"She is not to be considered a romantic object unless she so desires. You.would expect to not be pursued sexually by a homo or bi crewman, wouldn't you?" Tor nodded, and Jirik resumed, "Well, you will accord her the same treatment and respect that you would expect from a crewman who was homo or bi rather than hetero. If a sexual relationship does develop between two crewmembers, it is entirely their affair. You will respect her privacy, and that of any other crewmember with whom she becomes involved, should such a relationship develop. I will tolerate no unwelcome sexual advances by any crewmember toward any other, and I will not tolerate petty jealousies or other juvenile sexual didoes. Is that clear?" Tor, who had been listening intently, nodded.
The three lapsed into a technical discussion of the preparations for the voyage, which continued until the purr of the vidphone brought Jirik to his feet. One of the spacer captains had located an astrogator. At Jirik's invitation, the captain sent the man on his way to the Lass, and transmitted the man's logbook ahead.
The man's name was Bo Akito. He was an Alliance citizen, from one of the outer planets bordering the rim worlds. He had been in space some five years, all in the outer reaches of the Alliance and in the rim worlds. His performance reports were uniformly favorable, if not enthusiastic. He had signed off his last ship, a rim tramp, slightly over a year before, with the avowed purpose of "taking some courses at the University." He had changed his mind, and was looking for a berth.
Jirik sighed. This Akito looked like a much likelier convert to Actionism than Telson, and thus a much likelier spy. Naturally, an effective spy wouldn't look like a likely spy. But then, the Actionists would have needed a qualified Astrogator with reasonably good credentials. That would have limited their choices of spies. Jirik groaned. Damn this spook stuff! By the time they got back from Alpha, he was going to be a nervous wreck from trying to sort out wheels within wheels.
The hell with it, he decided firmly for the thousandth time; he'd just talk to this Akito character, and make his judgment just as though the situation were normal. If the astrogator he signed on were not the actionist spy, the Actionists were in no position to bitch about it, and neither was that damned spook. He shrugged. He'd make the decision that was best for the crew and the Lass, and let the spy crap sort itself out!
Bo Akito arrived about 15 minutes later. He was short and stocky, with straight black hair and an obsequious manner that Jirik found annoying. He spent about 15 minutes discussing the man's qualifications with him. Akito had never been to the inner Empire; in fact, he had not been to the Empire at all since childhood. All of his experience had been along the outer fringes of the Alliance and along the rim. He had been only in rim tramps; he had never conned a vessel as large as the Lass.
Jirik was not unduly impressed with either the man or his experience, but, in fairness, he set up an astrogation problem for Akito, one which would involve computing jumps and recalibration stops among the crowded inner Empire systems, and including some of the more exotic navigational hazards of those systems. Then, he took a nap. When he awoke three hours later, Akito was just finishing the problem. Jirik surveyed Akito's course data glumly. The man might be an acceptable astrogator on the rim, but he'd be a disaster in the inner Empire.
At one point, the man had actually programmed their course through a star! At another, he had routed them through the Casbury system, an area that spacers avoided like a plague, since it was situated in the middle of a huge dust cloud, containing rocks up to several meters in diameter. Jirik sighed. Well, he obviously had no choice. He ushered Akito out as gracefully as possible, then called Telson, telling her to report to the Lass at 1500, which, he was surprised to note, was only a half-hour away, 1ocal.
As soon as he disconnected from Telson, Jirik hurried down to Engineering to compare notes with Bran.
"Here's how I figure it now," he continued after bringing Bran up to date. "This Bo Akito may have been the spy. I hope so, but we can't count on it. Now, this may be our last opportunity to freely discuss the situation; that Tomys bastard warned me that any spy worth his salt would bug all the areas that he could on the ship, as a precaution. And he's probably right, the sonovabitch."
Bran nodded agreement. "I agree. Once we lift off, we won't be able to talk about spies, and Tomys, and smugglers. We'll just have to be dumb rocket jocks on a book run until we get to Alpha." He sighed, shaking his head. "It's going to be a long run!"
"Yeah," Jirik agreed morosely. "Is there anything that we need to talk about now, while we can?"
"One thing I can think of, Captain," Bran replied. "Have you talked much to Tor recently? I mean, about general things?"
Jirik frowned. "Well, yeah, we talked a bit at the hospital What did you have in mind?"
Bran shrugged expressively. "I can't say for sure, Captain, but I think Tor has become something of an Actionist. I suspect that we got him curious, by telling him to nose around, but I'm afraid he's gone a lot further into it than we intended. He's been reading quite a lot of their propaganda materials, and he's borrowed my Atmos book discs. I didn't discuss it with him at any length, but I'm afraid he's beginning to sound like a religious convert."
Jirik's hand slammed into the table. "Damn! As if we didn't have enough to worry about!" He glowered as he collected his thoughts. "Well, with a possible spy on board, we can't try very hard to talk him out of it. I guess for the time being, the most that we can do is a short lecture on the stupidity of spacers becoming involved in politics, and a continuous air of disapproval every time he brings it up."
Bran nodded soberly. "Until this is over, we have no choice. If this Telson is a spy, a really aggressive approach might make her wonder about us."
"All right," Jirik decreed firmly, "I'll give him the politics lecture the first time he mentions it. From then on, we both act abrupt and impatient every time he says an Actionist word. And keep your eye on Telson any time the kid starts spouting politics. Maybe it'll smoke her out."
Via Telson reported aboard precisely at 1500. Jirik introduced her to Bran and Tor, watching carefully for signs of future trouble. None appeared, though Tor's openmouthed awe at meeting such an exotic woman amused him, and Telson dropped her kit in Valt's stateroom before going straight to the Astrogator's cubby to begin her calculations. By 1700 local the courses had been computed, and Jirik reviewed them carefully. He was impressed. Telson had computed nearly optimum courses through Alliance space, while avoiding popular recalibration points. Her course in Empire space was somewhat more tortuous, but not unduly so given the risks of this mission. There was no doubt the woman was good!
They lifted off at 1835 local. Jirik heaved a huge sigh of relief at his temporary escape from the complexities of interstellar intrigue.
As soon as they cleared the Boondock system, and were safely Supralight, the four convened on the mess deck for the delicate social ceremony of getting acquainted in an enforced association. The discomfort was palpable, but watching carefully, Jirik decided that Telson was giving it a fair effort. He relaxed slightly.
Tor was the one who made the job easier. He was immediately and obviously smitten by the exotic golden woman, and his obviously unalloyed interest and eagerness to know her made it impossible for Telson to take offense at anything he said. His puppylike enthusiasm and mix of sophisticated and naive questions had everyone smiling, including Telson.