Chapter 106

Chapter One Hundred Six

Connor found the Moon twins not far from the airlock ramp, where they were helping Yemi repair a cracked battery casing. Covered in sweat and grime as they were and with them sitting down, it actually was hard to tell them apart.

A gentle breeze softly whistled, almost making the foul air tolerable.

“You two up for some fun?” Connor squatted a few meters shy of the Badger. He preferred being at or below eye level with people when handing out orders.

The twins looked at each other, then one—Tim, based on a quick eyeball estimate of height—dropped a wrench to the ground with a high-pitched, reverberating clang and rubbed black grease from his forehead. “Define fun.”

Tom nodded. “We’ve kind of grown tired of fun after this place.”

It wasn’t going to be easy, then. Connor had hoped they might be over Aubriella’s death. That was probably a misguided optimism. “Well, honestly, I don’t expect it to be fun.”

Tom brushed his hands on his pants. “What is it?”

“Is the Badger working?”

Yemi poked his head out from under the vehicle. “Yemi fixes battery. The Badger works. The Badger operates at fifty-two percent battery.”

“All right. Then here’s the plan.” Connor pointed at the Moons. “You two, me, and Elise are going to take the vehicle out to the abandoned ships. If we think we can get her ship operational, we’re going to fix it, then we’re going to move everyone aboard.”

The mechanic hissed as he dragged himself free of the Badger. “Yemi cannot—”

“Hold up, Yemi. You’re not going with us.”

“Yemi cannot fly the other ship. The other ship is big and clumsy.”

“All you have to do is get us into the sky. I know you can do that.”

“Yemi wants the Lucky Sevens.”

“When we get off this rock, we’ll come back for her.” Connor nodded at the brothers. “But for now, we need to see if we can get this other ship running.”

Tom turned away, chin jutting out. “Four of us?”

“You and Tim just need to give me and Elise cover while we assess this ship.”

“What if those scorpions show up? You think we could hold them off?”

Connor smiled. “Actually, I was thinking about this on the way back last night. I think we could hold them off. Burrowing through dirt and shattering rock…they must have some special ability. It won’t work against a ship’s hull.”

Tim screwed up his face. “There’s the airlock, though.”

“I don’t think that’s a worry. And I don’t think they’re a threat.”

Once again, the twins exchanged a look. They clearly weren’t happy with the assignment, but eventually they got up, mumbled that they’d get their gear, then headed up the ramp.

Yemi wiped his hands with a greasy cloth. “Yemi sees trouble.”

It took everything Connor had not to agree. “Would you mind loading the tools up in the Badger? I’ll bring the rest out when we leave.”

“Yemi loads the tools, but Yemi says no to this idea.”

“We’re going with the least bad choice facing us. The Lucky Sevens has been pushed too hard for too long. It caught up with us.”

“Yemi warns not to waste money when Selen has money. Selen shows nothing from wasting money.”

“She miscalculated. It was a mistake. Let’s get through this, and things will turn around again.”

“No. Yemi leaves now.”

Maybe letting the mechanic leave when he threatened to on Mara would have been the right thing to do, but without Yemi, getting off this planet would be unlikely.

Changing his mind had been the right thing to do—one of the few things Connor had gotten right lately.

He headed up to Elise’s cabin, which was empty.

A quick check of his pocket computer found her last registered in the communications room.

When he found the hatch locked, he rapped against it with a knuckle.

The lock clicked, and Elise met him at the entryway, arms crossed. Her stained jumpsuit was unzipped halfway down her chest, and her odor filled the cramped space. “What now? Another suicide run?”

“We’re heading out to your ship.”

“It’s not worth tearing out more spares.”

“I know. We’re going to see if we can get it running.”

She sniffled and rubbed a grimy hand under her nose. “Just you and me?”

“The Moon boys are going as our guards.”

“Okay.”

“You all right?”

“Define ‘all right.’” The archaeologist relaxed, but when she rubbed her brow, her hand shook. “I haven’t been able to sleep. I keep thinking about those things hunting me down.”

“We’re going to make it, but everything starts with having a functional ship to get off this planet.”

“You’re right—that is sort of a good start, isn’t it?” She smiled sheepishly.

Connor glanced past her. The display showed the same interface she’d been working with earlier. “Any luck rebuilding those data cores?”

“A little. Something’s chewing up all the processing cycles right now.”

“I’d imagine the main system is running diagnostics.”

Elise shrugged. “Our ship probably has superior processing capabilities.”

“Could you copy everything back to the data cores and bring it with us?”

“Sure.” She dropped into the seat, then zipped up her jumpsuit. “I…”

“What?”

“Just…the four of us?”

He’d been dreading the question. “Selen wants to keep the rest of the team here to prepare for the next run.”

The archaeologist slumped as she typed. “Doesn’t that seem…”

“Conservative.”

“More like we’re being set up to fail.” She pushed the data cores closer to the wireless transmitter, as if that would speed up the transfer process.

“Selen made it pretty obvious she’s skeptical of the plan.”

“Of the options available to us, how could she possibly see this as the bad alternative? This ship of yours is a disaster.”

He scuffed a boot toe against the deck. “She’s attached to this ship.”

“That sort of attachment gets people killed.”

“I know. Hey, I’ll meet you down in the hold. I need to grab my gear.”

“Okay.” Elise picked up one of the data cores and squinted at it.

Connor jogged down the hall. He might not be able to shower, but he could change clothes.

There were only two clean outfits remaining in his locker, so he changed into one, then stuffed the other into his backpack. He would pick up the Asp, some ammunition, and the last of the tools on his way out of the cargo bay.

Just before leaving his cabin, he stopped and headed back to his locker, where he dug out the broken pocket computer.

Maybe they’d have time to work on it aboard the other ship.

If it held answers, he had to know, because the questions were piling up.