The Galactic Mage Read Online Free PDF Page B

All quadrants have already been checked.”
    She stopped abruptly, panting, and reached up to tap the com badge pinned to the collar of her uniform. “I’m…,” she paused, still panting and needing a moment to think. “I’m getting one last specimen,” she said, “something I saw when we made the last sweep.” She scanned the ground furtively and picked the first small weed she spotted near her feet—in case he was watching her through the sensor feed from their ship, the Aspect , orbiting above.
    “You have enough of that shit already. Get back here, we’re about to leave.”
    Ugh. What a horrible thought. She didn’t ever want to go back to the ship. Not now. She wanted to stay here forever. This place was a botanist’s delight, filled with new species to discover, things only Captain Asad could think of as “shit.” And there were animals and sunshine and weather of every kind. Imagine: rain and sleet and snow! She could see the snow on the mountain peaks far off to the east, and she wanted to go see it, to touch it with her hands, to taste it and feel how cold and wet it was. But she hadn’t been allowed. Check the city sites, and that’s it. The admiral’s orders. In, out, back to the ships. That was the mission. But there was so much more to see.
    “Pewter, you have your sample. Now get back here immediately.”
    So he was watching her. She growled. He was right that she had enough samples already, but, given that she was under surveillance, she rotated her belt pack around from behind her back and opened up the pouch. She tucked the scrawny weed—it was an odd looking little thing—into a sample bag and zipped it safely back inside the pouch. No sense giving Captain Asad reason to call her bluff. He may have hated the fact that fleet protocol had forced him to, as he’d put it, “waste a spot in the landing team on a botanist,” but his disregard for her particular discipline also made him ignorant of it as well. He wouldn’t know a good specimen from a bad one if she fed it to him on a fork. She slid the pouch around behind her back again, and, satisfied that she’d sold the lie, she straightened and turned back towards base camp. At least she’d get to run.
    And run she did. She was quite breathless by the time she returned, renewed inside despite her body’s fatigue. She trotted into camp, planning to get a bite to eat before crews took the mess tent down, but Captain Asad intercepted her before she made it there.
    “Pewter, you had orders not to leave the camp. Give me one reason why I shouldn’t have charges drawn up.”
    “I had to get a sample,” she said. “I already told you that. It’s a very rare specimen; one I’ve never seen.” She reached behind her, intending to retrieve the scraggly little weed to make her point.
    “Spare me,” he said. “You’re the first botanist ever to be field trained in the vacuum of space. Everything is a species you’ve never seen.”
    She groaned, rolling her eyes. Why was he such an asshole all the time? She turned and headed for the mess tent. He’d already ruined everything the run had done for her.
    He grabbed her by the arm and spun her back around. “You’re not dismissed, Pewter. You disregarded a standing order. And now you’re adding insubordination to the list.”
    “Take your hands off of me or I will tell my father you’ve crossed the line.” Her voice was even, and she enunciated every word.
    His dark eyes met her icy blue ones, returning her defiance with venom of his own. But he did release her arm. He hated when she pulled the daddy-stunt on him, and she knew it. He knew she knew it too, and it really pissed him off. She was glad. She loved pissing him off. He was the outlet for everything she despised about her life in space. He spun and walked away.
    She snorted and resumed her course for the mess tent. Inside, she immediately spotted her long time friend and surrogate brother, Ensign Roberto Levi. He saw her as