Page 1 of Tempting Cargo

CHAPTER ONE

My pain is the star in the void that heralds change

Shohari

THROUGH THE BRIDGEwindow, the purple-blue glow of a nebula adorned the backdrop of stars. I traced its patterns and colours, imagining I counted each swirl, each pinprick. With a steaming mug of chrya warming my hands and the thrum of theDorimisa’s sublight engines rumbling through the soles of my feet, I could let myself believe the stars extended forever, that the entirety of space was mine to travel; my freedom, my home.

I lost myself in its tranquility until the distant lights of an outer shipping lane came into view. My wrist-comm chirruped, my console lit up orange, and notification after notification invaded the bridge’s calm.

“Ready to be back in comm range, Captain?” Paiata said.

No.

I drank in one more view of the nebula. “Not until I’ve finished this mug.” As I glanced at the three empties sitting on my console, I caught the list of new messages and flinched.

Mother. Even her name on a screen glared at me with disapproval.

My head swam, and I clenched my fingers so hard my spines went pale.Inhale. Exhale.

“Problem, Captain?”

I swiped the message screen away. “We don’t want to know. Tell me something to take my mind off it.”

Paiata punched in a course algorithm and swung round in his chair. “I’ve got something youwillwant to know.” He smiled, ear ridges widening. “But you might not like it.”

I sighed and drained my mug. “Go on.”

“I’ve plotted our course for the next pickup.” With a flick of his hand, a holomap shimmered in the centre of the bridge. “It will take three weeks to get to Hydouis if we take the usual shipping lanes. I’ve worked out a shortcut.”

My groan was out before I could stop myself. Why was Paiata always looking for a shortcut or a crafty way to improve some aspect or another? I swear he was a pirate before he signed on with me. “What’s the catch?”

“The stopover will be Draim.”

I gripped a handful of my headspines, pulling on them as though the slight pain would distract me from my pilot’s nonsense. Most space stations were full of losers, misery, and industrial filth, but Draim Station was none of those; it was worse. “You’re taking us to a Galactic Reserve outpost? Are you skykking ignorant?”

He didn’t flinch. “Hear me out, Captain. It’s less than two weeks’ travel. Just think of the fuel we’ll save, and we can be on and off Draim within a day. You’ve got nothing to hide, Cap.”

I lurched out of the captain’s chair. “You weren’t skykking here when the Reserve interrogated me!”

My shout hung in the air. For a second, I was twenty-three again, still lumbered with my original Orithian crew, damn fools that they were.

Breathe. My pain is the star in the void that heralds change.

Change, indeed. Their incompetence got them turfed off my ship, and good riddance.

“I hear that,” he said, keeping his voice calm. “I know how you feel about the Reserve, but that was five years ago, Shohari. Look at me. You’ve got nothing to hide. No reason for them to notice you.”

My headspines writhed, and I growled at my body for betraying me.True, but that doesn’t stop the idea of them putting the fear of Kri in my bones.

I sank back into my seat. “Sorry for shouting.”

Paiata rolled his head in a shrug. “Wasn’t about me.”

No, it was about Mother. About all the ways she kept me tied to her agenda, all the little ways it spiderwebbed out and affected every area of my life. Or so the nebaru therapist had said. “You really think it will save a week’s travel?”

“Aye.”

I blew out a long sigh. I couldn’t really turn it down. Not when every credit saved kept me out amongst the stars—and away from the alternative future Mother had planned for me.