“Aren’t you shipping out today?” Porter asked, cutting himself off mid-sentence in a story about their first shared communications officer and his current status as a holo-star.

  “Tomorrow.”

  “It is tomorrow.”

  “’S’not.”

  “It’s almost tomorrow. Don’t you need to…get your ship ready? See to your crew?”

  “They’ve been doing this a long time. Don’t need me.”

  “That’s not very Captain-y of you.”

  She glared at him, realized she was chewing on the side of her thumb, and forced her hand back to the table.

  “I got everything ready before I came here. I’m not a complete shitshow.”

  “I didn’t say you –”

  “And the crew – my crew, they really are good at what they do.” The pleasant warmth of the bottom shelf whiskey started to ebb, and she turned her glare to the bottle for betraying her.

  “You haven’t said much about them,” Porter pointed out, his elbows on the table as he leaned forward. “Did you hire anyone, or are they all …inherited?”

  She’d avoided talking or thinking about her father for nearly an hour, but his crew, his ship, his job…all of it was her life now. All of it, without his actual presence. She considered smashing the bottle and brandishing its broken end at someone’s face, but swallowed and answered him instead.

  “They all worked with my dad for at least a decade. His contract was the forty-year one, but they all signed long-hauls. That’s how they get the best payouts.”

  “Unless they break it.”

  “None of them are breaking the contract.” She glanced at her PDA, which of course had no new messages, and considered how much sleep she could still manage if she left soon. “Why would they? Just because the captain they signed on to work for died for no reason and his daughter had to take over to keep from breach of contract and repossession of the ship? What a dumb reason to sell your soul to Interstel.”

  “Dinah, no, I meant –”

  “It’s the most inter-species crew I’ve ever served on. Doc’s an Android – Kayfive. Thinks his whole personality is comparing things to other things.” She noted that he tried to interrupt and decided to detail the entirety of her six-member crew. “Nav and Engineering are Velox – Dad said never skimp on keeping yourself alive, and they’re the best – Viphaaxi is the mean one, on nav, and her mate Zixoti is quiet. I’ve heard him say maybe ten words in the last six months, but he’s a helluva engineer.

  “Then, oh, you’ll love this – we got an Elowan for sciencing and making sure the right stuff goes to the right colonies, and Ehnuli is a complete sweetheart, even though Dad thought it was smart to have her on the same ship as a Thrynn. Crazy, right?” Her grin at Porter was likely the craziest part of it, but she sailed on even as she refilled her glass.

  “That’s Sys’Thysin. He does all the math and trade and makes the deals. Then we have Sawyer for backup – a Human to do the shooting, though we haven’t had to do much of that. Barely even need a captain. Wanna see their test scores?” She looked around for her bag, realized it was still fastened around her waist, and tapped her PDA to settle her tab.

  “Dinah, stop, I wasn’t quizzing you, I just wanted to make sure you were –” He held his hands out toward her, but she busied herself putting away her PDA. Something twisted in her gut – she knew she was overreacting, but knowing it didn’t help her stop it. Damn whiskey.

  “I was what? Surrounded by people good at their jobs? Not slacking in my new job? Happy?” She blew out her breath and knocked back her drink. “What’s it matter? Whatever the answers, I got fifteen years of a forty-year contract to finish, moving goods from point A to B and maybe, on a big trip, point C.” She took a deep breath, but wherever her calm had gone, it wasn’t answering to ‘just breathe.’

  “If I’m really lucky and we don’t cross a Thrynn scouting party or a rogue micro-meteor and avoid big expenses, fifteen years’ll only be fifteen years, and then I’ll have a ship all to myself to do whatever the f—”

  Dinah unclenched her hands, shook her head, and tried the whole breathing thing again. Porter stared at her – she’d always had a temper, but more often than not, when she lashed out, there were solid justifications behind it.

  This time, her only excuse was six months of trying to be the captain her father had been, or would have expected her to be, and how frayed it had left her. She couldn’t bring herself to admit it, and the apology withered on her tongue.

