The Passenger Ch. 05

"Where are you?" Anne asked.

"Enterrring atmospherrre. I've been in low orrrbit forrr about ten hourrrs. I flew in without trrransmitting any ID. Manaka is prrretty safe that way. If morrre than one ship comes thrrrough the system everrry few months, they call it a busy yearrr."

"Isn't an unidentified and unguided approach against regulations?" I said.

"Nobody here carrres about rrregulations, Harrrvey. Orrr hadn't you noticed?"

"Now that you mention it," I chuckled. "How's your shoulder, by the way?"

He turned to show me a pink, bare patch where the medpack had healed the blaster burn.

"Good as new, once the furrr grrrows back."

"How long will that take?"

"A month orrr so."

"I'm glad you're alright, Raz," Anne said. "We've been worried about you."

"It takes morrre than a blasterrr beforrre you need to worrry about me, Anne. But thank you. Prrreparrring forrr landing now. Slowboat out."

"See you when you get here, Raz," I said. "Starman's Pride out."

His face disappeared from the screen as the comlink disconnected. Less than ten minutes later a speck appeared over the horizon.

"I'll miss that bathroom," Anne said. "We really need something like that on the Slowboat, Harvey."

"Yes dear," I quipped.

But then I caught myself. That slightly sarcastic reply had come almost automatically, because she sounded so much like a wife right then. But was that really so bad? This whole captain-and-crew nonsense that we had been throwing at each other so playfully was really nothing more than a way for both of us to say what we hadn't yet put into so many words. Yet we both knew it was true. What we had, together, was the real thing. We were going to go the distance, together, for better or for worse, in sickness and in health, and everything else. Which meant a bathroom, and probably curtains, not to mention all the other stuff women can't survive without. And I realized I was alright with that. The Slowboat had been a single man's ship for far too long.

"I'll start planning the refit as soon as I can," I said, not joking now.

She gave me a long look, and I realized that she knew exactly what I had been thinking, and that she felt the same way.

"We," she said simply. "We will plan that refit. Together."

"Good. Because I couldn't do it without you, my love."

And suddenly we were holding each other, and we kissed until the Slowboat hovered above the dusty soil on its repulsor field and the billowing cloud of dust obscured everything outside.

* * *

"Firrrst we need to get this carrrgo offloaded so that we can serrrvice the ships, Raz said.

We were sitting in the Slowboat's cabin. Raz had been quite amused when the first thing I did was to get a proper caffeine fix fom the autokitchen. With some careful programming I'd managed to persuade the 'Pride's 'kitchen to accommodate me, but it had never been as good as the real thing.

"Therrre's no place like home, is therrre?"

"Nope," I said, taking another sip. "But the 'Pride is a very good ship. Thank you for trusting us with her."

"My pleasurrre. Now, to business. I land herrre about once everrry standarrrd yearrr, dealing with the same customerrr and supplierrr everrry time. Therrre's a lot they don't manufacturrre herrre anymorrre. The carrrgo in the Prrride's hold is mostly specialized farrrming equipment and a few luxurrry items. You know: small, light, high value." He smiled his good smile. "The best sorrrt of carrrgo."

I nodded.

"No argument there."

I glanced out of the font viewport.

"So..." I continued. "What cargo can we pick up here? If any?"

Raz looked at me, then at Anne. Suddenly he appeared slightly embarrassed.

"Can I trrrust you to be discrrrete?"

"You know the answer to that, Raz," I said. "If nothing else, you have been discrete about our secrets."

Raz gave me a long look.

"You told herrr," he rumbled.

Anne nodded.

"He did." she said. "And I figured you knew."

"Yeah, well, he kind of beat it out of me," I told her.

Raz smiled his good smile.

"Forrrgive me, Anne," he rumbled. "I just figurrred therrre was something wrrrong. Harrrvey would not have told me anything if I hadn't perrrsuaded him."

"With your claws, I imagine," she said, smiling. "But it's alright, Raz. You're pretty much family, as far as I'm concerned."

