The Romany glanced up from his woodcarving. It was cooler here in the jib stowage. The morning was sweltering. A matter of time…
The redhead found herself a spot on the floor between the boxes. She sat down cross-legged, close to him, observing him.
“You were going to ask me something, earlier,” prompted Federi.
“Yes. Why are there two such distinct groups on the Solar Wind? Half of the crew is young and newly hired and the others are old salts.”
The gypsy laughed. “So now you’re calling Federi old?”
“Not you!” she exclaimed. “You’re young! You’re almost one of the young group! Just wish you were still a wee bit younger, because –“ There she got stuck and gazed at him, confused.
That eyebrow arched. “So that I didn’t have to wish so hard that you were a bit older?”
She stared at him with wild eyes.
“Meet me halfways,” suggested Federi. “You speed up and I slow down. When we’re both twenty…” He grinned broadly and touched her hand. “Just playing with your mind, dulciuri! What do you think of this?”
She looked closely at the string puppet he was carving. “That’s Shawn!”
Federi dug in his pocket and pulled out another. Paean laughed.
“The Captain! Federi, are you making a puppet theatre out of our crew?”
“Got bored with carving ship scenes. Needed a new challenge.”
Paean hesitated, puzzled. “Evading my question!” she shot.
“Right.” He sighed. “Not a nice story. Really want to hear it?”
Paean nodded.
“This is classified,” said Federi, leaning back against the crate and staring out over the ocean to port. Bummer, he was going to spill confidential stuff to her. He shook his head and sighed again.
“Okay,” said Paean. “It’s okay. I won’t dig. Don’t want you getting trouble, Federi.”
Nimic! It was enough. He was going to tell her! “Little luv,” said Federi, meeting Paean’s eyes. “The Solar Wind’s entangled in a huge political plot. We were doing our own thing, keeping out of people’s faces and surviving, and then Captain stumbled across something, and suddenly here we’re in the middle of it all. Unicate’s been hunting for us since. Two years ago they led the Solar Wind into a trap. Tried to murder us all. We fought our way out of it. Cost us dearly. Unicate fights dirty. They sniped a few of us right off our ship as we were negotiating her out of the English Channel. You think Wolf’s injury is bad. You haven’t yet seen a friend next to you be shot down and go overboard and you can’t do a thing… They hid an assassin aboard who went around slitting throats until Federi got her – cor! I hate killing girls!” He glanced down at his hands. He’d have to do it again, in the near future. He knew. “I had to, little luv! She managed to put poison in our drinking water and two good friends died horribly and another just barely made it. Jon Marsden.”
She was staring at him with her worried blue eyes. “Poor Mr Marsden,” she said.
“They fired at the Solar Wind and damaged her. Very nearly sank her.” Federi patted the deck. “We patched like crazy, but couldn’t get the leaks fixed. Crossed the whole Atlantic like that! Landed at Hamilton so deep in water, she was nearly a mermaid castle. Arrived there on wind power alone, everything had cut out from the water. Tensioning those lines without the hydraulics – that’s a lot, promise you! Had the sails half furled, wouldn’t have managed otherwise. We’d stopped bailing. Doesn’t help on a ship this size! Sherman was steering. Federi and Rushka were controlling the sails manually. What a team! And Dr Jake and Captain and Wolf –“
He noted her surprised stare and smiled. “Yes, the furry beast was already aboard, little luv. Was his first brush with what it means to work for Radomir Lascek. They were down there in diving suits, trying to patch still. Sweetness, you have no idea!” Federi shook his head with a cynical smile. “And Jono, lying half dead on the floor on the bridge, with Doc trying to revive him. Because the bridge and the outer deck was all that wasn’t yet flooded. That was all who were left. We lost three quarters of our crew that time.” He gazed moodily at her freckles, recalling the friends he had lost. “Little hummingbird, you should jump ship as soon as you can.”
“Why?”
That surprise was so genuine! “ ‘s a bad deal, the Solar Wind. You end up seeing your friends die. You know, when you’ve sailed around the world with some people for a few years, they become your family.”
“I know, Federi,” said Paean. “Doesn’t take years.”
“So that’s the story,” said Federi. “After that we floated around the Pacific for a while building contacts and doing target practice on terrorist vessels. We needed a few more crew members, so we hired you lot when we found you.”
“Only two years later?” asked Paean.
“ ‘s not so easy, screening new crew,” said Federi. “Can’t tell you how long it took Captain to want to risk hiring anybody. After that poison episode. And then we had to throw spies off the Solar Wind every time. We got one aboard right now. Least she’s not hurting anyone!”
“Are you sure she’s not just an unhappy young woman with baggage?” asked Paean, glancing at where Ailyss was standing at the rail, reading a novel. “I catch her sometimes, staring out at the sea and looking terribly sad.”
“We shall see,” said Federi with a sigh. He picked himself up from the deck. “Come on, little mockingbird. Help me get more food stuffed into that crew of ours.” He gave her a hand up.