He nodded solemnly, although his green eyes twinkled. “I think I can manage that.”
They headed out of the lounge and into the corridor, a comfortable silence between them. “Do you think the Captain will ever take Ali back?” she asked as they walked side by side.
Her boyfriend paused, seeming to think that over carefully. “I don't know,” he finally admitted. “Trust lost is hard regained.”
That had the sound of a saying to it, although Lana didn't recognize it. Not that she would, of course. “It's just, he'll be so lonely without her,” she said, shuddering slightly at the thought of suddenly being without Dax. Sleeping alone in her room again, tiptoeing around crew mates that seemed to hate each other.
Her boyfriend seemed to be thinking the same thing, because his expression had become the usual blank mask he'd worn for so long. “No one on this ship is a stranger to loneliness,” he said quietly. “He survived it before.”
“I don't want to survive like that,” Lana declared firmly, taking his arm and leaning into him for comfort at the very thought. “Promise me you aren't going anywhere.”
He hesitated, as if about to point out that it was impossible to make a promise like that without lying, if fate had other ideas during one of the dangerous situations they seemed to keep getting into. Then he nodded firmly. “I promise,” he said, putting his arm around her and hugging her tight to him.
“I promise too,” she replied. “No matter what, we'll make it through this insane universe together until we find something better.”
She only realized after she said it that her declaration could be taken in a rather dark way she hadn't meant. But thankfully Dax seemed to accept it the way she'd intended, and nodded resolutely. “A future beyond this ship.”
Lana abruptly giggled. “Who knows, maybe we'll end up back on Callous. We can have some of our own kids for you to toss high in the air and spin in circles and chase around.”
Her boyfriend stumbled on nothing, turning to look at her with wide eyes, and with chagrin she realized he might not have taken that as a joke. Then again, maybe she hadn't been entirely joking. “Someday,” she hastily added, unsure how she felt about the idea herself.
“Someday,” Dax agreed, looking thoughtful.
Their conversation was cut short by reaching the ship's small gym. Although they barely had a chance to begin warming up, in preparation for Dax's “reflex exercises”, when Aiden paged all crew to the bridge from the shipboard intercom.
“Emergency?” Lana asked, doing her best to hide a surge of alarm.
Her boyfriend shook his head, although he wasted no time heading for the door as she hurried to catch up. “If it was an emergency, all the klaxons would be going crazy. That, and the Captain would be cursing me all the way to the bridge to assume my station.”
That didn't sound pleasant, although Lana couldn't help but think a bit glumly that nobody was going to be cursing for her to hurry to her post in the shields room. Well, it was an important job even so, and she'd work her way up to something more vital in time; Belix was still nearly desperate for Lana to take over for her in engines so she could do anything else. But the training there had been slowed by Lana spending so much time learning the shields system, so she could be of more immediate use around the ship.
They reached the bridge to find that everyone but Belix was already there, although the elfin woman entered hot on their heels. Aiden barely waited for them to assume their stations before clearing his throat. “We have a target.”
The announcement was met with confused silence. “Exactly how?” Barix asked lazily, most of his attention still on his display. “Our new upgraded murder robot take the time to magic up some useful intel while we were sitting around getting threatened by Elyssa?”
The captain's eye twitched slightly, the only sign of his annoyance. “Close but not quite. The Caretakers are feeding us the information.”
Lana frowned. Wasn't the man's entire problem with Ali the fact that he no longer trusted her, now that she was a Caretaker? And suddenly he wanted to take jobs from her? “What exactly is our reason for hitting this target of theirs?” she demanded. “They already paid us enough to keep going for as long as needed, and we're stacking up powerful enemies in the ruling government in the universe and humanity's criminal underworld. Why stick our necks out?”
“Much as I'd like to point out that Lana's become a lot more snarky since she hooked up with the gunner,” Belix cut in before Aiden could answer, “I can't say she's completely wrong here.”
“Much as I hate to give up the chance to make still more chits,” Barix added, “I'm inclined to agree as well. Now seems like the worst possible time to be getting back to business as usual.”
Aiden scowled. “This is who we are,” he snapped. “This is the life. I didn't start my privateering career to get rich, I did it to hit the Deeks whenever and however I can. If the Caretakers are willing to feed us solid information, targets we can safely hit without bringing a swarm of enemies down on our heads, then I'm willing to entertain them as a patron. They can't be any worse than our last one.”
Well that went without saying. Not that that was saying much.
The slight man rubbed at his narrow chin. “When you put it that way, I've never been one to argue opportunities to get more wealthy when the odds are stacked in our favor. And having self-replicating, advanced AIs as allies does seem to do a lot for our odds.” He smirked and glanced at Ali. “Not to mention, I can't pretend I'm not highly motivated by a chance to work with the guys who could in the future provide me with an adult companion
