by Layla Nash
The other woman sat on the edge of the bed and squeezed her hand until Rowan thought her fingers would break. Her voice carried an edge that Rowan hadn’t heard before. “Listen to me, MacLeod. I don’t know what the fuck is going on in your head, but you’re taking too many risks.”
“Says the woman who went gallivanting across the universe to sacrifice herself to the Alliance,” Rowan said, raising her eyebrows. “Don’t think I haven’t heard about that. I take prudent risks, Barnes. I know this machinery, and if the propulsion system hadn’t decayed to the point of complete collapse, it wouldn’t have been a problem. The only way to figure out if they were still operational was to—”
“Touch them?” Mrax demanded, leaning back against the counter with the pirate machinery apparently forgotten behind him. He stood hipshot and self-assured, so confident it made her irrationally angry. “Stick your unprotected face into a centrifuge and sneeze to see what happened?”
Rowan’s frown deepened into a scowl. “That’s hardly how an engineer would—”
Jess faced Mrax. “Do you mind? I’m trying to talk her out of doing those things. You’re just giving her ideas.”
The medic held up his hands and turned back to the intriguing pile of parts.
Rowan thought she spotted a transduction meter and leaned over the side of the bed, squinting to see if it was new enough that she could hook it up to the docking arm in the loading bay. It would completely…
“Focus,” Jess said under her breath. “Stay with me, girl. Do you want to fill me in on the kamikaze behavior or do I just get to watch it unfold like everyone else?”
“No idea what you’re talking about,” Rowan said.
Which was mostly true. Sometimes she just couldn’t sit still. There was too much noise in her brain, too much energy and fire running through her veins. Sitting still meant thinking about everything and losing control of that fine edge of inspiration before it crossed over into crazy. She watched it happen to her mom and it wasn’t going to happen to her. Nope, never. She could engineer her way through it. She just had to keep moving, had to keep focused.
“I should really get back to engineering to make sure Kolzz doesn’t—”
“I can sedate her for you,” Mrax said without inflection and without looking at them. “Knock her out for a day or so.”
“We’re fine,” Jess said. “But I’ll remember you offered.”
The Xaravian snorted, what could have been a laugh, and tossed aside a meter and monitor attached by what looked like a Q-ten cable.
Rowan dragged her attention back to her crewmate. “Look, it’s fine. I’m fine. I’m just bored. There’s nothing going on. We’ve been at this base for ages, and there’s nothing to do except improve all the ancient tech on this… ship.”
“It’s more than that.” Jess’s eyes narrowed. “If you don’t tell me what’s going on, I’ll get Violet in here to debrief you.”
Rowan frowned. Usually Jess threatened her with a Griggs ass-kicking, not the lawyer. Although Violet could be terrifying in her own right—she used enough big words and complicated sentences to get Rowan’s brain all tied up in knots. “You wouldn’t.”
“Try me, girl.” Jess dragged a chair over and sprawled into it. “Spill.”
Rowan tilted her head in Mrax’s direction and shook her head, using the Xaravian as an excuse so she could buy some time to come up with an explanation that would satisfy the nosy woman. Rowan just didn’t know what to say. Some days she was more restless than others, and though she’d been able to hide it on the Argo, when they’d worked on the much bigger Fleet ship, the Galaxos was too small to show her friends only the parts of her life she wanted to.
Jess sighed. “I swear, if you get yourself killed…”
“I won’t. Besides, we’re not going anywhere unless I get those quantum bridges reconnected. If Vaant still wants to go to Dablon Seven on time, it’s gotta be done. I can’t waste all day mooning over that doctor with the fine ass.” Rowan grinned and swung her legs over the side of the bed and hopped to her feet before Jess could object. She picked up a spare uniform and another regeneration pack from the pile of charged ones at the end of the bed and headed for the door. “I’m going back to engineering, but I’ll take one of these with me. Just in case Adhz gets nervous.”
She ignored Jess’s shout and Mrax’s grumbled disbelief, and bolted for the engineering bay.
