Although the need for it had passed nearly a century ago with the death
of his first chief engineer, David still paused at the door to his own
office and knocked. When he was satisfied that there was nobody inside,
he took his seat behind his desk and turned on the terminal, listening
to the familiar *beep*.

“This is a stupid routine,” he said aloud to an empty room, punching in
his Captains Authority just to get an Internet connection. The screen
dutifully announced “Identity Address Suffix of The Rat’s Success…
Prior Address… Present Address… Originating Address… Identity
Established. Mail Routing Underway; Please Wait Fifteen To Twenty
Minutes.” David nodded, touched a few more buttons on his keyboard, and
summoned his spreadsheet program. What he saw initially made him frown;
although he made his way to Augustus mostly to pick up raw materials,
good trading practices dictated that he try and find cargo he could sell
here as well. Prices weren’t wonderful. A more in-depth analysis
revealed a different situation; some of the processed timing circuitry
he had in the back would sell very well to the local mining operation.
He rarely turned a profit on the outward leg of the Augustus route, but
it seemed this time he would actually succeed in paying profits to his
crew.

As he worked his way through his manifest and juggled numbers, a red
circle annoyingly popped up in one corner and announced YOU HAVE MAIL.
“That’s a surprise,” he playfully mocked the announcement. He brushed
his finger over the circle on the screen and banished it to the
background.

When he closed the spreadsheet, the circle returned. Deciding to get it
over with now, rather than later, he asked to see his mail. The list was
short; only seven letters had accumulated in the nine days since he’d
left Wisdom. Two were official, one was from home, one was from a
consortium of art dealers he had dealt with before with some success.
The fifth address stopped him momentarily.

Kennet Shardik at Shardik Castle, Rocchodain, Pendor.

TEXT ONLY.

David looked at the header with concern. Why was Denni’s grandfather
contacting him? He touched the screen over entry five and proceeded to
read. He wasn’t halfway through the letter when he snapped his terminal
off and left his office, running.

He reached his cabin a little out of breath, opened the door and walked
back to the bedroom. “Denni,” he said, sitting on the bed and shaking
his wife. “Wake up.”

“Mrf?” she replied grumpily, looking up and blinking at the clock.
“David… my shift ended less the five hours ago. ‘M exhausted.”

He smiled, stroking her head gently. “I know, love, but I got email from
your grandfather, Ken.”

“So?” she said into her pillow. “‘ll read it when ‘m awake.”

“No, you don’t understand, Denni. *I* got mail from Ken Shardik. A
business deal. Here, read it!”

“What?” Denni said, sitting up suddenly. David noticed with satisfaction
that she treated business with seriousness; an offer from a Pendorian
trading group was nothing to be looked at lightly. Taking one could be
extremely lucrative or ruinous. So far, any such deals he had accepted
had been the former, probably in no small part because his wife was
Pendorian. Not to mention a member of the Shardik household.

She stretched out on the bed facing the bedside terminal and punched up
her access. David unlocked the letter and she read it with apparent
interest. David spent the time looking over his wife’s body. In the past
century she’d gained a little weight about her hips, but nothing could
destroy the beauty he saw in her. Her dark skunkfur was still lush. And
he still had trouble not wishing to reach out and stroke her butt. He
knew it would distract her, but he finally did reach out anyway and
touched her, running the bare pads of his fingertips down her back and
butt, over her fur. She squirmed softly under his touch. “David, I’m
trying to read.”

He smiled and stopped reaching for her more secret places, simply
rubbing her back instead. She turned and looked at him when she was
done. “What do you think?”

“I think you have the most beautiful butt in the galaxy.”

Denni rolled her eyes and dragged her husband down onto the bed by the
lapels of his shirt. “And I think you’re silly, David. But, coming from
a starship captain who’s seen a lot of the galaxy, I guess that’s
something of a compliment.”

“You don’t mind that I tell you that often, do you?” he asked.

She shook her head, smiling. “I don’t mind. Maybe you say it too much
sometimes, but I don’t mind.” She smiled, letting the second pass. “So,
what do you think of the offer?”

“I think it’s incredible. A three-planet joint mission? A chance to
explore uncharted space? Did you see what he’s offering us in the end?”

She nodded. “‘Anything your heart desires. We’ll talk.’ But do you want
to do it, David? You’re no Fleet captain, no explorer hero. You’re a
merchanter, not a kirk. And this isn’t a crew of twenty or so plus
stewards; ships like this have nearly two thousand people on board. It’s
three years without seeing a standard P of C. Think, hon, before you
make your decision.”

David nodded soberly. Among the other things this trip would mean
abandoning his present trading effort, which up to this point had been
coming along quite well. For the first time in a long time his holds
were full, his ship was maintained, and his guns were charged. He
reached for the screen and pulled up the bottom of the letter. “Denni,”
he said, “I want to do it.”

“Why?” she asked. “Not that I’m telling you not to, but I’m curious
why.”

“Because I’ve been a free trader for my whole life.”

“It’s all you ever wanted,” she pointed out quietly.

“Yeah,” he said. “Then I met you.” He leaned over and gave her a gentle
kiss.

“Flatterer. So what are you saying?”

“Think of this as a vacation,” he replied. “Down here at the bottom.
‘I’ll cover transportation costs to Pendor, including lost revenue and
severance for your crew that doesn’t want to go with us.’ I think that’s
pretty blanket, Denni. He wants to see us on Pendor. We should head
there now, if I’m going to become accustomed to this enormous ship he
wants me to captain.”

She nodded, a little confused. “A vacation?”

