“Eh, damn,” Lee mutters, rubbing his forehead. “I’ll be down in a few minutes, you’re dismissed.”
With another glare at me and rather obvious bristle at being told to go away, Kell stalks out the door and shuts it rather aggressively. Zane’s eyes follow her out, more fire in them than I’ve ever seen. I guess there was bound to be a few people in the galaxy who’d get under his skin.
I’d think about asking him if he likes her or something, but based on his expression I’m sure that’s the perfect way to get punched.
“Supernova?” I ask, glancing out the broad window, though if there were evidence I’m sure I would’ve seen long before now.
Lee starts tapping at his tablet. “Eh, there were reports a nearby star might give out. But we’re hunting a big bounty in the area, so we were hoping to beat it. We’ll just have to stop and wait for it to pass. But we’d gotten word the job was hiding out in one of the mines in this area. If they’re evacuating it’s going to be a whole problem.”
The procedure for being in vicinity of a supernova is pretty standard, depending on how far away the implosion is. For a big ship like this at a far enough distance, they shut the engines down along with all the power except life support, put up the shields around all the windows, and wait for the firestorm to pass. Just like the big freighters on Taloon can fly through asteroid storms, as long as Lee isn’t too close, this ship is big and fancy enough to just sit in place and wait out the wave.
As for the ships the siblings and I pilot, we’d have to turn tail and head the opposite direction until we’re a safe enough distance the worst of it passes. Or find a planet to land on.
“We should get going then,” I say. “We don’t have the shields for that kind of thing.”
“Yeah, I noticed.” Lee chuckles. “You could head out, or you could wait it out here.”
He slides his tablet across the table to me. My immediate reaction is to scowl, but I pick it up. Bat pops his head over my arm to get a look.
It’s pretty close. There hadn’t been any alerts on my ship, so it must have developed fast. We could probably outrun it, but I’m still worried about my engine, and there’s all the humans to worry about. Staying here for the next few hours or so would be uncomfortable but ultimately safer.
At my silence, Lee stands. “Talk with your weird little group about it, I’ll be back in ten minutes.”
Even after he closes the door, it takes a few seconds for anyone to talk.
When someone does, I can tell Zane is still in a bad mood. “Oh, he thinks our group is weird.”
Lalia presses her lips together and pats him soothingly on the back. He doesn’t look comforted.
“Here.” I slide the tablet to them. “What do you think about outrunning that?”
Zane glares at the offending tablet as if it’s going to bite him, but Lalia picks it up with a much more level expression. Yvonne leans over to get a look.
“Why can’t we see it?” Anya asks, sliding off her sister’s lap and creeping to the broad window as if being out in the open is dangerous.
“Might be on the other side of the ship, or in front of it,” I tell her.
She leaves the glass and wanders to my side. “That Lee guy is a bit scary.”
Funny. I’ve never viewed him that way. I suppose, compared to just leaving Amerov, the friendly human was never threatening. To the little princess, who got nothing but the best treatment from Captain, Lee is a little…intimidating.
“He’s harmless,” I say, which isn’t remotely true, but she doesn’t need to know. I believe fully Lee would never hurt her, so that’s all she needs to know as far as I’m concerned.
“His first mate is a bitch,” Zane grumbles. Yvonne nearly chokes on her wine.
“Alright, tough guy, try to relax,” I tell him, and only get a flick of a glare. Wow. I only now realize it’s been over a month, and this is the first time I’ve seen him in a bad mood. A few weeks ago, I probably would’ve welcomes it, but now, it makes me feel a little ill.
“And try to cheer up,” I add. “I’m the one in this group designated to be the ass.”
He kicks me under the table again.
“Aaron, some amount of swearing control would be nice.” Yvonne pointedly looks at Anya.
Anya says, “I’ve heard that word before.”
“Not the point.”
“All right,” I stop them before they get started. “Let’s try to focus. Exploding star and all that.”
Zane sits back and folds his arms. “I say let’s leave.”
Yes, I imagine he does. “La?”
Her mouth twists in thought. “That’s going to be a close call. Our ships are old.”
“I’m not really familiar with all this,” Yvonne says, leaning closer over the tablet.
“It’s a chart of the spreading firestorm from the star, and estimated time it’ll hit this ship. The more I think about it, the less faith I have in our engines. And Lee has promised no one here is going to give us crap, so staying a few hours and waiting for it to pass is technically the wiser move.”
Even if I can’t quite shake this uneasy feeling
“You don’t think he’s up to something,” Zane asks.
“Not particularly. He’s not lying about the star. And if he was going to pull something, he has as much power over us now as he does if we wait this out here.” At Zane’s pinched expression, I add, “I don’t like it any more than you do, I’m just trying to think practically. We don’t have to sit in here the whole time, we can wait in our ships. Or all in one ship, I don’t care.”
I offer up the last option to make the siblings feel better. I’m sure they’ll soften up about the idea of staying if they get to hang out in my ship with us instead of being kicked out into their own.
Zane’s expression does soften. A little.
“So basically we’re trying to figure out whether or not to try to outrun an exploding star?” Yvonne asks.
