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Chapter Twenty Nine
Adreax
A tiny sliver of me wanted to go after Tayla, but I buried it deep, pushing it down like a splinter that threatened to fester. All I could do was hope that the pain subsided sooner than later. I let her by, ducked my head through the door, and made my way back to our cabin, intent on avoiding Herod’s knowing look. I would not reopen that can of worms.
Sitting on the edge of my bunk, I wrung my hands and tried to keep my attention on other matters. Namely, the state of our ship. Over the last eight days, Herod and I had managed to triage the worst of the damage. It forced us to scrap some of our auxiliary systems altogether, using those parts to repair the more critical functions of the Greedy She-Devil. Now, she was almost flightworthy.
We were so close to being off the Orb, I could taste it. I woke before sunrise every morning telling myself that this would be the day, and I went to bed every evening thinking that one more day would do the trick. It was all I could do to hang onto my sanity and keep pressing forward.
As usual, Herod and I had gotten back to our regular system of poking and prodding one another. We were like brothers again, locked into the shared business of surviving this ordeal, but still getting on the others’ nerves more often than not. That was just the nature of things for us, and all would be well when we finally got off the ground. In the not-too-distant future, we’d share a friendly round of drinks on Kychek and come away from it with restored purpose and commitment. That was always the way.
“You know what we need to do, Dre. Now’s as good a time as any.”
Herod’s quiet voice grated on my nerves. I didn’t like feeling pressured by him.
“I’m not going to do it tonight,” I argued. “She could come back any second. It will have to wait until a night when she’s sound asleep.”
He grunted and rolled his eyes, as if he expected just such an excuse from me.
“If you won’t do it, then I will. No sense in wasting another night here if we don’t have to.”
The problem was that our ship was missing just one critical component to get everything up and running, a battery. The battery in the Greedy She-Devil was faulty, and while it could power individual systems, it cut out whenever we brought everything online at once, even with all of our auxiliary systems removed. We needed a stronger power source to get the job done, and Tayla had just the thing we needed.
When we first discovered the battery problem, I told myself I would ask her for a spare. But one thing led to another, and I put off the conversation, knowing how painful it would be and fearing the seething rejection that I expected from her. It would not just be a rejection of my request, but of me entirely. Herod had offered to do the talking, but I did not want him speaking to her. She was mine to deal with.
But now we were out of time, and my options were diminishing. If I couldn’t ask her for a battery I would have to take one and hope she discovered the theft long after we were gone. That way, I would never have to ask for forgiveness, either. I would never have agreed to this plan if it was her only power source, but the battery I had in mind was merely a backup for her scientific equipment. She could live without it, although it would make her job a little harder.
The roguish part of me felt the dance of excitement building up at the thought of pulling off a heist against the woman who scorned me. I didn’t want to hurt her, exactly, but it had been a long time since I’d done anything risky enough to get my heartrate up, and this would certainly do the trick.
“I’ll do it,” I said at last. “First, we need to rest. I will grab the battery on our way out. No sense stealing it now just to keep it in here with us until we go.”
Herod grunted again, but he kicked his feet up onto his bunk and lay back. At least he wasn’t rolling his eyes at me again.
I stretched my legs, rubbing away the stiffness in my muscles and arching my back. I had to admit, I had grown accustomed to the comforts of this little cabin. My bed on the She-Devil would leave me wanting. I almost wished I could roll up the mattress and take it with me, too, but Herod would give me a hard time. He was sure to make a jab or two about me going soft.
I don’t know when I fell asleep, but I woke with a start when Herod shook me some hours later.
“Get up. It’s time to go,” he muttered, giving me another shove.
I blinked away the sleepiness and sat up.
“I’m going.”
I stretched again and readied myself to leave. I had some idea of where the battery was, but I would still have to be careful.
“Wait for me outside,” I instructed. “It should only take a minute or two to get it out, and then we’ll put some distance between us and this shuttle.”
Herod didn’t need my instructions. He was already heading for the airlock and preparing himself for our long march. When he was outside, I waited for a moment, listening for any more movement onboard the ship. I hadn’t heard Tayla come back last night, and I wondered idly if she got lost out there somewhere, but I didn’t have time to worry.
I made my way toward the cockpit, scanning the small workspaces that Tayla and Alec erected along the hall. As I crept forward, I noticed which stations had equipment still whirring and buzzing, relying on the extra battery that had to be up here somewhere. Stepping over loosely run cords, I tried to follow them back to their source. I knew I was getting close when I passed another bundle of wires strung across the floor and run into a closet. This was it.
I pulled the door handle carefully, holding my breath as I slid it aside to reveal the compact battery tucked into the tight space. I had to hurry. Unplugging all the lines without hurting myself would take some patience, something I was in short supply of. Gingerly, I reached in and started pulling plugs one at a time, careful to avoid any bare wires tapped into the main battery terminals. As I worked, I tried not to think of the minutes ticking by and Herod waiting for me outside by himself.
“What are you doing?”
I froze, my hand lingering just above the last set of wires. I curled my fingers into a fist and cursed my luck.
“Adreax, answer me.”
