Page 76 of Star Bringer
“Cool.” She keeps right on fiddling.
Not taking the hint, then. “Where the hell is everyone?” I mutter. Complaining about the others seems a much safer route to take than questioning her piloting prowess.
“Bed.”
“Yeah, well, if I’m awake, then they should be, too.”
“I doubt they see it like that.”
“Iamthe captain.”
“Of course you are.” She says it like it’s a pat on the head, but I’m still too hungover to take offense. Especially when she adds, “You want me to wake the others up?”
“Hell, yeah.” I appreciate the offer—and the time alone to regroup. Except she doesn’t head out to get them. Instead, she just presses another button.
“Rise and shine, everyone.” I hear her voice, but simultaneously it comes through some sort of comms system. It’s really loud, and it echoes all over the ship. “Your captain has called a meeting on the bridge in ten minutes. Be here or…” She gives a shrug.
“So you’re getting the hang of flying this thing, then?” I ask.
She considers the question for a moment; I can see her trying to concentrate. She presses a finger to her forehead, then gives a quick nod. “Sort of. Mostly, she does it herself—who do you think flew her all night? And so far, when I’ve put in coordinates, she’s followed them. But I’m just waiting for us to have a difference of opinion. I’m pretty sure I’ll come out on the losing side.”
“You think the ship might have an opinion?” That’s seriously screwed up. Is she having me on?
“Well, you did just point out she’s an alien artifact.”
“You think that makes her sentient?” I ask.
She snorts. “I think that makes her something we don’t understand.”
I consider that for a second. “Good point.”
“And there’s another thing. That solar flare that took out an entire town but saved your ass back on Askkandia? The princess seems convinced it came from theStarlight.”
I dismiss the idea right away. “That’s impossible.”
“That’s what I said, but after what we just saw…” She shrugs. “I’m willing to keep an open mind.”
That’s because she still has one. I’m pretty sure mine was pickled last night, along with the rest of me.
Before I can get my aching head to think about anything else, Rain appears, looking as bright and chirpy as ever.
Her gaze goes directly to Beckett, and she hurries over, totally ignoring me. “You didn’t come back last night and hang out with us,” she says. “I missed you.”
I whistle under my breath. Sooo that’s how things are. Interesting. The little priestess is obviously braver than me.
Beckett shrugs. “I was tired.”
Rain frowns but doesn’t say anything else.
“Don’t you have a headache?” I ask Rain. She put away an awful lot of gerjgin last night for such a little thing.
“Oh, sorry, Ian. I didn’t see you there.”
Of course not. Because, apparently, I’m fucking invisible as long as Beckett is around.
She smiles like a little ray of fucking sunshine. “My head is fine, thank you. In fact, I feel really good.”
But before I can ask anything else, like how that’s humanly possible, Merrick appears in the doorway. “I’m glad one of us does.”
