The Desert of Stars (The Human Reach) by John Lumpkin Read Free Book Online Page B

things out. He
has some depth. I wonder what’s in there.
    She had approached him the following Friday evening during
the junior officers’ social hour, both surveying and marking him before any of
the other young women aboard could take their shot. She learned he was mooning
over another Space Force officer from his previous assignment, a
difficult-sounding woman who was now light years away, at the GJ 1105 blockade. An obstacle to overcome. The following Friday, their weekly alcohol
ration quickly consumed, she made a suggestion in a low, husky voice. He
actually blushed! It hadn’t happened that night – he had hesitated, worried he
had misunderstood or was being pranked by his new shipmates – and she didn’t
press him, wondering if she had misjudged his preferences. But she caught him
stealing glances at her for the remainder of the social hour, and she knew he
would consent. The next week they did the same dance, and he didn’t hesitate.
    For Neil, it was a strange time. He hadn’t been looking for
a relationship when he came aboard, and the near-effortless entry into one with
Jessica had left him feeling a little dazed over his good fortune. They made
each other laugh, and he found her easy clarity in her sense of right and wrong
something he wanted to be near.
    And the sex: It was frequent and pleasant if usually quick
and purposeful, a half-undressed encounter with one eye on the nearest hatch.
Privacy is in short supply on a warship; it was impossible to predict when
one’s roommate or another officer might stop by, leading to hurried encounters.
But it was fun all the same, and different. Neil’s only prior partner was a college
girlfriend with whom such intimacy had been rare, an event that might take
place after a long evening of decoding her mood and saying the right things at
the right time. And he had never been so close with Erin Quintana, his
not-quite-lover from his previous assignment, the San Jacinto , and he had
distanced himself from her after deciding she would have disapproved of his
role in a professionally questionable, if ethically correct, act.
    It didn’t occur to him that he hadn’t felt the need to
discuss that act – passing some information to an NSS spy who wasn’t cleared
for it – with Jessica. With her, he felt a kind of relief he had not felt
before. His dreams became markedly less erotic, and he found he could focus on
his work with a new clarity. But he worked less: His job not quite as
important; he still carried out his tasks, but when his shift was over, he
rarely stayed late, to, say, read less-immediate political intelligence or news
reports, opting instead to spend his free time with Jessica.
    So it took some effort for him to will his thoughts away
from her to the mission at hand: to root around the wreckage of the Gan Ying and find secrets worth stealing. This wouldn’t be a deep investigation of the weapons
or construction of the ship; if the admirals at Space Command deemed it
worthwhile, they would send a tug to tow the hulk to a space station for such
work. Instead, Neil and Apache ’s senior system tech were to raid the
computers for time-sensitive information: fleet and personnel movements, codes,
plans. It was likely they had been wiped, but here and there some fragments of
data might still be intact in the ship’s memory.
    Unlike warships, intership jumpers had windows, so Neil
actually saw Gan Ying growing larger as he watched from the pilot’s cabin.
He sat behind the pilot and Apache’ s assistant engineer, who had been
brought along to determine that the jumper’s chosen docking site was safe. Neil
reflected that there was some risk in this mission – the Gan Ying was
breached in several locations, and an inattentive collision with some wreckage
could cause a ripped skinsuit or bulkhead collapse. It was also possible, if
unlikely, given the extent of the damage, that some armed survivors lingered on
board. Apache ’s tiny Marine detachment was