Page 18 of Relyn
“I may have another opportunity coming up. And let’s just say I do not intend to put Grom in charge.”
“I’m interested.”
“Good. I’ll let you know when the details are more… finite.”
Relyn nodded. A few moments more and Relyn perceived it was the end of the conversation.
“Thank you for the hospitality.” Relyn held up his glass and downed the rest of it in a toast.
Rutra nodded. “Take the bottle.”
“I think I’ll do that,” Relyn said, taking a hold of the neck of the bottle. He stood up lazily, with the looseness of someone who’d just enjoyed alcohol on a mostly empty stomach and walked toward the door. He paused, looked at the cargo container and turned back, taking a chance.
“Okay, curiosity is eating me up. What’s in the crate?” Relyn asked.
“Honestly, I have no idea. But I found out who the end buyer was, and if Alana wants it, I’m bloody well keeping it.”
“You aren’t gonna open it?”
“That would ruin the surprise.”
Chapter 9
Nora
Her room aboard ship apparently came with a roommate, but Nora was quite happy to oblige. Data, the ship’s cat was a fat orange tabby that was extremely fond of napping wherever he pleased. His owner, Clover, who had come aboard with a list of care instructions, was the doctor’s wife. Though Clover had moved to new quarters in the city, the cat, it seemed, had escaped twice in order to find his way back to the ship. She’d given up trying to move him, and so he came with the deal. You borrowed the ship, you borrowed the cat.
Nora had been given the largest quarters on board, even though she’d protested. Bright had said something about it smelling too much of her daughter-in-law, and Wendy wasn’t too fond of cats. Either way, Data didn’t seem to care as long as he got his cat food twice a day and had someone to curl up with at night. Nora had wanted a cat for a while, but it always seemed a cruel possibility that one day she might get called up and disappear out of its life forever. She didn’t want the poor thing ending up in a shelter and she didn’t have any friends that she felt like foisting off yet another animal.
As she got older, Nora probably could have got one, but had never made the time to go get one. As she stroked Data, she promised herself that when she got back, she would go to the shelter and request one that had been left behind by some woman who would be extremely grateful to know her cat had been well taken care of.
Bright had been correct. The ship was not very big, at least for Mahdfel standards. The living space was about the same as her rowhouse if you laid it all out flat. There was a kitchen and dining area, a cockpit, three small crew quarters and a cargo area that the Etlon warriors had filled in record time. The wives had a list and had made her promise to help Bright fill the hold with a return cargo with all the right things, including two litters of kittens and mixed litter of puppies.
Wendy had just rolled her eyes as the women had said their weepy goodbyes. Nora had only known them a few days, so she expected it was more the homesickness kicking in and the hormones that were raging that were fueling the crying rather than actual friendship, though she didn’t doubt their sincerity.
If circumstances had been different, Meadow, Jane, and Humility would have made great buddies to hang out with, but Nora was needed at home, and without a husband, Nora would just feel like a fifth wheel after a while. There’d be no babies to coo over, and no, “you’ll never guess what he said last night,” stories to tell. Even if she did stay, she’d still be required to participate in the lottery, and it would be nearly inconceivable that her husband would already be there stationed on Etlon Two. She’d be whisked away to wherever he was, leaving her friends behind.
It was the only action to take, Nora told herself repeatedly as she watched Humility and Mason say goodbye to Wendy. Through a few well placed questions, Nora had managed to get the whole story. While trying to please his new mate, Kave hadconspired to get Humility’s sister and father here on the premise that his wife was dying. She hadn’t really been ill, at least not before he’d temporarily poisoned her. But Mason and Wendy had come, which allowed her father to undergo treatment for Blue Lung. Now that he was cured, he had decided to stay on Etlon Two, and watch his grandchildren grow up in luxury. Humility had also convinced Wendy to use her bride payment to go to university. While she’d been on Etlon Two, she’d taken some remote classes, but her sister wanted her to get the opportunity of living the college life that she’d never gotten.
After goodbyes, the three women had settled into their respective spaces and had six weeks stretching out in front of them. Meadow had handed her a tablet full of books, but Nora felt a bit guilty thinking that she could spend the next six weeks reading instead of doing something productive.
On the second day, she found Wendy sitting at the table staring at a tray of plants. Wendy was a responsible and generally quiet eighteen year old. She had sleek long brown hair that she wore back in a ponytail. Now that she was on the ship instead of a tropical planet, she seemed to live in a black hoodie and a pair of dark wash jeans. It was a teenage uniform that hadn’t changed much since she was that age. If they’d been back on Earth, Wendy totally could have been one of her students finishing her last year of high school. That’s if she weren’t Canadian and already finished with her high school degree.
“Oh, won’t you grow, grow for me,” Wendy sang half under her breath.
“Little Shop of Horrors, right?” Nora said, sitting across from her. “Hopefully you didn’t feed them blood.
“No blood. But I took perfect readings of soil, gravity, light, temperature, and water and they are already beginning to wilt. I don’t know how Odette does it.”
“I didn’t meet her.”
“No, she is on Etlon. I try to convince myself that Humility didn’t send her there just so I’d have an excuse to leave. It’s ridiculous anyway, since Odette does what she wants, and even her husband has a hard time telling her what to do.”
“Odette is your mentor?”
“She’s one of the best xenobotanists around, so it seems silly for me to go back to Earth just to study plants from other planets.”
“Your big sister just wants you to have the options you didn’t have. A lot of people change their minds about what they want to do with their lives while they are in college.”
