Starcrossed - Bianca D'Arc Page 0,7
across a field of battle. Each member of my group is a volunteer, chosen from among hundreds, especially for this mission.”
Michael seemed to look over the small group of warriors with an assessing eye. “All who come in peace are welcome at my table, Emperor Tigh, and Captain Starbridge will be there. She’s part of my staff, right now, between ships, as it were.”
Neatly maneuvered into spending more time with this strange, upsetting man, Ginny had no choice but to comply.
CHAPTER TWO
“Is the future empress taking calls?” Ginny heard her mother’s teasing voice coming from the com panel located in the main room of her cabin. She’d just finished her duty shift and dreaded what came next. Apparently, the first in the long line of humiliating events to come was a call from her mother.
Janet Kerlew-Starbridge was normally the best of mothers, but when it came to her daughter’s personal life—or lack thereof—she was like a dog with a bone. It didn’t help that Ginny was embarrassed beyond belief to discuss certain things with her mom. Ginny took after her father. He was more sedate and reticent while her mother was outgoing and emotional. She saw the universe differently and had a vastly opposing opinion of how Ginny should run her personal life.
For one thing, after Ginny’s brief engagement ended, her mother had counseled her to get on with her life, but she just couldn’t move on so quickly. The argument had been a sore point between mother and daughter until the plague made them forget their petty quarrel. For another, Ginny’s mother didn’t understand her daughter’s desire to join the military. A trained nurse, Janet Starbridge couldn’t comprehend Ginny’s need for revenge or her desire to defend and protect the rest of humanity against the continued jit threat. Yet, they loved each other deeply and spoke often, even though Janet Starbridge lived on-planet, and when Ginny wasn’t onboard her ship, she had a compartment in the Bachelor Officers Quarters, BOQ for short, on-station.
Ginny sighed and threw her uniform jacket toward the couch, hitting the button on the small private com unit that would answer her mother’s planetside call. She had to get this over with sooner or later.
“I’m here, Mom. And I’m not the future empress. Not yet, anyway,” she grumbled.
“Could have fooled me. That man laid a kiss on you the likes of which I have never seen.” Janet Starbridge made a fanning motion in front of her still-young face on the viewer with long, elegant fingers. She looked a lot like her daughter but wore pale pastel colors and floaty fabrics while Ginny actually preferred the starch and starkness of her dark uniform. “Does he kiss as good as he looks?”
Ginny huffed as she tugged off her shoes and propped her aching feet on the table that fronted the couch. “I won’t dignify that with an answer.”
“That good, huh?” Janet chuckled. “So, what are you going to do? Are you tempted to say yes and become the empress of all you survey?”
Ginny squeezed her eyes tightly shut. “I just don’t know.”
“Oh, sweetheart.” Her mother’s voice dipped to comforting tones. “You could be an instrument of peace. But can you forgive them—forgive him—for what those people have done to us? I don’t envy you this choice.”
“I’m supposed to be having dinner with him tonight. With the commandant and all his staff too, but I can just bet they’re going to seat me right next to the emperor.”
Her mother shrugged her elegant shoulders. “What can it hurt to get to know the man? It’s not every day one dines with an emperor, after all.”
Ginny kept her mother’s words in mind when, as predicted, she was seated directly next to Emperor Tigh at Michael Amber’s formal dining table. The rest of his command staff was present, including his wife, Colonel Leah Blackfoot-Amber, though Ginny sorely missed her own bridge crew. The command staff was a friendly bunch, but because Ginny was often out in the field with her ship, she didn’t know many of them very well. And she definitely didn’t have the close relationship with any of them that she had with her loyal crew. The core of her ship’s crew was waiting, with her, for their new assignment. They were on-station as well, but not high-ranking enough to be included in this exclusive company. Darn the luck.
Tigh had no such problem. He’d brought quite a few of his men with him to the dinner, including the kindly-looking older