Chapter The Second: Violent Weather Indoors
In which Pendragon wonders if he really owes Ammalot a favor this big, and Shin-sin-fa wonders if an honest life is a more dangerous one.
"If that weren't somethin'," the boy muttered to himself, pausing for one last backward glance down the corridor. He could still hear the captain trying to settle them down. "What in the name o' Ten-ki does he possibly want with all them girls?"
The answers floating in his mind were not immediately reassuring. Maybe Captain Quartz's vice had manifested as a terrible libido rather than the insufferable violence his grand-uncle had shown. Perhaps the man had poor judgment and they would all be hired on as crew.
He gave a short, barking laugh and shook his head, continuing down the corridor. As kindly and fatherly as the man had seemed, the raging libido still seemed more likely.
A young, wiry man with a long, blonde ponytail in worn spacer's garments plodded past him down the narrow hallway, and as he trotted down the stairs, one of the inn's maids, busy sweeping the steps, looked him up and down before giving an exaggerated wink. He rolled his eyes and edged past her as politely as he had with the young man.
Shin-sin-fa had most certainly not been making eyes at the spacers who beat him for that very reason, but neither was he about to start batting his lashes at women. Especially not when they started it--those were the worst ones.
He settled down for a bite to eat, selfishly taking up a booth in the corner to avoid unwanted socialization. The inn's warm, cozy common room was quiet this early in the morning--most of the tenants were probably still in their rooms for their breakfast. A nearly-round innkeep trundled about behind the bar, polishing a collection of liquid receptacles (shaped and designed for various species) with his numerous arms. Real light came in the windows, though there were a few artificial sources over the bar to help him read labels on drinks. It was required by law--a misread label could kill someone, for what was ambrosia to one species was often hemlock to another.
While it was by no means the most affluent inn in Valtharska, The Quarter Moon's Cross was not a dive either. There were a few rough characters scattered about but they were here for privacy and quiet, and they were probably paying for that luxury. Shin-sin-fa heartily approved of the captain's choice of an inn. He approved even more after he his meal was served.
After cramming the hot fare down faster than was probably healthy, he slipped a chunky journal bound in green leather from one of his many pockets and began scrawling in his native tongue, which he spoke a good deal better than the major language--and his bold, absurdly neat handwriting was better in Hanfushui than it was in Common as well.
Interview went well. Quartz's grand-nephew is the captain. He is intimidating to look at (read ugly in previously unimagined ways) but he seemed nice enough. Of course, they all do until they've got you strung up with a bit of rope in their hand...but I should save such macabre thoughts for the day they occur, rather than worrying beforehand.
Hard to imagine anyway--this Quartz is a real gentleman. I was very embarrassed of my accent in front of him, in a way I've not experienced in many years. I liked Captain Quartz as soon as I met him, though we shall see how that holds up. I also liked Captain Lemlis as soon as I met him, and look where that got me.
He made a sour face.
As a bit of a game with himself, he described what he thought the ship might be like, and the crew, so that later he could look back and see how accurate (or not) his guesses turned out. He was just finishing a graphic description of their moldy, worm-infested fare when he heard the female commotion making its way back down the stairs.
Shin-sin-fa looked up covertly, trying to pretend he was not curious about their presence in Captain Quartz's room. Maybe, in all that racket, they would let something slip.
Like a small crowd of baby ducks, peeping at one another in a tight bunch, they milled about looking for a familiar face. Finally, to his great surprise and distaste, the one who seemed to be the leader spotted him.
"Oh hi there!" she exclaimed, her red bandana standing out in a room full of muted earth tones. "You're the boy from upstairs, right?"
Without waiting for an answer, she strode over and slid in across from him, peering curiously at his clean plate, which he had still not taken back to the kitchen window. She clearly wanted to see what kind of a diet something like him existed on, and he fought the urge to scowl. Humans were always doing that. They figured if you were not one of them, you ate babies.
The others followed her like a school of giggling fish, sauntering over and plopping down on the smoothly varnished benches one after another so quickly that Shin-sin-fa did not even have the chance to excuse himself.
The first one stretched with a fierce expression, as if it were a race she were winning, and Shin-sin-fa listened to her spine pop like a xylophone before she relaxed again. This time, he had her attention rather than his plate.
