Caph frowned. “Perseus? Isn’t that ISNC responsibility?”
“Normally,” Elloy confirmed. “They don’t have any other available ships besides the three of us that can make the jump like we can with the supplies and possibly perform a full colony evac if needed. And it is a DSMC-established colony.”
“Wait,” Aaron interrupted. “Three ships?”
“You, us, and the Braynow Gaston.”
Emi silently groaned. Figured. That was the other crew she’d turned down. The other end of the spectrum from the grunts, the Braynow Gaston’s crew were geeks. Handsome and nice, but not her cup of tea. “They got paired?” she asked.
“No. They’ll return to Earth immediately following this assignment. This is an emergency and considered a priority. There are three hundred colonists. The DSMC wanted to make sure they could be evac’d if necessary, and we have the three biggest ships that can do it.”
“What, exactly, is the nature of the medical emergency?” Emi asked.
“We don’t know. The transmission cut out. All I know is when the BG gets here, we leave. Donna…I mean, Dr. Stevens, is hitching a ride with them.”
Emi grinned. “Sounds like someone’s not quite following regulations when it comes to addressing crew,” she teased. That had been a point of contention when she first met the Kendall Kant crew, their rigid formality.
He blushed again. Knowing Donna, she had quickly gotten under the men’s skin in a way Emi couldn’t have. “I want to apologize to you, by the way,” Elloy said.
Well, that shocked the hell out of her. “What?”
“We acted a lot harsher than we realized or intended. We were,” he coughed, “turned down four more times before Dr. Stevens applied for the program. Dr. Graymard broke protocol and showed me playbacks of our aborted sim sessions before we had our pairing session with Dr. Stevens.” He blushed again, leaving Emi to wonder if this was a sim. “He told me we, in his exact words, acted like ‘fucking assholes’. That if we didn’t loosen up a little, we’d end up partnered with our right hands.”
Ford laughed so hard he fell back on the crate he was sitting on. “Holy crap, I think I’m dreaming. Rob Elloy admitted he fucked up!”
Aaron smirked. “Well, then I guess the twins and I also owe you and your guys a thank you.”
Elloy nodded. Emi tried to sense the other captain’s feelings again. She focused on his brown eyes, a different shade than Aaron’s. Although now Emi knew Graymard had stacked the deck in her men’s favor by introducing her to two crews totally off the charts in how incompatible they were with her, she also knew Elloy and his crew were good men and dedicated to their duties and mission.
And they were, apparently, now also deeply dedicated to Emi’s best friend.
Their orders arrived an hour later. Emi and the twins gathered on the bridge behind Aaron at the command console as they read over his shoulder. They would leave as soon as the Braynow Gaston had time to refuel, conduct maintenance, and load their supplies. Priority mission. If the settlers needed to be evacuated, they would be brought to the DSMC’s complex on Ganymede. The population of Jupiter’s moon, smaller than the Martian bases, was comprised mostly of ISNC and DSMC employees.
Aaron reached up and patted Emi’s hand. “We’ll go to the UP complex tomorrow. There’s regular transports all day.”
She nervously cuddled between her men that night. Long after they’d fallen asleep, she lay awake in Ford’s arms, her mind racing. She should be beyond this, especially after the men’s reassurances that Kelsey’s family would welcome her.
Come Martian dawn, she’d barely slept. The men acted unusually quiet throughout breakfast and during their walk through the docking sector to where they would catch a transport to another complex.
Ford carried a small thermal bag over his shoulder, but she didn’t ask the contents and he didn’t volunteer them. She sensed from all three of them it was something they normally did when on Mars, part of their ritual, part of their healing.
Two hours later, they stepped out of the transport into the UP complex. This part reminded her of the sim. She saw signs for the tram station where she and Ford had traveled to the agri-complex. As they walked toward a different tram station, Aaron’s thumb gently stroked her hand, his nervous gesture. One she hadn’t felt…well, since their sim time.
She sent her mind out and felt some of his old sadness, tempered in part by his current love for her.
They debarked from the tram at a memorial complex, a large dome encompassing several thousand acres of parkland. It was also a cemetery. A discrete and tastefully decorated booth at the entrance provided small locator beacons no larger than a thumb drive. Ford took the lead here and pressed a button to activate a display screen. Then he scrolled through a list of names and pressed another button before inserting the beacon into a small slot below the screen. The beacon briefly glowed blue, and then a low beep indicated the process was complete. He withdrew it and turned toward the path.
As they followed, Ford in the lead, Caph laced his fingers through Emi’s free hand. Aaron still held her other.
Caph leaned in and murmured, “They change the park all the time. Plus the plants grow, so it makes it look different.”
She nodded but didn’t say anything as they followed Ford down the winding path. Very peaceful, it reminded her of Earth in many ways, down to the sounds of birds, the breeze, and softly bubbling water.
A flurry of wings exploded in a tree next to them, startling her. Two cardinals took off from their perch on the branch of an oak tree and flew away.
Okay, so the bird songs weren’t piped in.
After fifteen minutes the beacon glowed in Ford’s hand. They spotted a corresponding glow twenty yards off the path, in a gently sloping area that overlooked a small pond.
Ford slipped the beacon into his pocket. They followed him to the source of the glow, which disappeared as they approached. As they gathered around where it had been, Emi spotted a small, clear crystal geode nestled in the grass. The source, no doubt.
Now that she paid attention, she noticed several of the crystal geodes scattered around. Unless you were right on top of one, they were nearly impossible to see from a distance.
Aaron slipped his arm around her shoulders as Ford unzipped the bag and broke out a thermal carafe and four small cups. He poured the servings. “Mint tea,” he explained, handing Emi one.
“Her favorite,” Caph whispered. When she looked, his green eyes glistened, tears rolling down his cheeks. Emi reached over and patted his large thigh. He laced his fingers through hers again and squeezed.
His big size housed an even larger heart. More fragile than her other two men in many ways, Caph’s physique incongruously concealed his gentle and sensitive soul.
The men held up their cups in a toast. Emi did the same.
Ford spoke first, his blue eyes full of sadness despite the happy memory he spoke of. “That first morning after we all got together,” he softly said, “when you called us ‘your boys.’ I knew I loved you then, Kels. I fucking miss the hell out of you, girl.” He took a sip of his tea and looked at Caph.
Caph looked down. Emi’s heart broke over the pain she felt keening through him. “That night in the bar when that woman hit on me and you threatened to kick her ass if she didn’t leave me the hell alone. You called me your husband even though we weren’t really married.” He took a sip of his tea.
Emi looked at Aaron. His brown eyes had darkened in his pain. As they closed, he whispered, “You told me thank you for loving you and told me how much you loved me and Ford and Caph before I lost you.” His hand trembled slightly as he took a sip.