“Damn it, do I own this ship or don’t I?” Daniel Shays said when Cicada returned to the sumptuous on-board apartment they shared, to inform him of her failure.
“Aye, you own it,” she said. “The problem is, you don’t run it.”
“Of course I don’t run it,” Shays said. “Running a ship takes hard work, which defeats the purpose of owning a ship in the first place. But just because I don’t run it doesn’t mean I can’t lord over everyone on it! Did you threaten him?”
“Yes,” Cicada said.
“With the big gun?”
“Yes.”
“Did you make it make the noise?”
“Yes!” Cicada said. “For Christ’s sake, d’you think I’m new at this? But he’s fucking ex-navy… ex-real navy… and he’s got us locked out of the helm controls. What do you want me to do?”
“I want you to get this ship off this station and back into the business of making me money,” Shays said.
“And how am I supposed to accomplish that, exactly? The crew won’t think of leaving without their precious Lilliana, and we can’t force them,” Cicada.
“Then go out there and get her back!” Shays said. He rubbed his temples. “Now I’m doing the thinking, too.”
“You want me to mount a rescue operation?” Cicada said. “For them? For her?”
“Unless you have a better idea.”
“Have you forgotten what happened on Nosfera-2?”
“As you well know, I paid good money to forget what happened on that God-forsaken rock, and yet you keep reminding me,” Shays said. “Look, it’s not like you’re going to rescue-rescue them… you’ll just be assisting in the process of their eventual escape.”
“Like Lilliana assisted…”
“Do you know what your problem is?” Shays asked. “You can’t let go of the past.”
“And yours is that you can’t keep sight of it,” Cicada said. “Past is prologue, lover… if you think she’d have acted any differently if it had been you standing between her and the…”
“She’s a survivor,” Shays said. “That’s why I keep her between me and danger and not the other way around.”
“But you don’t have any problem with asking me to step between her and the firing squad,” she said.
“Only because I know you’re strong enough to handle it,” he said, his voice tender as he reached for her organic hand.
She pulled it away, turning and walking for the door.
“Cicada, I can’t do this without you,” he said.
“It’s not as though you’re going to be doing it with me,” she said, not breaking her stride. “Double entendre intended… but you’ll get your operator back.”
“I don’t deserve you,” he called after her.
“Never stops you,” she said.
There were two sets of reinforced doors that served as the secure entrance to Shays’s palatial suite. When the outer set slid open, she found Dick Unger, Handy, and one of Nick Bradley standing there waiting.
“Unger, you’re the fourth or fifth last person I want to see right now,” she said.
“Yes,” he said. “And I’m going to help you rescue three of the ones above me.”
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