Perilous Waif (Alice Long #1)

The salvage ships had a lot less delta V than the military vessels, and they didn’t have the option of converting a hold into extra fuel tanks like the Square Deal. So a fat tanker accompanied the squadron into the Delta Layer, and through our initial burn towards our destination. Once we were up to speed it docked with each of the salvage ships in turn, and spent a couple of hours refilling their tanks. That would give them enough fuel to match the high-velocity course the squadron was planning to take to the wreck, and still be able to get home afterwards.

I was busy through all of this, of course. Helping Naoko with passenger service, putting together a defense plan for my cabin, building lethal toys and sneaking them into my storage space. But I couldn’t help but keep a thread of my attention on the external monitors. Watching that sleek, black ship for the moment when the turrets began to rotate in our direction.

I figured we had less than a minute to live, if that ever happened.

It was silly to worry about it now, of course. Even if they did plan to kill us all, they wouldn’t do it until we’d led them to the wreck. But I couldn’t help worrying. I wasn’t used to having a danger I couldn’t do anything about so close at hand, and it wore at me. I guess I didn’t hide it as well as I thought, because on the evening of our second day in hyperspace Naoko pulled me aside to ask what was wrong.

When I admitted my fears she just hugged me.

“Oh, Alice. I have the same concerns, as do we all. But we must have faith in our captain to see us through.”

Easy for her to say. She’d known him longer than I had, and besides she was imprinted on him.

“Faith doesn’t come easily for me,” I told her. “You know more about the Masu-kai than I do, Naoko. Do you think they’ll let us go if they find the treasure?”

“I don’t know, Alice. The young lord has a reputation for honorable dealing, but his father is more feared than loved. It worries me that he sent Lord Yamashida to oversee the mission. That man has a terrible reputation. The assassins he trains are nothing but heartless killing machines, and his spies don’t even know that they’re his agents until the moment comes to turn on you.”

“Good thing he’s not in charge,” I muttered.

“Indeed. I must admit, I was relieved when I heard the young lord was officially leading this expedition. Although it puts you in a difficult position.”

“I know, I know, I need to be nice to him or he might have us all killed. I don’t think he’d really do that, Naoko. Did you know he wants to reform the Masu-kai?”

“Does he? Will he stop selling ships to the pirate clans, then?”

“That would be pointless. There are hundreds of modern nations in the Kerak sector, and probably five times that many megacorps. Unless someone manages to unite all those colonies there’s always going to be someone eager to sell ships to outlaws, so it might as well be the Masu-kai. The same goes for smuggling, and a lot of the other routine crime. But he wants them to stop inventing disgusting new vices to sell, and build an economy that isn’t so dependent on catering to the underworld.”

“Really? Would he shut down Lord Ishida’s exotic android projects?”

“Yes, absolutely. He thinks it’s completely dishonorable to intentionally make people who’ll be miserable with their lives, and isn’t that half the point of what Ishida does? But even if you ignore the moral issues, it’s a stupid business to be involved in. There’s no money in it, because there aren’t many people twisted enough to pay for that kind of thing, and the customers they do have aren’t that rich. Ishida might make friends with a few perverted politicians here and there, but he makes way more enemies than allies.”

She hugged herself. “It would greatly please me if that operation were shut down, Alice. But I don’t know if I can believe it. You do realize that a change like that won’t come without a price, don’t you? Do you really think he’d be willing to kill Lord Ishida over this?”

“Actually, when he found out that we’re friends he kind of hinted that he’d be willing to let me do it.”

Naoko stared at me in shock. I smiled, and put my hand on hers.

“Hey, no one gets to hurt my friends and get away with it. Even if it’s something that happened before we met. Anyway, I don’t see why Akio would lie to me. I’d find out the truth eventually. How would he ever be able to trust me if I was mad at him over a betrayal like that?”

“Matters are seldom so clear-cut, Alice,” she said gently. “There are always plausible reasons to put off a difficult task until tomorrow, and a series of temporary delays can easily become a permanent policy. Not to mention that your judgment may not be so clear if you become as close as he seems to hope. Even a normal girl would forgive her first love a great many failings, and you are far from normal.”

“Hey, what’s that supposed to mean? I’m not in love with the guy,” I protested.

“No, but you are interested,” she insisted.

“Well… yeah, maybe I am. He’s not what I expected.”

“He’s strong, confident and very sexy,” she teased. “I’d be surprised if his attention didn’t give you ideas, Alice. But do you really think you can experiment, and still keep him at arm’s length? I’ve seen how quickly you bonded with the rest of the crew. Myself, the techs, even Emla.”

“You’re my friends, Naoko. Isn’t that a good thing?”

“That depends on who you choose to befriend, Alice. I like to consider myself a good person, but let me ask you something. Would you kill to protect me?”

“Of course! What kind of question is that?”

“What about bystanders? Say, if I were captured by some tyrannical colony, and the only way to save me from torture was a military drop on the city?”

“I’d nuke the place without blinking,” I assured her. “Where are you going with this, Naoko? I promise, no matter what happens, I’ll always be there for you.”

“That was my point, Alice. Or have you really never considered that a normal girl would hesitate at such things? Would the answer be different if I merely wanted you to murder some stranger for insulting me?”

“Um.”

I suddenly realized what I’d just said. Killing people is supposed to be wrong, isn’t it? If I led a military drop on a city to rescue a friend, a lot of innocent people would die. Shouldn’t I care about them too?

My upbringing said I should. That just having to think about it made me a monster. But my instincts said that one friend is worth more than a million strangers. I didn’t know which side to listen to.

My instincts were perfectly fine with the idea of beating up some rude jerk to salve Naoko’s feelings, too. Or even killing him, if that wasn’t enough. What kinds of horrible things would I be willing to do just to make a friend smile?

I found that I wasn’t happy about the answer to that question.

“Oh,” I said weakly.

“Indeed. Oh.”

“Am I a monster, Naoko?”

“No, not at all. Alice, this is a common thing for people like you. You don’t have any particular urge to go out and hurt people for your own sake, do you?”

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