“But you’re the captain,” Allie said.
“And she owns the ship,” Cetan shot right back. “Shank, you really do need to explain things to her.”
Shank shrugged. “First, I’ve tried. Second, you’re assuming we’re going to live with the family.”
“Well you’re not going back to Command space after this adventure. Besides, she seems the sort to blow whether you explain this now or later,” Cetan said. He sounded sympathetic enough, but Shank clenched his jaw as if he’d just been ordered to battle bats with his bare hands.
“Okay, I’m getting aggravated now,” Allie pointed out.
Shank had let his arm slide away from her earlier, but now he caught her hand in a tight grip. “I know you think equality of the sexes means anyone can do anything.”
“Which is pretty obvious,” Allie said before Shank could say anything that she would have to get mad about. Right now, she really couldn’t handle more aggravation.
Shank glanced over to Cetan as though appealing for help. Allie pulled her hand free and crossed her arms over her chest. “What? It doesn’t?”
“Not for us, not for the last several thousand years,” Cetan said.
Shank jumped in. “Women run the families, and men do the raiding, but men are given a little more leeway for having crazy plans—”
“In some cases too much leeway,” Cetan said under his voice.
“And women are generally the ones to put the future and the family’s safety first.”
Allie raised her eyebrows. “So girls stay home and stay safe?” she translated it.
“No.” Shank frowned and looked to Cetan again.
“Paya owns the ship, the food, the anything that can be roughly translated into some form of household. If she is one hundred percent against a raid, she can turn the ship around and leave. Oh, I could steal a shuttle and go it on my own at that point, but if I steal from my own sister, I’d better have a really good backup plan and another ship to go to. On the other hand, if she denies me the right to even use a ship or take food out of the larder, she’d better have a really good backup plan or someone else ready to take on the captaincy and lead her damn raids and trading missions.”
“Those roles don’t have to be based on sex, though.” That was the part that Allie found offensive.
“You’re from deep inside Command space, aren’t you?” Cetan asked. Allie struggled to keep from saying something really crude about his willingness to judge her. “They like to pretend their way is the only way, and I respect that their way works for them, but our way works for us. Sadly, we raised Shank to be shrewd and aggressive, and sometimes even reckless.”
“Sometimes?” Shank laughed. “Uncle Cetan, until my dad died, you had the reputation for doing the stupidest things in the entire family fleet.”
“Maybe I did,” he said with a smile that made it pretty damn clear he was proud of that reputation. “A man who doesn’t have children or a wife can get away with that. A man who is a captain can’t.” Cetan looked at Allie fondly. “And no matter how much Shank may pretend it doesn’t matter, he was raised to see women as the ones who keep us from challenging the world in ways that would likely get us dead. So you think about that.” Cetan nodded at her. “Shank, your crew is on G-deck aft three.”
“Thanks,” Shank said, and then Cetan strode off, the sound of his boot steps vanishing down the corridor. This part of the ship was unnaturally quiet—either that or the crew was avoiding them. Allie didn’t know which. It was probably good. She didn’t have the energy for people.
“He’s wrong. I can change,” Shank said softly.
Allie thought about his plan and about how he’d been on theCandiruand about that horrible mission that had gone so wrong. When their lieutenant had been dying, his grand move had been to sneak around in a landscape filled with traitorous Nicve marines and kill as many of them as he could before getting killed in return. He was the bravest man she knew—the best man she knew—but Cetan had given her a key to some little piece of Shank Lacroix, and now she couldn’t unsee it.
“No, you can’t.” She looked over, and he wore a miserable expression. “Which isn’t bad. I like the way you are,” she hurried to add. “Although I’m not fond of your plans.”
“How about I make them and let you veto the stupid ones?” he asked. He moved closer, and when she didn’t retreat, he wrapped his arms around her. Allie let his warmth and his unique scent surround her. It was so easy when it was just the two of them. If someone gave Allie a button that would make everyone else vanish, she’d be tempted to press it.
“Deal, but if our daughters want to lead raids or our sons want to be the planners, they can,” she said firmly. She only realized what had come out her mouth when Shank pulled back.
He kept his hands on her shoulders and stared at her with this expression of awe that slowly turned into a huge smile. “Our kids, huh?”
Allie felt her face flush. “Oh, shut up. You knew I was stupid in love with you, or I wouldn’t have followed you out into this half-assed plan.”
“That’s true,” Shank said. “Our kids. The woman I love plans to have our kids. I like the sound of that. Our kids. Our kids.” Every time he changed the inflection in his voice.
“Keep it up, and you’re never having sex again, so the kids will be out of the question,” Allie pointed out. Every time he said it, she felt the nagging fear that their genes were already too damaged to have children.
Shank laughed and slipped a hand around her waist. “G-deck is this way,” he said. She almost thought she heard him mutter “our kids” under his breath, but as long as he didn’t say it out loud, she would deal with that. She needed a little time to get used to the idea that her mouth had raced ahead of her brain. She hadn’t even realized she’d made that decision yet. Kids. It meant they would have to save up for genetic resequencing or use in vitro so the doctor could screen for damage. If Shank’s people had used gene banks, they might have the in vitro tech.
