Edge of Dark (24 page)

“I like the work. I need to be busy.”

Maybe he had pinpointed her problem. Space was boring, at least in a small ship. “Will you take a walk with me?” she asked.

“Can you give me a hand with this first?”

“Sure.” She grabbed a half-f bucket he had put on the floor and held it out to receive beans.

“Aren't you on duty?” he asked.

“I'm on break. I left Luci in charge.” A bean fell on the floor and she picked it up. “I told them I'd be back soon.”

They fell into a companionable silence. She paced him as he moved down the row, close enough that he bumped her with his elbow from time to time. He smelled more of the ship than Lym now, which left her slightly sad. “You miss home.”

“I'd never been to space before this. I didn't know how oppressive so many walls would be.”

“Never? Not even in orbit above Lym?”

“Nope. I never wanted to leave.”

“Before I went to Lym, I'd never been away from the Deep.” She twisted the bucket to get it into a better position for him. “The walls don't bother me, although it feels like there should be more to do.”

“You're helping me harvest,” he said.

“I am.” She fell silent again for a bit as they worked their way toward the last plant in the last row. “I'm glad you came,” she said after a while. “I think you might be my only option for a friend on this ship. Almost everyone else is crew, and they all work for me or for Satyana.”

“You can talk to me.” He let out a long breath and turned back to harvesting.

“Thanks,” she said, without going on to talk about anything in particular. He wasn't easy to get close to, but she liked it that they seemed to be developing a rhythm together.

Charlie had just handed the harvested beans to the vegetable washing machine when Nona's communications unit went off. Luci Long, sounding slightly awed. “You have a message from Gunnar Ellensson.”

“Thanks. I'll take it there.”

Charlie raised an eyebrow at her, looking hopeful. “Come on,” she told him, and started back, walking quickly.

When they arrived, Luci gave her a look that Nona couldn't quite interpret, but which might be related to the fact that Charlie was with her. “Thank you. We'll take it in the conference room.”

Charlie sat down easily across the table from her, his slate out so that he could take notes. Always careful, always ready.

She fumbled with the remote, flipping the message from the table to the wrong wall to her slate and finally to the full wall in front of them. A still image appeared: Gunnar and Satyana sitting on the bench in Gunnar's private garden bubble. Translucent golden flowers dripped in strings from a tree behind them.

She hit play.

Gunnar spoke, his tone as even as if he were describing one of his famous dinner parties. “The Next violated the Ring with three ships. They have signaled that they expect us to talk to them. This implies they plan to dock somewhere.”

He stopped for a breath and Satyana picked up. “We've been running trajectories and there are a limited number of places they can go. None of the big stations will accept them.”

Gunnar said, “One of the stations somewhat near the edge—Satwa—is partly mine—I'm one of three major owners. We're going to leave it undefended and pull out as many people as possible. We don't know if we can entice the Next to go there, but it's a chance.”

Satyana said, “It's dangerous, but you might be able to get there before the Next notice it, and observe quietly.”

“Reply soon,” Gunnar said. “We are already starting the plan.” The screen went dark.

Charlie said, “It doesn't look like he's really giving you a choice.”

She chewed on her lip for a moment and then looked over at him. “Of course we'll go.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

CHARLIE

Charlie paced while Nona checked and re-checked her list of questions for Gunnar and Satyana. She bent over her slate, her multicolored hair falling over her eyes and her fingers periodically tapping on the table. She looked both fierce and vulnerable. He wanted to knead the sharpness out of her hunched shoulder-blades, but he also didn't want to touch her, to risk starting something he might regret.

She confused him regularly.

He pulled out his own slate and started composing a message to Manny about what he'd learned so far. It didn't come to much.

He missed Manny and Jean-Paul. He thought about them entirely too often, wished he could sit down and share some still and chat about the strangeness of space, wished he could smell woodsmoke and see sky.

He missed Cricket most of all.

He ended his message with, “Think good thoughts for us, and we'll think good ones for you. Send back news of home. I miss you all.” Just writing to them left a lump in his chest. Being so far from Lym literally felt like being separated from half of his lungs, like he couldn't get enough air way out here in space. He re-opened the file and added, “Breath the open air for me, and send me pictures of horizons and clouds.”

Nona looked up at him. “Are you writing home?”

“Yes.”

“It's strange, isn't it, the way we miss things we didn't know we'd miss.”

“I knew I would miss home.”

“But I didn't know I would miss Lym.”

He blinked at her. “You miss Lym?”

“Yes. I want to go back there. I want to live near a waterfall. After being on Lym, the
Savior
feels small.”

“It's a big ship.”

She smiled. “Not as big as a planet.” She handed him her list and he took it and looked it over, and made two suggestions.

She seemed to glow with the excitement of flying into danger. He made sure his worries didn't show in his face, and said, “Let's record.”

After three takes, both missives went off.

She went back out into command after the messages were sent. He approved of that. She knew her staff needed her.

