Chapter 18 Dax
Dax
Based on Lacy’s comments—and her pained expression—I’d fucked up big time and I had no idea how to fix it. The squad had trusted me with Wilson’s savings, sure that I would get us the best ship. And I’d completely blown it.
“Dax, are you listening to me?”
I looked at Lacy. She was watching me with concern in her eyes. Unbidden, memories of our engine room kiss came to the forefront and my eyes dropped to her lips. Then back up.
She smiled. “Everything is going to be all right.”
I didn’t believe her, but since I had no idea how to fix this, I smiled and nodded and waited to hear her plan.
“In its original configuration, the Cyclone class can hold nearly 75 metric tonnes of cargo. More if you install additional cargo mods, but that fucks with the fuel efficiency and sometimes with the ship’s balance.
While 75 tonnes isn’t much when compared to the big bulk carriers, it’s a good size for making a living at this. ”
Was she some kind of witch? Those were the same numbers that the ship dealer had rattled off when I’d visited the off-planet shipyard.
I spun her chair until we were facing each other. My hands clamped around the arms of the chair. This time I wasn’t letting go without getting answers. “Who sent you? How do you know so much about my ship?”
Her surprised blink gave way to understanding.
“When I was a teenager, my father gave me a Cyclone. Mako. I lived and breathed that ship and learned everything I could about her. After a year, I could fix anything that broke. After a few years,” she said with a shrug, “I knew every corridor and cargo hold, every fact and figure about my ship.”
Her voice radiated love for her ship. Dax understood her talking to his ship now. Kind of. “What, um, what happened to Mako?” Surely if she still had her ship, she wouldn’t have stolen his.
Her sigh echoed around the bridge. “When I decided to move to Elegium Station, my father convinced me that it was better to leave her with him rather than pay the exorbitant docking fees for a ship I wasn’t going to fly. I’ve never regretted that more than these last couple days.”
I laughed. “Tell me about it.”
She shrugged sheepishly. “That’s how I know so much about your ship.”
About to pull back, I realized that her answer didn’t account for everything. “How did you get on my ship? The doors were sealed. Locked.” I may not know much about cargo, but I damn well knew security.
Her lips pinched like she was biting into a lemon. Like she had something to hide. Something she didn’t want to tell me.
I leaned closer, giving her my best drill-sergeant stare. The one that made new recruits tremble.
She didn’t even blink.
Impressed despite myself, I needed an answer. I’d already fucked up once. I couldn’t let my team down further with a ship that could be stolen out from under us at any moment.
I was willing to wait her out, as long as it took, but she appeared to come to a decision.
“Factory settings.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
“Exactly what it sounds like,” she said, exasperation clear.
When I stared at her expectantly, she continued.
“When every Cyclone rolled off the assembly line, their systems were coded to a default, factory setting. Every ship got the same code. Since the ships were originally built for the military, it made sense for the ships and the pilots to be interchangeable. One code, many ships.”
Okay, that made sense. The military liked to do things the easy way, until they didn’t. But . . . “Fortuna isn’t a military ship.”
“Sure. But no one changed the default code. Not you, not the dealer, not even the previous owner.”
Flummoxed, I sat back heavily. “So you just entered a code and waltzed right onto my ship?”
“Basically.”
My jaw dropped. “How did you get it started?”
She raised her brows and gave me an Are you an idiot? look.
“Let me guess. Factory settings?”
She nodded.
Air whooshed out of my lungs. “Holy shit.”
“Pretty much,” she agreed.
“Does every ship come with factory defaults?” I couldn’t get over the horror of so many unsecured ships.
She shrugged but didn’t look at me.
“C’mon, Lacy. Just tell me.”
Her green eyes swiveled toward me. “Honestly, I don’t know, but I’d assume so. I know codes for five ship types, including the Cyclone.”
Five codes. That meant . . . “You could have stolen someone else’s ship.” Dammit.
“Stealing a ship wasn’t my first choice. I just wanted to lie low until I figured out what was happening. Then the thugs who attacked me entered the docks.” She looked away.
“Sure. I could have entered a few other ships, but they were deeper in the docks and I couldn’t have flown them by myself. I would have needed an entire team to take any of the other four ship classes.”
Her explanation made perfect sense, but Lacy’s familiarity with boosting ships was worrisome.
“Are you a pirate?”
“What?” She choked out the word. “No. Of course not. Piracy is illegal in most known space.”
“That sounds like something a pirate would say.”
“I. Am. Not. A. Pirate,” she ground out. “I’m a mechanic. You’ve seen my ID. I can prove my skills if I have to.”
She paused, tilting her head like she was considering something. “And I’m pretty sure I have a way to solve your cargo problem and my sister problem.”
I rolled my eyes. “Let me guess. If I help you find your sister, you’ll tell me where I can get some cargo.” I made an exasperated sound. “I think that helps you more than me.”
She narrowed her eyes and glared at me. “No. My plan will help us both. At the same time.”
It sounded too good to be true and I wasn’t sure I believed her, but still . . . “How?” I asked cautiously.
She gestured toward the holo table tucked in the back of the bridge. “May I?”
I nodded. When she approached the table, I followed her.
With a flick of her hand, she pulled up the star chart on the holographic table, twisting and turning the image until she was satisfied.
