Slip Point Read Free

connections?”
    “Your father was Kennick Bailey, captain of the Burricus ?”
    She nodded.
    “His reputation’s well-known among spacefarers.”
    His obvious discomfort caused a gnawing hole in her belly. “What do you mean?”
    “He’s the most notorious pirate in the Cassandra sector.”
    She jolted to her feet. “You mean he’s still alive?”
    The officer looked over Shayalin carefully, only now realizing what he had stepped into. His mouth firmed. “He gutted a trader ship from Urioq just yesterday.”
    She sank back into her chair, feeling the blood leave her face as she finally took in his words. “He’s a pirate ?” Her voice cracked.
    He glanced down at his screen. “The reports say that Mara Cho was told of his actions when the Burricus first went rogue.”
    Her mother had lied to her.
    “Thank you for telling me.” She managed to stand again by using his desk as support. Her balance felt skewed, but she wasn’t going to stay here and let this officer witness her humiliation any longer.
    “Applicant Cho—”
    “I’m grateful for your time,” she said, and through sheer will turned and took the four steps necessary to reach the door. Her mind was numb, but her hand remembered to press the pad to make the door slide open.
    With the same mechanical precision she walked down the hallway and back to the lobby.
    “Shay!” Jayce’s grin faded as he took in her expression. “They didn’t take you?”
    She jerked her shoulder away from his outstretched hand. How could she tell him? She’d boasted about her father to him the very first time they’d met.
    “Shay?”
    She didn’t meet his eyes, just began to run.
    “Shayalin!”
    Somewhere behind her a door opened. “Recruit—that is, Applicant Jayce Dietrich?”
    She welcomed the interruption, bitter though it was. Recruit, he’d said. It had been both their dreams, and now only Jayce was picked for it. But the officer’s slip distracted Jayce long enough for her to round the corner and get out of sight. There were people in her way, exclaiming as she rushed past them, so she chose a door at random and passed through it to escape the disapproval their blur of faces would surely resolve into.
    She didn’t know where she was going, except away. Jayce would be happy joining the Corps—he’d gotten what he wanted, hadn’t he? But she would never get to learn to pilot a ship or have the chance to serve on another world. Her mother would be glad to see her return to Centuris and settle down as a planet-bound homesteader—or perhaps she would be scornful. The Steaders prided themselves on sticking out their projects, and Shayalin hadn’t been able to see this through.
    She clenched her hands. Her bones still ached with the desire to fly in space. She wasn’t going to get any closer than on this station, so why waste the chance?
    She retrieved her bag from the storage locker she’d stashed it in and found her way to a station bar overlooking one of the docking bays. Recklessly, she asked the bartender to surprise her, and carried the startlingly blue beverage she received over to a stool that offered a perfect view.
    There were so many ships, too many to count. Some, drifting right by the station, were leviathans with bulging cargo holds, but others were slender arrows that nearly disappeared when viewed in profile. If she closed one eye and brought her thumb and forefinger close together in front of her face, it was almost as though she could pinch one out of space and take it for her own.
    She sighed and took a long swallow of her drink.
    A man settled himself a couple of seats down from her. “Wei makes those strong—better take it slow,” he said.
    She looked over at him. He was gray-haired, his chin a bit grizzled and his face seamed with laughter. She decided he was simply being friendly. “Wei?”
    “The bartender. I stop in here between trade runs a lot. I’ve gotten to know most of her repertoire, and that drink of yours looks