The last five days they’d been waiting for the generators to recharge, she’d bumped into Tanin only a few times. He’d been working with Sway up on the bridge. And while she definitely needed to clean the bridge – it was terrible up there – she’d been distracted by the robot project.
Besides that, Tanin and Sway were working. Before they swung into subspace, they were plotting a course and making a docking reservation at the space station they were aiming for. Alred told her that they were going to a common trading station called Hon-Kal. There, they’d not only be able to sell off the gems they ‘acquired’ from King Gissrn, they’d also be able to buy everything that Garnet and Goldie might need. They were also going to buy more of the subspace sickness meds because, unfortunately, that station didn’t do ship updates and repairs.
However, there was a job waiting for them on Hon-Kal. Alred didn’t tell her exactly what it was, only that they would be able to pick up a package and take it further on to a mining colony station. And from the mining colony, they’d be able to swing to a different job, and from there, they would be within easy distance of a station thatdiddo ship repairs – Hir-Fallow.
Other ships would be able to make the swing from Hon-Kal to Hir-Fallow in one go. It would be easy for them.
But the generators on the Humility were worse than she thought. Not only did they take forever to recharge, but Vytln had to keep his eyes on the crystals directly during the swing itself. He was the ultimate authority for how long they could be in a swing, and right now they were limited to three and a half days. Any more than that, they began to risk losing the ability to swing out and becoming trapped in subspace completely.
There was no rescue from that. No one could communicate outside of subspace once they were inside. No one would be able to track them within. There was no way to pull them out even if there was. If they couldn’t drop out under their own power, they were trapped within subspace until they died. The Humility would be just another ship added to a list of lost starships that had gone down that path and never returned.
That was a rather terrifying thought. Alred assured her that Vytln was an expert at running their generator, and he left plenty of space between the certain death of their crystals and how long they could remain safely in the swing, but it wasn’t all that comforting to hear.
The short swings they were required to make meant they were going to be leap-frogging their way to Hir-Fallow station. And since they were, they were taking jobs along the way. So, Tanin, Sway, and Alred had been plotting a zig-zagging path that would take them to their final destination while maximizing profit.
Tanin’s company wasn’t an ordinary delivery company. He wasn’t someone you could drop a package off with and get a guaranteed delivery date. He had a list of clients who wanted things transported, and he would choose who he would go to next based on convenience, how much they were willing to pay, and even based on how important he determined the job to be.
For the clients, it seemed like the short end of the stick, and it kind of was. But the things he transported and the places he transported them to meant that, if you were asking for his help, you had already run out of people to ask or pay. He had the benefit of picking and choosing his clients. If they could find someone else willing to do it quicker or cheaper or safer, then he wasn’t the company they were looking for anyway.
Last Chance Delivery would be a better name for his company in her opinion. Humble Delivery Service did not roll off the tongue very well.
But that wasn’t really the point, she’d come to realize. He was putting up a front. Hiding the past he’d hinted at but never truly shown her. He called it Humble Delivery because that’s the fantasy he was trying to show other people, not an actual identification of himself or his crew.
She dearly wanted a glance at the person behind his own front of humility. Who was Tanin behind the lie of the humble delivery boy?
He looked away from her, focusing on Trove.
“Vytln is calibrating the ship’s guns. Go help him.”
Trove blinked once before a wide grin broke out over his face. “Sure, cap. I’ll see you around, little lady.”
Garnet covered a giggle as he walked away, humming to himself, tail flicking with what could only be playfulness, before she focused on Tanin. He looked at the gun then up at her face, his expression impossible to read.
“He go over safety rules yet?”
“He told me not to point it at any of us, just others, and not to shoot it inside the ship,” she snickered.
“Good enough. Take your stance.”
Tanin was taking over the teaching process, it seemed. Garnet wasn’t upset about it. She had to fight to keep a wide grin off her face as she turned, bringing the gun up the way Trove just taught her, aiming downrange to the holo target hanging in the air.
She remained there, tight and still, acutely aware of Tanin’s eyes moving up and down her body. Looking at her to judge her form exactly as Trove had. Though it felt completely different with Tanin’s gaze caressing her.
“You ever use a weapon before?” He asked, voice incredibly close to her ear, making her shiver as she shook her head no.
“The stun stick,” she finally said. “Just the stun stick.”
“Those are mostly non-lethal. That’s not what I mean. Have you ever held a weapon with the intention of killing someone?”
She shook her head again.
Garnet was expecting it, but she still jumped when Tanin’s arms came around her. Sliding in from behind, his hands caressing down her arms until they were over hers, cradling the gun as he held her back against his chest.
“Have you ever killed anything?” He whispered in her ear, making her tremble.
She could only shake her head. She’d squished a few bugs in her day, but she didn’t think that was quite what he meant.
“It’s both harder than you think and easier than you can imagine.” His fingers were entwined with hers, both of them grasping the gun as he aimed it over her shoulder. “The key is to not think about it. Don’t get trapped in thoughts that there’s a person on the other end. It’s an enemy. It’s a threat. You have to remove it, or it will remove you.”
