I’d want to know if I was sharing the small confines of a ship with a monster like that.But she knew when she applied for the job that she’d be working for animals and creatures from around the known universe. It was in the description.
The locusts aren’t the only monster on this ship.She frowned.
The ping of the ship’s intercom went off, and Daniels’s voice came through. “Take off commencing in fifteen. Lockdown initiating in five. Say your goodbyes to Earth, everyone. We won’t be back for months.”
Raul grunted in response. “Earth needs no goodbyes.”
Alexa agreed.
“Come help me if you’re done.” He pointed to the third female locust. “She still needs her bush.”
With one last glance at the male, who rolled its jaw as it finished the last of its food, Alexa grabbed the remaining female’s bush and dropped it into her drawer. Raul came to stand beside her. “Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.”
“They’ll need to be fed once more before shift’s end. Then we’ll finally be able to take a load off.”
“Yeah.”
“You okay?”
Her eyes shifted his way. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Captain wanted to talk to you alone. I didn’t want to leave you, wasn’t sure if you were in trouble. Sorry about that.”
Alexa wiped her palms on her pants and turned toward the menagerie’s central computer panel where her workstation was. Raul followed her.
“I wasn’t in trouble,” she said. “He wanted to formally introduce himself to me.”
Raul sat down in his station and strapped in. “Odd.”
“Why odd?” she asked, doing the same.
“He never formally introduced himself to me.” Belt buckles clicked. “Whatever. Maybe it’s because you’re…”
“I’m what?”
“I was going to say a woman then thought better of it,” Raul said. “I have no problem with your sex, but who the hell knows what our captain thinks? I shouldn’t have assumed.”
The lights flickered, lowered, indicating takeoff lockdown.Questor’sAI listed off safety measures, which were all redundant. When it was over, Alexa sighed and sagged into her seat. “It doesn’t matter what he thinks or what anyone else thinks. Let’s just do our jobs, okay?”
“You’re not a talkative one.”
“No. I’m not.”
“Fine by me. Though I’ll crack you open someday, Ms. Dear. It’s not like we’ll have much else to do to occupy our time between missions. Crew becomes family, ya know? Maybe it doesn’t seem that way at the start, but you’ll see. The people you work with—survivewith in space—when there’s no one else for billions of miles to rely on, they become your family real fast. Some of the best people I’ve met were on previous jobs.”
Family? Right,she thought dryly. She had family once, but it was taken away from her. The lights lowered further, and a whizzing sound filled the space. The locusts were curled up in balls, probably responding to the thrusters. There were anxiety supplements added to their bushels she and Raul fed them. She hoped it was enough.
Daniels’s voice came over the intercom again counting down from five. Alexa closed her eyes and counted down with him in her head.
Earth needs no goodbyes.
She’d been on it a little less than a month, and had no plans of ever returning.
In fact, she was certain she wouldn’t. It was more likely she would be dead after all was said and done. Killing Hysterian—if she managed it—would be tricky to walk away from. There’d be an investigation, and she wasn’t an idiot. Cyborgs recorded everything they saw, keeping it within their databases.
No, if Hysterian didn’t kill her first, and she managed to do the deed, it would take more than a miracle to survive what came after. She knew what she signed up for.
