Home Front (Star Kingdom #7) - Lindsay Buroker Page 0,72

wasn’t likely that she or Finn would ever end up in charge of anything. By the time Jorg passed away, he’d have adult children of his own who would be next in line for the throne.

Maddie didn’t move out of Finn’s way, and his shoulder bumped hers. She was an inch taller than he and probably had more muscle, despite being thirty years older.

He glowered at her. “When I am in charge, you will learn your place, bodyguard.”

He stalked out, slamming the door behind him.

“When he’s temporarily in charge of the planet?” Maddie wondered. “Or is he hinting that he has more nefarious plans?”

“I think all of his plans are nefarious, but don’t worry. He’s not going to do anything to you. If the world goes mad, and he somehow ends up in charge of the Kingdom, we’ll take a ship to another system and start a new life out there.”

“Out there is full of weird people.” Maddie looked more glum than excited by the prospect of leaving Odin.

“There are plenty of weird people here in Zamek City. But good people too.” There was a heavy knot in Oku’s stomach, and she didn’t feel like eating, but she took one of the treats to be convivial and offered the tray to Maddie. “Cookie?”

“I was hoping Finn would accidentally eat the dog treats,” Maddie admitted, taking a cookie.

“Chasca wasn’t going to allow that to happen.” Remembering that her dog had stolen the bag of treats, Oku went over to check on her.

Chasca was sitting daintily in a Sphinx pose, the neatly unwrapped bag and untied ribbon between her legs as she snuffled up the crumbs that were all that remained of the treats.

Oku recorded a few seconds of the scene to include with the rambling message of politics and war updates that she’d composed for Casmir. Mentioning that Chasca liked his mother’s baking and was a fan of anise would be a cheerier way to end her note. She hoped System Stymphalia would fix its gate and it would reach him soon.

Yas was eating breakfast when Jess commed and asked him to come to the bridge with burn ointment. When he arrived, he found her on the deck on her back with her head and shoulders inside an open panel under a console. A big, ugly dented blue box rested beside her, wires snaking out of it. Nearby, Rache leaned his hip against the console, his arms folded over his chest.

“Someone called for a doctor?” Yas asked.

“Down here.” Jess stuck her hand in the air in a semblance of a rude gesture, but that was probably accidental. Her fingers were splotchy and red and already starting to swell.

“Ouch.” Yas sat on the deck next to her and opened his medical kit. “Do you want to come out of there?”

“I’m not sure it’s allowed. I was told this is a priority.”

Yas looked up at Rache, prepared to making biting comments about him working his people to the bone, but Rache flicked his fingers in what looked like permission for Jess to take a break. With her head under the console, she didn’t see it, so Yas translated.

“He said you can come out, the better to receive and respond well to my excellent care.”

“I’m positive he didn’t say that.”

“He flicked two fingers. I translated.”

“With flair.”

“Doctors are known for flair.”

Jess scooted out, grimacing and refraining from putting her hand on the deck. “This is a piece of crap, sir.”

“I understand it’s an expensive prototype that costs more than a combat shuttle.”

“That was before we blew it up.”

“Blew it up?” Yas examined her hand with his diagnostic scanner, hoping it was a simple burn and the electricity hadn’t done damage beyond the skin.

“After we sent the virus to the ships attacking the Chivalrous,” Rache said, “three out of four lost power immediately. The fourth didn’t take the bait, and we had to battle it straight out.”

Yas nodded. He’d been in sickbay during the fight, but he’d caught the gist of it from others and from ship-wide announcements.

“Somewhat straight out,” Rache corrected. “Because it had a slydar hull, there was a lot of guessing about where to shoot based on Amergin pinpointing their frantic comm signals. Interestingly, it not only had no trouble accurately shooting us, despite our lack of frantic comm calls, but it fired first. Well before we were close enough that their scanners should have detected us. Thus I guessed that they had one of these new slydar detectors. I sent a team