Page 37 of Bonded

“And we were introducing Brooks to your crew.”

“He is the new liaison for this sector–”

“As part of our growing operations.”

They tripped over the other to speak, yet still coordinated their sentences. I wondered if they shared some kind of link in order to do so. Perhaps Ruzan, Priya, and I could one day achieve such a state of alignment where words no longer mattered between us.

That would, of course, involve bonding…and that would mean that Priya would need to trust us long enough to share that kind of intimacy.

Brooks extended his hand to Ithran. “Pleased to meet you. Your reputation precedes you, Captain Ithran.”

Ithran ignored the proffered invitation. “As does yours, Nokta.” His gaze returned to the Kaza twins, who now looked at Brooks askance. “Explain.”

As I tired of this oily talk, I recapped for the captain quickly. “We are now dealing with Brooks when we were dealing with the Kaza twins. They have now delegated this part of their operations to their new third-party liaison.” I said my piece without inflection, but made it obvious that I suspected there were dirty dealings that we couldn’t call them out on.

Ithran narrowed his gaze at the Kaza twins. “The original contract was between you and me. If there were any changes, it should have been between us.”

“Well, we didn’t realize that you would be here–” Ori started.

But Ithran finished the sentence instead. “And so you should have sent a wave to me personally to ensure I would be here in order to apprise me of any proposed changes to a future contract.”

He emphasized the word future, as in, not today. The Kaza twins and Brooks picked up on that, as they all were stumbling over themselves to pitch whatever changes that they had intended to pitch to me.

Ithran was not having any of their noise. He waited until their words died down, as if he were a pillar unmoved by storms. “We had an arrangement that has been fulfilled on both sides. We will not discuss our previous contract now. If the payment is no longer acceptable, speak, and we shall depart to find another supplier.”

The captain opened his hand to show a handful of the medicine that was stored in the ship’s medical bay. We never needed them and through a happy accident, we discovered that a tiny booster shot was worth half a sovereign. Considering we couldn’t use republic credits as currency, trading for sovereigns and crowns worked best for us.

The Kaza twins practically salivated upon seeing the bottles in Ithran’s hand. “Now, let’s not be hasty–”

“We did not intend on forfeiting thecurrentcontract–”

“No, not at all.”

Brooks turned in his seat, his small black eyes nearly disappearing underneath his prominent brow. “What about my–”

The Kaza twins shifted their collective gaze onto Brooks. “We’ll discuss this at a different time–”

“And we will compensate you to ensure a fair contract term.”

“As the captain said, we need to speak to him directly about future business.” They emphasized the word future, which was not what Brooks had in mind. He sat fuming, an orange hue tinging his ash-gray cheeks. Though he had been somewhat mollified, he had witnessed his standing with the twins.

Namely, they would defer to Ithran over Brooks.

Ithran allowed a little of his impatience to show on his face. “I am here now and have a moment. So will hear this future contract now.” The entire bar seemed to lean in just to hear what was going on. Even the bartender was not even pretending to work, as he clearly had his rag over one shoulder with a drink in his hand leaning against his countertop.

And here was one of the Kaza twins’ greatest weaknesses. They were very sensitive about public perception.

“Before you arrived,” Brooks ventured. “I proposed you would provide fewer medicines for running cargo. A bit of work in exchange, rather than a limited resource such as you have, is all.”

“What they actually mean is that they wanted us to transport cargo every month, even though we only have a bi-monthly or quarterly appointment with them here. And they gave the dimensions as what fit inside even a young Cephela vessel.” I emphasized the meaning behind that. We were extremely careful to keep our ship out of sight. Cephelas were rare in this sector and were ideal for evading any attention from the Intergalactic Republic.

“I see,” Ithran said as he turned his attention to Brooks. “Is this the only hold up to this deal?”

“Yes.”

“So the deal is if we want to buy more provisions at the next quarter’s meeting, then we would pay for it with less our usual supply of medicine and enzymes with the added job of transporting unspecified cargo that could fit within these dimensions, correct?” Ithran pointed to the tablet with the numbers still on screen. He had been very good at skirting around the references to our crew and our ship and how much it could truly hold.

Brooks’s eyes narrowed. “Correct.”

---