Raider sat up, extending his legs out in front of him and crossing them at the ankle.“Jin threatened to space me if I kept hovering.”
“And you figured I wouldn’t?”
That was a bold misconception.
“Oh, I knew you would.But at least with you, I won’t feel bad defending myself.He might not be an actual child, but he looks like one.It makes it difficult to exert my full force.”
Kira didn’t envy Raider the consequences if Jin ever realized that fact in their ongoing feud.The two might act like brothers, but neither one would give up an advantage over the other.Not when it was just there, ripe for the plucking.
Finn lightly knocked on the open hatch to announce his presence.
“You’re having nightmares?”Kira demanded as soon as he ducked inside.
Finn looked at Raider.“That was supposed to be a secret.”
Raider tipped his head at Kira with zero remorse.“She’s having them too.”
Finn glanced at Kira in curiosity.
Raider grabbed the book and flipped to the relevant passage before handing it off to Finn.“Read for yourself.”
The oshota scanned the page.“This would appear to suggest that the Osiri we killed isn’t dead.”
“Not fully anyway,” Kira agreed.
Some part of him had managed to survive.A scrap of his ego or will that had then somehow attached itself to their psyches.She suspected it was that piece of him that was torturing them now.
If true, it would suggest a commonality between the Osiri, thelu-ong, and the Mea’Ave.A shared ancestor perhaps?
“Is Pallas suffering from these nightmares as well?”Finn asked.
“That’ll be the first question I’ll ask when I see him next.”
Kira didn’t know if he would answer, but it was worth a try.
“Why are you in here?”Raider asked.
Finn handed the book back to him.“Jin wanted me to let you know that we’re six hours out.”
Kira sat up and dropped her feet to the floor.“Finally.”The sooner they were off this rust bucket, the better.“Any news from Roake?”
She didn’t have high expectations.The ship’s communications array wasn’t powerful enough to stretch across solar systems.Much less the vast distance to Ta Sa’Riel.
However, the satellites on the station were.
Finn shook his head.“Jin says we’re not close enough.But he has our message cued up and ready to go for the moment we are.”
“What about Talon?”Kira asked.
He should be in this sector of space already.
“He sent me a message saying that he was following up on a lead but was vague regarding the details.”
“Is that normal behavior for him?”
Finn nodded.“He would wish to be cautious should his communication be intercepted.”
“You picked a good one,” Raider drawled.“His paranoia is a match for yours.”
