Chapter 9 Dax
Dax
When Lacy swayed and pitched forward, I was already moving toward her. I caught her by her upper arms and her weight sagged against me. Her head flopped forward, resting on my chest. A tiny snore broke the silence.
Another, slightly less delicate snore followed.
I laughed. I was still pissed at how royally she’d fucked up my plans—with not even a hint of regret—but there was something compelling about her.
In any other circumstance, I might have tried to buy her a beer.
Now I mostly just wanted to find a planet to drop her ship-stealing ass on.
That was a problem for later. Now I had to deal with my stowaway.
“You okay, Lacy?” When her only response was another snore, I slid one arm under her knees and swept her up into my arms, taking care not to jostle her shoulder. The nanos and the pain meds should be working their magic, but why risk it.
Cradled against my chest, she shifted toward me, burrowing closer.
Dark lashes fanned out over pale skin. Asleep she’d lost the pinched, in-pain look, though the dark circles under her eyes still pointed to a rough day.
Beneath the smudges of dirt on her face, she was pretty.
Not stop-your-heart beautiful, but pretty.
What made her attractive was the way she’d looked me in the eye and stood up to me. I’d met marines who couldn’t manage that.
And though I’d never admit it out loud, I was impressed that she’d somehow managed to steal my ship. Not enough to ignore that she’d cost me a valuable cargo deal—I hated that—but the way she’d stolen our ship was ballsy.
When she was awake, I’d demand she tell me how she did it. Otherwise, reviewing the ship’s entire security system was going to be a hell of a lot of extra work that I didn’t have time for. Not to mention the time it would take to review the ship’s manuals beforehand.
For now, what to do with sleeping beauty here? Was she a mystery to be solved or a problem to be gotten rid of?
I hadn’t decided yet. Until I did, I needed a safe place to stash her, somewhere she wouldn’t cause any more trouble.
Med bay was one option. The patient beds were equipped with restraints, but that thought brought a sour taste to my mouth.
On the other hand, Fortuna’s empty crew cabins were just down the corridor.
A few minutes later, I stood outside the first cabin. Rebalancing Lacy’s weight, I pressed my palm against the entry pad. When the door slid open, I stepped inside.
One of ten nearly identical crew berths, the room’s spartan furnishings were closer to what I was used to in the space corps.
Sure, it had one bed instead of bunks and an attached bathroom rather than shared facilities elsewhere in the ship, and a dresser, desk, and closet when I was used to a footlocker.
Compared to the opulent captain’s quarters where I was currently sleeping, it reminded me of the places I’d called home for the last ten years.
I lay Lacy gently on the bed, boots and all, and ensured her slinged arm was draped over her stomach. If the nanos did their job, she wouldn’t need it by the time she woke up. I’d let her make that decision. When she was fully on the bed, she rolled onto her side, burying her face in the pillow.
Backing up slowly, I watched the rise and fall of her chest for a few seconds before dimming the lights so she could sleep. Another tiny snore followed me from the room and I stifled my laughter.
No matter how cute she was, I couldn’t afford the distraction—or the potential damage—that came from her having free access to the ship, so I locked her room from the outside. Plans months in the making had been blown to smithereens, all because someone had broken into her apartment.
I mulled over that as I returned to the bridge. Lacy hadn’t backed down when we butted heads. It would probably take a lot to send her on the run. So, whatever was after her—and now me—wouldn’t be fun to deal with.
Just what I needed. Another problem.
Adding that to the end of my very long list of things to deal with, I made my way to the bridge. Dropping into the captain’s chair, I dragged my hands through my hair. Getting a haircut wasn’t even on the list, though I really should make time for it next time we were in port.
I stared out the ship’s windshield. Everywhere I looked, dark space surrounded us, broken only by the flicker of stars and, maybe, other ships. For the first time since our unscheduled departure, I checked the autopilot. Why hadn’t I done that before?
The course Lacy had set the ship on didn’t appear to actually take us anywhere; it just pointed us away from Elegium Station and through Zone 4. After checking to make sure the external sensors were on—they were—I left it alone. I didn’t have a better plan. At least not yet.
We couldn’t return to Elegium Station for four days due to the coolant leak quarantine protocol, but that didn’t mean we had to hang out in Zone 4. I sighed, feeling adrift.
That cargo load on the station had been the best option for our first run. Transfer machinery to a farm planet. Short term. Easy. Lucrative. And a great way to get our name out there as a reliable crew.
Ha.
Not so reliable since I’d had to contact the client and let him know I wouldn’t be able to make the appointment.
I hadn’t bothered trying to explain that it was a mistake.
Who was going to believe “Someone invented a coolant leak to steal my ship”?
Instead, I’d thanked him for considering our services, though I may have broken my jaw gritting my teeth as I’d choked the words out.
All those credits lost because of my ship-stealing stowaway.
My anger at Lacy flared again, but I crammed it down. What was done was done. That energy was better spent finding a way out of this mess. I pulled up the ship’s network and settled in for a long—night? Morning? Whatever it was, I needed to locate another job for us.
Pulling up the message boards used to advertise jobs, I logged into the ship’s account and started scrolling.