“Crap.I’m sorry to hear that.”His smile was gentle.
I gave him a wan smile.“That was a bad time, a really bad time.”My father had held us close—suffocated us, really—while he meted out the justice he thought appropriate to those he held responsible.“I spent more time in the engine room after she died.I studied hard and tested for my rating.Layla buried her nose in her books.”
“And that’s why you left?”
Another carefully calibrated shrug to hide how much that decision had hurt.“Eventually.Dad’s ship had a master mechanic and a full mechanic crew.If I wanted to learn and grow, I’d have to do it somewhere else.”It was the same reasoning that I’d given Dad.
“Your sister did the same?”
“Last I knew, she was back home, working for my dad.”
“Then what’s she doing out there?”
“I don’t know!”I couldn’t sit still any longer.I untangled my legs and shot to my feet.Dax shifted in his chair to watch me as I paced back and forth.
14
Dax
“What was your sister working on?”
She froze mid-step.It was the tiniest moment of stillness.I only noticed because I’d been watching her so closely.Lacy Dupree was a woman of secrets, and whatever her sister was doing was another one.
“I don’t know for sure.”She was turned away from me when she spoke, but her body had already given her away.
“Liar.”
Lacy spun around, her wavy hair echoing the move like a shampoo commercial.Her expression was the perfect picture of shock and outrage.I’d be impressed if I weren’t so tired of the lies and half-truths.
I leaned forward, resting my forearms on my knees.“Let’s cut the bullshit, Lacy.You didn’t borrow my ship, you stole it.You cost me a valuable cargo, practically stranded me out here in the ass end of space, and now you’re telling me your sister’s in trouble, but you don’t actually know what she does.She’s probably a thief like you and she got caught, just like you.”
Apparently I was really tired of her shit, because the words just kept coming.“I’m pretty sure I’d be well within my rights to space you here and now for the piracy, but I’ll be nice and settle for leaving you on the next inhabited planet unless you give me a damn good reason not to.”
Whew.The rush of letting that all out was amazing.
Her jaw dropped, but as soon as she saw me noticing, she snapped her mouth shut and glared at me.
“Fine.Next planet it is.”I swung back to the console and pulled up the star map.Zone 4 was the ass end of space when it came to Elegium Station, but it was only a few days from several other stations and a few planets.I’d just go to the one closest to where I was supposed to pick up one of the other squad members and drop her off without even a wave good-bye.Or I could space her.Sure, I might feel bad, but she had only herself to blame.
She retook her seat, but I didn’t even look at her.We sat in silence for several long minutes as I pondered which would be the best course.
Finally, in a voice so quiet I barely heard her, she said, “She’s looking for theQueen of Stars.”
Eyes focused on the star chart, I dismissed her claim.“That’s a fairy tale.A myth.”
“But is it?”Lacy asked softly.“Which side was your family on?Baronite?”
My shoulders tightened.“Good guess.”
Her laugh was soft, but sad.“Not much of a guess if you don’t believe the story of theQueen of Stars.”
I swiveled around in my chair to face her.“The story?More like the lie.A lie the Polarians told when they didn’t pay for the supplies the Baronites provided.”My voice was harsh.
Everyone who grew up in space knew the story.During the hardship of early settlement outside the core planets in each system, ships had landed on what they had assumed were habitable planets similar to Earth, but most of them had faced unanticipated problems.Untillable soil, unbreathable atmospheres, unfriendly native species.Some of the early settlers had gotten lucky, with either abundant mineral wealth or strong growing seasons, but none of the planets had both.
In exchange for food, the miners—the Polarians—on Swansea Prime traded ore, but when they got further and further behind on payments, their trading partners—the Baronites—had slowed the trade.The ore carried onQueen of Starshad been intended for payment—what the settlers had owed and more.But the ship never arrived and no trace had ever been found.The Baronites had stopped trading after that.
The missing ship had exacerbated tensions between the two systems and had been the catalyst for each side building and expanding their military capabilities in space.Now, generations later, the boundaries between the two sides had blurred and theQueen of Starshad been relegated to history books and fairy tales.
