“Then as long as the vendors are paid, there shouldn’t be any problems.”I opened the door to the cargo hold.
It was empty and it was really too bad that we weren’t picking up cargo to fill it.“Actually,” I said slowly.“What do you think about hauling cargo to Kottke?”
“Like what?”Burn looked curious, but didn’t dismiss the idea out of hand.
“I don’t know.But there’s got to be something that they like.Or want.Or need.Whatever.We won’t stand out as much if we’re actually delivering something.”Why create a fake backstory when we could use a real one?
“That’s pretty smart,” Burn said.“Want me to look into it?”
“Burn, Lacy.Open the cargo hold for the guys.They’re waiting on the dock.”Dax spoke through the intercom.
I slapped my hand on the button to open the external door.“Talk to Dax about it.I’ll find the cargo master and ask.Oh, and tell him we’ll need to fuel up.”
The cargo ramp hit the deck with a slight thud that shimmied through the entire hold.Light flooded in and I squinted against the sudden brightness.I could just make out two figures—one tall and slender, the other taller and built like a tank—standing in the entry.
I assumed the bigger guy was Orion only because of the way Dax had described him.
Not willing to wait around for permission, I raced down the ramp.“Burn’s up that way.She’ll get you situated.”
Ignoring their startled expressions, I dashed by them and lightly jumped the last foot from the cargo hold to the dock.
I’d never been to Justin before, but the spaceports on the outer edges tended to be pretty small and very similar.The cargo master’s office should be right near the center of the spoke.It wasn’t in the station proper, so I didn’t have to worry about security and ID checks.
I skidded to a stop outside the door and checked the time.They were still open.Barely.I rapped my knuckles against the door.
“Yeah?”A burly dude with graying curls and a wrinkled face looked up from his desk.“Help you?”
“Yeah.You got any cargo going to Kottke?”
“Kottke?”His bushy eyebrows raised further, practically getting lost in the shock of hair hanging over his forehead.“What business you got on Kottke?”
“Well, none,” I admitted.“But we’re flying by with an empty cargo hold and the captain asked me to check if there’s anything that needs to go.Never know when you’ll need a little extra cash.”Out here, everyone understood the need for a cushion.
“Huh.”The cargo master rubbed his chin.“How much room you got?”
I estimated about half of our space.I didn’t want to appear desperate or too big.
He keyed something into his computer and I cheered on the inside.No grousing about not going through proper channels.
“Well, looks like I’ve got a shipment of livestock feed that needs to get down to the planet.Last ship couldn’t take it all.Told the folks on Kottke it’d be there next week, but if you can take it, they’ll be mighty happy to get it early.”
“We’ll take it.”
“You need to check with your captain?”
“Naw, he trusts me.”It was true, I realized.The new guys might not and Burn was still deciding, but Dax?He trusted me.
The cargo master laid out the terms of the contract and I agreed.It would probably be enough to cover our fuel costs here, even with the extra burn the added weight would cause.And it gave us a legit reason to be on planet other than “Hey, have you seen my sister?”
“All right.Sign here and here.”He pointed to a couple of places on a cracked tablet screen.
I scrawled my signature where he indicated and provided our dock number.
“It’ll be delivered in a couple hours,” he said.“You folks leavin’ today?”
“Tomorrow, probably,” I said.“How long is the transit to Kottke?”
“Half a day, give or take.You leave by mid-morning, you should be rollin’ in late afternoon.Wouldn’t recommend landing there after dark.Runway’s shit and they usually don’t light it real good.Locals get pretty unfriendly after dark too.You get what I’m saying?”
