The Science Officer by Blaze Ward Read Free Book Online

safe, for now. Now he just had to avoid getting killed by crazy dragon–lady.
    Ξ
    Aft, on the flight deck, Javier decided he really liked the assault shuttle pilot. Delridge Smith was a gray–haired lunatic who favored Hawaiian print shirts and talked a mile a minute.
    The tiny flight deck of the assault shuttle, separated from the aft section by a seriously–sturdy airlock, was decorated like a Merankorr brothel, all pinks and pastels, with Terran Caribbean music playing quietly in the background. Javier watched as the man completed a very detailed and thorough pre–flight check, literally touching everything as he went, talking to himself under his breath the whole time.
    Javier felt safer just watching.
    He felt Sykora arrive.
    He still felt safe. Maybe.
    She was wearing field gear, so light on armor and long on camouflage patterns that slowly moved as he stared. It kinda looked like bread baking, the slow bubbling effect as dots and stripes evolved. He wasn’t sure if it was going to make him motion sick if he stared long enough.
    Sykora was armed to the teeth, with a knife, a pistol on her hip, another knife, a second pistol in a shoulder rig, and a big, nasty battlerifle slung on her back. He had known street gangs less well armed. Of course, most of them were less dangerous than this woman.
    She was also carrying a familiar–looking backpack. His. She walked up and handed it to him with a simple “Here.”
    Javier flipped it open and looked inside. Everything was generally in place. He smiled up at her. “Thanks for repacking it cleanly. I told you the only firearm I owned was the pistol in my cabin.”
    She shrugged. “It was still necessary to confirm.” Her eyes conveyed a certain level of distaste, but that might be for someone who didn’t own enough weapons to impress her.
    He decided to ask, anyway. “Any chance I could get it back, since we’re going down onto the surface of a potentially hostile planet?” He even tried to sound charming.
    She smiled at him in the way grown–ups do with rambunctious eight–year–olds. “You’ll have me,” she said serenely. “I’ll protect you from the bad men.”
    Javier was pretty sure Gandhi would have lacked the willpower not to roll his eyes at that one. He wasn’t Gandhi, so he did. And then pulled out his sensor remote and toggled the settings to confirm everything was ready to go.
    She leaned over his shoulder to look. “What is that?” she said, at least trying to sound nice.
    He glanced sidelong, and up, at her, close enough to kiss, or bite. Decisions, decisions. “Short–range airborne autonomous remote,” he said as he pulled it out of the pack. It looked like a knobby, gray, grapefruit.
    Javier flipped the power on and gave it a soft toss in the air, like a beachball. It hovered about a meter over his head, rotated a few times as it mapped the flight deck, and began a slow orbit of the space.
    Javier pulled the matching portable computer from the bag and powered up the relay controls. The room was mapped in visual, ultrasound, radar, and infrared, with a stack of dials and gauges giving him various readings on people and equipment.
    Sykora eyed it professionally. “Is that thing armed?” Of course. Trust the killer to go there immediately. Still, a two–meter–tall wall of professional paranoia between him and bad things planetside wasn’t necessarily the worst idea he’d had today.
    “Not this model,” Javier pushed the recall and watched it settle lightly into his open palm. “I rarely set down on a planet without scanning it hard to begin with, so I know where the dangerous carnivores are, usually. This is mostly for working in tight quarters, like cave systems.”
    She was still an expert. “Or wrecked starships,” she said, already adjusting her tactical planning. Scary. Good, but scary.
    The pilot rescued him from any further comments as he wandered over. “Any time you’re ready, Sykora,” he said. “Gonna man the