Milk Run (Smuggler's Tales From The Golden Age Of The Solar Clipper Book 1) (22 page)

Solomon started to say something but Knowles leaned over to her. “No reflection on you, Mel. Mike knows which end of a wrench to hold, but he’s no engineer.”

Solomon nodded. “True. I take your point. He’s turning into a fair mechanic, I must say.”

“When he can control his temper,” Knowles said.

“Granted,” Solomon said.

“So? Any other questions, Ms. Regyri?”

She sat there, looking back and forth between them for several heartbeats. “No,” she said. “You make a strong case. If we had a full roster of trained crew, I might make a different judgment but I see your point and I think you’re right about it. All of it.” She shrugged. “I’ll just have to get used to it.”

“Is there anything else, boss?” Knowles asked. “I’d like to grab a shower and a nap before we get called to stations again.”

She glanced at the chronometer display on her console. “Yeah, I’m done. Thanks. Both of you. I’m having a bit of culture shock here even when I know the rules here are different.”

Knowles smiled. “Knowing they’re different and living the differences are two different things.”

“You said it, brother,” Solomon said.

They rose and Solomon led the way out of the office. Knowles turned back at the door. “You want this open or closed?”

“Open, please.” She paused for a heartbeat. “And thanks again.”

“Welcome. Sometime you should come see what we’re doing in Environmental.”

She nodded. “I suspect I’ll have plenty of time.”

He grinned and left her sitting there staring at the console and wondering if the accumulated stress and sleep deprivation was making her loopy.

Chapter 23
Deep Dark: 2363, June 10

After two days and six jumps, Natalya had to admit that the system seemed to work. Her tablet bipped her awake in the middle of the night for a tripped circuit breaker that took out the lighting in deck berthing, but that was the most significant issue. Knowles stayed on top of the environmental division, treating it more like a day worker job than a watch.

In reality a couple of days wasn’t a lot of time for things to go wrong and they spent so much of that time either at navigation stations, getting ready for navigation stations, or recovering from navigation stations, there really wasn’t a lot of time when a normal watch rotation would have mattered.

Natalya crossed paths with Zoya just before breakfast as they both tried to use the shower. Zoya looked like she’d been awake for most of the trip.

“Are you all right?” Natalya asked.

Zoya nodded through a yawn. “I’ve gotten some naps in but Trask has been on the bridge longer than I have.” She shook her head and gave Natalya a rueful grin. “Man’s got stamina, I’ll give him that.”

“When do we jump into Albert?”

“Should be around 0930. After that things should settle in.”

“What’s the deal, anyway?”

“We’re jumping into Albert so we’ll have the right vector for Siren. We don’t have the kind of velocity that a straight jump in would have, so we’re going to use Albert’s primary and the sails to pick up a bit of speed and adjust our vector.”

“Won’t that look odd?” Natalya asked. “I thought the idea was to be low-key.”

“Albert’s not more than a mining outpost. Their orbital will be on the far side of their primary from where we’ll be jumping in. They’re not likely to see us at all.”

“Blanchard’s navigation?”

“Man’s got the touch, I’ve gotta admit it. He’s been within two points on every single jump.”

“Can he do it when it counts?” Natalya asked. “You and I both know that’s mostly luck.”

“Yeah, it is, but if anybody can, he can.” She yawned again. “We’re positioned just right now for a short hop into Albert so even if he’s off by five or ten points, we’ll be in good shape on the other side of the primary and going in the right direction. You mind if we table this conversation for later? I need to get some of the sleep washed off before breakfast.”

Natalya backed out of the small compartment. “Be my guest. I’ll grab a quick splash when you’re done.”

Trask shambled into the wardroom at the stroke of 0600 and took his seat without preamble. Red rimmed his eyes and the bags under them looked like they should have routing tags. He eyed the cargo master’s empty chair but said nothing beyond “Let’s eat.”

Blanchard looked like he’d just joined the crew. If the previous couple of days with their high pressure navigational demands had stressed him in any way, Natalya couldn’t see it. Pritchard had spent the last two days amusing himself in the chief engineer’s stateroom. He looked as fresh as Blanchard, with a freshly pressed uniform and a smile for everyone at the table.

The captain took the first helpings of eggs and grits and passed the plates to his right. Bray filled cups around the table and stepped back into the galley to return with a basket of fresh biscuits. The meal proceeded in near silence until the first of the food began to settle in. Trask nodded to himself and cleared his throat.

“Any problems?” he asked, looking at Natalya.

“None, Captain,” she said.

“Heard you had a little dustup with Mike Town.”

“Wind through the sails, Skipper. We both learned something from it.”

“He give you any guff since?”

“None. Been sharp on the boards and right on the knob.”

He gave her a shallow grin. “Solomon box his ears for you?”

Natalya shrugged. “She might have. I didn’t see or hear of it.”

Trask nodded and looked at Zoya. “Nice work at the conn, Ms. Usoko. You getting tired yet?”

“Thank you, Captain.” She started to say something else but a yawn caught her sideways and she had to laugh. “Just a bit, perhaps.”

“We’ll be in the Albert system for a couple of days. I want you to take twenty-four hours off. We’ll get some of the boys and girls to mind the helm. I’ll want a regular bridge watch for Siren. TIC can’t see inside the ship, but if they call, we need to be able to give the right answer.”

“Aye, aye, Captain. I’ll be ready for a bit of sleep.”

He looked at Blanchard. “You seem to be hanging on pretty well.”

