Dark Beneath the Moon (29 page)

“I don’t suppose you’re particularly interested in getting to Nearspace quickly,” I said to her.

“On the contrary, I’m anxious to get out of this backwater,” she said. She stared pointedly at our drinks.

Sighing inwardly, I said, “Can I offer you something more to drink?”

“Do you have
cazitta
?”

“I’ll get it,” Yuskeya offered, leaving me to continue my conversation with Sord.

“You were saying you’ll be happy to get back to Nearspace?” I said.

She nodded. “And if there’s about to be another war with the Chron, well, that will open up all kinds of possibilities for me. War is, sadly, often good for business.”

I narrowed my eyes. “You do understand that I’m planning to turn you over to the Protectorate at the earliest opportunity?”

She smiled as she accepted a mug full of dark, licorice-scented
cazitta
from Yuskeya. “Hey, thanks, Protectorate,” she said, casually dismissive.

I saw Yuskeya’s lips press into a tight line, but she didn’t say anything as Sord continued.

“Yes. And you should understand that I expect my employers to extricate me from any trouble I might find myself in as the result of taking on a job for them.”

“You think PrimeCorp will get you out of this?”

Sord merely shrugged. “I’m not naming names. But I’m confident enough to not worry too much about it. That’s all I’m saying.”

I leaned back in my chair and studied her. “You’ll forgive me if I don’t entirely trust you.”

“Don’t blame you a bit. But there’s nothing—absolutely nothing—for me here. I don’t have my ship, I don’t have any way to retrieve it, and I damn sure can’t see these crows needing my services anytime soon.”

Rei turned slightly in her chair, facing Sord. “So your job, the one that got you into this mess, was simply to deliver a message to Captain Paixon for PrimeCorp?”

Sord took a slow sip of
cazitta.
“I don’t believe I’ve said who engaged my services. Or if there was more than one. But the message was part of my task, yes.”

“Then what was all that messing around with flash-pack torpedoes and following us out to the Delta Pavonis system but not contacting us there?”

“Gather information, deliver a message,” Sord said. “It’s no secret that some corporations have an interest in Captain Paixon and her family—in all of you. They like to know where everybody is, what they’re doing. What their capabilities might be. How I get the information isn’t important. I take what opportunities I see.”

“And Baden was one of those opportunities,” Maja said evenly.

Sord smiled at her. “Every job has its perks.”

This was turning into a conversation I’d hoped to have with the woman in private, when time and circumstances permitted. I steered the talk around to the general topic of what we should do.

“Despite all the concerns—and they are valid ones—I don’t think we have any viable options but to try the route Fha showed us.”

“So can these crows give us anything else? Weapons, other tech?” Sord asked. “They seem pretty advanced, and unlike the Chron, they don’t want to kill us, so that’s promising.”

Yuskeya turned a cold eye on her. “We’re already planning to ask them that. They may or may not have tech that can help us, or be willing to share it. And stop calling them crows,” she added.

“Sorry,
Cor-vids
,” Sord said with exaggerated emphasis. “Anyway, why are you still talking about it? Get all the help you can from these aliens and get the hell out of here. If you have to blow a few Chron ships out of your way, so be it. That’s a few less to come blasting the crap out of Nearspace.”

“Well, I like to get as many different viewpoints as I can when making important decisions. And now I certainly have yours.” I stood up, pushing my chair out of the way. “Thanks, everyone. I’ll let you know in a little while what I’ve decided.”

I walked the length of the galley, then turned and crooked a finger at Jahelia Sord. “I’ll escort you to your quarters,” I said. “Feel free to take your drink with you.”

She came without protest, which didn’t surprise me. I wouldn’t have been surprised if she’d refused, either. She was a wild card, this mercenary we’d somehow wound up with, and I wouldn’t place bets on anything she would or wouldn’t do. I wondered what she and Maja had talked about.

“Your meeting with Baden wasn’t chance,” I said to her as we passed the weapons locker.

She turned her smile on me. “I don’t leave much to chance,” she said, and winked.

“I don’t take it well when people mess with my crew,” I told her. “Luckily, Baden seems to have come out of his encounter with you unscathed.”

We were at her door now, the hallway between her quarters and the galley being short. “He didn’t tell me anything he shouldn’t have, in case you’re worried,” she said, leaning against the closed door and cradling her mug in both hands. “Not that I didn’t try to worm some things out of him. But he was mainly a way for me to be sure I had the right ship.”

I met her gaze. “I wasn’t worried,” I told her. “Do you have the plasma bar that was on the door?”

She opened the door and reached inside, relinquishing the bar to me without apparent shame.

“Care to tell me . . .?”

Sord pursed her lips, her eyes surveying me coolly. Then she shrugged. “There’s an override code, pretty standard encryption, built into the OS for the ship system. A little scrap of code that never really gets upgraded because it hardly ever gets used.”

“And you know this, how?”

She laughed. “Come on, you’ve checked my history by now. I’m a techdog. I know this stuff. Ask your Mr. Methyr. He probably knows about it too, but forgot it even existed.”

“So you could have left your room anytime? Why’d you wait until now?”

Her eyes turned challenging. “Who says I waited?”

I sighed. These kinds of games made me tired. “How many more of these little surprises do you have?”

She grinned. “Hey, I’d be crazy to endanger the ship while we’re stuck in this godsforsaken system. I know it’s my ticket—my only ticket—out of here.”

“But once we get to Nearspace, all bets are off? Just so we understand each other.”

“I think you’re starting to get the picture.”

I folded my arms. “Why do I get the feeling you don’t particularly like me, Sord? On a personal level, I mean. I think I’ve treated you pretty well. Some people would have been tempted—more than tempted—to leave you on your ship. Anybody questioned it, I could have said there was no answer when we commed you, so we thought you were dead.”

