something up.
With a sigh, Ramsay ran a hand over his face and then tried
again, this time his voice far more weary. “Why didn’t you ask Becca to fix
this?”
“Ain’t like I could head over to the engine room and ask her
to fix it up.”
“No, but when she brought dinner, you could have asked for a
favor.” Ramsay crossed his arms, clearly unwilling to back down on this.
However, Tom could only stare back. If Becca had brought him any dinner, he
might have considered that. However, she hadn’t. Now Tom was wondering if maybe
Becca wasn’t pissed with him, maybe for that mess on the docks when he’d been
trying to ask her out. He didn’t think he’d said anything worth starving a man
over, but she had been mighty pissed.
“You planning on explaining yourself?” Ramsay demanded.
“Wasn’t planning to, sir,” Tom answered. He didn’t know what
was going on and he’d learned a long time ago that when he didn’t understand
people, the best course of action was to keep his head down and either get out
of people’s way or shoot them. He wasn’t shooting his own crew.
“Some days, I swear he does this to annoy me,” Ramsay
complained.
“Yes sir,” Eli agreed, all military.
“I’m going to go see if Becca can replace this.” Ramsay
picked up the handheld, “Give him the rough outline while I’m gone,” Ramsay
told Eli before he walked out.
“What the hell did you do?” Eli asked the second the captain
was gone. That answered one question.
Tom leaned back against the wall behind his bunk. “Fucked up
on leave. Not like I haven’t done that before.”
Eli leaned against the wall and studied Tom. “Enough for
three days confinement?”
“Yep,” Tom answered. The silence lasted just long enough to
get awkward.
“What did you do this time? The captain isn’t talking.”
“Then I reckon I’m not either.”
Eli shifted from one foot to another and Tom had a little
twinge of sympathy. It wasn’t easy being the one no one talked to, but that was
Eli’s problem. He could suck it up and deal with it like the rest of them had
when they’d been new on crew.
“I suppose I should cover the mission,” Eli said, some of
the military starch back in his voice. “First stop in our mission is Nodar .
We’re working with the explosion on the Reseda . The story is that we
landed and the Reseda ’s captain tried to double the price, and finally
ended up refusing to sell at all. We had Becca bring the ship in fast, thinking
he was trying to double cross us and take the money anyway, and venting the
engines set off the explosion.”
“So, we’re telling them the truth?” That was novel. Of
course, most times Tom didn’t talk to people much at all.
“We’re leaving out the part where we’re Corps.” Eli sat at
the small table that was little more than a small oval welded to the wall. “So,
the mission is to go in there saying we want whoever sent the Reseda out
to double-cross us. We want credits to replace what got blown up and more to
cover repairs to the Kratos and our medical costs. And if people get in
our way, we’re mad enough to shoot our way through them.”
Tom narrowed his eyes on that one. Most planets, they used
force only as the last resort. Even Tom thought twice before shooting a man
because the paperwork on an unapproved kill was about more than he could take.
The first time he’d shot a man who hadn’t had a chance to get off a shot at
them first, Tom had almost quit. After that, he made sure he let the other side
get off at least one shot before putting a bullet between their eyes. “How
picky are they going to be about following protocols for lethal force?”
“This isn’t friendly territory. We can’t go to local Command
and request backup. We may not be able to retreat if things get rough because
we’ll have to wait on Nodar’s government to give us flight clearance or
we’ll have to risk the orbital cannons. So Command’s first order is to
With a sigh, Ramsay ran a hand over his face and then tried
again, this time his voice far more weary. “Why didn’t you ask Becca to fix
this?”
“Ain’t like I could head over to the engine room and ask her
to fix it up.”
“No, but when she brought dinner, you could have asked for a
favor.” Ramsay crossed his arms, clearly unwilling to back down on this.
However, Tom could only stare back. If Becca had brought him any dinner, he
might have considered that. However, she hadn’t. Now Tom was wondering if maybe
Becca wasn’t pissed with him, maybe for that mess on the docks when he’d been
trying to ask her out. He didn’t think he’d said anything worth starving a man
over, but she had been mighty pissed.
“You planning on explaining yourself?” Ramsay demanded.
“Wasn’t planning to, sir,” Tom answered. He didn’t know what
was going on and he’d learned a long time ago that when he didn’t understand
people, the best course of action was to keep his head down and either get out
of people’s way or shoot them. He wasn’t shooting his own crew.
“Some days, I swear he does this to annoy me,” Ramsay
complained.
“Yes sir,” Eli agreed, all military.
“I’m going to go see if Becca can replace this.” Ramsay
picked up the handheld, “Give him the rough outline while I’m gone,” Ramsay
told Eli before he walked out.
“What the hell did you do?” Eli asked the second the captain
was gone. That answered one question.
Tom leaned back against the wall behind his bunk. “Fucked up
on leave. Not like I haven’t done that before.”
Eli leaned against the wall and studied Tom. “Enough for
three days confinement?”
“Yep,” Tom answered. The silence lasted just long enough to
get awkward.
“What did you do this time? The captain isn’t talking.”
“Then I reckon I’m not either.”
Eli shifted from one foot to another and Tom had a little
twinge of sympathy. It wasn’t easy being the one no one talked to, but that was
Eli’s problem. He could suck it up and deal with it like the rest of them had
when they’d been new on crew.
“I suppose I should cover the mission,” Eli said, some of
the military starch back in his voice. “First stop in our mission is Nodar .
We’re working with the explosion on the Reseda . The story is that we
landed and the Reseda ’s captain tried to double the price, and finally
ended up refusing to sell at all. We had Becca bring the ship in fast, thinking
he was trying to double cross us and take the money anyway, and venting the
engines set off the explosion.”
“So, we’re telling them the truth?” That was novel. Of
course, most times Tom didn’t talk to people much at all.
“We’re leaving out the part where we’re Corps.” Eli sat at
the small table that was little more than a small oval welded to the wall. “So,
the mission is to go in there saying we want whoever sent the Reseda out
to double-cross us. We want credits to replace what got blown up and more to
cover repairs to the Kratos and our medical costs. And if people get in
our way, we’re mad enough to shoot our way through them.”
Tom narrowed his eyes on that one. Most planets, they used
force only as the last resort. Even Tom thought twice before shooting a man
because the paperwork on an unapproved kill was about more than he could take.
The first time he’d shot a man who hadn’t had a chance to get off a shot at
them first, Tom had almost quit. After that, he made sure he let the other side
get off at least one shot before putting a bullet between their eyes. “How
picky are they going to be about following protocols for lethal force?”
“This isn’t friendly territory. We can’t go to local Command
and request backup. We may not be able to retreat if things get rough because
we’ll have to wait on Nodar’s government to give us flight clearance or
we’ll have to risk the orbital cannons. So Command’s first order is to
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