Evie blinked, trying to take it all in. "I think I've got it."
"Great. I have a few more things I should really be getting done before everyone else gets back. These two rooms," he indicated two doors on the right side of the hall, "are unoccupied and essentially identical. Take your pick, settle in. I'll try and check back in before we leave the station, and there is intercom access in your room if you need it."
And just like that, the captain was gone, down the other side of the hall before he disappeared through a glass door that looked like it led to a ladder, though Evie couldn't make out anything more than that.
As promised, the two rooms Evie had been offered were both set up in the same way. Each set of quarters was divided into two halves, split by a couch. One side held a bed and dresser, the other a desk and food processing system embedded into the wall. It wasn't much, but it was more than she'd been expecting.
Dumping her bag on the bed, Evie took a few minutes to explore more thoroughly. She found the intercom system built into the wall beside the door, though it wasn't a model she recognized. Still, she knew her way around technology and was confident she'd be able to figure it out without trouble.
Absently, she played with the ring on her left index finger, reminding herself of why it was there. The thing was brand new, and far more than it looked. This was going to be as good a time as any to let it work its magic.
It didn’t take long to find its docking station in her purse, placing both it and the ring near a power strip. As soon as the two items made contact, the dock lit up bright green. Data transfer in progress.
Which left the question of what to do next? All Captain Briggs had really mentioned were all of the places she wouldn't need to go. He hadn't gotten into if she'd have any freedom on board during their journey. She couldn't imagine they'd confine her to quarters for two weeks, but she didn't want to make any assumptions either.
For the time being, she was content to play it safe and take advantage of her final hour being connected to the central information network. She had one more person she needed to reach out to.
Pulling out her portascreen, Evie opened the Centuri Station message network, scrolling down through her contacts until she found the person she was looking for. She’d known Orin for as long as she could remember, the son of one of her father’s old friends. And while he’d always been fun to go on adventures with as a child, it was his ability to hack through even the toughest systems that made him an invaluable ally as an adult.
“Hey, Orin,” she said, doing her best to smile for the camera. “I made it onto the Lexiconis and I think I’m all set. I’m getting the latest backup of Mason’s system now since I’ll have some time before we get there to try and figure out what my family is up to. Thanks again for everything. Two more weeks and then we see how all of this plays out. I owe you one. Or two. Even if this all turns out to be nothing, you took a huge risk to help me.”
Before Evie even had a chance to close the program, a text message pinged back.
No problem. It was fun. Be safe.
Putting the screen away, Evie pulled her bag up beside her and started to unpack, settling in for the long haul. Time to kill had never been her strong suit.
It was only as Evie put away the last of her chosen travel outfits that the faintest smell of burning trickled into her room.
Chapter Three - Evie
When Evie reappeared in the hallway, there was no sign of any smoke or debris. The scent of burning material still permeated the air, an especially unwelcome scent on a spaceship.
Was it possible someone her father worked with had figured out what she was planning?
And then what? Decided to take her out by destroying an entire ship? No. She was being ridiculous and she knew it. And still paranoia tickled Evie’s every sense.
"Hello?" Her voice came out too loud, echoing through the unfamiliar metal corridor. A response came right away.
"I'm okay!" It was a woman's voice, and whoever she was it didn't sound like she was on fire. But Evie followed the sound all the same, needing to know for sure if she was ever going to have a chance of relaxing.
The first inhabited room was on the other side of the washroom and was shaped much like Evie's. It held the same bed, but that was where the similarities ended. Overflowing shelves lined one wall, five large screens another. In between was a large white table that came up to about the waist of the dark-haired woman whose back was still turned to Evie. Scattered along every surface in the room was more scientific equipment than Evie knew the names of along with three small refrigerators and a few stray piles of laundry.
"Hello?" Evie said again, not willing to step inside but unable to look away from the chaos in front of her.
Several pops erupted in quick succession. Only once the noise had quieted did the other woman turn around, revealing warm brown skin and a startled expression, framed by unruly curls. "Do I know you?"
"No, I guess I’m being a little nosy right now. I just thought I smelled—"
"Right. Sorry about that! Totally safe, I promise.” The woman held up two gloved hands, cradling what could only be described as a blob of orange goo between them. “I've been testing out new ways to combine some of the more combustible materials we have on board." Evie's usual easy smile fell away immediately, but the other woman seemed unconcerned if not a little distracted. “You must be the passenger Oliver mentioned.”
Evie nodded automatically, "I'm Evie." She automatically stuck her hand out in front of her in greeting before thinking better of going anywhere near the sticky orange substance.
"Safa Khouri." The woman smiled politely, not quite making eye contact as Evie pulled her hand away. Just to be safe. But despite the talk of explosives, there was absolutely nothing threatening about Safa, at least that Evie could see. On the surface, she looked to be in her mid-twenties, around Evie's own age, but a childlike curiosity shone through her brown eyes. Her long hair fell in waves but didn’t actually look as though it had been brushed today.
"It's nice to meet you. What do you do on the ship?" This seemed like a safe enough question to ask, even if what Evie really wanted to know was what a ship like the Lexiconis needed with explosives?
