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There's a lot of cleaning to be done, but…I can't bring myself to leave Jerrok's side. Or Sleipnir. One of them has to wake up soon, or I'm going to lose my shit.
Alyvos pats my arm again and leaves, heading for the bridge. They've changed the ship's systems to manual control, since we can't trust any programming that the V'tarrians might have done. According to the prisoner, we were just another ship in a long line of ripped off space travelers. It seems that the V'tarrians have a system—ransom the ship to whoever's willing to pay, leave stealth agents on board to kill whoever takes her, and then return to port to do the same thing over and over again. No wonder the Slatra system is considered off limits. It's dangerous, all right.
I run my fingers over the tube, desperate to touch Jerrok's hand. I'm so damn needy. It's just…he's everything to me. I know he's going to be fine and he's only unconscious because it's standard procedure for this sort of thing—so the patient doesn't move while being stitched—but it's still making me crazy. I press my forehead against the glass, miserable. "I love you," I whisper. "You know that, right?"
"Sophie?"
I sit upright, looking over at Zoey as she enters the med-bay. It's the first time I've seen her since they boarded, because she's been busy with piloting the ship and a million other things, and I've been busy with…well, hovering over Jerrok and Sleipnir. I know no one originally wanted Zoey on the Sister because they worried it would be painful for her, but her smile is bright and her expression is more relaxed than it has been in days.
Her eyes are red, though. Alyvos told me that she'd burst into tears at the sight of the message written in the steam on the mirror and hadn't stopped weeping for some time.
"Hi." I give her a wan smile.
Zoey just moves to my side and wraps her arms around me in a hug. Now I'm the one that feels like crying. I put my chin on her shoulder and we just hug each other for a long, long moment in silence.
"This is the first moment I could get away," Zoey says, pulling away after a time. "I wanted to thank you for finding that message."
"It was purely by accident," I tell her with a wry look. "But you knew what it was?"
She laughs, the sound watery and just a little shaky. "Oh yeah. When I was younger, Adiron found a stash of old human movies somewhere and we watched them together. He used to laugh at human technology as if it was the funniest thing ever." Her face lights up in another bright smile. "One thing we saw in the movies was people leaving messages written in a foggy mirror, right? So Adiron always thought it was funny to write something—usually incredibly juvenile—in the mirror and leave it for me to find. He hasn't done it in years—" Her voice catches and she pauses, composing herself. "But at least it's a message."
"Do you know what it says? I couldn't read it, just that it was a name."
Zoey nods slowly. "Lord Straik sa'Rin. It's an old family House back on Homeworld. Very influential…or was. They've fallen out of favor since their House leader took up with a human and married her."
"Such a deviant," I murmur. "Is this guy dangerous? Why didn't they leave any other messages?"
"I don't know," Zoey confesses. She looks worried, glancing down at Jerrok's med-tube and then back at me. "The only thing I could find on Straik was that he was the black sheep of his family before they became pariahs. He was the heir before Lord va'Rin's human wife had a child, so I don't know if he's on a rampage or what. He's also rumored to be a bit of a treasure hunter, so I'm hoping they're all just working together and it's nothing more dire than that." She crosses her arms over her chest and shrugs. "It's an answer, at least. And I know they're alive."
I don't add on “Or they were at the time they left the message” because I'm not going to do that to Zoey. If she believes they're alive, I believe her. She knows the brothers better than anyone. "So how do we find this Lord Straik?"
She snorts. "That's the thing. I pulled flight logs and checked with my friend back on V'tarr and you'll never guess where Lord Straik sa'Rin's ship was last seen."
My heart sinks. "The Slatra system?"
"Bingo."
Damn. "What do we do now?"
"The Sister needs an overhaul of her computers," Zoey says bluntly. "We can't trust whatever they've shoved into her programming. Sentorr suggested that we head back to Jerrok's station. My brothers are safe for now, because Lord Straik is a rebel but he's not a murderer. We can regroup at Jerrok's place and figure out where to head from there. I think we'll have to come back to the Slatra system, but we'll need new info for the Sister if we take her with us, since she's compromised."
