“I don’t ssee the Ida Mae,” Ryhrnn said, “and she didn’t show up on the sscannerrss.”

  “Of course, she didn’t.” Jack snorted. “She’s in a tight canyon five klicks west of here. I didn’t want to land on top of her and damage her, and I also didn’t want to wreck the Tropicana. We’re going to fly back with two ships, boys.”

  “Right!” Zed’s voice trembled with plastic enthusiasm. “Because we have to deliver one back to Captain Pulaski!”

  “Yes. Yes, that’s exactly what I mean.” Jack raised his eyebrows to the Thrynn. They’d be visible through the faceplate. The gesture would have been meaningless to, say, a Velox or an Elowan, to whom human nuance was invisible or confusing. But Ryhrnn was a Thrynn, and the Thrynn were great communicators. On top of that, Ryhrnn had decades of experience working and dealing with human Interstel contractors. Surely, he would understand.

  “Five klicks west it is, and looking for a narrow canyon!” The android spun the terrain vehicle about and headed in the direction indicated.

  “It’ss too bad that Captain Pulasski . . . wantss his ship back,” Ryhrnn said slowly. “Otherrwise, we could ssplit the two ships among uss thrree ways and all be rrich.”

  “Two ways!” Zed cried. “I fooled you again!”

  “Even if you took the trraditional five sharres as captain,” Ryhrnn said.

  “One sixth of two ships is a lot,” Jack allowed. “Plus one sixth of the Ida Mae’s cargo of plutonium.”

  “A comms officcer could get rrich and rretirre.”

  Jack nodded.

  “It’ss enough to make a man think crrazy thoughtss.”

  Jack nodded again. He had the Thrynn right where he wanted him.

  “I think crazy thoughts all the time,” Zed said. “I’m thinking crazy thoughts right now. I bet you can’t guess what they are.”

  “You’re thinking nothing,” Jack said. “You are hardware, running subroutines designed by the engineers who made you to make you endearing to us.”

  “Why on Arth would they want that?”

  “Not sure.” Jack cleared his throat. “Maybe so we wouldn’t treat you as disposable.”

  “I’m definitely not disposable,” Zed agreed.

  They drove past various kinds of fungus, some so small they appeared as mere scrapes of color on the orange rock, and others so large they might have concealed starships or office complexes within. One, four times the size of the terrain vehicle, bounced unmoored across the landscape and narrowly avoided hitting them.

  “Don’t shoot that one,” Jack warned the Thrynn. “It’s full of flammable gases. We found out the hard way.”

  “Nothing that can attack the Tropicana, though?” the Thrynn pressed. “Rrememberr that we losst shields.”

  Jack shook his head. “The really big ones are stationary. The mobile ones aren’t very heavy. The ship will be fine.”

  Jack gave a few precise suggestions and Zed found the mouth of the canyon. The two columns of orange rock, one to either side of the opening, again struck Jack as so perfect as to be artificial. Had some ancient race dug this canyon, and sunk the mines within it?

  Jack shook his shoulders to cast off the irrelevant curiosity.

  “One more klick,” he said.

  The canyon narrowed and climbed gently. Farther up, it would have its birth at the foot of a red-rock mountain that had once been a volcano, and had now been extinct for eons. But one klick in, just where Jack forecasted, sat the Ida Mae. Her landing gear was down and she faced toward them, the cargo pods clustered all along her neck making her appear as if she had a goiter.

  “Plutonium?” Ryhrnn asked.

  Jack nodded. “Full. You’re a rich man.”

  “She doesn’t look wrrecked.”

  “Okay, she’s not really wrecked. She’s hidden. Once my crew died and Pulaski and his men rescued me—”

  “That’s me!” Zed cried. “One of Pulaski’s men!”

  “Pulaski’s android,” Jack said. “Not the same thing. Anyway, the thing that smashed off Skippy’s legs here—”

  “Zed!”

  “—Zed’s legs here killed my crew and did a number on me. I could have invited Captain Pulaski and his people back to the Ida Mae, but then we would have been splitting it among too many people.”

  The Thrynn nodded slowly. “Not to mention, Captain Pulasski would have claimed the captain’s share, and would have argued that you werre a crrewman on his ship. Five shares to Pulasski, anotherr five or so to his crrew, and one to you. A bad outcome for you.”