"Mostly, I live here. But I help out where I can."
Well, that settled absolutely nothing. It was possible she was the captain's … wife? Girlfriend? But before Evie could ask any more questions, a voice crackled to life from an invisible speaker overhead.
"Okay, team. We're about ready to go. If everyone could head upstairs for final checks then we'll be out of here shortly." Captain Briggs' voice sounded nothing like that of the man Evie had met earlier that same morning. Gone was any trace of reluctance or formality, replaced with a casual ease. Even without seeing him, it was easy to tell the Lexiconis' captain felt far more at home here than he had on Centuri Station.
Evie's already anxious heart began to chug along a bit faster as the announcement set in. They were ready to leave and head straight for the coordinates she'd given them.
This was happening. And it was happening now.
"Can you tell Oliver I'm going to be a few minutes late?" Safa asked, looking down at her still messy hands in explanation. “Or not to wait for me at all, whatever he thinks makes the most sense.”
"Oh. I wasn't sure if I was supposed to go on the bridge or not." Evie hesitated. She hadn't had a chance to consider whether or not the announcement was meant for her or just the crew, but this might be her best chance to integrate herself before departure rather than setting the precedent of hiding in her assigned room for the entire journey. "No problem though."
Without any sort of goodbye, Safa returned to what she'd been working on, leaving Evie to wonder how exactly orange goo and the burning she smelled earlier could possibly be related.
A sturdy looking stairway, angled almost straight up took Evie onto the Lexiconis small flight deck. Two men, one obviously Captain Briggs, stood facing the wide view scree
n that took up most of the far wall, along with the pilot's station in front of it. The rest of the room was filled with a half-dozen work stations, each crammed close to its neighbor and equipped with little more than a computer terminal and a black desk chair. Indicator lights flashed from every corner as the ship promised its passengers that it was ready to go on its next adventure.
"Excuse me," a male voice said from directly behind Evie as she stood at the entrance to the bridge, taking everything in.
"Shit, sorry." Evie did her best to step out of the way, allowing a large black man with short-cropped hair and a wide smile to enter from behind her, looking far more cramped on the narrow stairway than she’d been.
"Nothing to worry about," the man said. “I take up a bit more room than most people, that’s all.”
"Evie," the captain's voice said, noticing her for the first time as she stood as far out of the way as she could manage, feeling somewhat uncomfortable. The other man sat down at one of the stations while the captain’s expression quickly shifted from surprise to unease, but he didn't order her to go back to her room, which had to be a good thing.
"Safa wanted me to tell you she was going to be late." The explanation tumbled from Evie's lips.
No one spoke a word for a few seconds longer than was comfortable, leaving her to wonder if she should be getting off the bridge now, her experiment in integrating herself here officially a failure. For as long as Evie could remember, there had never been a door that hadn’t been opened to her. And now she was finding herself quite out of her element being somewhere she wasn't entirely welcome. Her first year of college was the closest to this feeling she could remember, but at least then everyone else she was taking classes with was going through the exact same thing.
"You're Evie," the tall man still hovering behind her said, finally breaking the silence. "I'm Sprocket, lead engineer."
“He’s also our only engineer,” the captain said. “But letting him pretend he’s in charge of an entire department rather than an engine room keeps him happy.”
Both men laughed, leaving Evie to smile along and nod her head, willing herself to feel at ease here.
Holding in a sigh of relief, Evie offered up a handshake and returned Sprocket's easy smile. At least someone on board didn’t seem to mind her being there.
"I believe you know our captain. And that other handsome fellow there is Lincoln, our pilot." Evie turned to see the third man on the bridge, who had finally turned to face her, though his eyes were turned down toward a readout display on his console. A moment later, he looked over and offered her a quick nod.
Lincoln’s brown eyes and skin were close in color to Evie's, but his ethnicity was hard to place, suggesting his lineage had been mixed over and over for several generations. He was almost as tall as Captain Briggs, and around the same age.
No one on this crew could be any older than thirty-five which was a far cry from the old-boy’s-club of pilots Evie was used to meeting through her father. People who had been doing the same thing for years, usually more for the joy of it than for a need to pay their way anymore.
"It's nice to meet you," Evie said, but as soon as the words had left her mouth, Lincoln's eyes returned to the nearby screen. He didn't say anything in response, instead turning to type a command into the computer.
"It's nice to meet you too," an emotionless metallic, voice responded, the sound coming from every corner of the bridge at once.
Her expression freezing, Evie's eyes darted from corner to corner of the room, trying to figure out what had just happened, before Sprocket placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "Don't panic," he said, a teasing tone in his voice. "Lincoln's completely deaf, but we've got the ship wired up to interpret everything we say so he can read it out. He can respond through the same system, but he usually doesn't bother.
"Good to know," Evie said, surprised, before she could stop herself. She wasn't sure she'd ever met anyone with such an obvious disability before, though she'd certainly heard of people who still possessed genetic anomalies for whatever reason. At least she knew better than to ask why he or his parents hadn't had the impairment reversed. "The stoic type, I can appreciate that," she said instead, hoping to cover her own discomfort.
