Chapter 21 Lacy
Lacy
“We’re going to Pangaea?” My voice rose and I probably sounded slightly hysterical as I stared at Dax.
“Yep.” He spared me a glance, then whipped his gaze back toward the little green planet in our view that was getting bigger and bigger. “I told you that.”
Okay, fine. He had given me the names, but I’d been so focused plotting a path to Layla, they hadn’t really registered. Staring at the verdant planet, everything I knew about it came rushing back. “One of your crew is down there?”
He nodded. “Yep, Burn.”
What the hell kind of name was Burn? But that wasn’t my most pressing question. “You know that we can’t land on Pangaea, right?”
Named after the primordial land mass of Earth, the planet was lush and green, with exotic flora and dense forests.
And that was the problem. Pangaea was too lush. Too green. The minute a ship set down, the biosphere overtook the technology. Vines wrapped around landing gear. Bugs infested air ducts. Mother Nature was usually the winner: only one in three ships that landed on Pangaea made it back off the planet.
“We’re not landing. Burn will come to us.”
What the hell did that mean?
“Hold on,” Dax warned, just before we dropped out of space and into atmosphere.
My stomach jumped into my throat and my hands clasped the arm rests. We dropped through cloud cover into blue sky that nearly seemed to be eaten up by green trees. “Wow. I never knew trees could get so big.” We’d never had any reason to visit Pangaea.
I turned to look at Dax. “Are you sure you can do this? I can take over.” I really didn’t want the trees to be the last thing I saw.
“I’ve got this, Lacy. Grab the radio, would you?”
I picked up the radio and held it out to him.
He shook his head and gave me the comms frequency.
Keying in the frequency, I held the radio near his mouth.
“Fortuna One, this is Fortuna Prime. You ready for pickup?”
There was a crackle of static and then a wild yelp. “Hey, Sarge!”
“Give me your exact coordinates. We’re coming in hot for you.”
She rattled off her location and I programmed it into the ship’s navigation. “‘We’? You got Finn with you?”
“Not exactly,” Dax said. “See you soon. Fortuna Prime out.”
He gave me a nod and I cut the transmission. “Am I going to be a problem?”
“Probably,” Dax said after a pause. “I’ll handle it, all right?”
“Sure.” This was going to be great fun.
“I’ll take care of it,” he said again. “Now I need you down in the cargo hold to pick up Burn.”
“This has got to be the dumbest plan ever,” I muttered as I triple-checked my safety harness and the lines that tied me to the ship. When Dax and I had set up the lines and harnesses earlier, I thought this was like a backup plan or something. Like in case of emergencies.
I’d argued with Dax that I should be the one to pilot the ship and he should meet his friend in the cargo hold. He’d refused.
Apparently, we were going to scoop Burn right out of the trees. The only way this was a plan was if he planned for me to fall out of the cargo hold. That would not be happening if I had anything to say about it. I tightened my harness again.
When my lines were as secure as I could make them, I checked the others.
The intercom chimed and I pressed the button to answer. “Cargo bay.”
“We’re approaching the coordinates. There’s nothing but trees here. I want you to open the cargo hold door and keep an eye out. Do you have comms?”
“Just the intercom. I can leave it on.”
“Do it. Let me know when the doors open and if you see anything.”
“Got it. Cargo bay out.”
My steps echoed ominously as I crossed the empty cargo hold and my stomach lurched as I approached the external bay door.
With each step, the harness bit into my thighs, torso, and shoulders.
It was attached to the cargo hold with flexible but strong metal tethers.
They had enough slack that I should be able to lean out the door and snag our newcomer but short enough that if I fell out I wouldn’t hit the trees we were flying over.
Wasn’t that a happy thought?
I tugged on my tethers, giving a few good yanks to make sure they stayed attached. Not that my strength compared in any way to the intensity of the wind outside.
“Here goes nothing,” I said quietly. I slapped my hand on the button to open the outer cargo door and grabbed onto the wall for dear life.
As the metal slid upward, the wind increased and the straps rattled throughout the cargo hold. Wisps of hair slapped my cheeks and my braid fluttered out behind me.
“Doors open,” I shouted, hoping Dax could hear me over all the noise.
I left my hand on the inner hull as I made my way to the gaping door. Praying my tethers would hold, I gripped the side of the door and leaned out.
Wind battered my vision and made me blink. Why hadn’t I thought about a helmet and visor?
I squinted against the stinging wind and studied the surface below us.
A solid field of green passed under the ship. The only breaks in the unending green were caused by elevation changes. This planet was crazy alive.
“We should be coming over the coordinates in thirty seconds.” Dax’s voice was low against the high whistling wind and clanging metal.
One one thousand, two one thousand. As the numbers neared thirty, I leaned a little farther out the door.
Twenty-five one thousand, twenty—“Holy shit!”
“What’s that? Do you see her?” Dax’s voice was almost drowned out by the rush of wind.
Dammit, I wished we had better comms.
“I see her!” I yelled. “She’s on top of one of the trees! She’s got something bright yellow on.”
“Shit, we missed her,” Dax growled. “Coming about.”
Moving as fast as I dared, I grabbed additional tethers and dragged them toward me. Then I dropped to my knees and peered out the door again.
“Do you see her?”
It was hard to reorient myself with all the never-ending green, so I was thankful for that splash of yellow. “See her! Starboard side.”
I draped the tethers over the side of the cargo door. Then I lay flat on my belly, with my chest and arms hanging over the side. I focused on the yellow, since focusing on the constantly moving green threatened to upend my stomach.
