LITMIR.BIZ

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kid decided to follow you.”

      She felt Greg move to stand next to her, and Elena’s eyes shifted to meet the captain’s. “I think that’s a matter of opinion,” she said, and she sounded tired.

      “He’s awake and alert,” Greg told her quietly. “That’s a good sign.”

      Which meant, Jessica realized, that Greg was worried about the boy as well.

      The three of them headed for the infirmary. Jessica walked between them, half an eye on Elena. This was the first time her friend had been on board Galileo in eighteen months. Jessica had imagined the reunion a dozen times, and it had never been like this: Elena filthy and dispirited, barely noticing the clean, bright halls of her former home. She wouldn’t be staying, either, Jessica realized; this would only be a visit.

      Maybe being home doesn’t mean that much to her after all. Given how long Elena had been away, the idea stung more than Jessica thought it would.

      Bob Hastings, Galileo’s chief of medicine, was waiting for them and had the med scanner out as the medics shifted the boy to one of the infirmary beds. The doctor frowned at the readout, then waved them away. “Ten minutes,” he told them. His blue eyes swept over Elena. “You. Stay close by. You don’t look so good, either.”

      Elena looked as if she wanted to protest, but she hung back, her miserable eyes on Arin. The boy wouldn’t look at her.

      “Come on,” Greg said, his voice gentle. “Bob will take care of him.”

      Jessica tried to catch Bob’s eye as they left, but his expression was grim and focused. Jessica looked down at Arin and made herself smile reassuringly. “Lousy bedside manner,” she told him, “but he’ll look after you.”

      Damned if the kid didn’t smile back.

      Once they were outside, Jessica couldn’t wait any longer. “What happened?”

      “He stowed away and hid,” Elena said simply. “And when we crashed, nothing in the shuttle was secured. All the cargo landed on him.”

      “After they shot at you,” Jessica pointed out. “Elena—”

      “Don’t tell me it wasn’t my fault.”

      “Of course it’s not!” Jessica’s temper flared. “How the hell could it be? Nineteen years old is grown-up on every damn colony we’ve got. And he knew how to secure himself on that ship, stowaway or not. Bob will fix him,” she said, “and then you can yell at him for being a stupid ass.”

      “Where’s my boy?”

      Jessica started; they should have been warned when Bear Savosky arrived, but she supposed he was too well-known to the crew for anyone to think of him as a guest. Normally Bear was relaxed and smiling, his massive bulk comfortable rather than a threat. But now he radiated rage and fear, and all of his ire was directed at Elena.

      Who inexplicably didn’t defend herself. “Bob’s looking after him,” Elena said. “He should be out soon.”

      Bear took two steps toward the main infirmary, then turned and paced back toward the door. He stopped to tower over Elena. “How did he get down there without anyone knowing it?”

      She shook her head. “I don’t know. He must have slipped between the cargo containers.”

      “You didn’t pick up the weight discrepancy?”

      “I didn’t weigh them before I left. I was thinking about how to get them off the shuttle without getting shot down.”

      “And you fucked that up, too, didn’t you?”

      At that, Greg spoke up. “Savosky—” he began, but Bear turned on him instead.

      “She is not yours to defend anymore, Foster, so stay the fuck out of this.” Greg didn’t react, and Jessica realized with some surprise that he was deferring to Elena’s current commanding officer. Not the time, Greg, she tried to tell him with a glare, but he wouldn’t look at her.

      Savosky turned back to Elena. “I warned you about that boy. I told you he idolized you, and that he’d follow you anywhere. And now he’s in there with some old quack, and you’re looking at me like he’s already dead and you’re trying to figure out how to weasel out of all of this.”

      At last Elena got angry. “That’s not fair!” she shouted. “I never wanted him to do this! I told him he needed to be sensible, to learn good judgment, to—”

      “To do whatever was necessary to get into the Corps?” Bear shouted. “How the fuck could he understand what that really means? Arin sees you, and Captain Perfect, and the pretty little redhead, and he thinks it’s like the vids he’s watched since he was a kid. He’s nineteen, and he thinks he’s going to live fucking forever, and you stand there telling me about judgment? You remember why the Corps doesn’t take anyone under twenty-two, don’t you?”

      For Jessica, that was enough. “Bear.” She said his name quietly.

      He turned to her, glowering, radiating fury. “What?”

      “Stop yelling in the infirmary,” she said simply.

      He glared, and loomed, and waited for her to say something else, and she just looked at him.

      And then, silent, he turned and stomped out of the room.

      Jessica looked back at Greg, and this time he met her eyes. Play nice, she thought at him, and by the exasperated look he gave her, she thought he understood. Then she turned and went after Bear.

      He had moved partway down the hallway, as if he were removing the temptation to barge back into the infirmary, and was pacing back and forth. Galileo’s hallways were wide and tall, but Savosky made every ordinary space seem smaller. He looked up as she approached, and frowned. “Don’t start on me, Lockwood,” he said. “You know I’m right. She shouldn’t have been encouraging him.”

      “You think that’s what’s behind this?”

      “Of course it is!” He looked away and began pacing again. “Ever since we left Earth she’s been talking up the goddamned Corps, telling that kid how good he’d be, all the travel he could do, all the fucking adventures. Is this a fucking adventure, Lockwood? Getting shot down and watching a bunch of colonists kill each other? That boy’s nineteen, and she could have ended his life today! She—”

      “That’s enough!” Jessica had never been patient with denial. “You’re blaming Elena for all of this? You brought her along because she was Corps! You threw her at this conflict—when you knew they might be attacking—because of her background, because she is what she is! You stand there shouting because she’s exactly what you knew her to be, what you’re using her for, and you’re blaming her for your own fuckups!”

      “I did not make that kid think he could be a hero!”

      “What difference does that make?” She knew he knew it, but he was too frightened to admit it yet. “He’s your responsibility, Bear. Your crew. It was on you to make sure he was where you assigned him. You knew he wanted to follow her down—you should have made sure he didn’t!” He turned away, but she wasn’t finished. “And by the way, maybe you should have been making that kid think he could be a hero. You think he follows her around because she’s got a nice ass? He follows her around because she’s telling him he can be more than what he is, than what everybody’s told him he could be his whole life! You’re his family, Bear. You should be telling him all that, and if you’re not? It’s your own damn fault if he doesn’t do what you tell him to do!”

       “He is a child!”

      “Not anymore, he’s not,” she said, more calmly. “He’s not grown yet, but he’s not a child. And you can’t treat him like one just because you’re afraid for him.”

      “And

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