“I sent Kira to the trade depot to see what jobs we might be able to pick up in the region of space we’re heading for.” Rian reached the stairs and paused. “When she gets back, find out how much currency she made and organize supplies. But don’t spend too much. I need to make a payment for the shield.”
She frowned at him. Why had he sent Kira to secure their trade arrangements, which was her main responsibility on the ship? But instead of calling him on it, she tackled the bigger issue. “How much did you agree to pay for the shield?”
He turned and jogged up the stairs. “You don’t need to know. Just get the supplies and don’t pay too much for them.”
She threw up her hands. “He goes and blows a fortune on some stupid piece of tech we don’t need, but doesn’t want me to spend too much on food. Why do I have to be the one who deals with that?”
Tannin stood a few steps away from her and she caught his grin, though he tried to hide it by folding his arms and bracing a hand against his mouth.
His light expression took away most of her annoyance, replacing it with the buoyant, bubbly feeling she got whenever she looked his way, but she pointed a finger at him. “You were there. You know how much he paid for it, don’t you?”
“I’m not saying anything. I might be willing to flout some of Rian’s rules, but currency definitely isn’t worth getting maimed over.”
Moving closer, she raised an eyebrow. “And just what rules might you be willing to defy?”
He glanced over his shoulder then looked back at her. Tannin touched a finger to her chin and she tilted her head back, breathing out a long sigh. When he studied her so intently, she didn’t want to do anything except melt into a puddle of goo at his feet.
“You know exactly what I’m talking about. You shouldn’t tease me, because I’ll get my revenge.” His green eyes darkened as his gaze dropped to her lips.
A fluttering tingled through her stomach as she touched her lips to his with the lightest pressure, taking simple pleasure in the feel of his mouth against hers, demanding nothing, yet promising everything.
A drift of laughter and chatting voices had her pulling away from him, a flush of heat rising over her skin.
Kira had returned with another hover-pallet droning its way up the ramp. Tannin stepped back, touching his lips. This time, his smile was pure wickedness and it sent a lance of unadulterated lust spiking through her system.
Holy frecking stars.
Tannin would be the end of her. If she forgot there shouldn’t be anything going on between them and threw herself at him, she’d probably combust from all the heat he ignited within her. She didn’t know how much more she could take—the teasing, the sneaking around and having to pretend like she hadn’t fallen for him.
A different kind of heat streamed through her, bursting from her heart.
Maybe she should have been more surprised at the revelation, but as she stole another look at Tannin, with his soulful green eyes, the profile of his jaw, and the fall of his thick, black hair, she knew it’d been coming since the first day she’d seen him on Erebus, prison inmate or not.
“I got us some great deals.” Kira handed over her commpad, which had a schedule listed on the screen.
Zahli looked down at the display, her mind going blank for a moment as Tannin leaned closer to read over her shoulder. She shook her head, attempting to get her brain back into working order, trying to ignore the enticing scent and warmth of him as she studied the information.
Ten crates of metium ball bearings delivered within two rotations to Kearny Mining on Tetsu; one thousand credits.
That gave them a good start. She ran a finger across the screen to scroll to the next page, but almost dropped the commpad when the data appeared.
Passenger transit OR-789. Captain Admiral Zander Graydon to rendezvous with the Swift Brion in orbit around Tetsu: four thousand credits.
The currency was a fortune for a single passenger. But it’d been years since they’d flown any passengers, because Rian didn’t like having them on-ship. There was a trust issue, plus he worried the Reidar would put someone onboard to take him out. The two guest rooms had since been turned into storage. And worse, this passenger was an IPC officer. A captain admiral, at that. The Swift Brion was one of the IPC’s flagships. With all the slightly illegal modifications going on, not to mention Tannin’s presence, having an IPC officer onboard would be about the dead last thing Rian would want.
“A passenger run, Kira? I’m not sure Rian will go for that. Did you look at who the passenger was?” She handed the commpad back.
“No, I just saw the amount and the destination and figured—” Kira frowned as she read the screen. “Oh no. Rian’s going to kill me.”
“Its fine, I’ll get him to override the acquisition.” She took the commpad back again.
“Why wouldn’t the officer take an IPC ship?” Tannin asked, following her up the steps.
She shrugged. “Sometimes there’s not a ship available or it’d be faster to take a private transport rather than wait, while some officers are just as happy to travel by public transfer.”
“But a captain admiral? You’d think someone as highly ranked as that wouldn’t go anywhere without an entire fleet of security personnel.”
They passed Lianna at the top of the stairs on her way down to help Jensen. Up on the bridge, Callan sat in the pilot’s chair, while Rian stood behind him, looking at the data streaming across the viewport.
“Kira organized two jobs for us.” She passed Rian the commpad.
“Five thousand credits. Good.” He handed the device back and returned his attention to the screen as Callan muttered a couple of swear words about a hole in the authorization codes.
Annoyed at his dismissive gesture, she moved around so she didn’t have to talk to her brother’s shoulder. “But did you see what the currency is for?”
“Delivery and passenger transport.” He still didn’t look at her, seeming absorbed in whatever Callan was doing.