It took my brain a moment to adjust to seeing the usual two-dimensional maps in 3D instead. “You’ll have to show me how to do that,” I said, while I studied the new terrain.
“This is us.” She pointed to a glowing blue dot on the edge of the current view.
Fortuna looked so small amongst all the glowing white stars and planets.
“Where are you picking up your crew?”
I looked over at her sharply. This was the first time she’d mentioned my crew. As I rattled off the locations, little green lights sprang to life on the map. “Very cool.”
“I know, right?” She smiled at me and my breath caught.
I’d thought she was pretty when I first saw her, here on my bridge, but when she smiled . . . Her smile outshone any of the stars on the map or out the windshield. She was obviously in her element working with Fortuna and I hated to admit that I was jealous of the attention she was paying my ship.
She programmed additional commands into the table and some of the existing lights changed colors, subtly glowing pink. “This overlay shows the locations of cargo requests.”
“How did you . . .” The question hovered on the tip of my tongue.
“You’ve been visiting Floyd’s Freight Forum looking for cargo jobs.” She didn’t even have the grace to look ashamed at knowing every move I’d been making. “It’s a decent start,” Lacy said, patting me on the arm, “but I know better places for cargo. We’ll get to that later.”
I shook my head. Damn her for being as frustrating as she was intriguing.
She rotated the map, changing the view until she was satisfied it met some unspoken criteria. “That’s Elegium Station.”
The little pink dot she pointed to looked very far away. We’d traveled quite a ways from the asteroid station in our day in space. Going back now would be a waste of time and fuel.
“This is our current trajectory.” A blue line appeared on the map, spearing through the 3D space all the way to the edge of the map. “Obviously we’ll need to change course to pick up your crew.” Dotted blue lines radiated from Fortuna’s blue dot, creating a fractured pattern on the star map.
No matter which dotted path we took, we’d pass a number of cargo opportunities. I reached out and “touched” one of the pink lights we were approaching. The screen zoomed in and data exploded on the map. Cargo type, job timeline, payment. “This is amazing, Lacy.”
It wasn’t just amazing. It could be a game changer for us. No more scrolling the forum. All we’d have to do was click on the nearest point on the map and go.
Her fingers wrapped around my wrist and pushed my arm down. “You do not want to transport cows, Dax. Trust me. Fortuna’s cargo hold is not configured for that shit. And I mean literal shit.”
“Oh,” I said, feeling dumb. “How did you learn all this?”
She shrugged. “Experience.”
Once again, I had the feeling she was leaving a lot out. I pressed another dot and watched the data expand.
Lacy cleared it quickly and keyed in more data. Two purple dots appeared on the screen, farther out than any of my crew, though they weren’t far from one of the blue dotted lines that represented one of our potential routes. “Layla’s last known locations, based on the geotags on the data chip.”
“Lacy—” I started, but she held up her hand.
“You said to show you my plan. That’s what I’m doing.” She poked her finger at the map and three dots lit up orange. “There are three planets out near her last coordinates: Justin, Kottke, and Pignum. They’re so far out, it might as well be a different galaxy. I think she’s on one of them.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but she hurried on. “I can get you cargo all the way out there. You’ll be able to make money, pick up your crew, and help me out.”
“That’s days of travel, Lacy.” I wanted to help her but by the time we reached hell-and-gone space, her sister could be gone. “It might be a wild goose chase.”
Her jaw clenched and she didn’t reply at first. Her voice was tight and controlled when she finally said, “It’s days of travel anyway to pick up all of your crew.” A long, tense pause. “Okay, tell me your plan.” She shoved her hands in her pockets, her expression slightly taunting.
I stepped closer and studied the map. This was supposed to be easy—pick up cargo then start picking up my crew. Based on the way the dots had lit up when I told her the rendezvous points, Burn was first.
“Pick up Burn here.” I pointed to the closest green light. “Then Finn.” The next closest green light.
“Where are you getting cargo?”
On its face, it was an obvious, innocent question, but I was pretty sure it was a trap.
I studied the pink lights. The closest option were the cows that she’d told me to avoid.
I’d take that advice. I pulled up the data for the next pink dot.
“What the fuck are thermo-blinders?” Whatever they were, there was good money in hauling them.
“Netting that blocks thermal scanning.”
Well, that sounded easy enough. And the payment would keep us in the air for a while. “We’ll get cargo there.” Maybe this wasn’t so hard.
“Where are they going?” Lacy asked quietly.
I studied the data again. “Caldon.” Where was it on the map?
While I was searching, she lit up the dot. It flared orange, its glow nowhere near any of the other colored dots.
“That’s a ways away,” I said.
She nodded. “You’ll probably need to get fuel here or here, based on what we have now and our current burn rate.” Her finger lightly touched two dots in the middle of that route.
“How do you know all this?”
She huffed out a sigh. “I’ve been trying to tell you. I grew up with this. I know space. I know cargo. Most important, I know this ship.” She stepped closer, getting right in my face. “It’s easier and a lot less expensive to learn the ropes from someone, rather than trial and error.”
She laid a palm on my chest. “You need me for this. And I need you to help me find my sister. It’s a win-win.”
I looked down at the hand on my chest, then back up into her eyes. Hoping I was doing the right thing for my crew and not being influenced by her touch, I agreed. “Fine.”