The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

Day 130, GC Standard 306 TIP OFF

Ashby forced a smile as Yoshi rambled on over the sib. He had never liked the man much. There was nothing wrong with him, exactly, but stars, he could talk for days. Checking in with the Transport Board was an empty formality to begin with, a verbal confirmation that Ashby wouldn’t be punching through any space that didn’t belong to him. He of all people understood the need to measure twice and cut once, but Yoshi always managed to turn what should’ve been a simple matter of did you get the flight plan? all right then, safe journey into an hour-long conversation.

The pixels displaying Yoshi flickered slightly, the result of signal decay. He pushed back his long sleeves and stirred his mek—cold, Ashby noted, in the Harmagian style. He refrained from rolling his eyes at the well-crafted charade. The cold mek, the Aeluon-influenced tailoring, the practiced Central accent that still betrayed a Martian cadence if you knew what to listen for. The trappings of a bureaucrat trying to pretend he had the same clout as the powerful species around him. Ashby was not ashamed of his heritage—quite the opposite—but there was something irritating about seeing a Human get too big for his britches.

“But enough about me,” Yoshi said with a laugh. “How’s life aboard the Wayfarer? All well with your crew?”

“Yeah, we’re all fine,” Ashby said. “And we’ve got one more, as of today.”

“Yes, yes, the new clerk! I was going to ask you about her. Is she settling in all right?”

“I haven’t actually met her yet. I heard her pod dock a short while ago.”

“Ah, then I won’t keep you long.” Ha. “You know, Ashby, bringing on a clerk puts a few points in your book as far as the Board’s concerned. You’ve always been dependable when it comes to tunneling, but this shows that you’re committed to upholding our administrative standards as well. Smart move on your part.”

“Just practical, really. I need the extra help.”

Yoshi leaned back in his chair, his face blurring as he moved back from the sib camera. “You’ve been doing level three work for a long time now. Have you ever considered taking things up a notch?”

Ashby raised his eyebrows. Yoshi was a faker, but he wasn’t incompetent. He knew the Wayfarer wasn’t equipped for high level jobs. “Sure, but we’re not kit out for it,” Ashby said. He couldn’t afford to be, either. His ship was geared for single-ship transport lanes—colony hops, mostly. There was a lot of money to be made in cargo convoy tunnels, but you needed some serious equipment to make a stable passage that big. Ashby didn’t know of any Human-owned ships doing that kind of work.

“True, but that doesn’t mean you should limit yourself, either,” Yoshi said. He glanced over his shoulder with sly importance. Again, Ashby stopped himself from rolling his eyes. As far as he could tell, Yoshi was alone in a closed room. “Just watch out for some interesting work coming down the line. In your usual bracket, but—ah, a little different.”

Ashby leaned forward a bit. It was hard to trust much coming from a Human who forced his Rs into a Harmagian burr, but even so, he wasn’t going to ignore advice given from someone sitting in a Parliament office. “What kind of work?”

“I’m not in a position to say what, exactly,” Yoshi said. “Let’s just say it’d be a nice change of pace from what you’re used to.” He looked Ashby in the eye. The pixels twitched. “The kind of thing that might give you a leg up.”

Ashby gave what he hoped was a congenial smile. “That’s a little vague.”

Yoshi smirked. “You follow the news?”

“Every day.”

“Make sure that you do over, say, oh, the next five days or so. Don’t worry about it now. Take care of your clerk, get through the punch tomorrow, and then… then you’ll see.” He took a smug, knowing sip from his chilled cup. “Trust me. You’ll know it when you see it.”