Chapter 38 Dax
Dax
“Just pull the bandage off, Dax.”
I stopped fiddling with the comms and swiveled in my chair. Burn lounged in the bridge’s doorway. “What?”
She rolled her eyes. “You’re calling Mercer and Orion, right? So we can pick them up?”
“Yeah.” It had been one of her conditions to leaving Finn and bringing Lacy with us. I’d agreed. Not just because I wanted Lacy with us, but since we had no idea what we’d face when we found Lacy’s sister, more people—and more skills—were better.
“Then just do it. Sitting here all wishy-washy won’t make it any easier.”
I winced at her words. I’d always considered myself a man of action, but she was right, dammit. “What if this turns into a clusterfuck?”
She opened her eyes comically wide. “More than it already is?” With a shake of her head, she continued, “Then who the fuck would you rather have at your back? No one?”
“You’re just full of little wisdom nuggets today, aren’t you?” I groused.
She flashed me a mischievous smile. “Today? I think you mean always.”
I laughed and gestured toward the seat. “You want in on this call?”
“Sure, why not.” She dropped into the navigator’s seat, while I steadied myself and pulled up the comms.
I keyed in their codes and waited while the system connected.
Mercer picked up first. “Hey, Dax! How’d the delivery go? I saw the bank numbers. Nice job!”
“It was a hell of a learning experience,” I said as I stared out into space.
“That sounds like a story,” Mercer said. “Everything okay?”
Blowing out my breath, I answered the best I could. “More or less.”
“What’s more or less?” That was Orion joining the call.
“The delivery,” Burn said.
“What’s that mean?” Orion growled.
“We made good money, but Finn got hurt, and we ran into a problem.”
I hated Lacy being categorized as a problem.
Mercer immediately slipped into medic mode. “What do you mean, Finn got hurt? How badly? Where is he? I’m on my way as soon as we end this call.”
I tried to keep up with the questions. “He was crushed by a piece of cargo. It looked pretty bad, but the medical staff at the mining planet assured me they would give him the best care. And we want you to join us. You and Orion. But not for that.”
“Then for what?” Mercer’s tone was clipped.
“For the problem,” Burn drawled. “Dax acquired a stowaway and we haven’t been able to get rid of her yet.”
What the fuck? I mouthed to Burn, but she turned away.
“A stowaway?” Mercer asked at the same time Orion said, “She?”
“Dax likes her. Even though she stole our ship.” Burn had wanted Mercer and Orion to know the truth from the start, but I hadn’t expected it to come out like this.
“What the hell, Dax?”
Glaring at the side of Burn’s head, I recounted everything that had happened since Elegium Station, up to and including a longer account of Finn’s accident.
“Dammit, Dax! You’re supposed to be the coolheaded one of the squad,” Orion said. “And you just let some woman waltz off with our ship?”
Swallowing the urge to growl, I shoved my hand through my hair and wished for patience. I was getting damn tired of defending myself. “What’s done is done,” I said with finality. “We lost one cargo, but we picked up a new, more profitable one.”
“We lost one crew member, but it’s okay because we picked up another?” Mercer asked like an asshole.
“That’s not what I’m saying. And we’ll get Finn back.
After he has time to recover.” Suddenly, I was done with this conversation.
“Look, the plan is to pick you both up and then go rescue Lacy’s sister.
After that—after we’ve delivered them somewhere safe and sound—that’ll be it.
End of story.” The words tasted like ashes in my mouth.
“You two coming or not? We can pick you up after otherwise.”
I’d miss them if they decided not to help. Burn was right, we could definitely use backup. But I couldn’t—wouldn’t—order them to do this.
“Hell yeah, we’re coming, Dax,” Orion said. He dropped his voice to a whisper. “I gotta get out of here. My family is driving me nuts.”
“Hey, Orion, weren’t you planning on going to Parcival Prime rather than home?” Burn asked.
There was a heavy pause. “Yeah, that didn’t work out.”
Before Burn could ask another question, we heard in the background, “Orion, dinner!”
“Was that your mom?” Orion must be blushing from the top of his buzz cut all the way down his neck.
“Yeah, shit. I mean, dangit, I gotta go. Momma made my favorite tonight.”
“Lucky,” Burn said wistfully.
Orion’s laugh was subdued. “She’s on a mission to remind me how good life is here. The food is great, but she keeps inviting the neighbor girls over for me to get a look at.”
I smiled. “Is it working?”
Another long pause. “No, uh, not so much.”
Sounded like there was a story there, but before I could ask, he said, “Let me know when and where and I’ll be there.”
He dropped off the line, leaving just the three of us. Me, Burn, and Mercer, who’d been silent for the last few minutes.
“You in, Mercer?”
“Yeah, I’m in. My family’s driving me nuts too.”
I wasn’t surprised. His family had been pressuring him to join the family medical practice since the day we met.
Not that it was really a practice. More like an interplanetary hospital system.
He’d really pissed them off when he joined the military.
Their only solace was that he’d gone in as a medic.
Now that he’d mustered out, the pressure must have exponentially increased.
“Great, thanks.” The tension in my shoulders eased. “Are you with your folks? We can pick you up there.”
“No, that’ll take you too far out of the way. There’s no time to waste if this sister really has been kidnapped.”
I wasn’t going to get into it about whether Lacy was telling the truth. I’d seen the videos, Mercer hadn’t. “Where then?”
“Where are you heading?” I heard him typing in the background.
“Cluster of planets on the edge. Most likely spot is a place called Kottke. As far as we can figure, it’s a dusty outpost. No industry that I can find. Just a shitty little planet on the edge of nowhere.”
“I thought we were done with shitty little planets,” Burn said.
She was right. We’d seen too damn many during our tour. It was pure luck that our assignments on planets like Kottke had only ever been temporary. Long-term duties would have been mind-numbing.
“Looks like there’s a planet called Justin nearby—”
“What the fuck kind of planet name is that?” Burn asked.
I shrugged and Mercer kept talking. “We can meet you there in three days.”
“Three days?” I asked incredulously. We were maybe that distance from Kottke, but Mercer and Orion were much farther out. “How do you plan to get there that quickly?”
“You let me worry about that, Dax. We need supplies?”
I thought for a moment. “We’re good on food and the like, but the armory is empty.”
“Orion and I will take care of that too.”
Burn pumped her fist in the air.
“Make it three and a half days,” Mercer said. “See you soon,” he added and dropped off the call.
I reached over to close the channel.
“See, Sarge, told you it would all work out.”
“You were right.” If it all really worked out, then this was the beginning of the end of Lacy’s time on the ship. The thought tied my stomach up in knots.