Chapter 42 Lacy
Lacy
I chose to remain in engineering while Dax and Burn docked at the spaceport on Justin. Listening to the engines as we landed soothed my nerves. I wasn’t sure I was up to several more days of Finn-level abuse.
Both Dax and Burn had assured me that things would be fine, but I was still fragile from experiencing how close Dax’s crew was. No matter how much I wanted to be a part of it, I was still an outsider.
The engines wound down, then stopped. We were here. I checked the gauges and other instruments. Everything looked within the proper parameters. I made a mental note to remind Dax that we should fuel up.
With nothing else to procrastinate on, I sighed and left my happy place.
Burn was waiting for me at the door to the cargo hold. “Any weird rituals we need to be aware of here?”
I laughed. “Not every place has them, Burn. But no, as far as I know, it’s business as usual here. Plus, we’re not picking up cargo, are we?”
Burn shook her head. “Mercer and Orion are shopping for the ship.”
“Then as long as the vendors are paid, there shouldn’t be any problems.” I opened the door to the cargo hold.
It was empty and it was really too bad that we weren’t picking up cargo to fill it. “Actually,” I said slowly. “What do you think about hauling cargo to Kottke?”
“Like what?” Burn looked curious, but didn’t dismiss the idea out of hand.
“I don’t know. But there’s got to be something that they like. Or want. Or need. Whatever. We won’t stand out as much if we’re actually delivering something.” Why create a fake backstory when we could use a real one?
“That’s pretty smart,” Burn said. “Want me to look into it?”
“Burn, Lacy. Open the cargo hold for the guys. They’re waiting on the dock.” Dax spoke through the intercom.
I slapped my hand on the button to open the external door. “Talk to Dax about it. I’ll find the cargo master and ask. Oh, and tell him we’ll need to fuel up.”
The cargo ramp hit the deck with a slight thud that shimmied through the entire hold. Light flooded in and I squinted against the sudden brightness. I could just make out two figures—one tall and slender, the other taller and built like a tank—standing in the entry.
I assumed the bigger guy was Orion only because of the way Dax had described him.
Not willing to wait around for permission, I raced down the ramp. “Burn’s up that way. She’ll get you situated.”
Ignoring their startled expressions, I dashed by them and lightly jumped the last foot from the cargo hold to the dock.
I’d never been to Justin before, but the spaceports on the outer edges tended to be pretty small and very similar. The cargo master’s office should be right near the center of the spoke. It wasn’t in the station proper, so I didn’t have to worry about security and ID checks.
I skidded to a stop outside the door and checked the time. They were still open. Barely. I rapped my knuckles against the door.
“Yeah?” A burly dude with graying curls and a wrinkled face looked up from his desk. “Help you?”
“Yeah. You got any cargo going to Kottke?”
“Kottke?” His bushy eyebrows raised further, practically getting lost in the shock of hair hanging over his forehead. “What business you got on Kottke?”
“Well, none,” I admitted. “But we’re flying by with an empty cargo hold and the captain asked me to check if there’s anything that needs to go. Never know when you’ll need a little extra cash.” Out here, everyone understood the need for a cushion.
“Huh.” The cargo master rubbed his chin. “How much room you got?”
I estimated about half of our space. I didn’t want to appear desperate or too big.
He keyed something into his computer and I cheered on the inside. No grousing about not going through proper channels.
“Well, looks like I’ve got a shipment of livestock feed that needs to get down to the planet. Last ship couldn’t take it all. Told the folks on Kottke it’d be there next week, but if you can take it, they’ll be mighty happy to get it early.”
“We’ll take it.”
“You need to check with your captain?”
“Naw, he trusts me.” It was true, I realized. The new guys might not and Burn was still deciding, but Dax? He trusted me.
The cargo master laid out the terms of the contract and I agreed. It would probably be enough to cover our fuel costs here, even with the extra burn the added weight would cause. And it gave us a legit reason to be on planet other than “Hey, have you seen my sister?”
