Devin quickly gathered his gear and headed for their best shuttle. The Moira was powering up as he tossed his pack behind the pilot’s seat and strapped in. Greg Roland didn’t bother to acknowledge him, just flipped a few switches to bring the pilot’s boards active. Devin ran the sequence checks then ordered the bay depressurized, and the bay doors opened. The Moira rose a scant six inches from the deck and the Stargazer slid out from under her.
It didn’t take long for the call from the Avery McKenna to come. Rose had followed protocol to notify other orbiting ships of a shuttle launch and if a ship’s captain was onboard. Devin grinned wolfishly as Corri’s voice filled the shuttle.
“What do you think you’re doing, Tremaine?”
“Well, hello, Corrine. Fancy meeting you way out here.”
“Listen, you son of a bitch. You land that shuttle on that planet and I will personally take you into custody.”
He didn’t think he’d mind that too very much.
“Your momma needs to go get her money back from that fancy finishing school she sent you to. Tsk, tsk. Such language.”
“You are not funny. Park that shuttle anywhere but back on that piece of garbage you fly and I’ll have to arrest you.”
“Show me your open authorization to arrest anyone on Adhara VII and show me your open warrant on me, in particular,” he challenged. The silence on the other end of the transmission was evidence that her bluff had been called.
“You keep away from Dr. Winston and his team. You stay away from my personnel. And you stay away from me, Tremaine.”
“I’d love to stay away from you. I have every intention of staying away from you. As for the rest of it, you’d better tell Winston to steer clear of my people. Cooperation is a two-way street, and if your people don’t respect mine I’ll personally order them to stand up for themselves.” Let her stew about that, he thought smugly.
“You idiot! You can’t give them permission to start brawls!”
“Sure I can. My people have brains, Dunn. The military hasn’t sucked the grey matter out of their skulls and replaced it with rhetoric. They can actually think for themselves. And they’ll know if they’ve been insulted.”
“This is serious, Devin. You stay away from Winston or I’ll have to take appropriate action.”
“Your actions are always appropriate, aren’t they?”
“You bastard.”
“I do lack parental units, that’s true.”
Devin grinned as the com link went dead. “That went well, didn’t it?” he said to Greg. Behind him, Meredith snorted.
“I don’t know, Devin,” Greg replied. “Did it?”
Devin ignored them and rose to check on the crew riding down to the surface in the cargo bay.
“What did I just hear?” Greg asked Meredith innocently as soon as Devin disappeared.
Meredith grinned at him. “Foreplay.”