Table of Contents
Title page
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Book Description
Other Books by Elle Casey
Copyright
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
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About the Author
Other Books by Elle Casey
Drifters’ Alliance
Book 2
ELLE CASEY
Being an independent author, I depend entirely on you, the reader, to get the word out about my books. If you liked this book, won’t you please leave a review online and recommend it to a friend? The more you spread the word, the more books I can write, and nothing would please me more than to put a new book in your hands every single month!
BOOK DESCRIPTION
Captain Cass and her crew are drifting, waiting on word from the Alliance that they’re ready to meet. But something pops up in her clearpanel that she wasn’t expecting, and people with hidden motives are stirring up more trouble than she can handle alone. It’s going to take a little help from some friends to get her out of this mess. Hopefully, she still has some left who are willing to take a risk on her.
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OTHER BOOKS BY ELLE CASEY
SCIENCE FICTION
Drifters’ Alliance (ongoing series)
Winner Takes All (short story prequel to Drifters’ Alliance,
Dark Beyond the Stars Anthology)
CONTEMPORARY URBAN FANTASY
War of the Fae (10-book series)
*Book 1, The Changelings, is a free ebook at most retailers*
Ten Things You Should Know About Dragons
(short story, The Dragon Chronicles)
My Vampire Summer
Aces High
DYSTOPIAN
Apocalypsis (4-book series)
ROMANCE
By Degrees
Rebel Wheels (3-book series)
Just One Night (romantic serial)
Just One Week (romantic serial)
Love in New York (3-book series)
Shine Not Burn (2-book series), also available as an Audiobook
Bourbon Street Boys (3-book series), also available as an Audiobook
Desperate Measures
Mismatched
ROMANTIC SUSPENSE
All the Glory: How Jason Bradley Went from Hero to Zero in Ten Seconds Flat
Don’t Make Me Beautiful
Wrecked (2-book series),
Book 1 also available as an Audiobook
PARANORMAL
Duality (2-book series)
Dreampath (short story, The Telepath Chronicles)
Monkey Business (short story, Blood Iris 2012: A Dark Fantasy Anthology )
Pocket Full of Sunshine (short story & screenplay)
COPYRIGHT NOTICE
© 2015 Elle Casey, all rights reserved, worldwide. No part of this ebook may be reproduced, uploaded to the Internet, or copied without author permission.
The author respectfully asks that you please support artistic expression and help promote anti-piracy efforts by purchasing a copy of this ebook only at author-authorized online outlets that serve your country. If you’re viewing this book without having paid for it, you are pirating this creative work.
PIRACY = STEALING
Elle Casey thanks you deeply for your understanding and support.
DEDICATION
For Skye.
Often those who’ve dwelled in the Dark are the best guides for finding one’s way out of it.
Chapter One
AFTER OUR MEAL WITH THE crew of the DS Mekanika, Captain Beltz gifted us with another stinking chicken corpse for our schlafhammer — a technology I still wasn’t comfortable handing over to them, so it was a big relief when Beltz didn’t challenge me on that.
Once the poultry and its secret cargo were safely tucked away in one of the DS Anarchy’s cold storage drawers, I said goodbye to Beltz and his crew, saw them through the airlock, and then dismissed my own people so they could get some well-earned rest. I monitored the DS Mekanika from the flightdeck alone until it disappeared from view, before retiring to my own bunk. Trust, but verify. That’s what my father always said. I hate that so many of his philosophies are guiding my life right now.
I don’t know how my crew managed to wind down after such an eventful day, but I slept like the dead in a bunk that still smells way too much like its former owner. In my extreme fatigue I was able to block the scent out, but now that I’m mostly awake, it has become impossible. It’s filling my head, or so it seems.
What did he do? Bathe in it? For a guy who’s spent most of his life flying around in the Dark, it’s funny to me that he prefers a perfume that is reminiscent of the forests found only under very special biodomes rather than the jinky pheromone scents preferred by so many others of his ilk.
Maybe there’s more to Langlade than there appears on the surface. It reminds me of a maxim we learned in OSG training that was designed to keep us alive: a person should never be taken at face value, because they almost never expose their real selves to the world around them. Being that open is dangerous. It’s a lesson I took to heart. Maybe too much.
Thank the universe Baebong and the others understand that rule too and accept the fact that it’s a necessary part of our existence, otherwise I don’t think they would have been able to forgive me for neglecting to mention that I come from a very prominent and not very popular OSG family.
I can’t stop thinking about that picochip that was in my back. Surely my father knew it was there. What was it for if not to locate me? I guess I’ll never know since it’s now frozen solid, somewhere on Xylera.