  “Look,” she said, meeting his eyes. “Today’s my dad’s birthday. It’s the first one without him, and I…”

  “Have to go back to his ship, without him, and I made you think about it.”

  The truth of it made her shoulders itch, and made her think about everything else, which made her cursed teeth itch.

  “Stop being insightful. It won’t get you laid.”

  “It never does,” he replied, his tone mournful and expression hangdog. Her anger ebbed and she laughed with a shake of her head.

  “I should take the rest of this bottle in payment, but because I’m gracious, I’ll leave it for you. Drinks on me next time.”

  “I’ll hold you to that, Cap – Kenneson.”

  She smiled, grateful for his correction, and made it all the way out of the Starport Lounge before her body registered the sheer amount of whiskey she’d consumed.

  By the time she roll-walked back to The Swingin’ Miss’s berth, the morning shift had started and she had a looming headache where her pleasant tipsiness should have gone.

  “All right, Captain?”

  Dinah shook her head sharply in defiance of the thudding in her skull, wished she’d had one more or less whiskey, and summoned a smile for her ship’s Android Doctor.

  “The usual nonsense, Kayfive. How were things on the ship?”

  “Quiet. After our toast to Captain – your father, everyone went their own way.”

  “You can call him Captain still, Kay. Swingin’ Miss will always be his.”

  “According to all bylaws and Interstel’s legal department, the ship and its contract are fully yours, Captain.”

  “Yes, I –” Dinah closed her mouth, considered for a moment, then continued. “Indeed it is. Everyone back on board?”

  “Sys’Thysin is still at the Trade Depot, in case there are any deals to be had with end-shift workers.” Kayfive clicked its jaw twice, which Dinah had tentatively determined to mean the Android doubted the logic inherent in the relayed information. She kept it as a tentative understanding given the times Kayfive clicked while using its most approving tone – the level to which Kay had mastered sarcasm was still a mystery to her.

  Her dad should have been here to tell her. Scratch that – her dad should have been here, still running his own ship and carrying out the back third of his own forty-year contract with Interstel, still dealing with the odd mishmash of an interspecies crew he’d put together.

  She pushed the thought away for the eleventy millionth time and nodded.

  “I hope he finds something good. We’re heading outward next run, and I’ve been hearing those colonies have it a bit rougher.”

  “Rough like a Elowan burr in Thrynn space.”

  Dinah couldn’t decide what to say to that, so she nodded and moved further into the ship. She’d served with more than a few androids in Interstel, but Kayfive was odd. Not odd in the fun way some of them got, but certainly quirky. He compared everything, often in a way she had no context for, if they existed at all, and even that was…stiff. She couldn’t picture her dad choosing this particular model, and the unsurety of it made her chest itch.

  She really should have asked her father more questions during their Starport Lounge meet-ups, not let him pepper her for updates on her life and times at Interstel while he beamed proudly at her. Had she been a good enough daughter to him?

  “Damn whiskey,” she muttered, chewing on the side of her thumb as she stomped through her dad’s – her – ship and shoved down the maudlin thoughts. If she hadn’t been a good enough daughter, she’d certainly stepped up the dutiful offspring role by giving up her career and taking over her father’s contract to save his ship and crew.

  They’re family at this point, Di, he’d told her a few years ago, not long after Ehnuli had taken over on the science side (there, she had paid attention, frak it). With all the mess and joy that comes with.

  If they’d been his family, they should be hers too, especially after what she’d given up to keep Interstel from seizing every resource they’d ever imagined under breach of contract. Instead they were formal and nice but a little distanced and entirely strangers and she wanted her life back and her dad back and –

  She definitely needed to have cut herself off at least a full drink ago. Whiskey and her dad’s birthday – the first without him – what had she been thinking? She’d blame Porter, but she’d been well on her way to mistake city when he appeared.

