Redline the Stars sq-5 Read online

  Farther down, close to the holds that, with the fuel coils and drive tubes, comprised the greatest part of the Solar Queen's interior, were the Cargo-Master's and Thorson's own cabins plus those of Frank Mura and Doctor Tau and the two minute chambers kept for passengers, one of which would be assigned to Cofort for the duration of her service aboard the Queen. The final cabin there was, of course, the combination sanunit/fresher that was a mandatory part of every deck containing permanent sleeping quarters.

  The newcomer briefly surveyed the cabin to which her guide showed her, then dropped her pack on the foot of the bunk. The room was small even by spacer standards since it had never been intended to serve anyone as a permanent home, but it was adequate. The bunk at least was full size, and there were sufficient lockers for both clothing and bulkier belongings. A large metal panel could be unfastened and swung down and outward from the wall to provide a desk or workspace with the bunk taking the place of a chair. The lighting, she saw, was well placed and more than bright enough for reading or close work.

  She did not linger to unpack but quickly went outside again to follow Thorson down to the final deck that they would be visiting. There would be no time to see much more, and she doubted that she would be invited to examine the holds for a while, although they were unsealed, empty for the most part save for a small store of trade goods. A Free Trader was usually cautious about whom he let into that treasury of his business, the storehouse of the magic he hoped to wield among the denizens of the planets he visited.

  The level to which they now came was the most interesting of all to Cofort. Here was the sick bay, Doctor Tau's surgery and laboratory, and the hydro, the large chamber housing the plants that replenished a starship's oxygen, scrubbed the waste products of respiration from the continuously recirculated air, and supplied as a by-product fruits and vegetables to vary the otherwise monotonous diet of concentrates that was the nearly perpetual lot of space hounds who ranged the vast reaches between the stars.

  The portal giving entrance to it was partly transparent, and they paused for a moment to admire the lush greenery within.

  "So much!" she exclaimed. "And such variety! — I thought you were forced to flush it all out when you picked up those Sargol pests."

  "We did. Mr. Mura's worked hard to bring it back."

  Dane took a deep breath as he opened the door, savoring as always the crisp freshness of growing things. Everywhere else, the ship's air was stale, processed stuff. Here, it was alive.

  Feeling something brush against his leg, he glanced down. A large, orange-striped tomcat had slipped in behind them and was rubbing him in the traditional greeting of his kind before turning his attention to the newcomer.

  Cofort lightly lowered herself to her knees. "Hello, big boy," she said softly as she offered him her hand to sniff. "You're the Chief of Pest Control, I presume?"

  "He is," Thorson confirmed. "This is Sinbad, an honored member of the crew."

  "Rightly so." She shuddered. "I shouldn't care to voyage far on any ship lacking a good cat."

  "You won't find too many who'd give you an argument on that," he agreed.

  She scooped Sinbad into her arms. "He's enormous! Ours are kittens by comparison."

  "The Roving Star has more than one cat?"

  She nodded. "A senior citizen and two former foundlings who now sort of run the place under her supervision."

  Rael rubbed the big cat under the chin with the tips of fingers obviously well accustomed to that delicate work and received a rumbling purr as a reward.

  Reluctantly, she put him down once more and came to her feet. She sniffed the scent-rich air appreciatively. "I'd know you had a master chef aboard even if Mara hadn't apprised me of that fact. — Thyme, sage, basil, honey seed, sharp grass—all the old faithfuls, and I detect some real delicacies as well."

  "Detect? We're not near the spices at all . . ."

  "I've got sensitive senses, smell included." Her nose wrinkled. "That's not always an advantage on some of the holes we visit. Besides, I've worked in the Star's hydro quite a bit and more or less know what to expect in a good one."

  One familiar aroma was missing. "You should have some lavender," she told him. "There's nothing like it for freshening the air, and it's not overpowering even in the smallest cabin."

  Three whistles sounded over the intercom. "Lift-off coming," Dane remarked, unnecessarily since the signal was universal to the starlanes.

