The Outback Stars

CHAPTER


THIRTEEN





M

yell woke to find an unfamiliar shape bent over him. Doris, he thought, and almost lashed out with his hands and feet. Then he saw commander’s bars and a nametag that said Osherman. His patches included several Alcheringa runs and a memoriam badge for the Yangtze.



“Stay still, Sergeant,” Osherman ordered sternly. “I’ll call Medical.”



“I’m fine.” Myell sat up to prove it. He rubbed the side of his head and touched a hot spot where his cheek had slammed into the deck. “What happened?”



“I knocked you down. I apologize. Can you stand?” He could, and did, and though he himself was steady the passage-way swayed like a boat on an ocean. Osherman wanted to walk him down to Sick Berth but Myell convinced him that going back to the is-sue room was a better idea. Jodenny blanched when she saw the two of them.



“What happened to you?” she demanded, reaching as if to touch his cheek.



Myell deflected her hand. “An accident.”



“My fault,” Osherman said. “Should I call Medical?”



“Sit down.” Jodenny steered him toward a stool. Her hands were remarkably soft, and felt warm against his skin. “Medbot activate.”



“I don’t need—” Myell started to stay, but the unit was already honing in on him with a flashing light. “It’s nothing, Lieutenant.”



“Did you lose consciousness?”



The medbot hovered around his right ear and swung to his left. “No,”

Myell said.



“Yes,” Osherman said. “Only for a few seconds.”



Jodenny shot Osherman a gaze. In it Myell saw something old, maybe something bitter. He knew they had both served on the Yangtze. It didn’t take much to imagine them attending the same meetings, or sharing a cozy rendezvous in officer berthing.



Osherman added, “You were trying to say something, Sergeant.”



Myell tried to remember, but nothing came to him. The medbot announced, “No emergency medical assistance required. Please re-port to Sick Berth at your convenience.”



Lieutenant Quenger appeared at the counter. He was Chiba’s boss, as much as any officer could be said to be. Almost as much trouble, though far less powerful. Myell had never liked him. Quenger said, “So, what happened here? Blood and guts. Looks interesting.”



Osherman ignored Quenger completely. “Again, Sergeant, my apologies. If you’ll excuse me, I’m late to an appointment.”



He strode off. Quenger said, cheerfully, “I can come back, if you two need a moment or two.”



Myell didn’t like the tone in Quenger’s voice, but Jodenny’s expres-sion betrayed nothing. She said, “Go get yourself checked out, Sergeant. I’ll have Nitta send someone else up.”



“I can keep working—”



She gave him a forced smile. Maybe she was ashamed of him in some way, or maybe she just wanted to talk to Quenger alone. “You’ll scare the ensigns, looking like you do. They’ll think I’m abusing my crew.”



Myell nodded unhappily. He left the issue room and rounded the next corner, then stopped to eavesdrop.



“What do you need?” Jodenny asked.



“That’s a pretty open-ended question, isn’t it, Jo?”



“What do you need from the issue room?”



“New jacket. Lost my other one.”



Myell envisioned her taking the requisition and pulling down a jacket from the shelves. The prospect of Quenger ogling her while she bent over or reached up made his fists clench. Quenger asked, “When are you going to let me take you to dinner?”



“Is that what you had in mind the other night?”



“You should have let me in.”



“I don’t date fellow officers.”



Quenger laughed. “Dating wasn’t on the agenda.”



“Here’s your jacket.” Jodenny didn’t sound amused. “Good-bye, Lieutenant.”



“Jo, Jo, Jo,” Quenger chided.



The approach of footsteps made Myell climb down the nearest ladder and head back to his quarters. A cold cloth eased the bump on his head and aspirin started to work on the headache. He lay in his rack trying not to think about Quenger putting his hands on Jodenny. After several sleepless minutes of replaying the accident with Osher-man he checked officer berthing assignments in Core. Osherman had knocked him down while coming out of quarters assigned to Lieu-tenant Anzo, who worked for him in the Data Department.



Myell called up Anzo’s biography and picture but didn’t recognize her. There could be a very innocent reason for Osherman visiting one of his subordinates’ cabins during working hours—maybe Anzo was sick in quarters, or just coming off a watch—but Myell found it curi-ous she hadn’t noticed the accident in the passage just outside her door, or hadn’t come to check. Or had she?



The pocket server, programmed to activate at any impact, had dumped data right into an encrypted account. Myell played it back and heard Osherman saying, “Damn it!” A thud. A rustle as Osherman bent over him. “Sergeant? Sergeant?” he asked, somewhat fran-tic. A cabin hatch clicked open.



“What happened?” a woman’s voice asked.



“I’ll take care of it,” Osherman said.



“You want me to call Medical?”



“No. Go back inside.”



The hatch door closed. Osherman said, “Sergeant, wake up,” and then Myell’s own voice murmured something too low for him to hear on the replay. He upped the volume.



