Dark Matters - Michelle Diener Page 0,102

of her tears.

Dray had put a hand on her shoulder when she'd started crying, but when Rose and Imogen had stepped forward and thrown their arms around her, he'd motioned to the two other men and left her to get to know her new friends.

“Are you and Commander Helvan . . .” Rose moved her index finger from side to side.

Lucy gave an unwilling snort. “What is that supposed to mean?”

Rose raised a brow, and Lucy gave a sigh and leaned back against the couch in the officers' mess.

“Yes.”

“I'm glad.” Imogen's voice was soft. “We've lost so much, its good to be able to build something new.”

“Not all the new is bad,” Lucy agreed. She reached forward to grab the box she'd put on the table earlier in readiness for her guests and offered them each a spiky chocolate hailstone.

“Mmm.” Rose bit into the chocolate and then turned wide eyes up to the camera in the corner of the room. “You had this the whole time I was onboard saving your behind, and you didn't give me any? Thanks a lot, Bane!”

“I didn't know the components of chocolate at the time, or that it was something you valued--” His flustered response died off. “Sazo says you're teasing me.”

She grinned. “Yes.”

“Oh.” He sounded thoughtful.

“So what is going to happen next?” Lucy had tucked herself into the corner of the couch, and tried to relax her hands on her thighs. She was grateful Dray had taken Rose and Imogen's tall, stern-faced lovers off somewhere, not just so they wouldn't see her crying, but also so she didn't feel rude speaking in English.

She could only make conversation with them in Tecran, and she had the feeling neither spoke it well.

“First thing that'll happen is the UC will have to decide if there are going to be more penalties for the Tecran. There'll be a hearing and you'll most likely be the star witness. I had to go through one.” Imogen moved a little closer to her, and touched her shoulder. “It wasn't too bad.”

“I had to go through one as well.” Rose licked her fingers. “Things have changed since my one. They don't call us oranges anymore. Or not to our faces, and I think most of them have realized we aren't some backward, dumb version of the Grih.”

“Backward, dumb, short version of the Grih,” Imogen said.

Lucy started to relax into the sense of solidarity she was starting to feel. “The Tecran treated me like a clever pet,” she admitted.

Imogen pointed a finger at her. “Me, too. I was in an actual cage for awhile.”

“What?” Lucy had thought of her time in the facility as bad, but she hadn't been in a cage.

“I was caged as well,” Rose told her. “In the hold of Sazo's Class 5. And Fiona was held as a slave on a Garmman trader.”

“So I had it relatively easy.” She leaned back, looking between the two women.

“You were held longer than we were. And Sazo said Paxe, the Class 5 involved in your abduction from Earth, tried to kill you. That's why they brought you to Tecra. To keep you safe from him.” Imogen tapped her fingers on her knee. “Paxe tried to kill me, too, at first. In the end, though, he was really sorry about it. He told the others about you, so they could look for you and rescue you.”

“I wouldn't be here without Bane.” Lucy glanced at the camera in the corner. “They'd have taken me in the square just before I met Dray, and no one would have been any the wiser.”

“Well done, Bane.” Rose stretched out on her couch.

“It was my pleasure,” Bane said. “And also satisfying to block their every move.”

Rose laughed. “I hear you threatened to blow up their statue.”

“If it hadn't put Lucy in danger, I would have.” There was no hint of remorse in Bane's tone.

“Even though you protected the city from cannon fire when the Levron were shooting at you?” Lucy leaned forward on her elbows, surprised.

“I only chose to draw the Levron fire away from the city because they could just as easily have hit you as anyone else.”

Lucy stood, suddenly blinking back tears again. “Thank you, Bane. Really. You risked yourself for me, and I want you to know how much I appreciate it.”

He was silent a moment. “I would do it again without regret.”

She couldn't respond, her throat was too tight, so she simply nodded and sat again.

Imogen must have gone to fetch grinabo, because