Just one.
But I know if I take one, I will want another. I won’t want to let her go. And that’s playing with fire.
“Oh.” She giggles and gracefully sways between her boots. “The next race starts in three days. I’m just docking early to get my paperwork finished, get my doctor visit completed, and try to chill out after my insane week.”
She makes a goofy face and waggles her head. “You know, Denarso leeches boring into my hull and my customers', trying to steal food. So, of course, I had to shoot them. Novarks shut down my engines with a gelblaster that gums them up. But I’ve been down that star street a few times. I just wait by the airlock. Shoot them when they enter. Drag them back into the airlock, kick them into space, and thruster my way into a different region. Then put up the shields, clean out the junk, and power on to my next mission.”
Fuck me, Brynna’s a badass.I want her more the longer I listen to her talk. She’s comfortable in space and confronting the enemy, even if she doesn’t like it. I don’t either, but I respect anyfemale with the guts to stand against the worst of the worst to provide species like mine with life-saving supplies.
“And somewhere in there I find time to make deals and tend my plants,” she adds. “Automated systems have become a necessity. So it’s not as much fun as it used to be.”
“You prefer caring for the plants yourself?”
She pockets her tablet in the front compartment of her armor. “I grew up a farmer. We had next to nothing. But planting the seeds and watching them grow into something big and beautiful that can feed people and other species… That gives me hope that we can become more, too. This automated ship is all plastic and glass and nanomachines.”
Brynna shrugs. “Which is fine. I just want to care for them myself. It’s personal that way. But supply and demand and money rule.”
“Yeah, I miss when we could focus on what matters most.”
She tilts her head and eyes me. “What matters most to you?”
I study her soft face, wishing I could admit that her smile is like a torch in the darkness to me. “Life, my brothers, my kind, and fighting for freedom.”
Brynna nods. “Souls like yours are going extinct.”
“No time for, uh, you know.”
“Starting a family?” she asks.
I breathe out slowly, wishing it didn’t feel like moments from now I was going to lose the one thing that’s made my Inferno feel the most focused it’s ever been. “Pyraforce soldiers only get to mate when our command releases us. Mother Cinuska must release me. But my purpose to my people is more important than my personal desire, as I understand it.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. But you must be very important to them.”
“I am just a soldier, trying to do my part.”
She rests a hand on my arm. “That is honorable. I am sorry for what your kind has endured.” Brynna leans closer. “Fuck Talhuskins. They’ve iced my ship a time or two just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I hope you kick their asses.”
Now I know I don’t want to let her go. She’s got the heart of a Drathious.
“Well, I should get going. The ABR flight control center has my arrival on the schedule. If I don’t show, patrols get called to come looking.”
A fracture runs through my chest. I scramble for the words I can use to convince her to stay, but I can’t find them. “I wish you could stay, but I hope you find a mate who is good to you and can protect you like you deserve.”
She taps a button on the side of the drone, sending it back to the upper deck. “Same to you. I am going to miss this life. But… I need a change.”
I numbly bow and watch as Brynna waves and heads down another hallway. My Inferno hates me for walking back to the hangar, but I have no excuse to stay.
I carry the crate out and stack it with the others. Through a window, I see a small white transport dart out into space.
An emptiness grips me, and I feel horribly ill. I watch until I can’t see her vessel any longer, then walk back into the suit room and rest on a bench. Sweat beads on my skin, a rare occurrence except for when we truly are poisoned or sick. Unmasking my face, I tear open the top of my suit and inspect myself for green veins of Talhuskin poison, but find none.
If Talhuskins see her on the ABR holofeed, and they find out she helped us, she’ll become a target.
“Already?” Eluni bursts into the room, Allele’s voice fading on her wristband. She looks down at my chest plate. “When did that happen?”
“What?”
“The green light!”
