Salvage Rights (Distant Worlds Book 2) Read Free Page A

again.
    “Men suck,” she said loudly
and with passion before hitting the corridor.
    There was a great deal
of clearing of throats and coughing before they were reminded of what they had
been discussing.
    “What is your name?” the
doctor asked, his cheeks rosy with embarrassment.
    Her hand went to her
head.  She was obviously struggling and the doctor hissed when he saw the
spikes in her reading.
    “Now, that isn’t
something we have to worry about right now.  I still have a few tests to run
and it would be a good idea to give your brain a rest.”
    “Lie.  You have no more
tests to run.”  She said it even as she continued to hold her head.  The
captain looked at the doctor with a raised brow.
    “Fair enough,” Doc
said, shaking his head, “but I do have some research to do with the data I
already have.”
    “She’s a truthsayer?” 
Lore asked, his own brow rising.  He looked at the captain.  “If word gets out
about what she is.  What she’s capable of . . .”
    The captain’s jaw was
set.  It was not an exaggeration to say the female was worth her weight in
gold, an untouched Bruha, even without the claiming, and then a truthsayer. 
Either ability alone could get them killed, but both?  Definitely a guarantee
for a short painful life.
    “We still don’t know
what she’s capable of,” Doc said looking from one to the other.  “We could just
be scratching the surface.”
    “For now, no one knows
about this outside this room, and no one will, is that understood?”
    “Aye, Captain,” the two
men answered in unison.
    “In the meantime, Doc
keeps her here in medical while he does his research.”  He looked at the girl
who was studying them through clear green eyes.  “We need to get as far away from
this sector as we can.  Lore, change the ship beacon and i-dent.  We do not
want the Gorson finding us, and if they have any idea what we took out of that
ship, they will be looking.”
    He went up to the side
of the bed and caught the girl’s eyes again.  “You are safe here.”  She tilted
her head and her lips pursed.  Then she just looked sad as she shook her head.
    “Though I cannot read
your thoughts like the others, I can still feel a lie when you speak it.”
    The captain hissed out
a frustrated breath.  “You are safer here than anywhere else right now.  How
about that?”
    She smiled still a
little sadly.  “Truth.”
    “Good.”  Without
another word he turned on his heal and headed out, Lore right behind him.  Both
men roughly the same six foot height, both wide in the shoulders and trim in
the hips; but where the captain had short brown hair, and was sleek with
muscles, moving with a solid footed surety across the ship, Lore had long black
hair that shimmered almost unnaturally in the dim light.  He was also less bulky,
and moved with soundless precision. 
    “Lore Trugarian is not
human,” she said watching them depart.
    “Clone.”
    She looked at the young
doctor questioningly.  Since she had first seen him, she had liked the kindness
in his light brown eyes.  Shorter than the other men in the crew by a few
inches and with a trim figure, he still seemed somehow soft in comparison to
the rest of the shipmates.  Even the golden-haired mechanic with the pretty blue
eyes was wiry with strength beneath her softness.
    “He is a copy of
someone else, someone who died long ago.”
    “Cloning.  Are there
many?”
    “No, cloning was
outlawed hundreds of years ago.  Most were hunted to extinction.  The few that
are left are slaves, unable to think beyond simple orders.”
    “Your Lore is not like
that, though I sense you are telling the truth.  How is that?”
    “Lore is the
exception.  Most people cannot even tell he is different; that is what keeps
him alive – that and the captain would never allow any member of his crew to be
harmed.”
    “Your Captain is an
interesting man.”
    “Yes.  You’re lucky we
found you rather than the