Finn didn’t look like he was buying it.“I’m supposed to be the mechanic.”
His declaration dropped into dead air, as a waitress approached and conversation stopped.“What can I get you folks?”
While everyone else ordered, I studied Finn.While mechanics came in all shapes and sizes, he looked more like a down-on-his-luck spacer than any mechanic I’d ever met.And I’d met a lot of them.
When the waitress looked at me expectantly, I ordered a cider—something crisp and clean, that I’d drink slowly—and fries.“What?”I asked, when everyone stared at me.“They have good fries.”
“You’ve been here before?”Suspicion dripped from Finn’s question.
“A few times with my old crew.”
That drew the waitress’s attention and she studied me closer.Dammit.There was no spark of recognition on her face and that eased some of my tension, but not all.She could just be a damn good card player.
After she left us to get our drinks, the conversation started again.
“You hear anything about cargo?”Dax asked Finn.
“I’ve got a few leads,” he said.“Not sure which is the best.”
“What are they?”I asked when no one made a move to fill the silence.
Finn glared at me then looked at Dax.
“Go ahead.”Dax answered Finn’s silent question.“She’s got more experience with cargo than the rest of us combined.”
Finn’s lips pursed.He didn’t like it, but he followed Dax’s order.“Someone’s got a shipment of pukka berries to be delivered a few planets?—”
“No.”I started shaking my head the moment he said “pukka.”“Absolutely not.”
He glared at me for interrupting.“You may have the knowledge, but you’re not the boss.”
What an asshole.“Do you even know what a pukka berry is?”
He shook his head.
I looked at Dax and Burn.They were just as clueless.
“They’re small delicate berries that have a window of three days when they’re perfect to eat.Before that, they’re hard as a rock?—”
“Who cares?”Finn interrupted.
I pretended he hadn’t spoken.“Outside that window, they start fermenting and let off a gas that smells like rotten eggs had offspring with a corpse.”I paused and made a face.I’d only smelled it once, from a distance, and that had been enough.Elegium Station had charged hazard pay if a ship reeking of pukka berries needed service.“Once that gas gets into your ship’s vents, you practically have to vent the entire ship to space.And that only works 80 percent of the time.”
“You’re lying,” he said.
I shrugged.“Look it up yourself.”
The waitress returned with our drinks, while Finn pulled his comms out of his breast pocket.“Pukka berries,” he said to the AI interface.
I sipped my cider as he scrolled through the results.
Burn moved closer and read over his shoulder.
I’m not sure how many results it took to convince them, but finally Burn said, “Damn, she’s telling the truth.”
“If we can’t haul pukka berries, what kind of cargo should we take?”Even if his tone hadn’t carried his belligerence, his body language did.Arms crossed over his chest, he glared at me.
I sighed on the inside.His type were always a pain in the ass.Especially when they didn’t know something.
