Элизабет Мун - Moon Flights

Gerard remembered now… they were probationary captain and cargomaster on this voyage. Only those with permanent appointments could tap into Vatta funds for trade capital. “Arnie might—” he said.

Stavros shook his head. “No. Only the captain and cargomaster can do it.”

Gerard slouched deeper into the chair. “Well… there’s got to be something we can sell to get some money.” He thought through his own possessions: nothing worth much that he hadn’t already sold off. “What about the early-delivery bonus? We’re getting that, aren’t we?”

“Goes to the company. We are well and truly in it to the earlobes, Gerry.”

“Wait—that sapphire ring you bought for Helen—what about that?”

“You want me to sell Helen’s engagement ring? You’re crazy!”

“You can get her another—you’re not actually engaged yet.”

“I am not selling Helen’s engagement ring,” Stavros said, every centimeter the outraged lover. “I picked it out specially. She loves sapphires; they match her eyes. And I could afford a much better ring at Placer B than back home—”

“She won’t mind,” Gerard said. Stavros lunged at him; Gerard dodged around the navigation console and kept talking. “She won’t mind not having a ring nearly as much as she’d mind having you in disgrace, not getting your permanent status for another year, if ever.”

Stavros paused, scowling.

“I’m serious,” Gerard said. “We’ve got to do something to fix this mess, and it’s going to take both of us.”

“He’s right, Captain,” said Collins, the duty pilot, who had ignored them until now. Gerard glanced at him.

Stavros transferred his scowl to the pilot, then took a huge breath and let it out slowly. “All right. All right. We are partners; I understand. But the moment—the moment—we have a profit, I’m taking it and replacing this ring. Helen knows I’m going to her family when we get back—” For a moment his eyes unfocused, then he gave Gerard a sharp look. “And I’m buying the cheese this time,” Stavros said.

“You can’t,” Gerard said. “You need to stay aboard if we’re doing a short turnaround; you’ll be arguing for a departure slot. Send Arnie. He’s experienced.”

Stavros nodded. “Fine. The ring’s in my cabin, second drawer on the left, in a little red leather box. You take it to him.”

Immediately after they cleared the Customs & Immigration docking, Gerard took over the unloading of the consigned cargo while Arnie headed off with orders to sell the ring and buy cheap, but non-smelly cheese, nuts, and herbs.

Then Stavros, wearing his best uniform and his captain’s cape, came down to dockside, where Gerard had just finished the offloading and certification of the consigned cargo. “Trouble,” he said, before Gerard could ask. “Arnie’s been arrested. They claim he tried to cheat a jeweler.”

“What?”

Stavros muttered something Gerard couldn’t understand.

“Sorry, I didn’t hear that.”

Stavros grimaced. “I said, they said the ring was a fake. They weren’t real sapphires. Arnie insisted they were, the jeweler called the police, the police took him and the ring—”

“But Stav—surely you checked—”

“Don’t say it. Don’t you dare say it.” Stavros shook his head and lowered his voice again. “It was a reputable store. At least, it looked like a reputable store. I checked the directory, all the things Father told us to look at.”

“Could the store here be lying?”

“I don’t know. What I know is that Arnie’s in custody, the ring is in custody, they’re bringing in an independent appraiser to determine if it’s a fake or not, and no matter what the result, we’re facing a delay, extra costs that will have to go on the company account because we can’t pay them, and gods know what else.”

Gerard opened his mouth to list what else could go wrong, but changed his mind. Instead he said, “Don’t worry, Stav. I know you can handle the situation there; I’ll make sure the ship’s secure and check that the on-delivery payment gets to Crown & Spears.”

Stavros nodded. “Thanks, Gerry.”

Gerard turned back to the ship.

“What’s happening?” Collins asked, when Gerard arrived on the bridge. “Captain left in a rush—he wouldn’t say why.”

“If he wouldn’t say why, I shouldn’t,” Gerard said. He called up their account at Crown & Spears. The on-delivery payment showed as Pending Clearance . Collins raised an expressive eyebrow. “You think I should?”

“It’s not my place to say,” Collins said. “But if you ask me—”

“Oh, go on,” Gerard said. “I know you and the rest could run the ship perfectly well without us, and you’re laughing your heads off because we got into trouble—”

“Not really,” Collins said. “If you mess up too badly, it’s bad for us, too.”

“And you think we’re bad enough to cause you trouble?” Gerard said.

“Actually, no,” Collins said. “You’ve made some mistakes, sure. All the young officers do. But for the most part, the crew thinks you’ve performed very well.”

“So you’ve discussed us, have you?” Gerard could imagine… stories about Arkady Vatta’s boys would soon be all through the Vatta fleet, and they were bound to get back to Arkady.

“Well, of course,” Collins said. “What do you think? It’s part of our job with any young officers like you. Anyway, you’ve done well on the whole and we’d hate to see you fail.”

“So… does the crew have ideas that might help?”

Collins grinned. “Since you finally thought to ask, we might. We all have a cargo stake, you know.”

Within the hour, the crew had chipped in from their personal funds and sent Baris off to buy cheese and other supplies to implement the new plan. Stavros called back a little later, to report that Arnie had been cleared of charges. The sapphires were synthetic and worth much less than he’d paid for the ring.

“Sell it anyway,” Gerard said. “You’ll want genuine stones for Helen and besides, you now owe the crew.”

“Owe the crew?”

“Get it done and come back; I’m not explaining on this line.”

Arnie reappeared first, lugging two sacks. “I just happened by a market and saw Baris. She said to bring this back.”

“How’s Stavros—I mean, the captain?” Gerard asked.

“Fit to be tied. He’s really upset about that ring. I told him—” Arnie didn’t finish; he didn’t have to. Gerard knew that Stavros, like himself, had been given more advice then he wanted.

“He told me it was a reputable jeweler,” Gerard said.

Arnie snorted. “A dockside jeweler. No such thing as a reputable dockside jeweler. But lovesick lads have to find out the hard way. Now don’t you tease him. He feels bad enough.”

“Me tease him!” Gerard shook his head. “I wouldn’t think of it.”

“You. You’re a younger brother. I know all about younger brothers. Was one myself, had one younger than me.”

“So, did Baris find cheese?” Gerard asked, retreating from what promised to be a long family remembrance. Arnie started to speak, but Baris herself appeared at the hatch.

“I’m back,” Baris said, peering into the bridge. “Somebody’ll have to open up below. I got a great deal on the ingredients. And the outgoing cargo’s arrived.”

Something about her tone alerted Gerard. “Ingredients?”

“Ingredients,” she said. “The cheapest cheese was too expensive when the captain’s ring turned out to be fake. And it wasn’t good enough. We didn’t need more bad cheese.”

Gerry’s heart nearly stopped. “You didn’t get cheese… What did you get?”