TriPoint, a Union Alliance novel by Caroline J. Cherryh

Beatrice half-turned in her seat. He nodded. Beatrice settled back. So they were going with it. Beatrice would handle it. He had confidence, too, in the Fleet’s gift—granted you knew which faction she belonged to.

—v—

ACCEL GREW HARDER, JOINTS POPPED. Fingers twined with fingers. Couldn’t think of anything, not at this g-stress, just company.

“Want the light?” Saby asked.

“No. Dark’s fine. I know who I’m with. “ Light just confused the eyes with here and now, and didn’t solve what went on in the dark space.

Didn’t silence Marie. She lived there, at the edge of jump. Like Rodman. Like Roberta R. Like the kids.

Just wondered… where they were going. What they were going to do.

“Tink says… back through Tripoint. Non-stop, I take it?”

Silence out of Saby for a few breaths. Her quarters. Her bed. Her fingers twitched in his. “We’re hauling. Not light mass on this leg. My bet is, we’ll deliver.”

“Deliver to what?”

“Where we have to.”

“Level with me. What do we haul? What are they after, this ship they’re talking about?”

“Don’t know. Don’t know who this ship’s working for. “ Another twitch of the fingers. “But while they’re searching… we can move cargo. They can try to find us.”

“That’s crazed. You just dump it out there, or are we meeting somebody, or what?”

“Just a place. Spooky place. Dead ship. I don’t like it. But stuff’s waiting there for us. Always is.”

“Those were the cans at Viking.”

A moment Saby just lay still. “Yes,” she said. “Sorry to say, that’s what you found.”

“Stuff they raided?” Indignation was hard, this close to the edge, under the heavy hand of acceleration. “That’s your trade? Stolen goods?”

“Stuff from a long time back. Old stuff. It’s the dates, the dates you don’t want to question. Ships we deal with don’t raid anymore. Don’t want the attention. Long as we sell them food, medicines… import Scotch.”

“And arms.”

“Food. Medicines. Mostly food. Plants. Live plants.”

“Live plants.”

They maintained a separate silence a while, hands joined.

“That’s the damned oddest thing I ever heard,” he said.

“Truth,” Saby said.

“I guess. “ Best offer he had. “If you say so—yeah, I believe it.”

* * *

Chapter Eleven

Contents – Prev/Next

—i—

TWO HOURS TWENTY MINUTES. The whole difference. The whole… damned… difference between Corinthian’s system exit and Sprite’s entry, the height and depth of Pell Star system apart.

Nothing to do at that point but to continue on in, with Sprite running full-loaded as she was. Nothing to do but maintain a quiet calm, a sweetness to the offered sympathy of cousins and, of course, Lydia. Less likely… sympathy from Mischa, whose expression of regret had a certain lack of conviction, but Mischa had at least made the gesture.

“We tried, Marie. All we could do.”

It was all they could have done, a heartbreakingly hard run through Tripoint, everyone on long hours and short food and sleep. Tempers had frayed, understandably so. And there had been recriminations about missing Corinthian.

Not from her. And they waited for her opinion. Maybe with bated breath.

Spirits aboard had picked up when their cargo sold during their run-in toward station, no languishing on the trade boards while the ship ran up dock-time, no waiting to sell this part and that lot of cans… Dee Biomedical bought the whole lot sight unseen, the publishing data-feed, the biomedicals, neobiotics, and biomaterials, with damage exceptions, which, Marie knew from her boards, there were none: every one of the cans came in registering, constantly talking to the regulation devices.

Not one can even questionable. And profit clear—Pell had no tariff on biomedicals of Cyteen origin, when Pell could get them.

Faces started to smile. People started to be pleasant to each other in the corridors. The seniors who’d been fuming mad about transshipping the government contract now thought that, of course, it had all been their idea.

But ship activity at dock? Pell didn’t have that kind of information available to an inbound ship. Get it at the Trade Office once you dock.

Information on Thomas Bowe-Hawkins? His mother wanted to know?

Oh, there was a record of that. Listed with exiting crew on Corinthian. And listed with returning crew.

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