The muffins were black, with smoke rising from their charred surfaces. They looked like lumps of coal arranged in a grid.
Holly set the tin on the counter and stared at them in dismay.
What had gone wrong? Was the problem that the ingredients couldn’t be substituted after all? Or had she not set the correct temperature? No, that part looked right. She looked down at her powder-covered self, then back at the ruined muffins. Defeat settled into her bones.
If she couldn’t make a simple batch of muffins, how was she going to fix the rest of this station?
The lounge door burst open.
Holly’s head snapped up as Rasker Vipp rushed in, wearing sweatpants and a T-shirt. His gaze was narrow as he scanned the kitchen. “I smell smoke.” His voice was sharp with alarm. “What’s going on? Are you all right?”
“I’m fine,” Holly replied with a weary wave of her hand. “You can go back to your?—”
But it was too late; he’d taken in the scene and drawn the correct, but unfortunate, conclusion. Holly, powder-dusted and dejected. The smoking muffin tin on the counter. The charred lumps that should have been baked goods. “Oh, wow,” he cut in. “You tried to bake.”
He began to laugh. It started as a chuckle, low and surprised, but it built quickly into something fuller. He pressed a hand to his chest and laughed in a way that softened his features into boyish amusement.
Holly did not find it amusing.At all.She opened her mouth to tell him so, but then she looked down at herself again. At themuffins that looked like they’d been excavated from a volcano. At the absurdity of the whole situation.
“Yeah.” A chuckle escaped her. Then another. Before she knew it, she was laughing too, the tension draining from her shoulders. “I’m not much of a baker,” she admitted.
“I can see that.” Rasker’s laughter subsided into a grin. “What were you trying to make?”
“Blueberry muffins.” She gestured at the smoking tin. “Maybe I should have kept Cody on.”
“No.” Rasker sobered up instantly. “Letting Cody go was a good decision. Trust me.”
She sent a skeptical glance over the carnage she had wreaked on the kitchen. “You think so?”
“I know so. Cody would have served these burnt muffins anyway.” He sauntered over and peered into the tin with mock seriousness. “And he would have told you they were delicious.”
Holly snorted. “Thatdoessound like him.”
She looked at the recipe book, still open on the counter. “I thought I followed the directions, albeit with some substitutions. I don’t understand what went wrong.”
Rasker moved closer, peering at the faded handwriting. “May I?”
Holly stepped aside. “Be my guest.”
He studied the recipe with a furrowed brow, and shook his head. “I can’t read this.”
“Well, it’s in French,” Holly said. “An Earth language.”
“Hold on. I have a translation reader in my comm,” Rasker muttered, then plucked a small silver dot from his wrist comm. His device was similar to Holly’s, but more sophisticated. While hers attached to her ear, his stuck to his temple. Holly watched as a holographic screen appeared in front of his left eye. It was reading the French words and translating them into thestandard galactic language, which was what they both spoke to each other.
“Fancy comm you have there,” she said, pointing to his eye. “Is that the new Ocuvai model?”
“Yes.” He looked up. “Surprised you don’t have one. They’d be standard on Nova.”
Holly shook her head. “I didn’t want another implant, and all Ocuvai products require them. I already have three enhancements from before I was born. Sol-Arc has been urging me to get one for years, though.”
He raised his brows. “This thing lets me read any language, see details very far away, and make calculations far faster than my mind could do it alone. Not surprising Sol-Arc would want their engineers to get these and question why you wouldn’t.”
“Thanks.” Holly wiped her hands on her apron. With force. “I needed a reminder of my perceived deficiencies.”
His expression softened. “I didn’t mean it like that.”
She reached for the book. “I’ll take that back, thank you.”
