SquidgeWorld Archive

Their current employer was an ass. Like that was unusual. But the pay was good. Maybe too good. Beka kept waiting for the other boot to drop, all the while hoping that it wouldn't, that the job was aboveboard, legal, and trouble-free. Unfortunately, looking at the one small shipping crate they were being paid an astronomical sum to deliver, she couldn't believe that it wouldn't lead to trouble.

If they hadn't needed the money so badly....

The crate had been sitting in their hold for 10 minutes and Harper had spent that whole time circling it, his head cocked, his brow furrowed. Beka found that very worrisome. Then he put his ear against it, closed his eyes, and started to hum.

"Harper, what are you doing?" Beka had to ask.

"MmmmmmmMMMmmmmmm." His eyes shot open. "We have to open it up. There's a cold sleep capsule inside, and its coolant system is faulty. It's running way too cold and then way too hot."

"How the hell do you know that?"

"It doesn't sound right. Tone's not steady, and it's shifting keys. Beka, we have to get whatever's sleeping in there out."

"Our employer would kill us if we opened it up. We're not even supposed to know that it's a camouflaged capsule!" But she could only assume that their employer wanted whatever it was to arrive alive. Extreme temperature changes could kill, and "way too cold" might turn so cold that its occupant would snap into pieces when removed.

And sometimes the delivery people got slaughtered over this stuff whether it was their fault or not.

"Open it," Beka said. "I'm calling our employer. Here's the emergency codes list."

Harper started tapping in codes, then said, "The lock's stuck! Dammit!" He put goggles on, pulled his nano-torch off his belt, and started to burn through.

Hell if this wasn't sabotage on somebody's part.

Their employer didn't look happy to hear from her. Well, he'd given her his private line, so he could suck it up. "Captain Valentine, is there a problem?" he snotted.

"Yeah. Your box was sabotaged by somebody. The lock's screwed, and the sleep capsule inside is malfunctioning in a way that can be fatal. Coolant system's bad."

His eyes just about popped out of his head. "You have to get her out. Now!"

"Her," hunh? Interesting. "I'll put my engineer on it. Harper!"

Harper shouted back, "Got it, boss!" playacting just like he hadn't already been doing it.

The guy looked really nervous. "Please keep me informed of further developments. Don't leave the station until you do." He cut off the link, probably to report to his boss.

All this, and the Maru hadn't even left the dock yet.

"Got it!" Harper shouted, and she ran back into the room.

With the crate cracked open, the capsule inside sounded more obviously *wrong*, so much so that its off-key hum sounded awful to Beka's ears too. Harper reached into the capsule and quickly pulled tubes and leads away, then hauled a small shape out.

Dammit, it was a little girl. She couldn't be more than six or seven. "Rev, get her--"

Rev already had an oxygen tank and warming blankets, which he handed to Harper. Rev hovered until Harper said, "Look, we love you, Rev, but seeing a Magog first thing might be tough on the tyke, okay?"

The little girl opened wide dark eyes and screamed into the oxygen mask, then grabbed Harper's neck in a death grip and hid against him. "S'okay, kid, it's okay," he murmured to her and petted her hair and back as she coughed and gasped. "Rev's just a big teddy bear. You're fine, you're fine...." He took off her oxygen mask after she spent minutes trying to rip it off in a panic while still clinging to him.

Beka pulled his goggles off him in an effort to make him look more human to the kid, but the kid didn't seem to have problems with Harper, just nestled against him and... sucked on his hair. Oh yeah, Beka had become so accustomed to the sparkly, fruity scented blue that it didn't seem unusual to her anymore. Somebody had done it to his hair after he'd passed out in a bar, and no amount of effort stripped it out, though two weeks later it had faded to more of a baby blue on his lighter hairs. It was still fruity and sparkly, though. She'd razzed him about it non-stop for the first week. Well, she'd razzed him after they'd rushed him to a doctor to make sure the stuff wasn't toxic and wouldn't give him an allergic reaction.

Rev handed her a mug of something warm and soothing, then left the hold. Beka passed it along to Harper and the kid, listening as he told her gently how yummy it was and how it would help her throat. The kid took the mug like she expected to get something like it, and she did look a lot less freaked about coming out of cold sleep than she should have been.

What kind of crazy shit had they signed on for?