"What's your name, then, love? I'm Anya, Anya Smythe."
Shin-sin-fa was stricken. He carefully shut his diary, slipping it into his coat. It was doubtful that any of these pups could read Hanfushui, but he was taking no chances.
"My name is Shin-sin-fa," he said carefully, his voice husky and slightly too quiet. And why do you care? The low volume was an accident, and he was embarrassed--he probably sounded scared now, instead of confused like he (understandably) was. He was used to girls winking at him, not--well, mobbing him.
Suddenly, he was besieged by a wave of self-conscious doubt about how he might smell...until he realized that if they could smell their own cloying perfume as strongly as he could, he had nothing to worry about. He coughed low in his throat to alleviate the tickling from the aromas, and waited for one of them to explain exactly just what they were doing here.
Anya put out a hand and he shook it tentatively, and then the next girl, the one that had bumped the spacer, announced that she was Fahna Muy and put her hand out as well. Next came Xan Lightwall, Rikki Abbot, and Elaine Gellir. Elaine's hand felt odd, somehow, but he was too distracted to think much about it.
He was not used to being around women--especially not these cheerful, well-groomed humans, all wearing sparkling smiles and nice uniforms. With some amusement, he realized that many other boys his age would be jostling for an opportunity like this, and all he wanted was an excuse to head off. The last thing he needed was the captain thinking he was putting moves on his nieces (or doxies, if that were the unsavory and slightly bizarre case). How did a thing like Quartz...well, maybe he was more humanoid than he looked... Shin-sin-fa repressed the urge to shudder.
"Captain Pendragon tells us you're gonna be spacing with us," Anya said amiably.
Shin-sin-fa nearly choked, and it was not the perfume or the mental image of the captain making love to this unlikely harem.
"You uh, you're passengers on the Solaris Reverie?" he asked, somewhat hopefully. Anya narrowed her eyes and shrugged with a studied mockery of nonchalance.
"All five of us are crew," she returned flippantly. "I'm studying solar propulsion and engineering at the academy. Fahna is in the ballistics and defense program, Rikki is a medical student, Elaine is in siderial navigation, and Xan actually just graduated from the culinary arts program."
Shin-sin-fa was dumbstruck. This was the crew? That he would be sailing with, trusting his life to? And he had already shook on it... "Don't you have, like, classes you gotta take or somethin'?"
"We're almost done with them," Xan explained happily, clearly missing the underlying tension between scowling Anya and the incredulous boy they had surrounded.
She embarked on a cheerful description of how their teacher told them about a seasoned captain who requested their presence for an interview. Shin-sin-fa struggled to keep his jaw from going slack and his eyes from bugging out.
The asteroid belt was a very dangerous place, not the kind of place you wanted to travel through with mere kittens--even if the trip was shorter than most, the perils were an ominous lot. Some of the threat was inanimate and easily avoided by a professional, but Shin-sin-fa especially had cause to know that sometimes even the most seasoned professionals fell prey to what lurked within the asteroid belt's boundaries.
Was the captain insane, or was there more here than he could see? He opted to remain quiet and mildly supportive, despite his knotted innards, until he saw the entire crew and the ship as well. Captain Pendragon Quartz had not struck him as a fool, and whatever qualities Shin-sin-fa might have lacked, suspicion was not one of them. If the captain had exhibited any subtle lunacy he would have been on it like heat on a sun.
Fahna Muy was sitting on the outside, and offered to retrieve drinks for everyone. They all flicked their coins across the table, Shin-sin-fa's conspicuously less dirty and nicked than the others, and she memorized their preferences carefully before sauntering over to the counter. Shin-sin-fa had an idea that she had not offered entirely out of the goodness of her heart, but more out of an interest in showing the room's occupants how smoothly she could swing her hips. After all, a serving wench could just as easily have been hailed.
As she returned with a tray, she elbowed the only seasoned spacer present, a bulky man occupying a stool at the end of the bar. Shin-sin-fa blanched as the man's drink spilled, but the pony-tailed girl did not seem to notice--and none of her companions were even watching, as absorbed as they were in talking about the upcoming journey.
Moments after Fahna settled back into place, while everyone was shuffling around the drinks trying to decide whose was whose, Shin-sin-fa's peripheral vision picked up a large, stout human moving toward them. His shirt was stained with ale, and apparently he had decided to give up trying to clean himself off and just go after the problem. The lad felt his stomach curl into a cold knot at the grim look on the man's hard face.
