Page 45 of Red Scale Daddy
I close the channel.
Dux laughs quietly. “You bullied traffic control.”
“I trained them.”
“You threatened them with vocabulary.”
“I spared them tax compliance.”
“Loklo would call that restraint.”
“Loklo should not have been able to access my private channel.”
Dux rests one large hand over the harness across his chest. His claws tap once against the reinforced strap, a small sound almost swallowed by the engines. “He worries.”
“That does not improve his legality.”
“No, but it improves him.”
I glance at him despite myself. His eyes are on the forward canopy now, watching the station shrink behind us. The reflection of telemetry paints pale lines over his red-scaled face, softening nothing, merely adding data to danger. For all his jokes, he has gone quiet in the way people do when a door closes behind them and the next one has not opened yet.
I return my attention to navigation. “First checkpoint in twelve minutes. We follow the Lydian Spur to the outer subspace gate, then cut across the freight shadow beyond Pelagos. No transmissions beyond necessary clearance. No personal calls. No open-channel commentary. No unauthorized adjustments to environmental, navigational, propulsion, shielding, weapons, communications, waste management, lighting, or galley systems.”
Dux turns his head slowly. “Waste management made the command lecture?”
“You have been aboard less than ten minutes, and I have no confidence in your restraint.”
“That is hurtful.”
“It is evidence-based.”
“Am I allowed to breathe?”
“At current consumption, yes. Excessive dramatics may require rationing.”
“There she is.”
I keep my eyes on the display. “Who?”
“The woman from the bar. I was worried you’d left all the insults dockside.”
“I ration them too.”
“Cruel and efficient.”
“Quiet and useful would be a refreshing alternative.”
He considers this with a sincerity that is almost certainly fraudulent. “I can manage one of those.”
“Choose useful.”
“Too late. I chose quiet.”
He falls silent for exactly nine seconds.
Then he taps the secondary console.
The cockpit lights brighten by three percent.
