Chapter 1
Kinsley Sullivan had made mistakes. A lot of them. Sometimes it seemed likeallof them. But trying to escape her mistakes was maybe her biggest mistake yet.
Unlike the Intergalactic Dating Agency transport where she’d spent many a “night” staring out a screen pretending to be a window at a simulated star scape, the Omega Reclamation Crew ship had no windows in the galley so she couldn’t even pretend to focus on anything besides her own wretched thoughts.
A voice, deep and sonorous enough to be a particularly sexy demon from the pits of hell, interrupted her sulking. “You’re up late. Or early, depending.”
Oh great. Now she couldn’t even wallow in her silent misery alone. She closed her eyes for a moment, then rallied one of her casual smiles, not too friendly. “Does it even matter in space?”
Sil stood on the other side of the galley table, mugs of something steamy in the top two of his four hands. In one other hand dangled an alien guitar. She let her gaze linger for a moment. It was too bad the orcs were such steady, literal-minded people; with all those fingers of his, she probably could have trained him up as a decent pickpocket or card shark. Not that he could hide his ill-gotten gains anywhere, since he was wearing only the short kilt and bandolier set that was the fashion on theDeepWander, exposing quite a lot of blue-bronze skin.
“Is the rock bothering you again?” Sil straddled the bench across from her and nudged one of the cups her way while positioning the multi-stringed synth over his knee. “Oliver said he thought now that it knew we knew it’s alive it wouldn’t be so desperate and lonely anymore.”
Was that all it took to not feel desperate anymore? For someone—anyone—in the universe to acknowledge your existence? If it were that easy she wouldn’t have had to flee Earth.
Of course even before she’d known there was such a thing as aliens looking for a love connection, there’d been dating agencies profiting off people’s lonely desperation. While she’d never used the apps herself, she appreciated the hustle, collecting all that neediness into one place.
“It’s not the rock.” She refused to admit—to Sil or herself—that those confusing moments of the rock reaching out to her had actually been sort of…sweet. At leastsomeonewanted to talk to her. “Just restless, I guess.”
Unlike the other orcs who had large, black, faceted eyes that seemed exactly like the sort of eyes one would expect to find in a species adapted to caves, Sil had smooth, pearly gray eyes. If she looked too close, she knew she’d see herself reflected there, pale, like a ghost.
Definitely nothing she wanted to see there.
“Restless,” he mused. With a few fingers, he picked out a quiet little strum. “Is that why you hacked your way into the IDA Big Sky dating profiles so you could sneak on to theDeepWander? To soothe your restless spirit and indulge a bit of adventuring?”
She winced. His touch on the synthetar was delicate enough, but poking ather? Rude and unwanted.
Of course, once the orcs had found out that she’d talked to Dorn, who’d tried to steal their newfound fortune to sell to the highest bidder at the mining and salvage auction coming up soon, she’d figured they’d look more closely into her own record. Yes, she had consorted with the traitor, but only accidentally. And it wasn’t fair, considering she’d also helped rescue little Oliver who Dorn had kidnapped as a communications conduit with the rock when she could’ve been fleeing to the raiders.
Really annoying how doing the right thing wasalsoa mistake.
Dorn and a couple of the raiders who’d attacked theDeepWanderwere now sitting in a security cell, but as far as she knew they hadn’t yet been tortured or murdered by the orcs. Which she supposed should be reassuring, considering she might still end up locked away with them.
Instead of answering, she sipped from the heavy mug, the warmth of the orc tea drifted through her, making her realize how chilled she’d been.
With a thunk, she set the mug down again. Sil probably thought he was being nice. But really, it felt as if the tea were dissolving what little protection she had left.
Not even glancing up at her wordless rejection, he kept playing. To her surprise, she recognized the melody half-buried in the alien tones. “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”? Really? Ollie must’ve suggested it.
Mostly under his breath, Sil sang the first verse, but then he added in the same cadence,
“When the blazing sun is gone,
When he nothing shines upon,
Then you show your little light,
Twinkle, twinkle, all the night.
Then the traveler in the dark,
Thanks you for your tiny spark,
He could not see which way to go,
If you did not twinkle so.”
So many years—and lightyears—and she’d never known there were other verses to the song.
