46: Tink

"Severn," Tink said as the computer tech's head popped around the corner. She tried to plaster a smile on her face while swallowing her too-big piece of candy. A coughing fit ensued.

"Hey, Kandi and I are doing a survey of the ship, making sure nothing's too broken." He stepped in and squatted beside them, making himself comfortable. "How's everything in here?"

"Fine. We're just doing some routine checks on the engine, aren't we, Ben?" The boy nodded but stayed silent. Tink stood and Severn joined her but kept his eyes on Ben.

"Oooh, supernova blasts!" With a broad smile, Severn nodded towards the bag Ben clutched in one hand. The other rested on top of the cat, who sat in his lap. "Those used to be my favourite. I loved how they sizzled on your tongue." He stepped forward, tipping his chin to the boy. "But I haven't had one in years."

Ben continued to stroke Grim in silence as he glanced between Tink and Severn. The cat started to mrowl deep in his belly.

Severn leaned in towards Tink. "I hope I didn't say anything wrong."

"He's quiet. You know that." She tipped her head, as she tucked her chain ratchet into her toolbelt then stuffed her hands into her pockets, which she discovered were empty except for an oily rag poking out of one. Her voice was barely a whisper when she continued. "And now that I think about it, Grim has never liked you." She kept an eye on him as she inched open her tool chest.

Severn shifted closer to Ben. "Can I have one?"

"Sure," the boy said quietly as he proffered the bag to Severn, upsetting Grim. The cat hissed, then scurried into the snarl of wires and conduits. Ben moved to stop him, but Severn's hand snatched the boy's wrist.

"I don't think so." His voice became hard, holding none of the warmth he'd used speaking to her. He hauled Ben to him as he pulled out a tiny blaster — small but still deadly — and pointed at the boy's temple. "You're not getting away again." He jerked his chin at Tink, peering at her over Ben's head. "Hands where I can see them."

Tink paused her rooting around. She turned to stare at him through narrowed eyes, but otherwise she didn't move. Only when the whine of the blaster charging filled the air did she raise her hands, abandoning her quest for some sonic snaps.

"Over here, slowly."

She did as he asked, ignoring the nuts and bolts that started to vibrate on her workbench. Releasing Ben's wrist, he reached behind his back and pulled out a circlet of pulsing lights and handed it to her.

"Put that around his head."

Tink fumbled with the loop. "What are you going to do with us?" she asked, trying to distract Severn from the rattling rising around them. In front of her, Ben's lips were pressed thin and the skin around his eyes tight. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a pair of pincers hovering above the grating they'd been lying on a second before.

"I'm going to take him back where he belongs. To the people he belongs to." Severn's words were clipped. "So they can put him back in his cage. With you? Nothing if you turn this ship around right now and head back to the Dominion proper."

Tink snorted, pausing in her movement to lower the circlet over Ben's head so she could scowl at Severn. "And why would I believe that?"

He ignored her, instead jerking his chin at the loop. "Hurry up."

"Or what?" Tink didn't move.

"Or I kill you and everyone else on board before I take the boy anyway." Severn's voice rose, echoing in the engine room. "My ride is already on its way. Having you take me back is just a convenience. And frankly, I'm tired of this ship and everyone on it." A smile, lopsided and lecherous, formed on his face. "Except you. I had fun with you."

Her checks flushed with anger as a memory of his fingers on her hips flashed through her brain. Instead, she focused on his comment about killing them. "And how would you explain that away, a ship full of dead people?" She looked down at Ben without moving her head as a couple of rivets rattled past her feet.

"You have a Cass AI." His lips arched in a sneer. "I don't need to explain it." As he finished, he seemed to realize what was happening around him. He paused just as a tool flew through the air and struck the back of his head. Unfortunately, it was one of the soft mallets used for delicate hammering — Tink didn't even know why she had it, other than that it had belonged to her uncle — but it was enough to throw him off balance and release his grip on Ben.

Tink grabbed the boy's wrist and hauled him into the jungle of cables, conduits and machinery that filled the engine room, hitting the main light switch as she passed to plunge the space into a starry night of emergency lights and status beacons.