  Dinah rubbed her eyes impatiently, decided bed as the wisest course, and belatedly realized she’d followed the main hall of the ship from the docking airlock to the storage bays. Living quarters were tucked back behind her in the near-middle of the ship. She’d bypassed her room, the tubes that made it an easy up or down from quarters to the bridge, the engines, and other major working parts, and with the way her night was going Zixoti was running diagnostics on the internal systems and had seen her.

  It shouldn’t matter, but she was a little drunk and a lot sad, and the idea of looking like a fool to one of her crew – however unlikely it was that anyone was actually observing her – was too much.

  She decided a quick look over what Sys’Thysin had loaded already was a Captain-y enough thing to do before she caught what little sleep was left to her, and continued on to the storage bays.

  Dinah pulled up the manifest and walked briskly through each of the six bays attached to the spine of The Swingin’ Miss. As she finished her brief tour through the last, the door whished open in front of her, and she caught a flicker of motion that wrenched her eyes up from her PDA a breath before she slammed into her trademaster.

  “Captain?” Sys’Thysin stared down at her, pupils widening. He glanced back at the bay behind her, as though to reassure himself she hadn’t touched anything, and rubbed his claws over the smaller grey-green scales of his neck.

  “Doing a walk through ahead of tomorrow. Everything looks good.” She held still, waiting for him to step aside so she could leave. When he didn’t, she cocked her head and added, “Kayfive said you were deal-hunting. Find anything good?”

  He blinked several times, and after the last his pupils had returned to their usual size. “A dissscount on amaranth ssseed. I haven’t ssseen it go outward on any of the public manifessstss, Ehnuli sssays it should work on at least sssome of the planets.”

  “Sounds like a smart move.” She emphasized the last word, and his long tail twitched before he took a step back and to the side, out of her way. “Nicely done.”

  “It’ss possssible there won’t be a market for it, but if ssso, it will keep until we return downspin.” He looked behind her again as the doors slid shut on the bay, and Dinah couldn’t tell if she was keeping him from something, or if he were anxious she’d upset his careful order.

  Checking the manifest had steadied her, but enough whiskey remained in her system that she didn’t feel like parsing yet another awkward encounter with one of her crew.

  “I trust that you thought it through. My father – Captain Kenneson always said that was a strength of yours.” Dinah was pretty sure that was true, though mostly she wanted out of the conversation.

  “Oh. Yesss…thank you.” Sys’Thysin paused. “Captain.”

  Dinah focused on nothing but putting one steady foot in front of the other as she marched back to her quarters, and not a step further.

  The trip to Kikrok remained uneventful. Dinah spent most of it grappling with the incessantly flickering running lights along the walls of the bridge while Viphaaxi clicked from her station at navigation.

  Though sure the noise indicated disapproval, Dinah strove to maintain her calm and took the Velox’s bland mannerisms at face value. Of course Viphaaxi would prefer her mate to fix things, but Zixoti had his hands full with a set of burnt couplings closer to the engine, and Dinah had to keep busy or scream.

  Sys’Thysin and Sawyer busied themselves over their respective PDA’s, ignoring the interplay as they had any of the occasional times they’d come to the bridge.

  It was a relief to jump down and take over comms when they received a live answer to their arrival message.

  “Glad you’re here, TSM,” the docking officer said. “We’re overdue for a good supply drop.”

  Sys’Thysin straightened, his tail twitching before he stilled it, and Dinah could imagine the credit balances racing higher in his head.

  “We’re glad to be here, Kikrok Station. We’re ground capable – would you prefer us to continue on to the station, or alter course for planetside?” The extra cost of fuel would be factored into their trade prices for landing, as some of their customers preferred the expedited delivery. Colony charters dictated the amount of general supplies Interstel would provide for them, neither too much nor too little, as colonies needed to both work toward self-sufficiency and not fail. The company also set parameters for pricing, but trade ships had plenty of room to navigate within the brackets, especially on non-perishable goods that could easily go somewhere else. Colonies needed the supplies, and traders needed the customers, so guiding wisdom let the market prevail.

  “Station’ll be fine.” The dockmaster’s words rushed together. Enthusiasm or worry? “You’re on approach for dropside, dock six-beta-grey-four. We’ll have a party to meet you to expedite delivery and any additional trade.”

