“This is it,” I said to Burn.“Kottke Tower, this isFortuna.Permission to land?”
“State your business,Fortuna.”
Burn rolled her eyes.“Gee, they’re friendly.”
I was glad the outgoing comms were off.“Real welcoming.”Toggling the comms back on, I said, “Got some livestock feed from Justin to deliver.Then top up on fuel, check for any outgoing cargo, and get a cold drink, not necessarily in that order.”
The pause on the other end was long.Too long?
“Thought that feed wasn’t getting here for a few days,” the suspicious voice in the tower said.
“We’re just passin’ through, checked in with the cargo master on Justin to see if there were any short-hop jobs.He had this one.”My palms were sweaty and I wiped them on my jumpsuit one at a time and wished Lacy was up here on the bridge with us.
Since the bridge couldn’t hold all of us comfortably, I’d made the executive decision that only Burn and I would be here for the landing.Lacy was in engineering, while Mercer and Orion were in the jump seats in the cargo hold.
“Someone will meet you at the landing zone for the cargo.”
“How about that drink?And the fuel?”
There was a laugh on the other end.“The drinks’ll be a lot cheaper than the fuel.But if you need it, you can fill up at the port.”
“Got any recommendations for where to get that drink?”I asked.
The voices on the other end quieted.“Go to Greenfield.Any other place, well, that’ll cost ya.”
Sure, that wasn’t suspicious.“Copy, thanks.”
Back in their professional but unfriendly tone, the tower personnel said, “Fortuna, you’re cleared for landing.Look for the big red lights.You can’t miss ’em.And if you do...well, you won’t be leaving here any time soon.”
“Roger.Thanks.See you boys on the ground.”
“Kottke Tower out.”
I toggled off the external comms and flipped on the internal ones.“We’re cleared for landing.They definitely warned us away from landing anywhere but the official zone.”
The others acknowledged that.
“They also directed us to a specific bar and indicated that going anywhere else would cause problems for us.”
Mercer spoke up.“So, we go to one of the other ones?”
That wasn’t my take, but I was new to all this.“Lacy, what do you think?”
“I think we go where they tell us.We don’t want to draw attention to ourselves, at least not yet.”
“They didn’t bat an eye when I said we were looking for some cargo.That might also be why they pointed us to that bar.”
Burn spoke.“We’ve got the big red lights, kids.Hold on to your asses, everybody, cuz we’re about to land.”
I flipped off the comms and took control.
The cargo masteron Justin was right.The landing zone on Kottke looked like crap, but the landing went better than I’d expected.After securing the ship, Burn and I hustled to the cargo hold to join the others.We met Lacy on the way.
“Why aren’t you in the body armor?”I said, studying her outfit with a frown.She was wearing a flight suit that looked like a cross between her coveralls and a spacesuit.It had obviously seen better days.Grease streaked across the front and over most limbs.How the hell did she think that was going to provide any protection?
“It didn’t fit.You’re all taller than me.And wider.”
Burn sniggered and Lacy glared at her.“Shut up.”
