Breach of Containment. Elizabeth Bonesteel
eventualities,” he told her, “we’d never deliver anything.”
Eventualities. She opened her mouth, but Bear quelled her with a look. “Chi?”
Elena knew she would get no help from the supply officer. Chiedza, taciturn and standoffish, could usually be counted on for pragmatism, but Elena, who had been watching the woman throughout their trip, had come to believe Chiedza’s background involved activities less aboveboard than cargo delivery. Chi wasn’t going to turn down a sale for what Bear apparently considered an imaginary risk.
“This is rumor,” Chi said dismissively. “We can’t call a delivery over a rumor.”
Bear was silent for a moment, and Elena beamed desperate thoughts in his direction. You’re the captain of this ship. Civilian freighter or no, you’re in charge here. Overrule them. Tell them no. Why the fuck did you ask them to begin with? “Nai,” he asked, “how much could we get on the secondary market if we skipped this drop? Theoretically.”
Naina was frowning in concentration. Elena, who was no slouch with numbers, was continually amazed at how quickly Nai could do calculations in her head. “We couldn’t make it up with what we’re carrying now,” she said. “We could resell some of it, but not enough.” She looked at Bear. “Eighteen thousand decs, three weeks minimum, and that’s if we find a buyer for the surplus right away.”
Elena could tell from everyone’s posture, even Arin’s, that her argument was lost.
She did, in the end, get a compromise from Bear: only three of them would head down to the moon’s surface. Elena and Chiedza would each pilot a cargo shuttle, and Bear would accompany them to deal with the financial validations. “The paper pushers will keep us there for a while,” he said, “but it shouldn’t be more than a couple of hours. Then we can get out of there, and they can buy nukes from whoever the fuck they want.”
They all stood to leave. Arin stalked out first, not looking at her, and her sympathy was tempered by annoyance. Even if they’d needed the extra hands—which they didn’t—after the way Bear had chewed her out over the last time she had brought the kid along on a drop, she couldn’t imagine why Arin would think she’d champion his participation. The others drifted away until only Naina was left, her eyes on the door Arin had just passed through.
“He’ll get over it,” Naina said, half to herself.
“I hope,” Elena said, “what he has to get over is a boring op he was lucky to miss.”
Naina met Elena’s eyes. She was a good deal older than Elena, perhaps close to Elena’s mother’s age, round and soft in a way so many civilians were. She was also relaxed and good-natured with a tendency to smile, and Elena had felt less uncomfortable with her than most of the people she’d had to deal with since she left the Corps. After six weeks, Elena was beginning to think of Naina as a real friend, although they had never shared anything deeply personal. Still, it was nice to have someone who would sit with her and chat about ordinary things, instead of frowning at her and reminding her, all the time, how little she knew about the universe outside the Corps.
Naina’s dark eyes were gentle, and held a bit of that maternal kindness that Elena would often see in people trying to explain things they thought she should already understand. “You know, Elena,” Naina said conversationally, “you need to stop treating us like we’re helpless just because we’re not Corps.”
Well, that was entirely unfair. “I don’t think you’re helpless,” Elena protested. “I just … I don’t understand the choices you make.”
“Because you think, for us, it’s about money. Only about money.”
“No. Not only. I just—” I think your materialism is going to get us all killed. “I think you’ve never dealt with a colony going to hell before. And yeah, I think risking your lives over money is fucking stupid. That’s my opinion, Nai. It’s not a put-down.”
But it was, and she knew it.
“I don’t think you mean it that way.” Nai’s voice had gone gentle, as if she were speaking to a child. “But you act like you’re the only one who’s ever been out here.”
“Respectfully, Nai, you’re an accountant.”
“I am. I’m an accountant who’s far from home, and who wants to get paid so I don’t have to do that so much anymore.” She smiled. “My sister’s having a baby next month, did I tell you? A girl. My mother is thrilled. And my sister could use an extra pair of hands.”
“Nai, I understand why people want the money. I just don’t get the urgency.”
“Don’t you?” Nai cocked her head to one side. “You know what happened on Mundargi all those years ago.”
Elena nodded. She had read about it; it had been a case study at Central Military Academy. “That was before I was born.”
“It was not before I was born,” Nai told her. “And it was not something I can forget, or leave behind. You have a good heart, I know. But it’s not for you to defend us all against the darkness. Even if you could—it’s not something we would choose for you to do. We choose, for ourselves, with our eyes open, with as much knowledge as you do.”
“It’s one shipment, Nai.” Elena felt like the woman wasn’t listening. “And none of that is worth dying for.”
“And yet you’re going down to the surface.”
“Well of course I am. It’s my job.”
“And you’re the only one allowed that conceit?”
“No!” She closed her eyes. “Nai, this was my whole career, this kind of bullshit. Not historical horrors that none of us can go back and fix, but this: people wanting to kill each other, and perfectly willing to take bystanders with them. I’m going down because I’m the best qualified to make sure the fewest people get killed.”
“And Chi is the best qualified to transfer the shipment, and Bear’s the best qualified to make sure we get our money. We’re not ignorant, and we’re not helpless. You’re not the only one who’s been in danger, and you’re not the only one who’s willing to take risks.” She reached out and laid a hand on Elena’s arm. “We’re not in need of rescue. And none of us are going to turn our backs on our families because things are tense on Yakutsk.”
“It’s not tense, Nai. If they’re really talking about nuking each other—”
“Do you think those rumors are true?” The question was a serious one.
Elena opened her mouth to equivocate, then sighed and nodded. “I know what Bear said, and I know it doesn’t add up. But if it’s not nukes, it’s something. Jamyung—he’s an odd one, but he doesn’t panic for no reason. Something has genuinely spooked him. We need to be careful. We need to be afraid, or we’ll die.”
And as Elena looked into her friend’s dark eyes, she realized Nai was afraid. Nai believed her, even if Bear didn’t. Nai understood the risks, and she knew they might all die in the pursuit of this delivery.
And none of that deterred her at all.
“I’m glad you’re doing the flying then,” Nai told her. She squeezed Elena’s arm briefly before she let go. “And I’m glad Bear is leaving Arin up here.”
“I don’t know that he’ll be any safer,” Elena told her, and Nai’s comforting smile turned sad.
“Nowhere is safe, Elena. Or didn’t you know?”
Galileo
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