"You okay, kid? C'mon, talk to your Uncle Harper." He wanted to make sure her brain was okay.

But the kid just clung and stared with those big eyes.

The comm buzzed. Dammit. Beka took the call at the nearest console and saw their employer. "How is she?" he asked, looking like his life depended on the answer.

It probably did.

"Alive. Seems healthy. Won't talk though."

"That's normal. Bring her over, so I can see her."

Yes, Your Highness. Asshole. "Harper."

Harper carried her over and turned so she'd face the console and the guy. She just stared at him too. But he seemed to be comforted by that and said, "Good. Take off and stay to your original route. Same delivery parameters as before, except that now someone will come into the Eureka Maru to pick her up. No one can find out that she's on your ship. Don't try to repair the capsule; we'll want to investigate it to see if we can figure out who did this."

"Look, I'm sorry," Beka said, "but I want to know what the hell is going on. I don't do slave traffic or any shit like that." At this point, she'd rather lose this job.

"She's very precious, but she's not a slave. Take good care of her, and you'll get a bonus."

"She's a passenger, not cargo!"

"And you're already getting paid well enough that it shouldn't make a difference."

Harper gave a small shake of his head, then winced as he tried to stop the girl from jamming her fingers into his dataport. "Don't do that; you'll hurt yourself. And me," he whispered to the sprog.

It was up to Captain Beka, as always. "We'll take her. That bonus better be something." She wanted to knock the guy's smile down his throat.

"Excellent." Then he cut off the transmission before she could ask if their passenger had a name.

This was great. Just great. For some reason she believed him that the girl wasn't property, but the other possibilities could be pretty damned scary. They could be transporting a crime boss' daughter for all she knew.

When she looked over at Harper, he shrugged--or tried to while holding the kid--and said, "Women love me. So, we're taking off?"

"Looks like. Then we need to have a little family meeting."

"Sure, but it's not like the kid won't be there. One, I don't think we should leave her alone. Two... I don't think she's gonna let go of me."

The little girl had a white-knuckled grip around Harper's neck that they might need a crowbar to pry loose. Otherwise, she just stared at them all with a wide-eyed worried expression and occasionally sucked on Harper's candy-scented hair. At least the blue stuff had left it so naturally spiky that Harper didn't have to put any styling gunk in it, which meant that she was just sucking on clean hair. Then again, the doctor hadn't said anything about what ill effects might come from ingesting the color, and some of the agent might still be lingering on the surface two weeks later, especially considering the silver sparkles that still showed.

"I don't think she should be sucking on your hair."

The girl managed to look more horrified and tightened her grip enough that Harper squeaked. "At least we know she understands us," Harper said.

They couldn't talk in front of her. Even better. "We're getting out of here before anything else happens. I'm off to the cockpit."

"I'll be in the kitchen getting lunch. Hungry, princess? You know, if you don't talk I'll just give you all the stuff I don't like to eat, seeing as how I wouldn't know better."

"Don't believe him. He'll eat anything."

Harper sighed. "Way to cut me off at the knees and ruin my clever plans, Beka," he said, then walked off with his girlish appendage.

***********

The tyke ate anything he put in front of her too, so at least they didn't have a spoiled princess on their hands. She even let go of him to get her meal, which he appreciated. It let him breathe better, and he preferred any pretty girls riding him to be older than this.

The kid being so quiet sent him right into blither mode. "You know, the less you talk, the more I have to. You don't want that, do you?"

She glanced up at him shyly--though shyly in an almost flirty way--through her long, shiny, dark hair, then continued eating. She was so damned cute, and he better be careful not to relate to her in that "aren't you cute?" way because he hated that crap when people did it to him.

Well, hated it when most people did it to him. He'd play to it for the right person.

None of this interior blithering got the kid talking, so he went on with "Sure, it seems okay now, but you have days of this to look forward to. Trip's gonna take a week, and you won't be sleeping through it now. I have mighty lungs and an endless supply of coffee to help my blithering. It'll drive you nuts, I guarantee."

She smiled at him, then went back to studying and devouring her faux chocolate pudding. Faux chocolate, faux pudding.

"How about you give me a name to use for you? Otherwise, it'll be 'hey you' all the way."

Scientists would never need to study the properties of mockolate pudding again after her dedicated effort. Poor thing must have taken a vow of silence too to pare away all distractions from her noble goal.

