A Starship Called Starsong

Chapter 6

How Cynthia always managed to find paper books during our short ship-leave was beyond me. Paper books. They took up a lot of space in our already rather small rooms. Most people opted for electronic books since they already had a computer of some sort. Where she had hid them until now was another mystery since we hadn't been at a port for over a week.

Cynthia rummaged through a box that held twenty or so novels while I sat on her bed. She was clearly checking her inventory before we reached our destination in roughly two weeks.

I commented idly, "You had better not be planning to stick those in my room unless you intend to remove the two boxes that you already have hidden under my bed."

"Well, there is no room left under my bed, so they have to go somewhere. I know that there is still room under your bed."

I kept my amusement off my face, but knew she would hear it in my voice. "The key word there is 'my bed'. I have stuff too, you know."

She waved a piece of paper in the air. "Ah, but I have bribery!" She tossed the sheet of paper at me.

It took two attempts for me to catch it mid-air. I am positive that paper breaks a few laws of physics when people try to throw it. Some of those flips simply should not be possible.

The paper was actually a receipt for an electronic book, specifically, a manual and user guide for a new type of loading bay machine that the Captain was very likely going to purchase. This machine was a far cry from our current aging ones and had very different controls as well as requiring different types of maintenance.

And it is a sure bet that Mack is not going to turn over a new leaf and put effort into learning something new...

Cynthia knew me well enough to know what kind of treasures would tempt me. I actually liked to learn things like this. I sighed in defeat. "Fine. But there had better be no sloppy romances in there..."

She grinned triumphantly. "Thanks! I also made certain that there were no books about abused orphans after your complaints about the justice system last time. There are a few good romance novels, sci-fi books, and fantasy ones in here as well."

I was a sucker for helping abandoned children, and even that fictional book had shortened my temper's fuse – and I had read it the day before ship-leave to boot. Just the mere memory of it brought back the faint dull headache that had plagued me the last few days.

Cynthia knew the book had struck a nerve, but I somehow doubted that she knew about the two dead men who had previously run a child brothel... There was no way that their bodies would have been found before we left the docking station.

I hadn't killed them – I wasn't a trained fighter, after all. But I had managed to track down one of the children's fathers, who just so happened to be a highly ranked gang member. He had been searching hard for her, and I knew he wouldn't just sit by idly when he found out where his daughter was. It was really amazing what kind of information my Analyzer could dig up with a few semi-illegal software downloads... I had uninstalled those ones before getting back onto the Tyndel.

I eyed up the box of books warily. "Please tell me that there aren't any of those 17th-century novels in there. We are so far past horses and wagons on the Old Earth. I mean, come on, have you ever even seen a horse?"

She thought hard. "I think I saw one in a zoo that specialized in Earth animals once. Or it might have been a zebra or a giraffe, I can't keep track of the fauna found on every planet out there."

I chuckled as I rolled my eyes. "I bet you were too busy flirting with whatever guy had taken you to the zoo."

Her jaw dropped. "How did you know about Jon?! I never told anyone about him!"