Bad choices by overconfident maverick Dani Novak left a fellow marine dead and Dani cooling her heels in jail for five years. Now she’s out, with few prospects and fewer friends. Dani’s ex-commanding officer, Petra Hawkins, leader of the military contractor the Hawkins Free Company, offers Dani a job on her ship, the Persephone, after a chance meeting on the Red Palace space station. Petra still believes Dani has the potential to regain some of what she lost, still believes she let Dani down before, and now believes she has a duty to help her.
As the lowest ranking crewperson on the Persephone, with her history of a court-martial and jail, Dani faces distrust and suspicion from the company’s squad of marines and the ship’s officers. But after seeing the squad in action, Dani knows she wants to become a marine again, and Petra agrees to train her. What looks like an easy escort mission gives Dani and Petra lot of time to work together on Dani’s fitness, and to wrestle with feelings they’ve repressed for a long time.
“How’s it looking in here?” Petra asked.
Dani, busy scrubbing the galley of the Cut Above, looked up when Petra came in. She wiped her sweaty forehead with a soapy arm.
“Grimy, but no bugs or vermin.” Dani said, turning back to scrubbing the stove. In a moment Petra appeared at her side, wearing one of the aprons Dani had found in a closet, carrying another scrubbing brush. She got to work on the dirty counter beside the stove.
“The prisoners are all snug in the brig,” Petra said. “Engineering is bringing over some reactor fuel to get this tub back to full power for the trip home.”
“You not going to keep it docked, or tow it?” Dani said. Petra shook her head.
“I never like doing that. It leaves the Persephone less maneuverable and if something sneaks up on us, we risk losing the Cut Above if we have to cut it loose. I’d rather have it crewed and moving under its own power.”
“So you’ll be putting a prize crew aboard?”
“Yes. That’s what I wanted to talk to you about.”
Dani looked at her with surprise, guessing what she was about to say. “Me?”
“Yes, I’d like to assign you to it. Primarily to run the galley.”
“I’m not rated to cook,” Dani pointed out.
“Sam and Louis are putting together some bulk dishes for you to chuck in the oven. The rest of the crew will help out -- though they’ll probably leave you to do the cleaning on your own.” She smiled, a slightly nervous smile that was strange on her. A woman rarely known for being nervous.
“Cleaning I can do for sure.” Dani showed off the currently soaked apron she wore. Petra looked at her and looked away again quickly. Was she thinking about whether Dani was soaked right through to her skin with the warm soapy water, her shirt clinging to her? “Who else is coming aboard?”
“Systems Chief Diehl will be in command. She’ll be working on extracting whatever data we can get out of their systems before we drop the ship off. The rest will be one of the engineering assistants, one of the field medics, and Corporal Cordova.”
Dani wouldn’t say her heart sank at that. Cordova hadn’t been picking on her, like some of the others, but she was still cold with Dani.
“I’ll clean out five cabins,” Dani said.
“Cordova and Diehl will share,” Petra said. “Clean out a larger one for them.”
“Really? Okay.” Dani hadn’t picked up on that particular pairing. Diehl was a smaller than average woman, ex-military, but definitely starship only material. She had delicate features, small hands and feet. Between her and Cordova they probably averaged out to two typical-sized people. Dani had to wonder if Petra had put them on the prize crew so they could share a room for a couple of weeks.
They moved on to scrubbing the tables, after refilling the bucket with hot water. It felt good to be working alongside Petra, even if it was something so mundane as scrubbing out a galley.
“I followed the comms from the mission,” Dani said as they worked. “Back on the ship. I, ah, took Chief Cross some coffee to the bridge and she let me stay, to monitor the sensors.”
“Unusually sweet of her,” Petra said.
“My charm still works,” Dani said, teasing, grinning. “It reminded me of ... well hell, of so many boarding actions we did together.”
“Um, sure, yes, me too.”
She’d ached as she’d listened. Ached with memories, ached with a longing to be there, and ached with anxiety for Petra. For the whole squad, even the ones who didn’t like her. But mostly for Petra.
“I bet the pirates were impressed to be caught by the famous Captain Hawk,” Dani said.
Petra rolled her eyes. “I swear one day I’ll change my name to Jones or something.”
“Why not lean in? Change it to Hawk. You’ve been Captain Hawk for as long as I’ve known you. I’m sure half the squad back in the day thought that was your real name.”
“Maybe I should. Then I’ll get myself a falcon and train it to sit on my shoulder.”
“And sic it on any pirates that give you any backchat.”
Petra laughed then glanced at the clock on the wall and dropped her scrubbing brush in the bucket. “Okay, I’ve got things to do. We’ll be uncoupling in about three hours, so make sure to grab anything you need from the Persephone before then.”
Petra left and Dani went on scrubbing. She’d finish this, go get her stuff then find the four least crufty cabins to clean out for the prize crew. Prize. It was an old term, for a captured or salvaged ship, and it had long entitled the crew that brought it in to a share in the proceeds of the ship or cargo when it was sold. Petra hadn’t mentioned that though, so Dani doubted it applied to her. That would likely cause resentment among the rest of the Persephone’s crew anyway. So why put Dani on the Cut Above if it wasn’t to give her some extra money? Was it to give Petra a break from Dani? Had she started to regret bringing her aboard, and being forced to see her face every day? Too many painful old memories. Or something else?
Temptation ...
