Actually, scratch that. Kaspar, my brother, notices the risks, because he runs right for them. That’s part of the problem.
The comm beeps again and I run a hand down my face, then check my data pad. It’s an incoming comm from the Scarlet Gaze, which is odd, considering they’re docked nearby. Frowning, I answer. “What’s the problem here?”
The face of one of the a’ani clones fills the screen. He’s young, and I don’t immediately recognize which one it is. “It’s Aithar. Is Helen there?”
I stare at the comm-channel, baffled. “This is Mathiras.”
“Yeah, I know.” Aithar rubs the back of his neck, looking sheepish and awfully young. “Helen doesn’t have a data pad so I thought I’d comm you. Is she there?”
“Why?”
“I wanted to come by. Spend a little time with her before we take off in the morning.” He grins. “Make sure she’s good to go.”
My head feels as if it’s going to keffing explode. Good to go? Helen is not good to go anywhere with this idiot. “She doesn’t have a data pad because she doesn’t want one,” I growl into my wrist comm, biting back my fury. “And leave her alone. She’s too young for you.”
Aithar looks confused. “Uh, my lord, we’re clones. We’re engineered to be fully adult. Helen is—”
“Not your concern,” I snarl. “And I’m not a lord.”
The male a’ani’s mouth flattens. For a moment, he dares to look angry at me. At me. “Well, sir. I feel the need to remind you that we might be clones, but we are all individuals in thought. Helen is her own person, and an adult. And if you don’t see her as one, that’s on you.” He gives me a dirty look. “Tell her I asked about her.”
He terminates the comm before I can snap an answer back.
The keffing nerve. What does he think this is? Some sort of intergalactic dating agency? Does he think I’m going to set him up with Helen? The young charge of my brothers’ mates? Helen is my responsibility. She falls under my care, and as such, I have to look out for her.
Keffing Aithar. I’ve a mind to have words with Straik about his crew.
If anyone knows Helen’s an adult, it’s keffing me. Haven’t I been trying to ignore that for months now?
A short time later, the ship practically bustles with the return of my brothers and their mates. I can hear Kas and Adi talking loudly over each other, the softer notes of the female voices chiming in. I should head out to meet them, but my mood has been shit since Aithar called me like some sort of lovesick pup and decided to chastise me. So I stay on the bridge and fiddle with the navigation charts. I miss Zoey. She was amazing at navigation and had the best eye for saving fuel. Kaspar handles it now, and he does a fine job, but Kas would rather get to a destination fast instead of “safe” or “economical” and I constantly have to go back in and tweak his routes. He says I worry too much. Sometimes I think no one seems to worry but me, so I have to do all the stressing for everyone.
“Matty!”
I deliberately avoid answering Adiron. I do not answer to Matty. Instead, I nudge the flight path Kaspar has mapped out to a nearby station, trying to see if that improves fuel calculations. It won’t do us any good to go flat broke chasing slavers across the galaxy if we don’t have the credits for fuel.
“Matty!” Adi bellows again, and then I hear the stomping of boots as my brothers head toward the bridge. “Are you here? You have to help me and Kas with a bet.”
Gods save us all. The last time they had a “bet” it was to see who could stick a transistor wire farther up their noses. Sometimes my brothers are like children when they’re together. “What now?” I call out. “I’m busy.”
A moment later, Adiron bursts onto the bridge, a huge, goofy smile on his face. Kaspar’s right behind him, and they both look like they’re bursting with secrets. Adiron brandishes a jar. “I bet that you won’t eat one of these! Kas bet that you would.”
He holds the jar out to me and I take it reluctantly, confused. It looks like globules of some sort of pale foam or insulation. They’re perfect whitish ovoids that are shoved into a jar filled with a yellowish liquid. It doesn’t look edible, but Adiron once ate part of a fuel cell on a dare (and then had to spend two days in med-bay as a result) so I wouldn’t put it past him to trick me. “What…is this?”
Kaspar leans in. “It’s a pickled egg.”
I hold the jar back out to Adiron, revolted. “Ugh!”
Kas howls with laughter, while Adi takes the jar and unscrews the top. “Right? Jade was so excited when she saw them that I had to buy the whole jar from the shop in Port. Maybe it’s a pregnancy thing or a human thing, but they actually eat these! Can you believe?” He pulls one drippy globule out and offers it to me. “Give you five credits if you eat this.”