Page 111 of Star Claimed Omega
‘Brother, you became the hors d’oeuvres when you face-planted into the appetizers. Look, the only thing operating at optimal capacity was your liver, and it’s probably already filed for retirement. The real question is: who do I send the invoice to for emotional distress after having to retrieve your shoes from the decorative fountain?’
The laughter spread like heat through the crew, easing shoulders, softening grips on rifles.
Kaal leaned back against the wall, turning his gaze toward Santi, who hadn’t joined in. He was buckled in, arms folded, head tipped down, studying his boots, though his mind was elsewhere.
‘So a woman,ay?’ Kaal murmured just loud enough for Santi to hear.
Santi’s head snapped up, eyes narrowing. ‘Qué?’
Kaal smirked, resting his elbow on the seat rail. ‘Don’t give me that,cabrón. You’ve been walking like someone handed you the stars and served ‘em with breakfast.’
Santi growled under his breath. ‘Drop it.’
‘Why are you hiding her?’
Santi paused, his jaw tightening.Was he?
Other than Miral, he hadn’t told the others about Soleil.
Not because he was ashamed.
Nada, it was something else, a guarded hesitation. Santi was a careful man, always had been, and there were too many unknowns swirling around Soleil and her past.
As well as her silences, her old-soul eyes, and the sadness in her wistful expressions.
He’d yet to ask Miral to run a deep scan on her, still wanting to trust her.
Hoping for her to come to him with her whole truth, in her own time.
So he waited, wishing it wouldn’t bite him in the ass.
‘She must be something,’ Kaal added.
‘She is,’ Santi rasped before falling into a silence that Kaal respected with a chin raise.
The XO folded his arms tighter and stared at the floor, brooding for the rest of the ride.
Tossing in his mind the pros and cons of trusting the woman he was fast becoming enamored with.
Two hours in, Miral shimmered into view in the center aisle. Her translucent form flickered with golden pixels.
‘Good evening, gentlemen,’ she purred, voice rich with wry amusement. ‘I bring gifts.’
Boaz, ever the engineer, grinned. ‘Finally, those piston rings I’ve been bugging you about for weeks.’
‘Not that type of tribute, you cretin,’ Miral smirked.
Her tone tightened. ‘I’ve got updated intel on our target. Like we suspected, it’s aRed Skullvessel. Their transponder ID pulse matches two ships registered in raids across Livia Prime and the Trion orbit.’
A holo-map unfurled above the cabin, rotating as it focused.
‘They’ve got two mid-range rail guns, one ventral cannon, and a set of modded stabilizers, likely stolen. Complement is between twenty and thirty bodies, but most are mercs, not core crew. Their shield’s been fluctuating, which means they’re covering something. Or hiding someone.’
‘What’s the breach plan?’ Zev asked.
Miral flicked up schematics of the enemy vessel’s layout, then turned to Kaal. ‘Boss?’
The Signet’s security chief tapped through it, the blue glow of the screen flickering in his eyes. ‘We go in through the underbelly vent shaft. Their pressure locks are cheap and easy to tear into.
