Page 45 of Radiant Exception
“It’s on an offline comm hidden in my office. Jordan’s on duty upstairs. She’ll ask questions.”
“Oh.” Lark’s shoulders slumped, and her lips pushed out in a pout.
“Come back to bed and let’s strategize on what to do next.” I held out a hand for her.
“You really know how to turn a girl on.” She chuckled, but took my hand nonetheless, climbing back into the bed and curling onto her side, facing me. The dim reading light still engaged overhead allowed us to see just enough of each other to make out facial expressions.
“You said your brother was into encryption,” I asked tentatively.
She nodded.
“What would he have done if he’d found invasive code?”
She thought for a moment, pulling her lip between her teeth. I desperately wanted to reach out and force her to release it, but refrained.
“Well, if it wasn’t so high-risk, he might plant disruptive coding to see if our hacker noticed and did anything about it, but like you said, we do that and spook the Phoenix, then they’re in the wind and our lead is gone.” She settled back into the pillows, burrowing under the covers so only her face was visible. Under the blanket, her hand found mine, and I gave it a reassuring squeeze.
“If you’d let me look at the code, maybe I’d see something. I mean, I picked up a little from Xavier over the years.”
“Anything is worth a shot at this point,” I replied honestly.
She smiled softly, her eyes fluttering closed, the day having finally caught up to her.
“We’ll work on it in the morning.” I reached over, tucking an errant strand of hair behind her ear.
“Fine,” she said through a yawn. “I wanted to mess around more.” She scooted closer to me, closing the gap enough that her body was just touching mine. She reached a hand between us, but I snagged it in my own before she had a chance to find what she was looking for.
“Tomorrow,” I told her. “But I’ll hold you until you fall asleep, okay?”
“Okay,” She agreed, snuggling into my arms. It didn’t take long for either of us to drift off.
Chief Eng. L. Sterling
Do we have any CryoClean wipes on board? Chadwick somehow managed to get coolant all over his custom monogrammed Starlane jumpsuit. He’s getting sticky coolant residue all over engineering because he can’t stop touching shit with his grubby paws. Help!
I chuckled, reading the message from Lark on my comm as I fiddled with the food generator in the mess to get dinner for Lark and myself. Chad had been spending as much time in engineering as his duties would allow for, as Lark was the only crew on board, other than Natalie, who was willing to put up with him.
Over the last week, as we slowly made our way closer to Port Vesta, my relationship with Lark had grown more comfortable and amicable. She’d taken to sending me messages about Chadwick’s hijinks during our shift, and I never would have guessed that little twerp would be the reason I felt closer to her than ever.
Capt. D. Vaughn
Natalie has a tube in her office. He’s going to have to torch the jumpsuit. He’ll never be able to get coolant out of natural fibers. Natalie warned him the standard issue uniforms might not be as soft as he wanted, but they’re synthetic for a reason.
While our temperature toward each other had seemingly found equilibrium, neither of us were prepared to acquiesce to the other’s demands when it came to how we’d move forward with a potential romantic entanglement.
Most nights, she’d try to goad me into fucking her, and I’d find various ways of distracting her, which left me trying to fall asleep with the system’s worst case of blue balls imaginable, night after fucking night.
My comm pinged with a new message.
Chief Eng. L. Serling
Did you know Chadwick has matching monogrammed sheets and towels in his cabin? Should I tell him to turn in for the evening and let him ruin the rest of it and have to suffer with standard issue for the remainder of the run? There’s a chance he might decide to disembark at Vesta instead of having to rough it. Thoughts?
I chuckled at the thought of Chadwick flipping out over coolant residue marring all the superfluous luxury items he insisted upon bringing on board. But then I reread her message.
Capt. D. Vaughn
How do you know what kind of linens he has in his quarters?
