Page 30 of Radiant Exception
That was all I could think about while I took the call with HQ.
“Starlane was alerted to a power anomaly aboard your ship. I am checking in as part of standard protocol,” the automated agent on the comm relayed in a flat tone. “What is your status?”
“There was a glitch with the thermal regulator sensor. It reported a circuit board was blown out and a microfluidics conduit was cracked, but our engineer was able to confirm that both were intact and working properly and noted it as an issue with the system, which is being rebooted and debugged,” I lied.
If Starlane discovered Lark had repaired the engine while it had been running, the entire ship would be recalled and the crew would be at risk of termination, me most of all.
The thing about Starlane is that they wanted to have their cake and eat it too. By assigning such rigorous shipment schedules, they practically ensured that shady shit like this would happen aboard their contracted vessels.
And truly, they didn’t care, but they didn’t want to know about it. So when asked, they had plausible deniability and could point to their piles of standards and codes and claim innocence from any wrongdoing, while throwing their contractors under the proverbial bus.
So I, and every other captain, played this game of blaming sensors and systems, and Starlane pretended that they believed us, and everyone went about their business.
“Please submit an incident report within the next twenty-four hours,” the agent requested.
“Affirmative,” I agreed and ended the call.
“Assholes,” muttered Ethan. He was lounging sideways at Jordan’s station, his legs thrown over the armrest of her chair. She’d be furious if he messed with any of the settings, which meant he definitely had.
“They’re just following procedure.” Cassidy sat at his regular station, but his form was slouched. He’d been furious when I’d given Lark the order to fix the engine, and clearly hadn’t yet forgiven me for the transgression. Normally he wasn’t one to hold a grudge, but nobody on this ship ever stood up for Starlane, so I knew his comment was about something else…or rather, someone else.
“She made it work,” I stated, sinking into my own captain’s chair at the back of the bridge.
“She was fucking bleeding when she came up here,” Cassidy fumed, eyes blazing.
He was right. She’d been injured, and it was my fault. “She’s fine; I patched her up in my office.”
“Oh, is that what you two were doing in there?” Ethan grunted a laugh, ignoring the tension roiling between Cassidy and me. “Y’all started out real loud and then it got real quiet.” He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.
“Don’t talk about my wife!” I snapped.
Ethan let out a deafening chuckle, further diffusing the mood on the bridge.
Cassidy stood from his station. “I need to take care of a few things below,” he announced, not bothering to give me a glance as he left, and making it clear that he didn’t want to be around any discussions about Lark and me, leaving me wondering if he was jealous.
The way he’d made sure I was aware he’d known Lark as a child felt odd at the time, but maybe their youthful friendship meant something more to him.
She still hadn’t mentioned it at all to me, so I assumed it hadn’t had the same effect on her, although she and I hadn’t been on the best of terms, so I supposed she wouldn’t have confided anything in me, even if I’d given her the chance.
Maybe I was the jealous one… The thought was sobering.
“What crawled up his ass?” Ethan asked after the bridge door had slipped shut behind Cassidy. “Good thing you’ve got an exception with your hot little wifey, or I would have thought Cass had a crush on your girl.”
I narrowed my eyes at Ethan, although he’d spoken my exact fears aloud. “What did I just say?” I ground out.
“How far’d you get in your office before he interrupted?” Ethan gave me a big, toothy, shit-eating grin, having far too much fun rilingme up. He was like the older brother I’d never asked for—an absolute menace, but unfortunately with a heart of gold that people rarely saw in action.
“I’m not answering that.” I picked up my comm and began reviewing the most recent system diagnostics to look for any other odd patterns that might indicate future issues like what we’d just experienced.
Ethan just laughed again and returned to fiddling with Jordan’s station.
Always one to use jokes and laughter as a way to keep others at a distance, I understood Ethan’s need to keep people at arm’s length. Like the rest of the crew on theRadiant, he’d had his share of struggles. Similar to everyone else on the ship, Natalie being the usual exception, he preferred to keep quiet about his past.
I didn’t know much about Ethan, but what I did know was that despite the bravado, he’d do anything to keep theRadiant’screw safe, even at his own expense. And that was a man I wanted on my side.
With the bridge bathed in relative silence, my mind returned to Lark and what had transpired in my office. The anger I’d felt when she’d used my first name had been so palpable. I hated sharing my father’s first name.
Anytime someone slipped up and used it, it felt like a punch to the gut, bringing back memories of my mother in her last days, fighting the illness that had taken her, pulling me close and repeatedly saying that I was “herDamian,” knowing full well that my namesake had never belonged to her. I was all she had left of the man she’d lovedmore than life itself, but who had so easily abandoned her and his son. It made me sick.