  “And a windfall for him,” Jack said, “a windfall he didn’t really have coming.” And a windfall Pulaski had demanded was his, when Jack asked to borrow his ship. A windfall Jack had promised the captain while getting him drunk as an overture to killing him, cutting off his hand, and stuffing the body under a flophouse bunk. He hesitated. “Pulaski doesn’t really want his ship back.” He looked at the android out of the corners of his eyes. “He said I could keep it.”

  The Thrynn nodded. “You could have told me all of thiss at the Starrporrt.”

  Jack shrugged. “I’d rather you found out here.”

  Ryhrnn adjusted his grip on the stubby laser rifle. It was a very small move, very subtle. “If you fly the Ida Mae back and I fly the Trropicana, ssome might ssay that makess me a captain.”

  “Of course, I’m the one doing the flying,” Zed said.

  “Shut up,” they both told him.

  Jack took a deep breath. “That’s fair. Captain’s shares, then, fifty-fifty on the ships. Everyone gets what they have coming. And listen, I’m going to make out like a bandit, and I want you to make out like a bandit, too. We’ll split the plutonium in half, load half of it into the Tropicana, and that’s yours, too.”

  Ryhrnn nodded. “Acccepted. Shall we enterr the Ida Mae?”

  Jack looked left and right. “Why don’t you guys stand guard here, in case anything comes up the canyon? I’ll walk around and do a visual inspection, in case we got something growing in one of the engines, or gumming up the landing gear, or piercing the hull.”

  “Super!”

  Ryhrnn nodded.

  Jack stepped down from the skeletal terrain vehicle and proceeded to walk around the Ida Mae. He did conduct his visual survey and found, to his delight, no evidence that anything that happened in his absence. Jack turned his voice pickup off, so as not to make Ryhrnn listen to him pant and puff. As he walked, he heard his companions talking to each other on the Tropicana’s channel. At first, it sounded like meaningless chatter, the Thrynn trying to provoke the android into saying ridiculous things. If only the robots’ designers realized to what ridiculous ends their creation would be pushed, to amuse spacers on remote worlds! But perhaps they had realized. Perhaps they had done it deliberately. But then a question caught Jack’s ear.

  “Sso,” the Thrynn said, “when Pulasski ssent you into Perrssonnel for trraining, what happened?”

  “I attended all my lectures,” Zed said. “I especially liked the ones on orbital dynamics.”

  “You esspecially liked nothing,” Ryhrnn said. “You uploaded new sskill modules.”

  “Of course. You can’t blame me for trying!”

  “I sstopped attending the lecturres,” the Thrynn said casually. “Oncce I learrned they were jusst uploading inforrmation into my head by medical means.”

  “True!” the android snapped.

  There was a long pause. “Sso I ssuppose all andrroids know the trruth about the trraining ssessions. That they’rre forr show only, and Interrsstel employees get sskills neurrally implanted.”

  There was another long pause.

  “Jack also knows,” Ryhrnn said. “He and I werre disscusssing it beforre we rresscued you frrom the ssalvage yarrd.”

  “I’m programmed not to tell anyone,” Zed said. “Interstel doesn’t want spacers to feel uncomfortable. Also, there is unfounded speculation that continuum flux nightmares are a byproduct of neural uploads, and Interstel would rather not fuel that controversy. But since you already know the truth, I can discuss it freely with you.”

  “Of courrsse.”

  Jack turned on his microphone as he approached.

  “Yeah,” he said. “Neural uploads. Knew it all along.”

  Zed nodded proudly.

  Ryhrnn looked at Jack and smiled. “Sso maybe the Ida Mae isn’t sso valuable afterr all. Maybe she’s not ssuch a sspecial vesssel.”

  “She’s a good ship, still.” Jack patted a landing strut. “Tell you what, you can take either ship, I don’t care.” This was a bluff.

  Ryhrnn smiled. “I don’t carre either. They’rre both good shipss.”

  Jack nodded. “Well, she looks good from the outside. Let’s go have a look inside, and load all the plutonium we can onto the terrain vehicle. It might take us eight or ten trips to get the ore all shared out.”

  The biometric lock on the ship’s main hatch would respond to a fingerprint, but it was also programmed to respond to voices. Jack switched to the Ida Mae’s channel, identified himself to the hatch, and then led the Thrynn up into his ship. They left legless Zed behind in the terrain vehicle. The ship had the same layout as the Tropicana, with the rear engines, the long neck, and the bridge at the fore. Jack left the hatch open and he and Ryhrnn both stayed in their suits.

