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Turns out I did get to keep my room, and I’d earned a clean-up crew. My bed was stripped, and new sheets supplied, and every garment in my closet taken away and replaced. I didn’t resist as they took me over to the chair I had occupied for Tens, and sat me down.
I stayed there, not moving, with my head in my hands as they defused each and every one of Tens’ clever traps. When they were done, Bendigo made a show of leaving through the closet, entourage in tow.
“I can get to you any time, I need,” he said, pulling the door closed behind him, and I didn’t doubt it.
I wondered what Mack and Tens would make of it, but didn’t have the energy to care. My heart was still pounding from my very near-miss with death, and I knew I’d have nightmares involving airlocks for months to come. It was a very long time, before I got up from the chair, and longer still before I could take a step toward anything.
The closet gave me a feeling of slow dread, and the san unit, when I opened it, made me hesitate. I looked from it to the bed Bendigo’s people had left folded down, and leant a hand on the wall. I had to get a grip!
It felt like an age, before I could face the closet enough to find a set of clean clothes, and then another age to cross the room and look back into the san unit. In the end I stepped into it, and washed away the stink of fear and sweat and blood, before dressing in a clean ship’s suit. I figured Bendigo wouldn’t miss me at the dining hall, and hit the hay.
I was still alone when I woke up. The cabin lighting had dimmed to a dull, yellow glow, and my closet door still stood shut. From out of nowhere it occurred to me that there really was a monster in my closet, and the idea made me laugh.
Time I had some contingency plans, I thought, and got out of bed.
It took no time at all to make the bed, and secure it out of the way, a little more time to shower and change into another ship suit—although most of that time was because I had trouble bringing myself to open the closet.
Bendigo was some monster!
I wondered who he really was, as I sat in front of the desk, and searched through the files Tens had left inside my implant. To anyone watching, I looked like I was staring at the blank screen in front of me. It took me a little while to realize I wasn’t alone.
The door to my closet had swung open, and a crewman stood there. Once he saw he had my attention, he reached back into the closet, past my clothes, and pulled the door at the back closed with an audible click.
“Captain says you need to attend meals,” he said, and stepped out of the closet and into my room.
Closing the closet door behind himself, he looked back at me.
“He says it’s not an option,” he added, pulling a narrow-ended weapon from inside his jacket.
I caught the movement, but he didn’t give me time to react, just thumbed the safety off, and squeezed the trigger. Nerve tangler. Makes the target scream, every time. I was on the floor, gasping for breath when he stopped firing.
“Captain said a ten-second burst would let you know what it could do. Said you could enjoy the trip doing as you were asked, or you could spend it chained to a bulkhead screaming, because he had crew and tanglers enough to take it in shifts.”
“Captain can go an—”
Guess that wasn’t the answer he was looking for. When the pain subsided enough for me to think, I tried a different answer.
“So, what’s for... lunch?”
“Breakfast,” he corrected, stowing the tangler back inside his jacket.
I could take you, I thought, but I knew it wasn’t true. Right now, I couldn’t take a taxi, not even if it stopped right in front of me and the driver opened the door to let me in. Actually, right now, taxis seemed a very long way away, and in a different reality. Home, or the place I’d been raised, just didn’t seem real.
I shook my head, and made myself smile.
“Breakfast. Let’s go.”
The look he gave me was not a compliment, but he hit the door latch and left, and I realized I hadn’t locked it the night before. I might have tried chatting, except I didn’t feel like it—and my escort just didn’t seem to be in the mood. He hurried along the corridor, and back up past the conference room I’d made such a mess of, and then it struck me.
“How well did the captain know Marl?”
But the crewman didn’t answer, just kept walking until we stepped into what looked like a private dining room. Bendigo looked up from the table.
“Thank you, Lieutenant,” he said, and, turning to me, indicated a place set to his right. “Your seat is here.”
His tone brooked no argument, and I decided to let it lie. The last thing I wanted was to be reduced to a screaming wreck in front of the four other men seated around the table.
