Chapter 86
Chapter Eighty-Six
Fired. The idea ate at Connor. If he were relieved or demoted, who could advocate for the team? Who could be the second? Or would Selen even appoint someone? She was becoming despotic.
That was extreme and unfair. But she was definitely handling the stress poorly.
He paced his cabin, which now seemed to close in around him, the bunk and sink blocking his narrow path. His racing mind brought on chills.
She could order him to stay in his cabin and take the team out herself.
Or she could lock him in a smaller cabin.
If she did that, maybe Martienne would follow through on her implied threat. Maybe someone else would.
Then what?
His sneakers squeaked when he turned sharply. Selen’s soft perfume was still in the air, digging into his mind, dredging up pleasant memories of the time before their trip to Mara and…
Connor rubbed the amulet, which felt cool under his T-shirt.
This was something Toshiko would never do—torturing him, toying with him. Then again, it was something Selen would never have done a year ago.
Something had gone wrong recently, and he’d missed it.
It really is my fault, he realized.
But maybe he still had time to prevent disaster.
He rushed out of his cabin, relieved that he at least hadn’t been locked in yet. Maybe Selen had only meant to send the message that she wasn’t going to put up with anything but complete loyalty.
That was his job, after all.
The bridge was empty, the hatch open.
His heart skipped a beat. Had Selen figured out that Martienne was behind the threats?
Booted steps echoed in the passageway.
Connor twisted around: Martienne was drying her hands, her attention on the deck.
She jumped at the sight of him. “Connor? Why have you come to the bridge?”
When she was past him, he closed the hatch. “We need to talk.”
“What about?” Her head tilted slightly. The way she looked at him…she sensed something was wrong.
“I talked to Mosiah last night.”
“And he told you he would accept canceling the mission, yes?”
“Not about that. I was curious about the abandoned ships.”
Martienne hugged herself. “Those ships, they are reason enough for us to flee.”
“It’s creepy, definitely. But…I don’t know if I trust Mosiah.”
“And why is that?”
“I don’t know. He suggested there might be another ship out there.”
“A fourth one?” The pilot shrugged. “A planet like this, there could be hundreds.”
“Gregor said there were Coil ships that went missing here. Well, a big ship and at least one shuttle.”
“You think this is the ship the client talks about?”
“I—” Connor didn’t have dates to work from, which was annoying. “It doesn’t sound right. I think Mosiah and his people came out here after those ships disappeared. What he was saying was that someone more recently came out to try to claim something from those two ships his people abandoned.”
“With time and equipment, those ships could be repaired. The salvage would be profitable.”
“I got the sense maybe there was something more than salvage behind it.”
The pilot pointed at her station with a nod. “The scans from earlier—I still have them.”
“Would you mind…?”
She slid onto her seat, still graceful for someone her age and injured as she was. Having part of her scalp shaved didn’t seem to bug her at all.
It had saved her life, and she was long past vanity.
After a few seconds, she had the console running, and loaded up the old scans. “There were several potential landing sites, you see? All in this area.”
The area she indicated was probably a thousand kilometers across. “We don’t have details, though—detailed scans?”
“Good enough. But this Mosiah, he suggested the one, and I flew to it.”
“Yeah.” He leaned over her shoulder to get a better look at the display.
Martienne put a hand on his arm. “Connor—what is wrong?”
“Selen.” How could he explain what was going on? “She’s upset.”
The pilot grunted, then turned her attention back to the display: She understood. “This other ship, then?”
“I don’t know. Maybe it settles things down.”
“Or makes her angrier, yes?”
“Possibly.” He pointed to one of the possible landing sites. “What if it’s not a landing site at all?”
“A ship sets down in the woods?” Martienne shook her head. “This is very risky.”
“What if it didn’t land. Mosiah suggested that maybe it crashed or was abandoned.” Wasn’t that what the old man had said? Or maybe he’d just implied it. “It was kind of odd, what he was saying.”
“No. This is possible. The things we have seen?”
“Right. Something could have damaged a small enough ship.”
Martienne hummed quietly as she worked her way through the scans, alternately drilling down for detail, then pulling back up to examine from a higher elevation.
“Ah!” She pointed to a dark line in the forest canopy some distance away.
“What?”
“A ship that crashes, it leaves a mark, even years later.”
“That dark line?”
“Yes.” She drilled down on that section of the scan.
And an ugly scar appeared in the ground.
Connor leaned closer. “What’s that? A crash site?”
“This would be my assumption, yes. About…four hundred kilometers away.” The pilot drummed her fingers on the console. “There is no good landing spot nearby. It is hard to know from this image, but the angle is right for a ship flying away from the other ships.”
“So, like Mosiah suggested, someone came here with a ship to…do something with those abandoned ships but crashed.”
“It is possible.”
That was good news: Mosiah’s assumption was sound.
It was also bad news: Mosiah must have known more than he shared all along. His assumption about the ship coming to the planet and crashing…that was more than an obvious intuitive leap.
And that was a problem. They needed to check this other ship out before Selen ordered the team back to the ruins, but how?
Connor would have to figure that out. Soon.
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