The Phoenix Darkness by Richard L. Sanders

for some kind of repair. That’s been completed, last I
heard, but the ship itself hasn’t jumped yet,” said Sarah.
“Although, all of that may have changed by now.”
    “Let's hope not,” said Summers. “Why so long
to get a positive identification of the ship? The Nighthawk ’s scanners are supposed to be
state-of-the-art.”
    “We can see plenty of ships,” said Shen, no
doubt deciding to field this question since he was the resident Ops
expert. “However, with the limited information we know about
Zander’s ship, we’ll need to get closer and do a more complete
analysis of the many ships traversing the system before we can be
99.9% certain it’s him.”
    “Why only 99.9%?” asked Summers.
    Shen shrugged. “Nothing in life is 100%.”
    True enough , Summers supposed. She
glanced to her side to see Captain Nimoux there, whose quiet
presence had almost been forgotten about due to his tendency, at
least so far, toward silence and observation. At first, this had
made the crew nervous, being supervised by one of the Empire’s
greatest heroes and, more recently, one of their most dangerous
foes, but now that Nimoux had attended a watch and a half, and had
said fewer than five words, the crew seemed to be forgetting he was
there. Summers, however, was more pleased to have him by her side
than she would readily admit. Finally someone intelligent, with the
record of service to prove it, she could trust to double-check her
work and help her make those hard decisions. Without meaning to,
she found herself staring at him. Strong jawbone, greatly receded
hairline, pale eyes…she wondered just how much of the galaxy those
eyes had seen. Things that he would never be able to divulge to
anyone.
    Captain Nimoux met her gaze. “Yes, Commander
Presley?” he asked innocently.
    “Please go about the stations and familiarize
yourself with their basic controls,” Summers said instinctively,
hurriedly darting her eyes away from his chiseled jawbone.
    “Of course,” he said, and he stood up and
began studying the stations. It was good procedure for each of the
officers to have basic knowledge of how the other systems worked in
case one or more of the specialists became incapacitated, but
Summers knew her order had been a stupid one. Nimoux had been the
commanding officer of the IWS Desert Eagle , one of the Nighthawk ’s sister ships. No doubt he knew these consoles
better than she did.
    Damn my lingering eyes , she thought.
The odd thing was, she didn’t find Captain Nimoux particularly
attractive. At least, she didn’t think so; certainly not
conventionally. Yes, he was reasonably tall and clearly kept
himself in excellent physical condition, but his bone structure was
a bit more narrow than she liked, his face a bit too long, his ears
mismatched slightly, and he had one tooth that was just faintly,
annoyingly, crooked and stood out against all the others, which
were straight, as if to deliberately irk her need for order. True,
Nimoux was a famous name across the Empire, and if he were the type
to use it thusly he no doubt could leverage that to get many a
woman’s pants off. But his fame held no appeal for Summers, nor was
she the type to be attracted to secrets, and Nimoux probably
carried more of those around than anyone else on the ship. Besides,
she’d never gone for his type…whatever it was: possessing the
masculine and well-formed body of a military man combined with a
head and face which seemed almost bookish or professorial. She
refused to let herself believe her lack of physical attraction was
due to something so superficial as hair, the whole going bald
gracefully thing fit in nicely with Nimoux’s entire philosophy of
life but, admittedly, it wasn’t her favorite feature about him.
Yet, there was something else which did conjure up very positive,
almost alluring feelings. Could it be…?
    “Ten minutes away from Izar Ceti,” reported
Sarah, snapping Summers back to the present situation. She too