Skirmishes

Skirmishes Read Free

Book: Skirmishes Read Free
Author: Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Tags: Science-Fiction
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capacity of passengers, and I hope I never do so again.
    I’m a loner, even though I’m running a major corporation now, and like most loners, I truly prefer to be alone.
    That’s why wreck diving suits me. Why it has always suited me. I was actually looking forward to this trip until the passenger list grew. Then I realized I was responsible for all of these people in one way or another, and they would be crowding the narrow corridors of the Two , and I’ve been annoyed ever since.
    Well, not annoyed. Not really. Tense.
    Worried.
    I can’t tell anyone how very worried I am.
    I wipe my hands on the sides of my pants. My palms are actually sweating, which happens to me only when I’m extremely nervous. I like to blame my nerves on the fact that the entire cockpit is filled with people, but that’s not the whole story.
    Still, the crowd isn’t helping. The cockpit is built for twelve, and we have fifteen in here, not counting me. Everyone who hasn’t seen the Boneyard wants to see it right away, instead of waiting for the mission brief. We couldn’t fit everyone who hadn’t seen the Boneyard into the cockpit, even though Yash kept inviting more and more, until we’re now squeezed.
    She has no real idea how uncomfortable crowds make me. She knows I’m a loner, but she thinks that eccentric, something I turn on and off, like a smile. She doesn’t realize that a lot of people disturb me on principle.
    She never had the choice to be alone. She grew up in a society based on crowds. From what I can tell, the Fleet built space into their ships for people to have privacy, but those same people could choose from their childhoods on to be with others, and most did.
    The very idea makes me shiver.
    Just like standing in this cockpit makes me shiver. There are people behind me that I can’t see, and that drives me crazy.
    I could order everyone away, but I don’t. This is a momentous occasion for a lot of the people here, and they really need to see what’s before them.
    My divers, on the other hand, aren’t in the cockpit (except for Mikk, who is at the helm). My divers are used to me. They understand my needs and probably share them.
    Besides, my divers know they’ll be seeing the Boneyard soon enough.
    They’re in the briefing room, studying what little information we got on our previous trip, and waiting for me. We sort of lucked into the decision to keep the divers out of the cockpit. They chose not to come, and the others begged to join us.
    Silly me, I didn’t speak up when Yash said yes.
    She does want them to see everything. And she really isn’t paying attention to moods. Technically, I should do that. Just one of the many things I’m not suited for as captain of a large ship.
    Not that I have the official title of captain, nor is this a large ship. It’s my current diving vessel, and circumstances brought the crowd along with us.
    Circumstances and the damn anacapa drive.
    I keep thinking I’d’ve been calmer if I hadn’t gone into foldspace—if all of us hadn’t gone into foldspace. Foldspace makes everyone nervous—particularly the borrowed crew members from the Ivoire .
    Foldspace is exactly what it sounds like—at least that’s how everyone explains it to me. They compare foldspace to a fold in a blanket, which tells me they’ve all been briefed the same way as well. They even begin with the same phrase: foldspace provides a shortcut in space . Then they expand, using the same example.
    Say you want to go from one part of a blanket to another. Rather than travel the entire length of the blanket, you fold it, and both parts touch.
    That’s how foldspace works. Plug in the coordinates from where you are and then add the ones from where you’re going, activate the anacapa , and it’ll fold space the way that we would fold a blanket.
    Only now that I’ve been to foldspace a few times, I know the analogy isn’t quite accurate. We don’t immediately leap from one spot to another. We actually

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