He’s a captain who welcomes enemies to test him – who craves it.
Enemies like the Toads.
I shake my head. “Why are you so happy, Sawoot?”
“Because Theme just told me some very good news.”
I turn my attention to Theme. Now, he can finally meet my gaze. In fact, I can see excitement in his bright, brown eyes. It’s nice to be finally looking into eyes that aren’t slate-grey and laser focused on me. Captain Aelon has a way of making me feel like he knows every last one of my secrets, while remaining such a tangled enigma himself.
“This ship,” Theme tells me, “The Instigator. Aelon must have got it for cheap. It’s a discontinued class of warship – no longer in service in the Aurelian fleet.”
Sawoot pours me a cup of tea from the pot. I take it, sipping the steaming liquid, and make a face at the bitter taste. Sawoot shrugs. She did warn me it was bad.
I turn to theme. “Why was it discontinued?”
“That’s just it,” he explains. “There are critical vulnerabilities to this class of warship – if you can get to the control rooms.” His eyes flash. Whenever Theme talks computers or engineering – subjects in which he’s always the smartest in the room– he’s filled with an infectious enthusiasm.
“Those control rooms are only a thousand meters from this room,” he tells me. “If I can get into one alone for just four minutes, I could hack this ship’s systems. I’ll be able to remotely control all the doors of the ship – and that includes the loading bay doors.”
My eyes widen.
The loading bay – where the Wayward Scythe still sits.
“I could open us a path to the loading bay,” Theme grins, “and we can either take our ship, or – even better – steal one of those Reavers. It’ll take me time to hack into it, but I can do it – and we’ll have the time once the Aurelians are trapped.”
“Trapped? What do you mean trapped?”
Theme’s eyes flash.
“Trapped because I can control every door on this ship. I’ll open all the ones between us and the loading bay – and lock all the others.”
I whistle slowly. I have to hand it to Theme – I’m impressed.
Sawoot nudges me.
“If we want a quicker option, we can just steal the access cards for a Reaver from one of the Aurelians, so Theme won’t have to hack into its systems. That’ll cut the escape time by twenty minutes.”
Her eyebrows waggle up and down.
“Perhaps you can… ahem… distract Aelon and steal a set?”
My heart skips.
Distract.
I know exactly what Sawoot means by that, and so does Theme. In fact, Theme looks down, and his cheeks turn as red as my own.
“There’ll be no distracting of anyone,” I clarify.
Theme’s hand is shaking as he raises it, like he’s trying to be called on by the teacher in class. I roll my eyes. “You don’t need to raise your hand, Theme.”
“Well… I need a distraction, if I’m going to get into the systems,” he confesses. “I know this ship. I’ve studied the blueprints. I’ve got a… a hobby for old warships, especially ones that were in the great wars between the Toads and Aurelians.”
“This ship is that old?”
Theme nods enthusiastically.
I turn towards the door.
“You’ve got to get to the control room to access the controls, right? Which is going to be tough – what with those three lunks outside.”
Sawoot scowls. “Hey - they saved my life, or at least my ass. Don’t diss them.” Then, her eyes flash. “Ooh, now that I think about it, Garrick probably has a set of access cards for a Reaver.”
I shake my head wearily. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to insult them. I’m just under a lot of stress.”
My two friends turn to me for an explanation.
“I warned Aelon about the Toad attack,” I tell them. “The Captain said he wants the Toads to come. He’s known about it all along. He’s set up a trap for them – anti-air batteries in the mining camps.”
Sawoot nods sagely.
“Hmm. If the Toads aren’t expecting anti-air, they’ll be massacred. They’ll think they’re going to rip their way through hundreds of innocent miners, and instead they’re going to have themselves a new asshole ripped open.”
“Hundreds of new assholes,” Theme clarifies. “Aurelian anti-air batteries can fire 1,500 rounds a minute – 50mm depleted radium rounds with iron-filament casings.”
Sawoot holds up her fist – roughly the size of the hole a 50mm round can make in a ship’s hull.
“That’s a big asshole.”
She’s vulgar – but she has a point. Maybe there’s a method to Captain Aelon’s murderous madness.
“That’s beside the point,” I snap. “We need to find a way to get Theme past the three guards outside. Garrick and his triad feel a duty to you, Sawoot.”
She sighs, then smiles mischievously. “Okay, then – I suppose you can leave that to me. I’ll distract the Aurelians guarding us. I suppose I still need to show them my… appreciation for what they did for me.”
Theme blushes bright red. Sawoot has no shame.
She’s told me before she likes Aurelians, except for their personalities. Garrick and his triad don’t talk much, but their actions speak louder than words; so it looks like they’re the exception to the typical behavior of this haughty, arrogant species.
If she’s genuinely attracted to the triad right outside the doors… Well, then I don’t see any harm in her exploring that – especially if it’s going to get us off this ship alive…
…or maybe I’m just telling myself that, so I don’t feel guilty about basically pimping out my first officer.
I stand up and pace the room. It’s bigger than the cell Sawoot was in before – with a single bed, twice as large as a typical king-sized one, plus a sofa and the little table that Sawoot and Theme are sitting around while they sip on that bitter blend of tea.
A single bed…
I turn to Theme. “Were you