"Fine. Hey You, I got a full day's repairs in front of me. You can help me if you want to, princess. Honey. Pet. Doll. Darlin'. Sugar pie, y'all. Baby."

"I'm not a baby!" she said softly but emphatically, then looked really embarrassed.

Gotcha. Harper grinned. "Yeah?"

"I'm not supposed to talk to strangers."

"I'm not a stranger. I've been carrying you around, and you sucked on my hair. We're practically related now. Sorry about the hair. I know it smells all yummy and sweet and fruity, but then it just tastes like hair. Has to suck. Nah, that's what you were doing. Well, it has to be disappointing anyway."

She giggled. "It's not that bad. It tastes like my hair."

His adoring audience. "I guess it's okay, then. You got a name, doll?"

"Many," she said proudly.

Hoo boy. "Me too. How about one I could use for you?"

"Do not."

"'Do not' what?

"Have many names."

"Do too."

"Not."

He gave her an edged smile. "I'm Seamus Zelazny Harper. You can't have as many names as I do."

Her eyes glinted wickedly. "Your names are dumb."

Great, a six- or seven-year-old was having him on. "I think you're not saying anything because *yours* are dumb."

"Are not."

"Are too. I bet they're something like Angelina Contessa Louisa Francesca Banana Fanna Bo Besca the third."

"No."

"Maria Chiquita Alonzo?"

"No." She tapped her spoon lightly on the container. "I don't like my names much."

"Hey, I pick and choose on mine, so you could too. Whatever you tell me your name is, goes. It's not like anybody's gonna tell me differently."

Kid had major wattage when she smiled. "I need time to decide which one."

"That's cool."

************

Beka examined the capsule carefully, but she only found the cushioned sleep compartment and the usual mask and various tubes and wires. No clothing or possessions in separate compartments. The girl would have to borrow things to wear from them, because that jumpsuit wouldn't react well to multiple rewashings over the week.

This kid better not be a slave. Better *not*. Beka would.... Damn, what could she do? Steal the kid and run, maybe, but if they even succeeded at that, where would they take her? None of them had that parental drive to care for her themselves. Beka wondered how the hell her dad had raised her and her brother on the Maru. Not that he'd been around whenever they reached a port....

This kind of thinking wasn't getting her anywhere, so she went looking for Harper and their guest. When Beka walked into the engine room, she saw Harper welding in one corner, while the kid played one of his computer games nearby. She had her hair tied back into a ponytail and stuffed under the protective jacket she wore, while goggles a few sizes too large for her hung from her neck. Was he insane?

"Harper!" Beka shouted. Harper and the tyke both jumped.

"What?" Harper turned off his welder and set it aside.

"You're welding around a six-year-old!" Beka could just see them handing a crime boss' badly burned only daughter back to him, then running like hell, getting captured, begging him not to kill them....

"What else am I gonna do? Besides, I told her to be careful, and she's a smart kid. I even put protective gear on her."

The little girl edged closer to Harper, maybe to affirm where her loyalties were, then tapped one lens of her goggles as if to show how careful and thoughtful they were being. Did the kid talk at all?

"That's not the point."

"If I was pilot, I could keep an eye on her in the cockpit, where it's safer, but I'm not. Unless you don't want me to do any work--"

He started bouncing off the walls when he didn't have anything to do. "Just be careful with her, okay?"

"Who knows, maybe she'll pick up a trade."

That would go over well. Crime bosses always hoped that their daughters would go in a vocational-tech direction, she was sure. "Yeah, yeah."

Captaining this tub had to be stealing years off her life.

************

He hadn't gotten a kid ready for sleep in years. Felt weird. "I'll be in that top bunk up there," he said as he tucked her in.

When he leaned in close, she whispered, "I helped today?"

"Yeah, you were good. Treated my tools real nice. Good night, princess."

"You can call me Cassie. Just not in front of them."

"They're good people."

"No. Our secret."

"Okay, okay." For a moment h felt the insane urge to kiss her forehead, but it passed. "'Night."

Sometime later, he didn't know how much later, something woke him up with a hit to the ribs. "Ow!" Where was he? What was he--

"Sorry."

Princess. "Okay."

She settled down, warm and small, against his side and went to sleep. Made herself right at home. It was comfy and familiar.

