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A flash of something crossed her face. Her fingers clenched within his. “Don’t call me that. And no.”
Liar.
Ifhewas nervous to be back there, she was probably on the verge of a panic attack. Her whole life hadn’t been spent on Riker 109, that much he’d gathered. She came from planetside, poor thing, so she wasn’t completely sheltered. But seeing a colony ship up close was something else. Very few people who weren’t residents would even get close to seeing such a thing in their lifetimes. If the secrecy of the colony’s trajectory didn’t stop an unwanted visitor, the laser cannons would.
“Docking in five.” Bretton’s voice came over the intercom for Kaia’s benefit as she didn’t have a Neurosync yet. They would get that sorted shortly.
“Strap in, princess,” Orion instructed, lest she not know what docking entailed.
Kaia snatched her hand from his to focus on her harness, fidgeting with the clasps. Oh, yes, she was freaking out.
Orion strapped himself in and prepared for a long few hours.
CHAPTER14
KAIA
As Kaia descended the ramp of the needlefin, the dock coming into view before her made her head spin. The open expanse of it appeared as though it may be larger than an entire deck of Riker 109.
Painfully bright lights illuminated the space. A row of shiny new needlefins sitting next to their own, which was steaming as its engines cooled, were mere specks in the dock’s starfield. A few dozen other vessels were neatly parked in spots marked by pristine paint and rows of faint LEDs embedded into the floor.
Kaia stumbled as something big and hard shoved into her back.
“Shit.” Hands grabbed her shoulders. Coffee and mint. “Can’t just stop like that.”
“Can if the person behind you looks where he’s going,” Kaia bit back.
Be nice.
“Come on, don’t be like that, princess.” Orion nudged her off the ramp, keeping one heavy arm looped around her shoulders, digging her into his side. Kaia clutched her helmet to her chest as he dragged her across the deck.
“No welcome party?” he called back to Bretton, who was trailing them.
“Commander Halena requests you at the command center.”
It wasn't lost on Kaia that the pilot’s voice was suddenly more formal than at any point during the twenty-or-so-hour flight.
Orion did not follow suit.
“I bet she does,” he snorted.
As they reached the far side of the dock, Orion steered them toward the wall on the left. The door they stopped at was invisible to Kaia until it was right in her face. Orion pressed a hand to a smooth indentation at its side. If the authentication process hurt, Orion didn’t show it. When the door opened, his palm came away with five distinct pricks already beading blood. He brought them to his mouth, sucking at the sampling points while directing Kaia inside.
The passageway they entered was a narrow, rounded tunnel, lit dimly by warm, luminescent strips lining the walls. Some of the tightness in her gut unclenched as they stepped deeper into those dark, narrow confines. Just like the passages on Riker 109. Except not chipped, dirty, or dented.
“Private hallway? Does it get you to the command center faster?”
“Blood passage. And yes, unfortunately,” Orion said wryly. By the way he slowed his pace, Orion wasn’t acting like he wanted to get there in a hurry, so why bother with a shortcut?
“More privacy,” he grunted, as if reading her mind.
“My shoulder hurts.”
“Huh?”
Kaia shrugged off Orion’s arm, which was still keeping her pinned to his side. “Too heavy.”
“Better get used to it, princess.” But he let her be, walking ahead with what appeared to be a cocky certainty that she’d follow.
