She is at first dismayed that a part of her wants to keep her son, seeing it as a surrendering to Angus' brutality. Then she considers that allowing her son to be born will restore family to her when she's lost all family from her destruction of Starmaster. And she also considers that she's enacted a form of surrender to Angus' brutality when she'd accepted the zone implant control box from him. This puts her into a state of total indecisiveness with regards to whether she'll keep her unborn son.
Nick comes into Morn's cabin and grabs her by her wrists, asking her if she's heard the story of how he had come by his cheek scars. Morn shakes her head "no", so Nick gives her the story with which we readers are familiar: a female space pilot/pirate seduced him to get information to catch a ship, then cut his cheeks and laughed at him and abandoned him after killing the ship's crew. Nick demands to know of Morn if she is also laughing at him, and plotting against him.
Poor Morn can't make herself look innocent by acting indignant, because unfortunately she has already set her zone implant control for sexual desire. The best she can do is to dare Nick to "try her" in a passionate voice. And that insecure slob Nick lands on her hard and treats her roughly.
Here, I once again find myself wondering if Morn is really in a significantly better situation than when she was trapped with Angus. She gets to interact with friendlier characters like Vector and Mackern, and she gets control of her zone implant, but other wise she's as trapped as she's even been since the demise of Starmaster, alas.Artificially responsive, she accepted the way she was hurt and answered it with ecstasy.
Take that and be damned, you bastard!
She hated him far too much to laugh at him.
Once Nick's asleep, Morn takes the zone implant control and sets it to ease the pain of the wounds Nick has given her. Then she goes to sickbay and has her hurts addressed. But she decides to keep her unborn offspring, and returns to her cabin to shower and change clothes. Nick awakens feeling more trustful of Morn, and orders her to report to data second Alba Parmute. Morn discovers that Alba isn't very bright, and that in a half-hour's time she has learned about all she can from Alba about running the auxilary control room's data station. So Morn asks Alba to let her alone to "practice her duties" so that she could go about her secret purpose of discovering the ship's destination.
Alba accedes and leaves, and Morn gets Nick's permission (via intercom) to search the auxiliary data board in the interest of gaining proficiency at working that board. Morn studies the datacore playback in progress, discovering that navigation, scan, and astrogation information have already been restored. Morn is able to plot the trajectory of Captain's Fancy away from Com-Mine Station, and by disregarding all destinations in the second half of the trajectory circle shown by the plotting, she's able to figure out exactly where the ship is going.
It certainly sounds like a sleazy and dangerous place.Thanatos Minor. No wonder forbidden space sheltered it, condoned it, despite diplomatic protests, ambassadorial outrage--despite the fact that its very existence was prohibited by signed treaty. Forbidden space threatened every human being alive, even though the threat was genetic rather than military; even though no human ships were ever attacked, and no alien vessels ever crossed the border outward, and no accords were ever broken--except by such telling omissions as the refusal to extirpate Thanatos Minor. And Thanatos Minor served that threat more effectively than warships and matter cannon.
At least by reputation, the rock was a shipyard and clearinghouse for pirates. Ships were built there (ships like Bright Beauty?): ships went there for repairs. And pirates like Nick Succorso and Angus Thermopyle took their plunder there, to one of the few markets rich enough to buy ore and supplies on the scale they offered; a market fueled by forbidden space's unquenchable appetite for human resources, human technologies, and--if the rumors were true--human lives.
Morn is alarmed that Nick selling her police secrets (via her id tag) there could amount to a betrayal of humanity. She considers dramatic measures, ranging from destroying the ship to destroying herself, to prevent Nick from selling those secrets, all the while beating her knuckles bloody against the data console. She's as torn in spirit as she's ever been.
Nick notices those bloody knuckles of Morn's when she reports for her next bridge duty as data third. He at first insists that Morn skip her shift and go to sickbay, but Morn says she fell, and Nick lets her work the third shift, under the supervision of Liete.
Liete's portion of the crew to command are the least competent on board, and from Orn's virus they manage to trigger data wipe after data wipe. Morn repeatedly retrieves the data from the ship's datacore, enduring it because she knows Nick would accept no refusal. Morn remains depressed about the prospect of Nick selling her police information to those Amnion aliens on Thanatos Minor, because it can only strategically weaken humanity. She depends a lot on her zone implant to get through her days and to avoid getting violent with Nick.Liete was a small, dark woman with blunt features and a voice that barely carried across the bridge. In addition, her manner conveyed so little obvious authority that at first Morn wondered whether Liete had obtained her position by being another of Nick's discarded lovers. But the command third looked too plain to suit Nick Succorso's romantic tastes. And before long Morn became convinced that Liete Corregio was nearly as competent as Mikka Vasaczk. She lacked Mikka's overt aggressiveness, but not her certainty or skill.
