Lost Change

Chapter 88

The other guards were already waiting for us when we arrived at the spaceport the next day. As was Minna's father. Minna waved and walked up to them. "Good morning."

The four of them all greeted Minna, then looked towards her father expectantly.

Instead of introducing him, Minna simply joined them in looking at her father.

He closed his eyes and shook his head slightly in an exasperated motion, then opened them back up and extended his hand towards them. "Hello. I am Minna's father; I will be coming along today."

Morton and the two young guards shook his hand. Kilpin just held his hand up in a wave and nodded. Morton eyed Minna for a second, then turned back to her father. "Hello. I'm not sure what you were told, but this can be hazardous work. Minna is not involved in any of the actual fighting, but the rest of us face the possibility of engaging with a sicora. It can be dangerous. Have you had much experience fighting?"

I caught the briefest of grins break out on Kilpin's face.

Minna's father nodded to Morton. "Yes. I have nearly four hundred years experience. I have been in several ship-based engagements, and have served on numerous teams that have cleared out sicora infestations on derelicts."

I tried not to perk my ear tufts. I hadn't known that. That at least explained his reluctance over Minna fighting sicora. I doubted too many people who fought those things were very happy about the idea of a family member ever encountering one.

Morton seemed to notice the tension between Minna and her father, and he nodded at the words. "You will appreciate what we do here, then. The fire lizard is able to discover any sicora that are hiding on a ship, and can lead us to them before they become a threat." He paused and took a closer look at the armor the other Kymari was wearing. "Your armor looks to be of good quality. Is it rated for flame protection?"

Minna's father shook his head. "No. It is designed for ship combat; it has ratings against energy weapons and is designed to protect during high-speed maneuvers, and is equipped with internal power supplies for oxygen shielding."

"Vacuum rated?"

"Up to two hours."

Morton made a thoughtful sound and nodded. He seemed impressed.

So Minna's father did a lot of fighting on ships in outer space. I wasn't sure how useful that would be since the ships I was inspecting had always landed on the ground first – something Ivy managed to tease me about every so often, since she and the other dragonets apparently inspected the cargo ships while they were still up in orbit - but I did have to admit that his experience fighting sicora would probably be useful. Even if I still preferred that he didn't come along.

Evidently Morton seemed to think he would be useful, too, or at least not so much of a problem that he could justify leaving him out. "We will be glad to have you along, then."

The other guards nodded agreement. Minna didn't seem too happy, but she didn't say anything about it. She just looked back to Kilpin. "What's our schedule look like today?"

"Two ships have already landed and are waiting on us before departing. We have three more passenger ships scheduled to be arriving in the afternoon, and we have the cargo ship that should be here in an hour."

Minna frowned. "A cargo ship? Coming here? Landing?"

Morton frowned and nodded. "Yes. No one told you?"

"No. Tell me what?"

Morton looked at the device on his wrist and tapped it while he spoke. "Apparently something has happened to the other bonded fire lizards. They cancelled all the schedules for today about half an hour ago."