Chapter 87

Chapter Eighty-Seven

The idea came to Connor when he turned away from the piloting console, right into a soft blast of cool air from the overhead vent. His sneakers made a chirping noise when he stopped abruptly, mouth open slightly.

Martienne’s head came around. “You have that look—an idea, yes?”

Of course she would see it in his face; they’d worked together for years. She probably knew from his hyperactive behavior rather than the smell of alcohol coming off of him that he was coming off a hangover.

But would that familiarity serve him or hurt him with this idea?

“Maybe.” He hopped into his chair and powered on his own console.

Amber lights welcomed him, reminding him that there were things that required his attention. But there would always be things that required his attention. What mattered at that moment was the Lucky Sevens’s core functionality, and that was flashing green.

In the quiet of the cabin, the creak of Martienne’s seat was louder than the soft drone of the air recycler. It made the closed space of the bridge seem small—just their seats and consoles, so close together.

Connor powered his console down. “How quiet could you keep a liftoff?”

“Quiet?” The pilot snickered. “Is everyone suddenly to go deaf?”

“I’m serious. Let’s say people fell asleep after…after some sedative gas slipped into the recycler. Nothing risky. Nothing big enough to have any aftereffects. But let’s say everyone was deep asleep.”

“Everyone?”

“Not you or me. And I’d need a few people I could trust.”

“So, Selen is asleep, yes?”

That stung. “Sure. Could you get us off the ground and keep airborne for a little while without waking someone like that?”

“If the weather favors us.”

“And how close could you get us to that crashed ship?”

The pilot curled strands of red hair around a finger. “This ship, it is worth such risk?”

“Do you mean will it give us enough to convince Selen not to go back to the ruins?” That was what everyone needed, after all.

“Will it?”

“We won’t know without checking it. If I ask her, she’ll say no.”

“Do now and ask forgiveness, then?”

“Right.”

Martienne uncurled the hair from around her finger. “I will get you as close as possible.”

“That’s good enough.” He smiled, relieved. “Thank you.”

The recruits were obvious: Vicente for his combat prowess; Kalpana for her alertness and scouting skills; Tom for his calm under fire.

And Lem in case anything went wrong and required medical care.

Yemi, Aubriella, and Tom would be sedated, along with Mosiah, Elise…and Selen.

Connor sent a text to each of them to meet him in the cargo bay airlock in five minutes, then he headed down to wait for them. The seconds dragged while he waited, busying himself checking the straps on the cases and crates in the cargo hold.

They straggled in, Lem first in his medical scrubs, then Tom all in black, then Vicente and Kalpana—him dwarfing her. Like Vicente, Kalpana wore cargo shorts and a sleeveless T-shirt. His was red; hers was a bright green, with a message that said, “You wish.”

Without a word, Connor walked to the airlock and cycled the doors. When he headed down the ramp, the others followed.

The brutal heat beat down as they headed for the edge of the low butte where they had so recently fought to keep the lizard creatures from gaining the top. Dark blood still stained the red-gray rock, and when the wind shifted just enough, the stench of rot from the forest intensified.

Something had dragged the dead from the base of the butte. If Connor searched the nearby woods, he imagined he’d find savaged bodies.

Vicente spat over the edge, onto where they’d kicked the corpses. “What’s up, Boss?”

“I needed to talk to you all in private.” Connor glanced at each of them.

“Everything okay?”

“I’m worried, actually.”

Kalpana shoved her hands into the back pockets of her shorts. “This about the ruins?”

“Indirectly.” Connor caught the flinch Kalpana and Tom probably meant to hide. “There’s a wrecked ship out there—” Connor pointed in the general direction of the wreck. “—that might have some answers we need.”

“Another wreck?” The sniper shook her head. “This planet…”

“I know.”

Tom patted his fiery hair, which had been ruffled by the wind. “I don’t understand—why do we care about this ship?”

Connor sighed. “I’ve been trying to come up with a good answer for that.”

“If you don’t have a good answer, maybe there isn’t one.”

“There is, but it’s complicated.”

“We need to know the risks and the reasons to take them.”

“Let me try this for the reason: When I asked Mosiah about the dead people in his ships, he said they weren’t his. Then he said maybe they came here recently and something killed them. Then he said maybe their ship was out there. Or something.”

Vicente snorted. “He did? He knew about this ship? That’s crazy.”

“He didn’t say he knew, but he implied it was out there. And now that I know there is, I have to see what’s in it. If we can find out who came down here and when, that might help us to understand…” Connor sagged. “Something.”

“Boss, you want to go to this ship, I’m in.”

Kalpana’s eyes narrowed. “How’s this different from the ruins?”

Connor had expected that. “We’ll fly as close as we can to this wreck. The four of us will rope down and go in on foot, recon and salvage what we can, then head straight back. There are no ruins nearby.”

“Still sounds dangerous.”

“I think those things we’ve run into are…guardians or something. They shouldn’t care about a wreck.”

“Thought you said there were some around the first landing site we went to?”

“They weren’t there later.”

The sniper smirked. “Okay. And Selen won’t say anything?”

Connor nodded to Lem. “We’ll need to release a small amount of a light sedative in the ship while the rest of us are in the cargo hold. Selen will sleep through the flight. If anything goes wrong, it’s all going to blow up on me. She’s already let me know my time is just about up.”

Lem stiffened. “If I may speak freely?”

“Please.”

“Unlike the rest of you, I am an android. Selen is my owner. Although it is possibly you could be the one to receive the punishment for this mission, it is equally possible that I could face shutdown or destruction.”

“That’s a legitimate concern, Lem. But look at it this way: The rest of us are assets for Selen’s Devils. If you go along with us, it’s strictly to preserve as many assets as possible.”

The android curled a forefinger around his chin. “It would seem a sound defense.”

“Plus you could say I threatened to shut you down.”

“Are you?”

“I would never do anything like that, Lem.”

A smile spread over Lem’s face. “It would seem unlike you.”

Connor held out his hand. “Then we’re in agreement.”

Vicente’s hand shot out first, smothering Connor’s. “Lead the way, Boss.”

Kalpana’s hand came next, and the other hands followed—hesitantly. But they did follow.

They were committed.

Connor hoped he hadn’t made a terrible mistake, because it would be his last.