“Uru…”



Osherman asked, “What, Sergeant?”



“Oolu…” Myell mumbled, then silence. A few seconds later he had woken up.



Myell stared at Koo, who was busy sleeping in her terrarium and no help at all. Though Osherman had told Myell he would call Medical, and had again offered in front of Jodenny, it was obvious he didn’t want anyone else involved. His trip to Lieutenant Anzo’s cabin didn’t look so innocuous after all. Suddenly weary, Myell downloaded all of the pocket server’s data to his personal ship’s account and climbed into bed. Sometime later cloth rustled and he woke up swinging.



“Hey, hey!” Timrin backed away with a blanket in hand. “Just try-ing to be nice.”



Upright, dizzy, Myell dragged a hand across his eyes. “Sorry.”



Timrin peered at his cheek. “Jesus. Chiba do that to you?”



“Got knocked down.” The past and present blurred, and Myell wasn’t sure who he was making excuses for. Timrin’s thoughtful if in-cautious move had tumbled him back to Baiame, the fall of a shadow in the doorway, Daris’s calloused hands.



“Terry? You with me?”



He shook himself back to the present. “What time is it?”



“Almost time for the game, and I’ve got my money on East En-field.”

Timrin threw the blanket aside and pulled off his coveralls with quick, efficient tugs. “Someone should teach f*cking Chiba a lesson.”




“I told you. This wasn’t Chiba.”



“Don’t cover for him. I heard what happened. Did you record it?”



Myell sipped some water. “You’re not listening.”



“I hear what you’re not saying.” Timrin slid into a new shirt and buttoned it. He was a thin man, bony in all the wrong places, unlucky when it came to women. He paid for sex, usually, either directly or through kasai girls. “So why does the side of your face look like raw hamburger?”



The anger in Timrin’s voice made Myell feel a little better. “Some-one rushed too quickly out of a hatch while I was in berthing. Satis-fied? Drop it.”



Timrin peered into the mirror and combed his hair. “Officers. Can’t live with them, can’t push them out an airlock.”



Myell’s chest tightened. Don’t be paranoid, he told himself. “I didn’t say it was an officer.”



“It would have to be, wouldn’t it?” Timrin grimaced. “Clumsy dongers, the whole lot.”



Myell leaned back and turned his face to the wall.



* * * *



A

fter dinner that night Francesco pulled Jodenny aside. “I hear there was a scuffle in the mess this morning. Chief Chiba and Sergeant Myell.”



And here she had thought the highlight of Myell’s day had been getting flattened by Osherman. “Did you see it?”



“Not personally.”



“I’ll talk to Myell,” she said.



That night she tossed and turned in bed. Osherman hadn’t volun-teered to make a safety report after his accident with Myell, which was uncharacteristic. The officer she remembered from the Yangtze had been meticulous about regulations and paperwork. Osherman had also been in a decided hurry to leave once Quenger showed up. Myell, meanwhile, should have told her about the mess deck incident with Chiba. The man had a definite problem with asking for help. The next morning she went to quarters early to discuss it with him and came across Strayborn and Myell arguing.



“You should have asked me,” Myell was saying.



“I don’t need to—” Strayborn stopped when he saw Jodenny.



“Is there a problem?” she asked.



“No,” Myell said.



Strayborn said nothing. Jodenny eyed the two of them. “Sergeant Myell, I’d like to speak with you in private for a moment.”



He shook his head. “Can’t, Lieutenant. I’m due on watch in ten minutes. I only came to leave notes for Ishikawa.”



Jodenny couldn’t interfere with his watch schedule. She conducted quarters and reminded everyone about the rules regarding shore leave on Mary River. Afterward Strayborn accompanied her back to Mainship. As they waited for a tram she asked, “Was there an incident yesterday between Myell and Chief Chiba?”



Strayborn grimaced. “I heard there was. I didn’t see it.”



“Why didn’t he report it to Security?”



The tram pulled into their station with only a few passengers aboard. Jodenny and Strayborn retreated to a corner and held on to poles as it slid into motion again.



Strayborn said, “Anyone tell you about AT Ford, Lieutenant?”



“I heard a thing or two.”



“Myell was in the brig for a while while they tried to sort through everything.”



That information had most definitely not been in his record. “Was he?”



“Part of it was for his own protection. The girl who said he raped her was dating Chief Chiba. He runs a pretty mean crowd.”



“So I hear.” The tram began to slow as it approached Mainship. “Do you know that for a fact?”



Strayborn raised an eyebrow. “Don’t tell me you believe the official position that there are no gangs on Team Space ships, ma’am.”



No, she didn’t believe that. No matter how much she might prefer otherwise, gangs were a fact of life on Fortune, Baiame, and Warramala. Crew who came from rough neighborhoods didn’t lose their al-legiances when they signed up. If anything, the long Alcheringa runs strengthened the ties that cut across rank, rate, and position.



“So Myell was in trouble with Chiba and his people,” she said.



