Zenith by Sasha Alsberg Page B

wide, innocent blue eyes. Gilly was a bloodthirsty little beast, a gunner with plenty of death on her hands. And she had one hell of a trigger finger.
    “Why do you insist on ruining my beauty sleep?” Gilly exclaimed, in her fluid little voice.
    A tall, broad-shouldered girl appeared behind her, bending so as not to hit her head on the doorway as she entered. Breck, Andi’s head gunner, rolled her eyes as she placed a large hand on Gilly’s shoulder.
    “Kid, when are you going to learn not to question Lira? You know she won't give you a reasonable answer.”
    Andi laughed at her pilot’s sharp glare. Lira usually explained herself in complex riddles that no one could decipher; a smart ploy to get out of questions she would rather not answer.
    “If only you would look up from your gun sights long enough to begin to understand me, you’d know that my answers are, in fact, quite reasonable.” Lira winked at the gunners before settling into her pilot's seat beside Andi.
    “Adhirans,” Breck said, crossing her thick arms over her chest. Seven feet tall, with black, choppy hair that ended right before her muscled shoulders, Breck was the most intimidating member of the crew, a giantess from the planet New Veda, where Mirabel’s greatest warriors were born. She’d been on the run, pegged for arson, with a bruised and beaten Gilly at her side when Andi picked them up two years ago.
    Gilly, plucked from the market streets of her home planet Umbin, had been on a Xen Pterran trafficking ship with hundreds of other children when Breck saved her. The rumor was that the ruler of Xen Ptera had hopes of building an army from the ground up, no matter the lives she destroyed along the way.
    Breck had saved Gilly from a fate worse than death, Andi thought, and now the two girls were as close as kin. Breck tugged on one of Gilly’s red braids, then lifted her chin and sniffed the air. “I don’t smell breakfast. We need a cook, Andi.”
    “And we’ll get one, as soon as we have the funds to take one on,” Andi said, with a curt nod. “We’re down to less than 300 Krevs.”
    “Speaking of Krevs,” Gilly added, her hand grazing the golden double-triggered gun at her hip, “when’s our next job?”
    Andi leaned back, arms crossed behind her head, and surveyed the girls.
    They were a good crew, all three of them. Small but mighty, and better than what Andi deserved. She stared at her blades once more before returning them to their harness. If only she could put her memories away just as easily.
    “I’ve got a tip for a possible job on Vacilis,” Andi said. It was a desert world a few planets over from Solera, where the wind blew as hot as a demon’s backside, and the air was choked with the stench of sulfur. “But I’m not sure how many Krevs it’ll haul. And it’ll be messy, dealing with the desert nomads.”
    Breck shrugged. “Any money is good money, if it brings us more food stores.”
    “And ammo,” Gilly said, cracking her knuckles like the soldier she was.
    Andi inclined her head at Lira. “Thoughts?”
    “We will see where the stars lead us,” Lira answered.
    Andi nodded. “I’ll get in touch with my informant. Take us away, Lir.”
    “As you wish.” Lira punched the destination coordinates for Vacilis into the Holoscreen on the dashboard, readying the ship for flight.
    Andi turned in her seat. “Breck, Gilly, go to the vault and do a weapons check. Then make sure the Big Bang is fully loaded. I want you two ready, should anything go wrong.”
    “We’re always ready,” Breck said.
    Gilly giggled, and the two gunners nodded their heads before exiting the bridge, Gilly skipping along behind Breck, her golden gun bobbing against her tiny frame.
    “Engines are hot,” Lira said. “Time to fly.”
    The Marauder rumbled beneath Andi as she nearly slumped in her chair, exhaustion worming its way in. She watched as Lira deftly steered them toward Vacilis. The expanse of space stretched out before