The Rise of Earth by Jason Fry Page B

an’ fixin’ to kill me for it—that was usually the case—so I drew my persuader and stuck it ’tween his eyes ’fore his brain got around to sayin’ how-do. But he jes put up his hands an’ smiled, real reasonable-like. That weren’t like Thoadbone, an’ truth be told it kinda stumped me.”
    Huff let his head settle with a bump against the top of the tank.
    â€œWhat a fool I was,” he said. “’Bout that an’ so much else. If only I’d settled his hash right then an’ there, like I wanted to. It would ’ave saved so many good people so much grief.”
    Then why did you let him go after we captured the Hydra ? Tycho wondered. But he knew that asking would end the conversation immediately—and perhaps forever.
    â€œSo Mox told you he was working with Oshima?” he asked.
    â€œNo. Connected them dots later. Thoadbone told me ’bout the convoy, an’ what it was carryin’, an’ how the Securitat planned to make it disappear. Sounded like an easy prize, Tyke—solid intelligence, a big reward, an’ no questions asked.”
    The tank began beeping insistently again.
    â€œGive me a minute, lad,” Huff muttered.
    He closed his living eye, his breath low and labored. For a moment Tycho thought he’d fallen asleep. But then, with his eye still closed, he began to speak again.
    â€œIt was a big score when we needed one. I let that blind me, when I should ’ave been askin’ questions. An’ . . . let’s say there were family reasons, too.”
    â€œWhat do you mean, Grandfather?”
    For a long moment Huff said nothing, the only sign of life a lone muscle leaping in his cheek. Then he opened his eye and began to speak, his eyes fixed straight ahead, avoiding Tycho’s gaze.
    â€œYeh know yer aunt was engaged to Sims. She’d run off with him—said she didn’t care ’bout the captaincy no more. Said yer mother could have it, because she was goin’ to serve aboard Cassius Gibraltar’s ship instead.”
    Tycho had never heard that. Huff’s face twisted at the recollection.
    â€œMy own daughter, willin’ to give up the captaincy ofthe Comet— everything she’d worked for—to take orders on a Gibraltar quarterdeck. Left me in a right clove hitch, lad. I couldn’t let that happen—would ’ave been the ruin of the family, one of ours signin’ on with our archrivals. Yeh see that, don’t yeh?”
    Tycho nodded, but Huff had continued talking, not even looking at his grandson.
    â€œCenturies of history an’ honor, all reduced to bilge. So I did what I had to do.”
    He paused, then bit his lip. The expression made for a strange contrast—the anxious, flesh-and-blood side of his face next to the grinning half of a chrome skull.
    â€œI said I’d make Carina my successor, an’ let Sims serve on our quarterdeck. But then yer mother . . . yer mother an’ Mavry . . .”
    â€œThey made a deal with Cassius instead. To join his bridge crew.”
    â€œAye.”
    Huff shook his head, staring into the recesses of his gloomy cabin.
    â€œIt’s hard on the ones what ain’t named captain—I know that,” he said. “But the ship is the family, an’ that’s more important. Every Hashoone has accepted that rule, for centuries. But yer mother . . . yer mother decided it didn’t apply to her and Mavry. Everythin’ I’d done, they was determined to undo. I thought a big score like what Mox had brought us . . . well, I thought it would make ’em reconsider. I thought it would remind ’em what we could do together, as a family.”
    â€œBut Mom still wouldn’t have become captain.”
    â€œNo. It’s nothin’ against yer mother, lad, but Carina had earned the chair. Yer mother an’ Mavry would ’ave had a place on the quarterdeck till yer