SwiftStar by Blaze Ward

Author:Blaze Ward [Ward, Blaze]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-64470-142-3
Publisher: Knotted Road Press

Twenty-Three

Daniel missed having Erin flying him around. Between her and Kathra, Daniel hadn’t flown more than a handful of times with any other Mbaysey pilot in years.

Stina Carte, Spectre Sixteen, had volunteered, but Ife was treating SwiftStar like a proper military vessel, at least as they all understood it, with all her senior officers acting like grownups. That meant they were all in the back of a small Ovanii transport that had originally been modified for Anndaing, and then a second time for humans.

The seats still had gaps down the middle for fins, but were pretty damned comfortable for the finless, too. It helped that everyone had legs roughly the same length. And ceilings that might have felt cramped for an Ovanii warrior were vaulted to a short human.

Daniel glanced around as the ship docked with SeekerStar and began to be pulled into the flagship’s maw. The color pattern in here was that same mix of bold with polka dots or geometric shapes designed to offset the color in a happy way. Fierce, ancient warriors who also happened to be poets and playwrites.

At least the women with him were serious.

Ife looked like one of those ancient harpy eagles, the grandest and fiercest of their kind, as she turned and smiled back at him.

Beside her, Ndidi looked young, but not harmless nor soft. Almost a clone of her Speaker, save for those glasses that had kept her out of a Spectre cockpit when she was younger. Acqueir was reading something on a personal slab. Tanuss woke from a quick nap with a twitch.

Joane, Ngozi, and Stina looked somehow martial in ways the others didn’t. Daniel put that down to them somehow reverting to the old comitatus, rather than the crisp professionalism that they had these days.

Vacation home to see the family, as it were.

“Ready to cook a big, comitatus dinner?” Ndidi asked with a smile as the various clamps locked on.

“Ebube might be offended if we took over her kitchen,” Daniel grinned back at the woman.

“Tough,” Ndidi shrugged. “We’re going to gather everyone up. Maybe not tonight, but soon. All the old comitatus. All the new one. All the players. Maybe even the old women, but I doubt that. Kathra will probably wait a week and let that Kaniea, Linga, host us for something.”

Daniel shrugged as well. Too many options to even guess at. And unnecessary, as they were about to board the flagship and get it directly from the Commander herself.

Instead, he wondered about who else might come from Kanus itself.

No, that was a lie. He was wondering what A’Alhakoth would say when he saw her. What he might say to the young woman. She was a woman. He had to keep reminding himself that. She could walk right up and kiss him, and it would be entirely appropriate, even as weird as it might feel.

Merde, he was a mess.

Ife rose and tugged her jacket into a perfection that spoke of a deeper understanding of good tailoring than Daniel had ever achieved.

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