Snippet #1965317

Neil listened to the captain’s opening lines, waiting for the questions. He was amused by Malhotra’s dragging it out. When the outside view was revealed Neil was stunned momentarily. He watched the starseeds, admiring their beauty. The colours washing over his face, reflecting in his eyes. The tint of his eyes shifted and changed with the colours of the starseeds. Neil was lost in the view and didn’t realize how his eyes were reacting.

Neil’s reverie was broken by Malhotra’s statement. He blinked and turned to look at the captain, his eyes shifting back to their normal view as he did. He was about to address the question when Malhotra asked him to think and walked away. Neil watched him walk away, confused, and slightly annoyed.

He couldn’t figure out what Mal’s angle was, “Why ask a leading question, then walk away? What the hell is there to think about? Is he trying to make me more nervous, thinking it’ll get me to talk? He obviously knows, so why draw it out. I’ve nothing to hide. It’s not like it’s a big secret that isn’t plastered all over the universal wanted lists. He doesn’t like it, the crew doesn’t like it, then I do my thing. Get them through the cargo inspection and move on. Whatever.”

Neil shrugged at the departing captain and move his gaze to Alanys. Even though he’d only had a few chats with her before the gap he realized he kind of liked her. She was friendly and easy to talk to. Now, though, she was giving him the once over. He watched her striking blue eyes take in all she could in a brief glance. He nodded to her, “Yup, she’s gotta know too. Why give me the eye like that? I bet she’s trying to figure out if I’d be a threat to the ship before the inspection. Whether to dump me now or take advantage of my contacts.”

Again, Neil was about to speak when the captain called her away, “Alright then. Typical drill. It’s not like I’ve not done this multiple times before. Same thing every time. They pretend they don’t know. They take a measure of how much I might lie to them. They figure out it’s not worth the risk to have me around, but they don’t quite want to go through the hassle of turning me in. Too many other things to risk having the military police poking around. So, I’m encouraged to seek another ship, since maybe I want to move around more than they plan to. Or maybe the next job doesn’t need my contacts. Or a hundred other excuses to kick me out. Wish it would have happened quicker, but I’ll deal with it when they come back. At least with all the activity in the area it shouldn’t be hard to find another ship to jump to if they decide they don’t want me around.”

Neil gave a satisfied nod and looked back to the controls. Keep the ship steady and bring her in easy. That’s all he figured he’d be asked to do while the captain was in the hold, “Easy enough. Not much going on out there right now. The inspection will be the challenge. Better start making inquiries around to find out who the ‘right’ inspection officer is.”

Neil turned to Hank. Neil hadn’t had any significant interactions with their techie and couldn’t really pinpoint how he felt about him. However, at this point he needed some secure communications and no time like the present to meet someone, “Hey, Hank right? Or would you prefer Fede on the bridge? Anyway, can you set me up with an encrypted communication line? It will probably have to jump around various end points in customs and inspections. I need to figure out who we want to come aboard and play the inspection game with us.”