but I knew I'd need money for the times when there was no work, and we were between systems. The early crews would always get nervous, even though I paid them a small wage if work wasn’t coming, but later on those dead times when we were in hyperspace for more than a week or two the crew would gel. Especially after Ashley came aboard.”
“She seems nice, and fun.”
“She's both. Smarter than people give her credit for too. I never thought the life was for her, but I think she grew into it. Most times I wish she didn't.”
“Oh?”
“That's the problem with a ship like the Samson; you need good people with the right skills aboard, but if you get to know them too well, if you learn to like them, then it's the last place you want them to be. I thought she'd be retired to one of my haulers within another year or so. I brought it up once and she looked at me like I was kicking her off the ship. She was almost in tears.”
“I could just imagine.”
“Back then I didn't know where my search would take us. I expected it would be dangerous, I knew a lot of people were after Alice, probably for freeing me and maybe for something else. I needed loyal people who wouldn't waver when I finally found her, people who would help me get her out of whatever trouble she was in. They'd be paid, sure, but cash only motivates people so far, loyalty takes them the rest of the way. I needed to find her, help her, and I needed answers. Somehow I knew the scarf she'd left me wasn't hers. I knew I wouldn't have bought it myself. It just didn't seem to match anything else. It still had your smell on it for a while too, which was the biggest hint, I think.”
“That lilac and vanilla base perfume I used to wear?”
“It lasted for months, got some strange looks from people when they stood too close too. I imagined I had a wife somewhere, that she might have been looking for me, or that the same people who were after my daughter had her in a prison somewhere.”
“You must've dreamt I looked like all kinds of people,” Ayan teased. “Disappointed?”
He squeezed her a little and lightly kissed her behind the ear. “For the first time in a long time, I feel lucky. Really lucky.”
The tingles of him whispering against her ear and his inference made her blush furiously. “No promises,” she replied. She turned her head and he caught her lips. He wasn't the man she'd known on the First Light, far from it. This was an experienced man of the universe, someone who had been places she couldn't imagine, seen things she would never want to, and beneath his hardened surface, there was a sea of emotions that he'd let only her see. The stories of him on the Samson were all of a man who didn't allow anyone to see him as he truly was, and it made his softer side even more precious. It was hers, somehow she'd gained the gift of his trust, and it surpassed anything anyone had ever offered her.
He gently stroked her cheek, her neck, and began to trace her neckline lightly with his fingers. An involuntary inhale on her part sent him a message. What exactly that message was, she wasn’t sure herself, but before she could think he retreated and regarded her with a quiet gaze. She bit her bottom lip as she stared back at him, not wanting to leave the moment they were sharing behind, but very uncertain about going forward.
“It’s too soon,” he concluded without a hint of disappointment.
She caught him as he started pulling away from her and everything stopped. Ayan didn’t know how to say what was on her mind, articulating the problem without being embarrassed seemed impossible. With a sudden surge of courage she burst; “Everything is new again,” and was immediately mortified. She blushed so hard she was sure her hair was turning back to its old shade of red.
Jake held her silently for a moment before she felt him laugh more than she heard.
“Oi! Not funny!” she squeaked, pinching his arm.
Jake looked into her eyes, and in a gesture completely unfamiliar to her, he tipped her chin up with his finger and whispered; “There are no expectations here, only time.”
“What about people decorating your footlocker with frilly underwear if they find out we’re not there yet?”
“I’ll just pass them on to you.”
“Clever.” She said, kissing him as she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him on top of her. A nervous giggle escaped her lips as he murmured his surprise. “Promise to wash them first,” she chuckled.
“Only of you model-“
“Ayan, a visitor from Drifton has come asking for you,” Lewis announced from her comm unit.
Jake pushed up and looked at her. “And I thought you were the one who would be getting some rest tonight.”
“I was hoping, though with the connections we tapped today, I should have known someone would come calling,” she sighed. “Who is it Lewis?”
“An Axiologist who claims to be of the Samaritan path, whatever that means.”
Ayan was surprised, inexplicably embarrassed and immediately eager to meet the rare earth trained religious man. She'd only met two before. The first was one of her guest teachers as a young woman in school, before she entered the Junior Academy. The second was aboard the Triton, Chief Grady. “He's a Catholic?”
Seeing her excitement, Jake smiled and rolled off the centre seat.
“I don't have much information on Axiologists, but considering the story of the Samaritan originates from the ancient Catholic bible, then I would assume-”
“It was more of a statement.”
“You know, I could meet him so you could get some sleep,” Jake said, watching her pull a thin hooded over shirt from her carrying bag.
She caught sight of his smirk as her head emerged from the smooth garment. “No, that's-” She stopped and shook her head. “Teasing me. You'll pay for that later. How do I look?”
“Too good to go out there,” Jake said with a wolfish smile.
“Flatterer, won't make up for teasing,” Ayan replied, straightening the neck of the blue over shirt. It wasn't what she'd prefer to wear while meeting someone of importance, someone educated and trained on Earth but it would have to do. The few articles she had brought with her from Freeground were still on the Triton, and with a fleeting thought she dismissed everything she owned as being too informal, or to practical to be fit. “It'll have to do,” she sighed.
Jake was already beside the door. “Well, when you get back from talking to our visitor, I'd like you to get some sleep here. I'm stimmed up, so I'll be helping with security, repairs and making sure everyone gets to where they're supposed to be.”
“Aye, Captain. How long is your dosage going to keep you up?”
“Another twenty two hours. Should be enough time to deal with most of the initial fallout I'm expecting when people find out I'm here.”
“That's a stretch. Are you sure it's a good idea?”
“That's more a question for you, since I'm going to leave you in command while I sleep it off for eight or ten hours, if I get the chance.”
Ayan had command training and experience, but she didn't feel ready to be in charge. At least not while everything was so tentative and disorganized. “Can you make sure a few of the Samson crew are ready at the same time I am? Especially Stephanie, I’d like to at least try to start building a bridge. Might be too soon, just yet, but I need her experience.”
“She's seen rough spots before, maybe more than I have. Still, I wouldn't have signed the Clever Dream to you, or sent you to Greydock unless I thought you were up to it. I think we'll do fine here for as long as we have to make it home port.”
“I wish I had your confidence,” she chuckled ruefully.
“You'll see, we'll be fine. Once the smoke clears we'll have enough people left to turn our luck around.”
“It almost sounds like you've given this speech before,” Ayan said with an exaggerated suspicious squint.
“Probably. I have a bit of practice at getting back up and dusting myself off, a lot of our people do.”
Of all the things he’d told her; that bolstered her confidence the most.
