Read Online Destiny's Choice (The Wandering Engineer) by Chris Hechtl - Free Book Online Page B

white smile. The woman was a
looker, obviously used to using her body as much as her brains to get her way.
She had plenty of cleavage and an hourglass figure. He was pretty sure she
could get her way with that smile alone. He reminded him of someone... a woman
from Terra's ancient past. Marilyn something or other. The last name started
with another M. She had poise and grace, he wondered if there was a mind to go
along with that body? 
    She
took his look in and her saucy eyelids lowered slightly. Her full red lips
smiled ever so slightly wider. She knew he was checking her out and she didn't
seem to mind. She actually seemed to preen. Interesting, he thought. “And why
would I do that?” she asked amused. “To avoid being contaminated by the
Admiral?”
    Bailey's
brown eyes flashed at that. He opened his mouth to reply but she smiled
disarmingly again and held up a restraining hand. “No, I know he's innocent.
And frankly, what the council does isn't my problem right now. We've got enough
on our plate here and now. It'll be what, a year before we're back to Pyrax?”
she asked turning to the navigator.
    “Something
like that,” he mumbled. “I wish we had Deja, but he refused to come.”
    “Friend
of yours?” Irons asked. He wasn't keen about a hyper navigator who was unsure
of himself. It was better than one who was overconfident and liked to take
risks, but it had it's own draw backs as well.
    “Former
navigator. He's a selkie,” Bailey answered looking at the tall gangly
navigator.
    “You
know him?” Miss Willis asked.
    Bailey
snorted. “Course I do. He's a damn good navigator. No offense Clarke.” He
nodded to the navigator who nodded back. “But selkies have a leg up on the
competition.”
    “So
why didn't he stay?” the delegate asked confused.
    “He
was a slave, like most of the rest of us. He may have liked swimming the god
sea as he called it, but being tortured didn't help his outlook on being a
spacer,” Clarke replied with a grimace. “He could shave weeks off a transit
time. But he gave it up when we were freed.”
    “Did
he now?” Willis asked, stirring her drink. “I find that surprising. What career
path could he find in Pyrax I wonder?”
    “As
a marine actually,” Bailey said shooting a glance to the Admiral. Irons looked
surprised.
    “Accessing.
There is a recruit by that name in the roster Admiral,” Sprite said over his
link.
    “Apparently
he did. Sprite just confirmed it,” Irons replied with a shrug. “He signed on as
enlisted. I'm not sure why.”
    “Surprising.
He wants to be a grunt?” the purser asked. “How droll.”
    “Takes
all kinds. For instance it takes pissants to make pursers,” Bailey responded. A
few sputtered in their drinks at that.
    Irons
hid a grin as the purser glared at the chimp. If looks could kill they'd need a
new chief engineer. And a new chair since the one he was in would have been kindling.
Fortunately the glare bounced right off the insolent look of the engineer.
    The
purser was bigger than the chief but not by much. And no one messed with a
simian if they could help it. They had ten times the strength of a normal
unaugmented or unmodified human. If the simian had augmentation or mods as
well... they could easily turn just about any Terran into a pretzel sculpture.
    Irons
rolled his shoulders. A few made really good guards, soldiers, or marines. He
had really liked a gorilla masseuse back in his junior officer days. She had a
way of working out the knots and kinks in the body.
    After
a moment of indecision the purser turned his attention to Irons. He shook his
head. “Your influence Admiral. Otherwise we wouldn't have to bear with uncivilized
behavior,” he sniffed. Irons hid a grimace. Typical. Shift the blame to him
since his tormentor was too scary to hit back at.
    “Maybe
so, I for one am glad he's here. I wasn't looking forward to dipping into the
e-rats and maybe going to half rations before we even got to Agnosta,” Bailey
said