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It was the same one that repeated every month since she left Earth.

It reminded her too much of the burning home that she and her entire ark ship had fled from.

What also niggled at her, was the vision of the massive spectral being who saved her each and every freakin’ time. Who the hell was he, and why was he haunting her sleep?

Fokk.

She pushed him and the frisson of arced energy the thought of him always ignited, out of mind.

She sat back as her racer glided with agile ease over theVenantia Eterna’sspine, the massive ship’s silvery hull stretching beneath her like the back of a sleeping titan.

One hand wrapped around a warm-to-go steel cup, the other resting on the throttle of her racer, fingers tapping idly to the rhythm of a song playing softly over the airwaves.

The dorsal run was familiar now.

Her gaze tracked past rows of satellite dishes, yawning toward the murky, long-range artillery cannons dormant for the night cycle.

Beyond, surveillance drones bobbed in their programmed loops.

Each checkpoint pinged green as she passed.

She called out to two other ships in the network, cracking jokes, getting herkaffeinehit, and keeping to the same regular beat she had taken these last few years.

Her comms flared.

‘Well, well, if it isn’t the Ice Queen of Orbit Patrol,’ came the lazy drawl of Javier, voice rich as molten caramel and twiceas dangerous. ‘’Tismoi, the King of Celestial Sizzle, gracing you with my presence yet again.’

She smirked. ‘Still calling yourself that? I told you to retire the title. You’re a space traffic controller, Javier.’

‘Correction: I’m the best-looking dispatcher in this sector. Maybe even in the entire galaxy.’

His voice dripped with the shameless flirtatiousness that he wore like a second skin.

He even had a door frame lean that made gravity jealous.

Add to that his dark melanin, and smile like a solar flare. Half the crew swore he was some forgotten minor god slumming it in a flight suit.

‘Are you asking me out again, Javier?’

‘Whenever I get the chance, Chief Savvine Bianchi. At some point, you’re going to crack and melt into my sinewed arms.’

She chuckled. ‘One of these days, you’ll run out of women to recycle those lines on.’

‘Oh, come on. Don’t be like that. Come join me in the love shack.’

‘Is that what you’re calling the comms tower now? Hard pass. I’m loving it right where I am. It’s much more alluring among the stars.’

He chuckled. ‘How does a slender beauty like you always wound so hard? Why won’t you date and settle down with me? I’m talking forever, Chief.’

‘Logging off,’ she teased, switching channels with a flick of her fingers. ‘Try a new angle next time, my friend. Emphasis onfriend.’

The link disconnected to the sound of his fake, wounded groans.

Still grinning, she leaned forward and slid into the last arc of the route, letting the pinnace dip low along theEterna’sventral curve.

She mused about Javier and his comments.

She knew her refusal to settle down and focus on her career had confounded most men on their ark ship.