Chapter 4
Mrax
Mrax stared at where the engineer disappeared, the other Earther two steps from catching her, and replayed Rowan’s parting shots. The doctor with the fine ass. Had she meant him? When had she looked at his ass?
Jess stopped as she peered into the corridor and apparently didn’t see the other woman. Then she turned back into the sick bay and dropped into her chair once more. Mrax watched her with raised eyebrows, waiting for Trazzak’s mate to say something.
She tapped her nails against her teeth and studied the mostly-closed doors. “That one… We might need more than one of you keeping an eye on her at a time. Can we hire more crew to save her from herself?”
Mrax didn’t want to talk about the engineer, not when the comment about his ass and the tempting curves of her body remained at the forefront of his mind, but he decided to let his medical background take over. “Has her behavior changed that much in the recent past?”
Jess shook her head. “A little bit since we left the Argo. More in the last few weeks. She’s jumpier, higher strung, almost manic.”
“Could be space madness,” Mrax said. “Was this her first tour?”
“Nah, she’s been around a lot of places,” Jess said. She kept drumming her fingers, an annoying tap-tap-tap, and debating something in her head. He could almost see the wheels turn in her brain. “Dangerous places, too. She’s volunteered for more shitty tours than anyone I know, and that’s saying a lot. She joined the Fleet as an enlisted mechanic when she was sixteen.”
It was his turn to rein in his shock. Sixteen was fully grown on Xarav, but he’d been led to believe that Earthers didn’t consider their young grown until eighteen or twenty years. He couldn’t imagine the wide-eyed, nervous engineer that young and away of her mother’s care.
Jess glanced over her shoulder at him. “She had a rough life growing up, so she left as soon as she could. Got a special exemption from the Fleet to enlist, mostly because she’s fucking brilliant and just…understands machines.”
He ignored that he hadn’t asked for that information and instead picked up a few of the parts that Rowan had seemed particularly interested in, even when she pretended she wasn’t staring at the devices with a hungry look. “She appears to spend more time breaking them.”
Jess shrugged and got to her feet as her communicator buzzed. No doubt it was Trazzak, searching for his mate. Mrax certainly didn’t want the second-in-command to find them alone in the sick bay together.
The Earther took a deep breath and wandered toward the door. “What would you think about maybe bringing her to Dablon Seven when Trazzak and I go to the boneyard for more ships?”
Mrax handed her the spare parts and went back to his work. “I don’t have an opinion on it. She seems like more trouble than help in a boneyard full of machines to take apart. But it might help the space madness, or whatever it is that afflicts her.”
Jess took the parts without commenting on the offer and tilted her head at the door. “I’ll pass these along. But keep the regenerators charged. I get the feeling you might need them again soon.”
He snorted and shook his head, tossing more of the useful equipment aside. He’d have to keep that in mind. He went to pick up the spent cartridges that Rowan had pulled off, and began the disinfecting and recharging process. Jess disappeared and left Mrax alone in the sick bay, trying to sort through what had just happened. Those Earthers blew into his quiet, controlled domain and completely wrecked it. Trouble. Complete trouble, all of them.
Even if the engineer smelled wonderful un
der the hint of burned flesh, and her skin felt so warm and soft against his fingers. He scowled at the disturbed bed and went back to work. Dablon Seven was a good place for her, all things considered. It might have been the only way to keep the Galaxos in one piece.
Chapter 5
Rowan
Rowan arrived back at engineering a little out of breath, and slammed right into Adhz’s broad chest as he blocked the door. She stumbled back, off balance, and frowned at the Xaravian. “What are you doing?”
“You’re supposed to go rest until at least this evening,” he said. He pulled himself up to his full height to try and look intimidating, but Rowan just smiled. He was all bark and no bite, that one. The Xaravian still eyed her warily. “You almost died. You need to rest and recuperate.”
“Nah, I’m fine.” She beamed at him and patted his arm, then slid around him to jump through the open door.
