Heath sat back on the bridge, watching a move and not absorbing any of the plot while everyone else relaxed in the training rooms or their bunks. In an effort to speed things along, they were cutting their stops down as much as possible. Get in, dump the cargo, pick up whatever is new, and get out. No fun sidequests to clear out a magic monster, no interesting flying, no delving. Just utilitarian cargo work.

  What he had assumed he’d spend his whole life doing, and what was now grating on his nerves. It was almost as bad as their long stretch out to the Edge. Though he didn’t blame the contracts. That lay entirely with their unwelcome guest. He would appear as a specter, without warning, and put a damper on any conversation they were able to get started.

  No name had been offered, and the crew had taken to calling him the Accountant in their own discussions. If only to relax themselves and avoid further speculation. Silent movement and a dangerous aura weren’t normal accounting Skills, but that beat most of the other options and let them pretend they weren’t sitting around as prey for a feral lion.

  Copperfield stormed onto the bridge and collapsed into his own seat, kicking up his feet and watching the movie. Since he also used a [Ship Maintenance] to clean the area, Heath didn’t comment.

  “Two more weeks,” he said a few minutes later.

  “That’s right.”

  “What are you thinking, for afterwards?”

  “Why, you have ideas?”

  His friend shrugged. “Not really. Just wondering if it might make sense to go further. A few more sectors than usual to get the Syndicate off our back.

  “Maybe,” Heath allowed. He had thought the same thing. “It will take a half a year to get far enough that it won’t matter. At least if we stick to the Rim.”

  Like traversing the outer edge of a wheel instead of moving further towards the middle, travel to distant sectors took a long time on the Rim, with their lower jump gate density and longer flights between fully-tamed systems. But picking up jobs on the way, they could do it with the only cost being time. They could go closer to the Core, take one of the Portals, to cross half the Empire in an afternoon. The Class-expanded jump gates were expensive though, and cargo competition in the Core was fierce. Too expensive for the Loon in its current state.

  They watched the rest of the vid in silence, before shuffling off to their respective bunks.

  **********

  “He’s always right there. Loon, come on, tell us. He just meditates all day, doesn’t he? Or is there Skill practice when everyone else is sleeping?”

  “I am unwilling to speak of activities of my passengers, unless they present a clear and present danger to themselves or others.”

  “Come onnnn,” Copperfield continued to whine.

  “Yes, Crewmember Copperfield.”

  “Wait really?”

  “Yes Crewmember.”

  “Why are you talking like that?”

  “Like what?”

  Heath and the rest of the crew all shouted and turned to find the Accountant standing on the bridge. The gentle swish of the door opening had been hidden behind whatever kept the rest of his movements from being noticed.

  “Nothing,” Heath said, far too quickly. He might as well have just shouted “we’re hiding things”. “Can I help you?”

  “I’m confirming we are still on schedule, per the instructions given.” It was a flat monotone that made him feel like he should be looking for a place to hide. Even when asking a question, it was if the man couldn’t drum up the energy it took to care.

  “That’s correct.”

  “What’s that?”

  Heath followed the man’s sightline to his own station. Where his good luck charm was sitting in pride of place. “That’s nothing,” he lied, grabbing it off the small, purpose-built shelf. “A souvenir from my uncle.”

  “Expensive souvenir.” Then the man walked over and plucked it out of Heath’s hand. His own resistance was brushed away like a cobweb, and then the Accountant was walking off the bridge.

  The hatch slammed shut with an audible clang. “That’s not yours,” Heath said.

  “It is now,” the man replied. “After all. Accountants need to eat too. Cute trick with the door. Time to open it.”

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  “Sure, when you hand me back my property.”

  “Hmm. How about, I take this, and as a thank you, I won’t mention your weird ship to anyone else? Now open the door.”

  Heath looked into the man’s eyes and didn’t like what he saw. The first frisson of excitement he had seen from the man, only when the threat of violence emerged.

  “Let him out.”

  The door opened and the man was gone.

  “What the actual fuck?” Heath said.

  “Perception ability. Best I’ve ever heard of if it works in a starship and none of us could feel it. He’s not that much stronger, but it means he was listening. Probably the whole time.” Emerald shifted in their seat, frowning at the door.

  “Fuck,” Copperfield said.

  Heath could only agree. He thought back across the last week. Every snide comment, accounting joke, and complaint. Those were fine, if embarrassing. What was worse were the dozens of times he had spoken with the Loon. Always when they were alone. But if their unwelcome could hear through sealed hatches, then they were exposed.

  And trapped. They had another week and a half to their final destination, with no stops in between. Which made sense in its own twisted way. The Syndicate member had waited and listened until they were stuck, and then taken what he wanted. It was so obvious, and so fucking stupid.

  There wasn’t anything to do about it. Heath couldn’t turn back, and they weren’t starting a fight on the Wandering Loon. Not if they wanted to make it to their next stop in one piece. There was still plenty of damage a dangerous Classer could do out in the abyss.

  *********

  When Heath arrived on the bridge for his next shift, he greeted Emerald, getting off their own bridge duty, before sitting down. Knowing their every conversation was able to be overheard made it difficult to do anything. He was even overthinking the volume of his own breathing and what it told the eavesdropper.

  He was zoned out until text started crawling across his screen. Then he was conscious about his breathing for another reason. Nodding to the room at large, the text cleared. His shift went by normally, without any oddities beyond a high-stress trip to the bathroom. Then he handed the bridge off to Copperfield and went to do a round of combat training to give himself a believable reason for his heart to race.

  *********

  “All crew to the bridge. All crew to the bridge.”

