Chapter 24

Still slightly in shock from the turn of events, Nik quietly followed Amos back to work. They had completed repairs on the docking strut, but the rail gun was being troublesome. They couldn't quite get the newly installed guide rails to line up with the armatures. Microscopic burs on the rails interfered with the shape of the magnetic field that ran down the armatures, deforming it and causing less thrust on one side of the test projectile, making it jump off the rail in every simulation they ran.

Finally, tired and frustrated, they were forced to stop working on it as the time for departure drew near. Nik returned to her room telling Amos she needed a short nap. Stepping inside, she immediately noticed a box on her bunk. It was just a plain, grayish-brown box made from recycled synthetic cellulose, devoid of markings to indicate what it contained.

Lifting the lid off it, Nik was shocked to see the purple tunic and pants she had admired but had decided against buying for practical reasons. Included in the box was a delicate pair of slippers that matched the silver trim of the tunic. They were exactly the right size.

"What the hell?"

Someone had been following her that night, but who? Of course, it had to be one of the crew, but which one? Holden may have insisted on helping her, but this was too intimate a gift for a man in love with another woman. Naomi would have just given her the gift without the mystery. Amos was too practical. Besides, he had been with the two women that night. There was no way it was him.

That only left Alex, but he hadn't given her any indication that he felt anything towards her but camaraderie. But he was the only person unaccounted for that night. He had given her the credit stick and told her to go buy herself something pretty. It could just be a gesture of friendship and nothing more. After all, she had no idea how friendships with adults worked. She would have to thank him for the gift and hope that it didn't mean anything more than that. She wasn't the least bit attracted to him and didn't want to hurt his feelings.

Right now, though wasn't the time to think about it. She still had business on the station. Storing the lovely outfit, she dug her old clothes out of a drawer; she needed to be a station rat one last time.

Slipping easily through the crowds, Nik retraced her steps to the hostel where Mac was staying and concealed herself behind an abandoned beverage kiosk to wait. She didn't have a lot of time, the Roci was going to depart in three hours, but this might be her only chance to ever extract justice for Hopper. Luckily, she didn't have to wait for more than half an hour before Mac appeared at the entrance of the Hostel. Slinging a heavy bag over his shoulder, he headed out of the sector. Tapping the sharp file in her pocket that she had taken from one of Amos' tool chests, she followed at a distance.

As the traffic around them increased, she shortened the distance between them until she was just a few steps behind him. She had the file out, in her hand, ready to be used when the opportunity presented itself.

In a congested intersection, she saw her opening. As Mac turned to go towards the entertainment sector, she slipped by him with the flow of bodies going towards the market. As she passed behind him, all she had to do was stab him in the kidney then disappear into the crowd. No one would see and he would bleed out withing minutes. But as she slipped past, her hand froze and she missed her opportunity.

Cheeks burning and fuming at her cowardice, she turned down a side tunnel that circled back to the residential sector. Her head down, she wasn't paying attention to her surroundings. Her arm was grabbed and she was jerked unceremoniously into a dark alcove. A strong arm wrapped around her waist like an iron band and a large hand covered her mouth to keep her from screaming.

"Shh," a familiar voice whispered in her ear.

She quit struggling, but didn't relax. How could she with Amos pressed up against her back? He removed his hand from her mouth.

"Wait for it," he whispered again.

In just a few seconds, the second man walked past their hiding place.

"You didn't know he was following you, did you?" Amos said softly in her ear after he passed.

Nik burned with embarrassment. She should have been checking for someone following her, but the thought had never occurred. She had screwed up and if it hadn't been for Amos, again, she would have been in deep trouble.

He loosened his hold and turned her around to face him.

"Why were you following him?"

She was still uncomfortably close to him and had to crane her neck to meet his eyes, but if she stepped back, she could easily be seen by anyone looking for her.

"He's the one that killed Hopper," she said simply.

Amos grabbed her hand with the file and held it up, putting enough pressure on her wrist for her to release it.

"And you were going to stab him with this?"

She bit her lip and angry tears filled her eyes.

"I had a chance and I couldn't do it," she admitted softly.

He sighed and looked over her head at nothing in particular, "not everyone can kill, Kitten."

"But he needs to pay for what he did to Hopper."

"Well, you've missed your chance and the Roci is leaving soon. Go back to the ship."

He turned her back around and pushed her back out into the tunnel. She looked over her shoulder at him still standing in the shadows of the alcove.

"Aren't you coming?"

"I've got some business to take care of first. Go on. I'll be back before it leaves."