While women often flew in U.A. fleets, they were a rarity on private merchant ships, and almost nonexistent on pirate vessels. Shin-sin-fa had not spent much time around women at all, let alone the freethinking, supple young prodigies at hand, and he thought he knew about situations like this. It was only proper that he stand up and try and intercept the trouble.
Mentally cursing the fowl-brained tart for her impoliteness, he ducked under the table and slid out past four slender pairs of legs and one not-so-slender pair, belonging to the cook. Never trust a skinny chef, he thought with a brief smile. It was off of his face before he stood again.
His mouth was opening to apologize on behalf of the naïve creature still sitting in the booth, and hopefully fend off any physical repercussions, when he saw the stool the man had just vacated, and more specifically, his heavy brown coat draped over it. The left sleeve bore a red teardrop-shaped patch, sewn on somewhat crudely and with mismatching thread, but it was there and that was enough for the boy.
Shu sa fen, he thought, stunned. We're all going to die. I knew I didn't sit out there long enough, I should have stayed all night, I KNEW it.
He was speechless, but no one would have known the difference because a wide hand with splayed fingers smacked into his chest, forcing him out of the way and up against the wall. The man pulled Fahna Muy out of her seat and slapped her across the face in one smooth move.
The pirate's enormous bulk gave off a scent of raw sweat that overpowered even the flowery scents of the girls. His height was a match for Shin-sin-fa's, and his weight equaled that of at least three of the girls. Most of it looked like muscle, and what fat there was would only serve to absorb blows or blades. The feline alien stared in horror.
"Ye stupid bitch, I'll learn ye to watch where ye're goin'," the man snapped, his voice guttural and slurring slightly with drink. You could afford to drink round the clock when you had the Guild of Red Rain behind you. Who would dare touch you?
Who indeed.
Shin-sin-fa slipped a long-fingered hand behind his back and reluctantly plucked a knife from one of his many pockets, but before he could even bring it out something amazing and not altogether fortuitous happened.
The girl kicked the Guildsman in his crotch with a force that hurt Shin-sin-fa just to observe. Staggered back, the man's hands droped to grab at his loins, his face twisted in a mask of pure agony. In a series of quick, graceful moves, she kicked and punched the ogre a few more times, dropping him neatly into a curled ball on the floor.
The innkeep was studiously absent, like the handful of patrons that had been here just a minute ago.
"Oh, Ten-ki," Shin-sin-fa moaned. It almost would have been better if she had let the bastard beat her--he stopped himself. That was a course that needed no thought.
"We should prolly get out o' here," he said hoarsely. "You know, er, afore the port author'ties come."
"I didn't do nothing--" Fahna started, and he raised his voice above hers, marvelling at his own response. They are my crewmates, he thought numbly. I shook on it.
"I know you didn't--we all do. But cap'n'll be angry all the same, right? Gettin' in trouble an' whatnot--don't wanna bother him none our first day, right?" he asked desperately.
They saw the sense in that, and feeling his heart shuddering against the walls of his chest like a crazed beast, he followed the girls as they filed out onto the street, herding them like an anxious collie. They were chattering loudly about the incident, congratulating Fahna on her hand-to-hand martial arts skills. He explained that the police might hear, that maybe they should keep it a secret and talk about it later when they were on the ship.
"Anyway, I gotta go take care o' stuff," he said lamely, and they stopped to say their goodbyes.
"See you on the ship," Anya said with a smile. There was a round of high-pitched and sincere farewells to the tune of, "Nice meeting you, Fin-shin-sa" and "Nice ta meetcha Sin-fin-sha."
He walked around through an alley to the back of the inn, where he clambered in through a window (much to the later dismay of the maid who had winked at him as he climbed the stairs--she was hours cleaning the rotting muck from his boots off of the windowsill and wall).
Carefully and quietly, after a small amount of covert exploration, he found the service stairs from the kitchen. He floundered through the halls until he finally came to the captain's room, B5. Gritting his teeth, he balled his fingers into a fist and gave a sharp rap on the door.
