"Considering the shape those who'd been near us were in, I don't think I've got much call for complaining," she told him dryly.
"All the same, I am sorry."
Rael smiled, but her eyes were somber. "Thanks for not telling me to leave Keil back there and run."
"I did think of it," he admitted, "but I knew there was too much titanone in your spine for you to listen, so I spared you the insult."
She gave him an incredulous look and laughed. "I was terrified, my friend, m fact, I terrify easily. It's just that... "
The Captain smiled. "Precisely, Rael Cofort."
He shifted into a more comfortable position. "I more or less lost contact with the universe back there just after the fliers pulled us out. What happened? I know you assured me everything and everyone were clear, but Medics have a bad habit of softening down the story for the supposed wounded." "You were pretty sick," she told him gravely. "That was straight poison you were breathing. A little greater concentration and ... "
"Well, I'm fine now. — You called the Fire Department?"
She nodded. "With Mr. Van Rycke's transceiver, and Keil kept on calling after I went to join the battle. — He's going to be fine, by the way," she added triumphantly, "though he wouldn't have lasted much longer without us."
"Without you."
She shrugged. "Dane's about the worst hurt. Doctor Tail has him bundled up in burn cream and bandages at the moment, and he won't be shoving cargo around for the next few weeks, but he didn't take permanent damage, praise the Spirit of Space. We got the cream on him fast enough that there won't even be any scarring." She smiled. "Sin- bad's with him now, offering feline company and comfort.
"Jasper took some very bad bruises and minor singes.
He'll be stiff and damn sore for a while, but otherwise he's all right."
"How's Alt?" he asked quietly.
"Sound out. Both Doctor Tau and I are sure of that.
Whatever memories this aroused, he's faced them and filed them where they belong. — He's a strong man, Miceal, stronger than I would've thought just meeting him."
"People tend to underrate him." He swung into a sitting position. "What's going to happen to Canuche Town itself?
And there's the little matter of our charter. Now that the blasted life-and-death business is over, I'd like to know how that stands."
The Medic smiled. "You'll live! — Mr. Macgregory's terribly busy, naturally, but he did talk to Mr. Van Rycke for a few minutes. The waterfront is to be restored and the rest of the damage repaired as soon as possible. The Caledonia plant will not only be rebuilt but will be enlarged. Needless to say," she added grimly, "ammonium nitrate will be handled with proper respect everywhere on-world from here on in.
"As for the Queen's business, she's to lift with her cargo as soon as she can. By the time she gets back, another shipment will have been brought in from some of the nearer factories and will be waiting for loading at the port. Adroo Macgregory has no intention of losing out on a good business opportunity merely because he's suffered a setback here. — His phrasing."
Jellico laughed. "A man after my own heart! — We'll lift as fast as we can fuel up." He frowned slightly. "Assuming we can get any fuel. Everything'll be in short supply around here for a while."
"Friend, there is nothing the Solar Queen wants or needs that she won't get on Canuche of Halio. The other ships're in pretty solid, too," she added. "Their crews followed ours with manpower and supplies when they were needed most, and they'll get precedence after the Queen on any charters going on this planet in the foreseeable future. This is one place where the Companies won't even have a chance, not for a very, very long time to come."
"It's worked out well enough, then," the Captain said slowly. "For us. The Canucheans lost a deal more than buildings and goods."
Rael nodded slowly. "I wish we all could've moved sooner."
She shifted in her seat. Miceal was beginning to look tired, and she was feeling weary herself.
She picked up the hoobat, who had been watching silently from his perch on the desk. "Shall I leave Queex? He's been worried about you."
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."