Ancient as the Stars: A Space Opera Adventure (Broken Union) by Maya Darjani

Author:Maya Darjani [Darjani, Maya]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Starshot Press
Published: 2024-06-26T00:00:00+00:00

“Flight Officer, you can’t just go in…”

Ignoring the sputtering crewman, she slammed into Deneld’s office. “Call your goon off.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Flight Officer.”

“You know exactly what I’m talking about. Call. Him. Off.”

They faced off. His eyebrow lifted. (How did he do that?) Her eyes twitched. He punched something into his display.

“Marquez. Yeah she’s here. In my office.” Pause. “She wants you to stop following her. Yeah, we’ll talk about the sloppy tradecraft later.” What a crock. If Marquez didn’t want to be seen, he wouldn’t be seen. But Deneld probably didn’t expect her to confront him about it.

He hung up. Leaned back. Spread his hands. “There. Happy?”

That grin. Her fucking traitorous heart fluttered. Her voice went plaintive. Weak.

“Why, De— Commander Riley?”

“What exactly are you asking?”

“Why go through the effort of having Marquez track me down?”

He gave Ren a mocking look. “You’re reading into things. Marquez is allowed to take a break in the arboretum too.”

What bullshit. Not only had he just said Marquez was following her, but he knew it was in the arboretum and … ugh.

It wasn’t worth arguing with him.

“I just called Marquez to humor you, you know. You’re paranoid.”

Focus, Yilmaz. Don’t get drawn in.

“Sir,” Ren said, newly fortified, “do you have concerns about my performance or about my disposition on this ship?”

“Lanson’s been by.” Of course. “Just make sure you don’t go off and be insubordinate to him too often. You know you have a tendency to do that. And focus on your own work, instead of trying to attach yourself to other people’s projects.”

Oh. Space. That little—

It wasn’t even worth figuring out if Deneld even knew Lanson was a complete fraud. There was that slippery feeling again. The desire to fix what had screwed up here, trying to figure out how to report a problem when the person she was supposed to report to was a problem in himself. She had to figure it out. She had to.

Deneld rose up from the desk and ambled toward her.

That familiar clutch in her heart. Ow. Her vision went blurry as the blood rushed to her head. Her ears tingled and then her cheeks. She swallowed.

“Have a good day, Flight Officer,” he said pleasantly. “Try to make an appointment, next time, ok?”

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