* * *
The somewhat urgent and short-tempered knock caught Pendragon's attention. His current applicant, a stoic, closed-mouthed spacer going by the name of Otto, seemed grateful for the distraction--the man did not like to string more than two words together at a time, and those words were "Yes, sir."
"Come in," Pendragon called curiously, watching the door swing open.
Captain Quartz was surprised to see the feline lad, following his previous routine of hurriedly scooping off his hat and standing at attention.
"Mr.--," Pendragon paused for a moment before the unfamiliar name came back to him, "--Shin-sin-fa, what is it? I am in an interview."
"Very sorry, cap'n, sir," Shin-sin-fa offered. "I'll wait outside, cap'n, sir." He closed the door at Pendragon's curt nod, and crouched in the corridor, nervously looking up every few moments at the main stairwell farther down the hallway.
It seemed like an eternity of grueling suspense before the captain's door opened and the blonde man Shin-sin-fa had passed earlier exited, giving him a short nod before heading down the stairs. The feline lad all but spilled into the room.
Pendragon swallowed his ire and did his best to politely ask what was on the boy's mind. He was surprised to see the feline alien shut the door and stride forward, only just remembering to pull his hat off this time.
"I'm afraid I witnessed a bit of a problem, cap'n, sir," Shin-sin-fa said thickly. "Those girls what you hired..." He paused, trying to think of a way to explain without admitting his somewhat suspiciously in-depth knowledge of the Guild and their practices.
Pendragon winced slightly and shook his head. "Calm yourself, son, and listen for but a moment. They're only apprentices, on for two weeks. I imagine they neglected to mention that bit. It will be hard for me too, I assure you, but if you're only patient we'll be picking up the rest of our real crew in Thera, and this lot will be heading back on a passenger vessel. If you're as seasoned and trustworthy as you claim, you'll stay and they'll be but a memory, if that."
The feline was compulsively running his fingers through his hair. "Cap'n, sir--only I wish that's all as I was worried on. I--one o' them girls done got herself in a fight downstairs--"
"A fight?!" Pendragon exclaimed, sitting up straighter in his chair. His features darkened, but the boy apparently had more to say, and the captain gritted his teeth and waited for an appropriate time to begin expostulating.
"It weren't really her fault, see, cap'n, sir," Shin-sin-fa went on quickly, "An' she did right good, better'n what I'd o' thought a girl could do. We might be lucky to have someone like that on board," he said, hating himself for saying it but knowing that at least on some level it was true, and that he ought to ignore the other levels in favor of keeping the unity of the ship. "Problem is, cap'n, sir, a man what picks a fight with a girl ain't really a savory character, as you'd know, an' this one in particular--I just, I think it'd be better you had that lot stayin' in their rooms tonight, if you catch my drift," he finished. "This man's got friends in low, low places, cap'n, sir."
The captain nodded slowly, and after a moment, he relaxed slightly, settling down into his seat once more. "At some point, when I have more time, Mr. Shin-sin-fa," Pendragon said coolly, "I am going to want to know how you came to recognize an ill jack like Ms. Muy's opponent."
The feline alien nodded, lowering his head shamefully. "Very sorry, cap'n, sir. I recognize this ain't--isn't anything you'd wanna hear. Good news is, we're gone tomorrow, and no more worryin' on it after that, cap'n, sir."
The captain sighed. "Get a good night's rest, Mr. Shin-sin-fa. I will see to the girls--er, the crew. If you happen to come across them before me, please use your experience to keep them in check."
"That I will, cap'n, sir," Shin-sin-fa promised resolutely.
Pendragon thanked him gravely. The grey-skinned lad hesitated for a moment, unsure if he was being officially dismissed, and Captain Quartz waved at him to move along. Just as the boy was leaving, though, the captain called, "And Mr. Shin-sin-fa? Thank you. I appreciate your care for the welfare of your crewmates."
The boy flushed redder than he ever had in their earlier interview. "That's how ships work, ain--isn't it, cap'n, sir?" he smiled shyly. "Thank you, and see you tomorrow, cap'n, sir."
"Good day, lad." The door swung shut, and Pendragon cradled his head in his hands for a few long, precious minutes.
That one was running from something. So many spacers were, but it dampened his spirits to see that hunted look in the eyes of someone so young.
Finally, after long minutes of dangerous but delicious procrastinating, he forced himself up. He had to catch those girls and send them back to their rooms before some tendrils of the underworld (which his new crewman knew far too much about, dammit) managed to snag any of them for supper.
