No Quarter (Black Flag Book 4) by Rachel Ford

Author:Rachel Ford [Ford, Rachel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-03-30T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Nine

I didn’t tell Maggie what was bothering me. It seemed, somehow, too personal, and at the same time, too ridiculous. I was a grown woman, chief engineer on a starship. What did I care about my mom’s opinion about me? What did I care if she would rather see me dead than my brother, and had no problem telling me so to my face?

Not a damned thing, I’d tell myself. I didn’t care enough to have to remind myself of the fact several more times that evening.

And I still hadn’t stopped not caring enough to forget about it by the next morning. So I wasn’t thrilled to see that mom had joined us in the mess hall and seated herself at our usual table. She was sipping a cup of coffee, and Roger was studying a plate of gravy-smothered eggs with a good deal of skepticism.

Neither spotted me, and I slipped into line without drawing their attention to myself. Mags stopped to say good morning, and then followed me.

Dave smiled a greeting at us. “Well, check this out, Kay.”

I stared at the food on display. He had a baking pan with eggs and another with gravy. “It’s an omelet bake. Locally sourced ingredients.”

“Looks good.”

“Tastes better. These mushrooms are the absolute best I have ever tried. They’re the perfect ingredient.”

Mags smiled at him. “Wow. I’m glad to see you so excited, Dave.”

“They’re very resilient. I forgot about them this morning, when I was browning them and the onions for the sauce. Left them on for half an hour longer than I meant to. Had to throw the onions out. But these?” He flashed a grin. “They taste good as new. Now that’s the kind of food I like working with.”

His description didn’t do much to whet my appetite. But the aroma was still surprisingly good, and I accepted a large helping, and took a larger cup of coffee. Then I headed to a table on the opposite side of the room, far from my mother.

Mags paused, glanced in surprise between me and her, then followed me. Corano had been a few people behind us in line, and he seemed to do the same doubletake, glancing at our usual table, then at us. He followed us, though, and seated himself with a perfunctory greeting. Mags hadn’t made any comment about our unusual seating arrangement, and she didn’t now. But she did frown into her food.

“So, what’s on your agenda today, Corano?”

He glanced up, and then back down at his plate of food. “Subjecting my gastronomic system to abuse, apparently.”

“I don’t know, it smells pretty good.”

He harrumphed. “There is absolutely no reason to subject eggs to so much protein gravy, much less in such excess.”

“Well, uh, after the gastronomic abuse…what then?”

He considered. “I don’t know. I suppose I’ll run out in one of the shuttles and investigate the ship graveyard. I’ve been meaning to do that for a while anyway.”

She nodded. “Good plan. Take Ria with you. I’ll keep Syd on the ship, and he can review whatever data you two collect.

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