"Our children work, sir. Not outside the ship, but many of them clean and wash and cook as well as any man or woman in your crew. They'll earn their food."
"I need salvagers, not dishwashers."
"And you'll get salvagers. Nineteen of them."
"How many of them are men?"
"None," said Rena. "We lost all our men."
She saw a hint of pity in his eyes. "Yours is a tale of sorrow, I see," he said. He folded his arms and considered a moment. "Nineteen women and thirty-seven children. Most captains would laugh at such an offer."
"Most might. But you know better. By your own math, nineteen free-miner women are equal to seventy-six corporate men."
He threw back his head and laughed at that. A big booming laugh that surprised her. She didn't think he had any humor in him, but there it was. "You use my own words against me, Rena of El Cavador. Very well. Come. Bring your nineteen women and thirty-seven children. If you salvage as quickly as you do calculations, I have need of you among my crew."
*
"Are you out of your mind?" said Julexi.
Rena was floating outside the storage room in the
corridor with most of the women. A few others were inside the room, feeding and tending the children. "Keep your voice down," said Rena. "You'll frighten the children."
"I'll frighten the children? I'll frighten them? A ship of murdering vultures is what will frighten them, Rena."
"They're not vultures," said Rena. "They're crows."
Julexi threw her hands up. "Vultures, crows, seagulls. What's the difference? They're all the same. They're parasites. They feed off the dead and they kill whoever they fancy. We used to run from these ships in the K Belt, Rena. And now you want to join one of them? Have you lost your senses? We know nothing about this man. He could take us back to his ship and have his way with us."
"He has a family. They're a lot like us."
"How would you know?" asked Abbi. "He'll tell you anything to get us on his ship."
"I know because I met his family," said Rena.
The women stared at her. "What do you mean you met them?"
"I made him take me back to his ship on his shuttle. I insisted on inspecting the vessel and meeting his family."
"You went on his ship?" said Julexi. "Alone?"
"I wasn't going to rush us all over there without knowing what we'd be getting ourselves into. They'll put us in the cargo bay. It's slightly bigger than the storage room here. I saw it. It's clean. There are hammocks in there. And there's food as well. I saw their supplies. There's enough for all of us. If we work hard, we'll be fine."
"There's food here," said Abbi. "We're safer here."
"I don't think we are," said Rena. "Sooner or later we will make all the needed repairs. It's only a matter of time before they ask us to leave. I've heard things."
"Gossip and the whisperings of a handful of people," said Julexi. "Magashi likes us. We do more work than most of her crew."
"Magashi may not have the say for much longer," said Rena. "This is more than idle chatter I'm hearing. It's not safe. I worry for the children."
"And throwing them to a flock of vultures doesn't worry you?" said Abbi.
"They're not your children anyway," said Julexi. "They're ours."
Yes, thought Rena. They're not mine. I gave up my only child. I sent Victor to Luna to warn the world. I have lost him just as I have lost Segundo.
Aloud she said, "Somos familia. We are family. These children may not have come from my womb, but I love them like my own. Arjuna's family is like that as well. I could sense it. They're familia."