In Every Eden (The Heroes We Can Afford)

Chapter 21: Pleas and Bargains

“Thank you very much, officer.  I will be taking responsibility for them from here.  You may now leave us.”  Carlo Vasca gave the guard a brisk nod.  He stood behind a utilitarian metal table in the tiny briefing room.  The Militia officer stood fast in the doorway, arms crossed and face closed.

“Officer.  Thank you.”  Vasca repeated each word individual word slowly and with emphasis.  The guard locked eyes with him for a moment, then averted them, turned around and closed the door with a will behind her.

“Well, well, now that we are alone, my friends, I believe we have business to discuss, do we not, Captain Ngn?”

“That we do.  Although it's Mister Rukh here that you've the deal with, as I recall.”  The Captain threw herself into a chair across the table from Vasca and folded her hands behind her head.

Hector, for once, was struck speechless.  He looked to the Captain, then to Vasca, then back to the Captain, his mouth working like a fish out of water.

“Go on, it's your hustle, you run with it.  Don't worry, you say anything I don't like, I'll be sitting right here to shut it down.”

She smile and threw Hector a nod to soften her words.  The doubt melted away from Hector's face and he was his usual grinning, cocky, corridor rat self again.  He put both hands flat on the table and leaned forward until he was almost eye level with Vasca.

“Good.  Excellence.”  Vasca's smile was all teeth.  “There is much to discuss and very little time in which to do it.  Circumstances, I think you must agree, are much changed...”

“Changed?  What's changed?  You still got ore, and we still got a driver to get it to market, so what's changed?”

“Ah yes, what you say, it is true.  When we first come to this accommodation there was no bar to your leaving this world, to say nothing of this system.  But now, now your ship is watched, your crew are prisoner.  This has changed.”

“So what?”  Hector stood back up to this full height and shrugged with a wide, expansive gesture that showed off the full, attenuated, length of his arms.

“So there's a bit of an extra shipping charge.  Big deal.  Price of doing business, am I right or am I right?  Besides, if you didn't still want to do this deal, you wouldn't have bailed us out like this.  You opened negotiations the moment we left that cell.”

“Ha!”  Vasca didn't actually laugh, he just said the word 'Ha' as he reached up to slap Hector's shoulder.  Hector winced and rubbed the spot where Vasca hit him.

“But to be serious, this situation, it does not get better before it gets worse.  And every shift that passes, it grows more difficult to got you off-world.  The sooner you are gone, I would think, the better for all of us.”

“You'll get no argument from us on that, Mister Vasca.  Didn't know why we're even still here...”

Morgan glanced over at the Captain,  She was smirking proudly and nodding in agreement.

“So this is it, we're just going, huh?”  Morgan wasn't happy about how much he sounded like a petulant child.

“Yeah, we are.  Morgan, old buddy, I think we call call our welcome here on Hunahpu has officially worn out, don't you?”

“You said I'd have the time to...”

“And you did.”  She cut him off with a shake of the head.  “But we all saw how that worked.  No offense.  You tried it your way, now we're letting Hector try it his.  Hey, hey, don't look so down, shortpants, you gave it your best.  But first rule of the spacer, never let yourself get involved in local affairs, you know?”