Page 20 of Radiant Exception
“Keep me posted on the activity levels.”
“Yes, sir.”
I didn’t give him the chance to say anything else before exiting the mess hall and heading up to the bridge.
Jordan was clicking away on the screens in front of her, running through constant system checks, rather than resting on her laurels. I knew I wouldn’t be able to keep her as a second for too much longer; she would be an excellent captain in her own right, but I was glad to have her while she learned the ropes.
Hearing the door whoosh closed behind me, she turned in her chair, a puzzled look on her face. “What are you doing on the bridge, Captain?”
I cocked my head in confusion, then peered down at the time on my comm. I was early, but only by a couple minutes. “I’m here to relieve you.”
The corners of her lips quirked into a smirk. “There’s been a schedule adjustment.”
I frowned.
“You’re on second shift now.”
“On whose authority?” I demanded.
Jordan’s grin grew. “Officer Reese issued the alteration while you were off duty. You should have a notification on your comm.”
I looked down at the screen. I had hundreds of notifications. I ignored them all. Between Jordan and Natalie, they kept me alerted to what was going on, so it was a waste of time to check them.
“I’ll talk to Reese.” I turned to leave, but Jordan stopped me.
“No use. She came up here personally to ask me if I could pull a double today and swap shifts.”
I spun to face her. “And why would you do that without consulting me?”
Jordan’s amused expression was nothing if not terrifying. “Natalie’s in charge of the schedule. I didn’t know you needed to approve any changes,” she challenged.
It was clear she knew something I didn’t, and I had a feeling who was really responsible for the change. As the captain, I had the ultimate authority to dictate the schedule, but as there were other forces at work here, I knew it would be more trouble than it was worth to throw my weight around and move it back—until I had more information, at least.
“You look like shit, Cap. Go get more sleep. I’ll be here when you get back,” she called after me as I stomped out of the room.
And sure enough, when I made it back down to my quarters, I found Lark in nothing but white cotton panties and a practically see-through white tank top scrolling through her comm, perched at the edge of the mattress, preparing to go to bed. When she heard the door open, she looked up at me, eyes wide in alarm.
“What have you done?” I snarled.
“I’d prefer if you didn’t take that tone with me, sir,” I challenged Vaughn.
All I could think was,damn, Natalie works fast.
“Lark.” Vaughn ground his teeth. “What. Have. You. Done?”
“It was an accident.” I decided on the spot that playing innocent was the optimal path, given Vaughn’s less-than-enthusiastic response. Although I should have seen that coming, I just hadn’t anticipated that Natalie would change the schedule immediately.
“Talk,” he commanded.
Geez, why did I actually like it when he sounded all serious and moody?
“Natalie caught me in the mess, and I was having a rough morning, and I wasn’t thinking—”
“Wasn’t thinking about what?”
“Well she asked me how things were between us, and I said I hadn’t seen you in days.” I glared at him, silently berating him for ignoring me, and even more than that, for refusing to work with me. “And she said she could fix it and left before I could tell her it was okay.”
Vaughn ran his hands down his face in frustration, slumping into the desk chair on the far side of the room. “You have no idea how fucked we are now,” he grumbled.
