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Authors: Christine D'Abo
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Bryson.” The Briel inclined his head. “Do you have a pilot in your employ by the name of Stephen Crawford?”
Oh my Gods. “Yes, Steve’s my copilot. What happened?”
“I’m still getting details from the response team. It sounds like he was in the process of repairing your ship’s nav drive when he was attacked. No witnesses yet, but we’ll keep pressing.”
Amy’s stomach bottomed out on her, bile stinging the back of her throat. There wouldn’t be any witnesses, no one was either brave or stupid enough to step forward.
“Is he okay?”
Taber nodded in the direction of a smaller group of people. “The med team is 36
looking after him now. Broken arm and fingers. They should have him stitched up in no time.”
Fuck, fuck, fuck. “I need to see him.”
Taber stepped in her path, effectively blocking any chance she had at seeing Steve.
Looking up into his steady gaze, Amy silently pleaded with him. The Briel ignored her, instead continuing with his interrogation.
“It’s my understanding from Dr. Fergus you too suffered a broken arm. Is that true?”
“Drive capacitor came loose when I was doing repairs.”
She felt Sean move up behind her left shoulder, the heat from his body a sudden comfort. It was a pathetic lie, she knew. Sean obviously knew it too. But with him backing her, Taber, whether he believe it or not, chose to accept it.
“You should consider offering danger pay for your crew, Ms. Bryson.”
“I’ll take it under advisement. Can I see Steve now?”
“Of course. Sean, can I see you for a moment?”
The frustration came off Sean in waves. She didn’t actually have to be looking at him to notice it either. Strange how quickly her body was adjusting to him, how she had to fight the urge to turn into him and soak up both his body heat and emotional support. Gods, this was worse than before and she’d promised herself never to make that mistake again.
“Yeah,” came Sean’s strained reply.
Now free of her shadows, Amy shook off her body’s growing desire to be close to Sean and skirted around Taber’s mass to make a directly line to the medics and Steve.
When her copilot looked up at her, the relief on his face quickly morphed into something else.
“The Drake needs to get the hell out of here,” he whispered the second the medics were out of earshot. “Fucking Tyrell’s men came out of nowhere. Said if we didn’t play their game their way, a few scrapes and broken bones would be the least of our worries.
I think he’d actually blow the ship up. With us on it.”
Gods dammit , a nervous crew was the very last thing she wanted to be dealing with right then. “Hon, we’ll be fine. Now that they’ve done this to you, the security team has an excuse to increase patrols down here. We’ll make sure they keep an extra eye on us.
If we can get some of the other crews to cooperate, then maybe the bunch of us can keep safe.”
“Are you insane? Even if we get this bucket into space, they’re never going to let us enter the race, let alone win the bloody thing.” He leaned closer and dropped his voice to a harsh whisper. “They want us to move a shipment of dust .”
“Steve, we’ll figure it out.”
“No, no fucking way. You can figure it out all you like, but I’m done.”
Amy’s head spun and she had to grab on to the edge of her chair to keep from 37
losing her balance. “What?”
“I resign my commission. I’ve already sent out feelers with some of the cargo ships not participating in the race. I’m too old for this. I was planning on following your father into retirement in another year or two anyway. Can’t do that if I’m space particles spread halfway across the galaxy, can I?”
She opened her mouth to protest, but knew there was nothing she could say to change his mind. The problem was, if Steve left, Roach would go too, leaving her in the position of needing to replace crew rather than finding extra bodies. She knew Gaz
Oh my Gods. “Yes, Steve’s my copilot. What happened?”
“I’m still getting details from the response team. It sounds like he was in the process of repairing your ship’s nav drive when he was attacked. No witnesses yet, but we’ll keep pressing.”
Amy’s stomach bottomed out on her, bile stinging the back of her throat. There wouldn’t be any witnesses, no one was either brave or stupid enough to step forward.
“Is he okay?”
Taber nodded in the direction of a smaller group of people. “The med team is 36
looking after him now. Broken arm and fingers. They should have him stitched up in no time.”
Fuck, fuck, fuck. “I need to see him.”
Taber stepped in her path, effectively blocking any chance she had at seeing Steve.
Looking up into his steady gaze, Amy silently pleaded with him. The Briel ignored her, instead continuing with his interrogation.
“It’s my understanding from Dr. Fergus you too suffered a broken arm. Is that true?”
“Drive capacitor came loose when I was doing repairs.”
She felt Sean move up behind her left shoulder, the heat from his body a sudden comfort. It was a pathetic lie, she knew. Sean obviously knew it too. But with him backing her, Taber, whether he believe it or not, chose to accept it.
“You should consider offering danger pay for your crew, Ms. Bryson.”
“I’ll take it under advisement. Can I see Steve now?”
“Of course. Sean, can I see you for a moment?”
The frustration came off Sean in waves. She didn’t actually have to be looking at him to notice it either. Strange how quickly her body was adjusting to him, how she had to fight the urge to turn into him and soak up both his body heat and emotional support. Gods, this was worse than before and she’d promised herself never to make that mistake again.
“Yeah,” came Sean’s strained reply.
Now free of her shadows, Amy shook off her body’s growing desire to be close to Sean and skirted around Taber’s mass to make a directly line to the medics and Steve.
When her copilot looked up at her, the relief on his face quickly morphed into something else.
“The Drake needs to get the hell out of here,” he whispered the second the medics were out of earshot. “Fucking Tyrell’s men came out of nowhere. Said if we didn’t play their game their way, a few scrapes and broken bones would be the least of our worries.
I think he’d actually blow the ship up. With us on it.”
Gods dammit , a nervous crew was the very last thing she wanted to be dealing with right then. “Hon, we’ll be fine. Now that they’ve done this to you, the security team has an excuse to increase patrols down here. We’ll make sure they keep an extra eye on us.
If we can get some of the other crews to cooperate, then maybe the bunch of us can keep safe.”
“Are you insane? Even if we get this bucket into space, they’re never going to let us enter the race, let alone win the bloody thing.” He leaned closer and dropped his voice to a harsh whisper. “They want us to move a shipment of dust .”
“Steve, we’ll figure it out.”
“No, no fucking way. You can figure it out all you like, but I’m done.”
Amy’s head spun and she had to grab on to the edge of her chair to keep from 37
losing her balance. “What?”
“I resign my commission. I’ve already sent out feelers with some of the cargo ships not participating in the race. I’m too old for this. I was planning on following your father into retirement in another year or two anyway. Can’t do that if I’m space particles spread halfway across the galaxy, can I?”
She opened her mouth to protest, but knew there was nothing she could say to change his mind. The problem was, if Steve left, Roach would go too, leaving her in the position of needing to replace crew rather than finding extra bodies. She knew Gaz
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