Vinn buttoned up the locks of the equipment ship, watched it float upward to begin the journey home, boarded his assigned transport.
"Where in blazes is Sheba?" the director demanded as he entered the lounge. "The captain is losing his mind."
"She came aboard at least three hours ago," Vinn said. "She said she was a bit tired. I imagine she's in her cabin."
"Do you think we're so stupid that we didn't check her cabin?" the director asked, lifting his hands in supplication to unknown deities.
Vinn went to Sheba's cabin. It was in perfect order, a condition which told him that Sheba had not spent much time there. He opened the closet.
Her wardrobe was arrayed on racks. Her luggage was in place on the upper shelf. He turned to leave just as Sheba's secretary appeared in the open door.
"Have you found her?" Vinn asked.
"No," the secretary said.
"Well, you know Sheba. She probably decided that she wanted to have one last walk in the forest."
"I don't think so, Mr. Stern," the secretary said. "Her survival kit is missing."
Vinn raised his eyebrows in question.
"A small bag. It contains her makeup, toothbrush, sleeping pills, a change of lingerie. Things like that. Things that if you have you can get along without the bags containing clothes and the rest of it."
"You're sure?"
"And her jewelry, too. A small box that fits into the travel kit."
"This is probably the dumbest thing you ever did, Queenie," Sheba told herself in a whisper as she sneaked out of the transport's cargo lock and ducked around behind the landing struts. From a short distance the sound of a flux engine came, purring softly as a cargo vessel prepared for liftoff.
She peered around the struts. The Erin Kenner sat with open locks.
Airvans from local ship's chandlers were parked near the open ports and as Sheba watched a man carried a crate of fresh greens into the ship. She waited until the greengrocer's van lifted away and another supply van was being moved next to the cargo lock.
With her little survival kit in her hand she walked to the open lock and entered. A worker came in directly behind her with a crate of fruit on his shoulder. On a wilderness planet there were no automatic conveyors to make resupply of a ship effortless. In the small space inside the lock a man in Service blues was checking off the crates of vegetables and fruit as they were loaded into the ship's chefmaster where they would be processed and stored. She ducked through a hatch. She had memorized the layout of the ship during the tour that Josh and Angela had conducted.
She ran through a tiny corridor that passed the entrance to the generator room, opened another hatch, ducked into the ship's gym.
"This is the dumbest thing you've ever done," she told herself as she settled down into a hidden nook behind a treadmill. The ship's climate conditioner was being affected by the open locks. It was working just a bit too efficiently, making for a slight chill in the air of the gym. She removed a tightly folded thermal sheet from her travel bag and wrapped it aroundher. Soon she was comfortable. Still convinced that she was doing the dumbest thing she'd ever done, she dozed.
Movement woke her. The ship was soaring. She could hear the distant hum of the flux drive. Her stomach lurched as outward acceleration ceased and ship's gravity cut in. In a matter of minutes she felt the peculiar sliding sensation inside as the blink generator was activated and the Erin Kenner was vaulted into nonspace for eternal microseconds. After the third jump she put the thermal sheet back into the survival kit and helped herself to water from a dispenser near the gym's entry door. She was getting hungry. Twice more she felt the eerie internal slide of a blink and then the ship was at rest.
She could hear the whisper of the ventilation system, and from deep within the metal bulkheads of the gym a series of tiny clicks.
She sat on a weight lifting bench and checked her watch. It seemed that she'd been in the gym for ages, but only four hours had passed since the last jump. She didn't know how long it would take for the Erin Kenner's generator to recharge, but she was getting not just hungry, but very damned hungry. She was preparing herself to open the door and exit the gym when the door opened and a husky young man in shorts stepped in, nodded at her, did a double take.
"And who might you be?" he asked.
"I'm an alien stowaway," she said.
"Nah," he said, grinning and shaking his head. "I saw you in Let The Night Come."
"Actually," she said, giving him her brightest smile, "that was one of my favorite films."
"I think it was terrible to kill off that beautiful girl," he said.
"But that's what made the film so poignant."
"Yes, I suppose so." He chewed on his lower lip in thought. "Captain doesn't know you're aboard?"
"No."
"It's strictly against regulations, you know."
"I suspect so."
He grinned widely. "Wanta hide out in my cabin for a while?"
"That's generous of you, but I don't want to get you into trouble."
He nodded. "Yes, it was a bad idea. Exciting to think about, but a bad idea."
"I suppose you'd better notify old Josh that his baby sister is aboard."
"The movie people gave us some rushes of your new film. I loved the scene where you fall in love with the Delanian."
"Thank you."
"You're sure you want me to call the captain?"
"What do you think?"
He sighed, stepped to a panel, pushed buttons, said, "This is Barkley; would you please ask the captain to come to the gym?"
Josh was wearing ship's shorts and tunic. His head was bare.
"I found her, Captain," the crewman named Barkley said, "can I keep her?"
"After I run her through the recycler you can have her," Josh said.
"Queenie, what the hell?" He looked at Barkley and said, "Thank you, Barkley."
"Yes, sir," Barkley said. "Anything I can do, sir?"
"Leave," Josh said.
"I was afraid of that," the crewman said, going out the door.
"You run a tight ship, Captain," Sheba said with a giggle.
"Damn it, Sheba."
"Something made me do it," she said, and the lightness was gone from her voice.
"Yes, sheer irresponsibility. Sheba, this is my first command. They gave me the newest and finest light ship in the fleet, and you're doing your best to see to it that not only do they take it away from me but take my captain's suns in the bargain."
"That bad, Josh?"
He shook his head, and a fond smile relaxed his face. "Why?"
She tried for lightness again. "It seemed like a good idea at the time."
His face darkened. "I had to, Josh," she said quickly. "I knew that you were going to look for Mom and Dad and there was no way that this ship was going to go into space without me. I had to."
"And I have to make a detour and put you off on a U.P. world."
"No, Josh, please."
The door opened and Angela, slim and lovely in a ship's one-piece, halted, her mouth open. "Barkley told me, but I didn't believe it."
"She had to do it," Josh said. "Something made her do it."
"I know," Angela said seriously.
"What?" Josh demanded.
"Why did we come to the wilderness world, Josh?" Angela asked.
"We had to take the ship on a shakedown cruise along well traveled routes. I used that opportunity to come to visit my little sister. I was foolish enough to want to introduce my new bride to her."
"And that's all?" Angela asked. "There was no other reason for choosing the world where Sheba was working?"
"No," Josh said, but his voice lacked conviction.