The Crucible: Leap of Faith Read Online Free PDF Page B

you, Ensign,” I mumbled.
    “If you were looking for a place
to sit,” she rose to her feet, took a step back, and indicated the
small couch, “go ahead. I was just leaving.”
    She was not just leaving. It was
clear she was only getting up because I had arrived.
    My hands were still in my pockets,
and my fingers drummed against the side of my legs as I wondered
how to handle this.
    There was clearly something going
on with Ensign Jenks. But she’d only been a member of my crew for a
few short days, and even then it was merely a
technicality.
    She wasn’t my responsibility, in
other words.
    That didn’t stop me from walking
further into the room and planting myself beside the window. I shot
her another encouraging close-lipped smile.
    She didn’t appear to know what to
do with it. She took a step back, and it was obvious she was about
to leave.
    “You don’t need to leave on my
account, Ensign,” I said, authority pitching through my
tone.
    The authority had its intended
purpose, and she stopped, albeit for a fraction of a second. She
tilted her head towards me, that angular hair sliding across her
face to frame that trapped stare.
    I found myself swallowing. “You
left the party early tonight.”
    “I wouldn’t have thought anyone
would have noticed, sir.” She didn’t look at me as she spoke,
preferring to let her gaze slip towards the door.
    “It wasn’t just
thrown for my crew. The Fargo went through a hell of an incident. If you’re…” I
trailed off. I wanted to tell her that if she’d suffered some kind
of trauma from it, she could get help.
    But I stopped myself. Something
told me that Ensign Jenks’ troubles extended further than recent
events.
    She took another step
back.
    My training told me I should just
let her leave. My training didn’t always win out. Occasionally the
man underneath would raise his little head and tell me to do the
right thing, not the accepted thing. “I could use a little company,
to be honest,” I lied.
    She looked confused. Fair enough.
It wasn’t every day that a lieutenant commander imposed
companionship upon an ensign he barely knew.
    Hopefully she wouldn’t get the
wrong idea about this.
    … Or any idea, in fact – it looked
as if she’d barely registered my words.
    As her gaze slipped from the
window then back to the door, it was clear she was… running from
something.
    Maybe it was just me and my odious
company, or maybe Ensign Jenks needed to let something off her
chest.
    “Where are you
going to be stationed after the Fargo ?” I asked, realizing the only
legitimate way to keep her in the room was to pepper her with
official questions, questions she would be obliged to answer as I
was her superior officer.
    “I have a
temporary posting on the Ra’xon . She’s coming into dock soon.”
She never made eye contact when she spoke.
    “The Ra’xon , ha? That’s a
flagship. What’s your specialty?”
    “I don’t have
one. I’m on general rotation at the moment. I’m not staying on
the Ra’xon – it
will just take me to my next posting.”
    I nodded. Then I pushed my mind
into the task of finding another question – any question to keep
her in the room.
    “How long have you been in the
Star Forces?”
    This time her gaze locked on the
floor between us and seemed as if it would not lift, even if the
window behind us shattered and shot us out into space. “A few years
now.”
    Most enlisted recruits would be
able to tell you how long they’d been in the Star Forces down to
the day. It was drilled into them at every opportunity. How much
time you sacrificed for the Alliance was your greatest honor. Or so
they told us at the Academy.
    “Which Academy did you graduate
from?”
    She took a snapped step backwards,
her short hair swinging under her jaw until she finally tipped her
head back and stared at me. “There’s no need to engage me in
conversation, sir. If you wish for company, I suggest you head to
one of the bars.” With that, she