"If that weren't somethin'," the boy muttered to himself, pausing for one last backward glance down the corridor. He could still hear the captain trying to settle them down. "What in the name o' Ten-ki does he possibly want with all them girls?"
The answers floating in his mind were not immediately reassuring. Maybe Captain Quartz's vice had manifested as a terrible libido rather than the insufferable violence his grand-uncle had shown. Perhaps the man had poor judgment and they would all be hired on as crew.
He gave a short, barking laugh and shook his head, continuing down the corridor. As kindly and fatherly as the man had seemed, the raging libido still seemed more likely.
A young, wiry man with a long, blonde ponytail in worn spacer's garments plodded past him down the narrow hallway, and as he trotted down the stairs, one of the inn's maids, busy sweeping the steps, looked him up and down before giving an exaggerated wink. He rolled his eyes and edged past her as politely as he had with the young man.
Shin-sin-fa had most certainly not been making eyes at the spacers who beat him for that very reason, but neither was he about to start batting his lashes at women. Especially not when they started it--those were the worst ones.
He settled down for a bite to eat, selfishly taking up a booth in the corner to avoid unwanted socialization. The inn's warm, cozy common room was quiet this early in the morning--most of the tenants were probably still in their rooms for their breakfast. A nearly-round innkeep trundled about behind the bar, polishing a collection of liquid receptacles (shaped and designed for various species) with his numerous arms. Real light came in the windows, though there were a few artificial sources over the bar to help him read labels on drinks. It was required by law--a misread label could kill someone, for what was ambrosia to one species was often hemlock to another.
While it was by no means the most affluent inn in Valtharska, The Quarter Moon's Cross was not a dive either. There were a few rough characters scattered about but they were here for privacy and quiet, and they were probably paying for that luxury. Shin-sin-fa heartily approved of the captain's choice of an inn. He approved even more after he his meal was served.
After cramming the hot fare down faster than was probably healthy, he slipped a chunky journal bound in green leather from one of his many pockets and began scrawling in his native tongue, which he spoke a good deal better than the major language--and his bold, absurdly neat handwriting was better in Hanfushui than it was in Common as well.
Interview went well. Quartz's grand-nephew is the captain. He is intimidating to look at (read ugly in previously unimagined ways) but he seemed nice enough. Of course, they all do until they've got you strung up with a bit of rope in their hand...but I should save such macabre thoughts for the day they occur, rather than worrying beforehand.
Hard to imagine anyway--this Quartz is a real gentleman. I was very embarrassed of my accent in front of him, in a way I've not experienced in many years. I liked Captain Quartz as soon as I met him, though we shall see how that holds up. I also liked Captain Lemlis as soon as I met him, and look where that got me.
He made a sour face.
As a bit of a game with himself, he described what he thought the ship might be like, and the crew, so that later he could look back and see how accurate (or not) his guesses turned out. He was just finishing a graphic description of their moldy, worm-infested fare when he heard the female commotion making its way back down the stairs.
Shin-sin-fa looked up covertly, trying to pretend he was not curious about their presence in Captain Quartz's room. Maybe, in all that racket, they would let something slip.
Like a small crowd of baby ducks, peeping at one another in a tight bunch, they milled about looking for a familiar face. Finally, to his great surprise and distaste, the one who seemed to be the leader spotted him.
"Oh hi there!" she exclaimed, her red bandana standing out in a room full of muted earth tones. "You're the boy from upstairs, right?"
Without waiting for an answer, she strode over and slid in across from him, peering curiously at his clean plate, which he had still not taken back to the kitchen window. She clearly wanted to see what kind of a diet something like him existed on, and he fought the urge to scowl. Humans were always doing that. They figured if you were not one of them, you ate babies.
The others followed her like a school of giggling fish, sauntering over and plopping down on the smoothly varnished benches one after another so quickly that Shin-sin-fa did not even have the chance to excuse himself.
The first one stretched with a fierce expression, as if it were a race she were winning, and Shin-sin-fa listened to her spine pop like a xylophone before she relaxed again. This time, he had her attention rather than his plate.
"What's your name, then, love? I'm Anya, Anya Smythe."
