Fallen Empire 1: Star Nomad (31 page)

Alisa almost pointed out that running cargo was the last thing on her mind right now, but maybe it was time to start thinking about what she would do after she got her daughter. Beck seemed to think he would be working for her even after they reached Perun, and she had been thinking of giving Yumi a job and offering Leonidas one too. Didn’t that imply that she intended to go on being captain and finding a way to make a living with this ship? There was no reason why she couldn’t bring Jelena into the freight lanes and raise her out here, the way her mother had raised her.

“You’re a good man, Beck,” Alisa said and patted him on the back.

“And a good chef. Want to go tell the others that dinner is ready? I’d hate for the doctor to miss out. These miners look hungrier than Morakkan Glow Snakes coming out of their ten-year hibernation period.”

“That they do. I’ll tell them.”

“Captain?” Mica asked, making Alisa pause before heading to the crew quarters.

“Yes?”

“I heard you’re going to offer Yumi a job.” Mica spread her hand toward Yumi who smiled from the other side of the table. “It sounds like she’s interested.”

“Ah, been talking to Alejandro, have you?” Alisa hadn’t made that invitation official yet, since she was still figuring out her own plans for the future. But anyone who could escape from rapists by getting them high had creative initiative, and if Yumi spent time sampling her own wares, she always did it during the night cycle and in the privacy of her quarters. Alisa did not have a problem with that.

“Briefly,” Mica said. “He disappeared into his cabin to cuddle with that box of his.”

“Yes,” Yumi said, “I would be curious to see the contents of that box someday.”

“The contents are… unique.” Alisa wondered if any of Yumi’s interest in staying on had to do with Alejandro’s orb. Could she feel its presence from across the ship? If anyone would be in tune with that kind of thing, she would. But Alejandro was getting off at Perun. She was sure of that.

Not that it wouldn’t be handy to have a trained surgeon on board. Her hand strayed to the QuickSkin covering the gashes he had treated while she had been piloting them out of the asteroid belt.

“I have no idea what they, or
it
is though,” Alisa added, since Yumi was looking at her in inquiry, as if she hoped for an in-depth explanation.

“I sense spiritual power emanating from his cabin,” Yumi said.

“Are you sure that’s not his body odor? We’ve all neglected the sanibox the last couple of days.”

“You’re amusing, Captain.”

“I’m glad someone has finally realized that. Yumi, if I can scrounge up some cargo on Perun, I should be able to afford to hire you. Having a science officer might qualify us for more than simple freight hauling.” Alisa had heard of live specimens for labs being shipped and needing someone who could oversee their care. That shouldn’t be hard for a scientist who already tended chickens.

“Thank you, Captain,” Yumi said.

Alisa waved and headed toward the crew quarters to find Alejandro. Surely, his life would be incomplete if he missed out on eating something that had tried to kill the crew.

As she reached the intersection and started around the corner toward the passenger cabins, she halted, spotting Leonidas standing outside the hatchway, talking to Alejandro. He shut his mouth when she appeared. Alejandro leaned out and looked at her. Maybe it was her imagination, but they looked like they’d been caught talking about something illicit. Or at least something that they couldn’t speak of openly.

“Just came to let you two know that Grillmaster Beck’s food is ready,” she said.

“Thank you, Captain,” Alejandro said.

Leonidas nodded once.

They looked at her like they expected her to leave so they could resume talking. She turned and headed toward her cabin, as if she needed to grab something. She didn’t, but maybe she would catch a couple of snatches of their conversation. Leonidas stepped into Alejandro’s cabin, and the hatch shut with a thud.

Alisa frowned down the empty corridor, telling herself that what they chatted about was none of her business. She had come to trust Leonidas, and Alejandro… Well, she didn’t
not
trust him. He seemed a decent man. But he was on some mission for someone, something that revolved around that orb, and who knew what he might do in order to succeed? She ought to dump him on Perun and forget she had seen anything, but what if some trouble awaited him there, and what if it came his way before he was off her ship? Shouldn’t she know about it ahead of time?

“You’re a snoop, and there’s no justifying it,” she whispered to herself as she headed to NavCom.