Since he hadn't really woken up, going back to sleep took no effort.

***************

Beka felt kind of silly for being so paranoid, but the first thing she did when she woke up was check the kid's bunk. But then she saw that the kid wasn't in it. "Rev! Harper!"

Rev rushed in from the cockpit, Harper hung his head over his bunk... and the kid hung her head over his bunk too. It brought no relief. "Her people are going to kill us," Beka said.

"Hunh? But--" Then Harper looked really pissed "You don't really think--"

"No, but think of how this will sound if she mentions it. How the hell did she get up there?"

"I assume she climbed, unless she's the first person to invent a transporter that really works."

"Don't get snotty with me, mister. I'm thinking of our welfare here."

When the kid grabbed his arm, it seemed less like she wanted him to protect her from Scary Beka and more like she wanted to protect him. Beka couldn't see anything but disaster in having any kind of bond form between Harper and their little guest, because they had to give the kid up, and Beka hoped the sprog didn't convince her daddy to bring her sparkly new pony along with her. What was a spot of kidnapping to someone who stuffed his daughter in a box when she had to travel? And eventually the "Daddy, can we keep him?" would wear down to boredom, and Harper would be thrown into a trash compactor somewhere. Not on Beka's watch.

"Beka, she's a smart kid. You're just being too conventional here. You have to think outside the--"

"Don't you dare finish that sentence the way I think you're going to. Okay, we need to have a family talk. And you're talking too, kid. I want to make sure you won't get Harper hurt."

"I wouldn't!" the girl said, while Harper raised his eyebrows.

"You haven't been very helpful so far. We found you in a crate, and we don't know who you are or what's going to come get you. It doesn't look good."

"I'm just going to visit my mother, okay? I got stolen once before, and they hurt me," she got teary-eyed, and Harper stroked her back while Beka sighed, "but then my mommy got me back. But now some other people said they'd try to do it too, so when I go places I do it in my sleeping box without anybody knowing. Mommy will be so happy that you saved my life that she'll do all kinds of nice things for you. She wouldn't hurt Harper."

Mommy had money, that was for sure. Could still be a crime boss. "What does she do for a living?"

"I don't know. Bad people just want to hurt us."

Those big, lost eyes begged her not to continue on with this from how *painful* it was, but Beka couldn't afford to trust them. Kid already had Harper wrapped around her pudgy little fingers with her near-waterworks, so someone had to stay clear-headed. Even if the kid was telling the truth, it didn't mean she wasn't being manipulative.

Watching Harper and the kid nestled together in his bunk gave her a chill, because they looked so comfortable, so oddly like brother and sister even though they didn't resemble one another in the slightest. Beka needed to talk to him, but she didn't know if she could get him away from his appendage, and whom could she leave the sprog with, Rev?

"You have a name, kid?"

"Uhm." The girl didn't look her in the eye. "It might be better if you didn't know it. Safer."

Crime boss looked more and more likely. Beka figured that she should start thinking up escape plans so they could chuck the kid and go. If they could get their money, great; if not, just go anyway. You couldn't spend anything if you were dead.

No reason to let the kid know what she was thinking. "Okay. Breakfast, then we look for other things for you to wear."

************

Cassie looked adorable in her own boots and one of his short-sleeved shirts belted at the waist and worn like a dress, and the kid worked her cuteness like the pro she was. Harper admired that. And tried not to fall prey to it himself.

He winced as he inserted the plug into his port and wondered if he'd ever get used to the almost painful pressure of plugging in. Months later, he still hadn't.

Cassie watched him with a very serious look on her face, then said, "Kobrin Delcourt has one of those."

"Who's he?"

"Somebody on one of my favorite shows." Her voice took on a bombastic announcer's tone as she said, "'She's a Than with a score to settle. He's a human without a past. They fight crime!'"

"We don't get to see much first-run stuff out here."

"He and Warm Rain Falls Slowly fight a lot, but they do it in a way that shows that they actually like one another."

"I'm familiar with the idea of that kind of fighting." It was his favorite kind, after all.

"Your hair's prettier than his--"

"Thank you."

"--but he doesn't make funny faces when he hooks up."

Hooks up? What kind of show was that for a kid to be watching? Oh. Got it. "His isn't real."

"I understand about *actors*," Cassie said, which pretty much meant: "I'm not a *baby*."

