Devon dropped another crate onto the conveyor leading into Zephyr’s main cargo hold and scowled up at the loader. Five more months of this crap and they’d finally have a working ship. Wiping sweat onto his shirtsleeve, he moved for the next crate. It was a little ironic that they would have a new loader just in time for Devon to head off to school, if he was accepted to University of course. But at least he knew Seach and Jo wouldn’t be stuck doing the heavy lifting without him.

Then again, he had his doubts that Seach and Jorry found this work as taxing as they pretended it to be.

He glanced over at Jo, whose dark grey uniform was patched with perspiration and tried to see if there were any bumps or signs of surgical taps through the padded material. When he still couldn’t see anything he grabbed another crate and went back to work.

Devon wanted to ask them straight forward whether or not they were Tapped but couldn’t seem to find the right words. For one thing, he didn’t know if the Consulate could hear them while they were still docked to P.J.S. He certainly didn’t want to get them caught.

What he wouldn’t give for five more minutes at a computer! He needed more information, more research. What little he knew about the Tapped was rudimentary; the stuff history class glazed over when it covered the galactic war and rise of the Consulate.

“Did you get enough supplies?” Devon asked, finally taking note of the extra crates. “There’s enough food here to feed ten people.”

“Six, actually,” Jorry said.

“What?”

“There’s enough food to feed six people,” she said again.

Devon dropped the crate on the belt. “Why?”

She dropped her own crate and winked at him. Devon watched her for a moment, suddenly not liking the furtive smile she sent him.

“Mom … what’s going on?”

“We’re going to have passengers,” Seach said, his voice clipped.

“Passengers?” Devon blinked at his father. “As in, living, breathing, people?”

“Yes.” Seach glared at Jorry’s back. “Three of them.”

“But we never take passengers,” Devon said. He thought of the hidden guns and the smugglers caches. “For safety reasons.”

Jorry hefted another crate and tossed it onto the belt. “Do you want that front loader or don’t you?”

“Not if it means someone could get hurt.” Devon said the words automatically and wondered who he was more worried about; the would-be passengers or his parents. The passengers could be put in the line of fire, or they could bring unwanted attention to the Barlow family and get his parents in trouble. Either way could be bad.

“Thank you,” Seach said. He turned to face Jorry. “See there? Even he knows better.”

“Oh, come on,” Jorry put her hands on her hips and glared back at Seach. “You haven’t even met them yet. It’s going to be fine.”

“You don’t know that,” Seach said, his voice raising. “You don’t know them any better than I do.”

Devon faltered and glanced uneasily between his parents. He’d seen them tense before but this was different. Seach was genuinely angry and Devon didn’t think it was just about the passengers.

“No, I don’t. But I’m confident we can handle them.”

“We can handle them?” Seach asked, gesturing toward Jorry suddenly. “Now we’re a team again? You go off and make your own decisions and when it suits you, we become a team, is that right?”

Devon cringed. The docking bay went very quiet, all three of them standing still. Jorry’s expression turned stony. She didn’t answer, didn’t even move, and Devon knew from experience that Seach had managed to hurt her. He’d seen that look enough times in his own arguments to recognize it and felt a spurt of real alarm.

Seach ran a hand through his hair and hissed something too low for him to hear. Devon thought about intervening, about trying to bridge peace between his parents, but he’d never been forced to do that before and he had no idea where to begin. He worried that he might make things worse by talking, but staying silent seemed just as bad.

“Ahem, excuse me,” someone said from the docking bay door. “Is this a bad time?”

Devon turned toward the voice, relieved to focus on anything other than the argument. Three people stood just inside their docking bay; an older man and two young women. The man was partially bald and he stood on the threshold of Zephyr’s loading bay, glancing nervously between Jorry, Seach and Devon.

By his stance Devon could tell he was leery of stepping any further into the bay. Beside him were the two girls, one near eleven or twelve and the other closer to Devon’s age. Both had auburn hair and pale skin, with similar enough features that he pegged them as sisters.

The older of the two kept her arm protectively around her little sister and glared at them all. Devon watched them, simultaneously horrified that they’d walked in on a private conversation and fascinated by the green glitter of the elder sister’s eyes.

“Fantastic,” Seach half-growled the word and hefted another crate.

