Space Relics (Galactic Archaeology Book 1) Read Free Page B

wound had been deep enough to cut through his organs. If she’d been a few minutes late, he could’ve died. Now, he slept peacefully as if nothing had happened.
    “This is all I can do,” Amy said. She turned around and avoided looking straight at Rick. She spoke as if she were annoyed, as if it had all been Rick’s fault.
    “If you hadn’t shot the guy, he wouldn’t have shot us either,” Rick said.
    “Oh, so now it’s my fault!” Amy scoffed and started pacing around the shuttle. “What do you think would’ve happened if I’d let Lord Baylor run away? The workers would be dead, you’d be dead, and I’d probably be dead, too. Or at least disconnected. Lord Baylor was after that silly rock, and for some reason he didn’t want to share it with you. Do you think he’d have broken his word if this weren’t serious?” Her black hair fell over her eyes and she shook her head violently to get rid of it. That wasn’t the time for hair problems.
    Sometimes, Amy acted like an annoyed ex, and she treated Rick accordingly. Sometimes, Rick forgot that he’d never had any kind of relationship with her. It was weird, but they felt like an old couple. Only that she was always trying to wear the pants in the relationship.
    And that wasn’t the right time to dispute Rick’s leadership. Without Lord Baylor’s payment, they wouldn’t be able to pay even the cheapest of nurses for Lucas. And they were going to lose the ship if they didn’t find a way to pay for it. Lord Baylor’s treason had come in the worst moment, just like all treasons do.
    “We could’ve thought of something,” Rick said. “The guy wasn’t going to kill everyone straight away, or the workers would’ve scattered. He needed time to gather us up, take us somewhere where the blood would be easy to clean, and start shooting. You know how that works; he’d have been distracted for a moment, and I would’ve jumped in to stop him.”
    “And now you’re Superman?” Amy said. “He was twice your size, Richard. You could’ve tried something, but you’re nothing more than a bug on those people’s shoes. You may have been a smuggler for a couple of weeks, but you aren’t a mob leader. And you were a fairly bad smuggler, if you ask me.”
    A bad smuggler? Rick had been able to take motherboards to the anti-technological colonies, and he’d even sold milk in the vegan starbases. Granted, he’d had to sell those supplies below cost, but he’d become one of the top suppliers!
    Okay, maybe it sounded pathetic in retrospect. He’d never been able to kill anyone in action, not even any animals.
    But that didn’t mean that he was going to acknowledge defeat. Not before Amy. “Look, I know you were trying to do the right thing,” he started. She nodded energetically and folded her arms, expecting him to stoop low and hail her as a goddess. It wasn’t going to happen. “But I’m the captain here, and you can’t jump in and start making decisions without my approval. I didn’t want you to do anything stupid because the risks outweighed the prize, and now we’re as poor as before, and Lucas is going to spend a while in hospital.”
    She shook her head in disdain and curled her upper lip. She wasn’t going to accept that her choice wasn’t the best alternative. Rage incoming . “I’ve hit Lord Baylor’s engines and disabled his warping mechanisms, and he’s going to need to repair them. Where do you think he’ll stop, huh? He’s going to go to the nearest port. I don’t know about you, Richard, but my impulsive decision may give us the chance to get back at him. But of course, I’m only a dumb machine without feelings…” She sniffled a fake sob, like she always did whenever she wanted to manipulate Rick into doing something. She was good; really good.
    And she was right, and that made her even more hateful. They couldn’t let their money run away without trying to get it back. Rick’s banks were going to stop giving him credit