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“Get away from her,” said a familiar voice from the doorway. It would have scared the crap out of me if I wasn’t pretty scared already.
Neptune.
The men who held me in place dropped my arms. I was still thrashing about, and the sudden freedom from their grip sent me off-kilter and into Beryn. His spectrometer sent an electrical pulse through my arm. I jerked with a reactive spasm and fell.
“She doesn’t belong here,” Beryn said after glancing at the reading.
Neptune turned to Beryn and put his giant hand on the communication’s officer’s throat. He pushed him back through the crowd until Beryn was up against the food machines. “She’s my responsibility,” Neptune said. He yanked the spectrometer out of Beryn’s hands. Neptune grabbed my arm and pulled me off the floor, stumbling out of the cafeteria behind him. Neither one of us spoke until he had me back in my quarters.
“What was that about?” he asked. He looked angry.
“You. This.” I thrust my arm out in front of me to remind him of the bracelet. “Is this thing ever coming off?”
He raised his arm like he was checking the time on his watch, spun the dial counterclockwise and pressed a small, flat button. The bracelet clicked open and fell onto the floor, narrowly missing my toe. I pulled my foot back and then bent down and grabbed the bracelet and shoved it into Neptune’s open hand. “Did you revoke my clearance?”
“Clearance for what?”
“For everything! I wanted to get breakfast before starting my shift, and my card didn’t work. How come? I called the bridge when I found a body in my ward. And I helped save the life of two members of the engineering crew. Everything I’ve done since I arrived has been for the good of the ship, and you know it.” I poked my index finger into his massive chest to punctuate the you-know-it. I wanted to storm away from him, but we were in my quarters, and the only place to go was the other side of the room. I crossed the small area and picked the pillow up from the floor. Cat rolled into a half circle and meowed at Neptune.
His expression changed from anger to surprise. Both eyebrows all but jumped from down low over his eyes to up high, causing a series of creases to appear on his forehead. Moments later, his normally stern expression dropped back into place.
“I don’t know how you know the BOP. I don’t know how you knew where the holding cell was. I don’t know how you got credentials to be on this ship in the first place. What I do know is that your skill set makes you valuable to me.”
“We covered that when you blackmailed me. Did anybody ever tell you you’re a jerk?”
“I’m the jerk who just saved you from a Martian lynching in the cafeteria.” He tapped the spectrometer he’d taken from Beryn. “This equipment is about to malfunction. If it had operated as expected, your spectrometer reading would have gotten you banished to the same prison where your dad is incarcerated. Or is that what you want?”
“No,” I said somewhat stubbornly.
“Then take this.” He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a flat disc. Even from a few feet away, I could tell it was my ID card.
“You stole my ID card? The one I had was fake?” I glared at him. “Is that why mine didn’t work in the machines?”
“It wasn’t a fake. I had it deactivated. I thought I’d get to you before you used your old card. I’m giving you a new set of credentials that put you under the security section. I pulled your background, and that’s where you belong.”
“Why? Why protect me? Why make it look like I belong twenty-four hours after you arrested me?”
“We’ve had too much trouble since departing. Federation Council is sending a representative. I need to know if it’s coincidence that they sent us the one person who recused himself from the vote to banish your father.”
Neptune all but admitted he knew the history between Vaan and me. Great. Now there would be no pretending we were strangers.
“Next time you want to know something about me, try asking. There’s no need to use the ship’s computer for background checks on half-breed daughters of criminals.”
He slapped the new ID card on the table. “I expect to see you in security section by Zulu Seven. Make sure you’re wearing the right uniform.” He turned around and left.
I waited until the doors swished shut behind Neptune to look at my new identification card. It had the same picture as my old one. To the right of my picture was my name, and under that were the words “Security Section.” I flipped the card over. On the back was the magnetic strip that activated the vending machines, along with a small gold chip that gave me additional classifications. It was heavier than my old ID. According to what I’d learned while studying about the Moon Unit, only crew members with senior clearance had cards with chips. General ID cards were disposable and deactivated between flights.
Well, well. Neptune was still a jerk, but he was a jerk who had given me senior level clearance.
I put my pillow on the bed and put Cat on the pillow. Time to go to the uniform ward and change my outfit—and sneak one of the protein bars I’d hidden in the cabinet next to the BOP.
The morning encounters in the cafeteria had left me feeling self-conscious. It was one thing to have trouble with my ID card. It was quite another to be called names and surrounded by fellow crew members who appeared ready to turn me in. The trip to the moon was going to be a lonely one if I didn’t make some friends. At the rate I was going, things were looking bleak.
The uniform ward was how I’d left it. Closet doors open, garments spilling out onto the floor. Neptune had told D’Nar that he’d take over the uniform ward duties, but he’d left it a mess. If the responsibility was still linked to me, I didn’t want to leave things like they were. I located the key for the higher command level uniforms, found my size (black with gold collar and insignia) and set it on the counter next to the button that hailed the bridge. I repacked the closet. When I finished, I closed and locked the cabinet doors, and started to change.
I unzipped my magenta uniform and stepped out of it, tossing it onto the floor. I laid the black and gold uniform in front of me and undid the zipper down the back. The doors opened, and two men walked in. Too late to pull on the uniform, I grabbed it and held it up to conceal my mostly naked body.
The effort was pointless. Captain Thaddeus Swift was too much of a gentleman to comment on my inappropriate attire, and Vaan Marshall, the captain’s companion, had already seen it.