I moved toward the seat he indicated, and noted that the man he’d addressed as ‘Lieutenant’ was seated at the place to my right. When we were settled, Bendigo, rang a small crystal bell that had been sitting on the table, just above his knife, and breakfast was served.
Breakfast was a formal, three-course affair. I’d never seen the like. Certainly not at home, and definitely not at Odyssey’s mess halls, or in Mack’s canteen. I said nothing, just concentrated on my food. I figured I might as well eat while I could. There was something about Bendigo that suggested regular meals might not be guaranteed in the future. At least, not for me.
The conversation around the table was muted, until Bendigo started to discuss routing and route changes. After a nervous glance in my direction, the guy that turned out to be both navigator and pilot, spoke freely.
“We can do it in three months, or three days,” the navigator said. “Your choice. Either way, our intelligence suggests Odyssey will still be in-system. Word is their investigation is uncovering more than they anticipated.”
And I made myself keep chewing. The deal with Mack was that the trip would take three months, in order to give him time to negotiate with Odyssey—and Delight—once she came out of re-gen. Bendigo flicked a glance at me. He was probably checking how I was taking the news, so I kept my face as expressionless as I could, and ate another slice of toast.
Like I said, I was getting a really bad feeling about Bendigo. That feeling got worse, when he turned to me, and said, “Marl was my captain.”
I really have to work on my reflexes.
I was out of my chair, and heading for the door, before he could take another breath. I was also on my knees and screaming, before I took more than two steps. If one tangler was bad news, then six were worse. So much for not falling down in a screaming heap in front of anyone, I thought, as the two nearest crewmen dragged me back to my seat.
Bendigo refilled my coffee cup, and then sat back down beside me.
“You done?” he asked, and it wasn’t really a question.
I wrapped my hands around the coffee cup, and nodded. There was no point trying to lift the cup to my mouth; I was shaking so bad the coffee wouldn’t be in it by the time I could try and take a sip. Bendigo laid a hand on my shoulder, and I jumped. Coffee sloshed over my fingers, and Bendigo’s grip tightened.
“So, now you know why I hired Mack to get me out of there, don’t you?”
I swallowed, and lifted the cup from the table, propping myself up on my elbows as I looked at Bendigo over the rim. Bendigo leaned forward, putting his face close to mine.
“So, you have to realize that your only chance of getting back to Mack, is by doing the job,” Bendigo said, and I nodded, again.
To be honest, it was all I could do not to breathe a huge sigh of relief. For a minute, I’d thought he was about to tell me that I was now his retrieval specialist, and that plans had changed, but Bendigo kept speaking, and I knew I had to listen.
“We just figure that it doesn’t matter when we arrive at the site. Odyssey will be there no matter when, and we can either drag our heels before the job, or after. We’re just trying to work out what’s best for our chances of success.”
I wanted to say, ‘No Odyssey’, but I didn’t bother. It was a smart-ass comment at best, and might just earn me another dose of tangler, at worst. I didn’t answer, and, when the silence stretched, risked raising my eyes so I could see Bendigo. It was unnerving to see him sitting so close, almost frightening to see the intensity of his gaze.
I stared back, and still couldn’t think of anything to say.
“Cat got your tongue?” he asked, and I shook my head. “What, you got nothing to say?”
Again, I shook my head, and he grinned.
“Guess I’ll have to let Mack in on the tangler secret,” he said, looking particularly pleased with himself.
Well, there wasn’t anything to say to that, but I lowered the coffee cup to the table.
“You finished eating?” he asked.
“Yes, thank you,” I said, figuring some manners might not go astray, and he let go of my arm, and sat back.
“I’ll have the lieutenant escort you back to your cabin,” Bendigo told me. “You’ll find the files you need on your terminal, when you get there.”
“Files?”
“For the mission,” Bendigo said, “and a crash-course in Galfran... or what passes for it on that planet.”
“Galfran?”
“The language. You need to wrap your head around the basic phrases, before we get there. Bastien preferred it to Galbas. You might have noticed.”
