the seats lining the wall. During the course of the meeting she, and her parents, had sat in wide-eyed wonder at the conversation as the breadth of their galactic neighborhood became clear.
“You will be staying here on the Diligent ,” Jason said.
“Not likely!” Taryn retorted hotly. “I’m going with you guys.”
“This is non-negotiable,” Jason said firmly. “We have no idea what we’ll be running into along the way on this mission, and I am not putting you at that kind of risk.” She sucked in a breath, making it clear she was going to argue the point, and he cut her off. “My ship, my rules, my choice,” he said sharply. “Under no circumstances will I allow you to be onboard when we’re likely to see ship-to-ship fighting and God knows what else.” She glared at him a moment and then stood, turned, and walked out of the conference room. Nobody made any attempt to stop her; the entire port side of the deck they were on was a hospitality area so there was little she could do other than go sulk and stare out a window.
“That could have gone better,” Jason said, regretting his tone.
“Not really,” Ed spoke up with a lopsided grin. “You know her as well as anybody. She wouldn’t have let it drop.”
“ Since there appears to be nothing else,” Kellea said as she stood. “If the Browns will follow me, I’ll take you to the steward who will be assigned to you during your stay, I’m sure the Omega Force crew has a lot of work to accomplish in a short time before they depart.”
In reality, only three members of the crew had anything useful to do. As per Omega Force’s standard operating procedure for ship’s maintenance and repair, Twingo and Lucky did most of the work, with the assistance of Kage. Jason hovered around and annoyed them with his lack of understanding of the Phoenix’s systems and the principles under which they operated, while Crusher snuggled in between the wheels of the main landing gear, using them as a sort of hammock, and was soon snoring loud enough to be heard over the noise of the hangar deck.
After Twingo’s inspection , he cleared the Phoenix for flight and supervised the fueling crew as they topped her off. The rest of Omega Force began shuffling things around, including a few crates of fresh commissary items they had liberated from the Diligent’s mess deck, and strapping everything in place. Three hours after their meeting with Crisstof and they were ready to launch. Jason stood at the bottom of the ramp, looking at the hangar deck exit contemplatively.
“Are you going to go say goodbye?” Doc asked.
“I think it may be best if we just launch and be on our way,” Jason said. “I suck at goodbyes, and she has a talent for getting what she wants out of me no matter how bad an idea I think it is.”
“Seems females are the same the galaxy over,” Doc chuckled. “We’re ready when you are.” He turned and left Jason at the bottom of the ramp as he walked back up into the ship. After a moment longer Jason turned and followed him up, stopping to close and lock the ship.
“We’re already cleared, Captain,” Kage said as he walked onto the bridge. “You can taxi at your leisure, we’re launching off the forward platform.” Jason gave his displays a once-over as he hopped into the pilot’s seat and then flipped on his external indicator lights, a sign to the ground crews in the hangar that the ship was preparing to move. After a moment, while observing the rear video feed, he slowly backed the Phoenix out of her parking berth using the jog control down on his left. The gunship backed out at slower than a walking pace before taxiing ahead to the forward elevator to be lifted up to the launch deck.
Once the elevator stopped and locked , the Diligent’s com officer sent them their launch clearance. “ Gunship-class vessel Phoenix; you are clear to start primary flight systems and launch at your discretion. Please bear to starboard after you
The seduction
M.J. Putney
Mark Kurlansky
Cathryn Fox
Orson Scott Card
William Bayer
Kelsey Jordan
Maurice Gee
Sax Rohmer
Kathryn J. Bain