Excerpt - Cargo Trouble, chapter 1

Chapter 1

The snake, apparently, had conveyed with the ship.

Frankie stumbled upon Little Minnie as the pale giant reptile was recharging—basking, if another snake were doing it—under the grow lights in the starship’s garden room. She’d come in for a sprig of mint, but that thought vanished under the weight of her surprise. She slowly knelt by the long, soft nest that had seen better days. Old Peters had made Minnie a new nest but she hadn’t taken to it, so now that one was serving as a cushion up in the rec space. Old Peters had been fond of cushions, and most of those had conveyed, as well.

But they didn’t need care and feeding.

One of Minnie’s eyes was partly open, but looked as if it wanted to be closed. Frankie wasn’t sure how an eye could communicate like that, but didn’t question it. She respected Minnie’s boundaries. As she stepped out of the room, the door whooshing shut, she started the call to Old Peters. While waiting, she squatted down to see if she could see any snake prints on the extra button panel by the jamb. Minnie knew how to press these to gain entry to places all over the ship; how long that had taken to teach her, Frankie couldn’t even guess.

“Frankie!” The voice was a warm scratch on an unacknowledged itch. “Miss me already? How’s the Spear?”

“Spherical as always.” Why the bulbous cargo ship had such a sharp name was yet another mystery. Frankie wasn’t about to spend the time or the credits to rename her, though, so Spear she would remain. “One question, though. Didn’t you forget somebody?”

A pause at the other end. “Oh, you mean Minnie. No, girl, she’s yours. She’d never leave the Spear, her bones wouldn’t take it. We’re both at the ends of our useful lives now.”

Frankie rolled her eyes. Despite his nickname, Peters wasn’t so old. Sure, he had serious mobility issues from the wars, but the ship was modified to help with that. He had retired because he could afford to.

Lucky for her, since that meant she could afford the awfully reasonable price he’d named for the ship. “You’re sure? Isn’t Stackfield low-grav?”

“Don’t think my new neighbors would be too hot on a snake that was taller than they are. And she’d find precious few little mousies scuttling down here.”

“She is good for the ship, yes,” Frankie said. “But seriously, she’s going to miss you terribly.” Frankie and Minnie were on live-and-let-live terms, not really cuddle buddies the way Minnie and Peters were. And Minnie could be moody, and hide when feeling low.

“She’ll be fine. You will, too. Gotta go—it’s time for my waterdance class. My friend who got me this place says it’s like happy hour for us geezers.”

Frankie blinked at the idea of Peters in a waterdance class, and then remembered to blink the call off. Her stomach rumbled. Mint, for the porridge with the weird smell. She tapped the lower open-door panel with her foot, whispered an apology to Minnie, grabbed a sprig, and took it back to the kitchen. While heating up the porridge, she opened her shopping list for when they got to Rosing Station and added frozen mice.

There was always a chance that the cargos of grains and other foodstuffs the Spear transported wouldn’t attract mice or other invasive critters this run.

But it hadn’t happened yet.

* * *

No problems at Rosing Station. Frankie had seconded to Old Peters for two full cycles before taking the Spear out on her own, so she knew all the port stewards and how to get around. The Spear had a portering contract for organic materials needing fast shipping to the inner ring of planets in the system. It was a steady job and usually took up only part of the cargo space, so she could freelance cargo for extra credits.

Rosing Station, the biggest and newest in this system, sat in the Lagrange Point between two top-producing agricultural planets. Frankie always picked up seed here for the less-blessed worlds on the route. Seed packed tight, so half the hold was free for extras. Frankie had drained her account buying the Spear outright, and needed to rebuild her safety net. And to buy some insurance, at least collision.

She sauntered into the economy section of the station’s lower ring, looking for the ramen shop she remembered. She liked sauntering, that saucy sway of the hips. It made her feel captainlike, not like what she used to be.

The section, two stories high with a narrow bridge-deck all around, hummed and burbled; people of all sorts walking and talking, haggling, slurping noodles. The noodles here were stellar, of course, so close to the source.

She stopped at a specialty grocery, noisy with birds and people shouting. She checked out all the types of mice before making her order. She’d forgotten to ask Peters how much Minnie needed to eat, so she ordered fifty. That must be enough, for one haul.

With her short hair a new red, and her identity not triggering to anyone here at the edge of Cooperative space, Frankie felt free to roam. The people who needed to know where she was knew it; everybody else could find themselves stuck in a broken airlock.

The shop was still there, the noodles still delicious. So much better than porridge. She was on her second bowl and thinking about asking the proprietor if they sold freeze-dried servings when her message light blinked.

A local call.

She did not panic. She did not answer the call.

She slowly slurped her noodles, savoring fresh coriander and chilis. It was probably someone wanting something shipped. Speed-of-light response to her open-cargo posting, though. Maybe they were desperate. So let them stew, and they might not notice if she boosted the standard fee.

She had many options, and the best one was the ability to say no.

Cargo Trouble is available in paperback and ebook