The discussions remained pretty general; comparing notes on planets they had visited, and yarning about runs they had made and amusing anecdotes about past shipmates.
By the time that Telson excused herself to unpack, Jirik had relaxed. It appeared that, overall, Telson would be a good shipmate. After Telson excused herself, Jirik asked Bran and Tor their opinions.
Tor was enthusiastic. "She's wonderful, Captain. She doesn't talk down to me, and she didn't seem offended by all my questions. And she's so beautiful! I hope she likes us as well!"
Bran was more cautious. "I think she'll be all right, Captain. I liked her.
Jirik shrugged. " Okay, so we all agree that our impressions are favorable. I don't mind admitting that I was worried. Maybe this trip won't be so bad, after all."
After a few more minutes of conversation, Bran excused himself, and Jirik went to talk with Telson.
"You have a good crew, Captain," she asserted as Jirik entered her cabin. she smiled. "That kid is something else. I don't think he could offend anybody if he tried. I think I like your Engineer, too. He's as sharp as they come."
"Good," Jirik replied, "As you can imagine, I've compared notes with the others. I don't think you'll have any problems on the Lass. If you do, though, remember our deal. If someone bothers you, let me know immediately. I'll have no nursing of grudges on board. A crew of four isn't big enough to tolerate them."
"Agreed, Captain." Telson shrugged dismissively. "Now, would you like to tell me why we're jumping all over the galaxy instead of heading straight for Alpha?"
Jirik told her about the deal with the Library on Boondock, and the multimillion-credit letter of credit in his safe. The woman whistled softly. "No wonder you want out-of-the-way recal points. Every pirate and thug between here and Alpha that can wire together an old rustbucket is going to be laying for us!" Her expression turned thoughtful . "I'm going to have to make some changes in our course projections, Captain. The Lass isn't exactly a fleet Courier. There'll be a lot of those bastards that we can't outrun, and I don't want to take any chances. Let me think about it a bit, and I'll bring you my recommendations. I think I'll be able to sneak us through, but there are no guarantees. Some of those pirates have damned sharp astrogators."
"Just do your best," Jirik replied, "That's all that I can ask."
The white grin was back. "Don't worry, Captain. I'm well aware that the pirates know that corpses don't testify, and I'm quite fond of this furry little skin. It's the only one I've got. I don't want some thug shooting holes in it! Or raping hell out of it" she added.
Several hours later, Telson brought him the revised course projections. Looking them over, Jirik was impressed. Telson was very good. Most of her projected recal points were in uninhabited or marginally dangerous, and therefore unused, systems. One was in the fringes of a nebula, another was in the vicinity of a black hole usually avoided like a plague. Jirik complimented Telson on her work, receiving one of the white grins in reply.
At dinner that "evening," Jirik asked for suggestions, legal or not-so-legal, that might help them get through. The following day, each of the crewmen had at least one suggestion, to Jirik's pleasure. Telson suggested shutting down all sensor arrays not essential to recalibration. Tor proposed modifying or disabling the identification beacon required by both Alliance and Empire law, and Bran announced that he had already begun modifying the fuel mixture to change their exhaust "signature". Jirik was glad to see them becoming so involved and participating so actively. They spent several hours critiquing each other's suggestions, adding to them, and analyzing how to accomplish them.
Finally, they each pronounced themselves satisfied with the suggested measures. With Jirik's and Bran's help, Tor would modify the ident beacon to identify them as a robot ore hauler. The robot ships went astray with annoying frequency, so if noticed, they probably would be assumed to be an ore hauler whose course programming had been faulty. Since this was not uncommon for the robot ships, they were used only to haul low-value ore shipments. With any luck, any pirate detecting them would decide to pass them in hopes of waylaying the Lass. They would also add a switch in the ident circuit, which would let them shut off the beacon entirely. The idea was that they would enter the recalibration point systems with the beacon shut off, and only activate the modified beacon if they were in imminent danger of detection.
Meanwhile, Telson would shut down all nonessential astrogation sensors, with an eye toward maximum use of passive sensors, which could not be detected. When they emerged from supralight at the recal point, Jirik would scan the system for traffic, while Telson recalibrated for the next jump.
Since recalibration required maneuvering within the recal point system, and inertial drive exhaust traces were detectable, Bran was to plumb a line into the inertial drive fuel system that would add variable traces of inert elements into the fuel pumps. Every pirate in space knew what the exhaust "signature" of a DIN Class combat hauler looked like, and that's what they'd be looking for. By injecting minute traces of inert elements into the fuel system, they hoped the "signature" could be changed enough to be unrecognizable.
All hands were at their emergency stations for their emergence from supralight ten ship-days later. As the supralight generators wound down, the universe began to assume its normal appearance. Jirik hunched over the displays for the passive detectors, while Tor scanned all 'comm channels. Jirik was satisfied to note that almost as soon as her instruments flickered to life, Telson began punching at the keyboard on her nav computer. After a tense half-hour, all but Telson had relaxed slightly. Apparently, this system was out-of-the-way enough that none of their pursuers had thought of it. Or perhaps, Jirik thought, none of them could get there in time.
The woman's fingers flew on the keyboard as though she were a virtuoso playing a musical instrument. Her hunched posture, flying fingers and intent expression gave Telson an almost maniacal appearance that contrasted sharply with her elfin body.
The jump point in this system was less than 20 hours' boost from their entry point. Jirik headed for it immediately, while Telson computed the next jump. Less than two hours passed before she pronounced herself satisfied.
Once supralight, Jirik 'whuffed' a huge sigh of pleased relief, and slumped wearily back in his chair, suddenly aware of the tension cramps in his shoulder muscles. Looking around, it was obvious that everyone in the crew shared his pleased relaxation. Tor was grinning from ear to ear, stomping around the bridge, stretching cramped muscles. A sigh of monumental proportions coming from the intercom revealed that Bran, too, had been on edge. Telson was calmly shutting down her now-useless sensors, but Jirik's terse "Great job, Telson" was rewarded by that startlingly white grin. The slump of Telson's shoulders, and the sweat stains darkening her tunic gave mute testimony to the effort and strain of the past few hours.
"Yeah!" Tor agreed excitedly, "That was really terrific, Ms Telson! It always takes Valt between three and four hours to recalibrate and reorient for the next jump. I didn't know it could be done that fast!" It was fast becoming obvious that Tor was developing a serious crush on the striking astrogator. Jirik made a mental note to have a talk with the boy.
"Yeah," Telson replied deprecatingly, "Well, There's nothing like fear to make you do better than you thought you could!"