“And you sell the disks as you would prints?” he asked.
“Exactly so. You put out, say, fifty to a thousand disks of each work, each one with a certificate of authenticity. So what do you think?”
Velmeran shrugged. “It is very interesting, but still just a toy.”
“Sure, but it is!” the girl declared, laughing. “But collectors are paying a lot for these toys just now. But then, that’s all art has ever been to most collectors anyway.”
Velmeran laughed at the obvious scorn in her voice. “You must be the artist.”
“And you obviously are not a collector,” she said in return, and nodded politely. “Lenna Makayen.”
“Er… Rachmaninoff. Sergei Rachmaninoff.” Unprepared for that question, he had to think fast… and he could have done better.”
“So, what brings you to a place like this, anyway?”
“Business, of course.”
“Business?” she asked. “You’re not a wool merchant, that’s for certain. What other kind of business would bring you to this hole?”
“I am in… salvage and redistribution, you might say,” he replied cautiously. “I am just passing through… on business.”
“And how long will you be here, do you suppose?”
“Now that I cannot say. I will just have to wait and see.”
“Wait and see when the Starwolves are ready to move on?” Lenna asked sharply. “Salvage and redistribution indeed! You manage their loot for them, don’t you? You’re a Trader, aren’t you?”
Velmeran smiled. “How did you guess?”
“My mother was of the Traders,” she explained proudly. “I’ve got her looks. And you look like me, only more so, if you take my meaning. Traders are small and tough, with big eyes and small noses. You stand about five feet tall, as they say locally, about a hundred and fifty meters tall, and I’m not two centimeters taller. Not quite human, they say. So, what will you be doing until the Starwolves move off again?”
“I do not really know,” he admitted. “Just waiting.”
“Then you can wait with me,” Lenna said decisively. “My buyer has been in port, and he payed me a small fortune, so I was going to celebrate. Come along and I’ll buy you a beer.”
They were outside and marching down the street at a furious pace before Velmeran knew what was going on. Lenna’s energy and enthusiasm was a bit overpowering for a sedate Kelvessan; she made even the extroverted Consherra seem quiet and shy. Still, Velmeran thought that he might go along with it. There was something of a challenge to it; he wondered how long he could keep up this game without giving himself away. He also wondered what Lenna’s reaction would be to discovering that she was flirting so energetically with a Starwolf.
“You would be hard-pressed to entertain yourself two days in this place, much less two weeks,” Lenna continued briskly. “You need someone to show you around. What do you say?”
“I might agree,” Velmeran replied. “If you tell me what happened to your accent.”
“Ah, but my local tongue’s just to show my clients,” she said, the accent back and thicker than ever. “Said I was of Trader stock. Born and bred on a freighter, so I was. But I’ve lived here half of my twenty-five years.”
He resorted to a fairly standard question. “Do you enjoy your work?”
“The truth is, I fly a freight shuttle for the Trade Association, and I love flying too well to give it up. I’d leave here in an instant to go back to the Traders, but that isn’t likely.”
“Why not?”
“No formal training,” she said bitterly. “My father saw to that.”
Before Velmeran could question that, Lenna directed him into a small restaurant, hardly more than an indoor cafe, and sat him at a table by the front window while she went to get drinks for the two of them.
“My father was local,” she began as she sat down. “But he had no land and no herd, and there’s not much else you can do in this place. But our treaty allows us to hire on in their military as civilian technicians. Got his training that way, in drive mechanics. He stayed with them four years, then came back here, married, and had a son. But the money he’d saved soon ran out and his first wife left him. Then it happened that an independent freighter came in and got stranded at port for want of repairs her crew could not do, so he fixed her up. Being Kanian, he could take G’s better than most, so they gave him a contract. Soon it looked like he was settled in to stay.
“Then, one day, their ship was rammed by a tender as they were coming in to station. Damage was slight, but my mother was gone. And my father was very bitter about it. He flew back here and did his best to forget about space… which was hard enough with me around, looking like a Trader. I was too young to understand, and it seemed to me like he brought me here just to make me miserable. Especially once my older brother came to live with us.”
“You could get the training you needed, just like your father did,” he suggested hopefully.
Lenna shook her head sadly. “You have to be twenty-one to get Union training, but you can’t travel off-world without parental permission until you are twenty-one. Naturally, my father wouldn’t sign. I did get flight training locally, enough to convince the Trade Association to hire me on as an apprentice for a year until the old pilot retired.”
“Surely your father’s old texts…?”
“Do you really think my father kept his books?” she asked. “I was able to get the texts for helm and navigation, and I taught myself. I know enough to get a ship from here to there. I’m certainly ready for an apprenticeship on a Trader.”
Velmeran pointedly refused to answer that, for he knew only too well what she was asking him. She thought him to be a Trader; in his rich dress and manner, perhaps a senior officer or even a Captain. She was desperate, and she hoped that he would give her what she wanted. And Velmeran felt guilty, since there was little he could do to help her.
“Treck is back in town,” someone behind him said suddenly.
Velmeran had no idea what that could mean, but Lenna obviously did. Her eyes widened and her face turned from lightly tan to chalky white. Whatever else it might mean, it was obviously a threat and intended as one.
“So what’s that to me?” Lenna demanded.
A pair of rangers, fresh from the highlands, appeared from behind Velmeran to stand at either side of the table. They were young and a matched pair of second-rate bullies, the one to his left short, stocky, and stupid, while the other, the speaker, was tall and lean. They were ragged, dirty, and fairly rank. Kelvessan had no sense of smell, but he could guess that part. But they must have something of a reputation, judging by the way the rest of the patrons were slowly retreating.
“You know the answer to that,” the tall one said, sneering. “Treck Lesries has put his name on you, and he doesn’t like for his girls to run around on him.”
“I’m not afraid of Treck Lesries,” Lenna declared.
“No, I’m sure you’re not. It’s your little friend here who’ll get his neck broke,” the tall one said, his threat now aimed at Velmeran. He put a hand on the Starwolf’s shoulder and did his best to knead the muscle painfully.
Velmeran reached up and took hold of the offending wrist, applying pressure until both bones snapped loudly. The tall ranger gasped in pain and sank to his knees, for Velmeran did not let go. “If you are Treck Lesries’s messenger, then you can take him this message. Tell him to get out of town.”
“Lesries can take care of you!” the ranger threatened, his voice sharp with pain. “He’s half Starwolf, you know.”
Velmeran laughed aloud. “Do not be a complete idiot! No one can be half Starwolf.”
“He’ll show you what he can do!” the other squealed.
Velmeran laughed again. “I have enemies that make your Treck Lesries seem like a child. Now go.”
He squeezed the wrist until the ranger screamed in agony, then gave him a shove. The stocky ranger caught him, taking him under the arms to half carry his friend, nearly faint with pain, toward the door. Velmeran watched them until they were gone, then saw that Lenna was staring at him.
“Do not be afraid of me,” he said. “I might not hesitate to use violence, but only against those who ask for it.”
“You broke his damned wrist,” Lenna muttered in open awe. “You took hold of it and it snapped. Sergei, you’ve got to get out of here. Treck won’t take it well, not at all. He’ll kill you when he finds you.”