Bring Me the Dead by Becky Black

Author:Becky Black [Black, Becky]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: JMS Books LLC
Published: 2023-09-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

“Wakey wakey, fellas! It’s the Thut morning show, and the traffic on the beltway is going nowhere, I tell ya. Of course, it hasn’t gone anywhere for a million years.”

Ki-tae blinked awake at the sound of Marz’s voice and the feel of Beau rolling away from him. Instinctively he grabbed at the blankets to cover himself as Beau dragged them with him. But when fully awake he realized Marz’s voice was coming from Beau’s terminal, not the hab.

“Hey,” Beau said to her. “You landed yet?”

“Not yet. ETA fifteen minutes. I’ve got the generator and breakfast. See you soon.”

“See you.” He put the terminal down and looked at Ki-tae. Unreadable expression, kind of neutral, maybe waiting to see what Ki-tae had to say. What did Ki-tae have to say? Did Beau expect recriminations? It shouldn’t have happened, Ki-tae knew that. It was shockingly unprofessional, and it compromised him. It gave Beau power over him. But he wasn’t going to cry about it. He’d needed it. The nightmare…He didn’t want to think about the nightmare. Something had been outside, someone, calling his name. Someone…dead. He’d needed the ultimate expression of life and heat to take away that fear.

“Have we got anything to get washed up with?” he asked. Beau looked mildly relieved, like he’d expected a fight.

“Ah, yeah, here.” He passed over a squishy packet and a towel from the box of emergency hab supplies. “Whore’s bath. This place doesn’t come with a shower.”

Ki-tae popped the activation tab on the packet and a moment later brought out a warm, damp washcloth that smelled of lemon soap. He got out of the union suit under the blankets—it was around his knees. He told himself he was only trying to keep warm. Beau had already seen everything. Then he knelt up, his back to Beau, and washed himself with the cloth. He wondered if Beau was looking at his ass. He could hear the man scuffling about, making his ablutions. When he’d done all he could with the washcloth, he dried himself. Something hit his back then, and he glared over his shoulder to see Beau grinning and a buttercup-yellow union suit lying across the backs of his legs.

“Clean one. Get that on, and let’s get dressed before Marz gets here, or she’ll accuse us of slacking.”

They were in their space suits—all but the helmets—and checking each other’s seals when Marz arrived. She managed to squeeze into the hab in her space suit too, and the three of them sat around on folding stools, eating pastries she’d brought from the ship and drinking coffee. Ki-tae considered the food aboard Beau’s ship to be far too indulgent and unhealthy. He’d prefer some oatmeal and fruit. Though, perhaps not prefer in the sense of would enjoy more…

They finished with a couple of protein bars each, and then it was time to collapse the hab and put it all back on the shuttle. It was amazing the way everything that had created their bedroom for the night ended up occupying a space about half the size of a bed once it was all packed away.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.