“All right. Sign here and here.” He pointed to a couple of places on a cracked tablet screen.
I scrawled my signature where he indicated and provided our dock number.
“It’ll be delivered in a couple hours,” he said. “You folks leavin’ today?”
“Tomorrow, probably,” I said. “How long is the transit to Kottke?”
“Half a day, give or take. You leave by mid-morning, you should be rollin’ in late afternoon. Wouldn’t recommend landing there after dark. Runway’s shit and they usually don’t light it real good. Locals get pretty unfriendly after dark too. You get what I’m saying?”
I nodded to show I understood. “Thanks for the help,” I said. “And the cargo. Appreciate it.”
“Miss,” he called before I left the office. “I wouldn’t recommend you go anywhere alone down there.”
“Just me or my crew too?” I asked.
“Anyone, but especially just you. It’s a hard life down there. And they make it harder for some.”
A shiver ran through me. Is that what had happened to Layla? I thanked him again and wandered back to Fortuna.
No. I had to believe that my sister had been taken because of her research. Because of her obsession. I chewed on my lip. His warning ratcheted up my fear and worry.
Lost in my dark thoughts, I ran into Dax at the bottom of the ramp. He grabbed my shoulders and kept me from tumbling to the ground.
“Oh hey,” I said.
“Oh hey,” he echoed. “Burn said you had something to ask me?”
Ask, tell. Practically the same thing, right? “We’ve got some cargo for Kottke. It’ll be delivered later this afternoon.”
“What the hell?”
I looked up then, past Dax, and noted for the first time the two men, and Burn standing behind them.
If the call earlier was anything to go on, Mercer was the one who’d spoken.
He glared at me, his lips pursed in disapproval.
He might have been good-looking with his tawny skin and his dark eyes, but his sour expression made him look like an asshole.
Burn was doubled over in laughter. The other guy, the big one who looked like a tank, just watched the interaction with a half-smile.
“I told you,” Burn wheezed out between laughs.
Dax sighed and crossed his arms over his chest.
I mimicked him, but it wasn’t nearly as effective.
“Burn and I were talking about cargo and it got me thinking. Why not take cargo down to Kottke? It gives us a legitimate reason to be there. We’ll be delivering livestock feed.
Shouldn’t take up more than a third of our cargo space.
Decent price. Enough to cover the fuel bill, probably a little more. ”
The rest of the crew had gotten closer as I spoke, and now they crowded behind Dax. I hated feeling like I was under a microscope.
“It’ll be delivered this afternoon. Cargo master said it’s best to take it tomorrow. Apparently the landing pad is in bad shape and they don’t always light it well.”
“Why not?” Burn asked.
“Salvage, probably.”
The four of them stared at me in confusion.
I sighed. “Say a ship crashes at night. People might come out and pick the wreck clean. And when they get billed, they argue that the shipment never arrived. They refuse to pay for goods they didn’t receive. It’s hard to prove a negative.”
“Diabolical,” Burn whispered.
It was. Also kind of awful. “I think that gives us a sense of the kinds of people we’ll be dealing with down there.”
“They do that on purpose?” Orion asked.
I shrugged. That was not a question I wanted to answer out here in the open. “Can we please get on the ship? I promise, I’ll answer your questions there.” There was already the chance that we were drawing too much attention.
“You’re just going to let her make decisions about our cargo and our schedule?” Mercer still sounded pissed.
“Let’s get back on the ship, everyone,” Dax said, bypassing Mercer’s question.
I appreciated his support.
Burn was the first one to tramp back up the ramp. Orion followed.
Mercer kept glaring at me, so I stepped around him. I’d answer their questions but not out here.
“I can’t believe this,” Mercer muttered, but he followed me onto the ship.
Dax brought up the rear. Once he stepped into the cargo hold, Burn hollered “clear!” She slapped the button to bring the ramp in and close the external door.