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“All right,” she said, and the look on Orion’s face wasn’t one of relief or elation. Nothing like that. In his eyes was the spark of victory.
“Good.” Orion Halen grabbed her hand and began to march her toward the needlefin.
“Hey, wait.” Kaia resisted, digging in her heels.
“No time to pack. We have to go now.”
“I said wait.” She yanked her hand from his, noting the flash of irritation on his face. “You go. I'll be right there.”
Kaia broke off at a brisk walk towardAhton’s Take. Heart racing, she fought to control her pace and resisted the urge to run. Not around an uhyre.
She punched the red button to open theTake’shold. As soon as the door lowered enough for her to squeeze through, Kaia clambered inside, picking her way through unsold loot, garbage, and scraps.
When she was crouched in the back corner of the hold, the dim halogen lights overhead barely lighting the metallic silhouettes around her, Kaia pressed her hand flat into an indent nestled into the floor. She winced as the two miniature sampling needles pierced the center of her palm and the pad of her ring finger. A moment later the recess withdrew, revealing an unlit black hatch with an opening just large enough to fit her arm.
The DNA security system was the most expensive part ofAhton’s Take.
Kaia got on her stomach and reached into the hole, feeling around the interior. She knew exactly where it was, and soon her fingertips hit the edge of the rectangular card. She plucked it out and locked up the secret alcove.
This was it. Everything she’d earned over the years, and everything she had to keep. She shoved the card into her back pocket and made her way back through the hold, squinting as she hopped down into the bright lights of the dock. She lockedAhton’s Takeand glanced over at the needlefin, which waited with hatch open and engines prepped.
Kaia blinked away the sudden stinging in her eyes, swallowed down the lump working up her throat. She stroked the hull of her brother’s namesake. It had been with her all these years, vital in her mission to get back to him. Would she ever see it again? Would Loran pick it apart for scraps as soon as she was gone? Kaia took a few shaky breaths and pressed her lips to the metal for just a moment.
The tears were dry before they ever got a chance to spill. She pulled herself together, turned, and strode to the needlefin.
CHAPTER10
ORION
When Kaia appeared at the hatch, Orion grabbed her arm and hauled her into the ship.
“About fucking time,” Bretton growled from the cockpit.
Orion ignored him, directing Kaia to one of the three passenger seats nestled against the wall. She wasted no more time getting her ass into her seat and snapping the belt buckles across her chest. He was slower at that after spending years planetside, fumbling with the overlapping belts for a few moments before working them into place.
The ship lifted with a subtle vibration just as he finished strapping in.
Good to go,Orion subvocalized to Bretton.
This isn’t a good idea, Orion.
How aboutyoujust do your job?
There was muffled chattering in the cockpit as Bretton communicated with the docksmen—they didn’t have Neurosyncs for subvocalization here, of course. The ship moved, a subtle push rocking him in his seat. It wavered as Bretton guided them through the dock.
Orion glanced at Kaia next to him. She clenched the arms of her seat with bony fingers, black paint chipping on her knuckles, which looked even whiter than the rest of her pallid skin. She stared straight ahead. Only the hint of red rimming her green eyes gave away the fact that she’d been crying, or close to it. Her orange hair was a mop around her head and shoulders, frizzy and a little wet from the sweat of the old helmet, which she had positioned in her lap.
The girl looked like she was terrified to be there, which was not how Orion envisioned this going. And sure, perhaps a last-minute proposal in the dock wasn’t the ideal way sweep a woman off her feet, but didn’t she realize her whole life just changed for the better? She was about to go from a malnourished scavenger to the commander’s wife on the biggest colony ship in the universe.Have some goddamn gratitude.
Orion’s mulling was interrupted by the thermaview of the needlefin flickering into transparency around them as Bretton lowered the shields. The sharp inhale next to him mirrored the little jolt of his own awareness at the sudden appearance of infinite space.
The only part of the ship that remained opaque was the floor, stretching a few inches up onto the curving walls. Kaia had unclasped her belt and turned in her seat. She kneeled on the firm cushion, gripping the back for balance. She looked a little more serene with the view—surprising, since people tended to get a shock at the emptiness opening up around them. But she was a pilot, after all.
Orion grinned at the prize he was bringing back.
“Beautiful, huh?” He watched her profile as he said it. Her peachy pink lips curled into a small smile. But it soon disappeared, delicate brows drawing together.
“Yeah, exceptthat…”