Harper smiled, especially since he still had a lot of stuff he said that actually meant the same thing. "His isn't real. He probably has a trick plug that retracts, uh, pulls back into the cord instead of going into his neck. I haven't had my port for very long, so maybe that has something to do with it, but it almost hurts when I hook up."

"Why?"

"It probably feels the way you'd feel if I stuck my finger up your nose. For about the same reason."

"Ew!"

"That's why I hired you, Harper," Beka said. "You have a gift for similes."

Cassie sidled up close to him, hiding behind him a little, as if scared of Beka. Beka noticed and looked pissed. Breakfast had been quiet and tense, everybody staring at one another, suspecting things, making judgments.

"Ladies, there's more than enough of me to go around," Harper said, annoyed.

"Sometimes too much," Beka answered too lightly.

"Funny, boss. Hey, wasn't that a metaphor I did before? I didn't have a 'like' or 'as' in there."

"The 'like' was implied."

Harper gave her his most charming smile. "It so often is."

"You're a menace."

"Thanks, boss."

After Beka shook her head and walked off, Harper asked Cassie, "Hey, wanna come inside with me? Inside the matrix?"

"Inside-- Really?" She just about bounced at the thought.

"You can use my old visor. 'Sides, I hear that it's boring watching me sit around motionless when my mind's somewhere else."

"Yeah. Gimme!"

"Wow, and you've only been hanging around with me for one day. You pick things up *fast*.... Okay, get yourself comfortable first." Harper sat back against the wall.

Cassie snuggled in against his side, then put the too-big headpiece on, making her look even more adorable. She must have sensed the smirk on his face, because she said, "Hey! Stop laughing at me."

"Do you hear me laughing? Nope. Okay, here we go." He triggered her visor, then closed his eyes and slid in, "holding her hand" to guide her the whole while.

When they touched down, she squeaked a little. Harper let go of her to stand, stretch, and take in the sights. On a cursory eye sweep, everything seemed to be processing at the right speed and rhythm, and the blue shades of light looked like healthy systems at work.

Cassie looked stunned, but in a good way. It made Harper grin, and he remembered that the first time he got into a matrix he'd felt a major "kid in a candy store" kind of thing. He'd sure run around through it like a gleeful kid on a sugar high.

"I still feel like me," Cassie said. "I thought I'd feel different. Do I look kind of see-through like you do?"

"A little."

She goggled at their surroundings. "It's *huge* in here. Doesn't look anything like this on the show, though."

"Yeah?"

"This looks more realistic."

"Duh."

She rolled her eyes at him, then said, "Your hair matches everything. Did you do that on purpose?"

"Uh, not really. It's a long story." If Beka had said that, he'd know that she was messing with him. With a six-year-old, he couldn't be sure. Just in case, he said, "Hey, don't touch anything. You might blow up the ship by accident."

Cassie stopped dead and looked around in horror, which stopped him from being able to keep a straight face for very long. Once she noticed, she said, "You are a bad, bad man."

"Okay, I'm exaggerating a little. Just don't start messing around with anything without asking first. Lightly touching is fine. Like, put your hand against that node there."

"Hey, it's giving me stuff to read. The words are too big, though."

"That's the part that runs the stuff in the kitchen."

"This is so cool."

Her enthusiasm fed his and put more bounce into his virtual steps. "Finally, somebody who appreciates what I do. Now we're off to climate control, which is where I sometimes mess with the temperature settings for Beka's shower. Somehow, it never stops being funny. But I only do it when she really deserves it."

*******************

When Beka walked back in, her engineer and passenger were snuggled together against the wall like puppies, looking cute and serene together, while their minds wandered through the matrix. The surge of rage she felt made her want to go over there, disconnect him by force, and shake some sense into him. But that was crazy and wrong, and she could still yell at him after he came out on his own anyway.

He'd probably just tell her that it made sense to bring the kid in with him so he could keep an eye on her, deliberately ignoring what Beka would really be yelling at him for. She'd end up looking unreasonable, when she really had his best interests at heart.

This was going to be a long week.

Beka went back to the cockpit, because watching Harper and the kid bond just sent her into fits of anger and worry she couldn't do anything with. Rev took one look at her face and asked, "Beka, what is it?"

"We have a problem," Beka said.

