Galactic Gambit

Chapter 8

After making a big jump back toward the memento, Neo set the ship to a slow steady cruising speed for the last small stretch. Not that there was any traffic to speak of, but when inside a galaxy, nearing a fuel station, it was always smarter to jump well outside your intended target. All her adrenaline and worry had faded into exhaustion, and she needed some time to relax and collect her thoughts. She was mad at herself for not checking the ship more thoroughly. There should have been a weapons system, and she shouldn't have had to put one of her crew members in such a dangerous situation. Being captain, she should have known. All that fear and worry she had felt made her even more irritated than it rightfully should. Even more so when she ran through the ship to the docking bay to make sure Pax was alright only to slam straight into him and his unrightfully handsome smirking face.

Neo knew that she was, at the very least, physically attracted to Pax, but after the incident with the enforcers, she couldn't lie to herself and say she there wasn't something there. This attraction or maybe it was her complete lack of recent intimacy, she didn't know what it was exactly. She shouldn't though. She knew it was against her better judgement to have feelings for a crew member in her own employment, but that wasn't even her biggest worry. She made her own rules, after all. It was more of a distraction, and if her dreams were of any indication, a potentially dangerous one. One that could cost more than a simple heartbreak.

Or maybe you're over reading—overthinking, she thought, being the most likely case. If Rhea were there, she would call her on it like she always does. Rhea would laugh at her and tell her exactly what was going on in her own mind that she wouldn't have thought to put together to make sense of it, then she would tell her to stop being ridiculous. The thought of her put an ache in her chest. She hadn't realized how much she missed her, but things had been chaotic, adrenaline fueled, and confusing at times. And then guilt washed over her, she didn't even call Rhea, not since they first left.

Neo went straight for the kitchen after setting the ship on course and rummaged through the cabinets for a bottle of rum she had stashed away when she bought groceries. It was hidden on the top shelf, which Neo had to partially climb on to the counter to reach. With the bottle in hand, she grabbed a small cup from the cabinet and took it to the table thinking that this was exactly what she needed to rid herself of all the relentless emotions that were threatening to swallow her.

She sunk down into the chair, the glass and bottle clamoring on the surface of the table and poured a generous amount. If Neo were to drink liquor straight, it was this. Starfall. The best, in her opinion, kind of rum that could be bought on this side of the universe. It was pricey, and not something she bought by the bottle often, but she had bought it as a celebratory act. Her first ship and job as a captain, and now, the completion of her first mission. Seemed a good enough excuse anyway.

The rum warmed her chest, cutting straight through the knot of anxiety she had been holding there. The ship was quiet with Reiyna off in her room tending to her egg like it was a baby, Fynn on the sofa watching some action flick, and she hadn't seen Pax since she left to the deck meaning he was somewhere on the ship waiting to jump out at her and give her more anxiety. She sighed at the thought.

Neo was smart, she had a keen eye for detail, and she paid close attention. She could see the warning signs; she just didn't expect how it would make her feel. With her index finger and thumb, she smoothed her fingers down her eyebrows and massaged her temples before throwing back the last of her rum.

The door slid open, and Pax walked in. Neo nearly choked on the rum, but she swallowed it down and followed it with a cough. Of course, he had to be freshly showered and has conveniently forgotten a shirt.