“We’re getting close!” I heard Dax say.
God, I hoped I could do this. Dax would have the upper-body strength for this.
“You should have let me pilot,” I muttered under my breath. Then it was too late to do anything but reach for the fast-approaching yellow.
A hand wrapped around my forearm and suddenly I had the weight of the world on my shoulder joint.
I wrapped my fingers around the forearm and prayed I could hold on.
“Woohoo!” One of the extra tethers pulled taut beneath my belly as she crawled up and over my body. The weight on my arms lessened, then it was gone.
A shadow loomed over me. A thud followed. Then my arm was free and dangling over the side. I snatched it back into the ship.
“That was awesome,” a voice yelled by my ear.
I could barely hear it over the pounding of my pulse.
Rolling onto my back, I watched our newest crew member bounce to her feet. My stress lessened just a smidge. It wouldn’t go down all the way until that external door was closed.
She leaned over with her hand extended. I reached up and wrapped my fingers around hers.
One minute I was flat on my back, the next I was standing. It was so fast and unexpected that I stumbled. She caught me by the shoulders and held me steady.
“Easy there.” She laughed.
A gust of wind hit me. “I, uh, I need to shut that door.”
“Oh, I got it. You seem a little unsteady on your feet.”
My eyes widened as she walked toward the door—completely untethered.
“Wait, you’re not hooked in!” I lunged for her, but she was already moving.
Burn rolled her eyes. “Don’t worry about it.
” She sauntered to the door like we weren’t hundreds of feet above the ground, moving at a speed that would probably leave us a smear on the surface if we fell.
Slamming the button to close it, she stared out at the green planet until it disappeared, the cargo hold sealed once again.
“That was amazing!” If her daredevil moves hadn’t telegraphed her status as an adrenaline junkie, the glee in her voice would have.
I shook my head, impressed and horrified in equal measure. I loved being on ships, but preferred to at least mostly adhere to safety protocols.
Now that the door was closed, I could hear Dax yelling over the intercom. “Dammit, Lacy, answer me! Did you get her?”
“Aw, did you miss me, Sarge?” Burn’s smile lit up the hold.
“You’re okay?” The concern in Dax’s voice kicked up something in my system. Not jealousy, because that would be ridiculous, right? We barely knew each other.
“I’m fine, Sarge. That was one hell of a ride.”
As I moved around the cargo hold, unhooking my tethers and ensuring they were properly stowed, I studied Burn. She was tall. Taller than me by a good few inches. Probably as tall as Dax.
Her olive cargo pants and a high-tech black shirt hugged muscles and curves. With her smooth dark skin, cheekbones that I’d kill for, and hair pulled into a series of tiny topknots, she looked more like a model than a soldier.
My gaze dropped to her boots. At first glance they looked like typical combat boots, but then I noticed the chunky high heels. Even her sleek yellow backpack—that’s what I had seen on the approach—looked like it came off a runway.
Damn. I wanted to be her when I grew up.
“Lacy? You okay?”
Burn replied before I did, curiosity coloring her voice. “Oh, is that her name?” I looked up and she smiled at me. “Despite how up close and personal we got, we hadn’t gotten around to exchanging names.”
I blushed at the innuendo in her voice. Was she fucking with me?
“She’s fine, too. Very fine.”
Yeah, I was pretty sure she was fucking with me, given how dowdy I felt in the sweats and long-sleeve shirt Dax had lent me while I laundered my coverall. Again. I gave my hips an extra shimmy as I wiggled out of the harness.
Her grin widened and she let out a loud, boisterous laugh.
I laughed too.
“Yeah, she’s fine. You wanna talk to her?”
I missed Dax’s reply, but Burn said, “Sounds good. We’ll be up to the bridge as soon as things are squared away here.”
I stowed the harness with the rest of the gear.
“Anything I can do?” Burn asked.
I swiped my hands on my hips and shook my head. “That’s about it.”
Burn studied me for a long moment, then looked around the hold. “I hear we’re going after some cargo.”
I nodded, not sure how much to tell her. “Yep, next stop.”
She tilted her head. “Didn’t expect Sarge to have a bed bunny help out with this, but don’t mind it either.”
My jaw dropped. “Excuse me, what?”
Burn gestured at my clothes. “Don’t deny it. I recognize the shirt. Our squad all received one when we won an interdivision training exercise.”
“It’s not like that,” I protested. “I’m a mechanic.”
Her gaze and her voice turned frosty, so different from her earlier welcome. “Yeah, right. Finn’s going to be our mechanic.”
“Look, Dax can explain it all.” That was so far above my pay grade at the moment. Plus, I did not want to mess with a woman who wore high-heeled combat boots to an adventure race.
“Why are you calling Sarge ‘Dax’?”
I shrugged. “Because he told me to.”
“You must be one helluva piece of ass.”
I stiffened and straightened. “I am,” I said archly, “but that’s not why I’m on the ship.”
“Right.” Her words dripped with disdain.
I opened my mouth, closed it again. Nothing I could say would convince her otherwise. “Ready to see the rest of the ship?” I asked instead.
“Yeah, let’s get out of here. I need to have a conversation with Sarge.”
“After you.” I gestured for her to precede me.
She gave me a hard look, one that said she didn’t trust me.
Ditto.
She stomped toward the door that led to the rest of the ship. “Enjoy your free ride. I’m sure we’ll be dropping you off at the next stop.”
I followed several feet behind her. I’d known it was going to get messy when Dax’s crew arrived—and that was before they’d learned about my unauthorized taking of Fortuna.