Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
Once again, Edward had gone into shock. Sinclair wished she could curl up into a ball and do the same, but the images of what was happening back home on Tito just left her feeling numb.
She wished she wasn’t right, and that Tito would stay the same as it always had, so when her sentence was up, she could go home.
But Titania had had other ideas, and the men looked to her to lead.
All their lives depended on her now, and Sin wasn’t going to let them down.
Especially not with Virtue here on the ship, too, when she’d only been arrested for trying to warn Sin that the police were on their way.
Virtue never should have been there. Sinclair was the emergency dispatcher, sending everyone where they needed to go, and giving them exactly the right info they needed to save the greatest number of people.
She should be on Tito now, coordinating the evacuation.
Instead, she had nine prisoners and one prison guard to get safely across the system before the Titanic broke orbit and left them behind.
There was no point hiding the damage from the rest of the crew, and Edward might be the captain, but he was in no shape to be giving orders yet.
Sinclair pulled up the damage report on the main wallscreen. She heard several sighs of relief as the crazy news footage was replaced to a map of the ship, even though it had a whole lot of flashing red sections.
“We’re leaking atmosphere here, here and here.
I want three teams of two. Blue team, you’ll take the forward section.
Red team, aft. Pride and Envy, I want you to do a sweep from port to starboard, starting with the lower levels.
If it’s venting, seal it off. Patch what you can, especially if it’s crew quarters or supplies, but if it’s cargo, the ore will be fine in vacuum.
Virtue and Sloth, you’re on mess and medbay, respectively.
Keep the coffee and bandaids coming. The sooner we’re shipshape and not a leaky bucket, the sooner we’ll be back on Tito. ”
The men nodded and headed out.
All except for Edward.
“What are you going to do?” he asked.
“I’m calling the shots on comms, like I always do,” Sin said.
“What am I supposed to do?”
It was on the tip of her tongue to tell him to stay out of their way and let them take care of business, because as long as he was in shock, he was more of a liability than an asset, but she didn’t have the heart to.
His whole world…no, his whole universe had come crashing down, and that took time to adjust to.
Edward was a by the book kind of guy. So, she said, “What does the guard procedure manual say?”
He cracked a smile. “I don’t think there’s a procedure in there for what to do if you’re travelling on a prison ship, halfway across the system, and the Central Intelligence starts a war against the living inhabitants of the system.”
She nodded. Give him due credit, he was handling this pretty well. “What does your gut tell you that you should do?”
He didn’t hesitate. “My gut tells me to take charge of the situation, to salvage what we can. But my head’s still trying to wrap itself around what’s happening. How this can’t be real…”
But the ship and the crew needed someone in charge. Someone who not only recognised the asteroid field they’d found themselves in, but could see or at least blast a path through it.
“I’m headed up to the flight deck, to man the comms so I know what’s happening here. We can worry about Tito when we get there.”
In the end, Edward teamed up with Sloth, and they took the starboard side of the main section, opposite Pride and Envy.
By the time the men had patched up the holes in the hull, Sin had persuaded Pride to take the pilot's seat again – but he only agreed to do it with the full autopilot engaged. Sin was too tired to argue.
It was earlier than Sin usually went to bed, but she was so exhausted, she didn't care.
When she faceplanted on her bed, she didn't even have the energy to take her shipsuit off. If she could just stay here and not have to move for another eight hours or so, that would be just fine by her.
She was pretty sure eight hours hadn't passed when she heard the tentative tapping on the door. It felt like only eight minutes.
"Go away," she mumbled into the mattress.
The tapping grew more urgent. Whoever he was, he wasn't going away.
Sinclair sighed and dragged herself off the bed, then waved the door open.
Edward stood there, his brow creased with worry. "I came to check on you, to see if you're all right."
"Why wouldn't I be all right? I just set a new record for flying through the asteroid field.
I'm fan-fucking-tastic. In fact, if I weren't stuck on this prison ship, I'd have gone and bought a lottery ticket, and a really good bottle of bubbly wine.
Come to think of it, maybe the food fabricator can make bubbly wine.
I never thought to check before." She dropped back onto the bed. "Tomorrow, maybe."
"Well, when I had to change the ship's security settings, it disabled all the automatic door locks, and I can't switch it back as long as we need the engines running.
So instead of being locked in their cells for the night, all the men could be…
anywhere." Edward coughed, a faint flush colouring his cheeks. "I came to guard you."
Sinclair blinked. "You think the other prisoners are a bunch of raping, violent thugs?
Have you even read anyone's file? Well, aside from mine.
" One sheepish look told her the answer.
"Yes, we're convicted terrorists, all of us, but we're all here for the same crime – trying to take down Titania.
We weren't trying to hurt or kill anybody.
Nobody would have gotten hurt at all, if a couple of kinky demons hadn't been having sex and lit the curtains on fire, while the emergency alert systems were down.
We wouldn't have even harmed Titania – all we wanted was to sandbox her, so she wouldn't be in control anymore.
So she wouldn't do anything like…what's happening on Tito right now.
We threatened her, and she knew it, which is why she sentenced us to hard labour on a prison ship, instead of a slap on the wrist, like it should have been.
I'm in no more danger on this ship than anyone else.
No men knocking down my door…except you, that is. "
"But I'm here to protect you!" he protested.
Sinclair laughed. "From what? In case you've forgotten, I saved us all, flying us out of the asteroid field.
The men already know I hold their lives in my hands every day, as comms and despatch while they're out in the vacuum.
I'm the one who keeps them alive. After today, they're already treating me like some sort of a goddess, which can't last, but it's nice while it does.
The only person on this ship who's touched me without my permission is you! "
His eyes went wide. "I'm…I'm…oh, stars." He sighed. "I'd say I'm sorry I kissed you, but I'd be lying. I'm not sorry for that at all. I am sorry I didn't ask you first. I should have."
Sinclair nodded. "Apology accepted. Virtue would probably tell me I should let you sweat a while before I told you that, but…I don't hold a grudge like she can. Well, against people, anyway. Titania's sort of a special case."
"Where is your roommate?" Edward asked.
Sinclair shrugged. "Probably in hydroponics.
She'd spend all her time there, if she didn't have to deal with the galley, too.
It's a fae thing, wanting to be around plants, or so I'm told, because I never inherited it.
If I don't go get her, she'll probably sleep there, too – there's a bunk in one of the labs.
When I stay up late on the sims, I usually find her sleeping back there. "
He swallowed. "So, you'll probably have the cabin to yourself tonight." He looked like he was dying to add something else, but he just couldn't seem to get the words out.
"But I'm not alone." The words left her lips before she'd really thought about them.
"Is that what you want?"
They stared at each other for a long moment, the longing stretching so thick between them, Sin could almost reach out and touch it.
This time, he was asking. He deserved an answer.
Third time's a charm. "Yes," she breathed before she kissed him.
It turned out that not only did she have enough energy to take off her own shipsuit, but she managed to tear his off as well. “You really are Mr Perfect,” she breathed as she took him in.