I stare at the steeloid ceiling above me and contemplate my most immediate future. First step: a vacuum cycle to clean this ship of all its unpleasant odors, including the one in this bunk that reminds me of places I’ll probably never see again. Second step: blood contracts. My crew has proven themselves loyal to a degree, but until we have something official between us, I know I’m going to constantly worry that they’ll disappear at the next station, taking the knowledge of my location and ship identifier with them. I wouldn’t put it past my father to pay someone for information about me, and I wouldn’t put it past anyone on this ship to take that payment. Blind trust is going to take a long time to build between us, but I’m okay with that. That kind of trust, when given too freely, is a great way to get yourself
killed out here in the Dark.
I throw my legs over the edge of my bunk and scrub at my face, trying to wake myself up more. Sleep fog is still settled on my brain, refusing to dissipate entirely. “Adelle, you there?” I breathe in deep through my nose, filling my lungs, before hissing the air out as a long whistle.
“Good morning, Captain.”
“Is it?”
The screen by my door lights up, courtesy of my onboard computer, Adelle, and shows me a sun star glowing onto the surface of the planet nearest us, its rays bouncing off and reflecting on the hull of the ship.
“It is,” she says.
“You can shut that off now.” Sunshine in my eyeballs isn’t nearly as effective at waking me up as caffeine. I need to get some of that into my bloodstream soon. Lucky for me, we have tea leaves. I can’t wait to sample the blends they have onboard. “Crew status?”
Adelle turns my screen black again as she responds. “Jeffers is in the galley preparing a meal. Lucinda is in the biogrid. The others are sleeping.”
Seconds after picturing the crew sound asleep in their bunks, dreaming away the stress of the day now behind us, I grin. The evil side of me is wondering how they’d enjoy a wake-up alarm OSG style. Might as well find out. After seeing Lucinda go after Jacov with her weak-ass little can of pepper mist, I knew something needed to be done about this crew’s defense mechanisms. Today will be the last day they wake up on my ship as innocents in the game of self-defense. Their training starts now.
“Adelle, play First Call Reveille over the all-comm please. And crank it up.”
“As you wish, Captain.”
I cannot stop grinning as the clear, crisp sounds of a military-esque brass bugle blast out of the speaker in my bunk, echoing and bouncing around the corridors beyond the door. I only wish I could see the looks on their faces as they realize sleep time is over and today begins their new life with Cass Kennedy at the helm.
Chapter Two
I’M THE FIRST ONE TO the breakfast table, followed shortly by Baebong. His flightsuit looks like he slept in it, and his hair is pressed in on one side and sticking out sideways on the other. It reminds me of another morning we shared together. Our first.
“Damn, boy. Sleeping on garbage scows again?”
He gives me a silent snarl and drops down into a chair, letting his head fall to the back of it. His eyes close as he sighs. “Remind me why I thought it was a good idea to engage you in conversation that day?”
It was three years ago, but I still remember it like it was yesterday. I can’t stop smiling. “Don’t act like you regret it now. You’re the first lieutenant of a DS and you’re only twenty-one.”
His head tilts in my direction as his eyes open. “The shittiest DS in the universe. Yeah. So proud.”
If I had a fork, I’d throw it at him, but the table isn’t set yet. I lift my chin to throw my voice toward the connected galley. “Jeffers, you need any help in there? Baebong is offering.” I wink at my friend, and he flips me off.
“No, I’ve got it under control.” He sounds happy, and that makes me less worried about the response to my wake-up call. Happy cooks means happy stomachs for the rest of the crew.
Lucinda is next. She doesn’t have a hair out of place, and her lab coat is blindingly white. Baebong watches her out of almost closed eyes, pretending like he’s not really noticing her, but I know differently. It makes me wonder if he’s checking her out like he would a woman he’s interested in or if he’s trying to figure her out. It is kind of weird how she doesn’t look like she’s slept or even needs to, so I’m guessing it’s the latter.
“Good morning,” she says, pulling out her chair and sitting down. She folds her hands in front of her and places them on the scarred wood surface, looking first at me and then at Baebong across the table.
“Morning,” I say brightly. “You look well-rested.”
“I don’t know why I would,” she says, a slight scowl marring her features.
“Why?”
“Because. I haven’t slept yet.”
I close my eyes and let my breath out really slowly in an attempt to calm myself. My first reaction is to get pissed. Doesn’t she know that we need to sleep when we can? Is she that stupid and naive about the ways of the Dark? How long has she been out here, anyway? Please let it be longer than she’s been on this ship. The last thing I need is a gloob on board. The lack of knowledge makes them dangerous for everyone.
