Chapter 100

Chapter One Hundred

Pain radiated out from the small of Connor’s back after hunching over for so long. Every millimeter of him stank like sweat-soaked metal, which might be explained by the rust flecks clinging to the surface of pooled sweat.

He set the winch motor down hard enough that the clang drowned out his groan.

To his right, Yemi didn’t even look up from the gearbox he’d been fiddling with for the last half hour, jeweler’s screwdriver scraping and clicking. To the left, Vicente was equally absorbed in disassembling an Orion pistol.

Connor stood and stretched his back. “I hope you two are having better luck.”

The big heavy weapons expert let out a gravelly chuckle. “No way, Boss.”

“Seriously?”

Vicente held out the partially-disassembled pistol. “Take a look.”

Rust discolored the recoil spring and trigger assembly, and hairline fractures ran the length of the slide.

Connor returned the weapon. “How is that possible? I saw these guns yesterday. They were operational.”

“Don’t know, Boss. What I see is maybe one salvageable pistol and rifle out of the lot.”

The integrated combat system image flashed in Connor’s brain.

How could three weapons—three well-maintained weapons—fail at the same time?

It was a question he couldn’t trouble Vicente or Yemi with. Too much rode on them. At this point, Selen’s narrative that they’d wasted time and lost Martienne for no reason was winning out.

Connor stretched again, then dropped back down to the motor. It was too far gone for him to save it, but maybe Yemi could work his magic.

Vicente started sorting parts on a towel. “It’s the bullets I don’t get.”

“The duds?”

“The ones that failed in the gunfight, yeah.”

“I’ve got those locked up in my cabin.”

“Got time to tear them apart?”

“I could.” Connor pointed to the duds Selen had laid out. “Might want to check these first.”

“Sure.”

The bullets had a towel to themselves, which Connor pulled to him. He started with a pistol round, carefully prying the bullet from the case with a pair of pliers.

There were no obvious problems with the gunpowder, which meant testing it was the only way to figure out what was wrong.

He took a metal bowl from the weapons toolkit Vicente had brought down from the weapons locker and emptied the gunpowder into the container. A closer examination revealed a possible problem, and a sniff confirmed it.

“Take a look at that.” Connor held the bowl out to Vicente.

“Why’s it white?”

“It’s gone bad. Smell how it’s acidic?”

The big man sniffed. “Oh. Wow.” His brow wrinkled. “How did Elise fire it?”

“That’s the big question, isn’t it.”

So they would have to replace the powder on all the rounds they’d retrieved, or at least they’d have to check them. That was a lot of work. He would have Kalpana and the twins start on it, but even with Vicente’s help, they didn’t have time to do the whole batch.

Connor set the bowl down. “I’m going to get everyone else down here to start tearing this stuff apart.”

“Good idea. We got a little while.”

“Not long enough.”

Vicente shrugged. “My pops used to say, you only got the time you got. Don’t sweat anything more.”

“That’s a good philosophy.”

“That’s what he did: political philosophy.”

Connor had to stop himself from doing a double take. “Your father was a teacher?”

“Professor, yeah. Funny thing is, my mom was the radical, and she was a systems engineer. ‘Burn it all down!’ That was her thing.” The big man chuckled. “When I teased her about us living a pretty good life, she’d get so mad.”

“How’d they let you go into this lifestyle?”

“They didn’t have a say. Right after my seventeenth birthday, they visited some people they knew in Talon Sector, and the shuttle they were on blew up.”

“Is that why you spent most of your time on the Lucky Sevens when we went to Mara?”

“Don’t trust ‘em.”

Yemi set the gearbox down. “Yemi trusts Connor.” The mechanic nodded toward the heavy weapons expert. “Vicente.”

Connor stood. “We’re a team. You have to trust your teammates.”

“Not Selen. Selen changes.”

“Let it go. She’s our captain.”

The mechanic picked the winch motor up. “Yemi fixes. Gear box works.”

That was the end of it, then. Yemi wasn’t going to change his mind about Selen. So long as he didn’t create drama, it would be good enough.

Aubriella slouched out of the galley as Connor came up from the cargo bay. She smiled, but there was a wounded look to her eyes. “Hey.”

Connor wanted to hug her and tell her it would be fine.

But Rudy would’ve given her an earful and told her to work it off, get over it.

Maybe something in between would do.

Connor pointed back the way he’d come. “Vicente could use your help, if you’re up for it.”

She brushed her fingers over the spot that had been wounded before. “Okay.”

“Tearing bullets apart, checking the gunpowder, maybe replacing it.”

Her eyes brightened. “That sounds good.”

Anything to take her mind off…everything, Connor imagined. “See if you can round up the twins and Kalpana to help.”

She saluted, then spun around and hurried up the forward ladder chute.

“Connor?”

It was Selen’s voice, coming from the galley.

He poked his head in, saw her sitting in the corner, studying her pocket computer and waved. “Looks like the gunpowder on that ammo went bad.”

“So, I wasn’t lying after all?” Her eyes came up, surprisingly calm.

“I never said you—”

“Will we be ready to go in the morning?”

“I think so.”

“Make sure of it. You know I hate wasting time. Eliminate whatever’s holding us up.”

“Everyone’s busy.”

She looked back down at her computer. “Make sure they’re busy doing meaningful work.”

A dull pain started in his temple. She was getting to him. “Sure.”

“And maybe we should take care not to let your archaeologist get her fingers into too much.”

Did Selen know about the data core restores? “She’s doing a lot of engineering work that I haven’t had time to do.”

“Inspect it. Keep an eye on her. Or are you already?”

“Elise isn’t the issue. I’m starting to think maybe Mosiah isn’t, either.”

That got Selen’s attention. She cocked her head. “Oh? Then what is?”

“This planet. There’s something strange about it.”

“Don’t tell me you’re suddenly a believer in mystical nonsense.”

“You can’t deny weird things are happening.”

Selen looked back down at her computer. “You know, Aubriella has never fit in well. If not for Rudy, I would’ve fired her.”

“She’s a scared kid. That’s not a crime.”

“Well…” Selen pocketed her computer and slid her chair back. She brushed past Connor but stopped to set a hand on his shoulder. “I guess that’s another woman you get to watch over. I’m sure your old girl is going to be jealous.”

He held his breath until Selen was gone, then softly exhaled. His hand went to the outline of the amulet beneath his shirt.

All he had to do was finish the mission, then he’d be with Toshiko again.

It was a pleasant thought, but each hour on the planet made the idea less likely.