Lincoln shrugged, and just like that, Evie managed to relax a little, reminding herself that none of these people had any reason to be suspicious of her. She was overthinking this, when really, she should be making friends. Allies.
The Lexiconis' captain still seemed somewhat unsure of the idea of having her on board, but both Sprocket and Lincoln seemed like they could be easy people to spend the next two weeks with. And as for Oliver Briggs, Evie was already on his ship which was all she actually needed from him.
A moment later, Captain Briggs leaned over to press a small blue button that was nestled into the wall. "Safa? Gwynn? Does anyone else want to get out of here, or have you both decided to take other jobs I don’t know about instead?" Oliver rolled his eyes, directing the good-natured expression at Sprocket, though he had to know Evie would see it. She got the feeling that things running a little behind wasn't that unusual on the Lexiconis, but that he was trying to nudge the crew along a bit faster for her benefit.
"Safa still looked pretty distracted when I left her,” Evie said. “If you want, I can go check in and see if I can get her up here."
Oliver hesitated for a second, but eventually, he nodded. "Sure, that would be great, thanks. She's probably already forgotten she was supposed to come up here and if we let her, wouldn't resurface until there's food being offered somewhere."
Yup, that sounded like the same woman Evie had met earlier. Glad for something to do, she quickly turned back toward the stairs to leave.
She only made it down three steps before she was forced back up again by a petite frame barreling up toward her.
Evie dodged just in time, as the incoming dark-haired woman hadn't so much as looked up to see if anyone was standing between her and the bridge before pushing her way onto the floor.
"I was busy," she said, as a statement of fact, turning toward Oliver, and giving Evie the perfect opportunity to study the newcomers intense look. This woman was easily the smallest person on the ship, standing a little less than five feet tall, but still seemed to take up twice as much space as anyone else, either with her presence or the distinct back-off vibe she was giving off. Her hair was a blueish black and wildly thick, with a few stray streaks of both white and electric blue running from root to tip.
She had the cool-toned light skin of someone whose family had once come from Earth's Asian continent, though her heritage could just as easily be from Mars' second largest city, whose population had been colonized by Korea, China, and Japan shortly before America's first citizens started arriving on the red planet.
"I promise you can get back to it in a minute," the captain said. "I just wanted you to meet Evie. And remind you that she's a guest here." The captain's eyebrows raised in a warning Evie couldn't read, but she put on her best smile as the other woman shifted to look at her. "Evie, this is Gwynn, she’s our..."
Evie saw the flash of recognition a moment before Gwynn opened her mouth, but there was nothing she could do to stop what came next.
"What the hell is Allen Casseract's daughter doing on our ship?"
Chapter Four – Oliver
A flurry of voices, all talking over one another, echoed through the Lexiconis' small bridge, leaving Oliver struggling to follow everything that was going on around him.
Evie was Evelyn Casseract. He knew the name, he probably should have known the face. Now here she was, on his ship.
Before, it had been easy to let himself think that this was just some eccentric girl with too much money to burn. But now everything was much bigger.
Oliver didn't appreciate being taken off guard. He liked it even less when it happened on his own damn ship.
Letting out a sharp whistle that hurt even his own ears, Oliver managed to quiet everyone at on
ce, creating a façade of normalcy. "Everyone take a breath," he said in his best, most authoritative voice, one that still didn't sound natural to his own ears. It was a tone his crew usually ignored, but having everyone on edge seemed to be working in his favor.
At first, he looked to Gwynn, but she still looked about ready to explode. So, he bypassed his technical analyst in favor of the Lexiconis' only passenger. He was still kind of hoping that Evie would offer up some sort of denial, saying this at all been a misunderstanding and that she wasn't who Gwynn thought she was.
"You told me your name was Paulson," Oliver said simply. "Nobody lies to me on my ship." He'd seen the lie when it happened, and had been willing to ignore it when doing so had gotten him closer to this job.
"Technically, we weren't . . ." Evie trailed off as though thinking better of whatever snark she had been about to send back his way. "I didn't think you’d take the job if you knew who I was."
"A job is a job," Oliver said. Yes, having the daughter of one of the most powerful tech magnates in the system on board his ship was potentially asking for trouble. Or this was just some rich girl joyride his crew would be getting paid extremely well for.
Even if she hadn't technically brought anything more than herself and a couple of bags on board, there could still be more to this that he wasn't seeing.
Which would make his the most interesting job he’d managed to find in a while.
No matter how hard Oliver tried, he just couldn't seem to talk himself into throwing her off his ship right here and now. Not unless his crew insisted.
"Maybe this would be a good time for you to fill us in on why someone who could buy her way on to any ship in the system needs us to get you out to the middle of nowhere?"
"I have something I need to see for myself. But it shouldn't matter. My family doesn't even know I'm here, and you have already been paid to take me where I need to go."
Oliver listened for a lie in Evie's voice, but he didn't even know what that might look like, not really. Her request was still strange. Who she was only amplified that, but it didn't necessarily make the job suspicious. If anything, it explained why she'd used the fake name in the first place.
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