She’d definitely never tell him that she had a hell of a headache and her left side felt like it moved a few seconds behind her right. It was probably just an aftereffect of fussing with the quantum bridges. With any of the quantum tech, the consequences of their adjustment or destruction weren’t always well-understood.
Rowan searched around for another way to get to the top of the centrifuge, since her harness had been left in pieces, and started rigging up a new one from the remaining rope. “I know what went wrong, so it’s an easy fix. Presto-change-o, it’ll be done before you know it.”
“Earther—” he started, a growl in his tone, and advanced toward her like he meant to drag her away by the hair.
Rowan didn’t retreat. No, she never retreated. But she made a calculated decision to go higher. She’d been the fastest tree-climber in the whole family, even though the boys had bigger muscles and longer reach. They’d called her “Monkey” until she left for the Fleet. Then they called her something else for turning her back on the family and the farm.
As she climbed out of reach, Adhz looked like he might follow after her. She kept going, even when she knew she should have stopped to rig up the safety harness and ropes, but she needed to fix that bridge. She needed to, with an intensity that she couldn’t have explained even if she wanted to. Everything else came second.
The Xaravian below pulled out his comms system and started telling someone that Rowan was being intransigent, which she hadn’t been called since she left the enlisted ranks in the Fleet. And even then, they usually used “insubordinate” instead of some other fancy word.
Before Rowan could even finish her work and remind Adhz that he was overreacting, Jess appeared through the doors and heaved a dramatic sigh. “Einstein’s mustache, Rowan, you’re killing me with this shit. Would you get down from there?”
“It’s almost fixed.” She ignored them and took the time to attach her rope harness to the side of the centrifuge. As least if she fell, it would slow her down enough not to break her neck. Break her legs, sure, but Rowan was pretty sure Mrax couldn’t fix a busted neck, regardless of how fast Adhz got her to sick bay.
She put on a shielding glove before reaching into the centrifuge to reconnect the quantum bridge. She needed different tools and a completely new bridge, but the old one could at least carry them a bit longer until Vaant paid for a new one. Maybe she could talk him into a full upgrade of the propulsion system itself. It made a hell of a lot more sense than continuing the patchwork approach to engineering.
“There you are,” someone muttered, and Rowan took a second to look down. Trazzak, Jess’s partner and the second-in-command on the Galaxos, walked in and caught the back of Jess’s neck to pull her against his chest. “I need to put a tracker on you.”
Jess didn’t look away from where Rowan dangled, irritation in every line of her body. “I’m trying to keep my friend from falling to her death doing something stupid, so maybe save the jokes for later.”
Trazzak’s scales reddened with his own irritation as he looked up and spotted Rowan on top of the centrifuge. “Get down here. That’s an order.”
Rowan snorted and leaned over so he could see her grin. “I don’t work for you, bub.”
“This is why you kept getting court-martialed,” Jess hollered.
“It was only an Article 15,” Rowan muttered. Which was true. Just because she questioned the orders of an idiot officer above her—and reality and the laws of physics upheld her actions—didn’t mean she was court-martialed. She was just… disciplined and reassigned. Then they sent her to officers’ school herself. So who was in the wrong after all? “And I wasn’t even really punished.”
She’d almost fixed the bridge, moving gingerly so she didn’t prove Jess right and get herself killed, as her heart and the beat in her brain drove her to finish. She had to fix it. Sometimes it was like madness rolled over her and she couldn’t think about anything else until she’d completed the task in front of her. If she didn’t keep moving… She didn’t know what would happen, but it felt like it would be catastrophic.
Trazzak growled and his voice got deeper. “MacLeod, leave that fool thing alone.”
“Ship won’t fly without it,” Rowan called down. “You want to be stuck here longer?”
He didn’t answer. She resisted the urge to shout that she thought so and he should just let her work, since she’d learned the Xaravians really didn’t like to have it pointed out when they were wrong.
