Page 23
Doc stopped chewing, and her smile fell. “What happened? Is she hurt?”
“The ship locked her in. It pushed me out and sealed the door.”
“It pushed you out?” Tambi set the cinnamon roll on top of her tablet and jogged over. “Monica, run a scan. Doc, check her vitals.”
Monica put the coffees on the floor and crouched to dig through her tool belt. “Can you hear her?”
“Yes. She’s talking to something,” I said.
Doc pulled her bio-scanner from her belt and pressed it against the wall. The screen lit, cycling through frequencies until it locked onto a signal. “I’ve got her! Her heart rate’s elevated, but nothing dangerous. Breathing is steady.”
An ache behind my ribs unclenched.
“Okay.” Tambi ran her fingers along the door frame. “Monica, get me the Eon cutting tool. Doc, keep that scanner on. If anything spikes, we go through the door. The ship will scream, but Cass is our priority.”
Monica was already assembling the cutter. “I’ll need four minutes to cut a panel big enough to pull Cass out.” She glanced at me. “This will hurt your ship.”
“If she doesn’t want to get hurt, she needs to let Cass go. I asked her to let me inside, but she’s blocked me.”
“Like you’re her stalker on a dating app.” Monica finished the assembly, tested the ignition, and brought the torch to the edge of the sealed frame. “Okay, honey, I’m gonna cut a nice neat hole in you, and you’re gonna let me, because my girl is in there and I don’t negotiate in hostage situations. I’ll patch you up real good when we’re done. There’ll barely be a scar. You gonna play nice or not?”
Tambi positioned herself beside me, tablet showing the ship’s schematics overlaid with Doc’s bio-readings. “What was Cass doing when the ship locked her in and tossed you out on your ass?”
“Hollow Chorus opened this room for her, so she went to see what was inside.”
“What’s in the room?” Tambi asked.
“It’s a bonding chamber. The infrastructure has been running on standby, but it’s woken up.”
Doc’s scanner beeped twice. “Cass’s heart rate just dropped, but it’s settling. Whatever she’s doing in there, she’s calming down. Hold off on the cutting for now.”
The hum behind the wall shifted again. A long, descending note, like a system powering down, and then the vibration under my boots faded to nothing. The resin cracked, and the seal split clean down the center, the two halves pulling apart like hands opening.
Monica killed the torch and stepped back. “Well, that was polite. I guess you didn’t want a scar.”
Cass walked through the gap. There was resin dust in her hair, sweat on her forehead, and gold residue on her hands. Her eyes were wide and bright, and the scanner on her hip was still running, recording everything. She was buzzing. She was beautiful.
“Hey! Morning.” She looked at the coffees on the floor and the bakery bags. “Nice of you to bring breakfast.”
Doc ran the scanner over her. “You’re good. You’re annoyingly good. What the fuck happened in there?”
“The alcove thingies activated.” Cass rubbed the gold residue between her fingers. “And the ship ran a scan on me. It tried to do something medical, I think, or a ritual. Unsure.”
“It scanned you?” Tambi’s voice stayed level. “Like you’re a patient?”
“Maybe. I let it run long enough to get readings, then talked it down before it finished whatever it was gearing up for.” Cass turned to me and grinned. “The infrastructure in there functions, and I think it’s been waiting for someone compatible to complete a sequence or a program.”
“And that someone is you?” I hadn’t moved from where I stood, wanting to check her for injuries, but knowing she’d tell me to fuck off if I touched her.
“Apparently.” She met my eyes. Her flushed cheeks and smile sent her to a whole other level of stunning.
“Just before the room sealed, I thought I saw something come out of an alcove,” I said. “Did you see anything weird?”
“That’s not at all creepy,” Monica muttered.
Cass picked up a coffee and took a long swallow. “Might have done. I need to go over the readings before I tell you what I think it means.”
She was holding back. I’d spent enough time reading people across negotiation tables and trade disputes to know that. But this was Cass, not a trade rival. Pushing would get me nowhere other than being told to take a hike and an elbow to the ribs.
