Read Online Supernova by Jessica Marting - Free Book Online Page A

she
said his name.
    * * *
    Captain
Rian Marska had left to do whatever it was spaceship captains did, and in the
hours since he had left, she found herself bored. It was preferable to crying,
although she had done her share of that, too.
    She
played around with her cabin’s computer and after a few false starts found a
small library available. Most of it was books about military theory and Fleet
history, which she read a little of, but there was a modest fiction collection
and she downloaded a few serial novels. Reading was a bit of a challenge at
first; the English language had undergone some modifications over the last few
centuries. All of the fiction was sci-fi, but she doubted it would be
considered as such. Space battles really were waged now.
    Rian had
issued her a comm badge, which was clipped to her sweater’s collar, but she was
unsure how to use it. He hadn’t given her any restrictions, and if she spent
any more time prowling around the cabin she would lose her mind. She damned her
purse being stuck in a decontamination unit; she’d been halfway through a
drugstore novel and wanted to finish it.
    There
had to be somewhere to get a proper meal, at least. Maybe Rian could show her
where, but she didn’t have a clue where to find him.
    She left
her cabin and went back in the same direction she and Rian had taken from the
elevator. Stepping into it, she recalled his verbal commands, but she didn’t
know which deck was what, so she looked around the walls for a directory of
some kind. Nothing.
    The
doors closed and the elevator began a smooth ascent. Maybe someone would get on
and help her.
    It
stopped and the doors whooshed open. A young officer in a rumpled navy blue
uniform stepped in. He looked familiar.
    “Mess,”
he commanded. He glanced at Lily and did a double take. “Holy shit!” he
exclaimed.
    Evidently
the Defiant didn’t see a lot of people dressed for the office. “Nice to
meet you, too,” Lily snapped.
    “No, I
just didn’t think I’d see you again so soon,” the officer explained. “Especially
on the lift.” He examined her face. “You don’t remember me. I’m the guy you
scared the crap out of in the cargo hold. I thought you were a zombie and tried
to shoot you? Ring any bells?” He smiled expectantly, as though they were
casual acquaintances who had bumped into one another at a movie theater.
    Lily
remembered now and glared at him.
    “Ensign
Taz Shraft.” He stuck out his hand and grinned broadly. “Call me Taz.”
    He was
younger than her by a few years, in his early twenties, and gangly, as though
he were still growing. His dark blond hair stuck up like he had just tumbled
out of bed and his eyes were an odd shade of lavender, a color Lily had never
seen before.
    Lily
shook his hand. “Lily Stewart, but you already know that. As you can see, I’m
not a zombie.”
    “I’m
really sorry about that. It’s just a little unsettling when someone you think
is dead wakes up. Just so you know, I think dead bodies in museums are creepy
and disrespectful. I was going to put you in the corner of the cargo hold where
the gravity always works.” He said this as though it somehow justified pulling
a gun on an unarmed woman.
    The
elevator doors opened. “Where are you headed to?” he asked.
    “Somewhere
I can get some food,” she said. “My cabin has only soup and coffee.”
    “You’re
in luck,” Taz said cheerily. Catching her dark look, he backtracked. “Well, not
technically, but I can help you with dinner.”
    He led
her through a set of doors into a large mess hall, half its tables occupied. He
waved to a few people and Lily noticed some curious looks in her direction. At
the replicators, he tabbed through the menus. “What do you feel like?” he
asked.
    “I don’t
know,” she answered. She looked at one of options scrolling past. “I was
looking for tomato soup in my cabin, but that doesn’t seem to exist anymore.”
    “All you
can get in the cabins is basic