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I kept my fingers on my neck. The wound I’d felt last night had healed over and the skin felt like my normal Plunian skin: smooth but tough, like latex stretched over my musculature and bones. It seemed Pika was telling the truth.
“The session in Council Chambers happened yesterday” I said. “This morning, you were here. You tied me to the bed. You said Neptune told you to watch me.”
“You were maaaaad.” Pika drew out the word. “The giant was afraid you’d hurt yourself.”
“Pika, how do you know Neptune?”
Her eyes grew wide and her ears popped up. “I told you, I’m not allowed to say.”
All yesterday I’d operated under the assumption that Neptune had chipped me. The anger, the secrets, the threats. And the new evidence I’d uncovered.
Neptune didn’t know about that. He didn’t know about D’Nar’s melted fingernail or the truth about Vaan’s presence on Moon Unit 5.
“I have to talk to him. He said he was going on a mission. Where is he, surveillance? Is he in The Space Bar? Go into the closet and hand me the aqua chiffon dress. I’ll meet him there.”
“He’s outside.”
“Outside where? There is no outside. We’re in the middle of the galaxy.”
She pointed to the wall of the ship and nodded. “He went out there.”
“He can’t go out there. He’ll die.”
“That’s why he told you to watch me. He’s not coming back.” Pika’s eyes grew double the size they’d been. A giant tear dropped onto her cheek and ran down her round pink face.
I put my hands on Pika’s narrow shoulders and made her face me. “Are you telling me Neptune is planning to leave the confines of the ship?” She nodded. “Do you know why?” She nodded again. “You have to tell me.”
“I can’t. I’ll get in trouble.”
“You have to.”
“No.”
I’d forgotten how quickly a Gremlon could move. Before I could stop her, she was at the door. The sudden motion caused them to open. I lost valuable chasing time maneuvering around the table. By the time I was out the door, she’d disappeared down the hallway.
I went back to my quarters and dropped into the chair. This had been the craziest week of my life and it wasn’t over yet. An hour ago, I’d had a person to blame. As it turned out, that person had saved my life. Up was down. Black was white. My home planet had been destroyed. Everybody I knew was on this ship, and I couldn’t trust any of them.
I sat up a little straighter when the reality of that thought hit me. There was one person who had risked his career to save my life, and if Pika was telling the truth, he was about to risk his own life next. If something—anything—happened to him, a killer would go free, and the ship still wouldn’t be safe.
I had to find Neptune. If only Pika had told me more.
But something she’d said stayed with me. She was afraid she’d get in trouble for hiding. Hiding where? The where didn’t matter as much as the why. Neptune already knew she was on the ship. She pretended to be scared of him, but she didn’t hide from him. She’d been hiding from someone else. And she knew what Neptune was about to do.
I remembered the captain coming to the uniform ward and talking to Neptune. “There’s a problem with the hull,” he’d said. And I’d heard it repeated right here in my quarters because Cat had recorded it.
I put my magnification goggles back on and used the pointy end of my tool to trigger the playback mechanism on Cat. Static sounded, at first, and a shock coursed through the metal into my fingers. I dropped the tool, shook out my hand, and then picked it back up and tried again.
“There’s a problem with the hull.”
“Engineering fixed that on day one. I conducted an inspection myself.”
“I’m not sure how it happened, but the atmospheric changes in the past twenty-four hours have slowly eroded the repair work. We’ve lost four drones trying to analyze the depth of the problem. You’re going to have to go out there.”
Neptune cursed. “How did you lose the drones?”
“Someone within our force field has been using a radio disruptor. The ship has to be fixed manually.”
Static returned. I shifted the point of my tool on the playback button and a small spark flew out of Cat, followed by a tendril of thin smoke. I’d fried his motherboard and now the rest of the conversation was gone.
Short of searching the ship, I had no idea where I’d find Neptune. He could be in security quarters downstairs, or in the supply room, or having his last meal. For all I knew, he was already on his mission. I didn’t have time to waste on the wrong lead. Focus, Sylvia. Remember emergency protocols.
Conservancy of tactics: In an emergency situation, the best action is the one that requires the least effort and most potential gain.
Translated: don’t waste time looking for Neptune. Find a way to make Neptune find me.
I didn’t change out of my lounging jumpsuit. Instead, I ran toward the uniform ward. The plan: find my old security uniform in the laundry bin. Activate the communication device in the insignia. Ask Neptune for his location.
It was a good plan. So good, that when I got there, I ran smack into Neptune.
Who was in his own state of undress.
“Whoa!” I said after bouncing off his bare torso. I turned my back to him and held my hand over my eyes. “Okay. Great. I found you. I guess we’re even now.”
“What are you doing here?”
“I found out what you’re about to do. Don’t ask me how I know. I just do. And I know what you did to me. What you didn’t do to me. I don’t know why you did—didn’t—do it, but I know.”
“We can talk about that later.”
“If you go outside this ship to examine the hull, there might not be a later,” I said. My voice cracked, betraying the badass soldier I’d been hoping to channel.
Neptune’s giant hand closed around my upper arm and he spun me around. He was in his trousers, but his chest was still bare. He looked down at me, his face serious. “Go back to your quarters, Stryker. You’re not needed here.”
“Stop being so stubborn! If there’s an external problem with the ship, you need the best possible person to handle the difficulties that might come with fixing it. That’s me, not you. Get over your whole ‘I’m in charge’ thing and deal with it.”
Okay, there’s my inner badass! Except I’d just volunteered for a suicide mission.
We glared at each other. Neptune may have won more of these sorts of face-off battles in his life, but before he won this one, there was something I had to say.
“Pika told me you saved my life.”
He arched one eyebrow into a sharp point. Three creases appeared on his forehead, running a diagonal pattern downward toward the eyebrow that wasn’t raised. He kept his eyebrow arched as if waiting for me to continue before determining whether he could relax his face.
“They were going to chip me and you saved me. I can’t say I understand why, but I’m grateful and I’m sorry for what I said last night.”
“You remember what you said?”
“Not really, but I know what I was thinking when I woke up, so I’m guessing some of that came out before I went to sleep.”
His eyebrow relaxed. He picked up the black T-shirt that rested on top of the center console and pulled it on and then crossed his arms over his chest.
“Whatever you’re about to do, it’s not safe,” I said.
“The security of the ship is at risk. That’s my job.”
“Last time I checked, it was my job too. You said it yourself: I’m part of the security team.”
“I’m not sending you out there.”
“Neptune, there are a lot of things you’re better at than I am, but not this. The Plunian part of me has a higher tolerance for atmospheric changes in pressure. If I wear my helmet, I can regulate my oxygen.” I dropped my chin and looked at the floor. What I was volunteering to do, what I was asking Neptune to let me do, was so much more than what I’d signed up for when I’d hacked into the computer and uploaded my files to the crew roster.
It didn’t matter. When I’d boarded this ship, I’d had hope for the future and what this job could turn into for me. I’d wanted to cut ties with the people who judged me by my dad’s corruption. I’d wanted to make my mother proud. I’d wanted to prove that a part Plunian/part earthling who was the daughter of a poor ice miner could make more of herself than anybody expected.
None of that mattered anymore. Everything I’d held dear was gone.
When I looked back at Neptune, he was still staring at me, but his expression had changed from judgment to assessment. If he were applying the principles I’d expected to learn from him at the academy, then he was weighing the odds of a successful mission with him outside the ship versus me. Of every single argument I could have made: youth, size, agility, girl power, it all came down to one thing.
“You have to let me do it. I have nothing left to lose.”