Heart of the Nebula by Joe Vasicek Page B

detain her for the length of the voyage.”
    Sara frowned. “He has? But where will he
keep her?”
    “ I believe the lieutenant
is working that out now.”
    What are you trying to do,
James? Sara thought to herself. What do you hope to accomplish by this? Now that she had cooled down a bit, she had to
admit that there was something admirable in the way he’d reached
out to the girl. Whatever his faults, he tried to do the right
thing as he saw it.
    “ Well?” asked Jarvis. “Are
you going to try to change his mind?”
    “ Why? Would you have done
anything different?”
    Jarvis snorted. “Certainly. I’d have dropped
her off at the next port and washed my hands of her.”
    “ You wouldn’t have brought
her back to the Colony?”
    “ Bring her back? Sara,
she’s a stowaway. She doesn’t belong on a ship like this,
especially for such a sensitive diplomatic mission.”
    Sara agreed, but the situation had changed,
and there was little they stood to gain by opposing James on this
issue. She knew when to pick her battles.
    “ The girl seems harmless
enough. As long as she stays out of the way, I don’t think there’ll
be a problem.”
    “ Perhaps.”
    “ M y
father will see to it that you’re adequately compensated for your
troubles,” said Sara. “And once we return to the Colony, the girl
will be tried and convicted for her crime.”
    Jarvis squinted, as if she were still
unsure. “But what about the mission?” she asked in a hushed tone,
glancing at the astrogator to make sure that he was out of
earshot.
    “ Don’t worry,” Sara said
softly. “If anything, it will make things easier. So long as James
is preoccupied…”
    She didn’t have to finish the sentence.
Captain Jarvis’s lips turned up in a smile as she nodded.
    Sara turned and glanced out the forward
bridge window. The massive spherical bulk of a starlane jump
station loomed near in the shimmering starfield. Like a
half-forgotten monolith, it marked the only sign of human
habitation for light-years in any direction. A tiny handful of
ships moved back and forth between brightly flashing buoys that
marked the zones for incoming and outgoing traffic. Sara watched as
a bulk freighter passed through the orange lights and flashed
briefly before it disappeared into jumpspace.
    “ How long before we
arrive?” Sara asked.
    “ Two of the starlane
stations are down due to maintenance,” Jarvis reported. “Still,
that won’t prevent us from continuing on our own drives. Barring
any unforeseen complications, we should arrive in the Gaia Nova
system in less than two days.”
    “ So we should arrive
early.”
    “ Yes, but only by about
twenty standard hours.”
    “ Very well. Thank you for
your understanding, Captain.”
    Sara left the bridge, musing that twenty
hours would give her precious little time to establish a meeting
with her contacts. She would have to be quick—Jarvis’s quick nod at
the end of their conversation had told her as much.
    Well, as the daughter of the Colony’s
shrewdest politician, she didn’t anticipate that being a
problem.
     
    * * * * *
     
    “ So we’re almost at Gaia
Nova,” said Lars, whistling a little as he leaned back in his
chair. “What are you going to do about that stowaway while we’re
there?”
    “ Sterling and I will take
turns watching her,” said James. “She won’t interfere with your
work.”
    “ You sure you can handle
her and the mission at the same time? She’s a feisty young thing.
Reminds me of my sister.”
    James groaned. It was true: the girl had an
attitude that was starting to get on his nerves. Even though he’d
gone out of his way to treat her well, even giving up his quarters
to give her a bed to sleep on, she had treated him with nothing but
contempt. At least she hadn’t tried anything genuinely stupid, like
running out in one of the escape pods. Then again, once they
arrived at port, it would become that much harder to keep her from
running away.
    “ Not a problem.