Sage nodded, smiled and offered a slight bow in appreciation for the bed. But she didn't speak again, even though Strawberry hadn't descended to the lower level with us. It was just me and Teddy guarding her. She had said enough already.
"Have you ever heard of good cop, bad cop?" I asked Nav-Berry when I returned to the upper level. She was sitting at the galley table with a glass full of the liquor she had just bought the night before. It was a little early in the day for a drink, even by my loose standards. Sage must have really shook her up.
"What?" she asked. I couldn't tell if she hadn't heard me clearly or if she was in disbelief that I was asking her such a stupid thing.
"I'm just saying that we each have things that we are good at. We should play to our strengths. The surprising thing is that I was just the good cop, not the bad cop."
"I don't know what a cop is," Strawberry said impatiently. "But my outburst is not a strength of my character, if that is what you are implying."
I sat down across from her and reached for her hand around the glass. She thought I wanted the drink and pulled away. When I grabbed her hand instead she looked straight into my eyes, wondering what the fuck I was doing. We had never shared a moment quite like this before. The closest thing that I would relate to it was talking about the photos on her bedroom wall, and what they meant to her.
"What happened with Captain King, Sage and you?" I asked.
"I don't want to talk about it," she said as she looked away. She pulled her arm back, but I wouldn't release her hand. Not in forceful way. I was just trying to stay connected.
"She basically admitted to killing both King and Koradd," I told her. "I think that she would have done the same to both of us that day on the cliffside if we had let her."
"I know that she would have," Strawberry responded. "That is why we have to be careful with her."
"We will," I promised. "And we'll get rid of her soon. I'm not going to pry into your past. But I want you to know that I am always here if you need to talk to someone."
Strawberry nodded, but avoided eye contact. This time when she pulled gently away, I released her hand. She took another gulp of her drink as I studied her.
"Cargo is going out today," she informed me as she sat up straighter in her chair. "We need to sign a contract for outgoing this morning if we want it to arrive for loading tomorrow. Do you have any plans for today?"
"Why do you ask?"
"I wasn't sure if you planned on another personal station visit soon," she said. "If not, we should get working on what offer we want to accept. If we have to wait for Cinnamon, it might be this afternoon before we can head back to the markets. I thought that I would be cherishing this time back in civilization, but until we get rid of Sage we haven't fully moved on. You know what I mean?"
"Yes, I do."
I helped her finish her drink. That was more for her benefit than mine. I didn't need her drunk already when we had work to do. Then the two of us headed to the control room for review of the contracts. Two got snagged up by other ships before we could read them fully.
She knew that I wanted to head to a planet next. The dragons needed some outside time desperately. But now with Aeren and Mixi aboard, half of us were more comfortable on solid ground than in space. I was happy that she didn't fight me on the contract selection. The interstellar deals were certainly more lucrative. But they would always be there.
I let Strawberry analyze the top three offers that could be handled by our vessel. We wouldn't even be able to accept a full load with the dragons taking up some of the area on the lower level. It had never been a part of her job before, but I could see that she had a strong interest in it. Despite not being totally in control she was enjoying her new role. We accepted a planet run before lunch and got the initial confirmation. If we signed the deal at the station office by early afternoon they could assure that the whole load would be stacked on the dock above our ship for loading no later than lunchtime tomorrow.
"Do you want to wait for Cinnamon?" Strawberry asked me. As cargo specialist there was value to having her with us, but it wasn't essential.
"No, actually," I replied with a smile. "I was thinking about taking Teddy and Aeren instead."
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN:
I got a seriously strong witch vibe when I saw Aeren in her oversized hooded robe. It was rivaled only by her elf assassin appearance. The other girls in the crew didn't understand either reference, so I figured that would be true with the people on the station as well. They said that her garb made her look unapproachable which was kind of what we were going for.
The woman must have the thinnest bones of all humanoids. I could touch my thumb to my middle finger when wrapped around her wrist. I could nearly do so with her ankle,
