Free The Bright Black Sea by C. Litka

vey'Cline's Travel Book of Faylyen . The
one that he claimed that he could, by simply opening its pages and
looking closely at the picture on it, transport himself to the
actual place.'
    'Ah, yes, the world of Faylyen, the home planet of
the First People whose sky is filled with the stars of the galactic
center...'
    'And where Captain vey'Cline may be today since he
disappeared in the middle of a voyage, leaving the opened book on
his desk... And there was Glen Colin, the engine room's spaceer
ghost who'd appear out of nowhere...
    'In a cloud of whiskey fumes.'
    'So solid that he would yarn and even stand a watch
when the mood suited him.'
    'Which makes him sound more like a ship-hermit living
somewhere between the hulls than a real ghost.'
    'A ship-hermit? Well, maybe, but even that's nearly
as unbelievable as a proper spaceer ghost,' she said.
    'Not when you remember just how run down the old girl
was in those days, sold, traded or gambled away from one shady
owner to the next... A spaceer could easily make a nest amongst the
fuel pipes and plumbing and never be found, even if anyone bothered
to look...' I replied.
    'So you say.'
    'So I choose to believe. Ghost stories and drift dragons are entertaining yarns,
but I must admit I hope most of them are more imagination than
fact. I've not their taste for adventure...'
    'No taste at all, Captain?'
    'A quiet life of circling Azminn twice a year is
about my limit, I'm afraid.'
    'You'd never want to cross orbits with the beautiful
pirate Captain Astreya of the Careworn Lark ?
    'I hope to avoid all pirates, be they as beautiful as
a moon in a mist or ugly as a wort worm... Though I'll admit I
briefly toyed with the idea of turning pirate myself just yesterday
when I learned that we could slip out of orbit and be on our way to
Sanre-tay before the Ministry of Death even knew we'd arrived.'
    'Really?' She gave me a taunting look.
    'Briefly. I believe the Four Shipmates did something
like that once, but I'm not like them. I'm far too Unity Standard
for piracy.'
    'I suppose we'd best get back to business at hand. I
believe I was telling you how much I appreciated your willingness
to take on Captain Jann's cargo.'
    With all the talk of the Four Shipmate's exploits,
now seemed the time to introduce the Belbania Affair – as modest of
an affair as it was.
    'Well, there's a yarn attached to that too. Nothing
as exotic as a Four Shipmate's tale, but one that needs be
told.'
    'I'm not sure I follow you...'
    'Well, when Captain Jann proposed unloading his cargo
on me, I must admit I declined to even entertain the plan.'
    'Why? Surely you saw its advantages.'
    'Yes and no. What I saw was that with the arrival of
the Comet King and the plan of sending only one ship on to
Calissant, the chances of the Lost Star avoiding the
uncertainty of Calissant fate suddenly jumped from none to 50-50 –
but only if I refused to go along with it as proposed,' I replied
and proceeded to spin my yarn.
    Min hadn't spend the better part of two years living
amongst the Taoist adepts of Kimsai without adopting something of
their quiet ways. After her initial protest, she merely listened
and watched – revealing nothing of her thoughts – allowing me to
sail through the story as I'd rehearsed it countless times.
    'Had Jann not actually cut a comet and I, a star, I'd
had to invent that piece of business since it seems so apropos,' I
said with a nervous smile and shrug, earnestly adding, 'So, even
though everything ended up as you planned and nothing lost with my
insistence that my ship be given its fair
chance, I feel you needed to know the full story. I'd not feel
right letting you believe I'm something I'm not...'
    'And you had to assume Jann would tell me all about
it anyway,' she added calmly, 'And risk being caught in a lie.'
    'True. But I'd be willing to wager Jann said nothing.
And if I wasn't actually convinced I did the right thing, by my
charts anyway, I might've risked it.'
    'Well, he didn't.