Reaffirmation

After the officer let them go, the unassuming spacer led Zoey to the Spade he'd parked nearby and set off back toward town. Once they'd left the crimescene behind, he took the dirt road at a quick clip, eager to be out of sight before they ran his ID and figured out he wasn't Zoey's uncle at all.
For a few minutes, they drove in silence save the engine and the wind whipping through the open cab. She pulled the thick jacket he'd given her closer. Outside, the light-barren hills blended invisibly into the starless sky. Zoey's awareness constricted to nothing but the twisting road in their headlights and the weak glow of their dashboard lights.
"Why come back for me?" she asked eventually.
He'd saved her—although not personally. After she and the other young thieves returned to Bugsy's hideout from the robbery he'd put them up to, his creditors had arrived. But what she'd stolen wasn't enough, and the thugs said they knew Kig-Yar who'd pay the difference for good chattel. And Bugsy, the spineless bastard, agreed. If the police hadn't burst down the door when they did, Zoey might have been driving down this road in a sack in the back of a Spectre.
Or cuffed in the back of a police car if Dunn, who she'd last seen looking shocked among the patrons of the parts store she'd held up, hadn't shown up to explain he put in the call, and lied about being her uncle. How she'd been pushed into it, running with the wrong crowd, and was really a good kid. While Bugsy and his petty larcenists were arrested, they were let off with a stern word and a "take care, now!"
The Spade jolted over a few more bumps before he answered. "Judy didn't teach you to go around scrapin' up credits by telling folk to put their hands up, did she?"
"No." Zoey said defensively.
"Didn't think so," the spacer smiled. "So I figured whoever this guy was she had me bring you to, probably wasn't all she thought. Not the type she'd want you hanging around."
"Yeah," Zoey mumbled. She'd thought Bugsy was someone Judy trusted. When he asked her to lead the stick-up, she'd wanted so badly to live up to his belief in her as Judy's apprentice. But from the moment she took the handgun, nothing went right. "Well, thanks, I guess. What happens now?"
"I could drop you anywhere in town. Judy taught you well enough, you'll land on your feet."
Zoey was glad for the dark. It kept him from seeing her grimace. Sure, she'd get by. In a month, she'd find a way off this backwater and toward some Inner Colony, where the cities were lousy with well-off suckers. There, she could live how Judy taught her. But there'd be a cold, sleepless night or two fending for herself between now and then.
"Or... you could come back to the Chancer with me."
Zoey twisted to spot the joke on Dunn's face. In the week since meeting, she'd tricked him, stolen his beloved freighter, and today nearly shot him in the botched robbery. But the spaceship captain's scruffy jaw worked over the idea in honest contemplation.
"Really?"
"Yeah. Judy wanted someone looking after you. She trusted me to get you the way there, so why not? 'Sides, you still need those flying lessons. Last touchdown you put my ship through strained the landing gear."
Zoey couldn't help smiling, even as her ears burned with embarrassment. "What about Simon?"
"He's already back at the ship. I bet another crew a kid like him could drink them under the table." Gavin grinned. "His supersoldier metabolism had 'em so skunked they didn't see me swipe their contract. He won't want to touch booze for a month, nevermind object to hiring decisions. So I've got cargo. All I need's a cabin girl to round out my crew. Think you'd be up for it?"
The dinky little freighter was a far cry from the thrills of high-class thieving, getting away with taking from snooty corporate lackeys. But Gavin's offer came without strings. No tests, no expectations—Zoey'd done just about all she could to turn him against her, and he still offered. It was reassuring in a way she hadn't felt in a long time.
"Alright," Zoey said. "So where do we go next?"
Category:The Weekly