Jess didn’t care. “Rowan—”
“If you don’t stop distracting me, I’ll either mess this up or fall. So maybe stop yammering at me for another five minutes.” She waited before starting with the delicate stuff, making sure no one else would talk, and then got on with it when only silence echoed around her. Maybe that was the trick—remind them they’d just distract her into falling or getting shocked again. Seemed like a useful thing to remember.
Rowan hummed under her breath, one of the old-timey songs her mother loved, and balanced a small tuner against her palm as she concentrated on how the bridge connected to the other cabling. The tubes looked frayed almost to pieces, but it could probably…
A spark arced between the tuner and the relay. Rowan held her breath. One more time, and…
The light arced again and the centrifuge abruptly shuddered and began to spin. Rowan laughed in triumph and leaned back in the harness. She patted the centrifuge and began the slow climb down. That’d show them. She fixed it and didn’t die in the attempt.
Chapter 6
Mrax
Mrax leaned back in the chair he occupied in Vaant’s office and sipped the eye-watering liquor they’d picked up on the last sweep past Xarav. After the long day he’d had, he needed the whole bottle. Vaant, Vrix, Frrar, and Trazzak all occupied various chairs and couches, all of them silent as they drank. For once none of them had their mate with them, which was becoming a very rare occasion. Mrax closed his eyes and tilted his head back.
“So about Dablon Seven,” Trazzak started. Mrax tensed. He’d been opposed to the mission since the possibility first came up, mostly because he didn’t trust the Dablonians for a damn second and they’d no doubt manage to shoot or stab or strand any Xaravians they ran across. And Trazzak insisted on bringing his mate, which placed the Earther in serious danger since she didn’t have armor or scales—or the sense to hide when danger approached.
Vaant sighed. “What now?”
“We need to get there soon, else the rebels will abandon the boneyard.” Trazzak studied the murky liquid in his glass, swirling it until it sloshed against the sides. “We could take the Heisenberg, but they’re working on their own mission. Ideally the Galaxos could get us there and then back before the pirate trial begins.”
Mrax didn’t pay much attention, even if he thought it a foolhardy mission. He let the others make decisions like that; he only weighed in when there was a serious medical risk or the others were being too stupid to survive long enough for him and modern medicine to save.
Frrar picked at some of the snacks that Vrix remembered to bring. “Maisy wa
nts to stay close to the base with Faryl, in case he relapses.”
“How’s the youngling doing?” Vaant asked, frowning. They all liked Frrar’s nephew, a little Xaravian warrior in the making, though he was recovering from a lifelong affliction that made him weak and somewhat underdeveloped. While Faros, the boy’s father, was in prison and awaiting trial, Maisy and Frrar had custody of the boy and took care of him.
Mrax had offered to take over the boy’s care, since he knew more about Xaravian anatomy and afflictions, but the Earther doctor turned on him with the fierce rage of a haugmawt mother protecting her young. He’d backed away slowly and didn’t dare get close to the boy again.
Frrar, the ship’s engineer, raked his long hair back from his face. “He’s improving quickly, getting his strength back. His scales are starting to develop, so he’s not too far behind other younglings his age. All the signs are good, but Maisy is... worried.”
Trazzak grinned but kept his mouth shut, hiding behind his glass as he gulped down the liquor. He leaned to refill it as Frrar gave him a dirty look. “What?”
The second-in-command just shrugged. “Just interesting to see how quickly the Earthers get attached to young things.”
“And animals,” Vaant muttered. “Isla wants an Earther cat to live on the ship. Said it’s good luck.”
Mrax smiled and debated how far to poke the captain when he already looked irritated. “So when are you going to pick it up?”
“Them,” Vaant said. “She found two of the damn things over near Dablon and decided one wasn’t enough because it would get lonely. Lonely.”
Trazzak chuckled, shaking his head, but didn’t add to the captain’s woes. “Speaking of Dablon... We’d planned to bring Frrar with us, since he was there on the first trip and his skills will be necessary to evaluate the craft and eventually get them flying. But with his brother and nephew, and now his ties to the Sraibur... I don’t think he’s an option.”
