“I’m done listening to him. Not going to leave him behind so he can just keep following us, but sure as the count of five, I’m not going to listen to him anymore right now.”
Tisker’s humor didn’t show in the thin line of his mouth or his eyes, which now looked very tired. But he automatically answered with a characteristic quip. “Was near enough to doing that myself.”
He hoisted the man onto the shoulder of his uninjured side, carrying him like a sack of potatoes.
The smoke thinned as they left the wreck behind. She could breathe the air again; nearly killed herself trying to inhale deeply of it.
“So what’s our next move, Cap?”
She ran her dirty hands through her dirty hair. Sighed. Next move ought to be a shower. Long overdue.
“Beyond getting Dug back? Figure we do what we were told. Onaya Bone said she can help if we bring her the ring. Guess that means the simula, now, too.”
“Seems unpredictable.”
“Everything’s gone unpredictable, don’t you think? We need to focus on something, stop waiting for the world to return to normal.”
He was quiet a moment.
“When were you going to tell us about Silus Cutter?”
The pain in his voice made her gut hurt.
“I don’t know. Been a tumble since I found out. Needed you focused on that ship, didn’t I?”
More quiet.
“I still need you. We gotta get Dug back next, and that explosion is bound to have the town on tenterhooks.”
He nodded. It was unsettling that he was so quiet, but she had to trust that he would follow her. Both halves of the payment were on board now, after all. They ought to get paid for all this trip had already cost them. She’d blundered from one mistake to the next. After this, she wouldn’t blame any of them if they took their balances and found themselves new captains as fast as they could.
The gangway to Wind Sabre waited for them, also quiet. Talis breathed shallow, trying to do it in her stomach instead of expanding her ribs. Stars filled her vision anyway as the sharp pain shot through her like lightning.
One foot in front of the other. It was all she could manage at the moment.
Talis headed for the med bay to put something on her ribs. No time to treat it properly. Dug needed her.
Scrimshaw lay on the recovery bunk, xist long limbs folded awkwardly to fit the short berth. Put aside for the time being. It stopped her short in the doorway. Xe didn’t move at the sound of her entrance, and as she lifted her shirt up to rub an analgesic on her side, she walked to xist bunk and leaned over xin. The carapace didn’t rise and fall like the chest of softer-fleshed beings. She felt a chill that had nothing to do with the eucalyptus in the medicine.
Back at the door, she thumbed the all-ship intercom. “Tisker, bring that field kit we found down to med, would you?”
He rounded the corner the next moment, holding the kit up with his good arm. “Was on my way, Cap. Gotta patch myself up, too.”
She nodded. “There’s a small apothecary jar in the top drawer, something Zeela gave me. Try that when you get it clean.”
Dug needed her, Dug needed her, Dug needed her. It repeated in her mind even as she opened the Yu’Nyun kit on the surgery table. Inside the case, nestled in a soft foam tray, was an array of metal tubes, their polished sheaths perforated with Yu’keem characters. Entirely unreadable to her. With an exasperated sigh, she flipped the cover closed again. That made up her mind for her.
“I have no idea how to use any of this,” she said to Tisker, waving a helpless hand at the kit. The ring flopped about on her index finger as she did. “See if you can make heads or hindquarters of this stuff. I’m going to take Meran into Talonpoint and get Dug back.”
“You sure about that, Cap? Sophie and I can help. No telling what Meran might do.”
Talis narrowed her eyes. “You want me to take the only remaining crew members I’ve got and leave the ship alone with Meran and Hankirk aboard and Scrimshaw unattended? In a port where they’ve already arrested Dug and are thinking gods-know-what about how we blew up a ship in dock?”
Tisker had his mouth open to talk again but shut it. Talis thought her point had been made, but then Meran spoke from behind her.
“I can treat your alien, or I can aid you in retrieving your man.”
Talis looked over her shoulder. Meran, still naked, stood in the doorway. She held her limbs loose, with zero pretense or attitude, and yet she exuded the confidence of a queen. Sophie darted in behind her.
“Sorry, Captain, I was trying to watch the docks and keep her occupied, but she slipped away.” Sophie was panting around the words, her forehead creased with worry. By the time Talis and Tisker had returned to Wind Sabre, Sophie had a litany of questions about the simula that she was set on having answered. Talis was surprised Meran could escape her attention.
Talis rolled the ring on her finger. “It’s okay, Sophie. I think I called her.”
Meran smiled at her, a slow creeping expression that seemed as dangerous as any smile Talis had seen on Dug before a fight.
“Sophie, help Tisker with that alien medical business. See if you can pick out something that might work. If not, leave it till we get back.” Talis nodded to Meran. “First things first.”
“You’re going to get Dug now?” Sophie stepped forward, put her hands up as if to stop her. “Captain, there’s a small crowd outside, mostly fire crew but a few wounded, and then there’s the curious. We’re attracting attention. Not that we weren’t before.”
Talis nodded. “That’s why I want the both of you on watch. Tisker’s gotta patch up, and you look real quick at that Yu’Nyun junk and see what you