Shin-sin-fa was stricken. He carefully shut his diary, slipping it into his coat. It was doubtful that any of these pups could read Hanfushui, but he was taking no chances.
"My name is Shin-sin-fa," he said carefully, his voice husky and slightly too quiet. And why do you care? The low volume was an accident, and he was embarrassed--he probably sounded scared now, instead of confused like he (understandably) was. He was used to girls winking at him, not--well, mobbing him.
Suddenly, he was besieged by a wave of self-conscious doubt about how he might smell...until he realized that if they could smell their own cloying perfume as strongly as he could, he had nothing to worry about. He coughed low in his throat to alleviate the tickling from the aromas, and waited for one of them to explain exactly just what they were doing here.
Anya put out a hand and he shook it tentatively, and then the next girl, the one that had bumped the spacer, announced that she was Fahna Muy and put her hand out as well. Next came Xan Lightwall, Rikki Abbot, and Elaine Gellir. Elaine's hand felt odd, somehow, but he was too distracted to think much about it.
He was not used to being around women--especially not these cheerful, well-groomed humans, all wearing sparkling smiles and nice uniforms. With some amusement, he realized that many other boys his age would be jostling for an opportunity like this, and all he wanted was an excuse to head off. The last thing he needed was the captain thinking he was putting moves on his nieces (or doxies, if that were the unsavory and slightly bizarre case). How did a thing like Quartz...well, maybe he was more humanoid than he looked... Shin-sin-fa repressed the urge to shudder.
"Captain Pendragon tells us you're gonna be spacing with us," Anya said amiably.
Shin-sin-fa nearly choked, and it was not the perfume or the mental image of the captain making love to this unlikely harem.
"You uh, you're passengers on the Solaris Reverie?" he asked, somewhat hopefully. Anya narrowed her eyes and shrugged with a studied mockery of nonchalance.
"All five of us are crew," she returned flippantly. "I'm studying solar propulsion and engineering at the academy. Fahna is in the ballistics and defense program, Rikki is a medical student, Elaine is in siderial navigation, and Xan actually just graduated from the culinary arts program."
Shin-sin-fa was dumbstruck. This was the crew? That he would be sailing with, trusting his life to? And he had already shook on it... "Don't you have, like, classes you gotta take or somethin'?"
"We're almost done with them," Xan explained happily, clearly missing the underlying tension between scowling Anya and the incredulous boy they had surrounded.
She embarked on a cheerful description of how their teacher told them about a seasoned captain who requested their presence for an interview. Shin-sin-fa struggled to keep his jaw from going slack and his eyes from bugging out.
The asteroid belt was a very dangerous place, not the kind of place you wanted to travel through with mere kittens--even if the trip was shorter than most, the perils were an ominous lot. Some of the threat was inanimate and easily avoided by a professional, but Shin-sin-fa especially had cause to know that sometimes even the most seasoned professionals fell prey to what lurked within the asteroid belt's boundaries.
Was the captain insane, or was there more here than he could see? He opted to remain quiet and mildly supportive, despite his knotted innards, until he saw the entire crew and the ship as well. Captain Pendragon Quartz had not struck him as a fool, and whatever qualities Shin-sin-fa might have lacked, suspicion was not one of them. If the captain had exhibited any subtle lunacy he would have been on it like heat on a sun.
Fahna Muy was sitting on the outside, and offered to retrieve drinks for everyone. They all flicked their coins across the table, Shin-sin-fa's conspicuously less dirty and nicked than the others, and she memorized their preferences carefully before sauntering over to the counter. Shin-sin-fa had an idea that she had not offered entirely out of the goodness of her heart, but more out of an interest in showing the room's occupants how smoothly she could swing her hips. After all, a serving wench could just as easily have been hailed.
As she returned with a tray, she elbowed the only seasoned spacer present, a bulky man occupying a stool at the end of the bar. Shin-sin-fa blanched as the man's drink spilled, but the pony-tailed girl did not seem to notice--and none of her companions were even watching, as absorbed as they were in talking about the upcoming journey.
Moments after Fahna settled back into place, while everyone was shuffling around the drinks trying to decide whose was whose, Shin-sin-fa's peripheral vision picked up a large, stout human moving toward them. His shirt was stained with ale, and apparently he had decided to give up trying to clean himself off and just go after the problem. The lad felt his stomach curl into a cold knot at the grim look on the man's hard face.
