Free Milk Run (Smuggler's Tales From The Golden Age Of The Solar Clipper Book 1) by Nathan Lowell

honest. “Don’t blame you. Ms. Usoko? Any preferences?”
    “I’ll eat most things.” Zoya stared into her mug, a small frown on her forehead.
    Kondur held up his hand with three digits extended. “Martin will bring us some food in a few ticks. In the meantime, why don’t you tell me where you’re from and why you’ve graced my humble station with that magnificent antique?”
    “The Peregrine ?” Natalya asked.
    “Unless you have some other magnificent antique stashed away?”
    “Margaret sent us,” Zoya said.
    Kondur’s eyebrows rose and his head swiveled so his gaze raked to Zoya’s face. “Margaret.” He made it a simple statement but something in his eyes made Natalya uneasy. “I know a lot of Margarets.”
    “Newmar.” Zoya’s voice barely sounded loud enough to reach her coffee mug, but Kondur’s eyes flickered at the name.
    “I see.”
    The server brought three platters loaded with eggs, potatoes, sausage, pancakes, and toast. He slapped a small pitcher of syrup onto the table and paused for a moment.
    The fingers on Kondur’s left hand twitched and the server scuttled back into the kitchen.
    “What did Margaret tell you?” Kondur asked after staring at Zoya for a few heartbeats. He picked up his fork and began slicing through the eggs and sausage, mixing them before forking a bite.
    Zoya poured a dab of syrup on her pancakes before answering. “Just that we should come here and talk to you. Thank you for inviting us to breakfast.” She placed the syrup back on the table where the server had set it.
    Kondur sighed and nodded. He looked at Natalya. “Who’d you kill?”
    “Me? Nobody.”
    Kondur paused with his empty fork half way to his plate. His gaze flipped to Zoya and back to Natalya. “Margaret doesn’t send me people who haven’t killed somebody already. She didn’t kill anybody.”
    Zoya sat up stiffly. “What makes you say that?”
    “What? You? Kill somebody? No. You’re fleet through and through. Boot third mate. Probably just graduated.” Kondur stared hard at Natalya for a moment. “But you? Maybe. That’s why I asked.” He dug into his breakfast again and watched them from under his eyebrows.
    “They think I did,” Natalya said after working through half her eggs. “At least they say I did.”
    Kondur’s eyes narrowed. “That explains it.” He sopped the loose egg yolk up with a piece of pancake and popped it into his mouth. “Love this guy’s pancakes. He always makes ’em thick and fluffy.” He leaned back in his seat, pushing his plate away and bracing an arm against the table’s edge. “So, what are you going to do now?”
    “Re-provision the ship. Look for work.” Natalya shrugged. “Pay some dues. Make a life. What else?”
    Kondur looked a Zoya. “And you, Fleet? You’re a long way from home.”
    “I’m with her,” Zoya said.
    “Why are you with her? Inertia?”
    Zoya glanced at Natalya before answering. “Maybe. I can’t go back so I guess I go forward.”
    Kondur stared at her while he ran his tongue around inside his mouth and over his teeth. After several heartbeats he said. “How linear.” He looked at Natalya. “What kind of work?”
    “Courier, maybe. Mining, if I need to.”
    “You any good in zero?” Kondur asked.
    “I get by.”
    “Shuttles? Ore haulers?”
    “I can fly a shuttle,” Natalya said.
    “Haulers,” Zoya said, earning another stare from Kondur.
    “Really?” he asked.
    Zoya shrugged. “I wasn’t always fleet. I grew up between the belts in Margary.” She glanced at Natalya. “Not exactly in the curriculum.”
    “My goodness, Ms. Usoko. We may make a Toe-Holder out of you yet,” Kondur said. His tone sounded faintly mocking but Natalya saw something closer to respect in his eyes. Kondur looked at Natalya again. “You say you got the ship from your father?”
    “Yep.”
    “Got title?”
    “Yep.”
    “Wanna sell her?”
    “Nope.”
    He grinned and shrugged. “Can’t blame a guy for