"Thank you, Anne. That surrre means a lot to me. But let me get to the point. You know that Gawrrans have a cyclic mating patterrrn?"

Anne shook her head.

"No, I didn't."

"Well, we do. Which means that we can enjoy the pleasurrre of mating only once a yearrr. That's a Gawrran yearrr. Forrr you that would be about seven standarrrd yearrrs, I believe. At otherrr times we arrre physically unable to engage in mating. But on my firrrst trrrip herrre I happened to cut thrrrough a cerrrtain field while I was on my way to a potential buyerrr. I was on foot, of courrrse. Therrre is no public orrr commerrrcial trrransporrrt herrre. While walking acrrross the field I noticed something verrry peculiarrr. Forrrtunately I was alone at the time, orrr it would have been rrratherrr embarrrassing. You see, suddenly I found myself getting... arrroused."

Anne nodded slowly.

"Which, if I understand you correctly, shouldn't have been physiologically possible for you?"

"Urrr. Indeed. But it did happen. Eventually I managed to overrrcome the... symptoms, shall we say. Once I had rrrecoverrred somewhat, I managed to leave the field..."

"With your shorts intact?" Anne interrupted, a naughty look in her eyes.

He smiled his good smile.

"Urrr. I see yourrr imagination is harrrd at worrrk, Anne. Yes, forrrtunately my clothing surrrvived. The fabrrric is quite elastic. Afterrr I came to my senses, I rrrealized that whateverrr was grrrowing therrre must have exposed me to some pherrromone, analogous to what contrrrols the Gawrran sex drrrive, perrrhaps combined with some sorrrt of horrrmone sufficiently close to what trrriggerrrs ourrr ability to, ehm, rrrise to the occasion, so to speak."

I nodded.

"I'm beginning to get the picture. So you harvested these plants?"

"Prrrecisely, and I now have them grrrown on a contrrract basis. They are extrrremely popularrr on Gawrr."

Anne chuckled.

"I can imagine."

"I'm surrre you can. And with luck, therrre will be enough crrrop rrready, this time, forrr two shiploads."

"And this is legal on Gawrr?" I asked.

Raz nodded.

"I'm imporrrting it as rrregisterrred medication."

"A cure for not being able to have sex?" Anne asked.

"Prrrecisely."

I nodded.

"I see. So who's your broker here?"

"Therrre is no brrrokerrr. Just a man who buys my carrrgo and sellls me the crrrop. He has no idea what I use it forrr, and I make a point of keeping it that way. If he werrre to find out, the prrrice would surrrely go up significantly."

"He won't hear it from us," Anne promised.

"I know, Anne. I just needed you to be awarrre of the cirrrcumstances, nothing morrre."

"I hear you," I said. "So how do we meet your contact here?"

"I expect he will be herrre soon. Have you been out yet?"

I nodded.

"I did meet one of the locals, but the meeting was not very productive."

He smiled his good smile.

"Let's go see if we can imprrrove on that."

I had a peculiar sense of deja-vu when Raz and I walked across the field toward the dilapidated buildings that had once housed the local space port authorities. When we approached, a familiar face looked at us from around the corner of the nearest building.

"Good to see you again, Raz," he said, stepping around the corner. "You're a little late. I've been expecting you for several months."

It was same the man I had met yesterday. He looked the same, but his rural accent had mysteriously disappeared. In fact, he spoke Interworld like a cultured and well-educated man, and I quickly revised my earlier assessment of him. I also made a mental note to be more careful in the future and not take people at face value so easily. Perhaps I'd grown complacent over the years, which might have been one of the reasons why Deke had suckered me so easily when this whole thing started. I'd have to work on that.

"A minorrr delay only," Raz rumbled. "I trrrust yourrr'e well, Layne?"

"Not too bad, Raz. You?"

"Always good. I underrrstand you have alrrready met my frrriend Harrrvey?"

Layne nodded.