She shrugged. “You’re one more job to me, Captain. Get information, deliver a message. It’s not a question of liking or disliking.”

I studied her, trying to decide if that rang true or not. I couldn’t think of any reason she’d have a grudge against me—and she was prickly with everyone on board—but there was an edge in her voice when she spoke to me, like an extra layer of whatever she was projecting at the moment. Sarcasm, or disdain, or plain dislike.

“One more question,” I said. “What do you know about PrimeCorp’s actual plans involving my mother?”

“What makes you think I’d tell you if I knew anything?” She cocked her head at me, and the veneer of hostility fell away. She really was curious.

“Seems like it might be in your interests to get me to move faster, get us to Nearspace even quicker. If I thought she was in immediate danger, I might do that.”

“True.” She considered it. “But you might also take stupid chances, which wouldn’t be in my best interests at all.”

I shrugged, not saying anything.

After a moment, she said, “If I were Alin Sedmamin, I wouldn’t share my actual plans with the likes of me.”

It was probably the closest thing to an answer I was going to get out of her. Unfortunately, it did nothing to alleviate my fears.

Viss and Baden rounded the corner then, anxious, I was sure, to reset the plasma bar in a way that might stick next time. They had the grace to look a little embarrassed.

“I’ll tell you when we have a plan,” I told her. “Try to stay put from now on.”

She threw me a mock salute and stepped inside the room, pausing to blow a kiss to Baden before she shut the door. I went to my own quarters then, thinking that I must be the only captain around who could pick up unwanted passengers in the middle of uncharted space.

I debated returning to the galley, but the others would clean up, and I wasn’t on the night duty shift. In fact, I could hear the sounds of cleanup and conversation, but I slipped past the doorway without anyone noticing. Waves of fatigue had begun to hit me like huge breakers as I walked away from Sord’s quarters. The conversations with the Corvid, my crew, and Jahelia Sord had exhausted my reserves. All I could think of was crawling into bed and letting darkness wash over me. My hands started up more of their tremors as I peeled off my jeans and slipped between the covers. If any crisis arose in the next few hours, Hirin would have to handle it.

Fear of whatever was happening to me threatened to keep me awake as soon as my head touched the pillow. I shoved my trembling hands under the pillow, pressing down to try and still them.
Mother can fix it
, I told myself.
These Corvids will show us the way, and we’ll get home, and she’ll know what to do.
For a few moments, worry and fatigue battled for control, but in the end, fatigue won. My last thought as I fell asleep was that I had to ask Yuskeya if I could keep a med injector in my pocket. Maybe with a double dose. And I’d have to ask her soon.

I SLEPT THE
night through, not even noticing when Hirin crawled into bed beside me. He didn’t wake me in the morning, either, but I knew he’d slept since his head had scooped out a shallow indentation in his pillow. What finally woke me was Rei calling from the bridge to say that the Corvid hologram had reappeared. I sat up and pressed my chip implant. “Ten minutes,” I told her.

The rest had alleviated my headache slightly, but a dull throbbing still knocked on the inside of my skull. I allowed myself a minute to massage my temples, then dressed hurriedly and dragged a brush through my hair. The bristles came away thickly tangled with auburn strands—far more than the usual. I stared at the strands for another long moment, panic roiling my stomach. Every new symptom of whatever was happening to me stirred fresh fear. I hadn’t come close to appreciating flawless health when I’d had it. I wanted to sit on the bed and give in to a good cry, but as tears threatened to overwhelm me, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. Giving in felt somehow self-indulgent. My problems were serious, yes—but my family and crew had to come first. We were all in trouble, and I couldn’t put my own worries ahead of anyone else’s. I believed what I’d told Hirin—the crew needed me. I couldn’t let them down. I pulled the brush clean and threw the telltale tangle of hair into the recycler.

Hirin, Rei, and Viss were on the bridge when I got there. Fha was nowhere in sight.

“Said she’d be back in ten, same as you,” Rei said. “Sleep well?”

“Dead to the world,” I said honestly, then regretted the phrase. “Anything exciting happen?”

“Not a thing,” she said. “I think we could dispense with night shift while we’re on the station.”

A moment later, Fha reappeared. I assumed it was the same Corvid, at least. The hologram seemed identical to the one who’d spoken to us yesterday. Baden and Maja arrived on the bridge together.

“We’ve decided to take your directions and try to make it to Nearspace,” I told Fha. “Anything you can provide that might help will be gratefully accepted.”

The Corvid nodded. “I expected as much. I will have the coordinates for a safe path through the asteroids made accessible to you. You’ll have to navigate one to leave this system, and one to enter the next Corvid-controlled system. There will be one more to access the last skip, but there is another station in that system, and they will assist you with that if necessary. We will alert them that you are coming.”

“Will you give us the coordinates for all of them?” Yuskeya asked.

“Yes, but you will have to validate the third set with the other guard station when you arrive in that system. These coordinates will work only once for each asteroid field; once they have been used, the asteroid configuration changes. So what we give you now may not still be valid when you get there. However, I will make certain they know you are coming. You’ll have no trouble.”

“We appreciate that.”

“Our technicians have also studied your propulsion system. Although it is significantly different from ours, it is very similar to Chron technology with which we are familiar. They think they may be able to install an accelerator to increase your attainable speed by some fifteen percent.”

“That would be wonderful,” I said.

Fha nodded. “And necessary, if you hope to outrun any Chron you encounter. You could not evade them with your current drives only.”

I swallowed. That was a sobering thought. We really were in debt to the Corvids—if we made it to Nearspace in one piece, that is.