“A passenger who happens to be the captain admiral of the Swift Brion? Don’t you think that might be a small problem?”
Rian ran quick fingers over the display, changing around the torrents of ciphers, the beads on his wrist clinking. “Why would that be a problem?”
This time she didn’t bother trying to hide her frustrated sigh. She leaned a hip against the command console and tilted into Rian’s line of vision.
“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe because our tech analyst is an escaped prisoner. Or maybe because we’ve got a priestess onboard who has a two million credit bounty on her head. Or maybe because we’ve got a new delta-shield sitting in the middle of our engine room that didn’t come with any authentication papers. Or just maybe, it’s because even now you and Callan are forging authorizations to say we’re permitted for gate travel when clearly we’re not.”
Rian put a hand on each of her shoulders and moved her out of his way. “Captain Admiral Graydon will be aboard for little more than a rotation, and as long as we don’t give him any reason to suspect we’re doing anything we shouldn’t be, he won’t. I used to be one of them, remember? I think I can handle one IPC officer.”
She glared at him. “One of these days your reputation isn’t going to keep you out of trouble any longer.”
“And until that day, I’m taking the ride for all I can get. Now go and make sure one of the guest rooms is in decent condition.” He waved her toward the hatchway as he looked at Tannin. “We could use some of your knowledge with this. Callan knows how to alter the ciphers, but the program keeps punching holes in it.”
“Did you access the base parameters before you added the cipher foundation?” Tannin moved closer to the viewport, studying the figures running across the display and just like that, she was forgotten.
With another sigh, this time for apparently being less interesting than a computer, Zahli went down to the guest-slash-storerooms to clear one out. Luckily it didn’t take too long—though s
he left making up the bed with fresh linens for the time being—and after that, she headed down to make sure the crates got stowed away correctly. As she passed the crew level, Miriella came out of her room, looking a little lost.
Zahli hesitated. She hadn’t really spoken to the priestess since she’d come aboard because of everything going on with Tannin. It must have been hard for the woman, being kidnapped and then told she couldn’t go home. Not to mention the fact that every bounty hunter and half of UAFA would be after her for that prize. And Rian had told the priestess she could no longer leave the ship. Although, from what she’d heard, the priestess could use her mojo on them and go wherever she wanted. And there wouldn’t be anything anyone could do about it.
So, why stay with them, especially since Rian continually made it clear he hated having her around? He couldn’t even stand being in the same room. Zahli knew she hadn’t been the only one to notice Rian’s swift departures whenever the serene priestess was around.
“Did you need something, Miriella?”
The priestess stood in the middle of the passageway, doing that uncanny-still thing that seemed to be second nature to her.
“Please, call me Ella. This might seem stupid, but everyone has something to do, and I’m just wandering around, taking up space. Back home on Aryn, my days were filled with duties I was required to perform. Now that I have nothing to do, I find myself at odds.”
Zahli indicated the general direction of the stairs. “I’m going down to make sure the cargo is stored away properly, and then file paperwork with the spaceport authorities before tomorrow’s launch. It won’t be very entertaining, but you’re welcome to come.”
“It’d be better than sitting around thinking about things.”
She waited for Ella to catch up with her. “I can understand. I always like to have a task to keep me busy when I’ve got a lot on my mind. And I guess since your whole life has been turned upside down, you have an awful lot on your mind.”
Ella shrugged. “Actually, I don’t believe my life has been turned upside down, I believe that I’ve simply been set on a different path to that I expected. It’s not bad or wrong, just new. Something I’ll adjust to.”
She glanced at Ella as they reached the cargo bay floor, finding the woman’s expression clear and untroubled. It was hard to tell how old she might be. Her youthful features could have been that of an eighteen year old, but her serene expression seemed much older and wiser, like seeing the life-experience of a thirty or forty year old.
“That’s really well adjusted of you. Most people would be doing everything they could to get back home to their old life. I know I would be. What are you going to do?”
“For now, stay onboard the Imojenna. I get the feeling you could all use someone with a few extra abilities around. Plus, Rian said it wouldn’t matter where I went, either the Reidar or a bounty hunter would find me. There’s not much point trying to go anywhere if that’s the case.”
Rian said? Zahli turned her attention to bringing out the crate-moving equipment. For a start, she couldn’t believe Rian had even talked to Ella for longer than the two seconds it usually took him to grunt a mono-syllabic reply. And second, she found it surprising that Ella felt comfortable enough using his given name, when the rest of the crew always referred to Rian as “captain.” Rian expected protocol.
They’d gotten the last of the cargo secured when heavy boot-tread clanged on the ramp way. She stepped out from behind the stack of crates to see an IPC soldier passing by the internal pressurized doors, sending a short, cold burst of apprehension shivering through her. He wore the navy and light blue uniform of a senior officer and carried a duffel bag. His gaze landed on her after he’d taken a brief sweep of the cargo hold.
“Can I help you?” she asked, keeping her tone polite, when she was really thinking now what?
“I’m Captain Admiral Zander Graydon. I believe a passage was booked on this ship for me?”