  Heath sprinted out of his bunk, one arm in and one out of his coveralls from where he had been getting dressed. The others piled in behind him, getting to stations in seconds after the Loon’s announcement.

  “Status!”

  “Sensors clear!” Emerald said.

  The frantic action on the bridge paused. “Loon?”

  “Apologies. But it is done.”

  He slumped back in his chair, dishevelment forgotten.

  “What happened?” Jenny Mae asked. “Is everything alright?”

  “Take it away,” Heath told the ship. It hadn’t been his idea, after all.

  “Very well, Heath. As you know, two days ago, our guest revealed himself as a thief and a spy, having ascertained some, though not all, of my own secrets. He then threatened you and the rest of the crew if you were to resist his actions.

  “I believe he thinks me an advanced ai, but nothing more. And thus felt no compunctions about continuing to consume water and nutrient slurries from the mess hall. After his confrontation, I hatched a plan to change the chemical composition of said consumables. Heath assisted by flushing various soporifics and other medical supplies to be recycled. This morning, I embedded the final stage.”

  Flushing pure credits had been painful, they were operating on thin margins as it was. “Loon,” Heath said, drawing the name out. “What is the status of the Accountant?”

  “He is currently unconscious. With continued doses of the anesthetic drugs, he will remain that way. We have enough to hold him for a projected four days, based on level and corresponding attribute estimates.”

  “Most people like that have more recovery than you think,” Ekaterina said. “You had better count on two at most.”

  He swiveled on his chair, making eye contact with each of the crew members in turn. “Here’s the deal. If we divert, we have enough time to make it through a gate and drop him on the planet in the Caramov system. But then we’ll have to run. It will take the guy a little while to get back to civilization, but we’re going to need to get far enough away that it’s not worth coming after us.”

  “But. But. We can’t just drop an unconscious guy in the wilderness,” Jenny Mae pleaded. “That’s not who we are.”

  “She’s right,” Ekaterina agreed. “We should not be shying away from the reality of the matter. If we drop him on a planet he’ll eventually get back to the Syndicate. Cockroaches always survive. We should drop him in a star. Then we can go to our drop point, and leave again. Then the Syndicate can come knocking and we have deniability.”

  “That’s stone cold,” Copperfield said, “even for you.”

  “It is not what I would prefer,” she admitted. “But I don’t see a better option. Leaving enemies behind you is asking for reprisal.”

  “Hey, that wasn’t a complaint. I can name five Captains from my last fleet that would do the same thing. And it’s something we should consider. I don’t like it either but your argument isn’t wrong.”

  “Kids got a point,” Emerald muttered.

  “No! We can’t just kill a guy. I take it back, I like Heath’s plan.” Jenny Mae pulled up a few system descriptions from their atlas program. “Look, these are far enough away, we can go there.”

  “It’s risky,” Copperfield countered. “The airlock option is hard to mess up.”

  “It might be risky,” Heath said. “But it’s what we’re doing. This guy is an asshole, but he hasn’t done anything to us yet. And we don’t know what he is planning for the Syndicate. We aren’t going to kill him in cold blood.”

  “Very well,” Ekaterina said.

  “Just like that?” Copperfield looked to the Wizard accusingly. “You open with ‘Hey what about murder’ and then just back down?”

  “I was expressing the tactically optimal solution. Not what I wished for. I am not a monster.”

  “Well said, Crewmember Ekaterina.”

  Decision made, they went about enacting it. Their course adjustment was subtle, taking them to a closer gate than the one they had been aiming for. The Loon’s top speed had increased again, and they pressed every bit of that advantage. There was a shipping timeline to keep to, and if they were late, the Syndicate would be onto them that much sooner.

  The jump was smooth, taking them into the Camarov system. It was a bit more populated than Heath would like, but as their only choice they would make do. Their planetary traffic control hailed the Loon when it was clear they weren’t approaching port.

  “Where are you headed?”

  “We’ve heard the Alcatraz Waterfalls are the best hidden gem in the nearest five sectors. We were hoping to take a peek.”

  “Roger that, Wandering Loon. Enjoy the views.”

  May all the gods bless Jenny Mae for the excuse and her obsessive need to research every system they came within three jumps of. Their trip to the waterfalls was smooth, giving Heath plenty of time for a last minute panic about his decision.

  The sight was beautiful. Stunning, even if most colonized planets were mundane when compared to the coral system they had glimpsed out past the Edge. The waterfall formed an almost perfect circle, seven rivers in a rainbow of colors converging at the same point. The falls plunged a kilometer beneath the surface, filling a column of basalt rock with the corrosive mists. Bioluminescent lichens covered the open space, giving off enough light to appreciate the sight. Heath used [Hull Integrity] a few times, just to be safe.

  Normally, a site like that would be swarming with tourists. That is to say, the absolute worst place to drop an unconscious body.

  But their Administrator wasn’t so sloppy. The waterfalls were the only entry point to a massive sinkhole-and-cavern system. The liquid was too corrosive for most planetary craft, and the air above it was dangerous to breathe due to the spray, so only an atmosphere-capable ship with filtering, or a vacuum-capable ship like the Loon, could take people to see it.

  They took half an hour and soaked in the view to make it believable. Then they went back up to the top of the sinkhole, where the air was perfectly fine, and dropped their unconscious Accountant.

  In a fit of guilt, Heath left a bag of dried rations and a large water bottle next to the man. They left the same way they came, with no one the wiser.

  “That was disturbingly easy,” Ekaterina said when they were back on their scheduled course.

  “Welcome to the Rim,” Emerald said. “A lot of room to drop a body.”