Seeds of Change by John Wilker

Author:John Wilker
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781951964122
Publisher: Rogue Publishing
Published: 2024-03-10T18:06:18.203000+00:00

CHAPTER 14

While it was safer to keep moving as far and as fast as possible, not having a destination made that course of action less useful. For all Jax knew, they could end up on the opposite side of the Empire as their goal, whatever that ended up being.

An hour after leaving UniDis Four, Jax brought the Osprey out of its wormhole, changed direction, and entered another wormhole for an hour. He did that twice more before cutting thrust. As far as Rudy could tell, they were exactly…nowhere.

No one had the energy to talk or do anything outside of shower and crash. They made Clinton go last since with his messenger case attached to his wrist, his showers took longer than anyone else’s.

Baxter and Rudy retreated to engineering where they could work on the former’s damaged hip armor. They also worked on scraping their temporary paint jobs off.

The next morning, Jax pulled on a clean shirt and pair of cargo pants, the type he had ten pairs of and wore more often than not. He walked to the lounge area of the common deck. He flipped the switch on the coffee maker and leaned against the counter while the machine beeped and burbled.

Naomi exited the short hallway that led to the crew berths. “Hey.”

He nodded. “So, look.”

“Before coffee? Really?” She dropped into one of the chairs around the small cafe table that served as the dining table. Jax nodded once.

Neither said a word, listening to the coffee maker work its magic.

Finally, Jax joined her at the table, two steaming mugs in his hands.

“So,” she said before taking a sip.

He took his own sip, then said, “Kinda back to square one.”

She made a noise Jax hadn’t heard before. “Clearly your ‘sell him back to BioTek’ idea didn’t pan out.”

“That’s not fair. I wasn’t trying to sell him to anyone. That Sanchez dickhead lied to me. He swore they had no interest in Clint, just the case. Said—repeatedly, I should add—that they could get it off him, and we could go on our way.”

“With a reward,” she said, voice flat.

Jax sighed. “Yeah, would getting him free of the case, and getting a reward while we’re at it, be so bad? You think it’s not costing us hard credits running all over the Empire? That hacking into the next Imperial dock we visit to make sure to scrub any ‘Be on the lookouts’ for us is easy, or without risk? Why is getting paid so bad?”

“You’re awfully gullible, you know.”

“No. I’m…I dunno. A capitalist? Opportunist?” He rubbed his face. “Over my head.”

Naomi took a sip of her coffee, leaving the mug against her lips while she thought. Lowering the mug she said, “Accurate.” Shrugging, she added, “So what now?”

Jax took another sip. “Well, obviously, fuck BioTek.” Both chuckled.

Naomi said, “So then what?” She cocked her head. “He’s still got that case strapped to him. BioTek still wants him and clearly is willing to pull out all the stops.”

Jax nodded. “What about your, you

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