  They carefully sealed the hydro door after seeing Sinbad out, then scrambled up the ladder with the ease of long

  custom to strap down Solar Queen would be would come the jump to Canuche of Halio.

  5

  Boredom was the great plague of interstellar travel, but Rael Cofort suffered very little from that in the days that followed. Chiefly, she worked with Craig Tau, but she spent some time with every department, more or less depending upon current need and her expertise in the work at hand.

  It was well after mess time but she was still at Tau's terminal, obviously deeply involved in the task before her and quite oblivious to their presence, when the chief Medic and Jellico came into the surgery. She seemed equally unaware of the discomfort of the position she had for some unexplained reason chosen to adopt, sitting so far back that her arms had to stretch to their full length for her fingers to reach the keyboard.

  The change in perspective won by another step provided the answer. A furry head and paw rested on the woman's upper right arm. The remainder of the big cat extended down her trunk and filled her lap.

  Sinbad's eyes opened at the men's approach. He gave a wide yawn, then leapt gracefully to the floor, where he stretched to his considerable supple length. Still purring in feline contentment, he strode off, tail high, to resume his patrol of the starship that was his universe and domain.

  Cofort smiled tenderly even as she flexed her stiff arms.

  "I love those little fellows so much that sometimes I think I must have been one."

  "Reincarnation?" Tau asked, curious as always about the magic and beliefs of others.

  "Aye," she responded, still smiling, "but the reference was poetic. I think we humans are granted only one voyage in which to prove ourselves. — I like to imagine that Sinbad's kind might return more often, though, at least when and where they choose. Their life spans are so much shorter than ours that it's nice to feel we might be reunited with a friend of our youth at a later point in our lives."

  She eyed them for a moment, as if waiting for some challenge, then flexed her shoulders again and glanced at the screen. "The fifth section's almost in. It's slow going, but complex enough to make the inputting fairly interesting work."

  "Exhausting work," Jellico snapped. "You look burned down."

  The Medic studied her. "You have some Soft-Tear, I presume?"

  "Of course." The soothing drops were a widely used remedy for eyestrain throughout the Federation.

  "Break off here and use it, then. This is a long-term project and won't be finished before we reach Canuche whether we kill ourselves on it or not."

  "I know, Doctor," she agreed ruefully. "I just find it hard to stop sometimes once my navputer's programmed for a job like this, especially when things're moving well."

  She came to her feet. "Mind if I see Queex first. Sir?" she asked Miceal. "I missed dropping in on him today, and ... "

  "I know. I haven't enjoyed a moment's quiet since noon.

  — See him by all means, and from now on you are to spend at least thirty minutes every day entertaining him. I need some peace, at least in my own quarters."

  "Thank you, Captain!"

  "That was not meant as some sort of reward, Doctor Cofort," he told her severely.

  "I know. Sir, but it is all the same."

  The woman took her leave of them after that with a wave of her hand.

  Jellico watched her disappear through the door. If she was tired there was no sign of it in her step, but he still fixed his comrade with a stern look. "I want to
knock full value out other, Craig, not kill her. This isn't a slave ship."

  Tau turned to the locker where he kept his implements and more common medications. "I can't see that one meekly submitting to abuse. — Roll up your sleeve. Captain. This won't hurt a bit."

  "You say that every time."

  "True, when I'm giving an immunization shot. It's medical tradition."

  He stopped talking while he prepared the laser needle, then continued. "It also seems to be tradition that no ship's crew is ever on a nice, convenient, easily remembered schedule to receive them."

  "You could drop this one for all the good it does," his commander grumbled. "No matter how many shots you get against Quandon Fever, a new mutation inevitably crops up, and if you're exposed you get sick despite them all."

  "Not as sick. We hope. Besides, why make a home for the old versions? None ofthem're good tenants."

  By the time Jellico felt the spark of heat from the needle, Tau had already deactivated it. He glanced briefly at the tiny red spot it had left then rolled his sleeve back into place. "How's your assistant doing?"

