Jellico winced at the Taboran’s answering screech. “Doctor Cofort. you’ll never make a xenobiologist if you insist on anthropomorphizing an X-Tee creature’s reactions …”
“Queex is a shipmate, and I know him well enough by now to recognize when he’s upset, which he has been since we all limped back on board,” she informed him haughtily.
“I stand corrected. Doctor. — Hand him over here.”
Queex scurried up the man’s arm, then dropped to the bunk and settled himself in the still-warm spot its proper occupant had vacated with a great, rasping whistle of contentment.
“I hope he doesn’t object to being shifted,” Jellico commented. “That’s my place, and I’m not about to surrender it to a hoobat.”
“I’ll fetch his cage,” the woman promised. “He’ll probably be happier in there anyway.”
“Praise the Spirit of Space for small favors,” he muttered.
He ran his finger down the surprisingly soft feathers.
“He’s all right where he is for the time being.. One of the others can get the cage later on. — You’re not going to be lifting anything heavier than flatware and a cup until those ribs heal.”
“Aye, Captain,” she responded meekly to the command in his tone.
The feeling of contentment suddenly deserted Jellico. He glanced uneasily at the Medic, recalling some of the things she had said—and not said—during this visit. She had mentioned Thorson’s being unable to work but not that she would take over the lighter portions of the job for him, and she had spoken of the Solar Queen’s lifting with her cargo; she had not used the words we or our.
He lowered his eyes and pretended to concentrate on Queex, whose head he carefully rubbed. “Are you still planning to leave the Queen?”
“Captain or not, you just try to put me off, Miceal Jellico!”
He smiled broadly, partly from relief, partly to conceal it.
“That borders pretty closely upon insubordination,” he observed.
Fear gripped Rael, however, and she did not answer him as he expected. The Solar Queen had encountered a small galaxy of trouble since she had joined the ship’s company.
Superstition had a powerful hold on some space hounds, even among the best, the bravest, the most intelligent of their breed. If Jellico had come to believe she was, in fact, a jinx . . .
Her eyes fell. Initially, she had intended using her association with the Solar Queen as a means of gaining control of the funds currently tied up with the Roving Star and then, as soon as she had acquired the experience and reputation she required to bolster her credentials, to cut loose again and return to her brother’s organization on her own terms. Slowly, without her even realizing it, that purpose had altered, and for all her Trader’s discipline, she was hard-pressed to face this man without betraying the misery the possibility of his rejection, the possibility that he might fear her, aroused in her. “Seriously, Miceal,” she said in the low tone that was all she could trust herself to use steadily, “you are the skipper. If— you don’t think I fit in with the best interests of the ship for some reason, I’ll take my earnings to date and pull out, no questions asked.”
“No!”
She looked up and smiled. There was no mistaking the decision in that roar. “After all this, I wasn’t sure I’d be wanted . . .”
“I want you, damn it!” Miceal gripped himself. He was annoyed by the sharpness of his own response. He made himself go on quickly, as if without hesitation, in a quieter tone. “Doctor, life’s been interesting since you’ve come aboard, right enough, but what you don’t seem to realize is that life’s been interesting aboard the Solar Queen since the day she was launched. That’s not likely to change, and I’m not about to quit the starlanes or my ship as a result, especially since things seem to get just as lively in the supposed safety of a planet’s surface.”
Rael smiled once more, somewhat shyly this time. His vehemence had taken her a little aback, but it was surprisingly pleasing. “Maybe we’ll have a bit more peace and quiet from now on,” she ventured hopefully. “We’ve surely earned it.”
“Maybe,” Jellico agreed. He, for one, doubted it, but whatever fortune was to bring, he found himself looking forward to facing it. The Queen had seen her share of trials in the past and had claimed a reasonable quota of profit, and right now, her future and his own seemed to shine bright with promise.