Chapter 23
“Surprise bunk inspection! Up and out!”
Our door blew open.
“Oh, fuck!” Arana fell out of the bunk.
In the doorway, Galya hovered. “Good morning, privates! What a lovely day it is for a surprise inspection. Elado has tasked me to ensure there are no desperate attempts to hide contraband, so please, at least wear your knickers and stand in the hall.”
Arana and I shared a knowing look. Zavir was so fucked.
In our underwear, we stood with our backs to the wall, facing our rooms. After half of our team left, we were separated into two for every room. Down the hall, Maddy waltzed in to help with the inspections. Zavir slouched nearby. Iylene gave his back exactly two pats and said, “There, there.”
Galya had a heyday throwing our room about, didn’t move an inch as all the beddings were torn off the mattress to be turned inside and out. Our clothes were next, followed by the desk, and she flipped the bunk. By that point, Roys finished Lilea’s room next to ours.
“You are… thorough, Galya,” he said, equally struck by her enthusiasm.
“Why, I never had to partake in a surprise bunk inspection before. This is a wonderful new experience that I must thank you and Elado for letting me be a part of. And I believe it is good of me to say that Private Raveir and Private Katlan are well in the clear unless you consider dirty napkins and what I believe to be a human sex toy stuffed under the mattress as contraband.”
Roys’ eye twitched. He resisted the urge to look at me, who the toy did not belong to, thanks, when he said, “It is good news, though I shall remind the privates that they should keep their bunk area clean.”
“Yes, sir.” Arana elbowed me in the side.
“Yeah, sure.” I glanced down the hall at Zavir, who fiddled all twenty of his fingers.
Maddy exited the other room, bringing nothing.
She caught my attention. I wasn’t sure what she thought.
Wasn’t sure what I thought, either. My mind was blank, then she leaned against the wall and put her eyes on the floor.
Still not on speaking terms, unless it involved threats upon my life, apparently.
We waited with bated breath that would change nothing. Our rooms weren’t exactly built to conceal anything. Based on Zavir’s twitching, he didn’t bother hiding the contraband outside the habitat.
“Captain Malik.” Elado exited Zavir and Iylene’s bunk holding a small black pack. Aevid’s weren’t known for showing their emotions, so I wasn’t sure if Elado was that upset about finding anything. As emotionless as ever, he handed over the pack when Roys approached.
“It’s mine, sir. Iylene didn’t know about it, I swear,” Zavir said prior to Roys opening the pack.
Elado had his hands behind his back. “I’ve come across plenty of synthetics used between all parties on tour and I will not deny that there are some we turn a blind eye to, if only to allow our people some semblance of peace, however, we cannot have moira in the habitat.”
Shit. Roys used moira.
My fingers flexed behind my back.
Roys closed the pack, speaking in a steady but stern tone. “No, we cannot.”
“I trust you will properly dispose of the synthetic.”
“Of course.” Roys gave a respectful nod. “I apologize we had to do this, and I take full responsibility for these faults.”
Elado placed a hand on his shoulder. “It happens. I suggest we keep this to ourselves, though Private Ohrya deserves his punishment.”
“Absolutely.” Roys shot Zavir a cold look. “Get dressed and wait for me in my office. I’ll return once I dispose of this.”
Zavir saluted so enthusiastically he poked himself in the eye. “Yes, sir.”
“How riveting, and surprising, that’s not the one I thought would have anything,” Galya whispered, which meant it was any normal person’s speaking voice.
Everyone gave me a firm look. Seeing as we had the surprise inspection the day after my incident, Elado either suggested it or awoke Roys with his own surprise inspection to make sure I wasn’t on anything.
How did Zavir get moira, of all fucking things?
The survey team left. Maddy never looked my way, though she had to feel my lingering attention.
As much as I tried to stop myself, my eyes refused to give up the opportunity to see her.
Roys followed last, giving a glimpse of his side profile, eyes dark and lips set in that perpetual frown though deeper than any day before.
Tension fell from my shoulders, and I released the breath I hadn’t realized I was holding. He left to dispose of the moira. Of course he would, that stickler. It was ridiculous to think he was ever a user. He was fine. We all were—well, except Zavir.
Ryker closed the space in the hall to smack Zavir over the back of the head. “You brought fucking moira on planet?! I thought you only had the drought.”