Once inside, she shut the hatch, slid into the co-pilot’s seat, and flicked one of a handful of intercom switches, one that connected with Alejandro’s cabin. She muted her end and leaned close to the speaker, hoping to catch what they were saying. Even with the NavCom hatch shut, the noise from the enthusiastic conversations and occasional claps from the mess made it hard for her to hear.

“I have no experience working with biomechatronics,” Alejandro was saying.

“I have his files,” Leonidas said. “You could learn.”

“Not easily, and if you’ll forgive my self-absorption, that’s not where my interests lie right now.”

“It could be studied on the side. It need not interfere with your mission.”

His mission. What mission?

Alisa leaned closer to the speaker, feeling like a dirty eavesdropper, but she couldn’t help herself. She was curious, both about the orb and about Leonidas and what he wanted from the galaxy.

“Mastering bioengineering isn’t a hobby, my friend,” Alejandro said. “You need someone like Dr. Bartosz, someone who has advanced degrees in medicine and also in engineering. And who has experience working with cyborgs.”

“Dr. Bartosz is dead,” Leonidas said bluntly.

Bartosz, that was the man whose remains had been on the floor in that lab, wasn’t it? Leonidas had mentioned him before.

“He’s the only one I knew of who had those qualifications,” Leonidas added.

“I’m afraid I can’t help you in this manner. Even if the tenets of the sun gods didn’t proclaim it an abomination to manipulate men so, it’s not as if you’re dying. I would try if that were the case, but this is…”

“Important to me,” Leonidas said.

Alisa could hear the quiet plea in his usually stolid voice, and she winced, feeling guilty once again about eavesdropping. As curious as she was, this wasn’t meant for her to hear. She moved her hand toward the switch to turn off the intercom, but froze at Alejandro’s next words.

“It’s not paramount to the revival of the empire,” he said.

Alisa’s breath caught. She had been right. That orb had to do with something huge. Something so huge it could reunite the empire and give them the boost they needed to fight the Alliance again? The emperor’s fall had been the death knell for the empire, but there were rumors that the ten-year-old prince might not have been in the palace when it was destroyed. Alisa did not know if there was any truth to them, but there was always the possibility that loyalists would rally around the boy if he were found.

“Help me,” Leonidas said, “and I’ll help you with your quest.”

“You won’t help me anyway?” Alejandro asked. “To return the empire to power?”

“We’ll see. Maybe I’ll follow Malik’s example and go build a pirate fleet of my own.”

“I highly doubt that.”

“You don’t know me, Doctor. Do not presume.”

“Very well, but—”

A knock sounded on the NavCom hatch. Alisa flicked off the switch, spinning to face her visitor. Beck stood outside and held up a platter of food to the circular window in the hatch.

Alisa almost waved him away so she could continue eavesdropping in private, but her stomach whined at the sight of that food. She couldn’t remember the last time she had eaten. Besides, that conversation had sounded like it was winding up. She was glad Leonidas had not outright agreed to help the doctor. Whatever Alejandro was up to, it couldn’t be good for the Alliance. As a former soldier and a current citizen, she ought to report everything she knew about him and his orb to the government. But that would take a trip to Arkadius, and she wasn’t going to plan any more stops until she had Jelena. Maybe later, she could try to find cargo that needed to head in that direction.

Alisa opened the hatch to let Beck in. “They let you leave the grill?”

“Just for a delivery.” He strolled in and set the platter on the console. There was food enough for three or four, and she thought he might want to join her, but he lifted a hand in parting. “Got the next round of steaks on. Just wanted to make sure you ate. When I sent you to round up the others, I meant for you to come
back
afterward.”

“Thank you, Beck.”

Leonidas appeared in the corridor behind Beck, and he jumped. “Damn it, mech. How can someone so big be so stealthy?”

Leonidas’s eyes narrowed. Alisa remembered the way Alejandro had implied the gods thought cyborgs were an abomination and wished Beck would stop calling Leonidas a mech. Not that she had been any better a few days ago. But since then, they had been through a lot together.

“Cybernetically enhanced sensors on the soles of my feet,” Leonidas said.

“Really?”

“No.”

“Oh.”

“You want something to eat, Leonidas?” Alisa asked, waving at the platter.

“Hm.”

