Page 91 of Across The Stars
I leapt into his arms, wrapping my legs around him with excitement.
“Hell yeah!” he said, setting me down so he could give me a cheesy high five. “Sam owes me thirteen ice cream sandwiches.”
“Huh?”
“Nothing. You know, now that I know you’re Perry Saint’s kid, I am not the least bit surprised about how fast you’re picking this up.”
As we walked off the training deck, I let out a sorrowful breath.
“If Penny were here, she’d probably kick our asses. Mine especially,” I said. “You know, for lying.”
“Yeah. That memorial service was a punch in the gut, wasn’t it? Haven’t even been here that long and we lost almost a whole crew. But they’re bringing a lot more military up here so we can all feel a little safer.”
Lifting my wrist, I looked at my Buddy to see the time displayed on the screen.
“Shit, we have to go unload a valerian ship today, remember?” I said.
“Damn, I didn’t even see the time. It’s weird having them come all the way here, isn’t it? But we can all be thankful they are after that attack.”
“Saves us the trip,” I shrugged.
We jogged down the hallway toward the lifts, quickly scanning our staff IDs and heading to the loading docks. Once we arrived, the rest of our team was already there unloading carts of what looked like giant, purple batteries from a valerian ship. It had been weeks since I’d seen a valerian and if I was being honest, I liked it that way. The longer I went without thinking about Vahko, the better I functioned on the Nexus. And lately, I’d been doing really well. I was working hard, training, and staying out of the limelight.
When I saw the group of valerian men near the ship’s loading ramp, my blood went cold. Four of them, all in their black suits and biohelmets, were either helping unload or speaking to Nexus officials. Each of them dawned orange veins on their suits instead of the more familiar green ones, which puzzled me.
“Better get started so no one notices we’re late,” Omar said, nudging me with his arm.
We shared in quiet laughter as we parted ways to help out. Seeing two hover carts filled with the weird canisters already being brought to the lifts, I chose to follow someone into the ship to help load up more. We ventured into the cargo bay where only a few more cart-sized groups of canisters remained, so I started to carefully stack them on the nearest mag-cart. Once it was full, I smiled at my coworker and urged her out so I could start on the next.
“Go ahead,” I said. “I’ll do the next one.”
She nodded and headed off the ship with the cart in tow.
Shrugging off the top half of my jumpsuit, I tied the long sleeves around my waist so my arms could breathe. Halfway through loading my own cart, I heard the cargo bay doors open and looked up to see a valerian man walk in from somewhere else on the ship. His suit was decorated with red veins instead of orange, but he was helmeted like the others. I tried to remember what red and orange veins meant, but I was drawing a blank.
When the valerian saw me alone in the cargo bay, he slowed his gait. I tried to ignore him and do my work, anxious to get back to flight training and also a bit anxious in general around valerians since my stay on Sylos. For some reason, my irrational brain thought Vahko was behind every tinted visor and it drove me nuts.
Once I loaded the cart full, I connected my Buddy and started to walk out when the valerian spoke up in that slightly helmet-altered voice.
“Are you and that man with the darker man together?” he said.
I stopped and turned to him, taken aback by the weird question. “Excuse me?”
The valerian lowered his head with a sharp sigh like he was upset by something. Then, he slowly raised his hands and slid his helmet off his head. When he lifted his chin, my heart stopped dead in my chest at the sight of him. Vahko was there, only steps away, looking sexy as ever in his new colors, his pale complexion slowly shifting to that purplish color I knew so well.
I wanted to jump into his arms, but what a jerk. Showing up with that question like he didn’t dump me on the Nexus like a flavor he’d grown tired of. It made my eyes wide with anger. I had to leave so I didn’t say or do something I would regret. Scoffing, I turned and headed for the exit.
“You seemed happy with him,” Vahko said.
I stopped and spun back to him, nostrils flared. “Seriously? Are you spying on me?”
“You walked into the loading docks with him and I saw you. That is all,” he said calmly.
“So? What if we were together? Why would it matter to you?”
“I wanted you to be happy when I dropped you here. Despite what you might think. Since we parted ways, I’ve been moving constantly. That’s not the kind of life you’d—”
“I don’t care to hear that bullshit about what I want. You don’t know me. Nobody has ever known me. No one has fucking stuck around long enough for that, including you. So mind your own business.”
