A Fortunate Accident – Chapter 8

I open the airlock and step out onto the covered stairs locked to the side of the Amagi. The sun is shining, and the air is rich with moisture. I inhale deep into my lungs and let it all out with a smile. Back on Rio. Back in Primeiro.

I’m dying to get off this ship, even if it means crawling through the jungle and getting attacked by dragonsnakes.

I have just spent two awkward meals with Saif and Kalvin, who are already not getting along. Last night’s dinner was slow and quiet, with neither of them talking to the other. They did breakfast this morning in shifts. First, Saif sat with me and chatted about meeting with his family later in the week. He also kept hounding me about the lawyer who wanted me to stay on Ossun. Kalvin took Saif’s place right after, and he did nothing but gush over the Amagi.

At this point, Kalvin should marry the Amagi, not me.

“Ah,” I breathe out. “A beautiful day on Rio.”

A peal of thunder rips through the air, and I turn to face the opposite direction. Yep. A storm’s coming. I should have known better. We’re never far from the rain.

Saif arrives through the airlock with our bags. He sets them at my feet.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” he asks, looking at the oncoming storm. “I think that, instead of trekking through the jungle, we should return to Ossun and deal with this lawsuit head-on.”

I inhale and hold my breath, annoyance clawing at my chest. Saif is the responsible one around here, and I am not having any of it.

“Fuck the lawsuit. My mom can scream and stomp her feet until she’s blue in the face. She’s not getting anything out of me. Nothing. Not one thing.”

His face falls.

“And I’m not putting my life on hold so that she can drag this nonsense on for months or years. I’m going to get on with my new life, and if they come for me, they’ll come for me.”

Three steps down the stairs, I realize Saif hasn’t moved. I squint up at him. Being on a planet is always challenging for the first few hours. They’re so bright.

“Are we good?” I ask him, gentling my voice. I tilt my head to the side.

Saif looks at the ground and rubs his lips together. I don’t like his hesitation. “Yeah. Yeah, we’re good.”

But the tone of his voice tells me he’s not sure.

I weigh my options. If I force Saif into the jungle with me, it may not go well because he’s having doubts. The jungle is not the place to rid yourself of doubts. If anything, it’ll make you run for the nearest spaceship and never come back.

I reach out for my bag.

“Hey, why don’t I head out there alone this first time?” I wrap my fingers around the strap. “I’ll get the lay of the land, and then you can join me later.” I tug on the strap, but he doesn’t let go.

“Sky, I said I would go.” Annoyance touches his voice. Ouch. I cringe. I hate this. I hate knowing that I’m the source of his ambivalence. “I just…”

He looks out over the city in the direction of home, I think.

His home. Maybe he’s regretting not visiting with his family before doing something dangerous. He’s close with his mother, father, her network mates, his sisters and brothers. Just because I’m not close with my family anymore doesn’t mean I should run my life like other people are the same.

India Dellis, my new boss, didn’t give me a definite start date. I could switch around my schedule.

“Okay,” I say gently. “How about we go visit your family now, and we’ll take the mining shuttle tomorrow instead?”

“My family? I don’t want you to be late,” he responds, his knee bouncing.

“I won’t be.” I shake my head. “India will be happy if I show up anytime soon.”

Of course, I want to rush there and get the miserable days of trekking through the jungle over and done with as quickly as possible. But I guess it’s not just me anymore, is it? Now I also have to consider Saif’s and Kalvin’s feelings for the time being. I mean, not permanently or anything. I doubt either of them will be around for long.

“I don’t know,” Saif says, avoiding my eyes and looking out across the city. “I’m beginning to think this is all not a great idea.”

All of what?

Anger rushes up my back. This is such a waste of time. All of it. Everything. This new job. This trip to Rio. This meeting of the family. Everything is a waste when I’m going to end up with nothing anyway. I grew up with nothing. I’ll die with nothing.

