Chapter 17
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Tish tackled the last of the calibrations with mixed feelings. She was proud of the work she’d done and pleased that everything was coming together. She was also aware that the end of this job meant things would have to change.
“Livy, can you review that last report and let me know if you see anything I’ve missed?” she asked the ship’s AI.
“Reviewing it now.” After a few seconds, the AI responded. “Green across the board. No issues detected.”
“Thanks.”
She almost hoped she had missed something. It would mean she had more time left before Xaber and Mace went back to work…back to bounty hunting.
It had been easier to glide past their career choice when they weren’t actively doing that job. They’d been helping her around the ship, doing the heavy lifting and learning more about the vessel and how it worked. Once she was done, the hiatus from reality would end.
Some decisions were easy. Mace and Xaber didn’t simply say they were decent and honorable. They had proven it to her with every act and choice they’d made since she’d known them. Her issues with their job had nothing to do with them and everything to do with her circumstances.
She continued to work while she considered everything, her hands sure and deft as she inspected connections and made small adjustments.
The next issue was the logistics of continuing their relationship.
Her lovers would have to leave the station for work.
That was inevitable. That meant she would need to find another hotel.
Preferably one with better security than the last. She’d managed to put away a decent amount of scrip over the last while.
Part of it came from what she’d earned repairing the True, and the rest came from not having to pay rent.
She’d chipped in for food, but that still left her with enough that she wouldn’t have to worry about having enough money to eat.
It wasn’t until she’d been on board for a few days that she realized how badly her body craved real food and a decent amount of uninterrupted sleep.
She’d been operating in low-energy mode for weeks and hadn’t even noticed.
She would not do that again if she could help it. She could make it on her own.
Would they want to keep seeing her once things had changed? Probably. She wouldn’t know for sure until they had that conversation, and she figured they’d already done enough serious talking for the day. She already knew her answer, though. It was a resounding yes.
Seeing them was not the only reason she didn’t want to leave Defiance.
This place felt more familiar now than it had before.
She knew her way around parts of it, and she’d formed connections with some of the residents.
She considered Grotta and even Flek to be friends of a sort.
Rain welcomed her with a smile and a wave every time she visited the Forge.
Slowly but surely, she was making a life for herself here.
That left her with one final question. The big one.
If they all agreed to keep seeing each other, would she do it as Tix, or as Tishna?
She hated lying to them. Every time they used the wrong name, guilt needled her.
She was falling for them, no doubt about it.
If she didn’t have to guard her heart, she’d be in love with them already.
If she wanted to keep them, she needed to tell them the truth.
It had been more than two months since she’d fled Amadox Station. If a bounty had been posted, she’d have heard about it by now. Right? Her fathers would have warned her.
They’d set up a way to communicate with her before she’d left. It wasn’t simple, and it would take time, but they could get a message to her through Thrash, the cyborg pilot who had brought her here.
He’d helped her set up her comm device so it had access to a sort of digital mailbox.
When a message eventually arrived for her, that was how she could safely retrieve it.
The only way she could send messages to her fathers would be to pay for an encrypted message to be carried by a ship headed back home.
She hadn’t done it yet because it was too risky—not just for her but for her fathers.
If Hamish found even a shred of proof they’d helped her get away, he’d make their lives impossible.
Two months with no warnings. That had to be a good sign. Once she’d heard from her fathers and was certain she’d made a clean break, she’d tell Mace and Xaber the truth. Would they forgive her? That was the hardest question to answer… and she couldn’t know until the moment came.
Tish cursed softly and slapped a hand against the console she was working on. None of this was fraxxing fair, not to her or them. She hated it, but she had to keep this secret a little longer.
One day soon, she’d be able to put this nightmare behind her. She’d let her fathers know she was doing okay and finally be able to tell her lovers who she was and what she was running from.
What happened next? That was up to them, but if she waited a few more weeks, she could use that time to prepare her explanation. Maybe a good delivery would help them understand.
Maybe.
She finished the last simple job and gave herself a mental shake. Moping around the engine room wasn’t going to help fix the ship or her personal problems. She couldn’t do anything about the latter, so she needed to focus on the former.
“Livy, please activate simulation mode. It’s time we put the new jump drive through its paces.” She’d already had the AI create a digital copy of the new engine. It was identical in every way to the real thing, and it gave them a way to test the system without any risk to the ship.
“Simulation mode ready. I will start and end the program whenever you say the word.”
“Give me a moment. I want to watch this from inside your systems.”
“Of course.”
Tish sat down in front of the main console and made sure her feet were firmly planted on the deck. The longer she stayed inside a system, the higher the chance she’d be disoriented when she came back to reality. Sitting made it less likely she’d fall on her face during the transition.
“Interfacing now,” she told the AI and placed her hand beside a data port.
For a moment of disorientation, she felt like she was moving despite knowing that her body was still in the chair.