“You got it.”
“I’d rather we not.”
“Used up all your backbone on Amerov?”
She makes direct eye-contact and only gives a pleasant, “Yep.”
Weird lady. But I wouldn’t want to go playing chicken with a star either if I had my kid sister with me.
“Bat?” I ask. He’s the only one who hasn’t contributed.
“I don’t like it here.”
“Yeah, well, I got that part.”
He wrinkles up his nose. “But I suppose it’s safer to stay. I’d rather not get toasted.”
Zane sinks further into his seat as if he was hoping Bat would agree with him.
“You really that determined?” I ask him.
He makes another face. “No, I’m fine. We can stay.”
His expression says he’d rather get a tooth pulled, which I can’t blame him for, but we all know it’s safer to stay.
“I wish we could leave,” Anya grumbles, and I try not to smile. It all seems less serious coming from her.
When Bat leaps up on the edge of the table to pick at the food scraps I didn’t get to, Anya sits on my knee the same as she did with her sister. I go still, glaring at Yvonne who’s apparently not too worried about the situation she can’t get a giggle out of this. Zane’s expression remains stoney.
“How are your prosthetics?” I ask, so I don’t feel weird about her being so trusting.
“Fine.”
“Nothing hurts?”
“Nope.”
Well, there goes that line of conversation. I pat her on the back, and she simply leans back against my chest.
I hate these humans.
Lee takes this moment to walk in, stop dead, and his jaw pops open. I’m fairly sure I remember the one time someone from his crew touched me and I broke their nose. Well, no one in his crew treated me like a person. Or was a nice little innocent kid.
Clearing his throat, he asks, “You staying or leaving?”
“Staying. But we’ll just hang out in our ships, as long as you don’t find that insulting.”
The last part is mostly a joke and hits its mark. His lips twitch under his beard. “Not at all. I’ll walk you back.”
“Finally,” Anya whispers with enough relief it’s hard not to laugh.
She heads out the door with her sister, giving Lee such a wide berth it’s hilarious to imagine her disliking him when she’s so comfortable alongside me. Weird humans. Back Bat goes into the backpack, and I try not to laugh at Zane practically stomping out of the room. Lalia gives me a long-suffering look as if I’ve been dealing with him as long as she has. But this is the first time I haven’t seen him being a little ray of annoying sunshine, and it’s worrying me even if his mini temper tantrum is kinda funny.
I should probably ask him if he’s doing alright.
I frown to myself. I had a single glass of wine. I need to sober up, apparently.
“Eh, damn,” Lee mutters, rubbing his forehead. “I’ll be down in a few minutes, you’re dismissed.”
With another glare at me and rather obvious bristle at being told to go away, Kell stalks out the door and shuts it rather aggressively. Zane’s eyes follow her out, more fire in them than I’ve ever seen. I guess there was bound to be a few people in the galaxy who’d get under his skin.
I’d think about asking him if he likes her or something, but based on his expression I’m sure that’s the perfect way to get punched.
“Supernova?” I ask, glancing out the broad window, though if there were evidence I’m sure I would’ve seen long before now.
Lee starts tapping at his tablet. “Eh, there were reports a nearby star might give out. But we’re hunting a big bounty in the area, so we were hoping to beat it. We’ll just have to stop and wait for it to pass. But we’d gotten word the job was hiding out in one of the mines in this area. If they’re evacuating it’s going to be a whole problem.”
The procedure for being in vicinity of a supernova is pretty standard, depending on how far away the implosion is. For a big ship like this at a far enough distance, they shut the engines down along with all the power except life support, put up the shields around all the windows, and wait for the firestorm to pass. Just like the big freighters on Taloon can fly through asteroid storms, as long as Lee isn’t too close, this ship is big and fancy enough to just sit in place and wait out the wave.
As for the ships the siblings and I pilot, we’d have to turn tail and head the opposite direction until we’re a safe enough distance the worst of it passes. Or find a planet to land on.
“We should get going then,” I say. “We don’t have the shields for that kind of thing.”
“Yeah, I noticed.” Lee chuckles. “You could head out, or you could wait it out here.”
He slides his tablet across the table to me. My immediate reaction is to scowl, but I pick it up. Bat pops his head over my arm to get a look.
It’s pretty close. There hadn’t been any alerts on my ship, so it must have developed fast. We could probably outrun it, but I’m still worried about my engine, and there’s all the humans to worry about. Staying here for the next few hours or so would be uncomfortable but ultimately safer.
At my silence, Lee stands. “Talk with your weird little group about it, I’ll be back in ten minutes.”
Even after he closes the door, it takes a few seconds for anyone to talk.
When someone does, I can tell Zane is still in a bad mood. “Oh, he thinks our group is weird.”
Lalia presses her lips together and pats him soothingly on the back. He doesn’t look comforted.
“Here.” I slide the tablet to them. “What do you think about outrunning that?”
Zane glares at the offending tablet as if it’s going to bite him, but Lalia picks it up with a much more level expression. Yvonne leans over to get a look.
