Page 9 of Life-Debt

Once frozen, I bagged them and hauled them to the crew quarters, strapping them onto the beds for their journey back to their home world. With decomposition so advanced, the bodies would be taken out of stasis while in the suit, and they would be buried as is.

It simplified cleanup.

With the grisly work finished, I reactivated gravity and returned to the main communication room, where Klerano waited with admirable patience. “It is finished.”

“Thank you for your service, Viva. It is appreciated. It is unfortunate the decomposition is too far advanced to identify them.”

No wonder. As hope could be a dangerous weapon in the wrong hands, I maintained my silence. If my patient died during revival, I would be able to deliver the news to someone expecting the worst rather than hoping for the best.

Time would tell.

“You’re welcome. I will begin the process of towing your ship to Cremora Delta 005-26. I will have defensive systems online, so please have any escort ships initiate contact before coming into close proximity.”

“I will make certain that the ships properly identify themselves. You will have a full escort until you reach our spaceport, where you can be docked for quarantine. It’s close to our world. We have an excellent quarantining system, so you will be able to receive goods while you wait. It is a day’s travel from the shiftgem gate.”

I pricked my ears forward at the thought of landing at a spaceport rather than having to go planetside. “Is the spaceport capable of receiving the bodies?”

“When locked in stasis, yes. They have the appropriate equipment. You will be able to unload the freighter in the quarantine bay, which is being prepared for your arrival.”

I’d get to make use of an entire quarantine bay? My wallet would cry at the cost of docking my ship and paying the general quarantine fees. “Please send an estimate of the quarantine and docking fees,” I requested.

“Paid in full as part of your compensation. You wouldn’t need to quarantine if you had not taken it upon yourself to recover the living member of the crew. I will send over the complete compensation report, including the standard taxes and fees, which will be managed on your behalf and certified.”

I smiled at that. “Thank you, Klerano. I expect, if all goes well with the towing operation, to reach the spaceport within two days at most.”

“I look forward to your arrival.”

I disconnected the communication link, heaved a sigh, and ordered my suit to run a new diagnostic scan, which informed me the ship had fully restored its life support system. I called for Pandora, and the fox bounded over, yipping her excitement.

Ah. She must have found something. Excellent. “Show me,” I ordered before praising her for her good work and promising a treat for her effort. She bounded off in the direction of the cargo bays, diving into the smaller bay and wiggling through the boxes, some of which had been shifted due to the removal of gravity. She stood on her hind paws, hopped, and yipped several times, indicating someone had stashed something of interest higher up the stacks.

Clever fox, having taken advantage of the removal of gravity to investigate out-of-reach places. I disabled gravity again and used my thrusters to get above the cargo. Pandora joined me and used the boxes to propel herself across the bay. Once near a wall, she activated her magnets, pointed her nose at a box, and yipped to catch my attention.

One day, I might understand how the fox found interesting things when she couldn’t smell anything outside of her suit, but she rarely failed me. Sometimes, her failures were the correct identification of boxes containing delicious, tasty treats she loved. I praised her for those finds, as I had told her to find treasures.

Sometimes, she interpreted that as a demand for increased pay.

I patted boxes until she stopped yipping, her cue that I’d found what she’d wanted me to investigate. I checked the sides of the box, discovering a strip of tape wrapped around it, which set it apart from the rest of the crates.

How fascinating.

I grabbed the box, tucked it under an arm, and made use of my thrusters to return to the floor. Once Pandora joined me, I set her discovery on the floor and restored gravity. A few minutes later, after some cursing and elbow grease, I popped the lid off.

The familiar and unwanted sight of a shipment receipt issued from one of the nastier black markets rested on top, and someone had made notations on who was to receive the contents, which consisted of a selection of shiftgem pendants and other stones. The receivers, judging from the method of listing them, were not associated with legal channels. If the crystals had been mined the regular way, they wouldn’t have been on the black market, instead selling for a premium at jewelers.

The black market inventory declared the stones to be core shiftgems from pirate-operated planet busting, coming in a full range of colors. Unlike the traditionally mined stones, the pendants could also amplify latent psionic abilities, and in the wrong hands, power the same sort of weapon that had resulted in the acquisition of the cursed crystals.

If anyone found out the ship contained core shiftgems, it would become a nice, juicy target worth more than I cared to think about.

“Good work, Pandora.” I repacked the box, including the inventory slip, and did the only thing I could: I took it with me.

Perhaps I might be able to learn the secrets of the cargo on my ship—and why three men had died over it. More importantly, I needed to identify if the man in stasis was friend, foe, or unfortunate victim of greed, the one trait uniting all species.

* * *

After returning to my ship, stripping off my gear, and detoxing in the fumigation chamber along with Pandora, I went to work preparing to haul the derelict and its cargo to the spaceport, where I could wash my hands of it. A good smuggler created hiding places difficult to access and harder to spot. Aware the core shiftgems would be the target of government officials and pirates alike, I spent the five hours required to dismantle part of the engine, lift up the floor, hide the pendants, and restore everything. While I did the work, I checked over each and every piece of my engines, triple-checked my shiftgems in their mountings, and reported my activities in the log.

In a twist of good luck, I needed to replace three common pieces, which had shown signs of wear and tear.