Derelict: Halcyone Space, Book 1 Read Online Free PDF Page A

permapaper littered the floor.
    She didn't even know what she was looking for, but she knew she didn't have a lot of time.
    A large roll of archival perm took up most of the space across the desk. She unrolled the free edge, anchoring it down with a broken impeller. It was a schematic for an old class of freighter. The perm was marked up with her father's cramped writing and sketches. She peered closer, bringing her micro to illuminate the faint marks. The familiar connected block-and-tube outline of Daedalus station emerged, with the ship jutting out from one end.
    Ro's heart raced. This was the wreck. Where had her father gotten its original engineering diagrams? And what was he doing with them?
    "Daedalus, locate Maldonado, Alain," she whispered.
    "Corridor delta seven."
    Ro winced at the AI's loud voice. She turned back to her father's desk. The archival perm didn't have a standard interface, so she couldn't clone the data. But she could take screen captures and stitch the pieces together later. Unrolling sections of the schematic with trembling fingers, Ro snapped a picture of each one.
    She re-rolled the perm and moved the impeller back to its spot on the desk. After a last quick glance around the room, she turned off the lights and shut the door behind her. Slipping her micro into a pocket, she headed for the galley. The door to their quarters opened. Ro tightened her hand on the mug she'd taken from the rack beside the sink full of dirty dishes.
    "Rosalen."
    Her father's gravelly voice made the hair on the back of her neck tingle.
    "What are you doing?"
    She turned, pressing her spine against the galley's edge. His eyes glittered in the low light. The galley's counter separated them, but there was no way for her to escape their quarters without passing within arm's reach of him.
    "I was making coffee," she said, careful to keep her voice neutral. "Here," she said, sliding the mug across the counter to him.
    Ro walked to the end of the galley and tried to slip past him, but he grabbed her upper arm and squeezed just hard enough to trap her. Keeping her body completely still, Ro fought to steady her breathing.
    "Don't you have work to do?"
    Mendez must have notified him. She lowered her gaze from his hard, green eyes, but carefully kept him in her peripheral vision.
    Her father shook her softly and her gaze snapped to his face. Ro kept her tone bored, flat. "It's just an internship assignment. It won't interfere with my responsibilities here."
    He let go of her arm. Ro stumbled back, resisting the impulse to rub where his fingers had been.
    "I'll be in my workshop for several hours. I expect not to be disturbed."
    Ro nodded.
    Her father leaned over her to drop the mug into the nearly filled sink before returning to his workshop. He paused at the door.
    Ro's heart hammered against her ribs.
    "Just so you are aware, I'll be programming extra security measures. For your own protection."
    The warning didn't have to be stated any more clearly. Well, he wasn't the only one here with a secret. "I have work to do."
    "Best you get to it, then."
    Ro frowned down at the mess of food archeology, her nose wrinkling at the smell. From now on, he could deal with his own meals. She would dine at the commissary with the other station staff. After all, she was one of them now. At least one of the Maldenados could start acting like it.
    Striding down the corridors to the North nexus, Ro forced her mind away from her father and back to the complex AI programming. It was one thing to identify a tiny piece of code and figure out how to tweak it, but to really understand the entirety of it? To figure out how badly damaged the ship's brain had been in the crash? Ro's doubts nearly sent her back to Mendez with her resignation in hand.
    But that would leave Ro worse off than before. She squeezed into the crowded nexus, keeping her head down, waiting in line for the airlock.
    "Good morning, Ro. Can I buy you that coffee, now?"
    She glanced up into