Redline the Stars

3

Jan Van Rycke's head lowered. He had done all he could, the little he could. The senior members of the crew would appreciate that, but he knew the others had expected in their hearts that he would pull off some bit of magic for them. Damn it to all the hells, he had half expected that himself. . .

Jellico looked at him. "Not bad at all," he announced with satisfaction. "We'd already made our original cost and expenses back, so this is clear profit. As nice a pot as the Queen's seen in many a long voyage."

The tension melted from their comrades, and they crowded around the Cargo-Master to offer their own congratulations.

"The only question now is what we're going to do with our new hand," Steen remarked.

"No one has to worry about that," Tau responded. "I can put her to very good use. I've been doing, or trying to do, a study of interspecies/interracial transmission of viral and bacterial infections on the planetary, interplanetary, and interstellar levels. The inputting alone is a galactic chore.

If all Rael Cofort does is take over that, it'll be worth it to me to ship her, and with a medical background she should be able to manipulate and interpret some of the data as well."

"You do believe she's not setting us up for anything?"

Rip pressed, voicing the nagging concern of most. They all had good reason to recall some of their recent passengers.

"As sure as we can be," Van Rycke answered. "As Doctor Cofort pointed out, we're not of a class to compete regularly with her brother, and we don't even have a charter at the moment, much less anything he'd want to fight to get away from us, which he'd do openly anyway. He's certainly not going to enter into a Trade war over an intrasystem mail run like this one. Miceal will have to confirm Rael's credentials with him, but if she checks out there, we should be safe enough taking her aboard. It shouldn't prove a loss to us, even apart from whatever she can do on Craig's project. She's at least proven she's able to trade."

"That she has." The Captain shook his head, as if in amazement. "Hard as titan one, though she looks as fragile as one of Loren's ghost lilies."

Craig Tau chuckled. "The habitual errors of our kind! — Slight build is not the equivalent of either a weak body or incompetence in one's field. The fair Medic was born aboard a Free Trader. The wonder would be if she could not handle herself in the business, particularly in a situation where the blaster was in her hand."

"True enough," Jellico agreed. He came to his feet. "I'll start programming the navputer for Canuche. Send our recruit to my cabin when she comes aboard."

Rael Cofort squared her shoulders and knocked briskly on the entrance panel of the Captain's work cabin. She stepped inside a moment later upon receiving his permission to do so.

Because she knew from Mara's descriptions what to expect, she gave no gasp of surprise, but her eyes glowed in appreciation at the sight of the montage of pictures covering all the walls, tri-dee images of some of the Federation's rarer and more dramatic fauna. They were of the highest professional and artistic quality, and the work of which they formed a visual record had earned Miceal Jellico a respected place among the ultrasystem's leading field xenobiologists.

There should be more in here than merely representations of strange life forms. Eagerly she sought and found the one she wanted to see. Behind the Captain's desk, in a small, swinging cage, was one of the oddest creatures she had ever beheld, the only one of its kind she had encountered in the flesh. It looked like a lot of toad mixed with a little parrot, a bright blue feathered being with a neckless head and six legs, two of them clawed, arranged spider- fashion around its dumpy body.

"Queex!" she exclaimed in delight and quickly stepped toward the hoobat. "You're wonderful!"

Jellico stared at her. This was not the reaction Queex usually inspired. To every previous visitor and to the rest of the Queen's crew, his foundling was a frank horror.

He stared again, this time at the hoobat himself. Instead of his customary greeting of siren shriek followed by a distressingly accurate and far-reaching spit, the creature was gripping the wire bars of the cage with his feet and drawing his claws across the metal strands, producing a soft, droning hum, which, if not quite a violin sonata, was the first distinctly musical sound any human being had

heard him produce.

Her face radiant with pleasure, Cofort reached a slender finger through the bars to gently rub the captive's head, an attention he received with every indication of contentment.

Suddenly, as if recollecting herself to her position and

purpose, the woman stepped back, flushing hotly. "I'm sorry, Sir," she apologized. "Mara had spoken of him, and all the newstape coverage . . ."

"An interesting beast," Jellico agreed gruffly. "You appear to get along with animals," he added in classic understatement as he eyed the still humming hoobat.

"Aye, with nearly all subhuman-level biotics of reasonable intelligence. I like them, you see. They seem to realize that and respond to it. Plants grow well for me, too. I managed the hydro on the Roving Star and her predecessor for as long as I can remember."

"That may prove to our advantage at some point."

Jellico took her ID from her but did not insert it into the reader. "Your period of service will be from the present until the Queen is ready to leave Canuche of Halio, with the option to negotiate another run or a more permanent contract should either course seem desirable to both of us." Rael nodded. "Agreed." She smiled. "The gem market?"

"Mr. Van Rycke would like to test your skills there, aye." "I'll be glad to put them to the Queen's service, though a certain amount of luck is always a strong component when buying jewels."

"We recognize that fact as well, Doctor."

The man looked thoughtfully at the disk in his hand, then glanced back up at her. "Sit down for a moment, Doctor Cofort."

He remained silent until she had complied, then went on. "I've been in contact with your brother."

"A reference check was a logical move on your part, especially after I admitted to breaching my contract with the Mermaid." She said no more, although his silence invited further comment.

It was the Captain who continued. "Cofort reports that you're as good a general hand as is to be found in the starlanes and that your medical qualifications are impressive."

"However?" she prompted, readily picking up the expected reservation in his tone. Teague would not have lied for her.

"Cofort tells me that you don't respond well to the sight of suffering or major injustice."

The woman's eyes brightened momentarily. "Neither

does he." She was grave again in the next instant. "It is true that I've drawn him into a couple of confrontations he would as soon have avoided."

"I can't afford to have the same thing happen to me or my crew," Jellico told her bluntly. "A Free Trader Captain, the Captain of any starship, is responsible not only for his vessel and cargo but for every living thing she carries. He can't always act as he would if he were an unencumbered individual. There're always going to be times when he has no option but to look the other way. That's true of your brother and even more so of us; we don't pack the same payload."

"I am aware of that fact, Captain Jellico. Too aware of it.

I had to satisfy myself with leaving the Mermaid and saving my own skin instead of properly challenging Slate's negligence."

Her eyes dropped, and she bit down on her lip. "I hope someone does." She looked up again, her hatred open and strong. "Soon."

"You can count on that if the crew's got as much reason to be dissatisfied as you said." He slid the ID into his recorder and pushed the button, officially sealing his new hand to the ship. That done, he returned it to her. "Welcome aboard, Doctor. Thorson should be waiting outside now to show you around. You'll have just enough time to see something of the Queen and stow your gear before we lift off."