Today’s snippet isn’t a direct continuation of last week’s from my science fantasy story, Star Mage Exile , where Carina had to Cast in order to escape a deadly situation and to save her fellow mercs’ lives. The scene below is from later on, when the mercs have returned to their starship, Black Dog.
Carina saluted and left. Her story had only backed up the testimony given at earlier debriefings, but Cadwallader’s comment that the soldiers’ disappearance had been something else had her stomach in knots again.
The sound of fast-moving footsteps behind her made her stop and turn. It was Captain Speidel, striding quickly to catch up to her.
“We’re going in the same direction,” he said. “I thought we could walk together.”
As a private, Carina’s compliance was a given. The two continued on their way.
“How are things going for you?” Speidel asked.
“Pretty good, sir.”
“You can drop the sir for the moment, Carina.”
She shrugged. “Okay.” Speidel had talked with her in this friendly way a few times since recruiting her to the merc company. He’d pulled her out of a street brawl in the slums where she’d grown up and she was grateful to the older man for what he’d done.
“I wanted to give you a heads up,” Speidel went on. He put a hand on her shoulder. “Stop a moment.”
Carina turned to him.
The captain’s expression was serious and pained. “You can’t tell anyone else what I’m about to say to you. I can trust you, right?”
She nodded.
“Why am I even asking?” Speidel smiled. “You’re tighter than a drum. I wanted to let you know, things might be over soon for the company. We might be disbanding. So if you see an opportunity, you should probably take it.”
“Disbanding, s…?” She stopped herself just in time. “Why?”
“Tarsalan’s been complaining for some time now that she’s pouring creds in and making no profit. This last job might be the final straw. The client is refusing to pay the balance of the fee because the embassy was taken.”
“But they lied,” Carina exclaimed. “We were on our own and totally outnumbered. We could never have defended the place. If we hadn’t withdrawn, we would have been slaughtered.”
“That’s not what they’re saying at their end. But it doesn’t matter what they say. If they won’t pay, they won’t pay.”
“Maybe Tarsalan should send us on a mission to persuade them,” Carina said bitterly. Working as a merc was her life. She didn’t know what else she could do. She was damned if she would join the military and get paid a pittance.
Speidel gave a wry smile. “That might be effective one time, but as soon as word got out we’d never work again. It isn’t like merc bands are difficult to hire these days.”
“So you’re saying I should sign up with another company?”
“I don’t know. Soldiering’s a tough life. Maybe you should try something else while you’re still young and it isn’t burned into your bones. The galaxy’s a big place. There has to be some way for a young woman to make a living that doesn’t put her life on the line. You aren’t dyed-in-the-wool military like most of the others.”
Carina shook her head. “Fighting’s all I know.”
Speidel sighed and resumed walking. Carina went along with him.
“I sometimes wonder if I did the right thing,” Speidel said, “breaking up that fight you were in and signing you up as a merc. You might have ended up doing something less dangerous and more worthwhile.”
“No. You saved my life. I wasn’t winning that fight. I was being beaten to a pulp. If you hadn’t stepped in…” Carina’s memory of the event was vivid. Though she’d learned her fighting skills the hard way over the previous two years since Nai Nai died, even she was no match for the five boys who had set upon her. Their motive was only to have some fun, it seemed, as she had nothing to give them. It was a heavily bruised, bleeding Carina Captain Speidel had brought back to Black Dog and patched up. “Well, I wouldn’t be here now, that’s for sure.
“If you take my advice,” Speidel said, “you won’t be here for much longer.” The captain’s comm button chirped. He listened to the message. “Looks like my dinner will have to wait. Think over what I said, Carina. It might be time for a change.”
As the captain turned to go back the way he’d come, Carina thought she saw a look in his eye that indicated he knew more than he was saying. She felt sick. Had the captain’s friendly advice been a cover for a deeper warning? Had he guessed her secret, and did he think that others were also drawing closer to the truth about what had really happened in the embassy fight?
Perhaps it was indeed time for her to move on.
Go here for Star Mage Exile Snippet III.