“Why can’t we see it?” Anya asks, sliding off her sister’s lap and creeping to the broad window as if being out in the open is dangerous.
“Might be on the other side of the ship, or in front of it,” I tell her.
She leaves the glass and wanders to my side. “That Lee guy is a bit scary.”
Funny. I’ve never viewed him that way. I suppose, compared to just leaving Amerov, the friendly human was never threatening. To the little princess, who got nothing but the best treatment from Captain, Lee is a little…intimidating.
“He’s harmless,” I say, which isn’t remotely true, but she doesn’t need to know. I believe fully Lee would never hurt her, so that’s all she needs to know as far as I’m concerned.
“His first mate is a bitch,” Zane grumbles. Yvonne nearly chokes on her wine.
“Alright, tough guy, try to relax,” I tell him, and only get a flick of a glare. Wow. I only now realize it’s been over a month, and this is the first time I’ve seen him in a bad mood. A few weeks ago, I probably would’ve welcomes it, but now, it makes me feel a little ill.
“And try to cheer up,” I add. “I’m the one in this group designated to be the ass.”
He kicks me under the table again.
“Aaron, some amount of swearing control would be nice.” Yvonne pointedly looks at Anya.
Anya says, “I’ve heard that word before.”
“Not the point.”
“All right,” I stop them before they get started. “Let’s try to focus. Exploding star and all that.”
Zane sits back and folds his arms. “I say let’s leave.”
Yes, I imagine he does. “La?”
Her mouth twists in thought. “That’s going to be a close call. Our ships are old.”
“I’m not really familiar with all this,” Yvonne says, leaning closer over the tablet.
“It’s a chart of the spreading firestorm from the star, and estimated time it’ll hit this ship. The more I think about it, the less faith I have in our engines. And Lee has promised no one here is going to give us crap, so staying a few hours and waiting for it to pass is technically the wiser move.”
Even if I can’t quite shake this uneasy feeling
“You don’t think he’s up to something,” Zane asks.
“Not particularly. He’s not lying about the star. And if he was going to pull something, he has as much power over us now as he does if we wait this out here.” At Zane’s pinched expression, I add, “I don’t like it any more than you do, I’m just trying to think practically. We don’t have to sit in here the whole time, we can wait in our ships. Or all in one ship, I don’t care.”
I offer up the last option to make the siblings feel better. I’m sure they’ll soften up about the idea of staying if they get to hang out in my ship with us instead of being kicked out into their own.
Zane’s expression does soften. A little.
“So basically we’re trying to figure out whether or not to try to outrun an exploding star?” Yvonne asks.
“You got it.”
“I’d rather we not.”
“Used up all your backbone on Amerov?”
She makes direct eye-contact and only gives a pleasant, “Yep.”
Weird lady. But I wouldn’t want to go playing chicken with a star either if I had my kid sister with me.
“Bat?” I ask. He’s the only one who hasn’t contributed.
“I don’t like it here.”
“Yeah, well, I got that part.”
He wrinkles up his nose. “But I suppose it’s safer to stay. I’d rather not get toasted.”
Zane sinks further into his seat as if he was hoping Bat would agree with him.
“You really that determined?” I ask him.
He makes another face. “No, I’m fine. We can stay.”
His expression says he’d rather get a tooth pulled, which I can’t blame him for, but we all know it’s safer to stay.
“I wish we could leave,” Anya grumbles, and I try not to smile. It all seems less serious coming from her.
When Bat leaps up on the edge of the table to pick at the food scraps I didn’t get to, Anya sits on my knee the same as she did with her sister. I go still, glaring at Yvonne who’s apparently not too worried about the situation she can’t get a giggle out of this. Zane’s expression remains stoney.
“How are your prosthetics?” I ask, so I don’t feel weird about her being so trusting.
“Fine.”
“Nothing hurts?”
“Nope.”
Well, there goes that line of conversation. I pat her on the back, and she simply leans back against my chest.
I hate these humans.
Lee takes this moment to walk in, stop dead, and his jaw pops open. I’m fairly sure I remember the one time someone from his crew touched me and I broke their nose. Well, no one in his crew treated me like a person. Or was a nice little innocent kid.
Clearing his throat, he asks, “You staying or leaving?”
“Staying. But we’ll just hang out in our ships, as long as you don’t find that insulting.”
The last part is mostly a joke and hits its mark. His lips twitch under his beard. “Not at all. I’ll walk you back.”
“Finally,” Anya whispers with enough relief it’s hard not to laugh.
She heads out the door with her sister, giving Lee such a wide berth it’s hilarious to imagine her disliking him when she’s so comfortable alongside me. Weird humans. Back Bat goes into the backpack, and I try not to laugh at Zane practically stomping out of the room. Lalia gives me a long-suffering look as if I’ve been dealing with him as long as she has. But this is the first time I haven’t seen him being a little ray of annoying sunshine, and it’s worrying me even if his mini temper tantrum is kinda funny.
I should probably ask him if he’s doing alright.
I frown to myself. I had a single glass of wine. I need to sober up, apparently.