The
Savior
felt like it ran with a smooth surface but that under the river of routine, rocks waited to snag Nona. He wasn't certain what percentage of the rocks came from her tentative leadership, from the very real threat of the pirates, or simply existed in his head. After all, he'd never been on a starship before, and it was almost certainly different from a ranger camp.

But something was wrong.

Charlie watched her move around the command area, stopping at every occupied desk. Her staff were polite, but they didn't light up the way people did around a boss they loved. Luci and a few of the other senior people glanced at him from time to time, their expressions guarded.

Henry James came to relieve Nona. The crew brightened when they saw him, and the mood in the room turned to good-natured humor.

Trust.

Neither he nor Nona had it. He had established his credibility on Lym a long time ago, and he had grown so used to it he just expected it to follow him. It was a dumb mistake. He should start approaching this journey the way he had started rangering—aware and alert even at rest. He had best be thinking about space instead of waterfalls.

He tossed and turned, thinking of the ways the encounter could go wrong. Halfway through the night, he got up and paced, stopped and scribbled notes, paced again. So he was awake when Manny's reply came in.

Thanks for the update. We are holding our own here so far. Jean Paul wants you to know that the gleaners were right. He found four more dead gleaners in Hajput, and there are rumors that the bands are coming together for protection. He is planning to go out and meet with some of them before the snow sets in. We have Cricket. She is a royal pain in the ass.

That made him laugh. Sure she was. She probably missed him almost as much as he missed her. The reference to snow set him back. It had been spring when he left.

Space traffic has increased both ways, which makes for challenges. We are moving people into the towns. The rangers are busy. I'll let you know what we learn and Jean Paul will message you himself when he gets a chance.
Take care of yourself. We miss you.

He sent a short message back.

Take care of my tongat and slap her around when she's bad. Miss you too. Say hi to the kids. Will tell you more when we know more.

He'd been on rangering trips that took two or three months, and he'd barely missed anyone. He curled back up in bed, and this time he slept until Nona pounded on the door, calling through. “They sent back a message. Let's go to the conference room.”

It sounded like an order. “Okay. Give me five minutes.”

He splashed cold water on his face and pulled on clean clothes before he met her in the corridor. The galley staff had clearly anticipated them: stim and pastries and sweet berries from the garden had been set out on plates.

Nona sat back and sipped at her stim, looking more relaxed than he suspected she felt. She managed not to fumble the remote this time, and images of Gunnar and Satyana both appeared. They'd recorded this message from an office he'd never seen, a small room with a desk and a couch and a few shelves in it.

Satyana started. “I wish we could have a real-time conversation. If we could, I'd tell you to keep your head down and listen for rumors. But at the moment I'm not free to send any other ships out there and Gunnar's fleet is being used by the Deep. The Councilors know you're out there. I told them you're shaking down the
Savior
.

Nona laughed. “I am.”

Gunnar said, “We've sent instructions to your nav system. It will be about a two-month trip. You're to meet Shoshone Remore, who runs the station. She'll be expecting you. She knows I want you there when the Edge ship arrives, and she'll see that the
Sultry Savior
gets a few upgrades. We're still not sure if the Next will dock on the Satwa, but we'll know in a day or so. The name of their ship is the
Bleeding Edge
.

Charlie grimaced, and Gunnar matched his expression in the video, even though they weren't communicating in real time. “I know. I'm not kidding. At least they didn't name it with just numbers. We'll send you a confirmation when we know for sure. Shoshone will be able to answer some of your other questions. But the only person on the station that I trust absolutely is a woman who works for Shoshone. Her name is Amia. Amia Loupe. She'll be able to advise you.”

Gunnar was telling them so little that he must be worried about the transmission itself, even though it was surely encrypted. Nothing truly incriminating had been said.

Satyana said, “Be careful.”

The screen went blank. “They sounded proud of you,” Charlie said.

Nona smiled and sipped her stim. Her hand shook, but to her credit she didn't show any other sign of fear.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

CHRYSTAL

Jhailing returned two days, three hours, fourteen minutes, and seven seconds after Chrystal asked him to leave. One of her early lessons from Jhailing had been reserving part of her mind to work on simple tasks, like keeping precise time.

She felt him return, like being joined by a familiar presence.
How are you?
he asked her.

“Fine,” she said. “How is Katherine?”

She is much the same as when you saw her last. She may never connect to her new body
.

“You don't seem to have a body.”

Sometimes I choose one
.

“So how much time passed for you between now and when I saw you last? Does our time pass at the same speed?”

You are philosophical this morning
.

She waited.

Time is a constant. However, how much can be done in a particular amount of time varies. My speed of thought is further divorced from my human origins, and thus faster than yours
.”

The flowers he'd given her had started to wilt, and their scents had faded almost completely. She reached out to touch one and a petal spiraled to the ground. “All of the beings I've met here were once human. Is that true of all of you?”