But my last comment must have worked, because there’s a scrambling from the bed. I slow down and glance over my shoulder, then immediately regret it.
She obviously slept in her new clothes, and she’s currently pulling on her boots. Her dark red hair is loose and tousled around her shoulders, and she looks rumpled and beautiful and far too good, considering she’s got a hangover.
“What?” she asks as she finally stands up. “You’re looking at me funny.”
No, I’m not. Am I? I don’t answer, just hold out the coffee, and she hurries over and grabs it, then takes a sip.
“It’s cold and bitter.”
I snort. “Would you like me to run and get you a fresh cup, Your Highness?”
A smile quirks the corner of her mouth, and then it’s gone. “That won’t be necessary. Lead the way.” She sounds just like a princess.
As we head back to the bridge, she pauses around the center of the ship and places her hand on the metal of the inner walls. Then she closes her eyes for a moment, a soft smile curling her lips.
“What are you doing?” I ask when she finally opens her eyes. Somehow, she looks significantly better than she did a few seconds ago.
But she just shrugs. “Saying hello. I get the feeling this is the heart of the ship. It almost feels alive to me.”
I don’t know what to say to that, especially after Beckett and I just had our is it sentient or not conversation. So I shake my head and keep walking. I’ve got a meeting to run.
Back on the bridge, Kali helps herself to another cup of coffee before slumping down in one of the seats. I take what is objectively now my captain’s chair, stretch out my legs, and survey my crew. They’re a sorry lot at the best of times. Right now, they look like every one of them has at least one foot in the grave.
Except for Rain, who is way too fucking cheery. She must have the constitution of a giant drokaray.
Kali smothers a yawn. “Are you going to tell us why we’re here so we can go back to bed?”
I give her a cool stare. She doesn’t look impressed, just yawns again. “I thought you’d be interested in discussing the fact that someone wants you dead and they’re willing to pay a lot of money to make that happen.”
She sits up straight. “Those damn flyers.”
“What flyers?” Merrick asks, sounding wary.
I pull some out from where they were folded in my pocket and hold them out to him. He gets up—slowly—and takes them, a frown forming between his eyes as he reads.
He turns to Rain. “It says we’re dangerous criminals masquerading as officials from the Sisterhood of the Light.”
Her eyes brighten. “Really? How exciting.”
I don’t even know what to say to that.
Thankfully, Merrick doesn’t have the same problem. “I wouldn’t exactly say it’s exciting that they’re offering a lot of money in exchange for what is essentially your corpse.”
Rain shrugs, but she doesn’t look fazed. “Maybe that’s not quite as exciting.”
“Apparently, I’m wanted for masquerading as the Princess Kalinda,” Kali says. She looks at me. “What are they saying about you?” She gets to her feet and shuffles to where Merrick stands still clutching the flyers and holds out her hand. He passes her a paper, and she glances down at what is presumably the flyer for me. If I remember right, it’s a pretty good picture.
“You’re a mercenary impersonating a Corporation security officer, and you’re wanted for the sabotage of the Imperial Space Station Caelestis,” she reads, then turns to look at me. “You didn’t—did you? Oh Light, please tell me that wasn’t all because of you.”
“Of course it wasn’t me.” At least I don’t think so. I never did ask Max about the diversion thing.
I do now, and he actually laughs. “No, man. I didn’t bring down an entire space station and our best shot at getting to Milla.”
Then he nods toward the pile of flyers and says aloud, “I think we can assume that everything in there is a pack of lies.”
“So, you’re not a mercenary?”
“I wouldn’t go as far as to say that,” I hedge. Max, Milla, and I have been mercenaries for nearly ten years. We’ll do most jobs if the money is right and it doesn’t involve killing prupples or baby varlens—Milla is very fond of both.
I’m not ashamed of what we do—if I was, we would have found some other way to survive. But we’ve always had to rely on ourselves, and it turns out we’re pretty fucking good at merc work. Which is a good thing, because a lot of times, it was that or starve.
But Kali’s judgmental look is pissing me off. “We weren’t all born with a fucking silver spoon in our mouths, Princess.”
She looks away.
“What about me?” Gage asks.
“You’re our accomplice,” I reply. “Apparently, you betrayed your own people. In fact, yours is the only one based on anything closely resembling the truth.”
“Accomplice?” He looks offended. “Pretty sure we wouldn’t be here at all if it wasn’t for me.”
“I don’t know if you should sound so proud of that fact,” Max tells him dryly.
“Is there one for me?” Beckett asks quietly.
“Actually, no. There isn’t,” I say. There’s one for all of us except Beckett. I’m not sure why—except maybe no one knows she’s on board the Starlight.
“So we have to figure they don’t know you’re with us,” I continue. “Maybe you were reported dead on the Reformer, though I doubt there was ever a record of you being on the Caelestis to begin with. The experiments were hardly legal, even if they were sanctioned.”
“We don’t know that they were sanctioned,” Kali says, but her tone lacks conviction.
Beckett turns to look at her, a sneer curling up the corner of her lip and her fingers twitching in her lap. “You’re either extremely naive, extremely stupid, or an extremely great liar, Princess.”
Enough. I don’t want this descending into a fight. Not before I give Kali some of those lessons she asked for, anyway. It never occurred to me at the time, but they might come in handy on board the ship, never mind off it.
“Okay, crew, listen up. I want you all to rack your brains for reasons why someone—anyone—might want you dead. And I need to hear them now.”
Chapter 28
Kali
Well, Beckett certainly hates me. And I’m pretty sure Merrick does as well. But Beckett doesn’t have the resources to pay a reward, and Merrick could have killed me in my sleep any night so far—so I figure I can cross them off the list.
Which leaves…literally everyone else? The rebels. All enemies of the Empire. The Sisterhood, since I represent the Empire that’s trying to stop the sun from dying. Oh, and Dr. Veragelen didn’t seem too fond of me. If she’s still alive.
So, in other words, the list of people who might want me dead is quite long. Lucky, lucky me.
Determined not to let anyone see how much this fact stings, I sink into my chair and close my eyes. I don’t want to know if anyone else is looking at me the same way Beckett always is. Or even worse, if they’re looking at me with pity.