Chapter 69

Chapter Sixty-Nine

When Connor reached the passageway, he pulled his pocket computer out. He grunted in embarrassment at the realization that he’d let the alarm cause panic, then allowed that panic to drive his actions.

That was fatigue. And frustration.

He stood under a vent, basking in the cool, sweet air while Selen glared at his pocket computer.

Except, Connor realized, the air had a musty funk to it. And it wasn’t as cool as it should be. He was comparing it to what it had felt like outside, in the swampy planetary atmosphere.

When the pocket computer interfaced with the Lucky Sevens’s monitoring systems, it identified the problem he’d been dreading.

Selen took the computer from him. “Hull breach?”

“And something happened to the atmospheric recycler.”

“Then I guess we know where the breach is.” She returned his computer to him. “Someone’s going to have to go up there.”

It would’ve been Drew and him, but now it was just him. “Maybe Yemi can help me.”

“Not you. You’ve done enough crazy crap.”

“I’m the closest you’ve got to an engineer.”

“And you’re my only second. Someone else goes.”

“No one’s going out there alone.”

He jogged aft, and cut to the starboard side just before the infirmary. Normally, he preferred entering the engineering section through the top deck hatch, but not with a breach. Odds were pretty good it was the upper hull that had been penetrated based on the ringing they’d heard earlier.

Just inside the entry and to his left was another locker area with environmental suits.

Connor let himself in and pulled a suit out of the nearest locker. While he pulled the boots on over his sneakers, he squinted out the small porthole to see if there was any obvious damage to the mid-deck engineering section.

Misty steam obscured most of the large compartment.

Steam could escape from the atmospheric processor or the reactor coolant system. The reactor wasn’t throwing any alerts or warnings, which left the atmospheric processor.

He zipped up the suit, sealed his helmet and gloves, then let himself into the main section.

The steam was so thick, it could hide someone—or something.

It was easy enough to follow the high-pressure hiss to the source of the breach: a pipe about three meters above the deck. Condensation dripped down the bulkhead and pooled on the deck plates.

Nothing could be in the steam, Connor told himself. It would boil the skin off a human, and it was heating his protective suit.

Even one of the lizards would be hurt by it.

Yet as he inspected the damaged pipe, he felt like something was watching him from where the steam was collecting overhead before escaping the ship.

When he concentrated on the break, the cause seemed obvious.

It wasn’t a thin pipe crack or an elbow come undone but a clear gouge.

He had answers to the two big questions: Where was the damage, and was it related?

Connor fell back to a control panel, head always turned enough to keep the rising cloud of steam in sight. At the control panel, he powered the recycler down.

Then he backed out to the locker room and changed again.

Selen was waiting for him outside, arms crossed. “Well?”

“Whatever got through the hull damaged one of the pressure pipes in the atmosphere recycling array. The engineering section’s full of steam.” And something’s in there, watching. But he couldn’t say that.

“More crap left by Drew.”

“I think we’ve had enough of that, okay?”

“Why are you so concerned with protecting her, huh? Were you two f—”

“Selen. Stop.” He glanced back at the ramp down to the cargo bay. “I’m going to need to take Yemi out.”

“You’re not—”

“We have a hole in the hull. The atmospheric recycler is damaged. I have to go out.”

She seemed ready to lean into him and jab her finger into his chest but relaxed instead, dropping her arms to her side. “You’ll need someone to watch your backs.”

“Kalpana and Aubriella.”

Irritation twisted Selen’s face, then she shrugged. “Your call.”

Connor walked to the ramp, connecting to Aubriella, Kalpana, and Yemi as he went. They all three answered after a delay, staring at their computers with dull, bloodshot eyes.

It was a feeling Connor understood all too well. “Sorry to wake you.”

Yemi knuckled sleep from his eyes. “Yemi slept.”

“I know. You heard the alarm?”

Aubriella didn’t respond other than blinking a little more rapidly.

Kalpana yawned. “Something happen to the ship?”

“Hole in the hull.” Connor waved at the Moon twins as he slid among the crates, gathering the tools and patch panels as well as sealant he would need to repair the damage. “Yemi, I’m going to need your help patching it. Aubriella and Kalpana—”

The scout flashed a thumbs up. “We’ve got your back.”

Aubriella twitched, then disconnected.

Connor wasn’t sure if she or Yemi would show, but they arrived a few minutes after Kalpana, who was still pulling her shirt on when she rushed down the ramp.

She paused, smiling at him. “Not sure what you’ll see, huh?”

He turned to point to the gear he’d piled next to the airlock hatch. “The pounding stopped.”

“Sure.” She brushed past him, slowly pulling her shirt down, then setting her armored chest plate on and clasping it shut.

When the four of them were armored up and had their weapons ready, Connor signaled for the Moon twins to open the hatch.

It was clear out, the setting sun turning the sky a weird coral and indigo.

Aubriella gasped. “They…left?”

Kalpana snorted. “Message finally sank in: Not interested.”

The young mercenary scowled. “That’s not funny.”

“Whatever.”

While the two women climbed to the top of the ship, while the Moon twins trained their guns on the butte edge. Next, Yemi climbed up. He did so with some difficulty and cursing. Once he was on the top, Connor followed, dragging ropes that the Moon boys could attach to everything they’d need for repairs.

Connor was drenched in sweat and nearly choking on the hot, fetid air by the time they had everything hauled up on top of the ship.

He felt exposed and helpless, unable to watch for threats.

Worse, he was sure something was ready to drop on him from the sky overhead. He couldn’t describe the feeling, but he also couldn’t deny it: There was something out there—something worse than the lizards and bugs.

Put it aside and focus on the job, he told himself. And he did.

The hole was about a meter long and nearly half as wide.

Yemi kicked at the twisted metal. “The hull punches into the ship.”

Connor squatted to get a closer look. “Something got it from out here.”

They all looked skyward, but it was Aubriella who bit her lip. “Not one of the lizards, then.”

Yemi helped carry all the gear and the panels to the hole, while Kalpana took up a position about five meters forward. Aubriella stayed aft and remained closer. She dropped to her belly but kept her eyes on the darkening sky.

While Connor and Yemi worked, she brought her gun up abruptly a few times, and swept around in an arc. It was as if she saw something but couldn’t get a lock.

But she didn’t explain what was going on. She just dropped back flat.

That sense of being watched—they were all feeling it.

And maybe that meant something was watching them. Waiting.