Chapter 5 #2
“So long as she can lift heavy and stay out of trouble, she can stay,” Carissa stated with a snort. “We need the extra hands.”
An exchange. Work for board. An acceptable arrangement that did not put her in nearly as compromising a position.
Davik cocked a brow. “We do? Drey and I can handle just fine. We don’t need to make her do scut work.”
“Drey fucked off as soon as his job was done, as per usual. So, no. It’s just you and me. And I’m not lifting a damn thing,” she said, patting her stomach to punctuate her statement.
“I do not know if I am skilled in … whatever it is that you do. But I can work. Until I find my … crew.”
Fia almost said squadron, and the gills around her throat flared with a surge of anxious energy. That was the danger of deception. Keeping a seal on all the insidious little ways that the truth could leak out, and she was too exhausted to catch every potential crack in her story.
“Beggars can’t be choosers. And we’re not choosy. Welcome aboard,” Carissa said with a decisive nod. “I just came down here to tell Davik we’ve got good news and bad news.”
“What’s the good news?” Davik asked, leaning forward with an excited gleam in his eyes.
“I got confirmation that Marius isn’t dead, still on ice.
I pulled the weeping wife card, said I needed to see his face, or I’d go into hysterics.
They sent a poor guard down to his pod to show me over comms. He’s there, just…
” she trailed off, looking away. Fia caught the hitch in her voice before she cut herself off.
Just like her, the woman was putting on a brave front in the face of loss.
“Well, that’s bittersweet,” he said with a sigh. “Means that our intel somewhere went way, way wrong. But at least he’s still alive. What’s the bad news?”
“We’re going to have to bail him out. And nobody we know in the system has the funds or the time to help right now, not with how high supply quotas and energy tariffs are lately. So it’s just us. Which means double shifts, triple hauls, and calling in every favor we have from here to Tescatua.”
Davik groaned and slid low in his chair, but nodded. “What a great time for Drey to ditch. He could sense an honest day’s work, and fled.”
“Yeah, well, bitching about our favorite delinquent won’t do anything to help. We’ve got to get our act together and get going.” She rose from the table and leaned over to flick Davik on the ear, hard enough that even Fia heard the thwack.
“Ow!”
“Maybe come tell me you’re resurrecting the dead in my fucking dining room next time?” she grumbled. “I almost had a heart attack coming in here. You should be glad I wasn’t armed.”
“You were busy getting us out of Fed space!” he protested, clutching his ear. “But alright, alright! Next time, I’ll get you front-row seats for the Lazarus act.”
“Alright, deal,” she said, eyeing Fia. “Rest up. We’ve got an early morning tomorrow. And judging by the state of this table, we’re going to need to restock the kitchen double quick on top of everything else.”
Fia felt her shoulders sink as soon as the woman left the room. She hadn’t realized how much tension had stiffened her posture. Nor how many servings she had inhaled over the course of the evening.
“You heard the lady,” Davik said with a playful lilt in his voice. “You’d better get some rest.”
“You will not give up your quarters again for me, you have already done more than I could ask for. I can find a spot in the cargo bay, or in here, if need be.”
“I’m not making you sleep off cryo-shock in a dining chair, c’mon.” He beckoned her to follow him, and they walked down and around a corner into a narrow access passageway towards the shuttle corridor.
“It isn’t a proper room, but it’s better than nothing. The life support in it wasn’t active when you first woke up. I promise I wouldn’t normally have made you sleep in my bunk. But,” he said with a smile before pressing a button.
The shuttle doors slid open, and he made an excited gesture inwards.
“She’s all yours! To stay in, I mean. Please don’t try to fly off with her. The engine needs so much work.”
Fia stepped in and looked around the cabin. It was cramped. Dusty. A bit chilly. The ceiling was so low that she needed to stoop to enter the space. And to her delight, attached to the passenger side wall was a cot. One adorned with a plush blanket and pillow.
“It is perfect,” she breathed, immediately sinking into the blankets to stare out the front windows over the nose of the craft.
The dark expanse of the sky and the pinpoints of stars looked the same as they had when she was on the Fleet. That familiarity brought her a surprising sense of calm. No matter how long she had been gone, those distant celestial bodies were still there. Twinkling and circling, ever-on.
“I’ll leave you to it then,” he said with a wave, closing the door behind him on his way out. A heartbeat later, he slid the door open again and stuck his head in. “Oh. Please do not steal the shuttle? Carissa might kill me.”
“I was not planning on it, but one cannot be sure what the plans of a formerly frozen princess of a crime cartel may be.”
“You’re going to be the death of me.”