"If you're referring to the way Harper is becoming attached to the child and she to him, I agree." Rev bowed his head, then said, "He is far from home."

"His home was a hellhole!"

"It was still his home."

Whereas she piloted her home everywhere, so she'd never been far from home for long.

She hadn't thought that some kind of lingering homesickness and related loneliness could still be a factor with Harper, not when he'd been with them and fine for over a year. No, more than fine, *thrilled* to be in space and off Earth.

Maybe it hadn't been a factor until the sprog showed up.

Then again, maybe she and Rev were just blueskying here, and Harper would have a huge laugh at them if they told them what they figured his motivation was. Whatever his motivation, the problem remained.

The problem also got worse. The kid ended up in his bunk with him no matter where you put her down for the night, and Beka didn't think the kid's parents would understand if she put restraints on to keep her in place. The kid followed him everywhere and even helped with maintenance a little. She also dangled from railings and got into everything. Harper was *not* a good influence.

He had what seemed like a million names for her: princess, sugar, honey, pet, doll, darlin', kitten....

Beka would always hear them chatting at high speeds until she entered their room, at which point the kid turned dead silent and wide-eyed, frozen "don't hit me" style. It made her feel angry, guilty, and resentful all at once. The kid either feared her or was playing her big time. Harper tried to keep the peace, but the longer it went on, the more Beka's temper frayed.

Given someone to run through the ship with, Harper became more playful, something Beka hadn't thought possible. *That* was... nice, fun by osmosis, though sometimes she had to throw him into a chair and force him to sit still for a while when it became too much.

He seemed happier most of the time, but sometimes he watched the kid with a downhearted look that told Beka that he knew all too well that it couldn't last, and that look just about killed her.

She wished they'd never been forced to open that box. That way, she would have been blissfully unaware that she carried a frozen child in her cargo hold, and they could have made their delivery and been done with it. No muss, no fuss, no inevitability of Harper getting hurt.

The trip to Double Happiness Drift seemed too slow and too fast all at once. The morning of their arrival date, they dressed the sprog in the jumpsuit she arrived in instead of something from Harper or Beka's wardrobes. Pink, it didn't look like anything that belonged on the Eureka Maru. If the kid hadn't sensed that she'd be leaving soon just from their dispositions, her outfit told her straight out. She responded by clinging to Harper for her remaining time. He responded to her coming departure with a manic, motor-mouthed false cheerfulness that set Beka's teeth on edge.

The kid just about strangled Harper as the Maru finished docking and the comm buzzed with a male voice asking for entry in a tone that wouldn't take "no" for an answer. Harper hugged her and said, "You're really okay, right? We're not handing you over to anybody bad, right?"

"I want you to come with me!" she shouted, near tears.

Beka could feel Rev looking at her. She took a deep, calming breath and opened the hatch. She kept her hand near her gun in as surreptitiously as possible.

"I can't go with you. But I'll miss you, Cassie. Lots," Harper whispered as he set her down.

Cassie?

She responded by grabbing his leg but quickly let go when the greeting party--every member armed and looking like some kind of thug--walked in with another crate about the size of the other one. Beka got the feeling that the kid let go to protect Harper.

The head thug took the kid in and inspected her, looking for damage probably. His eyes didn't look any friendlier when he didn't find any. He handed Beka her payment, the agreed sum plus a hefty bonus. "Thank you," Beka said, her voice steadier than she felt.

"Brock--" the kid started.

This would be when the kid made her plea to bring her new playmate along with them. Beka had her hand on her gun and several emergency computer codes running through her head. She already had their departure cleared with traffic control.

"We don't have time. Your mother wants to see you immediately."

"But--"

"No buts. You obey me, and you'll be safe. You remember that from before."

The kid cast her eyes down. "Yes, Brock."

"We have a sleeping box for you."

Even though he seemed more coolly professional than nasty, listening to him made Beka's blood run cold and even gave her momentary thoughts of grabbing the kid. Looking at his ten armed friends, she immediately reconsidered. Only Rev's hand around Harper's arm seemed to be keeping him in place. Beka had never watched someone's heart break before her eyes before.

She hadn't needed a reminder that her prickly-shelled street kid engineer had a big heart of marshmallow. She already knew that.

The kid waved forlornly as the thugs put her mask on and prepped her. Harper waved back, his face a frozen mask. He kept waving until they closed the capsule and the crate around it.

