Chapter 20
20
“You mean to tell me the senator has her own security detail staying on this ship, pretending to be guests?” Rax barked, skipping over the objectively more important details of the briefing Tig and I provided to land on this concern. “And we knew nothing about this until now?”
“Yes. That is exactly what we mean,” I said, holding up my hands. “Don’t murder the messengers.”
Sharing Rax’s outrage, Morgath chimed in with “That she doesn’t trust us to at least know who her SOs are is an insult of the highest order.” Darting his gaze between each member of the crew, he slammed his green fist down on the table. “It is an insult to everyone in this room!”
“I’ll admit it is unusual,” Chan said, his hand running uneasily over his close-cropped hair, betraying his composed tone. “But given her situation surrounding whatever this proposition is, as well as the fact that someone is hacking into our system to monitor her family’s comings and goings, I can understand why she wants to keep her security undercover.”
Tig had informed the crew that while several of the guests had their itineraries accessed by the hacker, the senator’s had been accessed by far the most often.
“Well, I can,” Rax snapped. “She should have warned us before coming aboard, given us time to prepare. Or to decide whether we wanted to let her on the ship at all. Now we’re caught with our pants down.”
My eyes flared, heat flooding my chest, leaping into my throat at the memory of finely muscled thighs dusted with soft hair, sweatpants falling to the floor. When I chanced a glance at Freddie, I found him dutifully studying an imperfection in the table, but his cheeks were flaming. Apparently, we had some work to do on the secret part of the whole secret relationship thing.
“So, what do we do?” Tig asked, pulling at the strings of her hoodie. “I could try harder to uncover the source of the breaches, but I might get caught.”
“That seems like a bad idea,” Elanie said. Bionic skin was truly a marvel, because with how often and how deeply Elanie scowled, she should really have at least one wrinkle by now. “I’m not sure how much we want to implicate ourselves in whatever the senator is wrapped up in.”
Chan nodded, Rax and Morgath grunted their agreement, and I began to simmer. “Excuse me,” I said, my annoyance bubbling over into hot indignation. “But if somebody is bypassing our security to obtain protected information on our guests, I believe we have an obligation to do everything within our power to keep those guests safe as long as they are aboard this ship.”
Freddie raised his head. “I agree with Sunny,” he said, nodding in a show of support. “Any threat against any one of our guests is a threat against everyone on the ship. Knowing what we know, what can we do to minimize our risk?”
“I think I can trace the breaches without being detected.” Tig bit her cheek. “But it will take time, lots of time. And I’ll need some backup.”
Whistling a weird, two-note song, Chan said, “Funny you should mention that, Tig. Turns out”—his laughter was forced—“some relief is on the way.”
One by one, we turned our heads to stare at him, and he avoided our questioning glares by picking at one of his hoverchair’s armrests.
“What ‘relief’?” I asked, breaking the charged silence. “Who is coming?” Besides the FFKs, there were no special guests or LunaCorp tech visits on the docket. And Chan wasn’t possibly implying that some deep-space pirate could assist Tig in high-tech espionage. Right?
“Funny story,” he blurted out. “I mean, it’s wild, really. You won’t believe it?—”
“Spit it out, Chandler,” Rax growled between his clenched teeth.
Repositioning himself in his chair, shifting his weight from one hip to the other, Chan said, “Well, while they’re here, LunaCorp wants us to…uh…train the FFKs in?—”
Rax and Morgath surged to their feet, the explosion of green outrage pushing me and everyone else back from the table.
“If the next words out of your mouth have anything to do with giving Kravaxians access to our IT, you can consider our employment aboard this vessel terminated,” Morgath said with a calm fury. Rax—not so calm and far more furious—grasped the edge of the table so tightly, I was worried he might break off a chunk of it and hurl it at somebody. Even considering the news, the twins seemed more highly strung than usual. It had been a while since I’d checked in with them. I should schedule them a day at the spa. Maybe an afternoon in the pleasure pods? —
“Rax! Morgath!” Tig shouted, snapping my attention. I didn’t think I’d heard her raise her voice once in the entire time we’d served on the ship together. Pride filled my chest when she added, “Calm down!”
Their matching grumbles resonated through the room, but the twins took their seats again.
“If LunaCorp wants me to work with a Kravaxian or two,” Tig said, “I can do that without compromising our intel.”
