Page 2 of Elanie & the Empath
Tig flinched.
Raising his hands, Morgath said, “Whoa. Chill.”
“No, I will notchill, Morgath. You’re all staring at me. Why?”
“We were, uh, just noticing how nice you look today,” Rax stammered. “That’s a pretty sweater. It’s…fuzzy.”
I glanced down at my plain black sweater, baffled. “Fuzzy?”
Rax blushed, his cheeks turning purple. “It looks soft. Delicate.” He cleared his throat. “Luxurious.”
Morgath shook his head at his brother and muttered, “Nailed it, dingus.”
“You’re the dingus,” Rax muttered back, sinking into his chair while Morgath snorted.
Silence enveloped the room, all eyes still on me. Deciding that I was, in fact, hungry, I swiped a frog macaron from the tray with bionic speed, and abruptly bit off its head.
With a more than mildly concerned expression, Sunny slid a steaming cup of tea across the table toward me. she commed.
I shot back.
she soothed, nudging the tea closer.
And because it smelled good, sweet and herbal, I took a sip. When Sunny grinned at me like a proud parent, I set the tea down with aclank, picked up my frog, and bit it in half.
“So,” Chan began, readjusting his position in his hoverchair. “Where is everyone placing their focus today?”
Tucking a strand of pink hair behind her ear, Tig said, “I’m installing that firewall upgrade on the gravity simulator.”
“Fantastic,” Chan said. “I’m sure those Delphinian hackers had a blast at their null-grav dance party, but we can’t have our guests waking up bumping into their ceilings.” He shook his head. “This prank was even worse than the time they reprogrammed all the ship’s holos to resemble cats during Vorp’s Winter Revel.”
“Don’t forget the time they hacked all the toilets so they sighed and moaned when guests sat on them,” Sunny added with a raised finger. “That one was actually fairly popular, if I remember correctly.”
Freddie laughed. “I’m almost sorry I missed it.”
Next, the twins detailed their plans to run diagnostics on all the pleasure pods throughout the ship and decommission some of our older models.
When I finished informing the crew that I’d be adjusting the humidity settings in the deck five ballroom for Gorbulon-7’s Swamposium conference, Sunny commed,
I commed back, wondering how many times I’d uttered those two words in the last few months.Wondering why I felt sonotfine. Wondering if I’d ever feel fine again.
she asked, not believing me.
Sunny would know. She’d kept the loss of her son from everyone on the ship for years, and it had nearly made her miss out on the life she now had with Freddie. The life that had inspired me to install the damn upgrade in the first place. The life I was pretty sure I wasnoton my way to having with Blake.
I admitted, prying the legs from my frog and dropping them onto my plate one by one.
While Chan asked Tig to check the humor settings on the lido deck serving drones after several guests lodged complaints about them makingyour momjokes during brunch, Sunny asked,
I waited while Sunny took her turn, informing the crew of the high-profile guests planning to arrive this week: a New Earth Space Administration flight director and his wife, a wedding party from Argos, and some bigwig Royal from the twin planets of the Aquilines.
Once she finished up, I commed,
Her head whipped around so violently the sharp points of her blond bangs swung in front of her eyes.
I repeated.
Her head tilted, eyes narrowing.
