“Your family?”
He shrugged, looking unhappy. “I don’t know. I can’t tell from this document. I can’t really contact them and ask. It’s the sort of thing you talk about in private functions, not through transmitted speech, which is recorded and can be traced. The company who finds this cure will screw the Federacy out of as much money as possible by making their cure expensive. The pirates will want to get their hands on it just so they can destroy it, because they like the mutations and the strength they gain from them. A cure wouldn’t be just a cure, but a way to make a lot of money over the backs of a lot of desperate people.”
“But I’m not the solution and I don’t have the solution.”
“Yet. You have to admit you have a couple of very valuable pieces.”
She did. Both she and Rex were resistant, especially Rex. She had discovered the three-strand DNA mutations, and she had data from the original material that could teach scientists how it had developed and how it would develop in the future. And she had the cactuses that already developed along a trajectory, and were still doing so. They were changing every day.
Also, she had a paper about to be published on the subject that—damn—had already drawn the eyes of the entire scientific community. Should she stop its publication? Was that even possible?
“Why do you think we shouldn’t go to the Assembly? In a case like this, it seems the perfect place to go. They’re independent.”
“Because the Federacy Assembly don’t have a research arm, so they’ll pass it on to a company and that company is interested in only one thing: making money. Trust me, I might not know that much about pirates, but I know that world. They will sell their own children to the highest bidders. It’s all about money.”
“What would you like me to do then? Hand it to your family’s company?”
“Look, I understand that you’re suspicious of me. I would be, too, if I were in your shoes.”
“But you’re not.”
“Whatever you think, I’m here for one thing: to make sure the information doesn’t fall into the wrong hands, and that you and Rex don’t end up paying for it with your freedom or your lives.”
“So? You want me to hand it to your family so that they can do the right thing?”
“You’re not listening to me.”
“You’re not telling me anything new. What do you want me to do?”
“We should do the science ourselves.”
“Just the two of us?” Develop the cure and get two million credits.
“We can employ people.”
Her own company, with her own employees and her own agenda. Tina kind of liked that idea. But the thought that she could take on the big pharmaceutical industries was ridiculous. Not only that, she doubted two million credits was enough to fund that sort of operation. No, it was a reward designed for people like herself to come forward.
Still, she liked the thought of going back into research. In her mind, she was already building a new lab over the burnt-out ruins of her shop in Gandama. She could be a catalyst for the development that had been planned for the region, but that never happened.
“I have to think about that for a bit.” This was not at all what she’d expected to hear. “In the more immediate future, we’ll still be visiting Aurora. I presume you anticipate some competition or bounty hunters to turn up there.”
“Yes. And it’s now too late to do anything about it.”
“You said nothing when it was not too late.”
“I did say something.”
“Nothing specific. Just vague stories about people not liking your family. I can’t do anything with vague stories. If I’d known this before…” She spread her hands, because what did she really know that she hadn’t known before? That people were after what she knew? That she was wanted by certain authorities, including for damaging station structures at Kelso Station? “I’d probably still have decided to come here over going to Beta.”
“There you go. No point me mentioning anything. You’re as stubborn as my mother.”
Tina snorted. Men! “From someone who organises pissing contests in the cargo hold, I’ll take that as a compliment.”
Chapter Five
Was Tina right to have trusted him? She didn’t know anymore.
It was all very well to make self-righteous judgements about commercial companies and the interests of pirates, but one thing Finn was right about: there was a lot of interest in the alien dust, and no clear “right” thing to do with it.
But she wasn’t ready to have that discussion now. She’d make up her mind once the ship was refuelled and resupplied.
There was more work to be done. Tina was running out of space for the cactuses in the cabin behind the control room. Rasa had made a cage for the geese and the cactuses sat against the wall behind it. Because this section was in zero-g, it was sufficient to simply tie the pots to the wall. They had already installed some lights. She had to lop off a couple of extra fronds, because they were too close to the cage. Tina measured the length of a goose’s neck and made sure the cactuses stayed at least that distance from the cage.
When the time came to move the geese, Rasa would wrap them in a cloth bag and tie up their wings so they didn’t go flapping about the cage and injure themselves or spread feather fluff through the air.
But as she had already predicted, she ran out of space. There was no room elsewhere in the four cabins, so the remaining cactuses would have to go into the cold and dark cargo hold, with the hope that their stay would be short enough to allow them to survive. She did manage to find one light to provide warmth, but she doubted that was enough, and they were
