"Yes. We'll just have a cup of tea and-" His face went blank. Then he shook his head. "I'm sorry, Captain, but it's urgent and I must respond. I'll have them sent in. Take as long as you like chatting, but I would recommend you have Zar arrange their shuttle tickets and your honorarium as soon as possible. Things are getting nasty over on Secundus." He left the room, and a few minutes later the clerk-Zar?-ushered in three men and a woman, all in spacer clothes. They looked at Ky and the woman gave a tentative smile.

"Captain Vatta? Of Vatta Transport?"

"Yes, I'm Captain Vatta... you're Specialist Lucin Caliran Li, environmental, right?"

"Yes, Captain. Thirteen years experience. We were hoping-

wondering-if maybe-"

"The consul explained you were all stranded thanks to chahoki fever -your ship left you behind."

"That's right."

"And you need a ride somewhere-I said I'd meet you and we'd

see."

"Thank you, Captain. Left us high and dry, they did, and only the minimum in our drop account, too. We tried to get work, both

shipside and downside, truly we did..."

"I believe you." The record the embassy had kept showed that; the consul clearly thought they were honest and diligent. They had even taken over work in the embassy garden, to the chagrin of the former gardener. "It's a small ship," Ky said. "We're headed to Belinta with a load of agricultural machinery. After that Leonora, and after

that Lastway. But at either Belinta or Leonora you might be able to find another berth. I can't pay you-"

"That's fine, Captain. Just to get away from Sabine, that's enough."

Li turned to the others. "This is Specialist Seth Garlan, also environmental, Technician Paro Hospedin, drives maintenance, and Specialist Caleb Skeldon, cargo."

Ky knew that already from the files the consul had given her, and was interested that Li introduced them in strict order of seniority and the others said nothing as she did so.

"Well, let's just chat a little. Specialist Garlan, you have seven years

ship service, is that right?"

"Actually twelve, Captain, but only seven in environmental; I was hoping to make pilot, but turned out to have an immune problem with the pilot implants. Legacy of a childhood bout of tick fever, they thought. My family had a farm up on the North Coast." He grimaced. "And yes, I was the one who got sick here."

"Well, you're out of quarantine now," Ky said. She knew vaguely that tick fever was a problem on Slotter Key's North Coast, but otherwise nothing about it and it wasn't relevant at the moment anyway. "How about you?" she said, turning to Technician

Hospedin."My training's from Pearce Institute," he said. "I have an A-class certificate in drives, for both insystem and FTL drives; six years onboard experience. My last requal exam was eighteen months ago, just before signing on Apple Blossom Song, the ship that left us here. Most of my shipboard experience has been with Plackman-Moreson 8800 insystem drives, and the Rollings series G FTLs, but I did my onboard apprenticeship in an old R-class freighter with PM-42s for insystem and a II-C FTL." His voice had the pedantic rhythms Ky associated with drives specialists.

"Our FTL's a Rollings F-230," she said. "It's needing replacement

of the sealed unit, and possibly more."

His face sharpened. "If the sealed unit goes bad in a Series F," he

said, "you're looking at cavitation damage in the main chamber as well. The back-buffer wasn't nearly as good in that series..."

That was what Quincy was afraid of, she knew. "We're looking into

it," she said. She glanced at the last man, who spoke up without

waiting for her to ask."Caleb Skeldon, Captain. Cargo specialist. Mostly I've been in charge of refrigerated holds, and I have only three years onboard experience, eight months of that on Apple Blossom Song. Before that I worked for a downside shipping firm, warehouse inventory and maintenance."

All very straightforward, as were they all. Ky saw nothing in their faces or demeanor that rang warning bells. She ignored the fact that Skeldon looked to be about her own age, and had chiseled features,

wavy blond hair, and a dimple. Aside from the light hair, he could have been Hal's brother. That was irrelevant. She was an officer, after all, and his looks meant nothing to her. What mattered was that these four were Slotter Key citizens in a jam... The little voice in her head that said Here you go again, leaping to rescue could surely be ignored this time. She was doing a good deed, that was all. And at the request of the consul. No one could disapprove of that.

"Well," she said, sitting back. "Let me tell you about me and my ship, and then if you want to come with us, we'll talk to that clerk about arranging your transport up." They nodded; Skeldon opened his mouth as if to speak, but subsided at a glare from Li. "I'm one of the Vatta family," she said, "but I'm here on a private contract, not a family contract. The ship's old, but until the problem on the trip here from Belinta, she seemed sound. And we're having that repaired." She hoped. "Our contract calls for us to deliver a cargo of agricultural machinery to Belinta; we'll leave as soon as the cargo's loaded and repairs are finished. It's a several-week trip. Our crew capacity is twenty, and our environmental system could handle twice that number easily. At the moment, we have ten crew aboard.

Any questions?"

Li spoke for them all. "When may we go up, Captain?"

"Let me ask that clerk," Ky said.

Zar must have been listening in, because he had all the preliminaries

taken care of. "This afternoon's shuttle is all booked, Captain, but I have them listed on tomorrow morning's, on the embassy account."

"Good," Ky said.

"And I can cut you a check for their share of mess expense from here to Belinta, also on the embassy account. Standard government reimbursement. I'd suggest you purchase supplies quickly; the situation's getting nastier by the minute."

"Right," Ky said. "Can they stay in the embassy until the shuttle

leaves?"

Zar nodded. "It would be advisable. They've been in transient housing-you have anything back there? If so, I'll send a uniformed runner for it."

"We didn't want to leave anything, the way things were," Li said.

"Our duffel's with us."

"Good," Zar said. "I'm afraid the accommodations aren't great- you'll have to share space with the embassy's guard detachment, and we've cancelled all leave and liberty. Captain, if you'll come this way-and Li, I'll send someone to take you to the guard quarters shortly."

"Thank you, Captain Vatta," Li said. "We hoped-and of course Vatta..."

"Come on, Captain," Zar said.

"We'll have them escorted to the shuttle station tomorrow," Zar said when they got into the next room. "Shouldn't be any trouble, I hope.

It's a big help, your taking them off our hands like this. We really don't have room here to shelter them; we've got a half-dozen merchant families, resident here for years, who are coming in tomorrow for the duration, plus the children of a dozen more, and we're going to be crowded. We're setting up dormitories

upstairs..." He shook his head. "But that's not your affair. Let's see about that check-wait, here's the schedule of standard payments. If you need to file a protest..."

Ky's implant compared the cost of standard rations from a chandler

at the orbital station to the reimbursement.

"No, that's fine," she said. "Do you have a comset I can use to contact my ship and let them know what's coming?"

"Of course, Captain Vatta. Secure set, right over here-" A cabinet in the corner of the room. While Zar began the surprisingly lengthy process of transferring embassy funds to her account, she contacted Riel Amat on board ship, and explained the situation, sending along the personnel files, and told him to go on and order supplies.

"Are you sure about this, Captain?" Amat asked. "Four strangers?

And with a war starting?"

"The embassy vouched for them; it was an official request. They were stranded because of a quarantine matter-their ship wouldn't wait. And now they're subject to conscription, the consul said. Gary said we'd need help reconfiguring those machines to get into our holds. The embassy's paying their mess expenses-"

"But no passage fee?"

"No. And yes, I know we need the money. But they're our people, Riel."

"I hope so," he said. His lips were tight. She wondered if he thought

he should be in command.

"Besides, Dad always said the government reimbursement schedules were generous. There'll be a little left over after you

order the supplies."