Page 10 of Full Speed to a Crash Landing

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I wake up with a start. Who knew lentils were soporific?

The comm by the door beeps again, and I hear Rian’s voice. “Ms. Lamarr?”

I hop off the ledge and cross the room. The door slides open at my touch, and there he is, eyes and all.

“Visiting a lady in her bedchamber, my goodness,” I say, propping a hip against the door frame.

“I sent off for some more data on your ship,” he says. “Can I come in? Or we can discuss this elsewhere.”

I step aside. There really isn’t much furniture in the room, so I perch back up on the porthole ledge, letting Rian take the bed.

Internally, my mind is calculating what he had to do to get even rudimentary data this quickly. TheHalifaxis obviously on the portal communication system, but even then, he had to have pulled some strings and must be using a booster. Technically, nothing travels faster than light, not even information. The portals just give us shortcuts.

“Tell me all aboutGlory,”I say, grinning at him.

Rian juts his chin out, looking down at me. “That’s just it. There’s hardly any record.”

My best grin is smeared all over my face. “Hardly any? That means you found something.” Which, shit. I thought I had everything scrubbed.

Rian pulls out a data pad and reads the screen. “Licensed as a salvage; last recorded location was four turns ago. On the other side of the galaxy.”

He doesn’t saywhoit was licensed to. Nice.

“I’m a busy girl,” I say. “I bounce all around.”

He watches me, waiting for me to say something else.

“When are you guys going to tell me the super secret thing you’re looking for in theRoundaboutwreckage?” I ask eagerly.

Rian drops the data pad on the bed. “Who says we’re looking for anything super secret?” But he’s got a wry grin on his face; he expected me to guess this much.

“If you told me and if you sent me down there, I could find it,” I tell him. “Save you loads of time.”

“We already have a crew planetside.”

That explains the empty rooms on this corridor, then. “How many?”

“Two.”

Okay, not all the rooms. Still a top-secret project.

I clap my hands together. “Come on; tell me what you’re looking for. Precious gems? Hidden treasure? Top-secret government files?”

“My lips are sealed.” Rian presses his mouth closed as if to prove the point, although he can’t hide the tilting curve of his smile.

“How big is it, at least?” I ask. “No, don’t tell me. It’sgotta be small. All the big stuff was in the cargo hold, and you didn’t care that I’ve already been there.”

“Didn’t I?”

I shake my head at him. “Nah, I can read you like a data scan. Whatever you’re looking for, it’s gotta be small.”

“And you want me to send you down to help search for it?”

“Hey, I’m just trying to be nice. If you and Ursula—”

“Captain Io.”

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