Friends and Enemies (Gwen Farris Book 5) by P.S. Power

Author:P.S. Power [Power, P.S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Orange Cat Publishing
Published: 2015-03-28T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter eight

Gwen hadn't gotten much sleep, as they traveled. No one had expected much from her, but the Vernor Industries fleet wasn't exactly meant to hold passengers. They'd been tucked into tiny quarters, sharing a room, once they were on The Falcon. It was one of the staterooms, too. What officers would have gotten if they were working the cruise.

The craft itself was vast, taking up a lot of the large hangar it was in. Hundreds of feet long, just for the gondola section under the bag. It had taken several minutes to walk to the room they were in, which was in officer country. Up front and near the top, being on the fifth of the six decks the thing had. The load of goods was carried on the bottom, for the most part.

For some reason everyone seemed surprised when she climbed into one of her tan jumpsuits, and headed toward the loading bay. From her time on the Peregrine Gwen knew that everyone was needed to do that work. The boring and physically challenging part of the whole thing. It sped things up and shared the load, if nothing else. So she was a bit shocked when everyone there looked at her like she had two heads on her shoulders.

"Ma'am? Can... I help you? Do you need the galley, or to see the Captain?" The person that spoke to her was a younger man who had the clean cut look that a lot of the people on the boat did. Ex-Air Navy, most likely. Why he hadn't joined back up was a question, but the simple answer was that the guy had probably gotten out in the last month, so just hadn't had to bother.

He seemed polite enough, but looked concerned, as if she were trying to steal something. Not that she was going to get away with it, if she tried. The space was too large and open for that.

"Here to load. When's the next wagon coming?"

"Um. In about half an hour? We have six coming then, back to back. I didn't know we had a girl loader on this run. Are you new?"

Gwen was about to explain, when she heard a pirate speaking from behind her. It was like she was suddenly in a movie, and was about to be offered a flagon of rum. The guy even had a peg leg, on the right. It made him memorable, if nothing else.

"This'n be der charging lass. Kept us up in the air last winter, by her lonesome as like, for weeks, when the Chargin Union crapped out on us again. She says she's a'loadin this trip, then she is. Off The Peregrine, I hear, so do what she says. Curly be her name. Better than you lot deserve, so pay attention to what she tells ya."

It was a load of crap, more or less, and clearly so, but the man was the Captain, so the other man just nodded about it.

"Yes, sir. I'm Ponder, ma'am. Um... We have some coffee?"

She nodded, since that was the way things got done as far as loading went.

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