Six weeks go by since Orn's death, and Morn sees Nick make the unusual move of showing up and heading to the communications station during the switching out of people between second and third bridge shifts. Morn hurries away to the auxiliary control room to covertly monitor what Nick is doing.
Morn decides that the best way to get information on what Nick is doing is to copy the message from the datacore after he has made his transmission. She does so, retrieves a ciphered message--and discovers that the message has been aimed at a UMCP listening post.
The implications chilled her. She felt that she was losing contact with reality, as if g had disappeared from under her--as if Captain's Fancy had lost internal spin, or gone awry in her trajectory across the void. Nick had sent a message to the UMCP. He was expecting an answer.
Oh, my God.
But she wasn't given a chance to sort her way through the morass. Before she could try to gauge the extent of Nick's treachery, she heard him ask sardonically, "Any luck?"
Blanking her readouts, she swung her seat to face him.
He leaned in the doorway, grinning at her. After all this time, the sight of her still pulled his lips back from his teeth, darkened his scars. Maybe her disconcertion made her look frightened: maybe the idea that she was frightened excited him. Or maybe he was so caught up in the masque of her passion that he couldn't break free.
But she wasn't frightened; not now. She had gone past that without knowing it. And past trying to second-guess the consequences of her actions. She was thinking for the first time in weeks, and her questions were about to be answered. Deliberately she stared at him. Her tone was neutral with concentration
"You sent a message to the UMCP."
Instantly his whole body became still and ominous, poised like a bomb.
As if the subject were one of purely intellectual curiosity, she asked, "Does your crew know you do things like that?"
His gaze was as steady as hers; his grin had no love in it. "You're the only one who isn't in on the secret. And you still aren't--so don't push your luck."
Morn lets Nick know of her awareness that they're heading to Thanatos Minor, and lets him know how she discovered he beamed a transmission to a UMCP listening post.
It's curious to me that Morn is described as thinking more in this scene than she has in recent weeks. In one sense, it's true, as she's formulated exactly what she wants to say to Nick. In another sense, it seems inaccurate, for she can't be thinking very well if she can't foresee that her lie about her unborn being Nick's son will be easily found out. I doubt she feels bad about lying to Nick, especially since she knows he's lying to her. But she may feel bad about being found to be lying, which could have many unforeseen and unpleasant consequences. She's become convinced that it is important enough to prevent Nick from selling her police secrets to "forbidden space" to the point that any lie that forestalls that seems like a good idea.Then she returned to her own question. "Why are you talking to the UMCP?"
As if she'd gained her point, he shifted his weight off the doorframe. Casually, like a lazy predator, he moved to the command station and sat down. She turned to face him all the way, tracking him like a targ.
For a moment his fingers massaged his scars as if he wanted to rub the blood out of them. Then he said, "I can get more money for what you know if I hold an auction. But you can't hold an auction unless you've got at least two bidders. I'm giving your old buddies a chance to keep what you know secret by paying for the privilege."
That was a lie; she recognized it immediately. It was plausible in itself; but it didn't explain how he knew the location of the listening post.
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Carefully, neutrally, she offered, "I've got a better idea. Tell them if they pay enough you'll take me somewhere else. And you'll let me report to them that you really have changed course. Let me convince them you're keeping your part of the bargain."
Between one heartbeat and the next, he lost his air of nonchalant disinterest. He stiffened in his seat; his gaze sharpened on her. In a harsh, slow drawl, he asked, "Now, why would you want me to do a thing like that?"
If he thought he could make her falter, he was mistaken. Facing him as squarely as ever, she replied, "Because I don't want to go to Thanatos Minor."
"Why the hell not? Do you think you're still a cop? Do you think you've got a right tocare who I sell your secrets to? You gave that up several billion kilometers ago. What makes you so fucking scrupulous all of a sudden?"
There her dilemmas came together. In his hot glare and her own danger, she saw how they depended on each other; and her intuitive indecisiveness vanished. Abruptly certain, she held his gaze as if he were the only one of them who had any experience with doubt.
"I'm pregnant," she announced distinctly. "I'm going to have a boy. He's due about the time you're planning to get your gap drive fixed--and I don't want to have him on Thanatos Minor. We'll both be too vulnerable. He could be used against me. Either of us could be used against you."
Praying that he would believe her--that he wouldn't demand an examination in sickbay to confirm what she said--she concluded, "Nick, he's your son."