“Yeah,” he said. “We’ve *always* been free traders; we know every P of C
in the galaxy; remember the time we agreed to take Bantha carcasses to
Remus just so we’d have an excuse to be there during a planet-to-planet
eclipse?”

She laughed softly. “Yeah, I remember. That was so romantic.”

“Speak for yourself; those carcasses made a disgusting mess of the
hold.” In his mind’s eye he remembered the high-powered steam hose and
the dark-brown, almost black blood that had dried to the floor of his
cargo holds, making them stink with a ferocity he knew would never be
matched anywhere in the galaxy.

“I was talking about your getting me to Remus in time to watch the
eclipse, lover.”

He grinned at her and nodded. “Anyway, I just want to do something where
it *isn’t* ‘just another port of call.'” He smiled. “Maybe it sounds
funny, but with entire centuries ahead of me, maybe I’m suddenly feeling
the need to do something that will get me into the history books.”

“David… do you remember the name of the first human to go as fast as
light?”

“Natasha Sviatoslavova Nepotselveva,” he said, smiling.

“Damn,” she said quietly. “I keep forgetting your interest in history.”

“Exactly, Denni. This is a chance to make history.” His smile faltered
for a moment and he looked down at his wife. “Please tell me you’ll be
my Number One.”

She reached up and stroked his cheek, brushing aside his whiskers and
making them twitch gently. “David, my love and my captain, I will always
be your Number One.”

He nodded. “So, do I send Ken mail telling him we’re on our way?”

She nodded. “And then tell the crew. We have to lift as soon as
possible. How fast can you move the cargo?”

“Two days. Maybe faster. Depends on how fast we can get fuel. The real
market for most of our hold is on the larger moon.”

“Let’s do it.” She smiled at him.

“Are you going back to sleep?” he asked, looking over her naked body as
she stretched and yawned in bed.

“I was having such a nice dream before you woke me,” she said, her voice
deepening and taking on a husky, dreamy quality. “You were there, and
the sea was there…” She nodded once, slowly, and then David felt sure
she was asleep.

He shook his head, smiling, and started to rise to leave when her hand
reached up and grabbed his tail. “David?” she asked gently.

He turned. “Hm?”

“Help me back to sleep?” She opened her eyes and looked up at him, her
smile wistful and wanting.

He sat back down on the bed as she released his tail, leaning over to
kiss her chin and lick her muzzle. She murred softly, a sigh escaping
from deep within her as his hands roamed over her chest, feeling her
breasts underneath his fingers, touching her nipples as they hardened.

He unclipped his jacket and tossed it aside, followed immediately by his
pants. He rolled into bed besides her, their bodies melding together.
David found it fascinating how the decades had made them so accustomed
to each other, how every time they lay together they just fit. Her hands
stroked along the sides of his body, and he touched her back, caressing
his wife urgently. She took her time, dreamily touching his body in the
places she knew. He took his care; Denni was always so very ticklish.
His melhood hardened under her caresses, and as she rolled him onto his
back and slid him into her, David appreciated just how much he loved,
her broad, blackfurred body, her bright eyes and her soft voice.

They made love without urgency; their life together had often demanded
that, together or independently, they act with all speed– such was the
life of a starship merchanter. They had both long ago agreed that they
would not bring that kind of impulse to bed with them. She leaned over
and rested her hands on his shoulders, her hips rising and lowering
slowly, her eyes open to stare into his.

“I love you,” he whispered up to her as he ran his hands through the
thick, deep fur of her thighs.

She rolled her head around, never taking her eyes off of his, as they
made love. “I love you too,” she replied, meaning every word of it.

Their lovemaking went on, David feeling his climax flowing into him as
if it came from her, and when he came she joined him. Neither was
particularly noisy or overcome by their pleasure, for it was a soft,
pleasant release shared between them, and it was all they asked of each
other. Contact, reassurance, and love; they gave it to each other
unreservedly and unquestioningly.

As David rolled her over onto her back, slipping out of her as he did
so, she was already well on her way down into sleep again, this time for
sure. He smiled, gave her a kiss on the cheek, dressed and left.

* * *

“Tasha.”

The Katckin on the screen looked composed and reserved, fitting her
usual demeanor. She was sipping from a steaming mug of decaffeinated
coffee. “You need me, David?”

“Set a course for Pendor. Best possible of speed; no ports of call.”

Both of Tasha’s eyebrows shot up, her ears swiveling forward as if to
confirm what David had said. “Pendor?”

“Pendor. Specifically, the Pelcityran Shipyards, but we’ll probably have
to go through Parma to get there. Is that clear?”

“Yes sir.” She was still staring at him. David could hardly blame her;
she had been with him longer than Denni, and she knew better than anyone
just how rarely he gave in to impulse. This order was, literally, coming
out of nowhere.

“There’ll be a conference in CF3 at 011:00. It’s already in your
mailbox.”

She nodded. “I’ll be there.” She set to fixing a course. “David?”

“Tash?”

“Fuel considerations?”

“None. Burn all of it if it’ll get us there faster.”

She nodded. “The money’s good on this one?”

“I don’t know,” David admitted. She turned back to the screen again, the
look of incredulity returning. “You know how curiosity killed the
Katckin?”

She looked nervous suddenly, and David realized that, from one
direction, it almost sounded as if he was about to tell her to mind her
own business. He smiled in hopes of relieving her concern and said,
“Tasha… this one’s just full of satisfaction.”

She smiled, easing. “Course set, David,” she said in her most forward
and professional voice.

“See you in four hours, Tasha.”

“I’ll be there.”