The moon Uet, honeycombed with streets, buildings and wharves, filled the crew's vision as the helmsman steered the ship into port with expert skill. The deck of the Benbow was alive with her crew hauling on rope, scrambling in the rigging, opening re-entry flaps on the ship's deck and hull, and everything else that needed to be done. Leonard stood aft, barking orders, as Silver prowled amidships.
"Steady on the capstan, mates! Let the anchor out slowly!"
"Th' jib's out there flappin' in th' breeze, ya buncha lubbers! Haul it in or oi'll haul you to th' brig!"
The ship scooted smoothly into port and the crew, hungry and weary, gathered on the starboard rail, waiting eagerly for the gangplank to begin its descent onto firm ground. Bonnie was among them, Silver noted, but her expression of rigid shock stuck out like a sore thumb among the faces of relief and gratitude. She leaned out far over the railing; half of her body was parallel with the ground. Her wide, disbelieving eyes were locked on the planet, huge and hazy in the sky. Something was definitely going on.
He approached her as the crew shoved and jostled down the gangplank, and stopped her with a heavy metal hand on her shoulder. She whipped around, her expression changing little.
"Yore not goin' nowhere, lassie," he snarled. "Ye've got anchor watch."
Horror flashed bright in her eyes and she opened her mouth to protest, but it snapped shut quickly. Her head went down. "Aye aye, Cap'n," she mumbled, the sound of defeat dragging like molasses through her voice. Silver allowed himself an inner smile of triumph; he had foiled whatever it was she had planned, or, at least part of it. He called Leonard over from where the huge creature was about to disembark, and leaned in close to his pointed, furry ear.
"Keep a sharp eye on Bonnie, lad. Oi wants t' know if she does any t'ing out o' th' ordinary. Oi won't be far, jus' down that road there, gettin' more fuel for th' ship an' a few other t'ings."
Leonard saluted obediently. "Aye, sir."
Silver nodded gruffly once, turned, and stepped off the ship.
The port on Uet, much like Tramuth, rarely saw merchant or military ships make berth, but Silver had still warned his crew as they disembarked on their day-long furlough. The Benbow's pirate flag had been hauled in and replaced with a banner stolen from the Magellanic Trading Company. Most of the ships docked sported merchant or planetary flags, though one had but to peer behind a barrel or under a bench on any ship, and there would likely be a black bundle of canvas; a pirate flag.
The nature of the spacers populating Uet was obvious enough to anyone with a nose and half an ear. Rank with smoke and drenched in grog, Uet bore an atmosphere of sound nearly raucous enough to negate the effects of gravity. It kept honest spacers well at bay, and only attracted those as saturated in sin as the moon itself.
Silver watched his crew disperse into the ebb and flow of creatures on the dock, some ducking into the nearest pub they could find, others glancing furtively behind them as they slipped into a back alley, arm in arm with a painted lady. He trundled off into the thick of the crowd, reminding himself to find a new part for his mechanical knee. It was getting stiff.
He had not been to Uet in several years, but not much had changed. He could still find the drunken Altairian that sold both rocket fuel and grog, and Silver was still convinced that there was no difference between the two. He paid the wavering creature at the counter for one cylinder of compressed fuel and walked out with four of the smallish containers, stuffing them quickly into the haversack slung across his chest. It would probably take the elephant-skinned, six-eyed being several hours to realize Silver had swindled him. Plenty of time for him to disappear.
"Cap'n, sir!" Leonard's voice sounded behind him. He turned round and saw the bugbear edging delicately through the crowd, head and shoulders above all of them. He better not have left Bonnie alone on board the ship.
"Aye, lad, what is it?" Silver's eye switched on, and he scanned his first mate for anything that might give away Bonnie's escape.
"It's Bonnie, sir," Leonard said, but his expression betrayed nothing more than well-concealed uneasiness. She had not escaped, Silver knew that much. "She has asked your humble permission to visit the planet Tereth Three. She promises that it will be a quick visit and she will be back before dark tonight."
Silver narrowed his eyes. He had been expecting this.
"Did she tell ye why, laddie?"
Leonard shrugged. "She just said she had friends there."
Silver nodded. He had heard all this before. But it seemed odd that she had chosen the peace-loving inhabitants of Tereth Three as accomplices in whatever she was planning. Of course, the horse-creatures would probably like to see such a dangerous pirate as Silver dangling on the end of a rope as much as the rest of the galaxy. Silver had never been to the planet himself, so he did not know just how "peaceful" these creatures actually were. He stroked his stubbly chin.
"Ye didn't leave her alone on board, didja, lad?"
"No sir. I left her with Liza." The gabby Yarbouchian. "Oh, and speaking of her, sir, Bonnie said that Liza was willing to take over anchor watch while she was gone. Bonnie also said that if it would make you feel better, you or I could accompany her down to the planet. I honestly don't know what she's planning, Cap'n, but if she's prepared for one of us to go with her, I can't see how it could be a mutiny."
"An' she didn' tell ye exackly why she wanted t' go daown t' th' planet?" Silver's mind worked furiously.
