Read Online The Stars Blue Yonder by Sandra McDonald - Free Book Online

twice.
    â€œI’m forwarding the results to your queue, Lieutenant. You can see the sequence matches yourself.”
    Jodenny stared at the report for several long moments. Jem came to peer over her shoulder.
    â€œWell, then,” he said. “Congratulations. You’re a grandma.”
    â€œI think I need a drink,” she said.
    â€œJust ignore it. Go back to your cabin, get some rest. We woke you up pretty early this morning. Come to dinner in the wardroom and I’ll buy you a beer or two.”
    â€œSure,” she said, and closed down the DNA report.
    She did go back to her cabin. Dyanne had gone off to get lunch, but Jodenny wasn’t hungry. Instead she scrolled through her queue, made a halfhearted attempt on the evals for AT Harrison, who was a great performer, and AT Grant, smart but a troublemaker. After several minutes of rewriting the same paragraph over and over, she tried accessing Myell’s performance records. She didn’t have the clearance in Core.
    With Osherman she had more luck.
    â€œHis public biography is on file in Core,” Jodenny’s agent replied, when queried. “Would you like me to display it?”
    â€œRead it to me.” She sat back on her bunk with her eyes closed as the computer recited Osherman’s commissioning date, his ship assignments, his awards. His career so far was solid but unspectacular. Nothing she heard especially intrigued her. Like Jodenny, he was an academy graduate. Myell, on the other hand, would have started at the very bottom of the enlisted ranks and worked his way up. She pictured both of them in her mind. Osherman, tall and sandy-haired, dry and wry with his Kiwi accent. Myell, younger and more serious, with an intense gaze and something he was hiding. Time traveler.
    Her future husbands, if Myell and the kids were to be believed.
    Sitting in her cabin wasn’t going to get her any more answers.
    Up on C-deck, she found two security techs guarding the temporary quarters where Myell and the kids had been billeted. One of the techs checked her name against his access list and then let her in. Inside was a small lounge filled with comfortable furniture and a vidscreen. A kitchenette with a table and chairs was off to one side. A young tech was sprawled on the floor in front of the vid, teaching the kids how to play Izim.
    â€œIs this how you stand watch?” Jodenny asked him sternly.
    The tech stood hastily. “Sorry, ma’am!”
    â€œAt ease. Where’s Sergeant Myell?”
    Twig frowned. “He’s a chief.”
    â€œNot yet, dummy,” Kyle said.
    â€œStop calling me dummy!”
    The security tech nodded toward one of the bedrooms. “He’s back there, ma’am. With Commander Osherman, Commander Delaney, and some people from the Data Department. They’re not supposed to be disturbed.”
    Twig climbed up on one of the sofas. She was amazingly skinny, all elbows and knees. “Are you staying for dinner? They’re bringing chocolate ice cream. We never get to eat chocolate icecream.”
    Jodenny lied instantly and without regret. “I have to stand watch.”
    â€œYou could get out of it,” Kyle said. “If you wanted to.”
    She didn’t like the challenge in his eyes, or the way he saw throughher. “There will be plenty of time to have dinner. We’re two weeks from stopping at Kiwi.”
    Kyle’s gaze slid back to Izim and he didn’t bother to argue with her. Still perched on the back of the sofa, Twig said, “You look really young. How old are you?”
    â€œTwenty-six. How old are you?”
    â€œTen. And he’s thirteen, but he thinks he’s so smart.”
    Kyle threw a pillow at her.
    Twig ducked it and nearly toppled to the floor. Jodenny caught her arm and kept her upright.
    â€œNone of that.” Jodenny cast a gaze at Myell’s closed hatch and weighed the consequences of disturbing Commander