Stephanie Vaughan

Excerpt: "Off World 3: Redemption"

"What the hell's he doing here?"

Kai Xuwicha looked up from his notebook and its list of pre-launch
tasks at the ship's chief engineer, not at all fooled by the man's
quiet tone or calm demeanor. Kai was responsible for making sure
the thousand and one details that needed checking before the
Vigilant could launch got checked, but D'abu didn't look like he could
wait.

"Who are we talking about?" Kai didn't think there could be much
doubt, but it never hurt to make sure.

"That fucking little weasel Andrade, that's who. Don't dick with me,
Kai. Not about this. What's he doing on board?"

Sandy D'abu was big - easily two meters tall close to a hundred kilos
in weight - and every bit of it was keyed up and ready to pound
something. Nick Andrade's face for starters, if Kai had to guess.
Glancing down at his checklist, Kai found Jake Naslund and made
eye contact with him at the ops console, before circling back to
D'abu. "Can you hang on a second? Nas, are we clear?"

"Still got about five minutes on the grav decoupler." Short and
cocky, Jake Naslund had grown into a decent ship's navigator.
Technically minded like D'abu, but with more tolerance for the
administrative side. Of all of the men who crewed the Vigilant, Kai
could most easily envision Nas captaining his own ship some day.
"Did Sutton get his shit done? I've had it with the MRPs. I want
some real food this trip."

"You're the one in front of the navcomm. Check the e-log."

Across the ship's bridge, Naslund scratched his temple with his
middle finger, while D'abu grew restive. "Kai…"

"Sandy, it's money." Looking up at D'abu, Kai could almost see the
thoughts running their course through the big man's head. Kai'd had
a good idea how their last minute passenger addition would go over
in certain quarters and Sandy was his number one concern.

"We've already got a paying job. Why do we need another mouth to
feed?"

"Because it's not just money, it's platinum. He's paying in pure,
untraceable, liquid assets. Our account's down to just about nothing
and we can't afford to be picky about anything but the color of his
cash."

"Hey Kai, I--"

Naslund was flagging him again, but Kai waved him off. "Hold on,
Nas." Turning back to D'abu, Kai took a deep breath. "I can't ask
you if you're going to be okay with this, Sandy. You have to be.
Pure and simple, we need the money."