Chapter 8

Qi sat nervously fidgeting as he sat in front of the desk waiting for Kay to return. He had just learned that the ship would be docking at Callisto Space Station in twenty-four hours. For two weeks he had waited for an announcement of a destination and time, with no where to turn for answers. Quiyo had told him point blank not to ask her and that he would know when Kay decided it was time for him to know.

His leg was mostly healed at the spot where Quiyo had shattered his tibia. Oh-Ho had cautioned him that Bone-Gro sometimes retarded the strengthening of ligaments by making them temporarily too stiff. Qi worked out although he felt like he was dancing ballet with the exercises that Oh-Ho insisted he perform three times a cycle.

Quiyo was at about the same point as he was. She had more mobility of her limb than he did but she complained of residual pain at the end of an active shift. They rubbed each other's muscle pains with a careful intimacy.

She was beautiful, Qi thought. They hadn't done "it" yet. Between her shoulder and spine aching and his hip and knee, they were like a couple of oldsters groping each other's crotches for comfort. He had never experienced a forced abstinence from fucking on either side of the Shadowlands. Despite his frustration, he found their time together ... magical.

Qi was summoned to Kay's office. He arrived to find a bare room. He sat in a chair and let his thoughts go back to Quiyo. He shuttered his thoughts as he heard the door behind him open and close. Kay squeezed his shoulder as she made her way to her chair. She allowed herself time to find a comfortable spot in her chair before tapping a key on her desk comp. She turned to face him.

"Your solution worked," she said. "It was an obvious and a stupid mistake in hindsight but we missed it and you did not. The patriarch is pleased that a viable solution has been found. The construction crews are already retrofitting as many of the ships as they can."

"I suppose you are going to have to choose one supplier," Qi said. "I wonder who the winner, or should I say loser, will be."

"Material appropriation is not our concern. The contract rests with Khan as you already know firsthand," Kay said. "We are here to discuss your next steps with Volentin. The Patriarch has given me permission to negotiate a potential contract with you."

Qi looked at her and blinked twice. In the time spent on two ships, he had considered himself either a prisoner or a person under house arrest, even if the description was a bit off. Volentin had him under constant surveillance since he had come on board and he had no doubts that every file and keystroke had been monitored and analyzed on the hand comp they had lent him. Quiyo was the part of the equation that he didn't understand at all. It occurred to him that he desperately needed more information on social customs and mores.

At Leonides he had flirted with DeeDee firmly aware that nothing would happen. Here he had been bunked with Quiyo and fireworks were sparking without trying. Yet she was one of them. His expectations were awry and he was off balance.

"What kind of contract?" Qi asked. "Normally there would be number of days, objectives, and payment of services along with clauses about travel, room and board. Nothing about these circumstances is normal."

Kay let out a small laugh. "These are circumstances of Volentin. Do you or do you not wish to discuss a contract?"

Qi was about to answer when an alarm gave a sound of one whoop. "Flip the magnet grip on the underside of the chair's right arm and hold on," Kay said. "We are taking evasive maneuvers."

"Who are we evading?" Qi said with apprehension in his voice.

She tapped a couple of keys. "Two Pinnock class ships are angling towards us, wishing to detain and inspect our ship. Damn stupid marines and their absurd demands. All of these wonderful ships coming on line and everything must stop because they are not in charge."

"Is there anything in the manifest that would cause concern?" Qi said.

"Just you," Kay said. "It might be a bit embarrassing trying to explain how an Imperial citizen who has disappeared from the traveled lanes of civilization ended up on a destroyer during its maiden cruise."

"Yeah, I could see that but I'm also carrying highly embarrassing information about the TSC corporation, which could be of goodly value to the military," Qi said. "I've got my own goods to sell."

"A nice idea but you make the assumption that either marine ship's captain has the authority to negotiate," Kay said. "We have learned from experience just how short a leash these officers are given."

As she finished speaking the room appeared to twirl a little bit, as if Qi had just spun himself in a circle. "What in the hell was that?"

Another sensation of spinning rippled through his stomach even though nothing else in the room moved. Kay sat back in her chair with a look of amusement on her face. "You had the ship's specs on your comp for a week and you never figured out what this ship can do?"

"Apparently spin around in circles," Qi said. "How is it that I feel it in the pit of my stomach but nothing else in the room moves? Where are the laws of energy? If we are turning so drastically, my body should be planted into the wall over there turning into mush from the energy of the impact."

Kay raised in eyebrow as she considered his words. "The inner shell of this ship floats in a bath of liquid nitrogen, independent from the outer shell. Hence we are able to turn quickly and sharply. What you feel is a bit of residual energy that we cannot dampen. We've already left our two un-requested 'escorts' far behind."

Qi was amazed by the information and in the next instant he was darkly upset. He may not know ships but he recognized highly classified information. What Kay had just told him was not only revolutionary, it rose to the level of corporate or more accurately, Family secrecy. Such a technology must be worth trillions of credits.

He wanted to slap his forehead with frustration as another trap settled upon his head. The entire universe had conspired against him since he left Earth only months ago. By his fresh calculation, there wasn't any possible path that led him back to Earth, especially now that he was in the belly of a secret new vessel. Even so, the Family Volentin wanted something from him. He steeled himself for another gambit.