She was woman enough to admit she wondered what it would be like to have Justyn Phoenix spread out beneath her—naked and available for her hands to explore.
But she was a Patrol captain. An ambitious one who was good at her job. So she never let the fantasy go past that. She imagined what her father would have to say about Phoenix. She winced. None of it would be good.
“Captain Sander?”
Her comms specialist’s voice came through her nano-earpiece. Nissa kept her gaze locked with Phoenix’s silver one and touched her ear. “Go ahead, Ensign.”
“There’s a Pri-One transmission for you. From HQ.”
A priority one meant something big. “I’ll be there in a minute.” She heard the distinctive step of Patrol boots headed back into the cockpit. Tryker entered, his face dark. He shook his head.
Nissa sighed. “One of these days, Phoenix, I’m going to catch you with your pants down.” As soon as the words left her mouth, she cursed herself.
The laugh lines around his mouth deepened. “Oh, I hope so, Captain Smooth. I hope so.”
She gave his handsome face one last perusal, then looked at her team. “Back to theFreedom.” The teletrans flared and the last thing she saw were Justyn’s silver-gray eyes.
Back on the bridge, she strode toward her ops room off the bridge. “Ensign Gat’nar, put the Pri-One through to my private console.”
“Yes, Captain.”
Nissa pressed the palm plate beside the door. The ops room was actually two rooms—the larger main room with a glossy conference table, and an adjoining room that was her private office. She loved that her office had a large, round window that gave a stunning view of space. Something inside her eased. The vista of the endless black—covered in a sprinkle of stars—never failed to speak to something in her. As she rounded her desk, she caught sight of the very back of Phoenix’s runnership. Her gaze narrowed on the engine intakes. If she wasn’t mistaken, he had some not-strictly-legal modifications.
She shook her head. Justyn Phoenix wasn’t her priority right now.
Dropping into her chair, she touched the screen built into her desk. Admiral Carmel DeRuyter’s stern face filled the screen, her ash-blonde hair a sleek bell surrounding features untouched by the popular anti-aging treatments. DeRuyter had been a mentor to Nissa since her days in the Galactic Security Services Academy. Nissa respected the older woman, who’d come through the Quadrant Wars with a slew of commendations, and was tougher than most sitting on the GSS Council. Most of all, DeRuyter was willing to do anything to protect the galaxy.
“Ma’am. What can I do for you?”
“It’s good to see you, Nissa. I wish I was calling under better circumstances. We have a situation and you’re the closest ship we have.”
Nissa waited for the woman to continue, anticipation sending a flare through her blood.
“Exactly seven hours ago, the US Constitution document was stolen from the Galactic Institute of Historical Preservation.”
“What?” Nissa sat forward in her seat. “TheUS Constitution? One of the five Galactic Constitution Codices?” It was one of themost revered manuscripts in the galaxy, used as a foundation for the Galactic Constitution. And it was priceless.
“Unfortunately, yes,” the admiral said.
“Do you know who took it?”
“We have some partial intel. Galactic Intelligence managed to intercept a transmission, but they only got a short section. We don’t know who stole it or why, but we know they’ve since passed it off to a gridrunner named Hewett Kenth.”
A gridrunner. A small transporter, not unlike Phoenix, who moved all manner of things around the galaxy. Usually legal cargo, but everyone knew that gridrunners were known to go off-grid and run all kinds of contraband.
Hewett Kenth was a familiar name. He ran through the Exodus quadrant in his runnership, theTrader’s Dart, and kept a small base at Galaxy’s Edge. She’d arrested him three times in the past…no, wait a minute, four. “I know Kenth. He’s strictly small-time. I can’t see him getting involved with something like this.”
“Well, he must have decided to join the big leagues. He’s to rendezvous with someone at Galaxy’s Edge Space Station and hand over the artifact.” DeRuyter’s blue eyes glittered. “I want you to get it back and bring in everyone involved.”
“Yes, Admiral.”
DeRuyter smiled. “Pull this off, Captain, and I can finally arrange a transfer back to one of the central quadrants in your near future.”
Nissa straightened. “Yes, ma’am.”
“Update me regularly.” The screen went black.
Nissa stood. This was it. Her chance to make her mark, prove herself to father, and finally get a choice command far away from the lawless edge of the galaxy.