“Our intel has already been compromised, though, hasn’t it?” Elanie asked, at least trying to come off less judgmental than she probably was. “With these breaches?”
Tig’s shoulders curled inward, her earlier confidence deflating. “That’s different.”
“I know this situation is extreme,” I said, trying to rein the meeting back in. “But Chan is still the boss. We need to at least hear what he has to say.”
With a resigned sigh, Chan said, “Thank you, Sunny. But nobody is going to like what I have to say next, not even me. All I can ask is that you remember we are all in this together, and”—he looked directly at the twins—“if you break anything in this room, it’s coming out of your paychecks.”
While Morgath shrugged, Rax turned his palms up on the table as if to say don’t care .
Soldiering on, Chan said, “LunaCorp is using this holiday for the FF”—he stopped himself, his jaw flickering—“for the Kravaxians as an opportunity to provide them with some on-the-job training. One will be assigned to IT with Tig. One will spend the week with me. And the remaining two are to shadow”—not only was his swallow audible, but it looked like it hurt—“security.”
After several seconds of stunned silence, Rax and Morgath burst into laughter. Doubled over with his head on the table, Morgath wheezed like a serving drone on its last thruster. Rax, red-faced, clapped his brother’s back, releasing a lengthy post-laugh “hoo” at the ceiling.
Elanie rolled her eyes. “Are you two finished? I don’t want to spend the rest of my life at this meeting.”
“And the captains are still in agreement with this plan?” Freddie asked, his arms crossed thoughtfully over his chest.
Chan nodded. “They are. They’ve had briefings on the situation from Brock Karlovich himself, and they both feel confident that the Kravaxians present no danger to this ship.”
In possession of his faculties again, Rax growled, “I don’t give a flying fuck what the CEO of LunaCorp says. We are not training Kravaxians. It’s not happening.”
Impressively undeterred, Chan fired back. “It is indeed happening. And you and your brother will behave yourselves, do your jobs, and give the Kravaxians a fair shake before you write them off. Or you will find another ship to work on and another director to put up with your tantrums. So, you know, good luck with that.”
While Rax and Morgath at least had the good sense to look contrite, Chan, riding on momentum, ended the meeting in no uncertain terms. “When the Kravaxians arrive, we will be polite and accommodating. And we will not create a Known Universal incident by showing them mistrust and hostile aggression when they have done nothing to earn it. Is that clear?”
“That was intense,” Freddie said as we huddled near the moon jelly tank.
When I replied, “ That was Chan at his finest,” it earned me a knee-buckling smile, all tilted lips and crinkled eyes. His tie was a bit crooked, and for the life of me, even though Elanie and Tig were standing right next to us, I couldn’t shake the desire to straighten it for him.
“As stimulating as this morning has been,” Elanie said, following my gaze to Freddie’s smile, then to his tie, then rolling her eyes. “I really do have work to do.” Before any of us had a chance to say goodbye, she turned on her heel and disappeared down the hall.
Staring after her, his lips pursed, Freddie said, “She is a very unique bionic. Like a breath of fresh air that occasionally, for reasons unknown, slaps you hard across the face.”
I laughed out loud. “That is the best description of Elanie I have ever heard.”
Tig stopped chewing on her fingernails long enough to nod her agreement, but then she said, “I should go too. I’ve got a hacker to expose.”
Squeezing Tig’s elbow, I said, “Be careful.”
“I’ll try,” she replied before walking off toward her office.
“What are your plans today?” Freddie asked. We were alone now, and when he turned to face me, the blue and purple light from the moon jelly tank rippled over his cheek. Just like it had during his welcome party. It was strange, I thought, how long ago that day seemed. But he was staring at me now, waiting, so I said, “I think I’m on damage control.”
“What damage?”
“Aquilinian twin damage,” I clarified. “I should probably do whatever it takes today to keep Rax and Morgath from interrogating random guests in order to find out who the senator’s SOs are. And then I need to prepare for Garran and Kasa’s date later this week.”
“That’s right.” His eyes twinkled. “Still want my help? ”
“Yes. Please. I could definitely use your charm with my attempts to play Cyrano. And if you’re not too busy, I could probably use your help with the twins…today…too—What?” I said, distracted by his grin, even more crooked than his tie.
“Did you just call me charming?”
Giving into temptation—something I was concerned might become a habit around him—I reached out for his tie, straightened the knot, and said, “Don’t let it go to your head.”