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Kaia could imagine a younger, though no less intimidating Orion spending his days in the dock. She smiled at her own memories of being taught to fly, even if for her it was a necessity rather than a passion. The old battle-hardened pirate whom Loran had assigned to her for instruction had drilled her until she could fly one of the old beater ships with her eyes closed. Never taught her to land though.
“We were on an expedition. Noranor. I was sixteen. One day I was in the dock and overheard mentions of a leak in a crew sector. The repair teams were busy on the other side of the ship, hardening the comms. We’d just gotten into position next to N3 Prime, the planet the scouts were meant to descend to later. So I took a repair vessel and went out there with some patches and shit. Didn’t tell anyone, just overrode the exit.” He held up his palm.
“And did you repair it?”
“Oh, yeah, was a piece of bread,” he said. “And got a fucking great view of the planet too. Beautiful.”
“But…”
“Mother flipped on me. I’d never seen her so furious. Cancelled the whole goddamn expedition on the spot just so she could send me to Mars for who knew how long, where they—”
“Where they can’t fly,” Kaia finished for him.
“No spacecraft on Mars.” Orion clicked his tongue. “Funny thing was, I thought my little mission was going to impress her. I still have no idea why she freaked out so much.”
“You are the heir to the colony. If anything happened to you…”
“Nothing fucking happened,” Orion snapped. “I was solid. Everything went right.”
“Yeah, it does sound like bullshit,” Kaia conceded.
She didn’t say it, but she wondered if there was another reason Orion’s little unauthorized repair excursion was so problematic. Mare Halena didn’t seem like the overreacting type.
“So your mom’scool with what we’re doing here?”
“What’s she gonna do now? Send me away again?”
Was Orion about to get her in a bunch of shit with his mother for this? Kaia’s grip on the yoke tightened, making the craft flinch upward with a jolt.
“Sorry,” she muttered.
But Orion only laughed in her earpiece. “Come on, let’s get back on track. Don’t wanna be late for the show.”
The what?
CHAPTER33
ORION
His mother was already on theZenithwhen they arrived, having chastised him when they were back in subvoc range. Fortunately she had other things to worry about, like a slew of meetings with theZenith’scommander. She began to suggest that Orion shadow her for this work, but he deemed it more important to show his wife-to-be how inhabitants of two colonies customarily approach their cultural interactions: by getting really wasted and fucking each other’s brains out.
A young female liaison was there to greet him when he debarked.
“Who is your guest, Mr. Halen?” Her smile wavered as she glanced at Kaia, and Orion wondered if they already knew each other.
“This is my fiancé.” Orion dragged Kaia against his side. She felt more solid under his hand now. Muscle underneath his grip.
Good.
“Oh!” Sharp eyes widened. “Then you shall be sharing a suite.”
“We shall,” Orion concurred.
“Oh, I don’t think—” Kaia began.
“Weshall.”
As they followed the liaison’s perky ass to their suite, Orion muttered low into Kaia’s ear, “We have to put on a united front here. Appearances must be kept.”
