with the other. The questions came without looking up, but his partner kept a keen eye on everyone’s face as they responded. Now and then he cleared his throat, which made Molly want to unzip her skin and launch herself into space.
“Just three crew?” He injected as much doubt into his voice as possible, making the innocuous seem ludicrous. Earnie had warned Molly it would go like this, every question meant to make bad people lie over stupid stuff, trapping them in a corner they weren’t prepared to fib their way out of.
Cole wasn’t fazed. “Just?” he asked. “We left Earth with two and picked up a deck hand in New Caledonia. Hell, either of us could do this run by ourselves, but you know how insurance companies are these days.”
The mustached man looked up and smiled knowingly. Molly wondered if anyone was immune to Cole’s charm. Besides Walter, of course.
“What’s in the cargo holds?”
Cole loaded his voice with disgust. “Not enough, that’s what. Some computer parts, mostly. Our major trade was outbound. We’re bringing back credits for the company and some software updates. Which means not much of a bonus for the crew.”
Mustache used one of the documents to gesture toward Walter. “And you picked up the Palan on Farar?”
Walter looked up at this. Molly hoped he wouldn’t hiss a sound.
“That’s right,” said Cole. “He was getting off another ship. It’s all in there, the captain’s name and what-not. I never met the guy. I’m sure he ditched the kid for slacking, but we’ve been working him hard, no problems. Isn’t that right, Rudy?”
Walter didn’t move. He’d already forgotten his new name.
Cole turned to look at him. “Isn’t that right?” he asked again.
Walter sat there for a second. Molly thought she could hear his brain whirling into motion.
“That’ss right,” he finally said.
Cole looked back at the inspectors and pointed to one of his own ears. “A little hard of hearing. Probably spent a lot of time in loud engine rooms growing up. You know, degreasing anything the color of his mama’s face.”
The three humans laughed at the alien’s expense. Molly tried her best to join in.
The two Navy men stared at the three young crew members, one after the other. Molly expected them to start poking around, do a full systems scan, check their retinas against the Navy computers. The galaxy had given her a three-week course in cruelty. She tensed for the next lesson.
“Well. Everything here seems to be in order. You enjoy your jump to Menkar. It’ll be outbound lane three and you’ll probably have a half-hour wait.” They each tipped nonexistent hats toward Molly, who waved back in mock- salute. She had to force her arm to do it lazily, years of habit threatening to give her away with a militarily-precise snap of her wrist.
She gave them their helmets back and the airlock shuffled the duo through with a sigh.
Cole turned to Molly. “Well, now.
She gave him a stern look while unspent adrenaline worked its way through her body. She felt nauseous, on the verge of throwing up.
Walter had already gone back to his video game.
The jump out and into Menkar went just as easily. Molly’s nervousness shifted to a dull realization:
After a few weeks of nonstop excitement, Molly couldn’t tell if she’d enjoy that life or not.
She pulled forward in the outbound lane at Menkar. They’d passed another round of inspections; the next jump led to Earth’s orbit. While they waited, she examined how differently this trip had gone compared to the one she’d expected. They should be flying back aboard the
Molly thought back to that conversation with Lucin under the pink blossoms of the cherry tree. Back then, she’d concocted a fairy tale out of this trip’s potential. So far, it had all gone the opposite direction.
With uncanny timing, Cole reached over and rubbed her forearm as she brought
Cole engaged the hyperdrive, and the sprinkle of stars disappeared, replaced with the familiar sight of Earth. Molly felt a pang of regret. Part of her wished she could finish school at Avalon and maybe find work with her father’s old ship. She hadn’t even ruled out the option of selling it and starting a terrestrial business. The dream of reconnecting with her parents had been another massive failure—all she’d found was danger and betrayal. Part of her wondered if digging into her past any further would be a bad idea, just piling up the disappointments.
Fortunately, these doubts comprised a very small part of her. Too much else had changed for her to regress and pine for a lost childhood. She’d become a woman, somehow. She had responsibilities and others to think about—an entire crew of lost youth that relied on her, one of whom she was madly in love with.
Thrusting toward Earth, Molly felt an odd trepidation. Instead of feeling ecstatic to arrive home, she saw the ball of swirling blue and white as just another trap. A gravity well she could fall into and not be able to escape. She glanced at Cole and wondered what he thought about this mission of theirs, if the answers could possibly prove worth the risks. Or… would they have been wiser to run and just keep running?
They cleared into a private space pad in New Mexico, just a few hours from the Academy. Molly had one more talk with Walter, making it as clear as possible that he wasn’t to touch anything while they were gone.
“Yesss,” he said over and over. Molly told him to just keep playing that video game of his. Not to stop, even if he got thirsty.
Walter seemed to like this plan a lot. She closed the cockpit door and locked it, just in case.
Cole pounded up the boarding ladder and into the cargo bay. “I’ve got a rental waiting for us with a full charge. We should get going.”
Molly agreed. They both changed into clothes that Earnie had procured for them. Molly wore plain canvas pants and a loose white top probably meant for boys. Cole had on similar pants, but baggy with large pockets, and a tight T-shirt. They both appeared to be wearing their siblings’ clothes, rather than their own.
Molly gathered her things together. Her assignment on this mission couldn’t be simpler or more rewarding: ask questions and demand answers. The only weapon she needed was the small recording device to transfer everything back to Cole.
Cole’s job was to talk their way in. And, if things went sour, fight their way back out. Molly watched him dig something out of
As they drove down the interstate, they went over the plan for the umpteenth time. Cole spent most of the time talking while Molly craned her neck at the scenery speeding past.
Her own planet looked alien.
Glemot green lined the steel highway, fading to dry earth that could use a Palan rain. An incredibly blue sky hung overhead. The sun and the air were crisp and strange after so much time spent inside one ship or another. Molly’s fears about returning to Earth transformed into a dread of leaving. Her thoughts drifted to Edison and Anlyn and how impossibly far away they were. It required three hyperjumps just to get
