"That's right," Ky said.

"You bought a new ship?"

"No-we ran into a bit of trouble at Sabine, and changed the ship

ID chip."

"You weren't... doing anything illegal, were you?"

"Not at all," Ky said. She realized suddenly that changing ship chips

was the sort of thing pirates did in storycubes. "Someone broke into our beacon, stole the original ship chip, and we had to reregister under a new name. I have the paperwork."

"Oh. Very well. And the inventory of the imports?"

"All here. As you'll see, I bought you new equipment from FarmPower-"

"Why not used?"

"They aren't selling used there anymore. They've got a war on; the

used equipment is all gone. Anyway, all these machines were purchased new on Sabine; I have the inventories ready for you."

"Then we can start unloading today-"

"Not until your payment clears," Ky said.

The EDB representatives scowled at her. "You think we would

cheat you?"

"Our contract calls for payment prior to offloading," Ky said. "I'm sorry, but I'm required to adhere to the terms of the contract."

"But we have to inspect it-"

"Of course," Ky said. "I'll escort you to the cargo bays..."

There was scarcely room to move in the cargo bays, with

diassembled pieces of equipment stowed carefully to make the most use of the available cubage. Ky had to use a hardcopy of the inventory, but the EDB personnel had implants to compare the visible serial numbers.

"How long will it take to unload this?" one of them asked.

"I don't know," Ky said frankly. "My cargomaster was killed in the trouble over near Sabine-"

"Brawling in a bar," said the other EDB man with a sneer.

"No," Ky said. "Taken as hostage by a pirate who had been interned

on my ship, and killed when I suppressed the mutiny. That's why I

renamed the ship for him. I consider him a hero."

"Oh. Sorry." A moment of embarrassed silence, then: "But how long did it take to load?"

"Without Gary-three days. It was already disassembled, though..." She felt tired even before she started, but gave a quick and incomplete recital of what had happened, at least as far as the cargo was concerned.

"You mean it was out there in space, unprotected, for days and days?"

"It was in the same kind of vacuum it would have experienced in any cargo ship's hold," Ky said. "FarmPower assured me that there was no need to keep the holds aired up, or at livable temperature, during transport, and I also have their assurance that ambient radiation while outside the ship would not shorten the working life." She was glad Quincy had thought to ask for that. "Now, as soon as the credits are in my account, you can start unloading..."

They dithered another hour or so, but finally authorized the transfer of the agreed amount into her local account, payable without tax in credits. Ky handed over the inventory, told Quincy to supervise the unloading crews, and at last had time to look at her accumulated messages.

As expected, there was one from her father. A full broadband audiovisual that must have cost... she didn't want to think. She settled down in her cabin, braced for the worst.

"Kylara, I'm so sorry," was the first thing she heard. Her eyes filled with tears, despite herself. Her father looked exhausted and distraught. "Furman is an idiot, and I wouldn't have sent him if anyone else had been close enough. He was supposed to help you, not cause you more trouble. I'm sorry Gary died-I haven't heard all about it yet, but I'm sure he died trying to help you in some way. I know you were injured... Ky, I hope you know that I-that Vatta -were trying to do everything we could to find you, help you, whatever happened. And all I know now is that you must be at Belinta, to have accessed this message-" His voice wavered, then steadied. "Ky, please call me. I've set up a prepaid call; you may not need that option, but just in case... please. Please call me.

Anytime."

Not the worst, then. Not angry, not like Furman. But-did she want to call home, like a teenager who's gotten herself in a fix and has to

call Daddy for help? She had coped with the fix-she had coped with death, with injury. She didn't need him that way.

But he needed her. That tremor in his voice, those circles under his

eyes, were not faked.

She went to the bridge and placed the call, using her own now-fatter account. This time the telltales switched promptly from standby to ready to searching to active connection. A brief delay, with a screen

message of "reconnecting: mobile unit." That meant he had the skullphone on.

He answered immediately; the visual was a bouncing green blur,

what the skullphone's visual pickup faced. "Yes?" His voice sounded annoyed; Ky flinched inwardly.

"Dad-it's Ky."

A final blur, then motion stopped; the pickup stared at what she could now see was one of the back roads in a tik grove. "Ky! Are you all right?" Not annoyance now, but some combination of eagerness and pleading that saddened her.

"I'm fine, Dad. I'm at Belinta's orbital station... you knew that, you

left the message..." She was babbling, trying to give him time.

"Yes." His breath huffed out; she could almost see his shoulders relax. "You made it... not that I didn't think you would, but..."

Only a few weeks ago, it seemed, she had been glad to lean into him, feel his comforting arm around her. Now it felt awkward, and

not only because he was light-years away. Other kinds of years away, maybe.

"I don't know what you've heard about what happened," Ky said.

"Not enough," her father said. "Not nearly enough. I knew you'd gone rogue-Quincy's probably told you by now we expected something like that on one of your early voyages..." It was not quite a question.

"Yes," Ky said. "She and Gary-" Her throat closed; she swallowed and went on. "I knew on the way to Sabine. But they thought it was all right."

"Of course," her father said. "Trade and profit. I was glad for you; it meant-I thought-that you weren't completely shattered by what the Academy did."

"Well... the FTL sealed unit failed on downshift into Sabine-"

"It was supposed to be safe-Quincy swore that ship was safe enough for you-" His voice sounded angry again.

"Not her fault," Ky said quickly. "Something she couldn't

anticipate. We think it's because there was no cargo on the way to Sabine-we wanted maximum cubage for the pickup. Cargo mass had been damping what was going wrong. Captain's decision."

"All right," he said.

"So then, I was having trouble getting financing for both the

equipment and the repairs, and the political situation was getting worse. I was actually trying to call you when the ansibles went out."

"You were... good girl!"

He hadn't realized she'd do the sensible thing? He should have known that... She pushed from her mind the reluctance she'd had to call for help. "I'd have reached you, too, but the Captains' Guild wouldn't let me put the call through, because they wouldn't charge the Vatta account."

"What!"

"I'd done the Belinta deal as a private contract, not to risk Vatta Transport's image if something went wrong. Besides, my