Page 34 of Relyn
“I have not met her before, I will say that. It is Rutra that called her Gale,” Relyn said.
“You are not being helpful either, big guy,” Nora said.
“I had been known to Rutra and Alana as Gale, but my name is Bright. It has always been Bright.”
Nora looked at Relyn. “So why does Rutra think Bright knows where Alana is?”
“From what I can gather, Rutra and Alana had a bad break, and now Rutra is determined to find Alana in any desperate attempt he can,” Relyn said.
“He put a beacon on the ship,” Bright said. “The scans show that it’s on the outside of the ship, so we’ll have to land somewhere if we want to take it off.”
“So he can track us?” Nora asked.
“The beacon is likely a decoy. He is expecting Grom to alert him when we make contact with Alana.”
“And that begs the question,” Nora began, “does Bright, or Gale plan to try and find the elusive Alana?”
Bright was silent. Nora was pretty sure that was an affirmative silence, and not a “considering it” silence.
“Why does that make me feel like we’re not going to have a choice in the matter?”
Bright sighed and her hair changed from pink to green and then to white. “The Suhlik must be dealt with. They’ve encroached on our territory and their spies are trading freely.”
“And Alana will help you with that?” Nora asked.
“No, Alana is the Suhlik spy,” Bright said. The venom in her voice told Nora exactly what she thought of Alana.
“What about Rutra? What connection does he have?” Relyn asked.
“I don’t know. I was just going to make brief contact. Offer to deliver cargo, or pick up a small job on my way.”
“So you boarded that ship on purpose?” Nora clarified.
“You were not in any danger,” Bright said. “At least until he mucked things up.”
“I did nothing but protect her,” Relyn objected.
“By starting a fight. With a thing three times your size,” Bright said.
“He started it with me. And Rutra had banned any females from the ship. Who knows what he would have done with you if I hadn’t forced the issue,” Relyn said.
“None of that tells me why we suddenly trust him,” Wendy said, pointing at Relyn. “Or the see through dude. He was trying to get handsy.”
“He’s just a kid,” Relyn said.
“She’s just a kid,” Nora said.
“Old enough for a lottery, I’d expect,” Relyn said.
Nora punched him in the arm. “Okay, can we all agree on a new plan? One that preferably does not involve any more pirates?”
“There’s a station a few days from here. Big enough to dock the ship, remove the beacon and continue on our way,” Bright said.
Nora looked at Relyn and back at Wendy. Why did she trust him? He had been on a pirate’s ship for goodness sake. He’d done nothing but fight and threaten to kill Ketle, but her instincts were telling her that he was good. Maybe she’d watched too many old vids. As if he were Han Solo, and just a good woman could turn him into a hero instead of a guy who was just out for himself.
Bright interrupted her thought. “I am a good judge of character.”
“Trust, but verify,” Nora said. It was her motto with students. She trusted the stories at face value and allowed the students to give excuses and plead their case. Then she went and did her research. Most of the time, the story panned out, and she learned very quickly which students she could trust, and which to double check any of the work they turned in for cheating. She’d lost her new teacher optimism after watching kids turnin the fifth cheated assignment for the term. Most of the time they were so bad at cheating, that it was obvious. Only some of the good cheaters were rare, and impressive. If they just applied their brains toward doing the assignment instead of cheating, they would have gotten an A.
