The newsfeed, full of the details of the latest dispute about the export tariffs, did not help either his mood or his insomnia. He tried sports, and arts, and finally admitted that it was now almost dawn and he might as well get up properly. He entered the master bath from the hall side, and stood under the shower a long time, eyes squeezed shut against the spray, trying not to think.

He came out of the shower into the bedroom only to find his wife sitting up in bed looking at him.

“Don’t try to tell me there’s nothing,” she said. She had pulled the flower-patterned wrapper around her shoulders; she must have been sitting up for some time. “It’s Ky, isn’t it? I looked all over the newsfeed yesterday and couldn’t find anything about Belinta or Leonora or Lastway. So—what is it? What’s happened to her?”

He scrubbed at his head with the towel, trying to think of some way to divert her, but he knew it wasn’t going to work. Once on the trail, she wasn’t easily distracted.

“Ky’s in Sabine system,” he said. “She took a contract from Belinta, and went to Sabine.”

“The Sabine ansibles,” she said. Even in the dim light of the bedside lamp, he could see that she had paled, her eyes suddenly darker against her skin.

“Yes. We don’t know what’s happening. I called in every favor I could with ISC—you remember Lewis Parmina; he’s probably going to be their next CEO—and I just got a message from him. They have a drone probe in the system, and the Glennys Jones is still transmitting—still there, still whole. But nothing about Ky.”

“I’ve had dreams all the past week,” she said. “But this morning when I woke up, I felt better.”

“We have to hope,” he said, not sure he could.

“At least she has the right things to wear,” she said. And then, scowling, “I know you’ll think that’s trivial, but it’s not. The right things to wear just might make the difference.”

“I hope so,” Gerard said. “I sincerely hope so.”

“When are you telling the others?”

“Stavvi knows. He was there when we first got the word, and we already knew she was in Sabine system. The com watch at headquarters… but that’s it.”

“And now?”

“I think we should wait,” he said.

“I think we shouldn’t,” she said. “Not everyone—just the family—but they should know.”

“A secret shared is no secret,” he said. “I don’t want the media to get hold of this, not after the Academy mess.”

“Yes… I see your point, Gerard. All right. What can I do?”

“Nothing more than I can. Wait. Pray. At least the ship is there in one piece. Was there, when the drone reported…”

“Is there,” she said very firmly. “It is there. And for all Ky’s blunders, she’s had the habit of surviving.”

Ship’s morning brought a rash of complaints from Kristoffson that conditions were intolerable and he would hold Vatta Transport responsible for a laundry list of deficiencies. Ky looked up relevant portions of the Interstellar Universal Commercial Code to reassure herself that she was not making the company liable for vast damages and then reminded him that in time of war, which this was, passengers were obliged to cooperate fully with ship’s officers.

“I am cooperating,” he said. “You are simply being unreasonable in your demands.”

She was tempted to ask if he thought he could do it better, but he certainly did think that, and she wasn’t going to give him the opening. Her job wouldn’t be easier if he thought she could be manipulated that way.

“You will have ample opportunity to make a formal complaint later,” Ky said. “In the meantime, you will simply have to accept the reality of the situation.”

He clicked off and managed to make that mechanical sound into something snippy. Ky shook her head at Lee, who was back in the pilot’s chair. “He’s trouble,” Lee said. “I’m glad you’re not one of the temperish Vattas.”

“I am,” Ky said. “But four years at the Academy taught me to handle it.”

“How are you feeling?” Lee asked.

“Better than I could have expected,” Ky said. “From what the medic said…”

“You looked dead,” Lee said. “We were all scared. Those horrible people—”

“It was Skeldon,” Ky said. “If that idiot hadn’t tried to be a hero, Master Sergeant Pitt wouldn’t have hit me.”

“But there was no reason to hit you… You hadn’t done anything.”

“Protocols,” Ky said. “Just typical military; I don’t blame her.” Now that she thought about it, though, she was being remarkably calm about it. Had they tweaked her memories? Her personality?

“You’re more forgiving than I would be,” Lee said.

“It’s not forgiving, it’s understanding,” Ky said. “They figure that the captain is the key to the ship, and responsible for everything that happens. That’s in the law, too. If you suddenly went crazy and I didn’t manage it, it would be my fault.”

“So—if they blamed you for Skeldon, why didn’t they kill you, too?”

“I’m not sure,” Ky said. “But I’m happy about it, and I’m not going to annoy them.”

“This thing with the passengers… is it really a contract or did they just dump them on us?”

“It’s a contract. Strange, but a contract. A good one, too.” No reason to tell him about the clause she had insisted on adding. “I hadn’t realized that mercenary companies are… just a business, really. The contract for haulage looked just like the ones we use for regular cargo, only specifying passengers.”

“But why us? They have the other ships they’ve interned.”

“I don’t know. If I were guessing, it’s that they have a use for the other ships, or that they wanted all these individuals away from their own ships for some reason.”

“Will we make anything from it?”

“If they pay—and their credit rating is excellent—it will more than cover the cost of the sealed unit and installation. Assuming there’s anyplace to get a sealed unit and someone to install it. I asked about that, and they said, ‘Not now’ in the tone that means ‘Don’t bother us.’ But surely, when ISC replaces the ansibles, we’ll be able to communicate with home, and with Belinta…”

Gary Tobai came onto the bridge. “Belinta’s going to be furious,” he said without preamble. He looked older in some way.

“I know,” Ky said. “But there’s nothing we can do about it. We can’t fight warships. We can’t jump out. We can’t call and explain. They undoubtedly know the Sabine ansibles are out, and should grasp that whatever’s happened is a genuine emergency. What we can do is survive the next few days—and hopefully it will only be a few days—get rid of our little friends, pick up our cargo, go back to Sabine, and fix the FTL drive. That shouldn’t take long if the repair yards are still there. At least we know they have the size unit we need, and there can’t be that many ships needing that size.”

“Probably not. I just hope they’re honest.”

“As honest as they can be, was my assessment,” Ky said. “And I was on their ship and met one of their officers. We do have the contract, in writing.”

“Ten days… what can they hope to accomplish in ten days? You can’t win wars in ten days. You can only lose them that fast.” Gary still looked worried.

“Which means the other side won them,” Ky said. She shrugged away speculation about the war. “My concern is the passengers’ security. With Kristoffson being such a pain, and the way they outnumber us…”

“We keep them locked in,” Gary said.

“We can’t keep them locked in all the time,” Ky pointed out. “We have to feed them, and we have only one galley. It’s my fault; I didn’t think to ask the mercs for a field kitchen.”

“I suppose you’re right. Are they all like Kristoffson?”

“No, not at all. He’s the worst, and I think he’s got a small group that he’s inciting to difficulty. But the others aren’t nearly as bad. There’s one, Paison, who’s quite sensible. I’m thinking of talking to him, seeing if he’ll monitor the situation for me.”