“You could still get in trouble,” said Keirth, “for harboring me when you know I’m a fugitive.”
“We’ll claim you were disguised, mate,” said Gordic, grinning. “Seriously, I’d love to catch up.”
Keirth grinned back. “Well, thank you, Gordic. Your hospitality astounds.”
“Not a problem, mate. See you in a few, then.”
Keirth reached forward to switch off the visual, but then stopped. “Oh, Gordic. One other thing. I’m not alone.”
Gordic raised his eyebrows. “Transman, you’re always alone.”
“There’s a girl with me.”
Gordic laughed. “You dog, Transman.”
“Not like that,” said Keirth. “I saved her from Risciter.”
Gordic’s face grew serious. “Well, of course, she’s welcome as well. I’ll let Winda know. My wife.”
Keirth did switch off the visual this time. Ariana stepped into the bridge. “He a friend of yours?”
Keirth glanced up at her. “One of my oldest friends. Good man. He can feed us at the very least. You hungry?”
She realized her stomach was quite empty. “He lives on a planet here?”
“Nope. A space station. It’s one of the old sector-built probes that they sent out during colonization. It’s been floating around in the system for ages, so Gordic commandeered it a few years back.” He smiled at her. “It should give you some time to relax. Recuperate. Everything’s been crazy for a while.”
It had been. She smiled back at Keirth. He wasn’t sending her away, anyway. Not yet. She had time. She had to convince him that he wanted her around.
* * *
Gordic reached across the table to refill Ariana’s wine glass. “So we’ve been boarded by the Intergalactic Police at this point, right?”
Ariana was sitting at a table with Keirth, Gordic, and Gordic’s wife Winda. They’d just eaten a large meal, the remnants of which were scattered over the table. Gordic had begun telling stories about Keirth, who he regarded as insanely daring. The dining room on the space station was warmly lit and cozy. Ariana relaxed in the glow of a full stomach and the fuzzy head of a few glasses of wine.
“No,” said Keirth, laughing, “we decided all this before they boarded us. Because you wanted to dump the guns.”
“Damned straight I wanted to dump the guns.” Gordic refilled Keirth’s wine glass and then his own. “When you’re smuggling illegal weapons and the authorities show up, you don’t play games. No evidence, no arrest, mate.”
“But this was after we’d gone through hell to get the guns in the first place. I wasn’t dumping those guns. No way.” Keirth took a sip of wine, stretching out in his chair.
Ariana had never seen him like this, relaxed and laughing. She liked it.
“Well, anyway,” said Gordic to Ariana and Winda, who hadn’t heard this story yet, “Keirth decides we can snow the Intergalactic Police. So he goes to meet them when they board the ship, and he starts doing this voice...” Gordic collapsed in laughter at the memory. “Show them the voice.”
Keirth was laughing too. He sat up in his chair, struggling to get his features to relax. In a high-pitched drawling voice he said, “Oh, Mr. Policeman, welcome to our ship. Are you all so strong and handsome?”
Ariana guffawed. “You did not.”
Gordic was nearly falling out of his chair from laughing so hard. “He was so damned good at it, too, that was the thing. And you should have seen the police officers after that. They’re all backing away from him, completely freaked out.”
“Well, it worked, didn’t it?” said Keirth. “I wasn’t dumping those guns.”
“Yeah, it worked,” said Gordic. “He tells the police that our cargo is sex toys, and they let us go. They don’t even check our cargo bay. They can’t get out of there fast enough.”
“I don’t believe you,” said Ariana, smiling at Keirth.
Keirth spread his hands. “Believe it, sweetheart.”
She glared at him. “I thought you’d stopped calling me that.”
“Never,” said Keirth.
Winda got up from her chair and began to gather up some of the dishes from the table. She bent down and kissed Gordic on the top of his head. “Well, I’m just glad you’re not smuggling guns anymore. I’d be out of my mind with worry.”
Gordic wrapped an arm around her waist and squeezed her quickly. “Me too. I can’t say I miss being in danger all the time.”
Ariana wasn’t used to seeing such casual displays of closeness at the dinner table. Husbands and wives were usually quite formal with each other back in the sector. She liked it. It was as warm and cozy as the dining room.