Free Star Rigger's Way by Jeffrey A. Carver

they entered the privacy of the Rigger Haven and were shown to their adjoining rooms. The robot porter left their belongings neatly stacked in the rooms. Then Wellen said he would call them later, and they were left to rest and become settled.
     
    * * *
     
    They never did have the chance to go looking for a live koryf; the hearings into the Sedora accident began almost immediately. In the early sessions, the legal framework was established and the ship's log reviewed, along with autopsy reports on the dead crewmen. Carlyle sat in a small room in the Guild quarter with a counselor named Dial Jade, and together they watched a holo projection of the other participants: Holly Wellen, representing Carlyle and the RiggerGuild; Jon Pierce, a deputy administrator of the Garsoom's Haven Spacing Authority; Jules Tong, appointed by the Spacing Authority to represent the ship's owner in absentia; and various other experts and consultants. Carlyle was free to switch out of the session anytime he chose, but right now he wanted to listen.
    Deputy Administrator Pierce greeted him. "Welcome, Rigger Carlyle, and thank you for joining us voluntarily. We will be reviewing the log cubes from Sedora , and at the appropriate time we'll ask you for your opinions and evaluation. Our first purpose will be to determine whether or not failure existed on the part of the ship's owner and maintenance staff—or, in other words, to determine whether or not the lives of your crewmates might have been saved."
    Wellen spoke to Carlyle on a private channel from the hearing room. "Don't let him worry you, Gev. They're really just here to decide what to do with the ship and whether the Guild should file sanctions against the owner. I've heard the records myself, and there's no question about your own actions being commendable. And I have to say that I saw no indication of negligence on the owner's part. Nevertheless, they'll go over the whole accident at least five more times to settle the claims between the Spacing Authority and the owner. Unless you think otherwise, I don't see that the Guild should make any claim beyond an award for you and Cephean, and a settlement on behalf of the deceased."
    Carlyle relaxed a little, but he was going to be nervous until it was over and the incident was behind him. He glanced at Dial Jade, beside him. She whispered reassuringly, "This is just a lot of formality. If they seem a bit stiff to you, it's just that they always act carefully when there's any chance of a problem with the Guild."
    "Will I be able to get a ship out of here when it's all over?"
    She nodded. "Don't worry."
    "What about Cephean? I think he might want to go home, but he hasn't told me."
    "It would be good if you could talk that over with him," she said. "But he'll be taken care of as a rigger guest. It's possible the Spacing Authority will ask you to bring him to the hearings to be a liaison between human and cynthian worlds."
    "I don't know if he'd go along with that. He doesn't even talk to me much anymore."
    "If he doesn't want to, then that will be that," said Dial. She touched a switch to restore voice contact with the hearing room.
     
    * * *
     
    In the early parts of the hearing, he mostly listened. Later he spoke to the group on possible uncharted hazards along the Flux route which Sedora had followed, but he was unable to make a definitive statement. Since he was out of the net at the time of the accident, he simply did not know whether the Flux abscess had been an external feature of the Flux or an aberration in his crewmates' vision.
    Between sessions, he saw Cephean and explained what had transpired. The cynthian blinked his eyes and said, "Hyiss? Ssso?" and turned back to his riff-bud cultures, from which he was growing a handful of tiny ferns.
    "Well," said Carlyle, "they're probably going to reward us for bringing in the ship, by setting us up with some arrangement to fly wherever we want to go." He paused. "Cephean?"
    The cynthian looked