Vitalis Omnibus by Jason Halstead Read Free Book Online

Kira’s hand a squeeze. They started to leave but were stopped by the Captain calling Kira back. With a nervous flutter in her stomach, she waved goodbye to Eric and turned to face the Captain.
    “It’s been itching at me for a while and I just can’t figure it out. That’s unusual . Most things I can’t figure I don’t let get to me,” he began and then paused to look at her.
    Kira felt a weight press on her chest, making it difficult to breathe. Was the Captain making a pass at her? Or worse, was he going to extort her into doing something?
    “I was contacted by somebody with no name and no face, you see. Someone that offered me a tidy sum to take you on. Quarter of it was just to agree to meet you; the remainder is released when we check in at the mining station.” Captain Sharp studied her, his eyes trying to pierce the skin from her face. Kira stood steady. She had no idea what he was talking about. She had no relatives or mysterious benefactors out there. Her parents had died when she was a child, innocent bystanders killed in an uprising over food.
    “I thought maybe that somebody was you. Computer disguises the voice, darkens and blurs the image, you know how it is. Looking at you now though, I see you’ve got no idea.”
    “No, sir,” Kira said. “I’m about the loneliest person the universe has ever seen.”
    “I see ; just you and whoever you’re shacking up with, and they’re just the flavor of the week?”
    “No!” She fell silent after blurting out her answer. It pissed her off ; what she felt was real! She’d never trusted herself to have a boyfriend or more than an occasional lover. She gave up trying until Eric. Or at least she thought she gave up. Her blackouts lasted months sometimes; maybe she was shacking up with any flavor of the week.
    “None of my business,” Captain Sharp said softly. “What you do on your time is your business, not mine. Long as it don’t bring trouble to my ship or crew, you can screw whoever you want and I’ll just sit back and be envious.”
    “Envious?” Kira asked, disrupted from her depressing thoughts by his choice of words.
    “Yeah, you’re getting some action and I’m stuck doing Captain-y things.”
    Kira smirked. The last thing she wanted to do was smile, especially with the things Captain Sharp was saying, but she couldn’t help it.
    “You’re a good navigator. A little inexperienced sometimes, but you’ve also come up with some things I wouldn’t have expected. I did a little checking into you, but everything checks out fine, even if you like to move around a lot. I wasn’t supposed to — that mysterious benefactor of yours wanted me to take you on sight unseen. I can’t operate like that. I tell you what though, I’ll split this signing bonus with you fifty – fifty if you keep your head on your shoulders, you keep Eric in line, you don’t go disrupting my ship, and if you can come up with some way of keeping us from smashing the Mule to pieces when it comes docking time.”
    Kira stared at him until her eyes started to hurt from the strain. She nodded and looked away, her eyes going to her station. “Yes , sir,” she said softly. “But sir, if Eric leaves, I have to go with him. He’s all I’ve got.”
    “I understand, Kira. Trust me, I understand.”
    She looked up at him sharply. “Was there someone…”
    Sharp’s eyes focused and he looked at her. He chuckled and shook his head. “A girl? Naw, they just hold a good man back. Look around you —the Mule . She’s my pride and joy. She might not be much but she means I’m a free man in charge of my own life. You don’t turn your back on that sort of thing, not if you got two working grey cells between your ears.”
    Kira thought his sentimentality over the transport they were on was silly, but aside from a raised eyebrow she tried to keep it off her face. Sharp chuckled. “That’s all right . I’ve got your secrets; you can keep mine, too.”
    Kira smiled. It