ANDROMA
“CAN YOU TURN that cursed siren off?” Andi yelled over the ear-splitting noise, running to her captain’s seat on the bridge. Lira was already punching in the override code, blue hands a blur.
The alarm turned off, leaving the room eerily silent as Lira righted the ship.
Andi’s stomach swayed as the Marauder leveled out.
“What the hell’s going on?” Andi asked finally, breaking the silence. She activated her com and signaled to Breck, requesting permission to view her gunner’s feed. She granted the request, and Andi blinked, suddenly seeing through Breck’s eyes.
Breck was down below, in the med bay. Her large hands and Alfie’s metallic ones were frantically working to strap Valen’s again unconscious form to a table. Gilly and Dex slipped in and out of view as they tried to help.
“Memory!” Andi barked. “Run a ship-wide diagnostic, now!”
Silence for a few moments, and then Memory’s mechanical voice filled the bridge.
“According to assessment, the engine is in meltdown. Please proceed to the nearest landing bay and prepare for engine failure.”
“Meltdown?” Andi barked. “How in the hell is that even possible? We just got her repaired a few days ago!”
Lira popped a wad of Chew into her mouth. The scales on her arms began to light up. “It’s possible the fools who repaired her missed something. She’s overheating.” Lira pressed a few more buttons, yanked on a lever and tapped on the screen again. “If we can cool her down, we should be able to make a safe landing. But according to the numbers, with the velocity we’re going at right now—plus our weight—the situation seems rather dire.”
“Breck,” Andi spoke into the ship’s main com system. “Get down to the engine room and see if you can cool it down.”
Breck’s voice echoed back in Andi’s ear. “On it!”
Andi’s stomach swayed again, and Lira gobbled up another wad of Chew. When the Chew came out, it meant the situation needed her full attention.
Moments later, Breck’s voice came back, nearly hysterical. “Oh, Godstars. Andi. The cooling system is totally blasted. I knew I should have demanded to oversee the repairs.”
Andi blinked, slipping into Breck’s open feed, viewing the scene through her eyes.
Smoke billowed through the open hatch. Breck’s hand waved in front of her face, trying to clear a path through the haze. She pointed, leveling her gaze onto the cooling system. All the wires were melted, along with the outer shell.
“It’s bad, Andi,” Breck said. “Like...‘kill us all’ bad.”
Andi blinked again, pulling herself out of Breck’s view and back into her own. She cast a glance sideways at Lira, and could tell from her stricken expression that she’d seen Breck’s feed, as well. “How in the hell could that even happen?” Andi asked.
“Fool mechanics who don’t know how to work on a classic,” Breck growled.
Lira hissed out a breath. “We have to make an emergency landing. If we leave hyperspace now, the closest system to us is...” She cursed. “Stuna.”
“Which means we’ll have to land on Adhira,” Andi said.
Lira nodded, her scales flashing.
Her past on Adhira, her home planet, was something Lira did not speak of often. But Andi knew—especially judging by her pilot’s rapidly heating scales and the way her fingers gripped the throttle tighter than ever before—that going back home was something Lira definitely didn’t want to do. She’d avoided jobs there for years. But if Lira was openly suggesting they land on Adhira...then the Marauder really must be beyond helping right now.
“Are you sure about this?” Andi asked, pulling her long hair into a braid.
Lira’s skin began to smoke, but her voice was calm and even. “I can tap into my connections there. We will have help.”
“Good help?” Andi asked. “Or bad help?”
Lira bit her lip. “I am undecided at present. The queen and I have...a bit of a muddled past.”
Andi groaned. “I guess we’ll find out soon, then.” She reached up and tapped her com. “Ladies...”
Dex’s voice echoed back into her ear. “And handsome gentleman.”
The ship rattled, a reminder of how little time they had. She’d kill those pathetic mechanics for this.
Andi grimaced. “We’re making an emergency landing on Adhira.”
Gilly’s voice chirped into the com. “But Lira doesn’t want to go there!”
“This is my order, Gilly!” Andi commanded. “Get to the bridge, now. Alfie, com the general. Tell him to let the queen know we’ll need a quick repair if we’re going to finish this stars-forsaken mission.”
“Already on it,” Dex said.
After all they’d gone through to get Valen, things just had to go wrong now. The life of a space pirate, Andi thought to herself.
She tightened her harness, then sat back and watched as they exited hyperspace in a wounded ship, soaring straight for Adhira, the planet full of color and life.
Beside her, Lira looked like she would rather die.