Free Supernova by Jessica Marting Page B

eventuality of
the Nym finding her. She doesn’t know how to protect herself.”
    “Why
wouldn’t they have found her already? They lost her over eight hundred years
ago.”
    “Admiral,
twenty-first-century cryonics could only preserve tissue up to a thousand
years,” Rian said. “That was the best-case scenario, and we know now that those
preservations were never successful. My theory is that the Nym kidnapped her in
her own time, brought her back, and somehow lost track of her. After a few
centuries, they stopped caring and figured she was dead for good. If the media
find out, the Nym may hear of it and put two and two together. That’s simply
too large of a risk to take.”
    She had
told him what had gone wrong in her life before she was kidnapped; she didn’t
think her circumstances could get worse. Rian knew they could.
    The
admiral was quiet for a moment. “Noted, Commander,” he finally said.
    When
Rian signed off, he had a bad feeling. Commander , not Captain .
    Now, in
the privacy of his cabin, his exhaustion melted away and he felt almost
energized. He had to report for duty on the bridge at 800 hours, and he should
get some sleep, but he didn’t want to. And he knew the reason why, and she was
only a deck below him.
    It
wouldn’t hurt to see what she was up to. She was still adjusting, and as the
acting captain of the vessel she found herself on, it was his responsibility to
see to her comfort. He tapped his comm badge. “Captain to cabin 16-4.”
    He didn’t
get a response. Damnation . He hadn’t shown her how to use the comm badge
he’d issued her. He had thought they were self-explanatory.
    Then a
soft, feminine voice sounded, “Hello, Captain.”
    Well, it
wasn’t that difficult, after all.
    She waited
for his reply. “Did I wake you?” he asked. Twenty-two hundred hours wasn’t late
on a patrol ship, but she could have been sleeping.
    “No,”
she said. “Just reading.”
    “Would
you like to get some tea?” he asked. Great, now he sounded desperate. He was
aiming to be distantly supportive. He had to be.
    “I
would,” she replied, surprised. “Mess?”
    “I’ll
meet you there in five.”
    He
thought about changing into civvies and decided not to. Best to be
professional.
    He
arrived at the mess first and was relieved to see only a couple of off-duty
engineering officers sharing a pitcher of beer at the bar. He picked a table in
the corner, beside a viewport. An old satellite beacon hovered in the far
distance, reminding him of times gone by.
    She
entered minutes later, saw him and smiled. His heart stopped for a second, and
he stood up when she hurried to the table. He started to circle around the
table to pull out her chair for her, but she made it there before he could.
    “Hi,”
she said brightly. She looked better-rested than she had that afternoon. Her
hair was damp and her clothes wrinkled. “This is a nice surprise. What are you
having?”
    “Tea,”
he replied. He led her to the replicator. No serving bots on the Defiant ,
of course.
    Lily
flipped the screen through the menu. “What’s the tea like?” she asked. “Is
there anything herbal?”
    “All tea
is herbal,” Rian pointed out.
    “I mean
decaffeinated. If I have anything else right now, I’ll never get to sleep.”
    “Oh.”
Rian understood, and selected a blend popular on his home world. They took
their cups back to the table.
    “This is
probably really boring, but I figured out the shower.” She giggled. “I really
wasn’t prepared for the blow dryer. I think the default setting is meant for a
mastodon. I nearly got sucked in. But it made doing my laundry convenient.” She
gestured to her wrinkled dress and sweater.
    “I’ll
have some towels delivered to your cabin,” he offered. “And we’ll be at Rubidge
in three days, so you can buy new clothes.”
    “They
take Visa?”
    Rian
stared at her blankly.
    “I
thought not. God, Rian, brighten up a little. I have a credit card that expired
in