Page 22 of Collision!
Mariah followed her gaze.What had been a featureless obsidian void for days now showed the rather alarming proximity of dark gray and ice-rimed boulders: the debris field that was hiding them until her blueprint was complete.
The coffee sludge roiled in her stomach.She should’ve asked Suvan to show her what had been sent to the fabricator.What if she’d done something ridiculous?Something that would damage the ship?
No, he would never let that happen.
The coffee still churned but she asked Remy to top off her mug with water and took it toward the corner booth.
Mr.Evens was sitting there, alone again, slumped low enough that she’d almost missed him.She hesitated, not wanting to intrude, but he glanced up and she felt compelled to pause.
“Morning,” she said.“Is everything…” She didn’t bother continuing because really.
“Everything is,” he confirmed with a sigh.He gestured across from him.“Please, sit.If you are daring or caring enough to converse with a pariah.”
“Have you considered apologizing for tricking us all onto a haunted spaceship?”
He winced.“Does everyone know?”
Since his mournful tone sounded sorrier about being caught than genuinely remorseful, she shrugged without much sympathy.“It is a small boat, and there hasn’t been a lot to do.When we haven’t been panicking.”
He gave her a droll look.“You don’t seem panicked.”
“Maybe you just can’t see my heart pounding.”
“That’s the alleged coffee.”Then his expression turned a little sly.“Or perhaps the chief engineer.”
She’d never been good at hiding her feelings, and she knew she twitched at Evens’ smirk.“Has the vote come back yet?”
That erased his grin.“Not yet.If Nehivar turns the ship around…”
Considering their vessel was currently imitating a dead rock, maybe the captain would be right to do so, regardless of the vote.In the aftermath of the recital, when feelings had been high, they’d all wanted to find out where the resonark would take them.
But were they pretending there wouldn’t be risks?It was one thing to fool their pursuer, but not themselves.
She studied Evens like she would a particularly daunting sampler.She was good enough to follow most of the complicated stitches, but…
Not every sweater was worth it.
“According to the gossip, you chose us all for this cruise,” she reminded him.“You have all our profiles with personalities, goals, advanced behavioral biometrics, everything that can be plugged into a database.And you aren’t sure of the votes?”
With a pained purse of his lips, he blew out a breath.“It seems there are variables beyond even my control.”
He didn’t look at the resonark, so she assumed he meant she and the other IDA hopefuls were the pesky knots in his sock.
Pulling her mug closer, she swung her stockinged feet out of the booth.“Maybe it’s time you stopped pulling our strings and let the pattern unfold on its own.”
Despite the daytime lighting, his eyes were shadowed.“None of you would be here without me.”
Was that a threat or a tacit apology?
She didn’t ask.And maybe she didn’t want to know.
Because in a universe of infinite possibilities, he probably wasn’t wrong.
Chapter 8
Suvan had felt her go.The atmosphere itself changed without her in the engine module.But he couldn’t be distracted by the fading fragrance of her, the silence now unbroken except for the endless engine hum and Lub’s snoring.
With the same resolute focus as always, he moved among the consoles.Hands quick and precise on the controls, he tuned the plasma modulators and restabilized the load whenever Delphine’s steering—which the Tritonesse pilot called intuitive and he called irregular—drew more power to the helm.
