to wake.” Jay gave a sigh of relief as he slid down off the counter he had been using for a seat and approached the couch. “How do you feel?”

“Like my head’s been split open. What did she hit me with?” Step swung his legs round and slowly pushed himself up into a sitting position, stifling both the desire to groan in pain, and the urge to empty his stomach, as he did so.

“This.” Jay displayed the length of chain. “Where it came from I couldn’t say. I can’t imagine she had it on her, or she’d have used it on you when she was trying to get out of the pod.”

“No wonder I feel like shit.” Step eyed the chain, which still had some of his blood on the last couple of links, and then pushed himself off the couch so he was standing. He had to keep a hand on the couch to maintain his balance as a wave of dizziness quickly washed over him. “How much damage did she do to me?” he asked, tentatively lifting his other hand to his head to feel the bandage that made his head almost twice its usual size.

“There’s a reason you feel like your head’s been split open, it has. You’ve got a gash about four inches long running from the side of your head down to your cheek, it’s skull deep,” Jay told him. “You were incredibly lucky; the chain caught you between your ear and your eye, a bit to either side and you’d have either lost one or the other. As it is she probably cracked your skull, there isn’t the equipment here to tell, not that I would know how to work it if there was.

“Most likely you’re going to have a killer of a headache for the next few hours, longer probably.”

“You’re not kidding.” His entire head was throbbing, and he would have liked nothing more than to lie back down and close his eyes until the pain went away. He knew that wasn’t an option however, not given the situation, so he forced himself to stay on his feet. “Have you given me anything for the pain? If you have you need to up the dosage, because it’s not working.”

“No, I didn’t know if there was anything around here to give you, and I didn’t want to waste time looking. I thought it best to get you patched up while you were out of it and couldn’t feel what I was doing.”

Step nodded, and immediately realised it was imprudent of him to do so. Nodding only increased the throb in his head and brought back the desire to puke. With slow steps he crossed the small med unit to look for the pain relief he knew was in one of the cupboards. He’d found it while checking the unit during the flight from Hanratty Station to Barth, he just couldn’t remember where it was right then.

When he found the anaesthetic he filled a hypo spray and injected a dose into his neck; he sighed in relief as it took effect and the throbbing subsided. “Okay, now I can think, where’s the girl? And what’s she doing?”

“No idea, on both counts. I haven’t seen her since I took the chain from her and brought you up here. All I can tell you for sure is that she isn’t in either the bridge or the engine room.

“After I finished patching you up I went and secured both areas, once I had made certain she wasn’t in either place. I wasn’t too fussed where she was, or what she was doing, as long as she couldn’t mess anything up on the bridge or in the engine room.”

“Good thinking. Did you change our course so we can check out the freighter she came from?”

“I did, once I managed to get the freighter’s location from the pod. We’ve got,” he consulted his chronometer, “about five hours before we should get there. I programmed the nav computer to stop and alert us when we’re an hour away. Since we don’t know why the escape pod was launched I thought it best for us not to approach the ship until you woke, especially since we won’t have a clue what we’re getting into until we’re right on top of it.”

“The first opportunity I get I’m having the long range sensor repaired, preferably replaced, even if it costs me every spare credit I’ve got,” Step said, more to himself than to Jay. “This is not a good region of space to be flying around practically blind.

“In the meantime, we’d better find the girl, and do what we can to convince her we’re not monsters intent on doing horrible things to her; though in your case that could be tricky. Let’s hope she hasn’t found the laser pistols we took from Dollier’s men.”

“Gods, I hadn’t thought of that.” Jay looked aghast. “I should have locked them away.”

“Too late to worry about it now; either she’s found them or she hasn’t.” Step waved his hand in front of the sensor at the side of the door, which promptly slid open.

With Jay right behind him Step left the med unit, though he stopped almost straight away. “Do you hear that?” he asked, cocking his head so he could listen more intently. Not waiting for his friend to answer he moved off to his left down the companionway.

He entered the crew rest area in just a few moments and turned to his left again. Cautiously he stepped round the doorway and entered the galley, where he discovered the source of the noises he had heard upon leaving the med unit. The girl was eating, and the noises were that of a spoon clacking against the side of a bowl.

When she heard him enter the galley the girl dropped the spoon and snatched up a knife that was sitting at the side of the bowl. “Keep away or I’ll hurt you again,” she warned, waving the knife in front of her.

Jay edged past his friend and moved towards the girl; Step laid a hand on his arm to stop him however. “It’s alright, we’re not coming any closer,” Step reassured her. He gestured for Jay to leave, which he did after a brief hesitation, and then backed out of the galley himself. He didn’t go far, only back into the rest area. Once there he crossed his legs and sank to the floor, in sight of the girl in the galley. “Hi, I’m Stepanovich, but everyone calls me Step, it’s easier for people to remember. The big guy with the scary face is Jay, or J.V.. What’s your name?” he asked, keeping his voice soft, though loud enough to reach the girl, and as pleasant as he could make it. “Do you remember what happened? Why you were in the escape pod?” he queried when she didn’t respond to his first question, or his introduction.

Her head bobbed once, then twice, as she nodded. “Pirates. We were travelling to Jelas, daddy said he could get work there. They attacked the ship. Are you pirates as well?” she suddenly demanded, stabbing the knife forward as if she could jab him with it from a dozen feet away.

“No,” Step said with a laugh. “Though I’m not surprised you might think so, Jay does look a bit like a pirate.” He glanced over at his friend, whose wild hair, kept out of the way by a vivid bandana, and generally dirty appearance would most likely not have been out of place on board a pirate vessel. “This is a cargo ship, we’re carrying grain to Onegal 3; we’re definitely not pirates.”