“Please come in, Mr. Kelly,” Jorry said, stepping away from the conveyor. “I’ll show you all where you will be staying.”

“Oh, thank you,” Mr. Kelly said and turned to the girls.

Jorry brushed past Seach, who was focused on the remaining crates with a deliberate single-mindedness. The passengers each picked up one bag and moved to follow Jorry. Devon watched them all head for one of the ladders leading to the catwalk, still too startled to move. The green-eyed girl frowned at him before climbing the ladder and for an awkward moment Devon tried to imagine what he had done to offend her. Seach thwacked him in the arm, drawing his attention back to the work at hand.

Devon turned, grabbed a crate, and went back to work. But even as he did so he listened to the rap of boots above him as they made their way into Zephyr’s main habitation area. He glanced up when he thought it was safe and caught the younger sister smiling down at him. She was a sprightly little thing with braided hair and dimples at the corners of her mouth. A moment later she ran off to catch up with her family.

“Keep your eyes on your work, Devon.”

He sighed, exasperated at his father’s mood. “Oh, come on, Dad. It’s not going to be that bad.”

“Really? What makes you say that?”

He shrugged and hefted another crate. “I don’t know. They seem nice.”

Seach grunted, plunking his own crate onto the conveyor. “Oh yes. They always seem nice at first. Right up until you learn they’ve been lying to you for weeks.”

Well isn’t that the pot calling the kettle black, Devon thought wryly. He managed to refrain from saying it out loud and said instead; “You don’t know that they lied.”

Seach stopped and looked at him. His short blonde hair spiked up with perspiration and he was breathing hard from an hour’s worth of lifting. “No,” he said. “I don’t know. But I can hazard a guess. Ten to one says they are hiding something. Why else would they be so desperate to get to Mars?”

“Mars?” Devon didn’t hide his surprise. “But that’s four jumps from here.”

Seach sneered up at the catwalk. “Jo thinks we can do it in three.”

“Ugly face, Dad,” Devon said. “Don’t do that. It makes me think you might hurt Mom.”

“Oh, trust me. Today I am seriously considering chaining your mother up somewhere and never letting her talk to anyone again.”

“Dad.” Devon dropped the final crate onto the belt and shook his head. “You’re freaking me out.”

“Well you should be freaked out. Your mother has gone and invited three strangers into our home. And since we’ve already established that neither of us are idiots I’m sure you can see the risks involved.”

Devon stiffened and glanced up at the catwalk. This was the closest his father had ever come to an admission and he didn’t want Jorry to have another reason to fight him. When he looked back down Seach was eyeing him, waiting for some kind of response. But Devon wasn’t certain how to respond anymore. Seach hadn’t outright told him he was Tapped but Devon knew, down in his bones, that it was the truth.

According to public record all Tapped soldiers had been decommissioned thirty years ago and sent into retirement, but Jorry and Seach were hiding and he knew it. Fake names, low-key jobs, a general avoidance of the Consulate home world; it didn’t take much to piece it all together. Something had happened, something they weren’t ready to tell him yet, and whatever it was had to be bad.

For a long moment he stared at his father and debated asking for the truth.

But he didn’t ask. Instead, he focused on the more immediate danger.

“I’m sure Mom has already thought this through,” Devon said carefully.

“Yeah,” Seach said and turned away. “That’s half the problem.”

Devon watched as his father moved to the console on the far wall. A minute later three sets of nanoplated steel doors sealed them off from Pluto Station. Devon stood immobile beside the conveyor, which had long since finished dragging the last of the crates into Zephyr’s cargo hold. His heart sank as he listened to his father’s footsteps climbing the ladder and moving deeper into the ship.

With a deep sigh, Devon turned and headed for the ladder.

~*~*~

“These are your rooms,” Jorry said.

She led the passengers into the leeward corridor. Devon’s room was located at the very front of the passage and she trusted her son to keep an eye on these three. She stopped at the far end of the corridor and gestured at the two final doors set into the wall. The first door opened and they all peered inside the small, clean space. Each room had just enough space for two beds to slide out from the walls and one latrine positioned in the corner by a modesty door. Jorry doubted they’d be very comfortable for their journey but really didn’t care.

