Trade Secret (eARC) by Steve Miller, Sharon Lee Read Free Book Online

ship's protocol master was an attorney as near as Jethri could tell--not Paitor with a half-out-of-date manual!--and he, he--he was no longer just a crew member. He was, by necessity, not just acting like a trader, he was a trader. He was not just acting like a member of Clan Ixin, he was the son of Ixin's Master Trader.
    It was not quite like being a captain, but it was quite like having a say and exerting himself and--and it meant hosting Festival parties. Whatever that meant . . .
    And that meant he had to learn more, quickly. And put himself forward, soon.
    He stretched his way from the table, and glanced toward the food display. Leftovers were rare on the Market , but here, if they weren't used, they would likely just get recycled . . .
    Well, duty called. Study called. He'd promised Norn ven'Deelin that he would do his best to be a proper son to the house, that he had.
    The single dish of chernubia remaining he took away with him to study with, and a cup of tea, wondering the while if he had left a dish or two sitting lonely after all.

Chapter Three

    Clan Ixin's Tradeship Elthoria , in Jump

    Born and raised on a spaceship, rarely did the feeling of being pent up fall so heavily upon Jethri as it did now. He strode to his small suite, chernubia in hand, his mind full of the promising and confusing vision offered by Gaenor, and perhaps by proxy, by Vil Tor.
    It wasn't certainly, that he was against the idea of such a personal time with them--either or both--other than the idea that they might not understand exactly what it was they were getting into. Yet he urgently wanted not to disappoint them--either or both--for aside the passing attention he'd been able to pay to Freza DeNobli back on, umm, on . . . not Vincza, but the other one in that system--must have been Chustling--he hadn't had that much experience. There'd been some casual bundling he'd been part of back in that year or so he'd been seen to be closing in on adult size, but that had been pretty tentative all around.
    And Freza, on Chustling! By then he'd been dreaming pretty often about her, because they'd been on parallel course there for a while, the Market and Balrog, and they'd been pretty comfortable with each other, comfortable enough to talk as well as touch. That's where he was still frustrated because not only had they liked each other, but they'd agreed that it would be a good time to wander off together while the older folks were drinking and doing their shivaree setups and they'd be able to be out of the wild rudeness some of the older folks clamored for and just have their own time, figuring it was time.
    Shaking his head, he remembered Dyk rounding the corner where they were standing nose to nose, holding hands, and Dyk saying, "You have to be quicker to disappear than that, Jeth! Captain said if I didn't find you for hatch duty, why, I'd be doing it myself by shift-start. I can see it ain't convenient, maybe, but I found you. Best meet me at the dock for turnover in seven minutes. Seeli's already been calling for her get-out-now."
    And Freza had made sounds something very like, "Mud and stinks," and not too quietly, either, before she said, "Six minutes!" and kissed him, hard, like they'd both been thinking about, too, while Dyk ducked his head and said, "Hi, there, Miz Freza . . . sorry!"
    Seeli'd seen him come in all grunch-faced, said, "Some ports are like that!" and left him to stare at the boarding screens, Dyk not having bothered to even step aboard.
    Freza . . . They hadn't matched shifts again, and ship-to-ship wasn't hardly the same, even when they could at least smile at each other. Not nearly the same when it could be four years before they were on the same route again. Then, of course, he'd shipped with Elthoria and it was likely Mac Gold or one of his brothers was all she'd been left with the next portside, and hollow comfort that was!
    He sighed, gustily.
    *
    First things first, he enabled the mail run, and found three other