“I sure hope we don’t have to blow anything up.” Fallon couldn’t imagine what would cause her to destroy the very thing she was trying to rescue. Still. Better safe than sorry. “But thank you.” She curled her fingers around the box.
“I’ll get the transfer units.” He strode in one direction, then paused and changed course. After picking up a small box, he resumed his original path and retrieved another case.
“Here. I acquired this just the other day, thinking it might be your kind of thing. All-purpose, you might say.” He pushed the box at her.
Inside she found a weapon case. Lifting its lid, she saw a projectile weapon. “A harpoon pistol?”
He made the scoffing sound of someone who’d been insulted. “A priyanomine harpoon pistol, thank you very much.” He touched the handle. “Priyanomine harpoons, as you may know, are much more deadly than any bullet. They’re noncombustible, nonconductive, and durable enough to withstand an explosion—or pierce a bulkhead. So watch your aim, unless you’re trying to depressurize a ship or a station.”
Under any other circumstance, she’d be highly irate at him having such an item on her station. But she could use every advantage she could get right now.
“Yeah, that could be useful all right.” She’d never used one. On the one hand, she hoped she got the chance, and on the other, she knew that would require a dire situation. “We can settle the price when I get back.”
His benevolent expression faded, changing into something far more shrewd and grim. “If what you’re going off to do is anything like what I suspect, I’m the one who’ll owe you. Along with all the other citizens of the PAC.”
“When I return, we’re also going to have a very frank, in-depth discussion.”
Rather than seeming perturbed, he smiled. “I’m looking forward to it. You hurry back.”
“I’ll do my best.”
10
“So how does it feel?” Hawk asked.
Fallon spared him a brief glance before returning her attention to navigating the Nefarious. “How does what feel?”
“Flying your team into battle, along with an admiral, and a few civilians. Plus, the fact that you see two of those people naked on a regular basis.”
This time she turned her head to give him a frosty glare. “Fine. It feels fine.” After a pause she added, “And shut up.”
He laughed. “Come on, Chief, this is our biggest adventure yet. Got to laugh about it.”
She smirked. She liked that her team had adopted her Dragonfire title. “I’ll laugh when someone says something funny. Why don’t you go see how Wren and Kellis are doing in the engineering room?” Sadly, this was the closest her ship had ever come to having a proper crew. It still fell short, but at least she had an engineering team.
“I could just call them.”
“But then you’d still be here,” she pointed out.
He laughed. “All right. Don’t mind stretching my legs.” He ruffled her hair on his way off the bridge.
She smiled after he left. He was funny. She just didn’t want to encourage him.
At the moment, she wanted a little time to think. To work through the details and possible scenarios. To plan how best, in every situation, to protect her team. And salvage the PAC.
Her deep thought was interrupted by Raptor’s “Hey,” as he took the seat recently vacated by Hawk.
“Hey,” she answered.
“Thought I’d keep you company. While you think.”
He sat silently beside her for hours as they blasted through space at the highest speed she’d ever flown the Nefarious. She was risking mechanical damage, but she had replacement parts and two brilliant engineers. She watched many millions of dark kilometers blast by as she thought ahead to what was to come.
And still he sat there. Just silent and there. For her. Neither of them left their post and when they finally saw Jamestown appear on the viewscreen, rotating the wrong direction and way too fast, she turned her seat to face him.
“Thank you,” she said.
“You’re welcome.”
She hesitated, fighting an internal battle. She felt like he deserved to hear a declaration of feelings, but for her it felt like scraping all her guts out and dumping them on the floor. But screw it. She’d get it out, quick and clean. Like getting a hand lopped off by a samurai sword. “I love you.”
He looked surprised, then scowled. “Prelin’s ass, we’re all going to die, aren’t we?”
“I hope not.”
“Well, don’t go saying a thing like that in a situation like this. It doesn’t sound right, coming from you, and I don’t like it.” He gave a quick head shake. “I mean I do, it’s great, but still. Just no.”
She laughed. “Okay, I take it back.”
“Can’t take it back.” He grinned at her. “But you should probably go say it to that wife of yours. She might be freaking out about now.”
“You think I’d marry a freak-out type? No way. You have a lot to learn about Wren. Also, she’s not my wife.”
He said nothing. Just smiled and made a shooing gesture at her.
She relented. “Fine. I should check on everyone anyway, and get ready. Call Ross up to take over the Nefarious. I’ll see you on Jamestown.”
“Aye, Captain.” He sat in the pilot’s seat when she vacated it. “Hey.”
She turned around. “Yeah?”
“I love you too. And I know saying it isn’t your thing, so in the future, don’t. I already know. Always did.”
She smiled. There was only one thing to say to that. “Blood and bone.”
His return smile said everything that would ever need to be said. “Blood and bone.”
It pleased Fallon tremendously to see the two best engineers she’d ever met in her engineering room. She walked in behind Kellis and Wren as they both stood looking at the propulsion chamber.
“Did you break it already?”
They turned quickly, amused.
“We were just admiring it. This is one fine ship you’ve got,” Wren said. Her eyes shone, and she looked absolutely lovely.
“Enjoying the change of
