"Moon's right, you do have good legs."
Ben started awake and twisted round in the pilot's seat to see Sonya, conscious and apparently well, attired in her usual ruffles and beads, standing in the hatch.
"Thanks." he glanced briefly at the hairy appendages beneath his sleep shorts 'good legs'? then returned his attention to the girl. "You okay?"
"Better, much better." she answered with visible satisfaction, slipping into the co-pilot's chair.
At close range Ben could see the purple circles under her eyes, inexpertly covered with the wrong shade of make-up. "If you say so." he said dubiously.
"I do. I'm sorry we woke you though. Thanks for taking the twins out of there - Jade and Moon tell me it was nasty to watch."
"And to experience?"
She shrugged. "It was worth it. Eta Kooram Nah Smech."
Ben blinked. "Pardon?"
"Safewords, encoded into us so they could control us." she grinned happily. "Doesn't work on me anymore but it'll send any of the others straight to sleep."
"Oh." Ben thought about that. "So what Jade was doing worked?"
Sonya nodded. "She peeled off the first level of conditioning but she's going to have to dig deep to get rid of it all."
Ben winced. "Will it always be so noisy?"
"Hope not." Sonya looked at him gravely. "We're all chock full of triggers and such, including River. That's why we've got to find her. Simon Tam's a surgeon not a neuro-psych he won't be able to clear her. Whatever he does she won't be right 'til she's free."
"So this de-conditioning will help your stability?"
"Can't not. Mind you it won't cure us entirely. Nothing will. Can't be psychic and sane at the same time - that much is certain. But there are all kinds of crazy. If it just gets more controllable we'll be happy."
"Maybe you could stop being psychic?" Ben suggested tentatively.
She shook her head. "Don't think so. Not with the changes they made in our brains. We think we're stuck with it. It's got its good points."
"Mmmm." said Ben dubiously. Then: "By the way, we've got metered water on this boat."
Sonya grinned. "We know. We saved up our allowances to fill the tub. Jade said soaking in hot water would be therapeutic."
"Didn't seem like it was doing you much good last night." he observed.
"No, but it's helped other times. You missed reveille - and breakfast."
Ben glanced at the chrono, it read 0932. "So I have. Guess we'll have a short lesson today." he pulled himself out of the seat. "Have to get dressed and eat first."
"You do have good legs." Sonya said. "Pretty blue eyes too."
"Thanks." Ben said again, making a mental note not show off said limbs again if he could help it. Last thing they needed was an adolescent crush or two to further complicate their lives.
...
After that Ben slept on the bridge two nights a week, or tried to. And tried even harder not to think about what was going on in his girls' bunkroom at those times. Sonya's good spirits didn't last. She took to sitting in the living area, knees tucked beneath her chin, rocking gently back and forth. She answered if you spoke to her but what she said made no kind of sense.
Jade was in no better case. She talked almost continuously; spouting medicalese in a funny gruff voice and Chinese in her own, debating and arguing with herself and taking no notice of what went on around her. Cody pretty much took over the cooking.
Moon started painting her face like a carnival mask - different each day - and carrying a big stuffed doll, painted to match, everywhere she went but she at least had moments when she seemed halfway rational - only problem was Ben wasn't quite sure when those moments were.
"They're dredging all kind of nasty stuff out of Sonya's head," she explained, "that's her problem. Jade is having to think like Dr. Falkener most of the time, that's hers."
The twins at least stayed relatively 'solid' as the girls put it. Chasing each other, shrieking, up and down the boat wasn't abnormal behavior for a pair of kids - was it?
Cody turned into quite the little caregiver; wrapping their two problem girls' unresisting fingers round a spoon at mealtimes and getting it moving between plate and mouth; making then take notice of him instead of staying wrapped in their own private nightmares, and not getting fazed when Sonya didn't make sense or Jade talked to him in a man's voice.
When Ben could spare the time from worrying about his girls he worried about his son. Cody was so young, what would all the craziness do to his development? He was turning so serious and responsible that Ben found himself depending on his boy to keep the boat running smooth - was that good or was it bad?
...
Hephaestion, largest Vulcan's dozen-odd port and industrial centers, was wrapped in one of its periodic murky brown fogs the day the Angel docked. Ben had waved ahead so handlers and an appraiser were on hand to welcome their cargo.
The appraiser eyed the lead lined crates passing under his nose appreciatively. "Always a market for trans-uranics," he said, "no buyer?"
Ben shook his head. "This is a free cargo. Thought I'd put it up for bid."
"Wise move." the other man agreed. "With a little luck you might double or even triple your investment."
"Can hope." Ben shrugged. "I've got a new cargo to buy, how much credit will you allow?"
The appraiser sucked his stylus. "four forty?"
Ben let his eyebrows rise and his lip curl scornfully. "That an offer or a joke?"
