Without warning, the Afterthought’s alarm, already loud, became deafening.
As far as the ship’s sensors were concerned, the weapon had stored up enough energy to go from very dangerous to insanely dangerous.
Still smarting from Alitma’s tongue-lashing, Daniel took a moment to think.
He could, like the gangster said, sit there until they ran out of food … or he could end it all in a moment.
Daniel knew he should make a decision. A real one, this time. (Daniel earlier postponed his decision in post 2.19 The Kep Effect).
Suddenly, a pair of beautiful green eyes replaced the image of Alitma’s face on the Afterthought’s largest viewscreen.
Two perfectly formed eyebrows at the top of the screen and the bridge of a pert nose at the bottom framed the orbs, which appeared to spark with electricity.
It was Rachel-7’s avatar, the only way she ever deigned to show herself to the crew.
She felt what she was about to say was important enough to grace the captain with her pseudo-presence.
“Just a heads up, Daniel?” Rachel-7 said. “I don’t want to die by cannon explosion. But if it shuts Alitma’s mouth, I can live with it. … So to speak.”
Fair enough, Daniel thought.
