“You should go get some rest while you can,” Alys encouraged in a soft voice. “Make sure your wife gets something to eat and plenty of water. Maybe a shower, too. Definitely a nap.” She gazed down at Liron as he slept. “I’m happy to stay as long as you three need me.”
“Thank you, Alys.” Terror lovingly touched his son’s feathery dark hair. “Please, make yourself at home.”
“Don’t worry about me.” She waved him off. “Go tend to your wife.”
Terror retreated to the bedroom and shut the door. Alys kept walking and rocking Liron for another half or so. When she was sure he was good and asleep, she moved one of the deep, wide chairs in the parlor and arranged herself comfortably. Liron seemed happy to nap on her bosom. Not for the first time, she wondered if she had been built for this sort of thing.
It wasn’t hard to imagine someday holding a baby just like this one. Would her baby with Swift have dark hair like her or pale blond like him? Blue eyes? Green? Brown? Without a doubt, their baby would be big.
She had always regarded childbirth with fear, but up here, she felt that fear lessening. Swift would ensure she had the best medical care available. He wouldn’t leave the house as soon as her pains started and drink in the barn like her father always did. He wouldn’t grumble about another daughter or blame her if something went wrong. He might even want to be in the room, holding her hand as she gave birth to their first son or daughter.
There were still so many things they needed to discuss. It wasn’t going to be easy to compromise. Learning to accept his past and understand the different values and morals of his people would be difficult. It was going to be a lot of hard work to make their marriage a good one.
But the life they wanted together was worth it.
Chapter Fourteen
“You finished with that navigational chart?” Swift glanced at his watch before taking another bite of the nutritional bar. The ship they were currently flying on their secret mission wasn’t stocked with anything fresh. It was nothing but meal replacement bars and boxed drinks. After getting used to Alys’ incredible cooking, this was pure torture.
“I don’t understand what the point of this exercise is,” Drift replied, his voice carrying his frustration as he raced against the clock to complete the chart Swift had assigned. His stylus moved across the tablet screen with haste, and Swift hoped the kid wasn’t skipping any steps.
“The point is that sometimes shit breaks on these ships,” Hazard interjected as he dug through the cabinets in the ship’s mess. “And it always breaks at the worst time. Usually when we’re taking fire or about to be sucked into a black hole or facing a cloud of asteroid fragments.”
“Third shelf, in the back,” Swift said, knowing Hazard was looking for his favorite flavor of drink.
Hazard made a triumphant sound as he located the green boxes filled with sour juice that no one else liked. “I was worried they hadn’t restocked the ship with any of these.”
“I’m shocked they keep making them,” Swift replied. “I haven’t ever seen anyone but you drink it.”
“Finished!” Drift announced and flashed his tablet for inspection.
Swift glanced at his watch. “You’ve got to get quicker.”
Hazard grabbed the tablet and inspected it. “Your calculations are off.”
“What? How?” Drift snatched the tablet back and frowned at his work.
Swift moved around the table and leaned over Drift’s shoulder. He spotted the problem almost immediately and pointed it out to Drift who slumped forward in defeat. Not wanting the kid to lose his confidence, he said, “You’re supposed to mess these up, Drift. We want you to screw up now when it doesn’t matter. We want you to learn from your mistakes.”
“Yes, sir.” Drift returned to his calculations with renewed purpose.
“You headed to your bunk?” Hazard stabbed his juice box with the tip of the pocket knife he carried everywhere. Apparently, opening the box correctly took too much time.
“Yeah.” Swift had finished an eight-hour shift in the cockpit and was due for his rest period. If their bio sensors didn’t register a complete rest cycle, the cockpit and controls would lock them out unless an override code was entered. It was meant to prevent unsafe flying, but in battle situations, it was a pain in the ass. “I’m going to finish up here first.”
“I’m heading back to the cockpit.” Hazard drained the last of his juice box with big gulps like some oversized toddler. When he was done, he tossed the box into the recycling receptacle. “Rigel makes me squirrely behind the controls.”
“Why?” Drift asked after Hazard had left them alone in the mess.
“Why what?” Swift dropped down onto the bench across Drift.
“Why does Rigel make him squirrely?”
“Oh. That. Years ago, when he was barely out of the Academy, Rigel had a weird reaction to a vaccination and passed out at the controls during planet re-entry. Hazard was asleep in his bunk and got thrown out of it. The pilot overseeing Rigel hit his head on the dash and knocked himself out cold. Hazard managed to get into the cockpit with seconds to spare and saved the flight.”
Drift’s jaw dropped. “Should he be flying alone?”
“It was a long time ago.”
“Yeah, but—.”
“We have much better autopilot tech these days.”
“Okay, but—.”
“You’re welcome to go shadow him in the cockpit.” Swift gestured to the tablet. “After you finish that chart.”
“Yes, sir.”
Swift finished his meal replacement bar and drink and threw away the trash. Drift completed his chart correctly this time, and Swift signed off on the assignment. The kid left for the cockpit, and Swift returned to his bunk to rest.
Alone in his cramped quarters, he stripped down to his undershirt and boxers and climbed into the hard bed. Immediately, he missed Alys. Was she sleeping now? Was she in bed thinking of him? Or was she already with Hallie at their planned lunch? Time was difficult to keep when they were dropping in and out of hyperdrive to avoid detection.
Swift had never been the type of man who shirked his duties, but he would have given anything to be back on the Valiant with Alys. Boring patrol flights would have been preferable to this. He usually loved these kinds of highly dynamic Shadow Force ops, but that was before Alys.
Awake in the dark, he stared at the ceiling. The hum of the hyperdrive engine and the slight vibration of the ship usually lulled him to sleep. Not tonight. His mind raced as he considered all the ways this operation could go bad.
Shadow Force had tracked one of the chips of the missing pilots to a shipping lane in a far quadrant of the sector. A passing satellite had taken images of an abandoned ship, anchored in the lane by its autopilot. The satellite scan had shown no signs of life within the ship. It was a mystery that Shadow Force wanted solved.
Grim was the lead Shadow Force operative and had brought Lethal, Clash and Fury along as his team. Swift still wasn’t sure why Grim had requested him as the lead pilot for the mission. Hazard and Rigel were more than qualified and had plenty of experience on Shadow Force ops.
Of course, Swift was the best pilot in this sector, and that wasn’t arrogance talking. That was proven fact based on his flight record. Only Zephyr came close to beating him. Swift would have put Hazard in that first slot. Unfortunately for Hazard, he had a little problem with authority. As skilled as he was and as many missions as he had flown, Hazard should have been in the direct pipeline to the admiralty. Sometimes Swift suspected Hazard pulled his stunts to avoid being placed on the leadership tract.