“Yes, ma’am. Meanwhile, a lot of people who didn’t know better were already convicting him. The charges were dropped but there are hard feelings all around. That’s what breakfast was probably about. If I know Myell, he’d rather cut off his arm than go to Security.”



The tram slid into the first station on Mainship. Jodenny paused in the open doorway. “When were you going to tell me all this?”



Strayborn’s expression gave away nothing. “I wasn’t. No disre-spect, but there’s never been a reason around here to get the DIVO involved in anything. Not until now.”



Jodenny accepted Strayborn’s backhanded compliment with si-lence. She returned to her office, stared at her deskgib for a while, and went to a scheduled meeting with Lieutenant Commander Vu regarding purchase orders. The mess decks were empty but for two RTs trying to lower a dragon boat from its mount high on the bulk-head. Vu grabbed two cups of horchata and slid into a booth opposite from Jodenny.



“I hear you’re causing all sorts of trouble,” Vu said, her eyes sparkling. “Uniform inspections. Taking away people’s gibs. Making the ensigns study for watch. You’re not going to win the vote for Most Popular DIVO.”



“I figured as much,” Jodenny said.



The comm sounded. “Attention all crew and passengers. Mary River transition commencing. Five, four, three, two, one.”



The slightest of bumps indicated that the Aral Sea had dropped into Mary River’s solar system. The distance between the Alcheringa drop point and Mary River was much shorter than back on Kook-aburra, and in just a few hours the Aral Sea would start releasing tow-ers for local freighters to tow away. The first shore leave birdies would depart in the morning, each of them jammed full with sailors seek-ing to escape the ship for recreation and relaxation.



“Popular or not, you’ve got Grace Wildstein in a fit of jealousy. She thinks you’re Al-Banna’s new darling,” Vu said.



“That’s silly.”



Over by the salad bar, one of the RTs trying to fix the dragon boat lost his grip. The boat slid down several centimeters before its safety wire caught with a loud snap.



“Careful!” Vu warned them.



“Sorry ma’am,” the RT said.



Vu turned back to Jodenny “Grace can be a little silly, I suppose. Ever since Matsuda disappeared back when we were leaving Kiwi, she’s been a little insecure. You heard that story? About our old SUPPO?”



“I heard it,” Jodenny said. “What do you think happened to him?”



“I could give you a different theory for every day of the week. My favorite is that Team Space pulled him at the last minute as part of a criminal investigation. He was slippery that way you know? Slimy under the surface. Grace is a good officer, runs everything by reg, but stains spread pretty wide on this ship. If he was involved in anything shady she might be held accountable for not catching on to it.”



“Shady like what?’



“Kickbacks. Bribes. Had himself quite a nest egg, but apparently didn’t hide the data trail very well.” Vu watched the RTs finish their work on the boat and retreat to the kitchen. “I don’t know for sure but he disappears, Al-Banna shows up out of nowhere, Umbundo puts you in Greiger’s job—it’s no wonder Grace is feeling under-mined.”




Jodenny didn’t want to talk about Wildstein anymore. “You should come to dinner in the wardroom tonight—we could do with some fresh faces.”



“I think my husband would miss me.”



Jodenny looked for a wedding ring, but Vu waved her hand and said,

“I don’t wear one. Neither does Mike. He’s the master chief for Data.”



“You’re married to a master chief?”



“You don’t have to look so shocked,” Vu said. “It does happen, you know. More often than commanding officers like to admit. The de-cent ones overlook it. The uptight ones, they can make an issue of it, but they can’t force you to get a divorce.”



“When I was in Supply School on Fortune, one of the ensigns in my class married a regular tech she’d known from childhood.” Jodenny sipped at her coffee. “They took away her commission.”



“An ensign at Supply School? Of course they’ll come down hard on her. Too visible for Team Space’s comfort, and they figure they can nip it early. A lieutenant commander and master chief married for ten years now, both of them on one Alcheringa run after another? No captain wants to take that on. Come over to our place for Sunday brunch and meet Mike. You’ll like him. Bring a date, if you’d like.”



“I’m not seeing anyone,” Jodenny said. Her last date had been four months earlier with an easygoing pilot. They had walked around the Yangtze’s Rocks and eaten ice cream and then returned to her cabin, where they’d made fumbling love. Weeks after the accident, when she finally dared to look, she read his name on the list of disaster victims.



Vu smiled mischievously. “I hear Quenger’s interested.”



Jodenny shuddered. “I’m not.”



“Oh, Dave’s not so bad. A little full of himself. That’s what hap-pens when you get everything you want with the snap of a finger. How about someone else?”



Jodenny didn’t have to think hard to come up with the name of someone she did find attractive, but a personal relationship with Myell was unthinkable. Despite Vu’s personal story, regulations against frat-ernization existed for a good reason and deserved to be upheld.



“No,” she told Vu. “There’s no one else.”



* * * *