Drifters' Alliance, Book 2 by Elle Casey Page A

can feel her frustration burning through the back of my head, but she says nothing, so I just keep on going. I have other matters to take in hand, and the issue of this biogrid isn’t going anywhere. One day she’ll tell me about her world, if I’m patient and respectful and tough as nails. And I’m pretty damn sure I can be all those things.
    The voice of one of the gingers comes out into the corridor via an overhead comm box as I make my way up to the flight deck, interrupting my thoughts about Lucinda and her super secret, go-go gadget biogrid building crew.
    “Attention, attention, all crewmembers, this is engineering. We have a vacuum cycle underway, so don’t be surprised if your hair starts standing on end in about two minutes. As you wait for that tingly feeling, please don’t hesitate to bring all potential target practice items to the cargo area as directed by her ladyness, Captain Cass. That is all. Engineering out.”
    I smile as the first layer of hair on my head starts to lift and bits of dust and other random particles begin floating toward the nearest intake vents at the floor near my feet. We’ll have a nearly clean ship in just a few hours, and then we’ll spend the rest of our wait on the Alliance getting the rest of her spiffed up. She’ll be like new the next time Beltz steps foot on her.
    I reach the flight deck just as an alarm begins to sound, telling me we have company within shooting distance.

Chapter Nine

    I RUSH TO THE CAPTAIN’S chair while my blood pumps double time through my veins. Adelle has been monitoring the systems while I’ve been making the rounds of the ship welcoming my crew to their new world, and I instructed her to only contact me if there was a direct threat. As I look out the clearpanel at the ship approaching, I realize I should have been less specific about what she was supposed to be guarding against. Next time, I’ll tell her to alert me when anyone or anything gets within a hundred klicks of our position.
    I flick the all-comm button on at my array as I drop into my seat. “Attention all crewmembers, we have a craft of unknown identity approaching. Please report to your stations if you aren’t already there. Engineering, our shields are going hot, so put a pause on that cycle.”   The vacuum cycle is going to have to wait. I need the power for whatever this is.
    After flipping off the all-comm and putting some extra shield percentage in place, I focus my attention on the approaching ship. It appears to be a PC of some sort, but bigger than the one that buzzed us at the last station. Normally, a craft off in the distance, especially one of this size, isn’t anything to get riled up about without more obvious signs of aggression, but I’m not taking any chances right now with the recent change in the OSG’s policies on water control. Who the hell knows what’s going to happen next in our world? This thing could be the front runner of a giant scavenger corps.
    The door to the flightdeck slides open, and Baebong walks through it to join me. “What’ve we got?” He practically flings himself into his chair and spins it toward the clearpanel, pressing several buttons that bring up the coordination chart. If it’s calibrated correctly, it will tell him how far this craft is from our position and where it will be for the next several minutes in relation to us, assuming the craft maintains a constant speed.
    I point at the clearpanel, calling attention to the craft’s back-angled wing formation and small, arrow-like body style. “Looks like a PC. Not the same one that buzzed us at the station, though.” Not that it could be that guy. We didn’t broadcast our intended destination before night crawling, so there’s no way that pilot would have been able to follow us. If he’d been pulled into the vortex along with us, we would have gotten an alert from Adelle. Or we should have, anyway.
    “Adelle?” I wait impatiently for the compubot to