Galfran. Bastien used it. Well, at least I had a name for it, now, and I remembered something else about it.
“Marl used it, too, didn’t he?”
And Bendigo sat back, the calculation returning to his eyes.
“Who told you that?”
“I heard him when we first arrived. He was speaking to a medic.”
I waited, and Bendigo pushed himself back from the table. He glanced over at the lieutenant who had brought me.
“Take her back,” he said, “and lock her in.”
He turned back to me.
“I’ll see you at lunch—if your progress is sufficient.”
If my progress was sufficient? Well, those weren’t exactly the words I wanted to hear. That could lead to all sorts of unpleasantness. I pushed my chair back, and looked to the lieutenant, not trusting myself enough to speak a word. He ignored me, and looked to Bendigo.
“With the Captain’s permission?” he said, and then someone from across the table hit me with another blast from their tangler.
Bendigo waited until I was quiet, and then spoke.
“Granted, lieutenant.”
The lieutenant got up, then leant down and grabbed me by the upper arm, and put me back in my seat.
“Try again,” he instructed, and I thought very carefully about telling Bendigo and his lieutenant, to go and fuck themselves.
To be honest, it didn’t seem worth it. If they hit me with another tangle burst, I was probably going to hurt something I needed. That, and I needed to be compos mentis, not unconscious. Visions of waking up chained to a bulkhead, facing down a line of tangler-wielding crewmen flitted through my head, so I fought down my first response.
I wanted to walk out of here, not be carried.
Even if the words almost choked me.
“With the captain’s permission,” I said, managing to get the phrase out into the air, and was surprised when everyone at the table rose to their feet and began to applaud.
I sat, and waited until they’d fallen silent and resumed their seats. My face burned, and I knew I was scarlet with embarrassment by the time they finished. Bendigo was smiling, as he inclined his head toward me.
“Granted, Cutter.”
And I managed to stand up, tuck my seat back under the table, and follow the lieutenant from the room. All without swearing, cussing someone out, or trying to smack the smile off the good captain’s face. I even made it back to my cabin without causing an incident, or trying to escape, and that’s when the second surprise of the day hit me.
There was a boy in my cabin, an almost teen with hair like coal, and eyes like a country summer sky. The lieutenant ignored him as he wandered over and opened my closet, but the boy watched us both, his eyes going wide when he saw me, wider still, when he said my name.
“Cutter?”
I stopped like I’d been hit by a tram. I could hear an echo of his voice inside my skull. My implant scrolled like a poker machine trying to work out if I’d hit the jackpot, and then a file opened, and the boy’s name swam into view.
Rohan Garitch.
It meant nothing to me, so I flicked through the file, trying to see the connection. Ah. Well. But why...
“Rohan?” I replied, and the boy was out of my desk chair and wrapping his arms around my waist like I was some kind of lifeline. I looked up at the lieutenant, and wanted to wipe the smirk right off his face. “What’s this about?”
“We pay for updates,” the lieutenant said, “and we don’t have staff to spare for childcare.”
“So... What? I’m babysitting, too?”
“Mack’s navigator would prefer it, this way.”
I was about to open my mouth to dispute the fact, when the lieutenant spoke again.
“Given the alternatives aboard this ship.”
I closed my mouth again. Yeah, well. I recalled the cargo Bendigo had said he’d carried by ‘mistake’. Given the last discussion I’d had with him, I had the idea that the only mistake he’d made was getting caught. The lieutenant had a point.
And I should know.
I looked down at the boy and laid an awkward arm around his back, patting him on the shoulder. I looked around the cabin, looking for the second bed, and then turned to the lieutenant—only to see the closet door closing behind him. An instant later, I heard the second click, and knew he’d also passed through that door into the passage running behind my cabin walls.
I stood there, and let the kid hold on until he felt it was safe enough to let go. I could hear people passing by in the passage behind me, and it made me twitchy as hell, but I stood, and I waited, and I kept patting Rohan’s back... and eventually, he let go of me and stepped away to look into my face.
