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“It’s adorable and pathetic. Welcome home, Rennick. Your girlfriend is a disaster without you.”

He kissed Cass’s temple. “A perfect disaster. My perfect disaster.”

I left them to it. Some things didn’t need an audience, and if I watched them gaze at each other for one more second, I’d either throw my whisky at them or do something worse, like feel something.

Back in the workstation, Gary had reappeared and was staring out the window.

“Don’t even think about following them to the bedroom,” I said. “You know Rennick installed spook alerts on his ship, so he’ll know if you’re creeping about. And the Hollow Chorus will kick you out if you grind against the walls again. No one wants to see your ecto-spunk.”

Gary gave me a thumbs up and vanished again. He was so going to sneak a peek.

Tambi’s voice came through the ship’s comms, clipped and all business. “Meeting in five minutes. New client on docking approach.”

I pulled up the docking request on my tablet. Species: Draethyn. Huh. Interesting. I’d never worked on a Draethyn vessel. I’d never met a Draethyn either, and the trade database had a sparse file. Old species. Ritualistic culture. Known for being large, private, and not chatty.

No worries. I could chat for two. Maybe even three on a spunky day. I wrinkled my nose. The less I thought about spunk the better. Rennick’s ship had delighted in covering me in ooey gooey spunky resin when we’d been fixing her.

Doc arrived, med kit over her shoulder because she never went anywhere without it, a mug of something that smelled like it could power a shuttle in one hand. She dropped into a chair and yawned.

“What we got?” she asked with a tired smile, her messy red hair looking in need of a deep heat mask.

“You didn’t read the briefing document Tambi so lovingly made?”

She snorted. “You did?”

I shrugged. “Maybe. Draethyn.”

“Big and quiet. Nice. And an improvement on big and haunted.” She rubbed her eyes. “Although if this one slimes us, I’m quitting.”

Tambi walked in with her tablet and a shit-eating grin on her face, her silver braids clipped on top of her head like a freaking Icelandic queen. Her expression meant this job would have us rolling in credits when we pulled it off.

“Where’s Cass?” she asked.

“Rennick just docked,” I said.

“Urgh.” Tambi fired off a message. “Okay, details. This is a solo client. Says he’s got a ship problem nobody else will touch.”

“What kind of problem?” I asked.

“Didn’t specify, and he paid the consultation fee without negotiating, which means he’s rich, desperate, or dumb.” Tambi sat down. “His ship is locked in on our dock.”

Cass and Rennick appeared in the galley doorway. Cass had gotten her professional face back on, mostly. Rennick still had his hand on the small of her back.

“Hey. What do we know?” Cass asked.

“If anyone read the damn briefs I created, you’d have all the answers!” Tambi gestured to the spare seats.

“I skimmed.” Cass sat with Rennick. “This model of ship is mainly out of circulation, so we could be dealing with retro tech.”

“They’re a private species, and they keep to themselves,” Rennick said. “It’s been years since I’ve met one.”

“We’ll figure it out when he gets here,” Cass said. “We always do.”

The dock bay pinged again. Our new client was early.

I stood, finished my whisky, and set the glass on the counter for Gary to knock off like a spooky cat. “I’ll go meet and greet since I have zero stains on my shirt. Somebody’s gotta make a good first impression, and it’s not gonna be any of you looking like you just rolled out of the same bunk.”

Cass threw a napkin at me. I caught it, grinned, and headed outside.