And figure out why he’d had a new comm in the first place.

Chapter Fifteen

I stayed on the bridge until we were well away from the wormhole and the traffic around us had dwindled to nearly nothing. As promised, Lotkez’s presence smoothed the way, allowing us to bypass all of the checkpoints. No one challenged us as we headed deeper into Valovian space.

I dropped the comm in my quarters, where it would stay until I could figure out how to return it, then spent the rest of the morning helping Anja in maintenance. My body felt better with the additional movement, but my knee still ached with every twist. I’d overdone it last night, but the little sleep I’d managed had been nightmare-free, so I’d gladly take the pain in trade.

When I finally stopped for lunch, I found Luna waiting for me in the galley. She chirruped when I appeared and glanced longingly at her food bowl—her food bowl that still had food in it.

I shook a finger at her. “I’m not giving you anything else. You still have food, probably because you conned multiple people into feeding you. If you eat all the food I bought for you before we return to Fed space, you’ll be stuck with rice like the rest of us.”

I grabbed a meal bar and patted my shoulder guard. “I’m going to the garden if you think you can leave your food bowl for that long.”

She perked up. Garden was one of the words she knew. When it became clear that I wasn’t going to give her any treats, she leapt up to my shoulder.

I took us on a longer path to the garden and used the time to inspect the other parts of the level. Tomorrow was the last day of extra cleaning duty and everything looked good. I didn’t know if Torran had ordered the Valoffs to comply or if they’d done it on their own, but they had worked as hard as my own crew, and no one had complained.

Starlight’s Shadow had needed the deep clean and the extra work had kept everyone out of trouble, so it was a win-win.

The garden door slid open, revealing the green oasis inside. I headed for the arbor. I needed ten minutes of peace while I ate my meal bar.

Unfortunately, the universe wasn’t on my side because when I pushed back the vines, I found Havil waiting for me. Maybe he’d just been enjoying some peace of his own, but he must’ve felt me approaching. His eyes found mine with unerring accuracy. Luna chirped at him in greeting, then jumped up to her perch in the corner.

“You are in pain,” he said quietly.