“I wasn’t planning on using it.” Zavir went into his room to get dressed. The rest of us crowded outside the door. “I got it from the same idiot who had the drought. He was some seller, had a ton of shit, so I nicked it.”
“Why? Like you said, you weren’t planning to use it,” said Arana.
“I was going to sell it. It was a four-set. That could have sold for good credits at our next dock.”
Arana shook her head. “Back to his trade networking days. Never forget that’s what put you here to begin with.”
“That was foolish,” said Iylene. “You better hope the captain and head researcher believes you. Should I get in trouble for your faults, there will be consequences.”
“I know. I know. I’m sorry.” Zavir hurried out the door because the last thing he wanted was to make Roys angrier. He darted to Roys’ office, disappearing around the hall in time for the captain to return.
A shadow fell over his expression, his annoyance palpable. His entrance brought a heat that could rival that of the two suns. The others stood at attention. I stayed leaning against Zavir’s doorway. My gaze drifted over him, his empty pockets and empty hands.
“Should any of you be caught with anything like this again, I don’t care what the head researcher of any project says, I will inform Corporate and you won’t like what they’ll do,” he warned in the most authoritative tone he ever used, then he was off to put Zavir in a figurative hellscape.
“I wouldn’t wish what’s coming to Zavir on my worst enemy,” Arana whispered, then her stomach growled. “Breakfast, everyone?”
In the communal area, the droids set out breakfast. We took our seats, surprised to find the survey team joining us. Not specifically sitting by us, but taking their breakfast in the communal area. Maddy included. She sat by the rudhe of their group. My mind was running into overdrive.
How did she survive? Syrox’s thugs slaughtered everyone previously part of Benno’s network.
How did she escape the Colony? I wouldn’t have if the Katlan hadn’t boarded at a dock with a heavy militia presence.
Rather than shipping me back, the local militia offered me a chance to join their ranks.
There weren’t any better options, so I took what I could for survival.
The survey team, while working with the militia, wasn’t the same.
They didn’t sell years of their lives for shitty wages and a dangerous work environment.
The Intergalactic Courts, or at least subsets of them, oversaw the investigative portions of this work.
Working on a survey team meant having a career, and neither of us was the career type.
How did she go from dying at the Colony to thriving on The Planet?
By the time we finished breakfast, Zavir returned wide-eyed and shaking. He got his breakfast and took a seat, utterly traumatized.
“Are you done for?” asked Arana.
“Completely.” Zavir put a spoonful of gruel in his mouth and whimpered. “I won’t survive this damn planet.”
I stood, unable to ignore this nagging sensation penetrating the back of my mind.
“Where are you going?” Lilea asked.
I held up my empty tray. “Finished. Think I’m going to get a little more shut-eye. The captain will have all of us doing extra laps out of spite.”
The group groaned.
After tossing the tray on the counter, I went to Roys’ office.
The door wasn’t locked, as usual, and yet my heart stuttered as if surprised.
Inside, he sat, elbows on the desk and head in his hands.
I didn’t know why I was there. He would have us doing more work that day than usual.
I should get a little more shut-eye like I said.
Except I entered, eyes straying over every surface in search of a pack that wasn’t there. Roys lifted his head, his short brown hair a mess, no doubt from running his fingers through it.
“Coming in here to start trouble?” he asked, eyes half-mast in a dangerous manner. “I fear I am in no mood for your theatrics today.”
The door slid shut behind me. I dropped into the chair where Zavir had received his earlier death sentence. Roys frowned when I knocked the chair back to set my sock-clad feet on the desk. “Can’t a guy visit his captain with benefits without being perceived as potentially malicious?”
“Captain with benefits,” he snorted while rubbing his temple. “Is that my title?”
“Is it a wrong title?”
“A rather humiliating one, admittedly.”
“What happened to my little sweetheart?” I tried to poke him with my foot, which he swatted away. “You’re being so mean to me today. You know it’s unbecoming of a superior officer to take their anger out on the ranks.”
He was acting normal. Of course he was. I shouldn’t be surprised, or relieved.
Roys put his hand on my ankle and shoved. My legs dropped, and the chair came forward only for me to stretch out and settle my arms on the desk and then my chin on them. He leaned forward too, looking down at me with those painstakingly beautiful blue eyes. No artist would dare to conjure them.
“Why are you here, Ethin?” he asked, using my name in such a soft manner it was near unrecognizable.
“Thought I’d poke fun at you while I could. Maybe get myself a round of angry sex.”