Surprise rocked through her. He couldn’t have been much over thirty five, a lot younger than she’d guessed a captain admiral would be. He had thick brown hair and light brown eyes rimmed with thick, dark lashes, a contrast that should have been boring, but were strikingly attractive. In fact, he didn’t look anything like she’d assumed. Kira and Lianna would have a great time drooling over him. She could hear their gotta love a man in uniform sighs already.
“We weren’t expecting you until tomorrow morning. We won’t be departing until then.”
The captain admiral glanced at Ella, who’d come to stand beside her, his lips lifting into a friendly smile. “I know, but I thought it’d be easier to bunk down here for the night rather than trying to find accommodation near the spaceport. It’s not going to be a problem, is it?”
Yes, actually. The whole thing would be one huge, ginormous problem. But between Kira not checking the passenger manifest properly and Rian deciding money was more important than staying out of Erebus, what could she do?
“No, but I don’t know how much sleep you’ll get. We’ve got repairs happening in the engine room that’ll probably go through the night.”
She put the container of shifting equipment away as the captain admiral moved farther into the ship. The panel meant to close in the equipment in jammed, leaving the compartment open a crack. She swore under her breath and pushed on it, but of course, it made no difference.
“Engine repairs? Nothing serious I hope.” The captain admiral appeared at her shoulder and gave the section a shove, clicking into place.
She turned to find him standing only a few steps away, his rucksack abandoned where he’d been standing. Though she tried on a calm smile, the expression probably looked strained.
“No, nothing to worry about. Just routine upgrades.”
“I’m sure it won’t be an issue. I’ve probably slept through worse noise. I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name.”
His relaxed charm helped chase away some of the tension she’d carried. This time her grin was genuine. “Smooth. I bet you get all the girls.”
He laughed. “Usually the uniform does it for me. What do you think, is it working?”
He held out his hands, inviting her to look him over.
Shaking her head, she motioned to Ella. “This is Miriella and I’m Zahli. And if you’re flirting, you might want to think twice about it.”
He affected a disappointed expression. “You’re taken.”
“It’s not that straight forward. But it’s more likely my brother will eject you from the ship if he catches you doing that. And he’ll wait until we’re in orbit to do it. He’s the captain. Rian Sherron.”
Surprise flickered over his face and his playful air disappeared. “You’re Rian Sherron’s baby sister? Frecking Christ, you should have told me. He won’t just vent me, he’ll shoot me first.”
“You know him?” Hell. She should have realized from her brother’s lack of reaction. The captain admiral must be one of Rian’s war buddies.
“Shite yeah, I know him. Sorry for the language, but I dragged his injured ass halfway across the dead zone on Minnea. And a few months after that, he countered a strike that saved my hide. I’d be dead if it weren’t for him. I didn’t realize this was his ship. Hell, didn’t even know he was on the Rim. If I did, I would have ordered him to fly me to Tetsu.”
“He never frecking tells me anything,” she muttered, but not loud enough for the captain admiral to hear. Ella coughed, trying to cover a laugh, very unsuccessfully. “We haven’t had a chance to make up the guest quarters yet. It’s been a few years since we’ve flown any passengers.”
He hefted his rucksack over his shoulder. “Whatever you’ve got will be more than enough. Don’t worry about it.”
“I might go and see what I can put together for lunch,” Ella said as Zahli pointed the captain admiral toward the stairs.
“There won’t be much. I’m going out to get supplies later. If you can cook, you might want to save the effort for dinner,” Zahli
replied. It was Jensen’s turn, but with the engine repairs, he wasn’t likely to come up for food, let alone remember he should have been cooking.
Ella shrugged. “I don’t mind doing both.”
Zahli laid a hand on her arm for a moment. “Don’t go overboard, and don’t think you have to earn your place here. I don’t know what Rian said to you, but you’re welcome to stay onboard for as long as you want. You don’t need to work yourself to the bone for it.”
Ella smiled in return, not seeming fazed. “Like I said, it’s good to have something to keep me busy. Cooking is the least I can do.” She continued upward, while Zahli turned to catch up with the captain admiral. He waited at the start of the short corridor leading to the guest section.
So, the captain admiral had turned out to be Rian’s buddy. She felt like they’d dodged another fatal fall. Jensen and Lianna were installing the delta-shield, and before they knew it, they’d be on their way to Kasson Three. However, even with the delta-shield, going anywhere near the derelict space station perched on the edge of a black hole was a kind of insane that even Rian had never aspired to.
Chapter Seventeen
Something smelled delicious, rousing Rian’s attention from where he’d been concentrating on what Callan and Tannin were doing. He straightened and pushed his hair back as he checked the time. By the scents coming from the galley, someone had been busy.
“Let’s take a break for dinner, kids.”
Kira, Zahli, and Ella were already in the galley, taking various dishes out of pots from the cooktop and placing them on the table. A feast. Zahli had spent next to nothing on supplies. He didn’t understand how they’d put together something that smelled and looked so good on such plain basics.
As Tannin and Callan sat at the table, Rian walked over to the cooktop and leaned over one of the few remaining dishes simmering on there. It smelled fantastic.
“What’s all this?” he asked as Lianna appeared.
“Ella made dinner,” Zahli answered as she elbowed him out of the way to take the last pot off.
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