Blanchard smiled. “These first few days running out of the Dark are always challenging. I prepared for it before we left.”

Trask snorted. “What’d you do? Sleep for a week?”

Blanchard nodded. “Actually, more like three days. Also played with the kids. Read a little. Let the wife chase me around the house until I caught her.” He smiled. “I hit the lock ready to work.”

Trask chuckled and shook his head. “Glad you’re here, Charlie.”

“I’m still glad to be here, Tom.”

Trask looked at Pritchard. “You’ve had it pretty easy this trip, Steven. What you been up to the last couple of days. Haven’t seen much of you.”

Pritchard smiled and finished chewing the last of his biscuit before answering. “Mostly reading and watching holos in my stateroom. It’s rather relaxing being off the line at work.”

Trask snorted. “I dare say. Ms. Regyri working out for you, then?”

Pritchard smiled at Natalya. “Well, Captain, I must say she’s been a miracle worker. Since she’s been aboard, I haven’t been awakened once by any engineering issue. Nobody’s bothered me. It’s been a relief, frankly.”

“I’ll bet it has,” the captain said with a wink at Natalya.

The captain sat back in his chair then and waved his hand at the table. “You can clear this away, Mr. Bray. I think we’re done except for the coffee.”

“Aye, aye, Captain.”

“If we’re done here, I think I’d like to try to grab a short nap, if that’s all right, Captain?” Zoya said.

“Of course, Ms. Usoko. See you on the bridge at 0900.”

“Thank you, Captain.” She stood and nodded around the table before heading for the door.

Natalya started to follow her but the captain caught her eye and lifted his chin in a kind of reverse nod. “Hang in here a few, if you would, Ms. Regyri.”

“Of course, Captain.” She settled back into her seat and saw the skipper give Blanchard a nod.

“If I might be excused, Captain?” he said.

“Certainly, Charlie. You’ve earned a bit of a break. Eisley’s got the helm up there until we jump into Albert. Take your time.”

Blanchard nodded, smiled at Natalya, and made his exit.

The captain looked at Pritchard. He didn’t say anything. Simply raised an eyebrow.

“Oh, yes.” Pritchard folded his napkin and placed it beside his coffee cup. “I’ll just go do something, shall I?”

Trask grinned at him. “Try not to strain yourself, Steven.”

“I’ll be careful, Captain.” Pritchard smiled at Natalya and scurried out after Blanchard.

Trask sat for a few moments, staring into his coffee cup. A smile flirted with the corners of his mouth. “How are you finding it, Natalya?”

Natalya shrugged. “Not exactly what I expected. It still makes me a little nervous not having a live engineman keeping watch in either central or environmental. It doesn’t feel safe to me.”

“Any problems?”

“Not really.”

“What about Town?”

“He just needed to test me, I think. Solomon took him away and had a few quiet words with him. He’s been fine for the last couple of days.”

“Pritchard?” he asked, glancing over at her for a moment before staring at the cup again. “You locked him out of the system pretty fast.”

“I had Zoya give him a guest profile to keep him from fiddling with the machinery. The original user profile gave him access to do anything he wanted to the ship’s systems. He already told me he has no engineering background at all.”

“This is his fifth trip. You think he’d start messing with the drives now?” His gaze lifted from the mug and leveled on her.

“No, Skipper. I don’t. From a liability standpoint, it seemed a risk that we could avoid by chopping it off at the source. He hasn’t mentioned anything to me about it. Is it a problem?”

Trask shook his head. “No, and I think that surprised me more than seeing it happen.”

“How so?”

“Pritchard’s a bit of an odd duck. He’s been with the ship quite a while. He’s always been the engineering chief even though he really has no qualifications for it. I expected he’d complain about not being able to see what was going on back there. He hasn’t. I’m not sure he’s even noticed.”

“Captain, can I ask?”

“Why he’s chief if he has no qualifications?”

“Yeah.”

“His name is clear and validated for Engineering Chief in the CPJCT databases. We’ll use that to order spares and tankage when we dock.”

Natalya felt her eyeballs try to pop out of her skull in surprise. “I didn’t think that was possible.”

The captain gave a low chuckle from deep in his chest. “That’s what makes it so useful. It’s not supposed to be possible. Any more than it’s possible for us to be the
Melbourne Maru
out of New Kyoto in Ciroda.”

“We changed the transponder code?”

“Yep. It was scrubbed out and reset before we left the station. It’ll get changed back when we get home.”

“What ship is it normally?”

He chuckled again. “Normal’s in your perspective. Between runs, she’s the
Folly
. Kondur uses her for running bulk cargo around Toe-Hold space. He’s got a regular crew of malingerers and ne’er-do-wells who run it around for him.”

“Why don’t they make this run?”

“They need a skipper with a clean name and I can’t complain. Assuming we get home, I’ll make a nice wage for three months of nail-biting.” He grinned at her. “TIC keeps an eye on us, but they’re never sure who we are or where we’re going. I’m pretty sure we’ve got a couple of TIC people in the crew, but we’re not doing anything serious enough to warrant breaking their covers to do something about it.”

“Why are they here, then?”

He shrugged a shoulder. “Intel, mostly. They want to know where we are, what we’re doing there, and what we’re going to do next.”

“So, what about the transponder? If they know you can change it, won’t that make things harder?”

Trask shrugged his shoulder again. “They already know. They’ve known for stanyers. It’s not illegal out here.”

“It will be when we jump into Siren. Even Albert, for that matter.”

“And so is trading a can full of rocks without proper provenance.”