Mace cleared his throat. “What would you have sent in the next data stream?”
The question snapped Lexi from wherever her mind had gone, and she cast a quick glance at Justice. “They have us working on something huge. Big enough they’re being cautious, not allowing us see the whole picture. I was going to send you our new research and experiments. Maybe your experts could piece it together with other data you’ve attained.”
“Is it bio-weapon related?”
Lexi perked up. “How did you know?”
“Because of what we recently found on a smuggler’s ship.” He described the weapon Cache had shown her commanders.
Brow furrowing, Lexi turned to Justice. “It could be connected.”
Justice rubbed the goatee at his chin, leaning back in his chair. “Possibly. I’d always thought we were working on something larger than a hand-held gun, a weapon built for a ship’s systems, but anything is possible when we’ve been kept in the dark about so much of this project.”
“What more can you tell me about it?” Mace asked.
“It’s genetic-based,” Lexi explained. “We’re isolating markers differentiating between races.”
A cold sensation washed over him. “The payload would be able to somehow tell the difference between a CORE soldier and a Tellusian warrior? Kill one and not the other?”
Lexi scowled. “In short, yes. But there are more similarities between us than the CORE would want us to believe. It could also focus on the differences between someone CORE and someone Calypson. That’s why I was going to send the information sooner than our usual check-in date.”
“I can take it with me and save you the trouble.”
She let out a short laugh, but she wasn’t smiling. “Don’t think this absolves you of your transgressions.”
“What transgressions?” The question was reflexive, defiant in the face of his older sister’s censure.
Lexi’s eyes darkened to the point where if she’d been holding a gun, Mace was sure she would’ve shot him. “What transgressions?” she repeated through a clenched jaw. “Mace. What the hell is wrong with you? If mom were alive she’d put a knife to your throat herself. You took a captive. You fucked a captive. You brought your captivehereand fucked her again, when you know you shouldn’t even trust her. Please tell me what part of thatwasn’ta problem!”
Mace clenched his teeth, battling the discomfiture her words created. He didn’t ask how she’d known he and Nia been intimate before arriving here. His sister knew him too well.
On a slow exhale, Lexi’s eyes flicked to the level above, her expression shuttering.
Unease swirling in his chest, Mace turned to see Nia there, her hands so tight on the railing her knuckles were white and realized Lexi had shouted everything in Common.
Nia’s heart beat a wounded rhythm in her chest, her cheeks burning like lava. She knew she wasn’t welcome here, but to hear those things shouted about her made her wish the deck would swallow her whole. Her fingers ached where she gripped the railing.
Mace stood, and still Nia couldn’t move. Behind him, Lexi glared at her brother with her arms crossed over her chest.
Straightening her spine, Nia pushed away from the railing. She wouldn’t hide. She wouldn’t cower. If it had been up to her, she would have remained onElara Five, the station unharmed from Tellusian attack, and she would have known none of this life.
The thought panged something strange in her chest. If she’d remained onElara Five, she would be doing the same thing each day, every day.Wake up. Work. Stimulants. Superficial relationships. Sleeping aids. Repeat.
Even though she’d seen and experienced horrific things over the past month, she’d never felt so alive.
Her eyes followed Mace as he walked up the ramp to her. He was the one who breathed the most life into her. Whether she wanted to attack him or devour him, he was the one person who set flame to the buried spark in her chest.
Stopping in front of her, he took her hand. “She’s angry with me, not you.”
Nia shook her head. Her feelings weren’t important, and Lexi was right. No one here should trust her. Look at what she had spilled as soon as those nanos had taken residence.
He tugged on her fingers. “Let’s get you something to eat.”
When her stomach answered with a growl, his eyes crinkled into a smile. He led her down the ramp, past where Justice and Lexi sat, to the dispensary beyond.
“Veggie pasta number three isn’t bad,” Lexi said over her shoulder, words clipped.
Nia cast her a glance, and the other woman’s glare softened into a resigned expression.
