Starbreaker by Amanda Bouchet

Author:Amanda Bouchet
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Published: 2020-02-23T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

SHADE

The next morning, the crew of the Endeavor eventually started wandering into the kitchen, Bonk included. Tess got breakfast going while Jax made the coffee. Merrick and I both scanned the news on our tablets, reading titles and snippets out loud if they seemed interesting or pertinent. The GIN Project was everywhere. Logistically, it would be nearly impossible to process everyone in the galaxy in less than the six months the Overseer had given, but he was obviously doing everything he could to scare people into getting their chip and number as quickly as possible.

They’d been fine living their lives yesterday and the day before that, and before then also. Now, suddenly if they didn’t get shot up with a GIN, some vague catastrophe was going to befall them, their family, maybe their entire Sector? And people actually bought into this shit. It didn’t seem possible.

At the same time, how much would I have questioned the GIN Project a month ago? If I were truly honest with myself, I wasn’t sure I liked the answer.

“Fake bacon or fake eggs?” Tess held up two boxes for everyone’s inspection.

“What makes it fake?” I asked, looking over the choices.

“Well, I guess I should say reconstituted.” She made her this-is-going-to-be-nasty-but-we’ll-get-through-it face. The expression was par for the course in the Endeavor’s kitchen. “And there’s probably some additional mystery stuff thrown into the mix. Adds protein or something. Puts hair on your chest.” She squinted to read the ingredients on the egg container and then seemed to think better of it and lowered the box.

An image of my kitchen on Albion 5 flashed in my mind, the cupboards and shelves stocked with the fresh food and the healthy eating choices that came so easily with planet-dwelling life. I blinked the picture out of existence. It wasn’t relevant. “I vote for both.”

“Me too,” Merrick murmured, his nose still buried in his tablet.

“Jax?” Tess asked.

“When have I ever said no to either of those things?” Jax’s easy smile was one I’d never seen directed at anyone but Tess. In general, the man redefined the word tense.

“Both it is.” She poured a small cup of water into a pan, added some brown cubes from both boxes to it, and started mashing it all together. “And toast.”

I didn’t expect Tess to put the bacon and eggs together in one pan, but they probably both tasted more or less the same, and they ended up in the same place anyway, so why the hell not?

Toast was good. We still had fresh bread and butter from the Aisé Resort.

Fiona arrived, looking saucy in a civilian outfit I’d never seen on her before. High heels, tight pants, and a black leather top that laced up the back clung to her slim frame, showing me just how tiny she was without her boxy lab coat. Like a corset, her top had no straps and showed a good amount of cleavage. She’d left her hair down, which had to be the most unusual part in a whole lot of different.

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