Chapter 4 - Sun’s Corpse #3
“Bring Vee to me or I’ll start setting more fires,” I say with more conviction than I feel.
I would never, but the captain doesn’t know that.
Despite the tentative joke we shared earlier, I’m a stranger to Tanisira.
I’ll do anything for my son, and when this is over, Dominik will have learned that out too.
“Fine,” Tanisira bites out.
I might collapse. I’m equal parts incredulous and relieved, with a vicious intensity that washes over me.
My heart rate kicks into high-octane mode, and my clammy hands shake.
But I’ve made it this far, so I lean against the wall, tuck my hands into my pockets and cross my feet at the ankles—never mind that every move sends pain streaking along my nerves.
If I exude calmness, I’ll become calmness. Or something like that.
“I’ll be waiting,” I say.
It might look cool, but I can only hold that position for a few more seconds before my body’s protests become screams. I start to pace, but that puts too much pressure on my bum knee, so I start cleaning up the mess I made.
It’s not exactly badass, but I figure the captain has agreed to fetch Vee, so I might as well.
Plus, what I did was all kinds of stupid and I can start making up for it.
There’s a small fan set into the wall beside the AllPrep that has been scrubbing the air. I start wiping down the surfaces and activate a vacbot I find docked inside a cupboard. By the time I’m finished, the fan has done a decent job of clearing the odours out of the small galley.
Then the door slides open. My heart catapults into my throat, and it’s all I can do not to burst into tears, even when Tanisira glares across the threshold, wearing her anger like armour. I almost shrink back from her sharp edges, but a lanky boy peers over her arm, and I suddenly can’t move.
“Vee,” I cry.
Tanisira, having decided it’s safe for Vee to enter, steps aside. My kid lights up as he barrels towards me. “Mum! How did you get here?”
Burying my face into his hair, I tighten my arms around him. The world is suddenly right again. I ache in several places, but I don’t care. Somehow—somehow, I manage not to sob into his soft curls. The knot in my chest unravels. I inhale deeply.
Vee laughs, and his pre-teen voice is so sweet that it hurts. “Did you just sniff me?”
“Shh.” I smile against his temple. “I missed you.”
I don’t know how much he knows, if anything at all, and the last thing I want to do is scare him. For now, I’m content to just hold him. He’s safe. He’s well. I’m reluctant to let him go when he starts to wiggle, but each jostle scalds my nerve endings.
Vee looks up at me with sparkling green eyes that widen when he takes in the state of me. “Your face! Were you here for the micrometeorites?”
“Yes, baby.” I shudder. “Not fun. Don’t worry about my face, it looks worse than it is. Are you okay? Did you get hurt?”
I inspect him for injuries, but he seems completely fine and wriggles away again. “I’m fine. Captain Sekmith came to get me just before it hit us and took me to this really cool panic room.” He sighs. “I could barely hear anything.”
Only then do I look up and meet Tanisira’s eyes.
Captain Tanisira Sekmith. She doesn’t seem to like the full designation, which is interesting from someone of her station.
She stands just inside the galley, observing as unobtrusively as possible.
Her expression has become carefully blank, but her jaw is clenched.
I know just as well as she does that my earlier stunt was stupid. But it got us here.
“Is that true?” I ask, even though Vee doesn’t need to lie.
She inclines her head a little. “I came to take you to him, but—”
“I was already gone.”
Vee tugs on my arm. “It’s Dad’s panic room! It has everything in there. He even has vintage games that you can’t get anymore. I was playing Mario Kart!”
My heart could honestly burst right now.
I grin in response, that infectious joy of his soothing my frayed edges.
He looks an awful lot like Dominik and not so much like me; he’s got my dark hair and some hints of my bone structure, but that’s it.
He’s going to be taller than me soon, too, a truth I’m not looking forward to.
I’m a cliché in every way when it comes to Vee…
but I don’t want him to grow up. It’s always been me and him against the world.
Dominik tried to destroy that. My smile melts into a frown. “How was your week at your dad’s?”
“It was okay. He worked a lot, but Opal took me to get more games. Hey, have you seen the arcade yet?”
“Yes. I didn’t think you had; it’s not a total mess yet.”
Vee snorts. “O-Kay. I haven’t had a chance to play anything yet, but now that you’re here, maybe we can play some multis.”
I cup his cheek, the light brown skin smooth and... slightly sticky. I don’t even want to know. I learned a long time ago to stop asking questions. “Of course, baby. I’m just gonna talk to the captain for a minute, okay?”
He nods, pulls a handheld console out of his back pocket and hauls himself up on the counter. Within seconds, he’s engrossed, long legs dangling. My heart squeezes.
I turn back to Tanisira, and she looks furious again.
Because Vee’s no longer paying attention to us?
My stomach ties itself in knots as I think carefully about what I’m going to say.
I’m surprised to find, though I’m a little scared, that I’m not angry at her.
Now that my mind no longer feels like a trash fire, I can recognise that she was probably supposed to be on the bridge during the swarm, not roaming the ship playing babysitter.
The past few days have been a nightmare, but I have to admit that Tanisira’s calm, steady presence and respectful demeanour have probably kept me saner than I otherwise would be.
Impulsively, I fling myself at her. She hesitates, but I’m already hugging her, and she has nowhere to go but into my embrace. “Thank you,” I breathe.
She holds herself stiffly. Still, I squeeze her tighter, hoping that underneath all that righteous anger is a person who understands what lengths a mother might go to protect her child.
All my aches and pains flare up as I press myself against Tanisira, but I’m determined to soften her. Vee is here, and he’s fine.
The tension in her body lessens, though it’s miniscule, and then her arms finally fold around me.
Incredulous, I put all my weight down on my sore ankle and stumble.
In her arms, my full-body flinch is visceral and Tanisira pulls back carefully and studies me.
The intense look on her face is made the more intimidating by the darkness of her frown, which makes her eyebrow slit more severe, her cheekbones mere slashes in the shadows of the overhead lighting.
“You’re hurt. More than you were before.”
“It’s no big deal. Seriously, thank you for keeping Vee safe. What... what made you believe me?”
“What you did was irresponsible and reckless. Pointless, too—if you’d just waited until I dealt with the emergency, I’d have brought Vee to you.” One of her hands comes up to scrub at her face.
But I didn’t know that, did I? I also notice that she ignored my question, but I don’t push. “Did something else happen? You look stressed.”
Her jaw twitches as though she’s grinding her teeth. “The swarm inflicted several large dents in the hull and knocked some sensors out of service.”
“Oh.”
“Those are just the damages we know about. Kit is compiling a full list, but it’s not looking good.”
My stomach dips. If Dominik lured us onto this ship just for us to end up dying in space, I’m gonna come back to life just to haunt him. But the tension in Tanisira’s body gives her away, so I smooth over my own expression. We’ll be okay. Look at how she dealt with the swarm, after all.
“Okay. Get your techie on it,” I say calmly.
I see the exact moment that Tanisira decides to tell me the truth against her better judgment. Her shoulders loosen and some of the strain eases, even though she looks exhausted.
Apprehension stuns me.
“My mechanical engineer isn’t on board.”
I frown. I squint. “Your mechanical engineer isn’t...”
“I’ll figure something out,” she says curtly.
A jolt goes through me, the reality of what she’s implying like a zap of electricity. There’s no engineer on this thing? Who’s going to fix the fucking holes in the ship?