Page 15 of Starlight, Starbright
His comm unit beeps.
We both freeze. The sound cuts through whatever spell we were under, sharp and jarring. He steps back, creating professional distance, his hand leaving my waist. I pull my hand from his chest, suddenly aware of how far I'd let this go.
He activates the comm. “Zoric.”
“Captain, sorry to disturb you.” Tanaka's voice. “We're getting fluctuating readings from the environmental systems. Engineering reports a pump failure, but backup systems are compensating. I wanted to make you aware.”
“Understood. Chief Martin is with me. We're investigating.” He keeps his voice perfectly level. Professional. “We'll have a full report in the morning.”
“Acknowledged. Tanaka out.”
The silence after the comm closes feels heavier than before. We both stand there, not looking at each other, processing what almost happened.
“I should go,” I finally say.
“Paige.” The way he says it—soft, certain—makes me grip my tablet harder. The metal feels suddenly cool against the heat spreading across my palms. “This investigation is dangerous. Whoever's doing this has already tried to kill everyone on this ship twice. If they realize you're hunting them...”
“I know.” I force myself to meet his eyes. “But I'm not stopping. These are my systems. My department. If someone's sabotaging them, I need to know who.”
“Then we investigate together.” His markings have settled, mostly. “No one works alone. That's an order.”
“Sir.” The formal acknowledgment feels strange after what has just almost happened.
He watches me move toward the door but doesn't try to stop me. Just before I leave, I turn back.
“Zoric?”
“Yes?”
“Thank you. For believing me.”
“I will always believe you.” The certainty in his voice wraps around me like a promise. “Sleep. Tomorrow we find out who's trying to destroy this ship.”
I nod and leave before I do something stupid like walk back to him.
Morning comes too soon, bringing with it the realization that someone in my department wants us dead.
I arrive in Engineering at 0600 hours for gamma shift changeover. The deck is busy, engineers moving between stations, running diagnostics, logging overnight reports.
Except someone's hung a string of colored lights over the diagnostic station—technically against regulations but cheerful.
Normal. Everything looks normal.
Except it's not.
Walsh Burton stands at the secondary console, tablet in hand, making notes. He glances up when I enter, holds my gaze for two seconds too long, then returns to his tablet. Writing something. What is he writing?
“Chief.” Jian comes to stand at my elbow, holding out her shift report. “Quiet night except for the pump failure. Already replaced the conduit and ran full diagnostics. System's back to normal.”
“Who replaced it?”
She checks her tablet. “Burton supervised. Said you'd authorized disposal of the damaged section due to plasma contamination.”
I never authorized disposal. “Show me the authorization.”
Jian pulls up the file. It has my signature code, but the timestamp is wrong—I was in Zoric's office when this was supposedly approved. Someone forged it.
I scan the deck. Marcus from power systems waves at me, friendly and open as always. Yuki at the diagnostic station looks up and smiles. Perrin at environmental doesn't acknowledge me at all. Neither does Briggs at structural.
