Chapter Fourteen The Starblossom
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
THE STARBLOSSOM
Relieved?
Strangely, terribly, happily relieved.
As soon as I went into the galley, he glanced up at me and beamed a wide smile. “Oh, Starlight! I don’t suppose you’d fancy saving me?”
It was then I took in his exact predicament, sitting there at the scratch table, some sort of dessert in front of him. It was shaped like a fruit, with some small crystallized bits on top. He looked positively agonized by the turn of events.
I pulled myself together and asked, “What am I saving you from, exactly?”
“His dues,” Veebee replied, arms folded over her chest, waiting expectantly for her tester to do the thing he had agreed to do.
I closed the galley door and asked more urgently, “But what’s he still doing here?”
“Oh, we told him he can get off later,” VB-35 dismissed.
“You said he left with the first tour!”
“I thought he did.”
Sian said, “I tried leaving, but your brother kept snooping around near the airlock. I couldn’t leave. I don’t like this as much as you don’t. Trust me.”
“He hasn’t spotted you, has he?”
He threw up his hands. “I don’t know, Starlight! I thought I was careful—”
“You weren’t very careful,” I deadpanned, remembering the party all too well.
He huffed. “I just know that when I tried to leave I found myself diving into a garbage chute to keep from getting caught!”
Noola chirped in confirmation, making a disgusted face.
“Even Noola had to go down with me! I had to wash my clothes again!”
Veebee waved her hand. “Yes, yes, it was terrible, and you’re still here. Now can you taste it?”
The stowaway pursed his lips tightly and eyed the dessert. “That’s it? Just…taste this? No strings attached?”
“None,” Veebee confirmed.
Not that the droid needed strings for this particular favor.
Sian speared the food with a fork. It came away from the plate like marshmallowy slime, smelling strongly saccharine and damp. He sniffed it, shrugged, and took a bite. He chewed it. His already pale skin turned a deathly pallor. He set down his fork.
I asked Veebee, “What is it?”
“I call it Starblossom Puget. The fruit might not be ripe, though,” she added, watching the stowaway attempt to swallow. “Or it could be the minced raw shaak.”
At that, he scrambled away from the scratch table and spit into the sink.
“It’s probably the minced raw shaak,” Veebee determined.
“You’re a menace,” I said affectionately.
Sian lamented from the sink, “I should’ve tried harder to escape.”
I rolled my eyes and deposited the dirty plates I’d brought down from dinner service onto the counter, where two other stacks already sat, waiting to be washed.
“I don’t know why Val was stalking the airlocks.
Maybe Dad asked him to account for the guests who came back on the manifest. The next stop is Naboo, but we won’t be landing, so your best bet to leave won’t be until Tatooine. ”
“When’s that?” the stowaway asked, and gargled water to get the taste of raw meat out of his mouth.
“A few days,” I replied, trying to keep a straight face. “And stop that. You aren’t going to die.”
“I can feel my will to live perishing,” he lamented.
It was not funny. It was absolutely not funny at all, I told myself as I bit the inside of my cheek to keep my face neutral and excused myself from the galley.
While I doubted anything Vee fed Sian would kill him, a secret little part of me relished the breakdown of his suave persona.
It was hard to act cool when you were spitting out raw shaak, anyway.
I was so caught up in trying not to look too delighted by the turn of events that I didn’t hear my brother until I had walked past his room. I stopped. He was talking to someone behind his door, and he sounded angry.
I wasn’t nosy, but he was being very loud. I slipped up to his room and pressed my ear against the door.
“…and as I’ve said before,” Val went on, “this is my father’s ship, sir. I can handle this.”
There was static, then a garbled and tinny reply—like someone chatting through a holovid: “Ambition makes liars out of everyone, Quay.” The speaker’s voice was thin and snide, like simply speaking to my brother was beneath him.
It made me want to punch whoever it was in the nose.
No one talked to my brother that way. “We have a limited amount of time before his intelligence reports to him. The only reason I chose you for this mission was pure happenstance. Don’t make a fool of me. ”
“No, sir,” Val mumbled.
“Good.”
The next I knew, I heard footsteps, and suddenly I was backpedaling against Maeve’s old laundry buggy that she’d left in the corridor as the door slid open. My brother narrowed his eyes at me.
I feigned innocence, pointing to the laundry buggy. “Just dropping off my dirty towels.”
His face pinched, but then he took a towel from his hook. “Thanks for reminding me,” he replied, and locked the door after him before he dumped his towel in, as well. “How was the space station?”
“Fine,” I replied, wondering if he was angry.
He didn’t look it. Which was way different from the Valor in my memories, who hated when I poked my nose where it didn’t belong.
We’d gotten into fights more often than not about it, because then I’d go running to tell Dad.
“They’ve started producing starblossoms again, which is really cool. ”
“Does Dad still do the Piece of Alderaan thing?”
“Yeah.”
He snorted. “See? Things really don’t change. I should probably go up and help with the cleanup from dinner,” he added, zipping up his jacket as he headed for the lift.
“Um—he shouldn’t talk to you like that,” I called after him, telling him exactly what he wanted to know: how much I’d heard.
Enough, as it turned out.
He glanced over his shoulder, eyebrows furrowing. “How did he sound?”
“Like you were beneath him—like you didn’t deserve his time. But you’re one of the smartest people I know, Val. If he can’t see that, then he’s a fool, and you deserve better.”
His face softened. “Thanks, Arie,” he said, and walked onto the lift. I didn’t see him again for the rest of the night.