“We’re in a lot of trouble, aren’t we?” he asked, and I nodded.
Stepping past him and into the cabin, I closed the door behind me.
“Lock,” I commanded, and wondered if the door to the secret passage had a similar function.
I hadn’t checked. And I was willing to bet Bendigo hadn’t checked, either. Before I did, though, I had a kid to take care of, and I didn’t know a damn thing about him. I looked him over, and then walked to my closet. Presumably someone else had figured he needed something to wear.
Apparently not.
I stared in disbelief at the gear in my closet, noting the total absence of kid-wear among the curtain of green, grey and black.
“Fantastic,” I muttered, and looked at him. “You any good with a needle and thread, Ro?”
“Rohan,” he corrected me, “and, no, I can do computers and nav systems, but not the sewing thing.”
I stared at him, surprised by the slightly belligerent reply. What had he heard that made him think I was in any way safe to speak to like that? He stared back, those baby blues deep as oceans, and marred by fear. Kid might be giving me attitude, but he was worried as hell. I had an inkling he might be more like me than I’d like, so I tried a different tack.
“You got an implant?”
“Yeah...”
“They switch it off, or get inside it?”
“No... Wait. Let me check.”
And he sat back down in the chair in front of my desk. Well, that really wasn’t going to work. I crossed over to the bed, and swung it down, then did a scan of the room. There really wasn’t another one. Great. I found a change of linen, and an emergency blanket, and made up another bed in the other corner of the room. Rohan watched me, some of the tension leaking out of him when he saw the second bed being made.
It came back when I turned to him.
“You get the bed. I get the floor. Mack would skin me otherwise.”
I didn’t know whether that last was true or not, but it seemed to satisfy the boy. Man, I was sick of having to justify every single thing I said, but, hey, whatever. I needed to get to my computer.
“And I need you to move so I can use my terminal. They won’t feed me if I don’t learn enough Galfran by lunch time. My guess is they won’t feed you, either, if I don’t get it done.”
For a minute, he looked like he might argue, and then he closed his mouth and moved. We both knew I was right. Which reminded me...
“You get breakfast, yet?”
He regarded me with a steady blue stare that was beginning to unnerve me, and then shook his head.
“They said you’d take care of that.”
They had, had they? And all without telling me I had a new responsibility... I sighed, and turned to the emergency locker. There were ration bars in there, and water bottles. I took a few out and passed them over.
“I only just found out you were on the ship when I walked in and saw you; they didn’t mention you at breakfast.”
He glared at me, as though the whole situation was my fault, and not his mother’s.
“So, what did they mention at breakfast?”
I walked back to my seat and sat down, felt his gaze tracking me all the way. He was waiting.
Tough shit, I thought. You can wait forever for that answer.
But he wouldn’t leave it alone. He hit me in the back of the head with the wrapper from his ration bar.
“What?” he demanded, and I got an inkling of how my attitude might get under Mack’s skin.
I didn’t know whether to be mortified or amused, but I knew how I’d deal with it, if I was dealing with me. I turned in the seat, and watched his whole body tense. Well, yeah, if it were me sassing Mack, I’d be getting ready to run, too.
“You really want to know?” I asked, and he nodded, taking a hasty bite of his ration bar, and chewing rapidly. Made me wonder when he last ate.
“Open me a link in your implant.”
He stopped chewing, swallowed, but more out of nerves than necessity, I think, because he took a hasty gulp of water, after. He eyed me carefully, and then sent me the link. I grabbed hold of it, and locked it in. He’d have to be really good with computers to break that.
I could feel myself smiling, and knew it wasn’t a very nice smile. Poor kid didn’t get any more warning than that. I just sent the uncensored memory of the last hour into his head, and watched as his gaze centered on a point that was nowhere in the room.
Once I was sure that either watching the footage, or trying to break the link between us, would keep the little devil occupied for a while, I opened up the files on my screen.
