On cue, Theme’s door hisses open. He’s as pale as an Aurelian. He’s trembling, but when he sees me he holds his head up with pride. He knows I believe in him – even if he doesn’t believe in himself.
“How far?” I whisper the words. You can never be too careful with Aurelian hearing.
“Not far, but we’d better run!”
We sprint together down the hallways, twisting and turning down corridors which are thankfully empty. There’s finally a nondescript door in front of us, bearing a control panel. Theme opens it and rips out the wires contained within. I almost expect alarms to sound – but he pushes together three wires, waits for a spark…
…and then the doors hiss open.
“You’re a genius, Theme.”
“Save it for after I’m done.” He’s got a new confidence in his voice. It’s shaky, but it’s there. He’s grown since stepping out from Chris’s shadow.
“Are you okay?”
I freeze as I hear the voice inside me head.
It’s Iunia. He must sense something wrong in my aura. I’m not as good at hiding my emotions as I’d thought I was.
“I’m fine.”
“Huh?” Theme asks, distractedly, and I realize I said it out loud. Fortunately, Theme doesn’t pay me much attention as he fiddles with more control panels inside the room, moving wires left and right. He’s in his element.
“Nothing.”
I focus my mind.
“I’m fine,” I telepath. “Going for a little walk. Garrick is with me.” I telepath the message to Iunia, and it seems to relax him.
Theme mumbles: “Almost done. Almost there.”
Aelon’s not onto me yet. There’s no suspicion in his aura.
“How long?”
“I’m in!” Theme slaps the top of the control box. “I love these old birds.”
Suddenly, a holographic projection of the ship appears in the middle of the room. Theme swipes at the display, and doors close on the projection.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
Aelon’s voice suddenly rings in my mind – angry and confused. He’s doing the equivalent of shouting at me through my thoughts.
I focus everything on shutting him out.
“I don’t…”
His voice fades away from my mind before he finishes that message.
I take a deep breath. I’ll be able to live with this, right? But it’s too late to back out now. Aelon’s aura is almost gone from my mind. There’s only a vague knowledge of where he is, back there in the recesses of my mind.
“Alright,” Theme tells me. “I’ve got the doors closed. Now, we just need to deal with the Aurelians in the loading bay.”
“You sure no one’s going to get hurt?”
“It’ll be okay. I’ll weaken the air-field so they get the alarm that they need to evacuate – but that’s it.”
He swipes his finger against the loading bay. “Now, I’ll just open this door, and they’ll have no choice but to flee.”
Theme opens another door, leading away from the loading bay. If there are Aurelians working on the Reavers, they’ll only have one direction to run.
The oxygen level reader on the holographic projection reads at thirty percent.
“Okay,” Theme nods. “They won’t have stayed. I’m going to close the doors again and turn the air-field back to full power.” He fiddles with the projection, manipulating it with his fingers like he was born to do this.
Finally, he steps back.
“All done.”
“You sure no one got hurt?”
“They had time to get out. They’ll be fine.”
“Okay. Last thing to do is open Sawoot’s door. What time do you have?”
“Twenty seconds to eight. That was close.”
“Alright. Wait for it.”
The twenty seconds take an eternity. Then, Theme swipes Sawoot’s door opens, waits fifteen seconds, and closes it again.
I just hope she wasn’t in the middle of leaving when the doors slammed closed. If she was, we might have just cut my best friend in half.
“I hope she got out and left those fuckers in the dirt,” boasts Theme. He’s feeling himself after his successful hacking of the control room.
“Don’t call them names. Garrick saved her, you know. You don’t know what it’s like to be a woman around Aurelians.”
He nods. “You’re right. Sorry, Captain. I’m getting fired up.”
Fired up is better than weak and terrified. I can see he’s scared, but adrenaline is giving Theme short term focus and bravery.
The doors to the control room open. I turn, my heart skipping a beat, but it’s just Sawoot.
Her hair is in a mess. Her dress is ripped, and one of her dark nipples is clearly visible. Theme stares, and Sawoot just laughs at him.
“Eyes up, Theme. Though after what you just did? I guess you deserve a peek.”
She pulls her ripped dress up, covering herself as Theme gulps. He might be feeling confident after his hacking, but women still clearly make him anxious.
It’s just like Sawoot to torment the poor boy. She can never resist doing whatever she wants, even when our lives are on the line.
“We gotta go,” I snap. “The Wayward Scythe is still in the loading bay, but if you can hack a Reaver, I’ve been looking forward to getting behind the controls of one of those puppies.”
Sawoot pulls a keycard out from Gods know where.
“No need. I snagged this from Garrick. Poor guy didn’t know what hit him.”
There’s a trace of sadness in her voice. I guess she wasn’t Bonded to him, after all.
I sigh. I can’t think about the Bond right now. I need to focus on getting us all safe and free.
“Alright – a Reaver it is.”
“Once we get in, we can Orb-shift out of here,” Sawoot says confidently.
“Not quite,” I warn. “There are rumors about Orb-Shifting becoming dangerous – and Captain Aelon says those rumors are true.” My eyes flash. “But don’t worry – I can get us out of here, no problem.”
Piloting is finally where I can demonstrate my value.
Sawoot smiles: “I’ll always trust you, Captain.”
We step outside of the control room and start heading
