"He won't break the contract. I know he won't."
"Of course he will!" she responded. How dare her son have so little faith in his father. "He said he would find it, and he shall. Then we'll go."
She looked down at Ronno in his slumbertube. He stared into the featureless metallic enclosure.
"Ronno," she began softly. "He will come. Just one more run, and he'll take us to that better place. You'll see. I promise."
He looked up at her for a moment. She stroked his hair, and smiled before closing the hatch.
Enzio crumpled the communique. Damn them. Damn them all. He smashed his fist into a panel. He knew it was a bad idea, but he did it anyway.
Paper communiques had become the norm for classified information. It was easier to destroy a printout than stored data. Nano-nets could sweep up the holostorage in no time flat. Better to stick to old style encryption.
Of course, receiving any information on hardcopy was bad news.
Damn them all!
He walked down the hall toward the lounge. There was an incinerator in there where he could dispose of the paper. He could also get a cup of coffee. He needed the caffeine. It usually soothed his mind.
"Enzio, hang on."
Shit. Tasha jogged toward him from the other end of the corridor. She was in sweatpants and a T-shirt, sporting the Niik-Adids swoosh logo. A bandana hung around her neck.
"A little late for exercise, isn't it?"
"My clocks shot to hell anyway. What you got there?" she asked, pointing to the crumpled communiqe.
"Nothing," Enzio responded. He opened the lounge door and went straight for the incinerator.
"What do you mean, nothing. They don't send us paper for their amusement. That stuff costs a fortune."
"It's not like it's made of trees," he said, waving it in the air before dumping it down the chute. Then he went for his coffee. Tasha just stood there, a bit confused by the look of her. Good. She should stay confused. She was too curious for a first officer on a freighter. She asked too many questions.
Tasha shook her head and poured some water from a spotty glass jug that someone had left on one of the tables.
"So what did you want to talk to me about?" Enzio asked as he took a seat.
"What? Oh," she started, between gulps. "It's about our cargo."
"Ahh, Christ," he said while rolling his eyes.
"It's a legitimate question, for God's sake-- Don't roll your eyes at me!"
"I am not at liberty to discuss that, and you know it. Read your god-damned contract. It's right there." She always had to pry. Why the hell did corporate hire her, anyway?
"I read the contract, but I think I'm entitled to know."
"There is no entitlement. There's our jobs. You don't fucking know because they don't fucking tell you. Has that occured to you?" he said, raising his voice. This time Tasha's eyes rolled. "There is a reason," Enzio said, lowering his volume a bit. He wasn't going to let her get under his skin. Cool air came streaming out of the vents above. "There is a reason you have no idea. When corporate says jump, you say how high. That's nothing new! Why can't you just accept that?"
"Because I think it's dangerous."
"You think it's dangerous."
"Yeah. I think it's fucking HazMat, and we don't have a permit for a HazMat approach to Delphi station."
"We're not going to Delphi station." Well there it is. Now he'd said it.
She paused, stunned. "We're not going to Delphi?"
"No."
"Where the hell are we going?"
"Artemis station, and you are not to tell anyone else, understood? It's command clearance information."
"I can't believe--" she started to say.
"Believe it."
Her lip quivered for a moment before she turned around and stormed out the door. It looked like she wanted to slam it, but they just made them too heavy on the old Class 9s. He would have laughed at the thought, but he had other things on his mind.
Damn bitch. It's not like she has a family, with promises to keep.
Enzio stared out the port into the black, empty expanse of space. Utopia Station was out there somewhere, but he wasn't going to find it. Not today.