Chapter 12

A few hours later, Ferro was printing out a list of assignments on a Callisto computer at the secretary's desk of the engineering chief's office. His new office was still a tottering minefield of half broken furniture, tossed cabinets and chunks of wall. Three more Volentin had joined the original installation crew in his new office, although Ferro was concerned that their specialty was destruction rather than construction.

Xerba was sitting in his new office at the chief's desk, no longer supervising the installation. Ferro slid the assignments across the desk without saying a word. The excitement of actually building a ship mingled with the confusion of his developing relationship with Riata. His lips were bruised. In both his personal and professional life, the circumstances were changing quickly.

"These are done?" Xerba asked, scanning the page.

"I don't know where any of these people are living on Callisto. How am I supposed to get them their assignments?" Ferro asked.

Xerba gave him a look like he was a child.

"You zip the file over to admin and let them take care of it. Why can't you understand the simple tasks?"

"Um, maybe it's because I don't have a simple mind," Ferro shot back. "Your daughter is crazy. You know that, don't you?" he added.

"Yes, I do," Xerba said. "Lucky for me, she is your problem now. I don't know what you did last shift but you have many people to placate before you will be able to sleep again. I wouldn't ignore this problem unless you can sleep with one eye open."

He laughed at his own joke and turned back to his computer screen.

Shaking his head Ferro stepped back out to the reception room only to be accosted by an older woman, dressed in clothes similar to Volentin but not Volentin.

"Hello, may I help you?" Ferro asked while eyeing the knives strapped to her forearms.

"I am Joyda of the Khan. I'm looking for the ship designer," she said.

"I'm Ferro. I'm the one you're looking for," he said, trying to size up the woman but failing. Her hair was mostly grey and her teeth were the unique white of regenerated root buds. Her presence exuded power and condescension.

"I'm told you had questions of procurement. Khan has the contract for procurement. What are your concerns? Surely you know the superior reputation of my Family."

This woman had a rod of pure brass up her spine and he had no intention of being anything but deferential to her. He was about to give her some measly excuse when the thought struck him that she wasn't Volentin and he didn't have to bow and scrape before her. That, he realized, was what he had been doing for the last six months. Hell, the last six years. He had a history of accepting all of the crap thrown at him without fighting back. Ferro felt a touch of embarrassment at his weakness and tinge of anger at himself.

"Why are you asking me? I design ships; someone else builds them," Ferro said, trying to sound more authoritative. Seeing that the woman was not satisfied, he fobbed off the entire matter on Xerba. Ferro was hoping that each would chew the other a new back hole.

When the two starting laughing in Xerba's office a few minutes later, Ferro ran for the hallway where he wouldn't have to listen to their conversation. Their immediate acquaintanceship made him uncomfortable although he didn't know why.

For all the grief that Xerba had caused him with his relentless single-mindedness to make Ferro perform, he had hoped that this woman would give Xerba a little of the same anxiety. His plan for revenge against Xerba had failed. Since he had tasks that couldn't be done from the offices, he turned towards the lifts.

The first item was an admission that fifty-two engineers were not enough. "Strike that," Ferro said aloud in the empty corridor. "Fifty-one engineers and one moron aren't enough."

The moron in question was Svegen Bernhardt who was still aboard Callisto. Bernhardt had refused to sign up on the sheets from the beginning of the shift. The last Ferro had heard about Bernhardt was that the man had been fired. Ferro assumed that anyone fired would have had to ship out to get another job because no one could remain on Callisto without an income. However, the overstuffed ass had been sitting at the conference table just hours before with his wobbly red cheeks. Checking the chrono on his computer to make sure he he still had enough time before the end of the shift, Ferro decided to play a hunch. He headed for his favorite bar for a kru-berry ale.

The place looked the same. The waitress was the same as well, but she looked a bit frazzled for the first time that Ferro could remember. He scanned the room and counted twelve of the twenty tables full. Volentin sat at three tables. All of the family had chosen seats in the back or on the side with a wall behind them and a view of the tables and the entrance. He knew most of them by name.

Ferro acknowledged them with a nod but turned away, seeking his fellow engineers. They were sitting at their usual tables, which had been pushed together. Ferro walked over and took the empty seat next to Bernhardt. Ferro's presence killed the conversation.

A cold mug of kru-berry ale had been the one item he had truly missed while on the ship. Ferro signaled for the waitress and ordered a kru-berry. She ran off to the bar. Thinking her behavior odd, Ferro watched her. He blinked in surprise when the bartender from the Fuck Bunny Club on the ship filled the order. Ferro could only wave back when the bartender waved.

"So, guys," Ferro said, "can I guess that I'm the topic du jour this evening?"

"Are you really able to use those knives?" one of his old acquaintances asked.

"Yeah, do you want see my scars? I got one really cool one right here on the side of my ribs," Ferro said turning and lifting up his shirt at the same time.

"Cool," someone said.

"Barbaric," Bernhardt snorted and turned away.

"Barbaric and attached to an Amazonian princess complete with built-in lip-lock suction," said another with obvious jealousy.

"Such an attachment makes him barbaric and uncouth, which only further proves my point," Bernhardt said.

Ferro couldn't figure out his motives. Bernhardt had always been disagreeable about politics and on matters of taste in food and liquor, but this was something new. He needed to resolve the issue. He chose the straightforward approach.

"You didn't sign up, Bernhardt," Ferro said, dropping his shirt. "What's up with that?"

"What is up, as you put it so crudely," Bernhardt said, "is that I refuse to participate in the capitulation of this space installation to your thuggish co-conspirators. You know they killed one of the Council in cold blood."

Ferro was certain that Bernhardt wasn't talking to him as much as trying to convince the others at the table to rally to his point of view. The death was public knowledge already.

"I know. I was there. The man threatened to murder me. Volentin take such threats literally because they would never say such a thing unless they meant to follow through," Ferro said and drank half of his mug to show that he was disturbed by Bernhardt's words. "They assume that what a man says, he means."