“Jojo!”
I wheel around to find a familiar dog-shaped RAM in the doorway.
“Eleven, what are you doing here?”
“Watching over you. But now Talros is in trouble. Someone has taken him.”
“Someone just took Aura. We need to find Blaize and the others. They’ll know what to do.”
“Blaize?” RAM-11 cocks his head, his pointed ears twitching. “Follow me. We must avoid ABR staff. I managed to lock them out when you entered. But their team is fast and will find a workaround soon.”
I stay close as he leads me through a back corridor, passing coded entry points with a simple wag of his tail over the scanner. “So are you going to tell me how you got here?”
RAM-11 leads me through another door and up a set of stairs. He hops up them to the next level, then replies, “I came over on a security transport just before the women began to arrive.”
“So you’ve been hiding here longer than I’ve been here?” I ask.
The door to the next level opens, and RAM-11 folds up into the shape of a turbo coil for a hoverthruster. I slam to a stop. “RAM?”
A guard walks out, jolts back when he sees me, then looks down. “What are you doing here?”
Oh, shit.I’m definitely in trouble now. “Damn.”
I pick up RAM-11 and pull a lie out of my ass. “Sorry, got winded after all the excitement and dropped this. I work on engines, and my mate needed a part repaired for his ship. Got some space junk damage. So I just wanted to return the part.”
He looks me over. “Aurelius, right? With the Orillium?”
I nod.
“Thought she was a living thing, not a standard mech vessel.”
Screw!I frantically try to remember what Aura told me. “Allele has a Storm but also a ship husk as her vessel. You and I get bone and flesh. We have mitochondria, actin, and myosin. She has turbo coils, thrusters, and ailerons.”
He steps aside. “Alright. Just be quick. There’s been portal activity somewhere on the base. When you’re finished, please return to your quarters ASAP while we sort out the disturbance.”
“Understood.” But when I step inside the hangar access wing, I don’t know which of the many doors in the loop belongs to Aurelius’ ship.
“Everything okay?” the guard asks in passing.
“Just tired.” I feign a smile and am grateful when Blaize pokes his head out of a hangar at the end.
“Jovie, thank the stars.” He rushes toward me.
I give him a look that I hope he understands. He doesn’t say anything else. He just looks at what I’m carrying and motions me up the ramp. I hesitate, having not been on Allele before, especially carrying a RAM.
“Allele?” I call out.
“Hello, Jovie. You are welcome aboard, Lightbringer. Please let me scan the part.” She closes the ramp.
Lightbringer?I touch my face and remember the markings are still there. Blaize and Eluni are in the back of the vessel, which looks organic in nature. Allele’s metal trusses swoop around me in cellular shapes, and her walls are a milky pearl. Slow green pulses shimmer up the hallway like ripples in a pond. “Wow. Beautiful.”
“You may set RAM-11 down now,” Allele says.
“You know about him?”
“I am aware of all AI forms in the area. He has been feeding me useful data. Please strap in. We must leave immediately.”
“Does this mean I get to join you?”
