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6
I might as well have paraded aroundnaked. Brinley took one look at me and grinned.
E'rel barely glanced in my direction before he slid into a seat in the cockpit.
Brinley swung her bag onto a bunk and raised an eyebrow at me.
"What?" I asked. I started to arrange the new box of cans E'rel had brought on board and left near the door.
Acting like an ass wasn't just a Parvoran thing, but they did it so well. They could teach the average politician a trick or two.
"You know what." She picked up her pillow and made a face at how thin it was. "You and J'avet."
I shrugged, although my face suddenly felt warmer. "Just two consenting adults doing what adults do."
She snapped her fingers. "I knew you two didn't hate each other. It was so obvious."
"Apparently to everyone but us," I said. "Who said we don't still hate each other? He's still an ass."
J'avet stepped aboard, bag over one shoulder, yet another box of cans in his arms.
"Don't forget it either," he said dryly. "Don't start thinking I'll be nice."
"I wouldn't dream of it," I told him. "What did you say to Vaw? I don't think it's gone unnoticed that we're stocking this pod."
"Officially, we're meeting up with the Vulcan," J'avet said. "That will take us to Agus."
I narrowed my eyes. That sounded so plausible, I wouldn't put it past him to plan just that.
"But we're not, right?" I asked. I expected him to hesitate, to avert his eyes. Instead, he looked straight at me.
"No. We're not. Unless you've changed your mind and still want to—"
"I haven't," I said firmly. Okay, a small part of me would have liked to run away to Agus, but I had a month to do that. Honestly, I never really thought about it as a viable option. For so long, I figured the guys would turn up. Now, they needed me. There was nowhere else in the galaxy I would be but here. Okay, maybe a larger ship, with a metric butt load of experienced, heavily armed soldiers.
J'avet turned to Brinley. "There are other pilots."
"I'm going," she said firmly. "Wherever Edie goes, I go."
"I wouldn't make that a hard and fast rule if I were you," J'avet placed his bag on the bunk above mine. "Edie doesn't always make the best choices."
I sniffed. "Ain't that the truth." I looked at him down my lashes and held back a smile.
"Very much so," he agreed. "We'll be lucky to get out of this alive." He left the box of cans at my feet and went to sit beside E'rel.
"See," I said, "he's still an ass."
"So I see." Brinley looked like she was holding back laughter. She patted me on the shoulder and moved to sit in the pilot's seat to start the preflight check.
Muttering to myself, I went on unpacking cans until the lockers were full and boxes were empty. I carried the empty boxes off the shuttle and put them beside the docking bay door in a neat pile.
Many people left them lying around, but I figured this would make life easier for the station's maintenance people.
Of course it also made me anxious that J'avet would close the pod door and leave without me. To my relief, the door was still open when I got back.
I took a last glance around the pod bay, then stepped up the gangway and into the pod. Who knew if we would ever be back? Even if we survived this crazy mission, we might not come this way again.
Part of me was sad about that. As stations went, this was a nice place to spend a few weeks. The rest of me got stir crazy after the first day, and couldn't wait to leave.