“Fine,” I say, ripping my bag out of his hand. I pivot on my heel and storm down the rest of the stairs. “I’ll go find the shuttle and be on my way. I’ll call you when I get back.” I lower my voice. “If I get back.”

“Skylar!” he calls out, running down the stairs behind me. Lightning sparks through the air a few kilometers away, and thunder rumbles after it. “Please, don’t misunderstand me.”

I come to a halt, remembering Marcelo’s advice. He told me that Saif was devoted to me, but he would leave if I continued to push him away.

And you know what? If this relationship ends, it will not be my fault.

No.

I will not be the one to end it.

I stop and turn around. The anger in my chest is so hot I could breathe fire. But I draw a cool breath of air and try to calm down.

“What am I misunderstanding?” I set my bag down. “Please explain it to me. Explain to me what’s going on, so I can make the right choices here.”

He pauses a meter from me, but he says nothing.

I lift my chin. “Because I want to make the right choices.”

“Then why did you leave Ossun when you weren’t supposed to?”

I pull back. “Who’s telling me what I’m supposed to do? Huh?”

“You’re supposed to be making good decisions that protect you and your crew,” he says, anger reaching a new level in his voice. “And running off to Rio when you have a pending legal action on Ossun is not a good decision.”

I breathe steadily, in and out, in and out. “What, pray tell, was I supposed to do? Sit around on Ossun until someone finally got around to suing me?”

He leans towards me. “You should have left the Amagi there and hired a different ship. Come on, Sky. This is not brain surgery. The Amagi’s legal ownership is in question here, and you flying it off to Rio will not look good.” He sighs and turns his eyes to the blue sky. “I knew you were hot-headed and compulsive, but I never thought you’d do this.”

Ouch. That hurts.

Hot-headed and compulsive — I’ve heard that too many times in my life. Maybe I should have been the model daughter and just handed over the ship. But the Amagi is mine. I have spent the last few years working on every detail of its rehabilitation. My mom didn’t come to look at it even once while it was in spacedock. I was ready and willing to take over the business, and then she screwed me.

No, no, no.

“Saif,” I say, calming my voice, “there is no money to hire a ship. My balance is rock bottom. I spent my last credits on the docking fees, and I don’t get paid unless I show up at the Patras camp.” I reach out and lay my hand on his arm. “I know that for you, you have access to funds, and you can solve any problem with money.”

He grimaces.

“But my life doesn’t work like that. I have nothing. My family has nothing. You’ve seen Vivian’s farm. The fall festival was lovely, and a good sign things are going well. But they are just barely scraping by.” I heft my bag. “This bag has all the clothes I own, minus a few fancy dresses and shoes. I told you I’m broke with no inheritance now. I need to get to the jungle and get paid. The Amagi is all I have left to make a living, so that I can…” I lose my breath for a moment. “So I can have a family someday.”

My heart hurts, wondering if that’s even possible.

“Look at you,” I say, gesturing to his new camping wardrobe and impeccable style and poise. “What the hell is someone like you doing with a down-on-her-luck tramp like me? I still have literally no idea what you see in me when I am nothing but trouble.”

“Don’t talk about yourself that way,” Saif says, and I think I’ve finally gotten through to him.

“Skylar!” Kalvin leaps from the Amagi’s airlock and runs down the stairs to meet us. He huffs and puffs for a moment before pushing his hair into place and smiling. “Hey. Didn’t want you to leave without me.”

I sigh as I glance at Saif. Saif turns so he doesn’t have to look at Kalvin. “Why does everyone think they’re going to come with me? Huh? Since when is this a group tour?”

Kalvin presses his hand to his chest. “I have survival skills.”

He also has a slight heart problem, which I learned about in the desert. But that’s a topic for another time.

Saif sighs and turns to Kalvin. My shoulders prickle with goosebumps.

“Come on, man.” Weariness has set up camp in Saif’s voice. “You weren’t even there for her when she needed you. What makes you think you’re coming along on a dangerous trek through the jungle? Stick with the ship.”

