Starseers: Fallen Empire, Book 3 (31 page)

“And wheels,” she added lamely, as if she could fix the thoughtless joke.

“Hm,” Leonidas said.

Mica and Yumi shifted their weight, both looking almost as uncomfortable as Alisa felt. It had been so much easier when Leonidas had clearly been the enemy and they hadn’t worried about offending him. But when he had been the enemy, he hadn’t bantered with her and touched her cheek.

“As I was saying,” Yumi said into the awkward silence, “this might be the time to ask Beck to clean the latrines, since he’s feeling guilty.” She smiled.

“Cleaning the latrines,” Mica said. “Just the job I want the man who handles my food to have.”

“We don’t have a large crew,” Alisa said. “People have to be versatile and do numerous jobs.”

“What job is the Starseer going to do?” Mica asked.

The job of staying in his cabin and not pestering her with intrusions into her mind, Alisa hoped. “He’s a passenger. He doesn’t have to do a job.”

“Must be nice.”

“Speaking of that, are you planning to stay on a little longer?” Alisa hoped the answer was yes, since she was still low on funds and could not imagine taking the time to find and hire a decent engineer. It was bad enough her passengers wanted to take another side trip.

“What choice do I have?” Mica asked. “You didn’t exactly set down in one of the employment hubs of Arkadius.”

“You don’t think the Starseers would have hired you?”

“Maybe to clean latrines. From the brief contact I had with Beck’s dinner guests, they didn’t seem overly impressed with people who can’t tie cherry stems in knots with their minds.” Mica looked toward the maps still hovering in the air over Alisa’s desk. “Where are we going next?”

Alisa gave Leonidas a wry look. “The middle of nowhere, apparently.”

He returned her gaze blandly. She wondered if he was thinking about sprockets and wheels.

“I guess that’ll give me time to update my résumé,” Mica said.

THE END

Afterword

Ah ha, you made it to the end! I hope that means you’re enjoying the series. If you have time to leave a review on the books, I would appreciate it. 

Also, if you haven’t signed up to get the 
Fallen Empire newsletter
 yet, I hope you’ll do so. You’ll receive a free copy of the short story “Saranth Three” right now and the Leonidas prequel, “Last Command,” later in the summer. Thanks!