Chapter Eight: Festered Wounds — Part 4
Joe makes a point of not answering back immediately. Instead, he goes down below and pours himself a cup of coffee. He thinks about how he misses the days when he was a pirate, and the only people radioing him were either his contacts for a trade or the Coast Guard, who would occasionally pretend to try to capture him. Kevin has transitioned again, and Paige looks tired. Joe shakes his head as Paige butters him a freshly heated slab of toast, making Joe wonder if he shouldn’t have a cow with actual milk at his disposal. Heath had been smart enough to store several hundred pounds of butter in a root cellar back in Washington, but it is only a matter of time before that runs out. His mind, wandering as it is, hasn’t lost its focus. Joe remembers a small species of cow that looks like it will be perfect for their home, and wonders if there might be a surviving herd to collect somewhere on the planet. Paige nods off, distracting him further.
“When did you get to sleep last, Paige?” Joe asks, putting a dollop of honey on his bread.
“Paige is very tired.” Paige admits sullenly. “But work is to be done.”
“Work I will assign to somebody else.” Joe says.
Paige looks angry. “Paige promises to sleep once lunch is made.”
“Paige, sweets, I’m not arguing with you. Check that journal in your head. How many days have you and Kevin gone without sleep this time?”
“Two-ish.” Paige says after looking for a bit in the back of her head. “There isn’t enough time for Paige!”
“This is fucking nonsense.” Joe snaps. “I need you in your top form for the safety of the others. You are to bed down now, and I expect Paige to be at the door of my quarters in eight hours for future duty assignment.” Captain Joe smiles, “And another thing: Daria will be finishing with our temporary inconvenience soon enough. I will have her check on you. I’d better know you’re in quarters and resting, rather than scullerying about, or I’ll let Blake decide the punishment.”
Once he sees Paige to the inside of her door, careful not to look in, because he’s learned from experience that people on his ship, and the foursome specifically, can be having sex just about any time and unexpectedly, Joe makes a point of following up on Jynx and Kevin’s inspection, just in case there might be another dumbass hiding in the shadows. There isn’t, as far as he can tell, and he’s good at looking for stowaways. By the time he makes it from for to aft, port to starboard, and back to the command center, Joe is relatively certain that he won’t have to contend with any more surprises. The Edgewind isn’t that big a ship, after all. After a brief walk around the ship, Joe sits down in front of the receiver, and clicks a frequency blip to the Glenn.
The arches light up with radio. That was the first thing that George confirmed when they left home. No more having to bounce the ionosphere, at least while aboard ship. If your radio is in the arch, the world is going to hear you. The blip back confirms what Joe already knows, that The Glenn has gotten his mark. Joe waits for a human voice. It comes after a few moments, and the voice on the other side is slow, clear, and stern.
“Quick Fox Station, this transmission is not secured. Over.” The voice is not the Major’s, but Joe senses he must be close.
“Of course it isn’t, but my ship is.” Joe says. “You wanted a word with me Major.”
Given the very slight pause, Joe knows Major Dominic is caught off guard, wondering how Joe must know of his presence. “Captain Joe, we’re missing one of our men, and was wondering if you’d seen him.”
“You’d be missing two, but my crew was in a forgiving mood.” Joe says. “Why are you wasting my time with this?”
“He is a citizen of the Glenn, and in so being, should you have him, then I demand his immediate return.”
“Always with the demands.” Joe grumbles as he flips the broadcast switch. “As you know, based on the amount of surveillance you had on us as we were sailing up the river, I run a tight ship. If there was one of your citizens aboard my ship, intent on going home, then by all means, I’d have tossed the ignorant lout aftward feet first and been done with it.”
“One of my men has three broken ribs.” Major Dominic says, “I was thinking the Glenn might need compensation for his injuries.”
Joe smiles, realizing that the Major is being intentionally dull. “But of course. I will also have to send you a bill for the damage your operative did to our railing. I’ll have an accountant write up an invoice.” Joe pauses for a moment. “Is there anything else you wish to discuss, sir?”
“Nothing at all. If you should come back by our way, as was originally planned, and our missing citizen should happen to turn up, do be certain to return him to us.” The Major says, signaling a breach in transmission.
George has been listening, Joe realizes, as he turns from the radio. “He’s trying to transmit a justification for boarding our ship when we return, or branding us as outlaws if we don’t come to ground.” Joe says. “I was hoping to not have to overtly play the pirate’s role in our new world, but if the Major thinks for an instant I’ll let him board my ship, or take it by force, he’ll have war.”
“The Major has always been politically cunning. You’d better bet he’s building his propaganda at home and abroad totally on the fact that we had a stowaway, and we will be put to ground and boarded if he has his way. He may even have alliances we don’t know about.” George sounds genuinely concerned. “I’m beginning to regret that I wanted to keep my village in the loop.”