“This room is for the girls and the room just beside is for you, Mr. Kelly.”

“Please, call me Paul.”

Jorry clenched her fists. She’d already made a mess of things with Seach, she wasn’t about to make the mistake of befriending these people.

“I will call you Mr. Kelly,” she said. “And you will call me Captain.”

Paul flushed a bright, cherry red, the color seeping up over the bald spot on his head. Jorry almost felt bad for the acerbic comment, but Seach was right. Paul might look helpless but she knew he was hiding something. The very fact that he was in charge of Movax’s nieces meant he couldn’t be trusted.

“My son Devon will be your main contact on board,” she said. “He will make certain you follow procedure.”

“Procedure?” The older girl asked.

Jorry turned to face the glaring, green-eyed girl and stared her down. Sixteen, she thought, maybe seventeen, with smooth features and hair so deep a red it almost looked like wine. Long limbed and slender too, the epitome of youth and beauty, and Jorry imagined the girl had seen her fair share of compliments. But there was a bite to her, a hard edge around her mouth as she obstinately stared back.

“We maintain a twenty-four hour system on Zephyr,” Jorry said. “Lights out at 2200. No exceptions. Meals are served at 0700, 1200, and 1600 hours. If you show up at 1700 hours, you don’t eat. Furthermore, everyone is required to spend at least one hour on the elliptical machine every day. This is for your health.”

Jorry gestured to the northern wall where Zephyr had already begun displaying several entertainment channels.

“Aside from the daily news feed or movie stations, the computer is off limits.” She continued. “Do not touch Zephyr’s A.I. Do not attempt to visit the pilot’s nest. Do not roam the ship without your boots. Do not go into the main cargo hold.”

“What can we do?” The obstinate girl asked.

Jorry narrowed her eyes. “Read a book.”

With that, she turned and left them. Three jumps to Mars, she thought. She was going to be holed up with these passengers for twenty-one weeks. How was she going to manage three strangers for almost five months? They hadn’t even left the station yet and she was already tempted to confine them to quarters.

Maybe if she did that Seach would forgive her.

Jorry scowled, marching through the corridor without bothering to look back. The last thing she needed was to see the big blue eyes of the youngest sister. It didn’t matter how much those girls needed protection or help, what mattered was that their presence was threatening the already precarious balance of her own family life.

She couldn’t believe Seach had resorted to Devon’s argument. She expected that from Devon because he only knew her in the role of Captain and mother. She’d never expected to hear it from Seach.

She turned the corner leading to the pilot’s nest and stopped. Seach stood in the corridor, his brow pinched into a tight ‘v’ shape and his amber eyes glinting furiously at her. Jorry tensed and tried to prepare herself for another argument. He went to walk by her but she stepped in his way, determined to have this out once and for all.

“Seach, listen …”

“No,” he said. “It doesn’t matter. You’ve made it pretty clear that you’re the Captain on this ship. You do what you want.”

“Seach.”

“Actually, I should thank you. For a second I thought that maybe, just maybe, thirty years on the run had managed to change things for you. But I guess I was wrong. So thanks for clarifying. I know exactly where we stand now.”

Jorry grabbed his elbow when he tried to pass again. “Dammit, Seach. That isn’t what happened. I already told you, I didn’t plan on this.”

“Oh, really? So you actually value what I have to say?”

“Of course I do.”

“Good.” He surprised her by stepping intimately close and grabbing both of her shoulders. They stared hard at each other, a pregnant silence settling between them until he finally spoke. “There’s still a chance to get them off this ship.”

“We’re out of options, Seach. We need Devon safe.” It was disconcerting having him so close. A warm, unsettled feeling pulsed through her and she fought it back, focusing on the fact that Seach was actually talking to her.

“Then we could have found another way to do it,” Seach said. “It didn’t have to be Movax.”

She glanced over her shoulder to be certain no one was coming, then turned to hiss at him. “The more people who know about Devon, the more danger he’s in. It had to be Movax.”

“Then you could have bargained for something else!”

“Like what, Seach? We’re maxed out here. You want me to hand over the ship?” Jorry gestured toward the nest. “This is where we live.”

“There had to be something else.”

“There is nothing else.”