“You didn’t sleep?” Baebong asks, making no attempt to hide his disgust.
She sits up straighter. “No. Is that a problem for you or something?”
Oh boy. She really is a gloob. I hold up my hand in an attempt to stop Baebong from offending her. There has to be a diplomatic way to say this … I just need to focus and think of what it is.
Baebong beats me to the punch, and he’s not at all worried about sparing her feelings, apparently. “Yeah, that is a problem. It’s a problem for everyone. Only an idiot skips a sleep session out in the Dark. Don’t you know anything?”
She glares at him. “I know a lot of things, actually. Like how biogrids need constant attention, and how if you neglect things that need doing, you lose plant-life; and if you lose plant-life, you lose human life. Kind of important, don’t you think?”
He scowls. “Your plants can stand to have you gone for eight hours.”
“No, actually, they can’t.”
The conversation is interrupted by Rollo entering the room. “Hey, everybody!” He reaches for the chair next to Baebong, but with one look from my friend is immediately dissuaded from taking it. He moves down two more spaces before Baebong stops trying to bore holes into his face. Rollo’s directly to my right now, and I nod as he raises his eyebrows and slowly pulls the chair back, giving him my assent to his choice.
“Have a seat.” I want him close so I can get a better bead on his reactions to the things I’m going to say today. He’s still a mystery, and that makes me nervous. There are way too many questions where he’s concerned, like: why did he choose my ship to stow away on … was it out of convenience or purposeful? Or was it Langlade’s ship he was aiming for, and he just had a bad day with me becoming the new captain? And why was he leaving the station at all? Did he get involved in a bad deal and need to escape, meaning I’ll have to check my six every ten minutes to make sure there isn’t an angry trader following him?
Rollo sits down and rubs his hands together, distracting me from my inner future interrogation of his person. “What’d Rollo miss?” He couldn’t look more innocent, which totally throws me off. I cannot figure out if his expression and body language are natural or completely feigned. If it’s all a sham, I have to give him credit; he’s good. Really good.
“Nothing,” I say, giving Baebong a look that says he needs to keep his mouth shut for now. Hopefully, the little speech I’m planning to give will satisfy him that Lucinda’s mistakes won’t be repeated.
Jeffers appears with a tray covered in glasses, each with something brownish-orange inside. “Fresh squeezed juice to celebrate our first breakfast together as a crew under Captain Cass,” he says, placing it on the table to the right of Lucinda. He busies himself with transferring them from tray to table. “I hope you’re in the mood for fritters.”
“What’s a fritter?” Baebong asks.
“What’s a fritter?” Lucinda says with a laugh.
“Yeah. That’s what I said. What’s a fritter.” Baebong isn’t seeing the humor in the situation, and I know why. He’s never been a Have, always struggling by as a Havenot. I know less about his background than he knows about mine, but I figured out long ago from his behaviors and habits that he’s probably ingested more food pellets than all of us combined. Fritters are food for the Haves.
I lift my hands up and grab everyone’s attention by clapping them together once, loudly. “Hey! Where are the twins?”
“Probably still sleeping,” Lucinda says, shrugging and back to being bored with our company.
“How could they possibly sleep through that trumpet?” Rollo asks.
“They’re in the engine room,” Lucina says. “It’s pretty loud in there.”
I nod at Rollo. “Go wake them for me, please. I need to get this meeting started.”
“Meeting? What meeting?” Baebong asks, as Rollo leaves the room.
“You’ll see.”
He rests his hands on the table, his face reddening. “And when were you going to tell your first lieutenant about this meeting, huh?”
My mistake comes to me in crystal clear magnovision; I’ve disrespected my number one guy. My friend. Again. I hiss out a breath, pissed at myself. “I’m sorry. I should have talked to you about it first. It’s just that you were sleeping…” My excuse sounds lame even to my own ears, and I can tell he’s not buying it by his expression and his response, so I cut myself off and wait for the reprimand I deserve.
“Yeah, well, you don’t seem to mind waking people up before they’re ready to get up, so feel free next time.”
I nod. “I will. I promise.”
Lucinda is watching us, her head swiveling left and right during the conversation. Now she’s staring at me, but I can’t tell if she’s angry or confused.
“I thought this was a dictatorship,” she finally says.
“It’s a modified dictatorship. I’m the captain, but I appreciate input. Do you have any input to share with me this morning?” I’m anxious to move past my mistake with Baebong.
“As a matter of fact, I do. I need help in the biogrid. Like I said, I didn’t sleep, and contrary to popular belief …” She pauses to glare at Baebong before continuing. “…Biogrids do not manage themselves. They need careful and constant monitoring.”