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“Where am I fucking gonna go?” Did she think he might leave her to die out there? Was it so preposterous a concern? They’d been ready to kill each other without a second thought up until he inexplicably shot at his own man to save her just hours ago.
Well, there was a good reason for that.Hehad to be the one to kill her. She washismark. Maybe he was the batshit one.
Tessa was looking up at him, the reflective visor of her helmet cocked to the side.
“I’m not going anywhere,” he said gruffly. The helmet nodded, and he heard another long, deep intake of breath through the mic. Then she removed her air supply for a second time.
He waited with bated breath as she ducked back into the ship. His heart stuttered as her voice drifted up, chattering quickly. “Atlas, two souls at 145.2358, 235.325.”
He didn’t know how she got all that out in one lungful. It must’ve been over a minute that she’d been down there.
“Tessa?” he yelled, when she still hadn’t reappeared twenty seconds later, hoping she’d hear him down there through the muffling of his helmet. “Get back here. Now.”
Another twenty seconds, and Stag found himself fiddling with the clasp on his own helmet. What good it would do, he had no idea—there was no way he could fit through that tiny opening. He pressed himself flat to his stomach and began to shove his arm down into the hole, but a flash of blonde hair was already emerging, followed by a flushed face and saucer-wide eyes. Stag grabbed her under the shoulder to pull her up the rest of the way until he could clip her air supply back around her neck.
“Shit,” she gasped, sucking in the fresh flow of oxygen. Stag dragged her the remainder of the way through the hole, keeping her balanced as she doubled over and put her hands on her knees, swaying against him.
So it takes her nearly dying to willingly let loose a swearword.
“What the fuck took so long?” he demanded.
“I. Made. It. Loop.” She sucked inhales between each word, then shook her head. He realized he should probably stop talking and let her breathe for a few minutes. They were still ahead of schedule. Stag directed her to sit on the flat sheet of rock a few steps away from the debris. He crouched in front of her, watching her to make sure she remained conscious.
But she seemed fine. After a while, she reopened the comms between their suits. “I set the message to repeat every fifteen minutes. And to broadcast. In case we reach one of yours first.”
Smart. Stag shook his head, oscillating by turns between thinking of her as very brave and very stupid. Exactly the kind of person he could use for his mission, except that she’d probably get herself killed with some idiotic act of courage. What’s more, she set the comms unit to broadcast not just to her people, but potentially his, despite knowing they may very well kill her. Though at this rate they’d just as likely try to fucking recruit her. He knewhewould.
That was why, as they trudged back to his ship in full daylight, shivering with the cold, he answered her earlier question.
“We’re not thieves or terrorists.”
“Hmm?” He was letting her walk ahead so he could keep an eye on her, but she paused, waiting for him to catch up.
As they fell into step side by side, Stag elaborated, “My Raptor’s modded with proprietary tech to infiltrate mechanical data of any ship, station, or base.”
“To what end? Selling it?”
“I already told you we’re not thieves,” he said.
Stag wasn’t sure how much he should say. If her people got there first and she told them everything, would word get back to the company? Would they hunt down his people and jeopardize their mission? Or would they just think it’s some deluded group kidding themselves?
“We’re building a colony ship.”
Tez stopped in her tracks, and Stag motioned for her to keep walking. They may have been ahead, but they still shouldn’t be wasting what little oxygen they had.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, repairing it, kind of. We have one.”
“You have acolony ship?”
He knew full well how wild that sounded. Colony ships were beasts created thousands of years ago on Old Earth for the sole purpose of finding another Earth-like planet: a perfect, habitable world to rebuild. Most people in the known universe thought such a thing didn’t even exist, considering nobody had found one yet. Yet wealthy colonists lived for it, stockpiling resources in known space before jumping to new frontiers in their quest. The ships were largely self-repairing and robust enough to be operational for… in theory… forever.
That was where most of the water from Arvex was heading. Instead of going to hydrate millions of people barely surviving, it was sold toColossal, the biggest colony of all, preparing for its next discovery expedition. Such a waste.
But sometimes they disappeared.
“I’m an… obtainer… for my waypoint station. Was.”
