“Parrus control, this is Phoenix Rising,” I said into the com unit. They’d decided that since it was my ship, I should do the talking. But someone else sat in my seat. At least Clark was flying the ship. I was in Jasyn’s chair, because that was where the com unit was. She hovered over my shoulder, watching the nav computer.
“Phoenix Rising?” It was a question. “One moment.” The line held nothing but static.
“You’re a month late,” the voice of Parrus control came back. “Base Commander Nyles would like to speak with you.”
“Who else is insystem?” Hovart asked Lovar, who was, of course, in front of the scanners.
Lovar listed ships he saw on his scanner, most of them were familiar to me. They were the ships I’d checked on the planet. Other refugees. We’d made very good time to catch up with them. We’d even passed a few.
The Base Commander came on the line. “Who am I speaking with? We’ve had some very odd reports from the ships coming in.”
“This is Dace, captain and owner of the Phoenix Rising. What kind of reports?” Curiosity struck again.
“The Tommy Ruiz landed just over an hour ago,” Commander Nyles said. “With a very interesting crew aboard, I might add. And we’ve had a dozen other ships enter the system since, ships that have been missing for years. What do you have to say about that?”
“It would be much easier to tell you in person. Permission to land, sir?” Old Academy habits were coming back. It must have been the prolonged presence of so many Patrol uniforms around me.
“Permission granted, we’ll give you a slot in the Patrol field. I’m curious to hear your personnel listing.”
“How long have you got, Commander? We’ve got fifty three people on board.”
“You’ve got a good two hours until planetfall. Start listing them, captain.”
I put my hand over the pickup. “He wants a full list of personnel.”
Commander Hovart, efficient as ever, stuck his head out the door and assigned someone to write the list.
I started with myself and my crew. Hovart handed me a list and I started reading to Commander Nyles. It was a roll call very different from any I’d ever given. When I finished, Commander Nyles was quiet for a long moment.
“Do you need any assistance?”
“You could send a message to Durnago Medical Services for me,” I said. “Due to circumstances beyond our control, their cargo was damaged during transit.”
Commander Nyles laughed. “You aren’t serious.”
“Completely serious, Commander. I’m trying to protect my Guild status.”
“Consider it protected.”
“Thank you, Commander.”
“Follow the signal beacon in,” Commander Nyles instructed. He read off the frequency and I repeated it to the pilots. “I look forward to hearing your explanation, captain.” He signed off.
I pulled off the headset and hung it up. I wasn’t looking forward to a questioning, which was what it was going to become. When Commander Nyles pulled up my record, which he was bound to do, he was going to find a very interesting blank. Most of my file had been classified, by Lowell. Unless Commander Nyles was a lot higher ranking than I suspected, he couldn’t access most of my file. That was going to really complicate things.
“We’re almost there,” Commander Hovart said behind me, “you should be happy about it. Or is there something you want to confess?”
“You’re still convinced I’m a secret agent. If I were, what could I possibly have to worry about?”
My ship was going to take a lot of explaining. I had engine pods and scanners that most Patrol ships couldn’t even get. If and when I saw Lowell again, I was going to insist that he remove them. Even if I’d miss having them.
“Don’t worry, Dace,” Clark said. “I’ll lie for you.”
“Thanks, Clark. Your loyalty is underwhelming.”
“So just call up Lowell and make him explain,” Clark suggested.
“Do you want shot?” I threatened Clark.
“With the blasters you have hidden on board?” Hovart asked. “Do you want them hidden back in the secret compartment under the bench or the one in the galley?”
I muttered a curse.
Hovart patted my shoulder. “The least I can do. Lowell’s your commander?”
“No. Never mind. Just put the blasters where you found them.”
We rode the signal in, landing in an unused section of the Patrol field. There were a dozen other ships in the same area. And a lot of people. We opened the airlock, with a bit of effort and a crowbar, to find a reception just short of a hero’s welcome.
I hung back, watching as the others filed off the ship. A full squadron of Patrol stood outside, taking names and sending people off on transports to the distant barracks. I stayed in the cockpit, watching on the viewscreen as the ship emptied. Hovart watched with me, looking completely at ease. But he wasn’t. His lip kept twitching.
Clark was still in his chair. He swiveled it around and gave me a look.
“It’s my ship; I don’t see why I have to leave it,” I said.
“I think they just want to talk to us, not arrest you,” Clark said.
“Then they can talk to me here.”
“I think they are,” Hovart said.
I glanced at the viewscreen. A full delegation headed for the ship. The uniforms I saw had enough gold and decorations to ground any ship smaller than a battlecruiser.
“I’m guessing that’s Commander Nyles,” Clark said, pointing at the man in the front of the procession. A gust of wind tugged his hat free and rolled it along the ground. The weather on Parrus was windy and wet, typical spring, they’d said over the com. One of his aides went running after his hat. He kept coming.
“Can we shut the hatch? Tell him we’re contagious with something,” I said.
“Hey, Dace,” Darus’ voice came to us from near the hatch. “You got company.”
I rubbed a hand through my grimy, matted hair and wanted a shower. Anything to avoid facing Commander Nyles.
“She’s got an authority phobia,” Clark said to Hovart.
“Shut up, Clark,” I said automatically.
