“It’s okay. I can go. You can direct your teams.”
Hal hesitated. “No. I’ll come with you. Rial can lead the teams and we’ll join them afterward.”
He was determined to have her back, and she loved that more than she could say. She merely nodded, though. This was not the time and place to let him know how she felt about it.
“You should ask the traffic controllers if they can clear the way for theIlliumto undock and leave the way station, so we’ve got more options.” Hal turned to Chel before he left the bridge. “I don’t like us being stuck down here with no easy way off. We’re a sitting target.”
“I can do that.” Chel nodded. “What happens if we get permission to leave before you return?”
“Do it anyway, and get in a holding pattern around the way station. I’d rather we’re able to leave when we want, than sit here, stuck. Leave some runners in the bay for us to get up to the ship if that happens.”
Fee knew all movement into and out of the way station had ground to a halt, but if theIlliummoved slowly as it left, it should be safe enough. It was so big, no one could miss it.
“I’ll see what I can do to expedite that when we speak with Tean Lee,” she said to Chel.
He blinked, as if suddenly remembering she was the way station manager. “Thank you.”
It occurred to her that if Chel hadn’t tossed her off theIlliumand made her Sazo’s problem all those months ago, she’d never have had the opportunity to take the way station, and that had definitely been one of the best moves she’d made since finding herself in this new world.
“No problem.” She gave him a little wave as she left.
She didn’t think he had any idea how to respond.
CHAPTER 27
Tean Lee ledHal and Fiona down into the basement.
Hal thought it looked a little menacing, given this was just Larga Ways Security Headquarters, and he was surprised to see at least three people in cells before they reached the room where the Balcoan attackers from the warehouse were being held.
A Garmman, a Balcoan, and a Vanad sat or lay on beds attached to the wall and looked out at them as they passed by from behind transparent walls.
“What crimes are those three being held for?” he asked.
“Two for theft, one for violence,” Tean Lee said. “We usually have three to five people down here most days.”
“How do you deal with them?” Hal hadn’t ever thought about crime on the way station.
“We don’t have a justice system, we’re too small,” Fee said. “We send them back to where they came from and blacklist them from the way station if what they’re accused of is serious.” She glanced at the three prisoners. “And we fine them—or their embassies—a hefty fee.”
“I didn’t know that.” But it made sense. There was barely enough room on the way station as it was. There certainly wasn’t room for a prison.
“We send someone to watch them being escorted by an embassy representative onto a ship leaving for their home planet, and charge more for every day we have to house them in a cell,” Fee said. “The turnaround’s about two or three days, right?”
Tean Lee stopped in front of a closed door. “We try to keep it at two, but if there’s an issue, it can take three days before we see them on their way.”
He opened the door and stepped in, and Hal and Fee followed him.
There were two of Tean Lee’s team standing guard inside, and the two Balcoans were seated at two separate tables and both were restrained.
“Have they given their names?” Fee asked Tean Lee.
He shook his head. “They’ve refused to say anything at all.”
Hal studied them. He and Fee knew their names, but they’d decided to keep that to themselves for now. Tean Lee would want to know how they’d come by the information, and Fee didn’t want to tell him. It wouldn’t matter, anyway. The names they’d come in on in the past were likely not even real.
“Where is your base on the way station?” Hal asked it for form’s sake, but he knew he wouldn’t get an answer.
He was right.
