Drifters' Alliance, Book 3 by Elle Casey Page A

nothing in particular for me to lock in on. I look over the faces before me, happy to see they all made somewhat of an effort to appear presentable to our new friends. Everyone but Gus looks like they washed their faces, removing most of the grime. Lucinda’s ponytail looks especially tight and shiny.
    “As you all know, Tam is in the brig where he’ll remain until I can figure out what to do with him.”
    “He should be out here with us,” Gus says. He’s back to being grouchy. With all the raw scabs on his face, he makes quite the picture of a disgruntled crewmember.
    “I agree,” Lucinda says.
    “It might not be a bad idea,” Jeffers adds.
    My jaw drops open. I must have been crazy to think we could walk into this thing without discord. I can’t believe these people. “You seriously want a borg representing our ship at this meeting?”
    “He’s not a borg!” Gus yells. Then he backs up a step and wipes down the front of his shirt, dropping the volume several notches when he continues. “He’s my brother.”
    “He’s not going to do anything harmful,” Jeffers says. “Gus will keep an eye on him, and I’m worried what the Alliance will think if one of our engineers stays behind.”
    “There’s nothing strange about keeping a crewmember behind on the ship,” I say, not playing into this game with them. “And Gus is going to be in medical services, so he’s not going to be keeping an eye on anything but the inside of his lids.” I gesture at his face. “Maybe you didn’t notice, but he’s had a little run-in with a bomb.”
    Lucinda turns around to look at him, apparently for the first time since she arrived, and then faces me again, her expression aghast. “What the heck happened to him? What bomb? The one under your seat? Did it go off in his face?”
    I hold up my hand to stop the barrage of questions. “We have some devices on this ship that someone installed before I arrived. We’ve done a sweep and located all of them, it’s just going to take some time before we can totally dismantle them. Maybe our friends in the Alliance can help. In the meantime, we need to go over there, make introductions, mingle, see what they have to offer us, and show them what we can do.” I sweep the room with my gaze again, locking eyes with everyone, one at a time. “This meeting is critical. They’re going to take our measure and decide how much they’re willing to trust us. I expect each of you to act with respect and a sense of fair play.”
    Baebong looks over at Gus. “You hear that? Just eat and keep your mouth shut, and you should be fine.”
    “What’s that supposed to mean?” Gus scowls at Baebong, making his face bleed again. He hisses with the pain and almost touches his cheek, but thinks better of it and doesn’t. His hand balls into a fist and rests at his side as he glares at my friend.
    “Easy, Baebong. Now’s not the time to be messing around. I’m sure Gus is in a lot of pain and will probably mistake your sense of humor for an insult.” I give him a hard look to tell him to cut it out.
    “I’m not messing around. All we need is for him to mention his borg brother, and we’ll get kicked out. Probably blasted into ice crystals for our trouble.”
    “He’s not a borg!” Gus moves toward Baebong with fire in his eyes, but he’s held off by Jeffers.
    “Not now!” I yell. My voice bounces off the inside of the hull. Everyone faces me, surprised at the sudden vehemence. I take a few breaths to calm myself. “Tam can’t come.”
    “I think he should,” Jeffers says, standing up straighter.
    I can’t believe this guy. He chooses right now to give me friction? What the hell? I thought we’d moved past that.
    “Why?” Baebong says, turning to face him with his chest puffed out. “Give us one good reason.”
    “I already did. Adelle can watch our systems and alert us if anything needs to be addressed. The Alliance will get suspicious if we don’t use our compubot for