  "Cofort? If I'd placed an order directly with the Spirit ruling space, I couldn't have gotten better, at least not for this study of mine."

  "It's more or less in her line, isn't it? She's an epidemiologist."

  "That title scarcely describes it. Rael Cofort knows just about every detail of every plague since premechanical Terra, and she's very nearly as knowledgeable about mostly every other major disaster as well. She's been even more help correlating data and interpreting it than she has

  been with the inputting."

  "What about practical medicine?"

  The other shrugged. "Luck's been with us, and we haven't had to put her skills to the test."

  Craig lowered himself into the chair Rael had vacated.

  "What do the others report?"

  "According to Johan, she's competent. No genius, maybe, but he can use her. Tang would put her on the screens or transceivers any time. Steen says she's got the theory, some of it pretty obscure, but real-life calculations're another matter. She probably could bring a ship through if pressed. He just wouldn't care to be aboard

  when she tried."

  "Astrogation's a specialized art," the Medic observed.

  "So's surgery. None of us flyboys'd want to take a crack at that."

  "Frank's opinion?"

  "He wouldn't need to have a blaster put to his head to make him eat her cooking, but he'd rather keep her chained to the hydro. Claims she could pull fruiting plants out of deep space."

  Tau nodded. "She seems to like dealing with living things, which is natural enough for a Medic, I suppose. At any rate, it can get results. — Trade's people work on a grand scale. What has Van to say?"

  Jellico spread his hands wide. "That she knows goods, especially luxury items, but whether she can do anything with them is anyone's guess. Her dealings with us are no indication. We're her own kind, and she was holding the blaster."

  That was about what Tau had expected to hear. "Strong in biotic areas, adequate with machines and math." The common pattern. Most people leaned to one or the other. "It's the degree of achievement she's attained in the areas where she's good that sets her apart. I'd say Teague Cofort was none too pleased when she lifted off the Roving Star."

  "Credits down he wasn't," Miceal agreed. Even if he had been more than a little relieved to see her go.

  "What about you? Have you been able to leam anything yourself?" He knew Rael had been spending a good part of what she would allow herself of free time in the Captain's company, although there was little help she could give him on the bridge.

  "Not much. She's got a layman's knowledge of animals, but it's broad and detailed. She likes them, so I guess she retains whatever she reads about them. It works that way for me. At any rate, I haven't had to talk down to her yet."

  He glowered. "Queex'll never be the same after she goes. He looks for her to show up now. To be more precise, he demands her presence."

  "Maybe she should continue showing up," the Medic suggested seriously.

  His companion looked at him incredulously. "We know hardly anything more about that damn woman than her name!"

  "Be reasonable, Miceal," Craig said smoothly. "We could establish a precedent, a whole new rank. Hoobat-Sitter First Class ... "

  Too late, Jellico saw the sparkle in his dark eyes and knew he had been taken over the jets proper. He informed the other, graphically, just where and how he should file that particular suggestion.

  Both were grave again in the next moment. "She isn't terribly communicative," Tau agreed. "Plenty of detail on a lot of different subjects, but nothing about one Rael Cofort. Do you have some suspicions over and above that mystery?"

  "Just a lot of questions with no answers forthcoming." "You've done some checking?"

  He nodded briskly. "Van and I both. What we could check. Her brother's the legend of the starlanes, not her. There's not much information on her floating around."

  "She meshes well," the Medic observed.

  "Maybe aye, maybe no. Unless I'm misreading some of the signals, Cofort rasps on a couple of our junior members. She's older than any of them and well out of apprenticeship, but she's so good at so damned many things that she can come across as a threat at times."

  "Dane?"

  He nodded. "He's struggling manfully to keep any ill feeling in check, but he's not that long out of Pool, and he wasn't exactly the most serene recruit we'd ever shipped when he first came."

  "His experience in the Pool wasn't one of unremitting joy. — Afraid for his job?"