"Yes, I have, although I'm afraid I did not properly introduce myself at the time. Sorry about that."

He held out his hand. I shook it.

"Pleased to meet you again, Harvey," he continued. "My name is Gnoqtlaine. Just call me Layne. Most visitors to these parts do. Not that that amounts to a whole lot of people, of course."

I smiled.

"Thing have been quiet here lately?"

He nodded.

"They always are. Incidentally, I apologize for that bit of deception yesterday. Just a precaution, you understand. One can't be too careful. We don't get a lot of visitors here, so whenever one does come along, we immediately tend to wonder about their purposes here. We're a rather standoffish and provincial bunch, I'm afraid."

"No offense taken, Layne. I understand. And I'll have to admit you had me fooled completely."

He shrugged.

"It's the local accent. It works every time. It's good to know that I can still do it."

He turned to Raz.

"Your shipment is ready, of course, Raz. I'm glad you brought two ships. Because your late arrival we have far more than we could fit into the cargo hold of just one. I hope you managed to fill my shopping list?"

Raz nodded and smiled his good smile.

"Entirrrely."

"Good," Layne said. "Then I suggest we get on with it."

"Agrrreed."

Layne took a small, cylindrical communicator out of his trouser pocket and held it to his mouth.

"Blaahqorajey, ya read?" he said.

"Here, chief," the communicator crackled.

"Ya betta start loadin' the second half, son."

"All of it, chief?"

"Ya heard me. When ya done, roll. We's waitin' fer ya."

"Yagoddit, chief."

The communicator clicked off.

"Good," Layne said as he returned the device to his pocket. "Blaar should be here with the entire crop within the hour."

"That will give us time to starrrt serrrvicing the ships. The usual arrrangement? Assuming you have enough fuel on hand forrr both ships."

Layne nodded.

"That shouldn't be a problem."

"Good. We'll starrrt unloading then."

As I had expected, handling cargo on Manaka turned out to be a more basic process than almost anywhere else. After rolling open the 'Pride's old-fashioned side cargo doors, we ended up using antigrav belts. That sort of thing can be fairly laborious: you wrap the belt around the container, activate it, and then maneuver the container to where you want it, by hand. The antigrav belt will lift the container about four inches, but its mass remains unchanged, so you have to push hard to move it, then push just as hard to stop it, and inertia can easily trip you up. It's easy to get caught between a container and a bulkhead, or something similarly unpleasant.

While Raz wrestled with the containers, Anne and I disassembled the spare fuel tank and removed it from the 'Pride's cargo hold. After almost three hours of hard work the tank and less than half of the shipping containers were sitting on the dusty Manakan soil next to the 'Pride.

Eventually an ancient fuel tanker rumbled up onto the landing field. It was a huge, heavy job, sitting on oversized balloon tyres rather than on repulsor field coils. It looked as if it had been cobbled together out of old parts, and the tyres had obviously been added later, because a mess of apparently defunct repulsor field coils was mounted between the three huge axles. Its turbine sounded like it, too, had seen better days. The tanker stopped with an ominous hiss, swaying on its tyres. The cab door opened and Layne climbed out.

"And here we are," he said. "Let's fill her up."

With Raz' help he connected a heavy fuel line to a connector at the rear of the tanker, then plugged the other end into the 'Pride's fuel port. By the time the tanker was empty, the 'Pride's fuel tanks were about half full.

"Going back for the next load," Layne said. "I probably won't be back before Blaahqorajey gets here. He shouldn't be long now."

The tanker's turbine coughed, whined, and eventually started up. But before Layne could climb back into the cabin, a bright flash overhead shot past with an earsplitting sound. The shockwave threw me to the ground, and one of the old sheds at the edge of the field collapsed. When I looked up, I saw a sleek ship pull up and begin its turn. It looked to be a light starfighter assault model. As I watched, its sonic field changed shape from the supersonic configuration it had used during its high-speed re-entry into a mode more suitable for braking. The field left bright streamers of ionized air in its wake.

Vergence had found us.