Welcome back to my reread of K.B. Wagers' "A Pale Light in the Black!" You can find the other posts in this reread here. For those somehow seeing this post first instead of the others, A Pale Light in the Black is a space opera featuring a SF space version of the Coast Guard in an optimistic future universe.
Last time out, the crew arrived to the main event: The Boarding Games - and we ended with Max running into her older brother, who abandoned her years ago. This time, we see the games get ready to begin, with a little extracurriculars between the NeoG and the Navy teams at a bar.....because of course.....
Chapter 40 (33):
Quick Summary: Scott comes up to Max and asks to talk, but Max shuts him down, accusing Scott of abandoning her and pointing out that he hadn't come to her defense when their parents had dumped Max for choosing NeoG. Max insists that the NeoG are her only real family, and leaves Scott behind.
Later, as per tradition, the NeoG team picks up seats at the customary bar for the Boarding Games, with Jenks introducing Max to friendly air force rivals. Naturally when Navy shows up, one of them decides to take a shot at Tamago, and a whole bar fight ensues.....with Max and Jenks beating the shit out of the Navy trio before it's broken up.
#NumberOfTimesTheCrewofZumasGhostHasGottenIntoABarFight: 4
Letters: Stephan to Rosa: The three men who Jenks beat up and turned in have escaped NeoG intelligence's tracking, although Stephen does pass along the encouraging news that two other labs producing the dupe on Trappist have been raided and they think they have locked down that smuggling route....
Thoughts: Poor Max - although anyone who's reading this book for the first time, seeing Scott's reactions, and knowing what we now know about Max's parents, will suspect that Max is a bit misled as to what happened with Scott. Doesn't make it any less hard not to feel bad for her though. Thankfully, she gets to take it all out on some of Scott's navy teammates, who behave like jackasses at the bar.
And yeah of course Stephen and NeoG intel lost the mystery men, it'd be too easy otherwise. I'm sure that won't come back to haunt anyone.
Chapter 42 (34): T-minus Three Days Until The Boarding Games:
Quick Summary: At the introductions to the Games, Max is thrown off by a reporter asking about family, but is rescued by D'Arcy. Not that it stops her from bodyslamming a marine approaching Jenks for a hug - to everyone else's laughter.
Jenks and Rosa meanwhile discover Navy's secret ace in the hole: Lieutenant Tivo Parsikov, demolitions expert, and ginormous hand to hand combatant. They go over to meet him and well, the two have flirty banter before walking away, making Jenks a bit hot and I'm just gonna let the dialogue speak for itself:
"Holy Shit Max, I was expecting evil jerk guy but instead...."
"Even I could hear the sizzling between the two of you, but I want no part of it."
"I'm still gonna kick his ass though"
"Well I should hope so."
Thoughts: I'm going to save my thoughts on Hand to Hand combat and Parsikov for later, but it's hard not to laugh at this chapter - Max responding immediately by bodyslamming someone going for a hug of Jenks (cmon, everyone wants to hug Jenks!) is such a fun development, especially as Nika gets to jibe at her for it. And Parsikov not being the stereotypical evil jerk - even as much of the navy members we've met so far seem to be - is a really different touch. I mean, I never wanted him to win, but I'm sure he'd be a good sport about it if he did.
Max's introverted issues with reporters are so relatable by the way. I may not be able to body slam anyone I think might be coming to harm one of my friends, but I would totally react the same way to reporters and cameras as her. Course unlike Max I'd probably hide in a corner in a bar instead of actually talking to anyone, nevertheless getting involved in an actual bar fight but.....
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Anyhow that's it for today. Next time: We get days 1-2 of the Boarding Games, including Max's first fight! Also, family issues!
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