Doctor Who_ Corpse Marker - Chris Boucher [39]
Toos was having fun. She was not exactly happy, she hadn’t been happy in a long time, but she was enjoying herself. The whole crew had turned up, mostly sober and mostly on time, and the party had reached that relaxed stage when everyone had got over their initial wariness but was not yet drunk enough to be indiscreet or aggressive. She knew this wouldn’t last. You couldn’t be cooped up together in a Storm Mine, even one as large as the Seven, for as long as they had been without a lot of frustrations and irritations and petty jealousies developing. There was too much pent-up emotion and repressed anger here, too many unsettled scores, for the benevolent mood to hold but for the moment it felt special. For the moment she thought this must be what it was like to have a family.
The Robot Lounge was exclusive, expensive and staffed entirely by humans. It was not the sort of place where mine crews normally started their end-of-tour celebrations. This had been made very clear to Toos when she had contacted them to book a full table. A more appropriate, more robust refreshment arcade had been suggested. Somewhere less inhibiting - and cheaper of course. Toos had told them where to shove it and had then paid a facilitating agent an outrageous sum to book and prepay every table in the Robot Lounge. She had also paid for the hire of the best professional partygoers and personal companions available in the city.
‘You really meant it, didn’t you?’ Mor Tani chuckled. ‘What you said about hiring people to celebrate for you.’
Toos surveyed her party. The fourteen crew members were supplemented by at least thirty beautiful and charming strangers, all of them working hard to be beautiful and charming.
‘I’m an incurable romantic.’ Toos purred. ‘I always expect to meet someone perfect at parties like this. Particularly when that’s what I’ve paid for.’
‘You mean I’m not?’ Tani protested.
‘Paid for?’
‘Perfect.’
‘You’re as good as any pilot that I’ve ever worked with, Mor.
And better than most.’
‘Thank you, Captain.’ The squat pilot leaned close to her and leered. ‘I was wondering if there was any chance that you might be harbouring a secret lust for me? Ask nicely and I’m yours.’
Toos put an arm round his shoulders and kissed him lightly on the cheek. ‘It would have to be a lust so secret that even I don’t know about it. How likely is that, do you think?’
Tani said, ‘Stranger things have happened.’
Toos grinned. ‘Not to me.’
‘You don’t ask you don’t get.’
‘You do ask you don’t get,’ Toos said. ‘Now take your hand off my backside and go and get my money’s worth from all this.’
She nodded at the cheerful mêlée which was developing all around them.
Tani shrugged. ‘If you’re sure,’ he said and wandered off towards the drinks.
Toos sipped her wine.
The manager of the Robot Lounge approached with a tray of delicate finger food. ‘Is everything to your satisfaction, Captain?’ she asked.
‘So far,’ Toos said, politely refusing the food. She was dressed in a genuine mountain silk artisan-fashioned body tube.
It looked stunning and she was not about to risk eating in it. ‘Is the breakage bond to your satisfaction?’ she asked. ‘I told them to cover everything up to and including major explosions.’
‘More than adequate,’ the manager said.
‘Good.’ Toos smiled and thought: I wouldn’t be too sure about that.
The manager was a slight young woman wearing an expensive copy of one of the founding families’ formal meetand-greet suits. ‘When did you want the meal served?’ she asked.
The girl had that slightly detached superiority which suggested to Toos that she wanted everyone to believe the outfit might not be a copy. Maybe it wasn’t - they weren’t all rich any more. Toos thought about telling her to serve the meal whenever the first punch was about to be thrown but said instead, ‘I’ll leave it to your judgement. I just want the best for my crew. And I was told that’s what you were.’
The manager gave a small, elegant bow. ‘If you can afford them, human beings are always best,’ she said and moved off with