"What the bleeding barnacles?" Rebeka's voice was low, her throat tight, as she glared down at the dim cargo bay through the common room window. Below, the busted crate sat with its lid open, revealing its innocuous contents. A relatively common plant, Kandi says. She shivered. A weed. Breathing out, her breath misted the air. They were still running quiet and conserving power, which meant the life support systems were in Basic mode, not Comfort, and certainly far from Luxe. Mug of coffee clutched in icy fingers, she turned back to the common room, where the crew had assembled. Even Grim sat perched over the galley cupboards. "Are you sure you brought back the right package?"
Tink nodded slowly and opened her mouth, but it was Kandi that responded. "They were the only two things with power in that whole ship. Locked in that secret room." She popped out the charge canister in her blaster, then checked the sights. "Those are the packages. We have to acknowledge they sent us after a bloody weed."
"Maybe there's something special about it," Ish offered, spinning his full cup of cha on the table. Steam rose in the chilly air, but the aroma of spice did little to cover the reek of fear. "Maybe they've bred it. Or engineered it." He cocked an eyebrow as he spoke, but he continued to stare into his cha. "For all we know, they've made it emit poison instead of oxygen."
Kandi shook her head. "No, I ran it through the multi-analyzer in the medbay. It's plain, old fireweed."
"Why would someone attack a ship for that?" Tink said. "Why attack us?"
Severn stepped from the corner to stand over Ish's shoulder. Placing his hands on the back of the chair, he leaned forward. "Maybe the rebels didn't know what was in the crate?"
"The rebels?" Rebeka said, pausing as the lights flickered, browning out before coming back up. She glanced up at the ceiling, as if that would make a difference, then returned her attention to Severn. "Why do you say that?"
"Who else could it be?" He joined her at the window overlooking the cargo bay. "Who else would dare attack a Leviathan?"
"The rebels wouldn't dare attack a Leviathan." Tink came to stand at Rebeka's other side, arms over her chest.
Alek wedged himself between her and Tink, his fingers wrapped around a mug of coffee. When she glanced at his face, his jaw twitched with tension. "It could have been an imperial faction."
Severn scoffed. "What faction would attack a Leviathan? The owners of that ship are the emperor's own, or someone very close to him. If any other imperial house attacked it, they'd be executed faster than anyone else."
"Well, if it was the rebels, maybe we should find them," Alek said. "I bet they're in the vicinity." He took a sip of his coffee, his eyes narrowing further as he watched Severn. Rebeka kept watching him. His lips twitched, then he continued. "Sell them the package. Maybe that ship that's been taking shots at us would go after them instead." Rebeka's lips pursed, though she couldn't say it was a bad thought.
"Unless that ship is the rebels," Ish said, his cha still untouched.
"It wasn't the rebels that attacked us." Kandi placed her blaster on the table, then joined them at the window, leaving Ish alone. "The tech that ship had? The firepower? No way. That's Legion."
"Well, someone was willing to pay us a lot of money to get their weed back to them." Rebeka sighed, scowling at the package and definitely not looking at Tink, who'd been right about not accepting the contract...Ellis was a slick, sneaky weasel. "We need to get the packages to the contact asap then get the hell out of this contract."
"Um, I hate to point out that the ship is still damaged," Tink said, the lights browning out to punctuate her words. "Lights are intermittent. Life support is on rations." She turned to Ish. "Are we even capable of slipping?"
Before he could answer, the lights blacked out again — even the emergency lights — but this time they didn't come back up right away. Somewhere to her left, Tink groaned. In the darkness, a thunk echoed from the cargo bay.
"Kandi, does this weed of yours walk?" Alek's voice drifted through the pitch black.
"It's not my...." The lights came up before Kandi finished. "Uh oh."
Four heads swivelled to look at what had caught her attention, while the sound of Ish flinging himself around the table to join them at the window filled the silent room.
Rebeka froze, her brain tripping over itself trying to digest what she was seeing. A slush churned through her abdomen. The thunk had been the other crate unlocking — perhaps caused by some failsafe opening the outer lid when the power became too unstable — and revealing its contents. It wasn't some rich noble's precious alcohol.
There was a boy in the box.