"Thank you," the lead thug said right before he and his men dragged the two crates out.

As soon as they left the Maru, Beka closed up the hatch and ran to the cockpit. Ten minutes later, the bare minimum, the Maru shot out of Double Happiness.

Harper stood near the pilot's chair and stared out into space. His posture and face screamed "brave front."

"She'll always be with you in your heart," Rev said.

Harper's mouth trembled. "I know, but somehow it just ain't the same, okay?"

"I'm sorry, Harper," Beka said as she set the Maru on autopilot, unbelted, and got out of her chair.

"Yeah, thanks. So, can we get a puppy?" But his voice shook too much for his question to sound as flippant as he obviously wanted it to.

Beka squeezed his shoulder. He put his hand over hers and closed his eyes for a moment, then said, "I gotta go fix something."

Beka understood the urge.

************

Beka was soaked through, pissed off, and ready to kill Thackery. Bastard. She jumped as thunder rolled overhead, while Rev winced. Rev was wet too, and some of his fur stood on end from ambient electricity.

Planets sucked. Rain, random electrical discharges in the sky, stinking ozone, and cutting winds? Who needed them?

Harper, who looked even wetter than they did, had a maniac grin on his face. The storm seemed to energize him. Crazy mudfoot. "Beka, the sky is *green*! It's never been green here before. I think I heard that a green sky is a sign that a tornado is coming."

She didn't know what a tornado was and didn't want to find out, so she grabbed Harper's arm and dragged him after her as she ran. Rev ran just fine on his own.

Thackery, tin-plated dictator of his news domain that he was, demanded a personal visit before he handed mail over. Harper may have been able to hack in, but it would look suspicious if the Maru just dropped off its deliveries and didn't pick up its messages, so they might as well do it the legit way.

Thackery had a big grin on his face as they stepped into his office, dripping. "Some weather, huh?"

"Charming," Beka snapped. "You know what we're here for."

"You spacers are always so impatient." He handed a computer over for her to download from.

Beka checked through it. "Hey, Harper, you have something that might be actual mail."

"You're kidding me. I only get spam. The opportunity to own my own mining colony, or the recently legal girls who just got their galactic mail accounts and would love to send me vids of them naked if I just give them a fee. Hey, this is addressed to 'Seamus Zazny Harper' and doesn't have a return location on it. Has to be more spam."

But Harper looked at the screen, then took the computer and clicked his letter open. From the lack of sound, it must have been a text message. As Harper read, he started to smile, showing a warmer grin than the crazy, fierce one the storm had inspired. He ran one hand through his wet hair, the strands of it now half-blond and half-blue with sparkles, the crazy color growing out. Beka read over his shoulder shamelessly.

"Dear Mr. Harper, I send you my greetings. I'd like to personally thank you for your care of my daughter, in saving her life and then in the week that followed. Her tutor is so amazed by her sudden interest in her studies, especially the sciences, that he's asking if he could send his other students wherever I'd sent her. Of course, she now has a bad habit of taking household appliances apart, though lately she's found the talent to put them back together in working order again. She is fine but misses you, and she often says that she wishes Brock would have listened to her that day.

"Perhaps it is better for many of us that your captain left Double Happiness so quickly.

"In your kindness, you have done me a great favor. Someday I may repay that. Thank you."

Guy had all but admitted that his goons might have kidnapped Harper if they'd known that the sprog wanted him. Beka and Harper looked at each other, then said, "Crime boss," at the same time.

Beka couldn't help wondering what form that repaid favor might take. Maybe the boss actually would be a help to them sometime in the future. She could hope so.

"You ever wash up as an engineer, maybe you could be a teacher," Beka said, then she thought about Harper training generations to come and continued, "Maybe that wouldn't be such a good idea."

"Ha, ha." But Harper looked almost luminous. He'd moped for a week after the sprog had left and been down on and off for a while after that.

"I'm glad he sent this missive, since it has set your mind at ease," Rev said.

"Jeez, Rev. Hey, anybody else wanna read my letter? You stay right where you are, Thackery."

"It is said that when Pandora opened the box and released all of the evils on the world, hope still remained," Rev said in his "wise preacher" tone.

"Rev!" Beka and Harper groaned.

"I'm sorry," he answered with a smile, not sounding sorry at all.