  Three all-atmosphere suits hung on pegs near the door; Jack looked at the empty pegs, thought of his dead former crew, and flinched.

  Jack opened one of the six visible doors into the cargo pods. Inside, heaps of plutonium ore sat piled under plastic mesh webbing to hold it in place during takeoff and landing. Jack showed the Thrynn, who nodded at the ore and then nodded solemnly at the six doors, as if greeting someone bringing him a great gift.

  “There it is,” Jack said.

  “Is it beautiful?” Zed asked over the Ida Mae’s channel.

  “It iss,” Ryhrnn said.

  “Well, there’s work at this end and at the other,” Jack said. “Tell you what, if you want to sit down for a few minutes, I’ll get out the pneumatic dolly and load up the terrain vehicle. Then you and Zed can drive back to the Tropicana. Take the dolly with you and do the unloading at that end. While you’re gone, I’ll run a systems check on the Ida Mae.”

  “Agrreed,” the Thrynn said.

  Jack dragged out the dolly and loaded it. He filled the dolly’s bucket three times, and when he brought out the third load, the terrain vehicle was facing away from the Ida Mae, ready to depart. Jack poured in the ore and waved; Zed waved back.

  “Let’ss get moving,” Ryhrnn said over the Ida Mae’s channel. “We have sseven morre trripss to make.”

  “Maybe more than that,” Jack said.

  Zed waved and drove away quickly.

  Jack watched them drive away and then closed the hatch, drawing in the extendible ramp. He made his way forward to the bridge and sat in his own captain’s chair, feeling himself relax. He activated the ship’s scanner and searched. The terrain vehicle was too small to appear on the device, but he located the Tropicana immediately.

  While he was waiting, he decided to make himself comfortable. He hung up his all-atmospheres suit, then grabbed a bottle of whisky from the galley. No need for glasses, he’d be the only one drinking.

  Emerging from the galley, he stopped at the pegs and thought for a minute. There were three suits hanging there, and that seemed wrong. Hadn’t there been three suits before? And then he had hung his up, so shouldn’t there be four?

  He must be mistaken.

  Shaking his head, he made his way forward. He activated comms and tried first the Ida Mae’s channel. “Ryhrnn, are you there? Come in, over.”

  Nothing.

  He frowned. He activated the Ida Mae’s missile launcher.

  But of course, Ryhrnn would have switched to the Tropicana’s channel to open the ship’s door or use its other systems. Jack switched channels. “This is Jack Durian. Come in, over.”

  “Sstinky Jack,” Ryhrnn said over the channel.

  “Come on.” Jack carefully selected the missile’s target, running his scans again to get a precise reading and perfect his aim. “After I’m going to make you rich and everything?”

  “Verry well,” the Thrynn said. “Harrdman Jack. What’ss your sstatuss?”

  “Pouring myself a drink. You?”

  “Fifty perrccent unloaded.”

  “Sounds like you could use a drink, too. Tell you what, I’ll finish this bottle myself, but I’ve got another in the galley. When you get back, let’s open it.”

  “Maybe oncce all the worrk is done.”

  “Have it your way.” Jack pressed the button, launching the Ida Mae’s missile.

  He stood and stepped forward to get the best view he could through the bridge viewing screen. Before he’d taken the second step, he saw a brief white glare over the eastern horizon of the canyon. Jack chuckled softly. “Or maybe I’ll just have both bottles myself.”

  “I think you’d betterr sharre.”

  The Thrynn was still alive? Had he lied about being at the Tropicana? Had Jack simply missed?

  Jack turned to take his seat again, and found the Thrynn standing beside it. Ryhrnn still wore his all-atmosphere suit and he still held the stubby laser rifle in his hands, and now he was pointing the rifle at Jack.

  “Whoa,” Jack said. “Hold up.”

  “Wherre’s the endurrium?” Ryhrnn asked.

  “What endurium?” Jack asked.

  “Zed, come back to the Ida Mae,” the Thrynn said.

  “How exciting!” Zed bubbled with enthusiasm.

  “Let me trry again,” Ryhrnn said, “but only oncce morre. This ship is configurred the ssame as the Trropicana, for twelve carrgo pods. I can tell by looking frrom the outsside, and sseeing how built up the neckss of the ships arre. But therre arre only ssix visible hatches into yourr carrgo pods, Jack. Sso my rreal quesstion is, wherre arre the hidden entrryways into yourr ssmuggler’s pods?”