“I don’t believe you.” The girl waved the knife wildly in front of her as if fending off an attack. “You’re pirates, and you’ve kidnapped me. What have you done with my family? Where’s daddy? I want my dad!”

“We’re not pirates, and we haven’t done anything with your family,” Step assured her. “We rescued you from an escape pod, do you remember? It was,” he turned to Jay, “how long ago?”

“Two and a half, three hours ago, something like that,” Jay answered.

“You were disorientated when you came out of the pod and hit me with a chain. You’ve had the run of the ship all that time while Jay fixed me up, you caught me a good one; does this look like a pirate ship? Have you seen or heard anyone else on board?” There was an uncertain shake of the girl’s head. “There’s only Jay and me, we’re traders carrying a cargo, that’s all. I’m afraid I don’t know if your family managed to get away from the pirates, yours is the only escape pod signal we picked up.” He looked to Jay for confirmation of that, though he was sure his friend would have mentioned it if other mayday signals had been detected. “We’re heading for the freighter right now, maybe we’ll find your family when we get there, or at least discover what direction their escape pods went in.” The look on Jay’s face made it plain he didn’t hold out much hope for either of these possibilities, fortunately the girl couldn’t see it. “Come on, why don’t you tell us your name, and I’ll fix you something proper to eat while you tell us what you remember from the freighter.”

“Are you sure it’s a good idea for us to check out the freighter?” Jay asked, leaning close to Step to ensure he wasn’t heard by the girl, a note of concern in his voice. “Without long range sensors we’ll be on top of any pirates that are around before we know they’re there.”

“What choice do we have? There’s a ship out there that’s been attacked by pirates, it’s our duty to check it out and help anyone who might still be alive.”

“There won’t be anyone alive, not on the freighter. Anyone the pirates haven’t killed will have been taken so they can be sold to the mines, or whoever is willing to pay for them.” Jay sighed. “But you’re right, we have to go and check. At least now we know why we never received a distress call from the freighter, the pirates in this sector have learned to block outgoing coms before they attack a ship. Not that they have much to fear.

“I just hope if we do get caught I sell for a better price than you.” He grinned for a moment before leaving to go check on the engine, and make sure they were still on the course he had set.

Making sure to keep his hands in full view, and avoiding sudden movements, Step rose to his feet. He continued to move slowly as he approached the doorway to the galley, giving the girl plenty of time to warn him off if she wanted him to stop. “Now, what would you like to eat?” he asked when he reached the counter, careful to stay out of reach of the knife, in case she should suddenly feel threatened and lash out. “I should warn you, I’m not the greatest of cooks, and I don’t have a massive selection, but I’ll make you whatever you like from what’s available.

“I’m doing myself bacon, egg, chips, and jove,” he said opening the cupboards and taking out the various items. “Will that do you? Or would you like something else? I’m guessing you have a pretty good idea what there is to eat around here after putting that together.” He gestured to the bowl, which, from what he could see, contained an unpleasant mix of fruit, cream and chocolate.

“’s fine,” the girl said quietly. Leaving the spoon in the bowl she pushed it away and backed up, putting more space between herself and Step. She kept hold of the knife, and it remained in front of her, ready to be used, though the blade dropped a little. “Where you from?” she asked suddenly. “You talk funny.”

Step assumed she was talking about his accent, which he supposed would make him sound funny to her. “I’m from Xamefill,” he told her, unsurprised when she looked at him blankly.

“Where’s that?” she wanted to know.

“A long, long way from here, in Mulnoy space. How about you? Where are you from?”

“Dopin, it’s about twelve days away, at least that’s how long we were on the ship. Daddy said it was going to take another nine days to get to Jelas, but it would be worth it, there’s work there for him.”

“So should I call you the Dopin girl, or do you have an actual name?”

“Zialla, but only my parents call me that, I prefer Zi.”

Chapter Twenty Five

“Zialla! Stop teasing your brother.”

“He started it!” Zialla protested, punching her brother in the arm. “If he doesn’t like it he shouldn’t tease me!”

“I don’t care who started it,” her mother said sharply. “I don’t want you teasing your brother, and I don’t want you hitting him either. Don’t think I didn’t see that.”

“Yes, mother,” the young girl reluctantly agreed, though it didn’t stop her grumbling under her breath as her mother left the room, and her brother darted out behind her.

With no other source of fun available to her Zialla flopped down on her bed and reached out a hand. Turning on the cabin’s screen she scrolled through the limited selection of films the freighter had available; none of them were the sort her parents would consider suitable for her, let alone her brother, who was a year younger, but since her parents weren’t there she didn’t feel guilty about selecting one.

The film was about two thirds done when the alarm sounded.

Zialla didn’t think much of it; the alarm had rung through the ship several times during her family’s journey from Dopin to Jelas. The first time the alarm had sounded she’d panicked, as had her brother and mother, the second time she was calmer, and by the third time she’d learned that the captain of The Green Star believed in ensuring his crew was ready for anything, at any time, and conducted regular drills, and so barely thought about it.

Annoyed that the film had stopped, especially in the middle of a good action sequence, Zialla got off the bed and made for the door. With the film off the thrum of the ship’s engine through the hull became louder. It was always audible, had been since the moment they left Dopin, but now the sound was different. For a moment she couldn’t work out what was so different about the sound of the engine, other than the increased volume, and then it came to her. Beneath the steady hum she had fallen asleep to every night was a low pitched whine that set her teeth on edge.