While women often flew in U.A. fleets, they were a rarity on private merchant ships, and almost nonexistent on pirate vessels. Shin-sin-fa had not spent much time around women at all, let alone the freethinking, supple young prodigies at hand, and he thought he knew about situations like this. It was only proper that he stand up and try and intercept the trouble.
Mentally cursing the fowl-brained tart for her impoliteness, he ducked under the table and slid out past four slender pairs of legs and one not-so-slender pair, belonging to the cook. Never trust a skinny chef, he thought with a brief smile. It was off of his face before he stood again.
His mouth was opening to apologize on behalf of the naïve creature still sitting in the booth, and hopefully fend off any physical repercussions, when he saw the stool the man had just vacated, and more specifically, his heavy brown coat draped over it. The left sleeve bore a red teardrop-shaped patch, sewn on somewhat crudely and with mismatching thread, but it was there and that was enough for the boy.
Shu sa fen, he thought, stunned. We're all going to die. I knew I didn't sit out there long enough, I should have stayed all night, I KNEW it.
He was speechless, but no one would have known the difference because a wide hand with splayed fingers smacked into his chest, forcing him out of the way and up against the wall. The man pulled Fahna Muy out of her seat and slapped her across the face in one smooth move.
The pirate's enormous bulk gave off a scent of raw sweat that overpowered even the flowery scents of the girls. His height was a match for Shin-sin-fa's, and his weight equaled that of at least three of the girls. Most of it looked like muscle, and what fat there was would only serve to absorb blows or blades. The feline alien stared in horror.
"Ye stupid bitch, I'll learn ye to watch where ye're goin'," the man snapped, his voice guttural and slurring slightly with drink. You could afford to drink round the clock when you had the Guild of Red Rain behind you. Who would dare touch you?
Who indeed.
Shin-sin-fa slipped a long-fingered hand behind his back and reluctantly plucked a knife from one of his many pockets, but before he could even bring it out something amazing and not altogether fortuitous happened.
The girl kicked the Guildsman in his crotch with a force that hurt Shin-sin-fa just to observe. Staggered back, the man's hands droped to grab at his loins, his face twisted in a mask of pure agony. In a series of quick, graceful moves, she kicked and punched the ogre a few more times, dropping him neatly into a curled ball on the floor.
The innkeep was studiously absent, like the handful of patrons that had been here just a minute ago.
"Oh, Ten-ki," Shin-sin-fa moaned. It almost would have been better if she had let the bastard beat her--he stopped himself. That was a course that needed no thought.
"We should prolly get out o' here," he said hoarsely. "You know, er, afore the port author'ties come."
"I didn't do nothing--" Fahna started, and he raised his voice above hers, marvelling at his own response. They are my crewmates, he thought numbly. I shook on it.
"I know you didn't--we all do. But cap'n'll be angry all the same, right? Gettin' in trouble an' whatnot--don't wanna bother him none our first day, right?" he asked desperately.
They saw the sense in that, and feeling his heart shuddering against the walls of his chest like a crazed beast, he followed the girls as they filed out onto the street, herding them like an anxious collie. They were chattering loudly about the incident, congratulating Fahna on her hand-to-hand martial arts skills. He explained that the police might hear, that maybe they should keep it a secret and talk about it later when they were on the ship.
"Anyway, I gotta go take care o' stuff," he said lamely, and they stopped to say their goodbyes.
"See you on the ship," Anya said with a smile. There was a round of high-pitched and sincere farewells to the tune of, "Nice meeting you, Fin-shin-sa" and "Nice ta meetcha Sin-fin-sha."
He walked around through an alley to the back of the inn, where he clambered in through a window (much to the later dismay of the maid who had winked at him as he climbed the stairs--she was hours cleaning the rotting muck from his boots off of the windowsill and wall).
Carefully and quietly, after a small amount of covert exploration, he found the service stairs from the kitchen. He floundered through the halls until he finally came to the captain's room, B5. Gritting his teeth, he balled his fingers into a fist and gave a sharp rap on the door.
* * *
The somewhat urgent and short-tempered knock caught Pendragon's attention. His current applicant, a stoic, closed-mouthed spacer going by the name of Otto, seemed grateful for the distraction--the man did not like to string more than two words together at a time, and those words were "Yes, sir."