"No, sir, she just said she wanted to visit her friends. She also mentioned distant family."
The gears in Silver's mind ground loudly. "Distant fam'ly?"
"Aye, Cap'n."
This curve Silver could not quite hit. He burned his red metal eye into Leonard's forehead, but the bugbear's steadfastness convinced Silver that he was wise enough not to get involved in Bonnie's plan. That was good.
"Roight then, lad. Oi got t'ings t' do jus' now, but oi wan' you t' take 'er to th' planet. If it's you, mayhap she won' be as skittish as if t'were me goin' wid 'er."
Leonard nodded, seeing Silver's wisdom.
"But oi don' wan' ya ever t' let 'er out o' yer sight, ye hear? Never." Silver jabbed a cyborg finger at his first mate.
"Aye, Cap'n."
"Oi wan' ye t' watch ev'ry move she makes an' report back t' me. Oi wants t' know where ye dock, who 'er so-called 'friends' are, where ye go, who takes ye dere, ev'ryt'ing. Oi wants details o' ev'ry breath she takes an' ev'ry toime she blinks. Got it, laddie?"
"Aye, Cap'n." Leonard rumbled down at Silver.
"Good lad. Stay wid 'er on th' ship when ye return an' wait fer me an' th' crew."
"Aye, Cap'n."
"Off ye go." Silver waved a hand.
The massive bugbear bowed lightly to his captain and, without another word, turned and maneuvered back through the drunken crowd with an agility that belied his ungainly bulk. Silver watched him go, confident for once in his mate. Leonard had yet to prove himself worthy of Silver's trust, and this was his chance. He didn't realize it, of course, which made it all the more important that he succeed. The last person Silver had trusted in any measure was Jim Hawkins, but that wasn't good enough. Silver needed a spacer, both young and experienced, on whom he could depend through good tides and bad. He wasn't denying it: he was getting old, and he needed a first mate, strong and wise, to eventually take his place. The salty old captain sensed great potential in the young bugbear, who had never been on dry land for longer than a week in his entire life.
Leonard disappeared around the corner, heading back toward the Benbow's berth. Silver's knee needed attention, and he thought he remembered a blacksmith with a set of cyborg legs of his own. Daring to go back the way he came, Silver turned and passed the Altairian's shop and suppressed a smile when he saw the drunk sleeping in a puddle of his own drool at the counter.
He spent the night with a young woman, raven-haired and olive-skinned, just like his wife had been. He tried to find one at every port, but there wasn't always a woman that met his expectations. He got lucky this time. The last time he had found someone he liked was the night before he met Bonnie. The woman that night had been shorter and had lighter eyes than his wife, but her rich, wavy hair shone like a raven's wing in the sun, and he had but to close his eyes and he could feel his wife's fingernails on his back again and her slim, lithe body against his. He fell into that memory as the woman tonight worked her magic on him, and he began to relax.
But when Bonnie's face suddenly appeared in front of him when it should have been his wife's, he snapped his eyes open and sat bolt upright, nearly sending the whore tumbling off the bed. Ignoring her gentle but empty words of reassurance, he sat silently on the edge of the bed until she gave up and fell asleep. He lay awake next to her for a long time, but when he finally drifted off into darkness, it was his wife, her wide-brimmed hat cocked rakishly to the side, that haunted his dreams once again.
-------------------------------
He woke up feeling much better. As he dressed, he admired the sleeping woman's body under the sheet and almost changed his mind about leaving her without finishing what they had started last night, but even though it would be months before they'd see land again, he wanted to get back to his ship. He shrugged into his long coat, giving her a last long look and slipped out of the cheap hotel room without paying her.
The twin suns shining on Tereth and Uet had cleared the western horizon, but Silver knew he would be the first one back on the ship besides Leonard and Bonnie. He walked tall on his new knee, with his three-cornered hat low over his eyes to shield them from the burning suns.
The welcome sight of his ship looming large and stately over the creatures milling about the port made his heart swell. The Benbow was just how he had left her, ready for his return. There had been no mutiny during the night, no secret attempt to steal the ship. He had been worried that Bonnie would use this opportunity to stage her mutiny against him, but Leonard, already lowering the gangplank for his captain, had kept her reined in.
"Ahoy, Cap'n," Leonard shouted down as Silver stepped onto the gangplank. Bonnie was nowhere in sight. "Glad t'be back on board?"
"Always am, laddie," Silver smiled and gripped Leonard's outstretched hand with his mechanical one, and shook it firmly once, then clamped it down on his mate's left shoulder, as Leonard did the same. "Where's our Bonnie lass?"
Leonard chuckled and jabbed a sausagey thumb back over his shoulder. "Asleep down in the barracks."
"Wid no one watchin' 'er?" Silver's eye flared red.
Leonard put his hands up. "Don't worry, Cap'n. There's no mutiny, I promise."
"Then what 'n th' name o' Ringeye Bill's booty happ'ned down on Tereth?" Silver shouted.
"Cap'n, I think that would be best explained once we're underway. It's a long story, and one I think you'll want to hear uninterrupted." Leonard sighed, his shoulders hunched.