Chapter 6
CHAPTER SIX
Evelyn stared at the ceiling. Despite the bone-deep exhaustion she felt, sleep eluded her. She should have had no problem falling asleep after expending so much energy Amplifying Aiden in the medivessel, not to mention all the carbs she’d consumed.
This is fucking pointless.
She and Lillian had a lovely chat about the interior design of the ship as they walked from the galley to the guest room.
Light, airy, meaningless conversation designed to put Evelyn at ease.
She had been thankful for it after her veritable lore dump at dinner.
Talking about herself for that long had made her want to crawl out of her own skin; doing it in a crowd was close to torture.
All those eyes on her, all that pity and rage radiating from them.
Aiden’s intent green ones on hers hadn’t been too bad, though.
He probably has to listen to a lot of customer service complaints. You’re not special.
Sighing, Evelyn shoved herself up on her elbows and took in the guest room.
It was stylishly decorated; the modern take on an Art Deco luxury apparent in the fixtures and furnishings of the lobby were carried on in the guest rooms. The velvet headboard was a graduation of plush emerald rectangles fanning out from a central point.
There was a matching arm chair in the corner, angled to give a view of the screen on the wall.
Currently, it displayed the stunning expanse of space as they passed through the sector, but there was a card on the carved wooden end table next to the chair explaining how to change the image to whatever media she’d like to enjoy.
Brass wall sconces housed dimmed lights, and there was a door leading, Evelyn assumed, to the bathroom.
“L.I.N.D.A., can you please turn the lights up to twenty-five percent?” Evelyn asked. She had nearly forgotten the Dawn had an artificial intelligence she could communicate with. The lights slowly illuminated. “Thank you.”
Evelyn got out of the plush bed and started rummaging around the room. There was a small pad of paper on the desk, and a pen with the ship’s logo sat next to it. She discovered a tablet in a drawer that was far more advanced than the one she was accustomed to.
Tech’s always growing by leaps and bounds.
She sat down at the desk and grabbed the pen, figuring if she got all her questions out of her brain, she could get some rest. True rest, not the medically-induced stasis she’d been in.
Evelyn needed to get her hands on a history text. Her family’s fate would surely be documented somewhere. Were they all still alive? Did she have nieces and nephews now? Was she an orphan?
Where had it all gone wrong? Was Tanalian civilization as she knew it completely obliterated? Could it be salvaged?
Could she do a damn thing about it?
She’d deliberately not thought about any of these possibilities until she was alone.
She didn’t trust that her emotions wouldn’t show on her face.
It was bad enough that the crew was all so damn nice and understanding.
Evelyn preferred to fret in private. She would curl up and die if she felt like they were pitying her.
Especially Aiden. The change in his easy, flirtatious demeanor as he grasped the reality of the situation had been a punch to the gut. It was enough to throw a bucket of water on her body’s reaction anytime he was near.
You’re just a job, Evelyn. You won’t even be on his radar in a few days.
Now the dam had broken, and horrible prospects had crashed down on her.
She worried on the state of Tanalia after a near century of Bauder’s influence on her home.
Why had no one stood up to Emil once she’d obviously gone from willing participant to hostage?
Why had it taken so long for anyone to come and rescue her?
Her sisters, Adelaide and Constantina, had been trained as her father had been trained.
Had they remained stubbornly devoted to Tanalian ideas about freedom and peace?
Stood on principle while their institutions were destroyed one by one?
Had even one of them grown a spine? Fired a blaster?
Sent a nastily worded letter to the GPC?
She immediately felt disgusted with herself for the disloyal thought about her sisters. They were both more forward thinking than her father had been. Surely they had fought tooth and nail against her imprisonment. Right?
The food she’d enjoyed hours ago felt like lead in her stomach. Every possibility she contemplated sucked.
And who the hell was this Vinnie character?
What do you want from me?
Evelyn threw the pen down and stared at her notes.
She could research on board until she went blue in the face, but until the Dawn delivered her to her mysterious benefactor, she could really only spin her wheels.
In a few days she could look this stranger in the eye and discover exactly how badly she’d fucked up.
Until then, she was safe, she was whole, and she had superior eye candy.
Still, knowledge was power.
“L.I.N.D.A., can you find me information about the Tanalian/Bauder conflict over the last hundred years, focusing on mentions of my family?”
“Of course, Princess Alpertti. I will collate the data for you and let you know when it is ready.”
Evelyn cringed. Surely artificial intelligence could see that titles were bunk.
“L.I.N.D.A., you don’t have to refer to me as Princess. Evelyn is perfectly fine. Thank you for collating the data for me.”
“I will update my programming to reflect that request, Evelyn. The search will take several hours.”
After one more glance at her notes, Evelyn returned to bed. Perhaps sleep would offer her a respite from the looming dread she was feeling. She doubted it.