"Come in," Pendragon called curiously, watching the door swing open.
Captain Quartz was surprised to see the feline lad, following his previous routine of hurriedly scooping off his hat and standing at attention.
"Mr.--," Pendragon paused for a moment before the unfamiliar name came back to him, "--Shin-sin-fa, what is it? I am in an interview."
"Very sorry, cap'n, sir," Shin-sin-fa offered. "I'll wait outside, cap'n, sir." He closed the door at Pendragon's curt nod, and crouched in the corridor, nervously looking up every few moments at the main stairwell farther down the hallway.
It seemed like an eternity of grueling suspense before the captain's door opened and the blonde man Shin-sin-fa had passed earlier exited, giving him a short nod before heading down the stairs. The feline lad all but spilled into the room.
Pendragon swallowed his ire and did his best to politely ask what was on the boy's mind. He was surprised to see the feline alien shut the door and stride forward, only just remembering to pull his hat off this time.
"I'm afraid I witnessed a bit of a problem, cap'n, sir," Shin-sin-fa said thickly. "Those girls what you hired..." He paused, trying to think of a way to explain without admitting his somewhat suspiciously in-depth knowledge of the Guild and their practices.
Pendragon winced slightly and shook his head. "Calm yourself, son, and listen for but a moment. They're only apprentices, on for two weeks. I imagine they neglected to mention that bit. It will be hard for me too, I assure you, but if you're only patient we'll be picking up the rest of our real crew in Thera, and this lot will be heading back on a passenger vessel. If you're as seasoned and trustworthy as you claim, you'll stay and they'll be but a memory, if that."
The feline was compulsively running his fingers through his hair. "Cap'n, sir--only I wish that's all as I was worried on. I--one o' them girls done got herself in a fight downstairs--"
"A fight?!" Pendragon exclaimed, sitting up straighter in his chair. His features darkened, but the boy apparently had more to say, and the captain gritted his teeth and waited for an appropriate time to begin expostulating.
"It weren't really her fault, see, cap'n, sir," Shin-sin-fa went on quickly, "An' she did right good, better'n what I'd o' thought a girl could do. We might be lucky to have someone like that on board," he said, hating himself for saying it but knowing that at least on some level it was true, and that he ought to ignore the other levels in favor of keeping the unity of the ship. "Problem is, cap'n, sir, a man what picks a fight with a girl ain't really a savory character, as you'd know, an' this one in particular--I just, I think it'd be better you had that lot stayin' in their rooms tonight, if you catch my drift," he finished. "This man's got friends in low, low places, cap'n, sir."
The captain nodded slowly, and after a moment, he relaxed slightly, settling down into his seat once more. "At some point, when I have more time, Mr. Shin-sin-fa," Pendragon said coolly, "I am going to want to know how you came to recognize an ill jack like Ms. Muy's opponent."
The feline alien nodded, lowering his head shamefully. "Very sorry, cap'n, sir. I recognize this ain't--isn't anything you'd wanna hear. Good news is, we're gone tomorrow, and no more worryin' on it after that, cap'n, sir."
The captain sighed. "Get a good night's rest, Mr. Shin-sin-fa. I will see to the girls--er, the crew. If you happen to come across them before me, please use your experience to keep them in check."
"That I will, cap'n, sir," Shin-sin-fa promised resolutely.
Pendragon thanked him gravely. The grey-skinned lad hesitated for a moment, unsure if he was being officially dismissed, and Captain Quartz waved at him to move along. Just as the boy was leaving, though, the captain called, "And Mr. Shin-sin-fa? Thank you. I appreciate your care for the welfare of your crewmates."
The boy flushed redder than he ever had in their earlier interview. "That's how ships work, ain--isn't it, cap'n, sir?" he smiled shyly. "Thank you, and see you tomorrow, cap'n, sir."
"Good day, lad." The door swung shut, and Pendragon cradled his head in his hands for a few long, precious minutes.
That one was running from something. So many spacers were, but it dampened his spirits to see that hunted look in the eyes of someone so young.
Finally, after long minutes of dangerous but delicious procrastinating, he forced himself up. He had to catch those girls and send them back to their rooms before some tendrils of the underworld (which his new crewman knew far too much about, dammit) managed to snag any of them for supper.