Free Starlight(Pact Arcanum 4) by Arshad Ahsanuddin Page B

him with a sly expression. “Well, no. But there’s this Lieutenant down in Life Support who’s just dying to meet you.”
    Rafael rolled his eyes. “Tony, your little matchmaker project was amusing when you were a teenager, but you’re almost a hundred years old now. When are you going to give up?” He scowled in mock annoyance. “How would you like it if I started in on your love life?”
    Antonio gulped. “What?”
    Rafael smiled, showing his fangs. “You’re obviously still a bachelor, if you’re able to take an interstellar call while wearing pajamas and a ratty, old shirt.” He looked over Antonio’s clothes critically. “A shirt that I gave you the last time you were here, incidentally, almost twenty years ago.”
    Antonio stared at him indignantly. “Hey, I like this shirt. It’s comfortable.”
    “If you had a woman in your life, she’d already have burned it.” Rafael grinned. “And a man would have stolen it from you.”
    Antonio was about to say something scathing in reply when he heard the musical chime in his quarters. “Um…Raf, the comm array is about to shut down to prevent it from overheating. I’ve got to sign off now.”
    Rafael sighed. “I know. It was great to see you again, Antonio. I look forward to your arrival.”
    “Goodbye, Rafael.” The world went white again for a moment as the virtual environment terminated, leaving Antonio standing alone in his quarters. He sat again in his chair, and looked down at his clothes. “I like this shirt,” he muttered to himself. Then he looked out the window again. “Pathfinder, what’s our estimated time of arrival at Arcadia Colony?”
    “At present speed, we will arrive at Arcadia in eleven months, three days, ten hours.”
    Antonio slumped in his chair. “See if you can find Bradley Ellestan. Tell him I’m ready for that run now.” He stared out the window for a time, then regretfully got out of his chair and changed into a t-shirt and sweatpants.
    “Junior Crewman Ellestan informs me that he will be waiting for you on the Engineering deck,” said the AI.
    Antonio left his quarters for the core elevator. The vessel was laid out in a cylinder—circular decks stacked along the long axis of the ship, with the bridge at the top and the living quarters at the base. The upper floors were dedicated to ship’s services and manufacturing, but the Engineering deck in the center was one of the few that had entry points to the maintenance tunnels that ran the length of the ship. Those corridors housed the mechanism of the conventional gravity drive, which would be activated only when the ship entered a planetary system, so they were largely deserted while the ship was under inertialess flight. But given that their internal gravity was adjusted perpendicular to the rest of the decks, they remained the longest horizontal spaces anywhere on the ship.
    Antonio had taken to running the circumference of the vessel about three times a week, especially when he needed to relax and clear his mind. Brad had been delighted when he discovered that aspect of Antonio’s exercise routine, and made a point of tagging along every weekend. Antonio had been resistant to the intrusion at first, but eventually he found that he enjoyed the company.
    Rafael had been right. There wasn’t really anyone special in his life at the moment, though there had been a Daywalker he’d been sweet on at Chiron Colony on the last break between trips. He’d gone so far as to ask her to come with him this time, but she had declined to uproot her life for a two-decade round trip in an enclosed environment. He didn’t blame her. It took a unique level of commitment to travel the void, and most people just weren’t up for it.
    He exited the elevator at the Engineering deck, and found his godson stretching out in the open area next to the radial corridor that led to the outer hull. The boy looked up as Antonio approached, and smiled widely, his eyes shifting to a cool blue.