Bez’s face showed reluctance as he slowly tugged the hat into place.
Kira faked a bright smile.“Everyone ready?”
She didn’t want to do this.Like really, really did not want to do this.
Titan wasn’t reputable or safe.And here she was about to set a bunch of unchaperoned, somewhat naive to the way of humans, Tuann onto the unsuspecting populace.
This was going to be a disaster.
“What’s with that face?”Raider joined her at the mouth of the tube.“You look like someone pissed in your morning chai.”
“Just considering all the ways this could go wrong.Jin wasn’t lying, right?You found a contact?”
Raider’s expression was one she had trouble defining.“That about sums it up.”
“Well?Who is it?”
“I don’t think I’m going to tell you.”Raider was first into the transparent tube connecting the ship to the station.“It’ll be much more fun to let you see for yourself.”
Kira followed Raider, her stomach dropping as the gravity from her ship fell away.The weightlessness of space took over.“I dislike it when you’re mysterious.”
Raider barked out a laugh.“Ain’t that too bad, Nixxy Poo.”
Titan floated above them, a hulking beast against a starry backdrop.Dozens of ships, much like this one, had anchored in various places around it.Although newer than O’Riley, Titan had never been built to last.It had been smashed together from a mishmash of random parts.Basically, it was a massive cylinder with not much intention or purpose behind its design.Ugly and squat with antennas bristling from every flat surface like quills on a porcupine.
Jin and the others entered the tube one after another.
“Is it good to be back?”Maksym asked, floating up beside Kira.
“I’m not sure.”
To be honest, it was hard to describe what she was feeling.
Titan had never been home.
A temporary stopover on her way to the next salvage.Yes.A base of operations.Sure.Sometimes even a convenient place to blow off steam.
But a home—never.
Roake’s Fortress of the Vigilant was the closest she’d gotten to that concept in a long time.It was one of the reasons she was so invested in protecting it.
“You have friends here, though,” Bez said from behind them.
“I wouldn’t call them that,” Kira admitted.
From a little further back, Jin snorted.“We didn’t win any congeniality pageants last time we were here.”
“Salvaging is a cut-throat business,” Kira explained at Bez’s confused look.“It doesn’t leave a lot of room for connections.”
Centcom only cared about the tech they could turn in.Not how they came to possess it.Some salvagers saw that as an opportunity.They acted more like pirates than the actual pirates, waiting until a salvage team had finished and were on their way to Omega or Titan station before attacking and making off with their cargo.
“Why didn’t you leave?”Bez asked.
“It was a living.”
For someone fresh from the battlefield whose primary skill set involved killing, there weren’t a lot of morally upright options.
“Keep a low profile while here,” Kira instructed.“Don’t pick any fights if you can help it.”
