Chapter 25

Chapter Twenty-Five
Selen picked up her pace when Connor caught up to her in the empty passageway outside the galley. When he sped up to keep up with her, she turned a withering look on him. It felt like someone had turned the heat up.
He tried on a pleasant grin. “Smells like you got a little too close to the kimchi.”
“Then you’re a little too close to me.”
“Fair enough.” He scraped to a stop, hefting the backpack.
Selen stopped a couple meters away, shoulders slumped. “What do you want?”
“To talk about the job. Is that too much?”
“We have one. Isn’t that enough?”
“Normally, yeah. It’s just…all the things you said about Mosiah, and all the things that have happened recently…”
She turned, hands on her slender hips. “Let’s focus on what’s in front of us.”
He took a step. “That’s good advice. And I’m trying to do that.”
“You’re asking about the past.”
“To inform how we plan for the future. This job, what you know about the client: All of that matters.”
“No. We have a job. That’s what matters.”
“It’s a job you didn’t even want to take on a few hours ago.”
“Too late to back out now, so forget about that.”
He extended his free hand: palm out and wide. Nothing in his posture or behavior was threatening, yet she recoiled.
Connor pulled the hand back. “Selen, what’s wrong?”
“What’s wrong?” She groaned. “What do you think’s wrong, Connor?”
“We were in a tight spot for money. We were in a bad place. Now we’re not.”
Now she stepped toward him, her index finger jabbing at his chest. “Right. It was all my fault. None of it was your fault. Is that about right? Did I summarize effectively?”
“I didn’t say anything—”
Selen swatted the backpack out of his hand. “Screw you.”
He seized her wrists. “Stop this now.”
She tried to pull free, fingers hooked like claws. “Let. Me. Go.”
“If you tell me we can talk through this like adults, sure.”
“You don’t get to tell me how we talk!” She grunted as her struggles became more intense. Her nostrils flared, and her eyes grew wider.
“This isn’t like you. You’re my captain.”
“Just your captain, huh? You get some time with your old girl, and I’m just your captain?” Selen almost pushed him off his place. Muscles stood out on her neck. “You want to talk about the job but not about that? Huh?”
“We can talk about that, sure. But you need to calm down.”
“Calm down?” She almost yanked a wrist free.
He’d never seen her like this. She was fit and capable, sure, but this strength she was exhibiting was…hard to grasp. Still, he let her go and backed away, both hands raised in peace. “Look, if I caught you sleeping around, and I came at you swinging and growling, wouldn’t you ask me to cool down?”
She seemed about to lunge at him, when the sound of boots scraping against a nearby ladder tube brought her around.
A change passed over her—all the fury and tension draining away in an instant.
Then Rudy descended the rest of the way and stepped off the rungs. He considered the two of them with narrowed eyes, then looked back up the tube. “I was looking for you on the bridge.”
You, meaning the commanders. That was troubling.
Selen arched her eyebrows, suddenly calm and cool. “Something wrong?”
“Martienne. When I popped in there, she was griping about the coordinates.”
“I’ll talk to her.”
Something about that sounded off to Connor. “What coordinates?”
Rudy jerked a thumb back at the ladder. “Where we’re going.”
“We know where we’re going?”
Selen’s false calm evaporated. “I said I’ll talk to her.”
She brushed past Rudy and climbed the ladder in a huff, nearly knocking him off his feet.
When the clang of her boots couldn’t be heard anymore, Rudy shook out his shoulders and squinted after her. “What’s eating her?”
Connor chuckled nervously. “I wish I knew.” He picked the backpack up.
“You think it’s that gal you had waiting for you back at the starport?”
“Toshiko?” Connor blushed. “That’s part of it, I guess.”
“She’s an eyeful. Old flame?”
“Yeah. I guess it never went out.”
“Selen and you—”
“Selen made it clear from the start anything we did was physical. She said she didn’t believe in emotional attachments.”
Rudy massaged his jaw. “You ever run into someone who could actually keep things just physical?”
“Sounds like Kalpana does.”
“Good point, but I meant for an extended period. You and Selen have been together how long?”
Connor scratched the back of his neck. “You said you were looking for us on the bridge?”
“I did.”
“Is it all taken care of?”
Rudy’s eyes lit up, as if he’d just realized something. “No—no it’s not.”
“And it’s about…?”
“Drew. It sounds like she’s already having problems.”
Just wonderful, Connor thought. “Where is she?”
“Engineering. That’s where she was headed, at least. She seemed…out of sorts. Y’know?”
“Sure. For now, could you keep this quiet?”
Rudy dragged an imaginary zipper across his lips.
Connor hurried aft, toward the engineering section. If Drew had gone back in under the influence of drugs…
He slipped into the room that held the protective gear and suited up, then hurried out into the engineering bay. Drew was already out there, tools spread out in front of the same panel as before, which she had open. She was leaning in, running a flashlight around the inside.
Everything looked orderly and normal, but there hadn’t been an alarm or alert.
Had there?
“Hey, Drew.” He squatted next to her, half expecting her to turn around and stare at him with a vacant look.
But when she turned, she seemed perfectly lucid. “Hey. It’s that pipe.”
“What?”
“The break in the coolant pipe? Vertical instead of horizontal? I couldn’t stop thinking about that.”
“Oh. Right. I was curious about that myself.”
“Uh-huh. So, I thought, if someone came in here with a weapon, they’d leave a mark, right?”
“Right.”
She pointed to the wall above the anchor point for the removed panel. “Like this dent here.”
Dent? When she shone the flashlight on that area, the small bend became obvious. “Oh. The dent.”
“Like a haft on a tool.” Drew stood, held the flashlight like a hammer or axe, then mimed a swing.
The flashlight body clanged off the wall.
She shrugged. “Maybe like that. I don’t know. It’s eating at me.”
“Great. Well, if you need any help investigating—”
Drew started to say something, then looked past him. “Hey, Rudy.”
Connor spun around. The sergeant was in a lighter protective suit, standing just inside the shielded door. “Rudy? Is everything okay?”
“Got a second?”
Drew waved Connor on. “I’ll close this up.”
He followed Rudy back to the room and peeled off the protective suit.
The former Talon Directorate soldier set his own lighter suit back in its locker. “Something I forgot when I—” Rudy jerked his head toward the engineering bay. “—told you about her.”
“What’s that?”
“Remember how I said Martienne was upset about the destination?”
“That set Selen off. Again.”
“Seems like.” Rudy rubbed his shoulder. “She packs a wallop.”
“I noticed.”
“Anyway, Martienne let me see where we’re going. She wasn’t supposed to, but she was all worked up.”
“That doesn’t sound good.”
“It’s not. You and me fought on different sides during the Revolt, but there were wars that were bigger than that—lots bigger. A couple times, the Coil got too big for its britches or the Talon did or both. Believe what you want. Point is, they fought over the unclaimed systems between their borders.”
“I was too young for the last one.”
“Not me. I saw some action against your people. They’re good.”
Connor didn’t want to bring up that he didn’t really have a “people.” That set some folks off. “We’re going into that contested area?”
“One of them. This place is a No Man’s Land, apparently. I’ve never heard of it.”
“That’s good, right?”
“Should be. But Martienne hasn’t heard of it either. She likes to think she’s been everywhere or talked to someone who has, so that scares her. But the real problem is Gregor.”
“What about him?”
“He’s heard of this place. He says it’s the last place you want to go to.”
Goosebumps prickled up along Connor’s arms. “Why’s that?”
“Because if you go there, you die.”