Mars Descent (Cladespace Book 2) by Corey Ostman & Justin Pecot

Author:Corey Ostman & Justin Pecot [Ostman, Corey]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781939475039
Publisher: Fifteener Press
Published: 2013-10-27T21:00:00+00:00

Chapter 23

Grace felt Tim twitch at her feet. He whimpered. Dreaming, again. She turned back to her impromptu breakfast in bed. Four eggs, five slices of bacon, two biscuits, and steaming hot coffee. Not a puck to be seen. Grace grinned. How did they get fresh eggs? Are they real? she wondered.

“But how did you know he’d have a copy?” Richard asked.

“I saw the toolkit on his ptenda. He had a sniffer set to all and a whistler in a custom deep storage chip.” She decided her answer was close enough to the truth. Had she begun with Tim examined the toolkit, she would have had a lot of explaining to do.

“Where did you learn that much tech?” Richard asked. “Not in cloister, surely.”

Grace swallowed the bacon. Bliss. “Raj has kept me on a steady diet of technobabble,” she answered. “I know the basics.”

Richard laughed. “Well you saved the mission, Grace.”

Grace smiled. She had to admit, she enjoyed playing the role of the most indispensable cog in the universe. Especially if the reward was food like this.

“Is Protector Donner well, sir?”

Mazz walked briskly into the room, apparently restored. Grace wished her own body were fixed so easily.

“Mazz! I knew the doc would fix you up.” Richard walked over to Mazz and began examining it from top to bottom. There was genuine affection on his face: the man clearly loved his robot.

While Richard was inspecting Mazz, Raj and Anna entered the room. They were smiling. Standing too close to one another. Hands nearly touching. What is this? Grace raised an eyebrow.

Richard stood back, satisfied. “You look like new, Mazz. Even got your cage polished.” He turned, clasping Raj’s hand. “I owe you, doc.”

“Actually, Anna did most of the work,” Raj said, inclining his head toward his companion.

Grace grinned. How gallant.

“You’re being modest, Raj,” Anna said, then turned to Richard. “He’s got the healing touch, this one. Your engineer is back afoot, too.”

Raj looked down and squeaked his shoe on the smooth deck. Grace chuckled. Raj had been easy to embarrass, ever since he was a child—a shy streak with compliments she never understood. With someone attractive to him, like Anna, attention was bound to make him want to run to his workbench and hide.

Grace wasn’t surprised when Raj abruptly changed topics.

“I found Marty at your side once we got you breathing,” he told Grace. “Two slugs gone.”

Grace nodded. “I would have needed more if Mazz hadn’t gotten there first. The robot bought me enough time to intercept.” She paused, surprised to feel something akin to respect when she mentioned Mazz.

“And thank you for taking care of Quint,” Anna said, moving closer to Grace. Her black eyes were shadowed.

“I didn’t plan to kill him,” Grace said softly.

“I’m glad you did,” said Anna. “You weren’t there, at our farm. Quint’s father would comm and make demands. Then Quint would show up. He was ruthless.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t believe you when you came aboard,” Grace said.

“I know it was hard to believe me at first.

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