  “Copy, Station. Swingin’ Miss out.” Dinah kicked her legs and reminded herself yet again she needed to get her father’s chair replaced. Her father, like so many Humans, had been a full foot taller than her, and his chair…sitting in his chair was uncomfortable for a lot of reasons. The least she could do was fix the physical part of it.

  “That was…interesting.” Sawyer lifted her eyebrows and met first Viphaaxi’s large compound eyes, then Dinah’s. “You think there’s a terraforming issue or someone disrupting trade routes?”

  Colonies had plenty of reasons to get desperate. Interstel committed to regular supply runs to account for the worst of it, but a spot of bad luck and a delayed drop could make for a really bad stretch of days.

  “Hopefully neither, but get Ehnuli on standby in case there’s anything new we have to factor in.”

  Sys’Thysin stirred, turning his head to face Dinah more fully. “I am perfectly capable of adjussting trade goodsss asss needed, Captain.”

  “I understand, Sys’Thysin. But if there is a terraforming issue, Ehnuli’s expertise will be needed.”

  Dinah knew Sys’Thysin damn well knew that. Whether he was questioning her, or the idea of being forced to work more closely with Ehnuli didn’t matter. She repeated that fact to herself several times.

  Why under all the moons Dad thought having an Elowan and a Thrynn on the same ship was a good idea…Of course both Sys’Thysin and Ehnuli were from Arth, and did not display the complete intolerance of their non-Arth counterparts. Still, though they operated effectively in their positions, they were the one combination of crew members she never saw together one-on-one.

  “And Sawyer,” Dinah added the moment she saw Sys’Thysin flex his hands as though he had more to say. “Be at the airlock when we seal up, will you? It’s probably fine out there, but better to be prepped and unneeded than needed and unprepped.”

  Sawyer said the last half along with her, and Dinah barely swallowed back a laugh. Clearly her father had said those words as often to his crew as he had to his daughter in her early years.

  After her first few weeks on The Swingin’ Miss, Dinah avoided the galley during common mealtimes. It didn’t improve her relationship with her crew, but…it didn’t make it any worse. She’d meant to get back in there eventually, once they all adjusted to their new reality, but time had slipped by faster than she’d expected.

  Without anything pressing to tinker with and the pervasive memory of hollow-eyed colonists stuck in her brain, she acknowledged she’d run out of excuses, and forced herself to walk the three doors down to the galley.

  Nobody fell silent when the doors slid open, mostly because it was already quiet. Two sets of Zixoti’s arms flared wide before he re-settled them. The entirety of her crew sat around the table, glanced up at her, then returned their eyes of various configurations to their equally various foodstuffs.

  Their galley had been tailored over the years to best suit its multi-species crew, with a dual-level long table in the center of the room to accommodate the range of heights, and an assortment of adjustable chairs for tails, prehensile branches, and hips of various sizes to fit. Dinah nodded to the six members of her crew as she crossed to the designated Human corner, pulled open the under-fridge drawer and dug until she found her favorite dried noodles.

  As it heated, she snagged a flat chair from its locked-in position on the wall nearest her and shifted it into a tall stool, which she carried over to the high end of the table next to Ehnuli. The Elowan swayed a greeting and brushed her shoulder gently with one deep green vine.

  Zixoti and Viphaaxi leaned together on Ehnuli’s other side, their antennae touching. Sawyer, Sys’Thysin, and Kayfive sat on the lower side of the table, Kayfive with his PDA in front of him where the rest had food.

  “They’ve had a run of bad luck here,” Sawyer said as the captain got settled. “I haven’t heard of mining equipment failing so widely.”

  Ehnuli twisted her longest vine and swayed her head, her posture soft. “They needed to mortgage spare engines for additional crop-starters after the weather spun out of control.” She tucked her vine close across her body and tilted toward Zixoti. “Then main engines began to fail and I suppose they sold their terrain farming vehicles to pay for those, and then…”