Commander Hovart went out to meet Commander Nyles. I wondered frantically who outranked who. Or was that whom? Anything to avoid the questions I knew Nyles was going to ask.
Clark pulled me up by my arm. “You’ve got to face it sometime, Dace. This time at least, you’re the hero.”
“I don’t want to be,” I muttered.
“Too bad.” He pushed me out of the cockpit.
“Captain Dace,” Commander Nyles greeted me. “An interesting pleasure, I must say. I’ve heard the wildest stories. Would you like to give me your version?”
“Can I shower first? It’s been days.”
“We have plenty of space in the barracks, and medical services, if you need them.”
“I’d rather stay here. There’s nothing wrong with the ship. Now that we’re back under specs for crew.”
“Tomorrow morning, then? Say ten, local time, in my office?”
“That would be fine.”
“Then we’ll leave you and your crew. Please let my aide know if there is anything you need.” He paused, watching me. “You’ve done us a tremendous service, whether you realize it or not. We owe you a debt, captain. The Patrol is at your service.”
I didn’t know what to say to that. I stared, probably looking stupid, while Commander Nyles left, with his entourage and Commander Hovart.
Darus came back through the hatch after they left. “You want me to spy on them for you?”
“I doubt it would do any good,” I said, sinking down onto the cushioned bench behind the cockpit. I stood back up quickly. The smell was more noticeable since the filters could function again.
“I’ll do it anyway. I’ll keep in touch,” he added, watching me. He looked like a child hoping for candy but expecting a beating.
“Come see me before you leave,” I said. “Or before I do. Thank you, Darus.”
“Dace, you’re everything I could have wanted. And more.” He stuck out his hand, awkward and uncertain. I took it just as uncertainly. He looked at our hands, mouth twisted in a wry smile. And then he pulled me into a hug. “Take care of yourself, Dace.”
He left before I found the words to reply.
That left me, Jasyn, and Clark standing around looking at each other. The hatch was still open. The fresh air blowing in smelled of rain.
“Well,” Jasyn said. “This place needs cleaned.”
“Aired out, definitely,” Clark agreed.
“I should call the Guild,” I said. “But not until I smell better.”
I saw the way Clark and Jasyn were looking at each other. I left them in the lounge and shut myself in my cabin.
The smell was overpowering. I stripped the bunks and tossed the blankets in a pile near the door. I added my dirty clothes to the blankets and took a long shower. I ran it through ten cycles, wasting water and not caring. It didn’t matter. The whole system needed dumped and refilled.
I got out when I finally felt clean. My skin was pink and wrinkled. But it smelled a lot better. I pulled on clean clothes, a loose robe of dark red that Jasyn had talked me into buying some time back. Then I got busy doing laundry and scrubbing the ship. I started in my cabin.
They were gone from the lounge when I came out. The door to their cabin was shut and locked. I gave them all the privacy I could. I stood in the open hatch, watching rain fall as more of the ships from the planet landed. I wondered if any of them had trouble, or if they’d all flown as well as my ship had. I’d have to ask Commander Nyles in the morning.
Which sent me back to the cockpit to check on local times. It was late afternoon, local time. I set an alarm for the next morning. Then I started cleaning the lounge and the galley. Our stores were almost completely gone. I rearranged the cabinets, putting things back where Jasyn liked to keep them. I ate the last freeze dried dinner that wasn’t chicken noodle. It was almost as bad. But it was better than facing the very helpful Patrol aide that Commander Nyles had assigned to take care of us.
I put another armful of bedding through the cleaner. I made my bunk with clean blankets. I wasn’t tired, so I kept cleaning. I aired out the cushions on the bench, moving them off and spraying them with a deodorizer I’d found in the galley. I cleaned the extra cabins, piling their blankets next to the cleaner to wait their turn.
I checked through all the storage bins, making notes of what we needed to replace. I did an inventory check on what was left of our cargo. The items I’d stored in the small cargo bay, mostly speculation items we were holding until the situation seemed right, were in good shape. The medical equipment in the larger cargo bays was mostly junk. The crates that had survived the crash had been opened and searched. All of the seals were broken. Definite breach of contract, I thought bleakly. The Guild would have every right to revoke my membership. And I’d have to pay for the damaged and lost cargo. It would push us back deep into the red. I didn’t think Commander Nyles could do much about it. The Guild kept an enormous distance from the Patrol. The Patrol had no influence whatever with the Guild. And extenuating circumstances wouldn’t forgive a cargo as badly mishandled as this one.
I gave up on the cargo, we could clean it out later, and went back to the lounge. It smelled a lot better. I changed the cleaner again, putting the clean blankets away. I went to the engine room next. There wasn’t anything I needed to do there. The engineers had left it in better shape than I had. They’d polished everything, recalibrated anything that could be, and reset all the specs to better than standard. I guessed they missed working on ships. I puttered around the engine anyway. I'd missed it, too.
Jasyn and Clark were still locked in their cabin when I came back up sometime later. I yawned as I looked out the hatch at the night beyond.
Rain fell, a slow dripping that left the air clean and the ground slick with rainbows. The lights of the port, now far to my right where still more ships landed, glittered in the drizzle. Raindrops looked like a golden curtain around them. I left the hatch open and went to bed.