“Jo,” Seach clenched his jaw and released her. “We are a danger to everyone we deal with. Devon included. You very well could have signed their death warrants by bringing them on board.”

“You don’t think I know that?”

“Honestly? I can’t tell anymore.”

Stunned, Jorry opened her mouth in surprise. What did that mean? He had to know her better than this.

Then again, she thought, Seach Barlow did know her. And that was the problem.

“Look,” he said after a tense moment. “I’m just saying there had to be more options out there.”

“And I’m saying there wasn’t,” she said tightly.

“And if there were?”

“I would have taken it,” she said.

She held his gaze. A deep part of her didn’t believe her own words and she was afraid Seach knew that. The truth was, she’d known when she first laid eyes on Paul Kelly that the man was in desperate need of help. And damn her compassionate hide, she couldn’t turn him away. Seach must have seen that same desperation. Deep down, he had to feel the same way. But they’d promised, for Devon’s sake, to stay out of it and that was the real argument here. She’d put Devon in danger by bringing those people on board.

“Hey, Mom, Dad,” Devon called as he rounded the corner. “Pluto Station just gave us the go-ahead to depart.”

He stopped when he spotted them. Jorry quickly stepped away from Seach, who also took a step back from her. Devon cocked his eyebrow at them just as Seach pivoted and left, looking just as angry as he had when she’d first told him the news of their unwanted guests. Jorry shook her head, too angry to admit how profoundly Seach’s words had cut her, and turned to the nest. She left Devon there, knowing he would be confused by the day’s events but suddenly too worn out to do anything about it. As soon as the ship was under way they would have time to fix it all.

If it could be fixed.

Jorry walked into the pilot’s nest and took the command chair. Consoles automatically lifted and moved to surround her, their black surfaces lighting up with information. She pushed all doubt and fear from her mind and concentrated on flying the ship.

“Zephyr, give the announcement that we will be jumping in five minutes.”

“Yes, Captain.” The ship-wide intercom blipped to life. “All passengers please secure your boots. Jump time in five minutes.”

She began scrolling through all of the ships systems, hunting for anything out of place.

“May I say that it is a pleasure to have new faces on board, Captain.” Zephyr said.

“I’m glad you think so.”

“I must also volunteer restraints for Miss Kenzie. She made several alarming remarks about you after your departure.”

Well at least the ship was still on her side, she thought.

“Which one is Kenzie?”

“The eldest.”

Jorry thought of the way Devon had stared at Kenzie in the loading bay and frowned.

“Keep them on standby,” she said.

“Yes, Captain.”

Jorry slid a blue light on the middle console completely to the left, giving the command to open the pilot’s viewport. The parking screen lifted in a quick, whisper-quiet whoosh and she sat back to enjoy the star-peppered vastness of space for the final two minutes before takeoff.

Space was terrifyingly beautiful. All that black distance painted a still and quiet backdrop for the bright splash of stars and planets. Even Pluto looked beautiful, with its icy blue hues and gray rock face.

Perhaps it was the distance that made it all so breathtaking. Up close one could easily see every flaw and scar, but stepping back a bit allowed the beauty of the whole to be seen.

The timer ticked down and she released Zephyr from Pluto Station. Zephyr followed the prerecorded flight plan, moving itself away from the station and toward the jumper circle. It stopped there as pass codes were given and received by the jumper’s automated system. In the upper right screen of her console she saw the navigation path designated for them and took a deep breath.

The jumper circle powered on, its massive steel hoops rotating in different directions, picking up speed. The computer told her that the ionic pulses in the giant, steel circle were nearing seventy percent. Outside she could see the flash of blue light whirling through the hoops and her taps hummed with the constant pulse of energy, making her skin tingle. She ignored the sensation and waited until the computer read one hundred percent ionic pulse. Then she maneuvered the ship into the jumper circle.

Ionic pulses pushed into the Zephyr’s main energy hold, thrusting them forward at the speed of light. Stars smeared across the viewport, no longer distinguishable from the backdrop, creating a constant barrage of eerie white light in the pilot’s nest. Jorry input the command for Zephyr to take over flight and leaned back in her seat.

Once at cruising speed the ship could take care of itself. Her job now was relatively simple; routine maintenance checks and upgrades, and try to fix her family.

Somehow, she was afraid she might not manage.