Unbound

Unbound by Kay Danella Page B

Book: Unbound by Kay Danella Read Free Book Online
Authors: Kay Danella
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Inner Worlds awaiting their turn. More light flashed farther out, ships headed toward one of the Ring’s satellite stations that flourished around the Ring catering to the transit traffic.
    Romir leaned toward the screen, lips parted, staring with unabashed wonder at the endless flow of galactic trade. Never had he looked more like a grounder than now.
    How would he react to the sentients on the stations? Space held an odd assortment of races. Except for Tehld with their telepathic hive groups, most larger ships had mixed crews. Perhaps a word of warning was called for.
    Asrial commed the Ring’s admin to add the Castel to the inbound queue. They gave her a slot three days hence by Ring standard—not great, but she’d had longer waits. It was better than the alternative. With only the Castel ’s jump drive, she couldn’t hope to reach the Inner Worlds in her lifetime.
    She changed course to head for Eskarion 14. Of the nine stations in the Eskarion constellation on the Rim side, it had the best mix of low docking fees, cheap food, and good security. There were cheaper docking bays on some of the other stations, but the ships patronizing those usually had crews that were . . . less than aboveboard. With her hold full of Majian relics, she preferred not to throw temptation in their path.
    The approach to Eskarion 14 was the usual orderly chaos as cargo ships, traders, and personal craft converged on the sprawling station. Time and expansion had added to the original structure, obscuring the three-ringed cylinder favored by the designers of the iBor corporation. All the rings now sprouted irregular arms that stretched more than the cylinder’s length.
    A bay was immediately available, allowing Asrial to dock without undue delay. While the Castel wasn’t as small as those sleek one-man ships, it fitted inside without difficulty, unlike the larger traders that required an outside slot with external hard points and boarding tubes.
    Even before the bay door was sealed and the clamps and linkages were green, her focus had shifted to the supplies she needed.
    The stations operated around the clock and always on “daytime.” The commercial levels hadn’t observed night cycles for as long as Asrial could remember. With all the ships passing through, their shipboard clocks set to different times, there was no lack of people wanting to buy something, and the stations were organized to sell it to them. Downtime was lost profit for the conglomerates that owned the constellations.
    But before she could tackle replenishing her supplies, she had to do something about Romir. She considered his appearance carefully as she shrugged into her jacket. “You’ll draw attention if you walk the station dressed like that.”
    It would be a pity to hide that chest, but only pleasure bods showed that much skin. She’d rather not spend her time fending off offers for his services, but the alternative would be to leave him on the Castel while she bought suitable attire. While she accepted that he was a djinn, the thought of leaving anyone alone on her ship turned her stomach.
    “How should I dress?” Romir’s calm acceptance of her decision only underscored the difference between him and most men of her acquaintance. His demeanor made the back of her neck itch. Pleasure bods were similarly complaisant.
    Using the comp, she accessed the station net to check the clothes shops. She could have something delivered, but the fees for the service made her wince. “I think something like that.” She settled on an ordinary pair of pants, a long-sleeved shirt, and boots—typical spacer gear and entirely unexceptionable.
    She turned to him to gauge his size and stared.
    Romir was now garbed exactly as the figure on the comp’s screen, the loose pants he’d worn nowhere in sight. He ran a hand over a sleeve, smoothing down the bland, gray green fabric. “Better now?”
    “Well,” she temporized, trying to act as if nothing unusual had happened,

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