The other man shrugged. "Six-forty then. If the bidding goes higher than that you'll have a nice little bundle of cash to play with."
Ben pretended to consider then said grudgingly. "Guess I'll have to settle for that."
The appraiser did things to his counter and extracted a credit chip. "There you are. Good trading."
"Good trading." Ben replied.
Inside the boat his crew were just finishing lunch. Sonya had curled back into her ball, rocking rhythmically, and Jade was looking blankly at the plates Cody piled in her hands, her inner dialogue cut off for the moment at least.
He turned her around to face the kitchen. "Put 'em in the sink. The sink." and gave her a little push to get her started.
Ben watched her sleep walk into the kitchen with a frown between his brows. Maybe it was time he called a halt to these proceedings of theirs - for a time at least. "Cody."
his son came over. "I'm going to leave you in charge of Sonya and Jade," Ben told him quietly. He'd expected protests but Cody just nodded.
"They're in no shape to go out." he agreed and squared his shoulders. "I'll take care of them."
Ben's heart ached with a mix of pride and sorrow. "That's my boy. I'll take Moon and the twins with me." two crazy girls was burden enough for a ten year old.
...
Heads turned as they walked down the streets and Ben had to admit that his threesome of charges would attract attention on brighter worlds than workaday Vulcan. Moon stalked alongside him in a strappy little black dress with stout laced boots below the floaty hem and a gauzy plum paisley shawl draped over her skinny shoulders. Ben hadn't needed a degree in neuro-psychology to know better than to try to separate her from her doll and both their faces were painted with green masks around the eyes picked out in gilt, a gold crescent above the brows and bright blue lips. The twins skipped along behind, hand in hand, chattering cheerfully; Kimi was wearing a bejeweled t-shirt, short frilly skirt and lots of glass bangles, while Keri had a gauzy sequined dress hanging limp on her thin frame with several long bead necklaces wound around her neck and twisted into her hair.
Warehouses loomed dimly through the pollution stained fog that swallowed up the staring passersby within a few paces. Luckily Ben was used to such conditions and could find the building they needed by habit and instinct. They climbed a metal stair to an office on the second floor. A clerk looked up expectantly from his keyboard as they entered.
"I'm interested in buying." Ben told him.
The clerk pressed a button and a stout, graying woman emerged from the inner office. "What are you in the market for?" she asked briskly.
"Refined metals."
"Right."
She led the way through a door, down another stair and into an Aladdin's cave of gleaming metal ingots, bars and bricks. Oohs and ahs came from his girls bringing a smile to Ben's lips. They weren't too crazy to appreciate treasure.
"What kind of metals interest you?" the manager asked him.
"Tool steel mostly, others suitable for house wares - and some gold and silver I think."
...
Suddenly Sonya stopped rocking. "Orange and Black." she said, eyes wide.
Cody looked up from his story-book. "What?"
"Orange and Black." Sonya repeated, looking at the lock hatch.
Jade's two voices stopped their dialogue. "They've found us." she announced. And at that moment the lock signal sounded.
Cody flung himself at the controls, sealed both doors and evacuated the air from the lock. "That'll hold them." he told the two scared looking girls. "They'll try the loading airlock next." He ran down the stairs and fixed the big cargo lock the same way. "Don't worry," he told his charges coming back into the living space, "they can't get in now."
Hammering sounded bell-like on the outer hatch. Cody bit his lip. "They can't get in without cutting," he said more to himself than the girls, "and they can't do that without being noticed." still... He went into his father's room, dug out his Alliance issue laser and strapped it on tightening the belt to the very last notch but he still had to hold it up as he went back to the girls. A booming sound came aft from the cargo hold. "It's gonna be all right." Cody told his scared looking charges, soft little jaw as hard as it could go. "I'll protect you."
...
Ben finally decided on seventeen tons of tool steel; four tons each of chromium, copper, nickel and tin; and a final ton divided between gold, silver and platinum. After the usual polite dickering he handed over his credit chip and turned to look for his girls.
Moon was perched on a pyramid of lead bricks engaged in serious conversation with her doll. The twins were building a tower of gold and silver ingots singing about pieces of eight and dead men's chests.
The Manager followed his glance. "They quite right?" she asked frowning.
Ben gave her a bland look. "'Course, why do you ask?" not giving her a chance to answer her raised his voice. "Moon, twins, time to go." they promptly gathered at his side. "Delivery tomorrow, cargo slip 84." he said to the manager.
"84." she repeated, eyes still fixed bemusedly on his girls.
"Good trading with you." Ben said, then to his charges. "All right girls, back to the boat."
...
Now a buzzing sound was coming from the outer lock hatch. Sonya and Jade crouched behind the kitchen counter, Cody stood in front of it laser aimed at the door. He still didn't think they could get in - but just in case...