Rebel Stars 1: Outlaw Read Online Free PDF Page B

held down the fort, Jons headed to the corner for a case of condensed beer. Webber took two, drinking one and pressing the other to his jaw.
    When he woke in the morning, Jons was gone. Webber sat on the end of his bed and spent a long time reaching the conclusion he shouldn't start the day with one of the remaining beers. Last night made him feel like a giant idiot, but he knew that was just the hangover talking.
    When he got around to checking his device, he found a dozen messages waiting. Most were from the crew, demanding the details firsthand, but two were from Captain Gomes. The first was dated four hours earlier. The second was from an hour after that. Both demanded his presence—on the ship.
    Figuring he was already hours late, he took a blip of a shower, turning off the water as he soaped up to keep his meter down, then dressed and hit the street. Around him, Twilight partied on. He descended to Beagle's foyer and got into the elevator for the long ride to the docking platform.
    The Fourth Down was dim, silent. He made his way to the bridge. There, Gomes was barking into her device. She glared him into a chair and went on with her conversation.
    Five minutes later, she pocketed her phone and stood across from him, staring at him like he'd driven the Fourth into the nearest rocky body. "Don't you dare make me drag this out of you."
    "Well, you see," he said. "There was drinking."
    "I was drinking, too. You see me starting a brawl?"
    He didn't say: Nope, but I've never seen you spend more than five minutes with the crew off-ship . "If you had, I'd be disappointed in the others for not having told me the story."
    Gomes' jaw flexed. "Why, Webber? Did they spill your drink? Call your mother mean names? Or were you just pickled and looking to hurt someone?"
    "Captain, what's going on here? We get into fights all the time. As long as we take care of the fallout, since when did we get called in here to be whipped?"
    She pressed her fists against her eyes, speaking through gritted teeth. "I don't like to go into this shit, because it's as depressing as it is none of your business. This next delivery, it's make-or-break. As in, if we don't make it—"
    "You'll break me."
    "So we understand each other."
    "Perfectly." He made to stand. "It won't happen again."
    "I'm sure of it. Because you're restricted to ship until departure."
    His jaw dropped. This hurt so much he snapped it shut, which hurt even worse. "Captain!"
    "Shut up." She stuck a finger in his face. "And if you ever want to leave this ship, stay shut up until we're on our way."
    Right then, he wanted to do some yelling, but he'd been on a streak of bad decisions lately and anyway, he knew he wasn't about to change the captain's mind. Not in the heat of the moment.
    "Whatever you say." He tugged up his pant leg to expose his ankle. "Want to fit me for my bracelet?"
    "Fuck off, Webber." Her language was hard, but he spotted a flicker of guilt in her eye. "Don't step off the ship. Otherwise, it's leave as usual."
    He saluted. She ignored him, getting out her device and exiting the bridge. He felt like some pouting was in order—this was his first leave in weeks, and right after he'd pulled extra duty refitting the hull, too—but right then, he was too tired. He headed to the galley, ordered it to approximate him some bourbon on ice, then took the glass to his bunk.
    After he'd added one third of its contents to his bloodstream, he started to feel better. Not that the conversation made any more sense. He and the crew, they'd gotten in plenty of fights in the past. Gomes was rarely happy about their scuffles (although she sure enjoyed hearing about them), but she rarely did more than grumble about discipline. She'd certainly never sentenced anyone to quarters for a week of leave.
    And if it was the money she was mad about? If she was really as deep in the red as she claimed? Then what was she doing dropping tens of thousands of bucks on making her boat look marginally