Page 30 of Claim
No, his distance was worse than that.Just because they’d slept together didn’t mean they were friends.
She knew that too, but she hadn’t expected it to stab quite so deep.
She crept back to the shared room.Kinsley was there, showing Adeline a list of potential purchasers who’d already expressed interest in the sung stones before the auction, just from their procession through the station.
“Sil wants to sell them as quickly as possible, while the interest is hot,” Kinsley said.“But I’m thinking the auction could get us some higher prices.Or maybe sell a few of the smaller pieces, drive up attention for the rest.”
Adeline punched at her datpad.“Teq has initial numbers on raw and processed ore.”She looked over as June passed them.“June?What’s wrong?”
Kinsley twisted to look her way.
“Nothing.Nothing’s wrong.”June sat across from them.It wasn’t really a chair, more a perching platform that could accommodate various limb structures which was about as comfortable as it sounded.“Just worried about”—it was her chance to ask their advice about Mag’s debt to that alien starfish—“everything.”
“Our sunny little optimist?Worried?”Kinsely scowled.“Shit, now I’m worried too.”
June glared at her.“Stop doing that.”
Kinsley gawped at her.“Sorry?What did I…”
“Stop calling me an optimist like that means I’m ignorant.”June winced at the way her voice got louder with each word.
Kinsley’s mouth opened wider as if she was about to yell back, then slowly closed.“Right.Sorry.I’m sorry,” she said softly.“That’s my insecurity coming through again, because I’m worried too.But I shouldn’t be forcing you to be my emotional support Earther.”
June let out a slow breath.“It’s just…hard.”
“It is,” Adeline said.“But these first numbers look good.”
“Except we’re trying to save a whole damn spaceship.”Kinsley spun the ring on her finger.The sung stone—not metal or gem, but something unique—glinted between her restless motions.“And it ain’t cheap.”
Adeline held out her hands to them.“We’ve come too far to give up now.”
When Kinsley reached out to complete their little circle, the sung stone ring pressed on June’s knuckle.The hard little knot felt like a warning that while night in space might last forever, all the parties she’d ever done—from prom nights to wedding nights—had ended.
***
Well, that wasn’t entirely true.There’d been one event she’d done that had been permanent.
As a kid, June had been voluntold to help her cousins show their 4H projects.She’d washed, brushed, and braided, and been very proud of her work on a soft-eyed steer, two Tennessee goats, and a pig which hadn’t needed braiding—only to discover that the animals were meant to be sold for slaughter.
The bawling of the animals had been matched only by her own.
The Luster auction was almost as loud and every bit as traumatic.
It wasn’t even like the 4H auction where one animal was paraded through the ring and the attendees bid.In the station’s hollow core, dozens of screens and holographic projections were hawking many items at once, and everyone was bidding simultaneously on everything from raw materials to scavenged scrap to salvaged and restored cosmic litter.All the equipment, hardware, and software for deep-space extraction work—and the weaponry to defend the work—was for sale, and even ships were available.Finished works like Sil’s sung stones were more rare, but she saw some alien antiquities of questionable provenance on offer—possibly procured during all that salvage and/or scavenging.Whether any of the aforementioned weapons were involved…
Across the core, she caught a glimpse of the crew from thePratorimand wished she had a weapon of her own.The IDA provided all its clients with credits, so maybe she had enough in her account for a little laser pistol or something.She wasn’t sure what it would take to pierce the vaguely reptilian scales of the Sauronilan pirates, but she’d consider it a continuing education credit.
The vreign of Luster Station also strolled around the core with his entourage in tow, all of them pointing out interesting offerings, and when they pointed, the flurry of credits soared.The hawking and trading was a chaos that the Dastard presided over with a smirk.Although she had to admit, he had a very nice cape.
One projection was showing the sung stones—June had heard they were paying for a time slot on the screen, and it was more than she had in her IDA account—and even the virtual version glimmered with a strangely alluring vitality.She looked around for Sil to make sure he saw it.Instead, she saw him hunching away from his brother, sheltering Kinsley—no, not sheltering, holding her back from their apex.
Nobody else seemed to notice, so June hustled toward them.After all her work, she wasn’t going to let the Luster council downvote their crew for brawling in public, amongst themselves no less.
As she approached, she heard Sil apparently soothing Kinsley.“Gently, heartsong.He didn’t mean it.”
“I meant it,” Mag growled.
Kinsley let out a gasp of outrage and yanked against Sil’s hands, but Mag’s black gaze shot past her to June.He didn’t even need a laser pistol or whatever; the look of bleak despair, though quickly shuttered, pierced her through.
