Impulse by Dave Bara Page B

everyone had you picked for a first team place with the Blues. Why’d you do it?” he asked.
    â€œYou mean quit soccer? Same as you. I wanted to join the navy and see the stars,” I said.
    â€œYou gave up a pro soccer career.”
    â€œYeah,” I said, “I did. And I’ve never regretted it.” And I meant that, too. I left out the part about wanting to follow in my brother’s footsteps, about stepping up to my adult responsibilities. I wanted to change topics badly and get off my almost-soccer career.
    â€œSo tell me about your family,” I said. He leaned back and folded his hands together.
    â€œThere’s just my parents, me, and my little sister, Lynne,” he said.
    â€œYou never told me you had a sister,” I said casually.
    He smiled at me. “Damn straight! She’s only seventeen and she joins the navy next year—I wanted to keep her away from you.”
    I was surprised at his comment. “Really? Why?” I said.
    â€œYou have an influence on the ladies, Peter, whether you know it or not. And I’m her big brother and I need to protect her.”
    â€œFrom me?” He elbowed me playfully again.
    â€œYes, damn well from you! You really don’t know the effect you have on women!”
    I looked out the window. “Apparently I don’t,” I said, my thoughts drifting to Dobrina Kierkopf. “But I’ll be sure and try out this mythical superpower on Lynne Layton when you introduce us.”
    â€œFat chance of that ever happening!” he said. Again I changed the subject.
    â€œSo what’s home like?” I asked.
    â€œWe live on a big ranch in the Caderlands. Two thousand head of cattle and five thousand pigs. My father exports beef and pork to the big southern cities, New Bournemouth, Q-City, New Briz, all of them,” he said. “And off-planet as well, mostly to Candle.”
    â€œTo Candle?” I asked, out of curiosity.
    â€œWell not to Candle really. Candle is just the way port. To the new colonies, the High Stations, Carinthia, even the newly rediscovered First Empire worlds, when we find them. It’s exciting times for my father. Exciting if you’re a businessman, anyway.”
    I nodded and then things went silent between us. I thought again about Wesley’s orders and what they might mean for my friends. Nothing good came to mind.
    â€œThey say she’s cursed, you know,” Layton said out of the blue. The statement caught me completely off guard.
    â€œI’m sorry, did you say cursed? Are you talking about
Impulse
?” Layton nodded. “I didn’t know that you knew about the attack.” He shrugged again.
    â€œThat’s been the scuttlebutt on the longwave nets for days. Apparently the Carinthians are a superstitious lot. As soon as they got in range of Candle the IM’s started flying through the ansible network. The story’s been suppressed on the newsnets, but it’s well enough known amongst the merchants. When they arrived at Candle the crew filled the bars. Said they’d never seen anything like it. Now they think she’s cursed,” Layton said.
    â€œGreat,” I said, “that’s just what we need. A superstitious lot of Germans onboard ready to flash their crosses and spell their hexes at the first sign of trouble.” I was actually thinking about whether this development would make my assignment tougher or easier to carry out, if the need arose.
    The conversation ended there and Layton talked me into playing some virtual games to kill the time. After I beat him on a tactical scenario game, a shoot-’em-up, and a soccer game, he gave up and decided to nap. I shut off my own light and crossed my arms, trying to sleep, fearing it wouldn’t come.

    The massive mitt of John Marker woke me up just a few minutes before we docked at Candle. To my surprise, I found I had finally drifted off.
    â€œDidn’t want you