Crouching between the processed fuel conduit and the cycler housing, Tink felt a warm droplet fall on her hand. It was hard to see in the dim light, but glancing at Ben's ghostly face, she knew what it was. She took the oily rag out of her back pocket and dabbed the blood from his lip and chin, placing her other hand on his shoulder. Despite the heat from the surrounding machinery, the boy was shaking, clearly drained by the effort of moving tools around the engine room.

"Sorry," he said, his voice thin.

Tink shook her head and touched her finger to her lips. "We have to be quiet," she mouthed, even though he was barely audible above the sounds of the engine.

He leaned close as if to speak but stopped when a new sound emerged.

Clunk. Clink. Clunk. She recognized the noise instantly. Boots against the honeycomb grating of the floor.

"Tink. I know you're still in here." Severn's words echoed through the canyons of metal and plex and silicone created by the machinery. "I could take you with me...keep you as my little secret."

Tink was on the verge of telling him she'd rather be dead when his next words stunned her into silence.

"Come out into the light, come out into the night, under the stars, into my arms." His warbled rendition of an atrocious love ballad filled her engine room, breaking her concentration. He stopped singing but continued his monologue. "Do you think your friends are going to come to your rescue? After you lied to them?"

Tink shuffled forward a little, ignoring Ben's grasping hand. A whistling started, and it took her a few seconds to realize what it was: the ballad without words. A circle of light swept back and forth along the aisle. Severn had picked up a torch...her torch. She clenched her jaw as she grasped in the dark for ideas.

"Besides, I've already taken care of Ish."

She paused, her stomach clenching, but forced herself to not respond.

"He won't be waking up for a while. If he wakes up at all."

Tink looked up, wondering if Cass would hear her if she whispered to ask after Ish.

"And Alek. Well, let's just say he has secrets he needs to keep."

Tink pursed her lips, keeping them tightly shut, and pushed herself back to Ben. Looking at her with his eyes large in the dark, he pressed his palm to the grating. Tink's stomach heaved as the ship suddenly felt sluggish, like it was moving through atmo thick as molasses.

"What are you doing?" Severn's voice was harsh as it bounced off the walls. She didn't know what Ben was doing, but she knew it was big. And big meant bad for him, it seemed. She placed her hand on his — it was ice cold — and shook her head.

"No." When she spoke, the word came out as hardly more than a sigh. Still, she felt it when he stopped and the ship returned to normal.

A buzzing sound reached Tink's ears. It was familiar, but she couldn't quite place it. She frowned and popped her head up, her eyes just above the cycler housing as she tried to get eyes on what Severn was doing. She couldn't see him. Instead, her gaze fell upon the axial stabilizer. She dropped back down, her cheeks hot as a plan started to form in her mind. If she could disable it, it would send the ship into a spin. It might be enough to throw him off balance long enough that Ben could run to safety.

Casting her hands around, she looked for a tool to use to disable the stabilizer. A screwdriver, even a shim. But there was nothing. All she had in her belt was her new chain ratchet.

She collapsed against the housing.

Ben came to sit beside her. "I can help," he said, his hand — no longer ice cold — coming to rest on top of hers, his face serious.

She placed her other hand over his. "I know you can. But not this time. Find something to hold on to. Tight. And be ready to run." She held his eyes until he nodded, then she started to shimmy under the conduits and pipes between her and the stabilizer.

A pop punctuated the buzzing. The ship shivered.

"One little circuit." Severn said, then continued as the ship shuddered again. "Two little circuits." The buzzing turned to a whirr. "Three little circuits, four." Severn's voice got louder as he continued his chant.

An acrid smell filled the air, and Tink's stomach clenched as she realized what the buzzing was: he was taking a laser cutter to her ship. Her whole body flushed with anger. As she finally cleared the equipment, she rose into a sprint.

"Stop."

She didn't listen. A sparkler of light ahead of her told her he'd fired his blaster, hitting metal.

"That was a warning. If you don't stop, I will kill you...after I destroy your ship."

Tink reached the stabilizer and smashed her ratchet into its spinner with all the momentum of her sprint.