Chapter 108
Chapter One Hundred Eight
Deep indigo clouds stretched across the horizon, dark against the crimson sky. For Connor, that meant one thing: They didn’t have a lot of time.
He slammed the Badger’s sliding door shut and ran the last of the tool kits up the ramp leading into the archaeologists’s ship, dropping the bags onto the deck with a muted metallic clang.
One upside to the sun setting was that it had mercifully already started too cool. The ship interior still reeked of the planet’s thick air, but it would’ve been worse at midday.
Maintenance lights glowed at the center of the hold, reflecting dully off the gray walls.
The Moon twins had a pair of lights pointed at the airlock door as Connor shut it. They would turn those lights on once it turned dark outside. Piled next to those lights were small, improvised grenades.
Although the fragments were plastic and light metal, Connor hoped he was right about the scorpions not being able to penetrate the airlock.
No one ever wanted explosives going off inside their ship.
He came to a stop between the two brothers. “You keep us safe, the debt’s forgiven.”
Tom smirked. “They followed us all the way here. That’s trouble.”
“It’s only trouble if they keep us from making it back. You two do your job, and we’ll be fine.”
As Connor headed up the ramp, he caught Tim mumbling something to the other clone. It sounded like the shorter of the two felt that he was right, and that the trouble began the second they left the Lucky Sevens.
That had actually been Elise’s bet, though.
And Connor was pretty sure an objective person would agree that she was the closest of the four of them to the truth.
What they needed right then was positivity.
He found her in the engineering section, brushing hair back and cursing under her breath. He’d made a mess of the place yanking deck panels out, and now she was getting a good look at that mess.
Her eyes came up from one of the exposed crawlspaces. “You did this?”
“Me and our engineer. Drew. Mostly me.”
“Are you always so brutal?”
“We were in a hurry.”
She pulled out her pocket computer. “I’m sending you a list of parts you’ll need to swipe from those other two ships.”
Connor’s computer vibrated. “Pipes, filters…those are easy enough.”
“We’ll need to soak everything in a pretty toxic cleanser.”
“You’re thinking those spider things have been at the ship?”
“You said they were down in the hold, right?”
“On this ship.”
“Best we start with eliminating them, then.”
He put the computer away, then pulled out the broken one and carefully walked around the exposed metal struts. “I know you’re busy, but…”
She held a hand out. “What’s this?”
“It’s about the only thing I think we have that gives us a shot of figuring out who was aboard that wrecked ship.”
“The mercenary ship you got the Badger out of?”
“No data cores. No way of identifying the ship.”
Elise flipped the broken computer around in her hand, then stuffed it in a chest pocket of her jumpsuit. “We’ll have some time if we get this thing running again. Our starting point is that parts list I gave you.”
“I’ll take Tim with me. Keep your gun close.”
She looked around, then pointed at the Orion assault rifle. “Always in sight.”
Connor headed back down. Neither of the twins would be happy about splitting up. If they wanted off the rock, chances had to be taken.
Tom was waiting at the bottom of the ramp. “Any update?”
“A shopping list.” Connor held up his pocket computer. “Parts.”
“From the Lucky Sevens?”
“Those other two ships.”
The taller clone slumped. “Those scorpions are going to be here—”
“I could argue with you and lose precious time, or I could take Tim with me while you watch this ship.”
“And this is going to get this hunk of junk flying?”
“It’s the starting point.”
Tim headed for the airlock. “Let’s go.”
Connor grabbed one of the maintenance lights, then the tools he would need. He left the Asp behind. Inside the ships, his swords would be more effective.
In the time they’d been sealed inside, the sun had dropped lower. Now a steady wind was blowing, rustling the moss.
He started with the closer of the ships, getting a boost from Tim to open the airlock and ramp using the same device used the last time.
The wind sucked the stale air out of the ship.
Tim squatted in the airlock, eyes fixed on the sky back the way they’d come.
How long ago had they dragged the dried husks of bodies out of these ships?
It was all becoming a looping nightmare for Connor. From the second they’d entered the atmosphere, the planet had tried to kill them. Giant bugs, snake things—
By all rights, they should have died by now.
In the smaller engineering section, he brought up Elise’s inventory.
Pipes—four different sizes.
Those were the easiest. He set the light down and went to work, popping up panels and searching until he found the lengths, diameters, and gauges he needed. That took longer than he’d hoped, but he came away with the necessary filters in the process.
Next were gear mechanisms—common enough and the housings were a simple extraction.
Finally, there were batteries and fuel cells.
They weren’t ideal, but this was just about replacing parts. Better replacements could be taken from the Lucky Sevens once they were sure this would work.
Everything he pulled was piled on top of the tools.
When he was done, he checked his stopwatch: fifty-one minutes.
That wasn’t ideal.
Tim turned as Connor approached. The twin scowled. “I think they’re coming.”
The sky was too dark to be sure, but Connor checked through his ultraviolet contact lenses.
A swarm of green forms sped toward them, less than a kilometer out.
He stepped onto the ramp, then closed the airlock behind them.
It wouldn’t be long before they would have their chance to test his theory about the hull plating.
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