Icarus by Stephen A. Fender Read Free Book Online Page B

don’t tell me. Your high-ranking father isn’t missing, is he?”
       The young woman gave him a dumbfounded look as she slowly shook her
head.
       “You haven’t come for my help, have you?” Shawn continued as he leaned
against the doorjamb. “You don’t need me to ferry you across the sector, free
of charge, where you’ll probably take the shirt off my back when I’m not
looking, right?”
       The young woman’s bright, violet eyes—a dead giveaway that she was
from the Knomn system—narrowed under her crisp baseball-style cap. The highly
polished Sector Command logo on its center caught the ship’s lighting in all
the wrong places, directing the glare straight into Shawn’s sensitive eyes.
“I’m fairly certain I don’t need you to rescue me, sir, and my father’s not in
the service. He’s a pastry chef.”
       Shawn stopped rubbing his face, but kept his hands poised in front of
his mouth. “Do his cakes create imminent danger for his customers, or are they
vital to the security of the Unified government?”
       She seemed to ponder the question for a moment, probably trying to
gauge whether the commander’s preposterous questions were serious or not. “Not
that I’m aware of, sir.”
       Shawn rubbed his eyes with the back of his hands and yawned wearily.
“Well then, Ensign…uh…Ensign…?”
       “McAllister, sir. Ensign Clarissa McAllister.” With that, her hand
shot forward and she grabbed Shawn in a jolting handshake. “And I’d just like
to say, sir, that it’s going to be a privilege working with you. I’ve heard so
much about you, and I can’t tell you what an honor it is to be working with a living
legend such as yourself.”
       “I had no idea I was so old.”
       She gasped in shock. “Oh…oh no, sir. That’s not what I meant. I meant
that you’ve been a hero of mine since I was a little girl. No, that didn’t
sound right, either.” She closed her eyes, getting the thoughts in her brain in
order before she spoke again. “What I mean is that you’ve been around for so
long and you’ve—”
       Shawn noticed the color of her face had gone from a mild pink to
nearly red, and he took it as a sign to intervene and save her from any further
embarrassment. “Yes, Ensign McAllister. I think I understand. What can I do for
you on this rather cold and dreary morning?”
       “Yes, sir.” She located her misplaced military bearing and snapped to
attention. “Uniforms, sir.”
       Shawn gave her a passing glance. “You look perfectly fine to me,
Ensign. Is there an inspection I’m late for?”
       “No, sir. I mean, I have your uniforms.” She reached for
something beside his door, beyond his field of view, and produced an assortment
of standard issue Unified garments in all their utter drabness. “They’ve been
tailored by the ship’s computer to your exact measurements, sir.”
       “If by ‘computer’ you mean that short-circuited excuse for a terminal
I just about put my foot through yesterday, I’d rather stitch them together
myself.”
       She cocked her head and narrowed her eyes in confusion. “I’m not
entirely sure what you mean, sir. But if you have any problems with these, just
let me know.” She jiggled the uniforms in her hand.
       “So I’ll be seeing more of you then, Ensign?”
       She smiled brightly. “Yes, sir. I’m the squadron’s maintenance and
supply officer.”
       He failed to stop his eyes from rolling. Thankfully, his eyelids were
closed too tightly for Ensign McAllister to notice. “I see.”
       She watched as he absently began scratching at his stomach. “Is there
anything I can do for you before I head to my duty station, Skipper?”
       Shawn’s eyes popped open, as if he’d only now realized he was talking
to someone. “Yes. Yes, I do need you to get me something, Supply Officer Ensign
McAllister.”
       Her face lit up with joy. Apparently, this was something for which