Forged (Star Breed #10) - Elin Wyn Page 0,5

moment, I realized what she meant, and pulled out the access card Serrup had handed me. She waved it above the screen and the total zeroed out, blinking green.

“Perfect,” she breathed. For a moment, the intensity in her eyes took me aback, but then she blinked, and the strange look was gone. “Here, let me show you what’s good. If you’re still hungry, you can try the rest of it.” She shook her head. “If you really want to.”

“I should probably take that back,” I said, and slipped the card back in my pocket.

In the end, I ordered anything that made her eyes light up. Not exactly as much as the previous order had been, but maybe I didn’t really want a double order of perrs rado, given the way Yasmin’s nose wrinkled at the thought.

The replicator dinged and slid open to reveal a tray filled with bowls of steaming… something.

“I’ll get this,” I grabbed it. “You lead on, find a table in this mess.”

All we could find was an unoccupied booth in the corner under one of the arches.

“Thank you for the meal. Will your legs fit under the table?” she asked, running her eyes up and down my frame.

“Probably,” I grumbled, wedging myself in. “If not, I’ll find someone to volunteer theirs.”

I took a bite of everything, but made sure to push the small bowls back closer to her side of the table. If my food was free, I’d bet hers wasn’t.

“So how come so many people are here? Shouldn’t they be working or something?”

Yasmin shrugged, swallowed another bite of the spicy vegetables. “Shifts run around the clock,” she answered. “A lot of people do their minimum hours, then don’t worry about it. Not my style, but I don’t have to worry about anyone but me. I want to get my hours in, take on as few debits against them as possible, and get out of here.”

Interesting. I thought about it. Not exactly slaves, more like indentured contracts, with the odds stacked high against ever completing them.

That was more than Alcyon would have told me.

“There’s got to be more to the station than fabrication labs and this.”

She leaned back, hands over her stomach. “For that meal, I’ll even show you my favorite place on the station.” She gathered the empty bowls onto the tray and waited for me. “Come on, I think you’ll like it.”

In the turbo lift, I took a moment to study her. She was interesting. Obviously smart or she wouldn’t have caught the design defect I’d deliberately introduced into the file.

But there was something hidden behind that careful smile.

The lift paused in its glide, changing directions from horizontal to vertical as it carried us through the station.

I shifted my weight as the faint scent of pholla trees tickled my nose.

“Anything wrong?” she asked, a slight crease between her dark brows.

“Nothing at all.” Must have been something else. I’d only seen pholla trees on one mission, about as far from the Areitis Sector as I could imagine.

It’d been years ago, but the sweet, clean scent was unmistakable.

And impossible.

The minutes ticked by in the lift. “Where are we going?” I asked. “Seems like there shouldn’t be much this far from the central hub.”

“All the way to the bottom,” she said. “Are you afraid of heights?”

Definitely interesting.

The door slid open and we approached a heavily secured hatch. “Through there?”

“Not a chance,” she answered. “Secondary control room. I’m not certain even your card would get you inside.” Her eyes flicked to the card reader, considering. “No, the observation dome is just this way.”

As we walked, I could feel the slightest pressure in my inner ear as the deck’s artificial gravity adjusted to keep us upright, even though from my memory of what the hub had looked like, we were pointed down.

Relatively.

“Here we are,” she said and swiped open a door with her own card.

The dome before us was clear plexi, filled with the swirling, muted pastels of the gas giant below.

Chairs were scattered through the room, all turned to face the breathtaking spectacle.

But no one was there but us.

Yasmin stood still, transfixed by the sight. “That’s Tocarth 5. No matter how many times I’ve come down here and watched it, I’ve never understood why they put this here,” she finally said, voice soft and wondering. “It doesn’t do anyone any good, doesn’t make a profit.” She shrugged, rubbing her upper arm. “Maybe the station architect decided there should be one thing of beauty in this place.”

She stepped closer to