them.”
“I would kill to be with my father. If they want you home, you shouldn’t assume they’re lying.”
Pigeon’s face shuttered. “Is he gone? Your father?”
Alexa dropped her eyes to her cup again. “Yeah.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. I lost my parents a long time ago, and I still miss them to this day.”
“It’s fine.” Alexa swirled her coffee some more. “I’m sorry for your loss as well. I miss mine too, though I never knew my mother.”
Why had she said that? Alexa sucked in her lips. She never talked to anyone about her parents.
“Makes sense.”
Her eyes snapped to Pigeon’s. “What? What makes sense?”
“That you’re here, doing a job like this, when you could be anywhere else in the universe.” Pigeon smiled, and it almost brought a smile to her own lips. “My ex would never have let our kids leave Earth.”
“That’s a shame. Earth sucks.”
“Yeah,” Pigeon laughed. “It does.”
Someone cleared their throat, and Alexa and Pigeon turned in unison. Standing in the doorway was the last being she wanted to see. Hysterian’s black eyes—the ones she knew—were watching them.
How long?
“Captain,” Pigeon greeted. Both he and Alexa stood, straightening out their uniforms.
“Captain,” she said as well, nodding.
“The day shift is about to start,” he warned, making her stiffen. “You should be at your posts.”
“Yes, sir,” Pigeon agreed, walking to the door; Hysterian moved to the side. Pigeon turned back and met Alexa’s eyes. “It was good talking to you, Dear. Come with us to get a beer next time. It’ll do you good. I’ll make sure you get back to your bunk safe afterward.” He smiled and left, strolling past Hysterian before she could respond.
Silence filled the lounge as she listened to Pigeon’s footsteps recede, wishing she could escape just as easily.
“Sorry, Captain,” she mumbled, dashing for the exit.
“Stop.”
She came to a halt. Tall and stiff, and ever watchful, Hysterian glared at her when she met his eyes. Now she remembered why she never left the menagerie if she could help it.
Hysterian sucked the energy out of her every time she encountered him, and she always left him bewildered.
“Yes, Captain?” she asked hesitantly.
His eyes shot over her, and she bit down on her tongue from his blatant perusal.
“You do know we’re landing on Titan tomorrow, right?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Have you prepped the habitats?”
The ones she and Raul spent all day yesterday preparing? “Yes. They’re prepped.”
“I want to see them.”
Her heart dropped into her stomach. “Of course.”
“The creatures that the Titan people want will only be on our ship for a short time, but they must receive intact, unharmed specimens to study. This is our first real job, and we want to do it right. The specimens can’t be introduced to anything that doesn’t meet Titan’s code of standards for their wildlife. That includes tranquilizers.”
Alexa nodded. “Raul and I—”
He waved her off. “Show me.”
“Yes, Captain. Follow me.”
She led him out of the lounge when all she wanted to do was punch him in the face. Alexa glowered, glad Hysterian was behind her. Maybe it was a good thing she couldn’t see the Cyborg’s face either. One scowl or sneer her way and she was going to the brig. Today was not the day for games.
She was going to fucking punch him if he talked down to her. She might even try more.
This is good, she told herself, trying to calm down before her body reacted in a way Hysterian would surely notice. She needed to spend more time with him to glean information.
Because hell, she wasn’t finding anything out about him elsewhere.
She wasn’t on a timeline, but she knew her clock was ticking. Someone was going to discover her secret eventually. And staying employed by the very creature that killed her father made her want to vomit. She couldn’t get comfortable. If she did…
Alexa inhaled. The guilt would kill her if Hysterian didn’t kill her first…
They walked past Raul’s station—she waved at him when he lowered his headset and sent her a questioning look—and headed for the habitats in the back. The male locust thumped on the glass and perked up as she glided by.
“We chose the habitats nearest the loading hatch. We figured since these critters aren’t staying long, loading and unloading them with ease was the best course of action,” she said to fill the silence.
The thumping of the male locust grew louder when she came to a stop at the habitats she and Raul calibrated. Turning back to face Hysterian, he was gazing at the empty glass cages like they were