*
After they’d returned to the Dark Joan’s docking bay, Rollo sat by himself and brooded. Kris had expected him to explode. A quietly seething captain was somehow worse.
Kris had explained the situation to everyone else, especially Idris. He had a right to know that yet another unscrupulous bunch of thugs was interested in him. She half expected him to start plotting a course to anywhere but Tarekuma, but instead he kicked his heels on the ramp to the Joan’s cockpit and watched Rollo unhappily.
‘This might be it, for us,’ Kris said, meaning for them as a crew, a surrogate family. ‘I don’t imagine the Parthenon’ll let us pal around in this speedster much longer.’
Idris nodded, eyes still on Rollo.
‘You’ve heard Solace out yet?’
‘Not exactly,’ he said softly. ‘And to her credit, she’s not pressed it. But all this, that she’s done for us, it’s just to sweeten me up.’
‘You could do worse, you know.’
He glanced at her in surprise, almost betrayed, and she hurried to add, ‘I’m not trying to get rid of you, Idris. I’m just saying. If they made me a good offer, I’d go.’
‘Do you want to go?’
‘I want to have options. And if the Parthenon want a Colonial law advocate, well, they’d be interesting employers . . . for a bit.’
‘And if it’s not just for a bit? Nobody in the Parthenon is “employed”， Kris. They don’t have jobs, they have duty. And you don’t get to pick and choose who you do duties for. I’m sure you don’t get to say, “Well, nice doing my duty for you – now I’m off to work for the Colonies again.”’ His face twisted unhappily and he looked at his feet. ‘I guess I should hear her out though, then send her away.’
‘You like her.’
‘We . . . went through a lot in the war. We were close, after Berlenhof, before she rejoined her unit. I needed someone, and she . . . I don’t know what she wanted.’
‘Why not just the same as you?’
‘I don’t think Partheni are like that, are they? All that warrior spirit and selfless sacrifice . . . I don’t think they need shoulders to cry on, like regular human beings. They edit that shit out of them in the vats. Or what’s the point? What’s the point of making better people, if they’re still sad and afraid and lonely?’
Kris saw the signs and put her arms around him, letting him sag into her. A half-minute later and he was fine, backing away, his expression all apology. She smiled, squeezed his shoulder to show she didn’t mind. It was that continuous lack of sleep, she knew. Things that the mind would normally disarm and dismantle built up inside him, and he couldn’t bar the door against them forever.
Then he shifted hurriedly to one side because Rollo was coming through. He marched up the ramp into the Joan with such a grim purpose that Kris thought he might just fly the ship away himself and leave them all behind. To seek vengeance, to find the Vulture . . . who could guess, in his state? The others were clearly worried about him too, so when Rollo put his head back out, his whole crew was waiting.
‘Right, my wastrels,’ he addressed them. ‘These pods, all this nonsense,’ a jab at the rack of suspension beds the Partheni technician had installed, ‘they come out, right? They’re just bolted in there?’
Solace nodded cautiously.
Rollo grunted thoughtfully, a man stalking a mad idea through dense brush. ‘Idris. How long before the Vulture comes in-system?’
‘Ah . . .’ Idris slipped his slate out and ran a few hurried calculations. ‘Any time from now to twelve hours’ time, depending on how tight their nav is.’
‘There’s no Partheni embassy on Tarekuma, not a formal one,’ Solace started tentatively, ‘but I could—’
‘No!’ Rollo told her sharply. He pressed his lips together and went on, apologetically. ‘Not to disparage what you’ve done for us, my child, but no. This is spacer business, our business. Too much gratitude starts to look like ownership. I’m sorry.’
‘Understood.’ Although, from her expression, the Partheni plainly didn’t understand. Kris considered that she came from a place where everyone was pointed in the same direction, and everyone helped everyone else. Or maybe they were all horribly competitive all the time and Kris’s fond idea of Partheni life was entirely bunkum.
Rollo took a deep breath. ‘This you can do for me, though, my adopted daughter. You tell me what weapons this bird here has. Talk me through it.’