He was probably going to visit the two pretty prostitutes one last time, she thought and turned away to go back to the ship. He was probably irritated that he had to use some of the time he had left saving her from her own stupidity.

She easily slipped back onto the Roci without any of the crew seeing her. In her room, she pulled off her clothes and changed into her coveralls. Her station rat rags bundled in her hand, she stopped before putting them back in the drawer and sat on the bunk, holding them in her lap.

Being an adult was a lot harder than being a child. Unlike the others on board, she had never had the opportunity to make the awkward transition from child to adult slowly as they matured. No, she had been stayed basically a child, trapped by circumstance and her own fears. While she would never regret her time with the orphans of Tycho, she was at a severe disadvantage now. She needed to grow up and fast.

Her mind made up, she stood and took the bundle of clothes to the recycler and placed them inside. Not giving herself time to second guess her decision, she pushed the button and watched the clothes disappear. Now, if only becoming an adult was that easy.

"I borrowed the transponder code from the Blue Angela. It's about the same size and mass as the Roci," Naomi was telling Holden and Amos when she joined them on the bridge.

"That will work. I can time our departure to coincide with the Dorthea and the Binh-Wei, they're close to the same size," Alex started typing commands at his console.

"That's about as stealthy as we're going to get, I guess," Holden nodded to Naomi. "Go ahead and change the code."

As Naomi stood to leave the bridge, Nik intercepted her, "can I come along?"

"Sure, come on. You need to learn something besides welding and fixing coffee makers," she smiled.

Down below, kneeling on the floor on either side of the panel, Nik watched as Naomi changed the chips on the transponder, referring to her handheld from time to time.

"There, all done. We are now the Blue Angela."

Instead of pushing the tray holding the cards back into the panel, she looked up at Nik, "is there something you wanted to ask me?"

Suddenly embarrassed, Nik flushed, her entire body heating up.

"It's going to sound stupid," she started.

"Sésata, what is it?"

Before she changed her mind, she blurted out, "I don't know how to be an adult, like you." Her cheeks and ears burned, and she looked down so she didn't have to see the amusement on Naomi's face.

"Oh, sweetie," Naomi said softly, "there's no set way to be an adult. Most of us are still figuring it out ourselves."

"But I keep doing stupid things."

Naomi laughed at that.

"Oh, no, I'm not laughing at you!" she grabbed Nik's arm as she tried to stand to escape. "I'm laughing because I remember what it's like to be so young."

"I'm not that young, I just look it," Nik frowned.

"I know," she said. After a pause, she continued, "look, I don't know everything, but I do know that part of being an adult is putting others before yourself. You've been doing that for years on Tycho. So, you've been an adult for a long time, Sésata, you just didn't realize it. You need to stop being so hard on yourself."

"How do you tell if someone likes you?" she flushed even redder and wouldn't look into the other woman's face. "Like Holden likes you," she clarified.

Naomi laughed delightedly.

"I bet you've never been in love, right?"

Nik smiled sadly, "kinda hard to fall in love when the only people around you are children."

"True," Naomi agreed.

Nik told her about the package and her suspicions. When she was through, Naomi sat back on her heals and looked thoughtful.

"Alex was married and has a child," she began, "and he still loves his ex-wife. But he loves being a pilot more. This," she indicated the ship with a sweep of her hand, "this is his true love. So, I find it highly unlikely the clothes were from him. Besides, he sucks at being sneaky. He couldn't have pulled that off."

"Then who?"

"I have my suspicions," she pushed in the tray then patted Nik on the shoulder as she stood up.

"Damn it, Naomi," Nik grabbed her arm this time. "Just tell me."

Naomi just smiled, "no, you need to figure it out on your own." She paused, then added, "I like what you did with your hair. It looks good on you." Then she stood and climbed the ladder back up to the bridge.

Nik heaved a frustrated sigh and kicked the wall, careful to miss the panel that hid the transponder.

"You break it, you fix it."

She spun around to confront the speaker. Amos was standing in the doorway, leaning casually against the frame.

Multiple responses ran through Nik's mind, a crazy mixture of friendly, indifferent, and rude. In short, mirroring the different feelings being around him invoked. She wished she could figure out how she felt about him. Of course, it would help if she could figure him out. Every time she thought she had it, he would do something completely contradictory and put her back off balance.

"Better strap in," he broke into her thoughts.

Nik flushed, realizing she had just been staring blankly at him. Without a word, she strapped into a chair to prepare for departing Vesta.