  "Probably not. A Medic's not likely to be after that, but with all he's still got to learn, he can't view Van's tale of her prowess in the gem market with any great pleasure."

  "Well, she can't be upsetting Shannon. According to you, she's no shining star at all on the bridge."

  Miceal laughed. "Hardly. Rip Shannon is so secure and easy about himself that he's almost frightening. He also happens to like just about everyone and everything on two or more legs that anyway deserves liking."

  "Ali?" he asked. "Rael's no danger to him, either. Machines are his game, and not hers."

  The Captain began to feel uncomfortable. "We're pushing into your field, Craig," he apologized.

  Tau only smiled. "Pray continue. You've managed to stay in the right lanes so far."

  "Kamil's a different charter from the others. — No, he knows Rael Cofort can have no influence whatsoever in his department, but I think he welcomes change, however temporary, even less willingly than Thorson does. He wants, maybe desperately needs, stability, and any alteration in personnel threatens that. He's smart enough to recognize that there isn't a whole lot he can do about Rael's presence, but he still isn't likely to embrace what he has to regard as a potential hazard with open, loving arms."

  "There's no actual hostility," the Medic assured him.

  "I've been monitoring the lot of us for anything of that nature."

  "Just the potential for hostility is enough to make me very nervous," Jellico said dryly.

  The Medic's eyes narrowed. "What is it? If you've got something against Rael Cofort, maybe the rest of us should know about it. I haven't seen your instincts play us false yet."

  "Like I said, just half a galaxy of questions."

  "Why she wants a place at all on a ship like the Solar Queen being one of them?"

  "It's not exactly unreasonable to wonder. The idea of Teague Cofort's sister bumming around the rim trying to pick up odd berths here and there does give a man pause."

  "Sure, unless she happens to be telling the truth. The Spirit of Space knows, that's logical enough on the face of it, and she never said she's planning to spend her life on the rim. Once she logs in some practical experience she could then rejoin her brother's organization on her own terms or link up with some other inner-system ship. She can't be blamed for not going for a Psycho placement. Its decision's binding and long
-term. If she's hoping to go back to her own people in anything like the near future, she wouldn't want to lock herself up elsewhere.

  "The rim's a reasonable place for her to come, too," Tau went on. "She can find work here without having to worry about having her knowledge used in a Trade war against Teague since none of us deals with the same markets on any regular basis, or at least not regularly enough to form a threat."

  "So you've been considering some of the problems as well, I see,-for all your enthusiasm about our new hand."

  "Naturally. I'm not completely space-addled yet, I hope and pray. I'm just willing to make use of her talents while I'm wondering."

  "So am I, assuming she's after what she claims she is. We can't confirm that, not with almost everything we've got to go on coming straight from Rael Cofort herself."

  Jellico said nothing more for a moment, then he sighed.

  "She's so damned good, Craig. Why did Cofort let her go?

  — I know. She claims she wants to try herself on her own, but Teague owns several freighters outright and has a strong interest in a number of others. Just about all his apprentices find places in his organization when they qualify. It doesn't make sense that he couldn't manage to come up with anything at all for his own sister."

  Mfceal gave a sharp shake of his head. "What's the matter with her? I can't find it, but Cofort actively wanted to be rid of that woman or was at least more than willing to see the end of her.

  "Even the way she fits in here's against her. She's trying too hard. No one not working at it full time could have the right answers, the precisely correct phrases, all the time." The Captain frowned. "How much of Rael Cofort are we actually seeing and how much a skillfully constructed facade?"

  Miceal's face hardened. "Right now, I wish we had turned Cofort's damn offer down. I may well have shipped a potential nova aboard the Solar Queen—that or something half a universe worse."

  6

  Jellico had little time to dwell on the puzzle of his unwelcome temporary hand the following day. The Queen was scheduled to set down on Canuche of Halio by late evening, and all the myriad tasks that accompanied planetfall kept him and the rest of her hands fully occupied.