THE ROSALYN:

Stan slammed down his cards with an annoyed exhalation of air. After Corren had left the Rosalyn, he had been back in the lead in the card stakes. Unfortunately it seemed that her brother and sister had the same talent. He hadn’t won a game all night.

“Bad luck, cous,” crowed Maloranty. He turned to Ross. “Stan ain’t lost a hand at cards for three weeks. Reckon we outta paint the wall.”

“Can’t,” said Stan, “They haveta be crew to qualify for the wall. An’ this is just a visit, so it don’t count.” Ross looked at his sister nervously.

“I’d like to be crew. Gotta talk my parents around.”

“ We gotta talk to ‘em,” reminded Binan Chu. It was fortunate that their parents were not around. Maloranty had let them have his quarters while they were on board. Ragen looked at Maloranty and Stan. He was more closely related to Binny and Ross than the others, their father being his first cousin.

“You both wanna stay in the Black?” Ross and his sister nodded. “Can you cook?”

“Better than Corren. She dint have the patience when she was home. Binny does the best desserts an’ I do meats.” Maloranty’s eyebrows raised, they hadn’t had a decent meat cook since Bane left two years ago.

“Have you talked to Tony?” Binan Chu shook her head.

“Won’t do no good. Ma’ll never let us follow in Corren’s footsteps.”

“Corren was wild, no place was ever gonna cage her,” said Ragen. “Bit like Anna’s sister.”

“Laura?” questioned Ross.

“The only reason she ain’t space bound is cuz Tony refuses to hire her.”

“We ain’t wild,” said Binan Chu, earning a scornful sniff from her brother which she matched with a glare. “We jus’ wanna see the ‘Verse an’ cook.” Ragen spoke to Maloranty.

“Maybe we should talk to Tony. I know it’s bin on his mind lately.”

“Reckon we should – I’m gettin’ mighty tired doin’ all the work round here. Tell you what, you work on Tony an’ I’ll talk to Anna.” Ross and Binan Chu beamed with happiness.

~

It was some days until Ragen had the opportunity to talk to Tony