To her surprise, when she glanced back at Dax before slipping out the door she saw his brilliant green eyes were open, watching her with the same peaceful expression he wore when sleeping. She grinned at him. “I could've sworn you weren't ready to get up yet.”
He nodded soberly. “I wasn't.” At her chagrined look he hastily added. “You didn't wake me . . . I think I'm just excited that we're finally done with this intergalactic voyage.”
That might've been the closest he'd ever come to admitting he was also climbing the walls after the last month cooped up on the ship. Lana was tempted to ask what he thought about visiting the spaceport, but she wanted it to be a surprise when she told him she'd convinced Aiden to let him go.
So she just leaned down to briefly press her lips to his, savoring even that momentary contact. “See you in a few minutes for breakfast?”
Dax nodded, although she thought he looked a bit disappointed. Had he had other plans for how they'd spend their time before their shift? The thought sent a pleasant thrill through her, but she refused to let herself be distracted from her mission.
At least, until he spoke. “Heading back to your room?”
Lana paused, frowning. “Back?”
Her boyfriend nodded slowly, looking uncertain. “You disappeared for most of the night, same as you have six other times since you, um, moved in. I just assumed you wanted to be able to stretch out on your own bed and get some proper sleep every now and then.”
For a moment her mind resisted that notion; she spent spent every night with Dax, taking advantage of every chance to be together. Then part of her subconscious clicked, and she blinked and felt herself blushing sheepishly. “I'd hoped you wouldn't notice me slipping away, deeply as you sleep. It has nothing to do with you, like you said it's just nice to have more room sometimes.”
He nodded solemnly. “I understand. This bed is tiny, which is less than ideal.”
She scowled around at his little cabin. “I wish we had a bigger space . . .” She was about to suggest he trade cabins with Belix, have Fix tear down the wall between the two, and rig up both their beds into a nice big one. It seemed perfectly reasonable to her, but for some reason the words choked in her throat.
No. Lana needed the privacy of her own cabin sometimes, for when she slipped away at night. Much as she loved Dax and wanted to spend time with him, sometimes she needed a chance to be alone.
She kissed him again, resisting the urge to slide back into bed and give him a proper good morning, then slipped out the door. After a quick trip to the facilities to clean herself and her uniform and make sure she looked like a professional member of the crew, she headed straight for the bridge.
Where, to her complete and utter shock, she found two complete strangers waiting for her, manning Aiden's and Ali's workstations.
Lana bit back a scream and spun to bolt back down the corridor, planning to return to Dax for help. All the while, she cursed herself for not carrying the cauterizer her boyfriend had given her on her person at all times. But then, why would she when the Last Stand was out in the middle of nowhere, with zero chance of anyone stumbling across them between rift jumps?
The captain's voice called after her, sounding amused. “Don't have a heart attack, it's just us.”
She slowed, wondering if she should feel embarrassed or angry at being tricked. Both? When she turned, she found that the two strangers had stood and were staring after her. The man had brown hair down to his shoulders, far longer than Aiden usually wore his. A wig? He also had a prominent scar across one cheek, his nose was slightly larger, and his eyes were a muddy brown.
The woman, who Lana guessed was Ali, was even more startling. For one thing she was plain, not ugly but simply forgettable, with mouse brown hair and watery hazel eyes. Her body looked dumpy beneath an ill-fitting uniform, and her creamy skin was now slightly darker and heavily freckled.
Still unnerved by the surreal circumstances, Lana cautiously edged back into the bridge. “Is this, um, some sort of roleplay?” she asked hesitantly. Belix had joked about that a few times, a way to spice up her relationship with Dax if things were starting to get dull. Which seemed silly, since they hadn't yet and Lana couldn't see why they ever would.
The stranger with Aiden's voice snorted. “It's a disguise . . . in case you weren't aware, everyone on this ship but you is wanted. Our faces are plastered all over the allnet, all over the universe, and facial recognition devices are cheap and pretty much cover every square inch of a spaceport.”
She furrowed her brow. “What about Midpoint? You didn't bother with disguises there.”
The captain settled back into his chair, idly scrolling through text on his display. “That place is a hive of villainy . . . anyone who tried to set up a facial scanner or video recorder there is likely to get his guts pulled out a foot at a time by half the spaceport's denizens wanting to remain anonymous. In fact, Midpoint's security scans the place exhaustively to prevent any facial recognition equipment.”
The plain woman spoke up with Ali's voice, confirming her identity. “We'll want to give you a disguise too, though, just to be safe. Nothing too dramatic, but we can change your nose and inject something in your lips to make them fuller, as well as coloring your hair. Maybe we'll give you a more rebellious look and go silvery or metallic green.”
Lana wasn't sure she liked the sound of that; she may have only had her appearance for a couple months, as far