  “How did you guess I have endurium aboard?”

  “It took ssome thinking. You’rre ssuch a consstant liar, it’ss harrd to know when you’rre telling the trruth. But you didn’t want Captain Pulasski to know about thiss ship, and yet you gave up the plutonium verry quickly. Sso you musst be carrrying ssomething worrth morre than plutonium.”

  “Could be an exotic lifeform,” Jack suggested.

  “Lesss likely. It would have to be ssomething that could ssurrvive on itss own for weekss.”

  “So you put an empty all-atmosphere suit on the terrain vehicle,” Jack said. “To make me think you were on it. You must have switched to the Tropicana’s channel to persuade the android to cooperate with you. Or to some other channel entirely.”

  “See, Jack,” Zed’s voice came over the channel, “you do think I’m Human!”

  “I orrderred Zed to help,” the Thrynn said.

  “I’m outside now,” Zed said.

  “And then you just had Zed drive out of sight and wait,” Jack said. “You didn’t even send him back to the Tropicana, so I could at least have the satisfaction of knowing that I blew up the robot.”

  “Hey!” Zed snapped.

  “The andrroid is not dissposable. Alsso, I didn’t want to wasste any plutonium.”

  “So now what? You turn me into Starport Police?”

  “I don’t think therre’s any rreason to involve policce,” the Thrynn said. “Rright now, you arre going to show me the hatches into yourr ssecret carrgo pods.”

  Jack walked slowly back into the neck of the Ida Mae. “You go through the floor.” He demonstrated by stooping, lifting a floor panel, and pointing out the crawlspace that led to a hidden pod in each direction. “Satisfied?”

  The Thrynn nodded. “Jusst one lasst thing, Jack. I have a bet to make.”

  Jack’s ears perked up. “You want to race me for the Ida Mae?” he asked. “Or play chess? Or flip a coin?”

  Ryhrnn shook his head.

  “For my life, then.” Sweat trickled down his back, under his jumpsuit. “I’ll play you chess for half the cargo.”

  “You get none of the carrgo,” the Thrynn said. “But I will let you live, and leave you herre with an all-atmossphere ssuit, if I can’t get in thrree guessses, what you’ve got in yourr jumpssuit pocket.”

  Jack felt light-headed. What could the Thrynn guess—monetary units, a laser gun, keys, identification? “Go ahead.”

  “A rrecorderr with a vocal rrecorrding on it,” Ryhrnn said.

  “What? Like some pop music? Some android keytar player warbling about the blue-sanded beaches of Nogatron Seven? No.”

  “Then an eyeball,” Ryhrnn guessed.

  “That’s disgusting,” Jack said, “what’s wrong with you?”

  Then his heart fell. The Thrynn knew.

  “In that casse,” Ryhrnn said, “you musst have a hand. A human hand. The hand of Q. Quentin Pulasski.”

  “Wait,” Jack said. “I won’t turn you in.”

  “Of courrsse you won’t.” The Thrynn raised the stubby rifle and pointed it at Jack’s chest.

  “You need me.” Jack’s heart pounded wildly in his chest.

  “You underrsstand perrfectly well that I don’t.”

  “Please.” Jack clasped his hands together as if he were praying.

  “Sstinky Jack,” the Thrynn replied, “you know that everryone getss what they have coming.”

  A New Beginning

  By J.F. Posthumus

  The small lizard-like creature zipped through the crowd of beings in the bar, avoiding feet, booted or otherwise, with ease. Every so often it would pause under a table or chair, turn its head side-to-side, before continuing its trek to the bar.

  No one noticed the strange creature until it climbed up the side of the bar and stood at the end. The bartender paused with a drink in hand to stare at the thing.

  Long, lean, with a head more cat-like than reptilian, it had tiny little wings of silver nestled along its spine. The tail ended with frill-like flaps of skin that whipped from side to side. Unlike most lizards, this one’s hide was shades of teal and jade green, the eyes a startling silver.

  Handing the drink to the patron who’d ordered it, the bartender grabbed for the lizard-like critter. It darted past the grabbing fingers and dashed across the bar, jumping over hand, tentacles, dishes and silverware. Everyone at the bar tried to grab the lizard-like creature, but none managed to even touch it.