“Uhhh —” I start, but Kalvin laughs.

“Skylar doesn’t need help from anyone. She’s an independent woman. Isn’t that right, Sky?” He turns to face me, and I swallow hard. He jerks his thumb at me. “This here is a woman who can do anything. She’s as hard as stone and rules her kingdom with an iron fist.” He nods once. “I came when I could because I knew she would be all right.”

Despite Saif’s cold and unhappy face, I can’t help but smile at Kalvin. That’s the kind of independence that I like to exude, though not too much. No one will ever want to date me if I don’t need them.

I actually do need support. I need people in my corner for this fight I have ahead. I need the close times, the heart-stopping looks across the room, the hot sex, and tender moments… I need it all.

“I’m glad you made it,” I say to him. “Ruling my kingdom is tiring.”

He cocks a sideways grin. “That’s why I’m here to help.”

Saif looks between Kalvin and me. “So, Skylar’s an independent woman who can do anything, huh?”

My skin grows cold, and I open my mouth to deny it, but nothing comes out.

In Saif’s brief from Marcelo, he said he wanted an independent woman, but he also said he wanted someone willing to ask for help. Saif loves to help. It’s his favorite thing.

Honestly, at this point in my life, enough people have let me down to never want to ask for help ever again.

But I’ve enjoyed the last week or two with Saif and having him around to guide me. I should have listened to him about the Amagi too. And now this situation is just going to make things worse.

I can see his thoughts swirling. Kalvin is making him think twice about me.

Kalvin’s smile is slight. “She doesn’t need me to come along with her into the jungles, but I’m going anyway because it sounds dangerous, and I love danger.”

“Right,” Saif says, taking a half step back. I would laugh, but I’m still stuck wondering what will happen next.

“Don’t be scared.” Kalvin slaps Saif on the shoulder. He stops, narrows his eyes, and reaches out to lay his hand on Saif’s upper arm. “You work out.” He nods slowly. “Good. We’re going to need that where we’re going.”

“And just where do you think we’re going?” Saif asks him.

“The… jungles…” Kalvin says slowly like he’s talking to someone who doesn’t understand the language.

“No, actually.” Saif picks up his bag, his lips in a straight line. “We’re going to visit my family first. We’ll get on the shuttle to the gemstone mine tomorrow morning.”

My stomach bottoms out. Oh no. He’s angry again. This is not how I want to meet his family. He’s going to cause a scene, isn’t he? He’s going to punish me, right?

Wait, no. This is Saif. He cares for me. I have to trust that he would never do anything intentionally to hurt me. He may make me feel a little uncomfortable or tease me, but he would never hurt me.

Trust him. Trust him. Trust him. I repeat it in my head.

“Can I at least go inside and change first?” I ask, jerking my thumb at the ship. “I don’t want to show up looking like this.” I gesture to my ripped and stained jeans, old t-shirt, and boots.

Saif doesn’t smile. “You look fine.”

I’m about to object and tell him I’d like to make a good first impression when Kalvin steps between us.

“Will we eat Indian food while we’re there?” he asks.

“We call it just food,” Saif responds.

I huff a short laugh.

“Curries, rice, fried pockets of goodness?” Kalvin asks, his eyebrows climbing as he looks at the darkening sky.

“Yes, all of that,” Saif says, smiling.

Well, at least they’re getting along.

“Great. Let’s go.” Kalvin jerks his thumb over his shoulder. “Looks like it’s going to rain, and all the autocabs will fill up if we don’t get in the queue soon.”

He and Saif turn and head off down the walkway, not looking back to see if I agree or if I’m coming or anything. My heart sinks to my stomach as I remember the way Vivian’s network dotes on her, supports her, and cares for her, the way they all work together because they love one another.

That’s just another thing I can’t have, isn’t it?

I grab my bag and follow them, picking up my pace as the rain begins to fall.