“It’s not poisoned, I swear,” Beck said. “Since I had the captain in mind when I made that plate. And since poisons are expensive.”

“I would detect them anyway,” Leonidas said. “I
do
have enhanced taste buds.”

“To detect poisons?”

“Yes.”

“Huh. Bet you’d win a spice contest.”

“A what?” Leonidas looked at Alisa.

She shrugged at him. It sounded like something Yumi might do to her crops or batches or whatever they were called.

“A blind spice tasting,” Beck explained. “You have to identify everything by taste alone, and they always have some exotic stuff.”

Leonidas regarded him like something sticky one might find on the bottom of one’s shoe.

“I’ll get back to my grill,” Beck said, waving to Alisa and easing past Leonidas while being careful not to touch him.

Alisa wondered what Beck would think if she made that job offer to Leonidas and he accepted it. She had originally only been thinking of her own needs in considering it, but if Leonidas was working for her, he wouldn’t go off with Alejandro to help with a quest that might not be good for the Alliance. But would Leonidas be interested in the gig? And how would she pay all of these people if she managed to hire them?

“You’re wearing a pensive expression,” Leonidas observed, as he reached over to pick up a piece of meat from the platter and gave it a sniff.

“I was contemplating deep thoughts,” Alisa said, picking up a piece of meat.

“Not inappropriate humor? Odd.”

“Well, we’re relaxing over food. Humor wouldn’t be inappropriate now, would it?” While she debated on how to raise the subject of employment, or perhaps on how to gauge his interest first, she pointed to the food in his hand. “Are you going to try some? It’s not a raw liver, but it’s tasty.”

He took an experimental bite.

“I haven’t had a chance to say it yet,” Alisa said, “but I appreciate that you hauled Malik off me and that you were willing to fight him so that we could escape.”

“There was never a question.”

“That you would choose to save an Alliance pilot and a bunch of scruffy miners over someone you used to command?”

His eyebrows rose, and she remembered that he had never spoken of his command.

“While Alejandro and I were dodging the fire of irate pirates and overzealous attack robots, I saw some pictures on display in Malik’s quarters,” Alisa said. “You were all drinking beer in some bar.”

“Ah.”

“You know,” she said, watching as he took another bite, “the stories all say that cyborgs don’t need food or drink. Or alcohol.” There hadn’t been any mentions of colleagues sharing a beer either. Belatedly, it occurred to her that the words might offend him—he wasn’t as obviously proud of being super human as Malik had been.

“Yes, we’re supposed to get by on engine oil,” he said, giving her a dry look. “We’re human, Marchenko. Until I was twenty, I was just like you. I played sports, ran around the neighborhood with friends, studied engineering at the university. We’re human. Fewer weaknesses perhaps, but all of the failings.”

“I’m beginning to see that.”

“That I have failings?”

“That you’re human.”

She expected him to snort, but all he said was a soft, “Good.”

“So… engineering at the university, huh? I guess that explains one of Mica’s mysteries.”

He lifted his eyebrows.

“We were wondering who had been fixing the ship before we got on board,” Alisa said. “I expected that we would have to do a lot more repairs before we could get the
Nomad
in the air.”

“It was the most promising vessel in the junkyard.”

“Were you also going to pilot it if I hadn’t shown up?”

“It crossed my mind. I’ve flown helicopters and air hammers.”

“But not spaceships?”

“No, but I was optimistic about my capabilities. And the effectiveness of the autopilot.”

“The autopilot doesn’t know how to handle pirates,” Alisa said. “And it would have beeped incessantly at you if you tried to order it into an asteroid field.”

“You’re saying I should consider myself lucky that you came along?”

“Oh, that’s a given.” She grinned at him.

He didn’t exactly grin back, but the corners of his mouth
did
twitch slightly.

“Leonidas… do you want a job?”

“A what?”

Perhaps that hadn’t been the best segue. “It’s like what you were already doing this week, except with payment. You beat up pirates, smugglers, mafia, gangsters, and anyone else who gives my ship the squinty eye, and I’ll pay you for it.”

He looked into her eyes as if trying to decide if she had been inhaling something from Yumi’s trunk. “Will you be paying me with stolen cyborg implants?”