Only her awareness shifted. She moved through the protocols, activating the digital handshake that allowed her to cross into Livy’s systems.
At least, that’s how she envisioned the process.
Everyone’s experience was different. To her, the inner workings of a system looked like thick cables running off into the distance.
The cables themselves were translucent, which allowed her to see the information pulsing through them.
The data all moved at different speeds and came in a variety of colors that gave her hints as to their content.
“Show me the simulation,” she thought directly at Livy.
An orange cube shimmered into existence just a few meters ahead of her. As she approached, the cube turned clear and a wire-model of the back half of the ship appeared inside it. She positioned herself, or the part of her in this space, so she could see the model clearly.
Fully jacked cyber-jockeys could summon digital avatars of themselves in cyberspace. She didn’t have that level of access, so instead of anything useful, her awareness was more like a glob of water floating in zero-G.
“Run the program, please.”
The model lit up as power flowed into the jump drive.
Green lights showed where things behaved as they should.
She was looking for warning colors. Red, orange, or yellow would indicate problems. As the simulation continued, data flowed into her onboard memory like water poured into a cup.
She sensed its flow but wouldn’t be able to review it until she was back in the real world. For now, her job was to observe.
After the third run, she had everything she needed. “I’m withdrawing. Thank you, Livy.”
She withdrew from the system. The false sensation of motion made her slightly queasy.
“Ugh. I hate this bit,” she muttered as her stomach rebelled. The longer she stayed in cyberspace, the worse it got.
She found the box of crackers she’d stashed nearby and nibbled one as she reviewed the data she’d brought out with her. Everything looked good. Not perfect but close. Another day of tweaks and tests was all it would take.
“Livy, please do your own review and let me know if you see any issues. I think we’re almost there. This ship should be ready to fly again soon.”
“You have done a commendable job, Tix. Thank you.”
The AI’s compliment made her smile.
“You are the best ship’s AI I have ever worked with. Thanks for all your help.”
“You are welcome.”
Tish ate another cracker and waited for her stomach to calm down. It never took long. With nothing pressing left to do, she fished her comm out of her pocket. Maybe the guys had sent her a message letting her know when they’d be back.
A flashing light indicated that she did have a new message. She activated the view screen and froze.
The message wasn’t from Mace or Xaber.
It was a notification from her digital mailbox. A message had arrived.
She blew out a breath, scattering cracker crumbs everywhere. Her fathers had finally reached out to her. This had to be good news.
She went through the verification process and started the download and decryption sequence. Then she got to her feet and paced around the engine room, too impatient to sit still.
“Come on!” she muttered as the progress bar slowly filled.
She opened the message the instant the button appeared on the screen. She hadn’t allowed herself to admit how much she missed her parents. Having no contact at all after a lifetime of closeness had left a hole in her heart.
She knew immediately which of them had written the letter. Javid would have opened with a greeting. Elias started by telling her that things had gone nova.
She sank to the floor, her knees buckling as the weight of her father’s warning crashed down on her head.
A bounty had been posted for her. Hamish had bragged about it, and they’d seen the posting themselves. It was higher than anything her former owner could have scraped together, so someone else had to be involved.
They’d included a copy of the bounty posting. It had her name and photo, along with a number that didn’t make any sense. How much? There was no way she was worth that much.
The crackers she’d eaten were not enough to stave off a fresh wave of nausea. At the bottom of the post was a short list of potential locations. One of them was the Drift.
It had to be a guess. The Drift was a large collection of platforms and stations with a reputation as a good hiding place. Not that it mattered. Someone would come looking for her. They might be here already. The message had taken more than two weeks to arrive.
She dashed the tears from her eyes and read the rest of the message.
There wasn’t much. They were safe. There had been an investigation, but they were cleared of any involvement in her escape.
The precautions they’d taken—not taking anything of hers from their place, paying Thrash for a nonexistent delivery instead of transferring scrip to her directly, never meeting face-to-face. It all worked.
The message ended with admonishments to stay safe and be smart with one last line telling her they loved her and missed her every day.
She missed them too, but she didn’t have time for an emotional meltdown right now. She wanted to scream and curse and demand more time.
Instead, she got to her feet. She had been alive too long to believe that you could get what you wanted if you wished hard enough for it. These last few weeks had been a lovely vacation from reality, but it was over now.
“Livy, I’ve got something I need to do. Please continue with our planned tests and note any problems you find.”
“I’ll do that. Do you need any assistance? I’m detecting signs of physical distress.”
“I’m fine.” The lie came easily. She hated how quickly she’d learned to do that. Lies and half-truths were a normal part of her life now. Hamish had taken everything from her—her honor, her home, her family, even her name.
She’d been too busy surviving to even think about how to get back the things she’d lost. Today, that changed. Not because she was ready but because she had run out of time.