Ariston (Star Guardians) by Ruby Lionsdrake

Author:Ruby Lionsdrake [Lionsdrake, Ruby]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-10-18T16:00:00+00:00

13

Ariston chewed on his breakfast, one of his uninspiring ration bars, and walked up to the cockpit to see if anyone was monitoring the comms for planet-to-orbit chatter. The meteorologist, Sven Safin, had been up there earlier, but Ariston had dozed for a few hours and wasn’t sure if the man was still there. Ariston slept lightly—especially when among potential enemies—and thought he would have heard Sven walk through the dining area if he’d done so, but he couldn’t be sure.

He had woken when Mick had walked in earlier, stopping to look at him without brightening the lights. He hadn’t stirred, or opened his eyes to more than slits, wanting to see what she would do. A silly part of him had hoped she would take her clothes off and join him under the blanket, but the rational part of him had known that was unlikely.

He remembered all too well how her eyes had widened when he’d hinted that her people were down here illegally and that some help might win her leniency. That had been a spur-of-the-moment decision, one he’d regretted almost immediately. But he’d hoped she would jump at the chance to offer her ship and her full assistance to apprehend the relic raiders. He’d wanted to be on the same side she was, but he should have known she would only be uneasy if he revealed himself as a Star Guardian.

True, he hadn’t exactly done that, but she’d probably read between the lines.

She’d whispered his name to wake him from several feet away, not getting close, perhaps thinking he would lash out if he were startled awake. Then she’d run a medical scanner over him, saying they were checking everybody. He’d lain there without objecting, though he’d made sure the device was a scanner. It had crossed his mind that she might want to knock him out and dump him outside of the ship.

But all she had done was take the scan and return to sickbay. He hadn’t seen her since. Of course, he’d been sleeping since.

He found Sven in the cockpit, also sleeping, his head back in the chair, his feet on the console. If there had been comm chatter, the man wouldn’t likely have heard it.

Ariston sighed and settled into the co-pilot’s seat. The sensors showed the storm still raging outside and dawn less than an hour away.

The lights were dimmed in the cockpit, but the glow of the displays allowed him to see well enough. A deck of Kapti cards with scenes on the back from the ranching planet of Kressin rested on the console.

Maybe Sven had been entertaining himself with a solitaire game. Or maybe it was Mick’s deck. She claimed to have won that down payment playing Kapti, after all. He wondered if there was any truth to that, or if she’d acquired the ship by illegal means.

If the latter, she should have another reason to want to work with him, so he would speak on her behalf, and they could request a pardon.

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