“Where we going?” Zane asks as I limp to the console to get a better look.
“Small planet without many people. It’s out of the way. We need more medical supplies at a minimum. If we’re really lucky, someone can fix my stupid viewport.”
Yvonne joins me. When I glance back, Anya is seated under the blankets still, watching. She smiles at me.
“Will this be more difficult now you have a bounty up too?”
I haven’t forgotten, but bringing it up makes me grimace. “I’ve no idea. The average person doesn’t check the bounty listings. We keep running into the types of people that do, but random people don’t as far as I’ve seen. It might help that lots of people try to look away when they see me.”
It’s a slight bonus for now, but Yvonne makes a face. As if she didn’t know. As if she didn’t find me repulsive until she eventually got used to me.
Does she not find me that way, now? The idea is bizarre. I suppose the siblings don’t either, and Anya obviously doesn’t care, but it’s weird to think of Yvonne being just as defensive about me as Zane and Lalia. I don’t really want to think about it. Makes my stomach twist.
Bat clicks across the floor and joins me on the console, scrolling through the planet charts. “Where are we going to land?”
“I don’t know. Maybe fly over the area until we find a place that strikes us as less dangerous.”
“If we find a medical facility, I can sneak in and steal some stuff.”
Not a bad idea. “We might go with that.”
Yvonne snickers.
I eyeball her. “I feel like you shouldn’t be allowed to laugh when you roped me into breaking into Amerov.”
“You’re not wrong,” she says. “But I’m going to laugh anyway.”
I even a glare at her, but she just smiles serenely. With her hair a mess, clothes wrinkled and torn, and her face kinda puffy, it’s hard to take the smile seriously. Remembering her hug the night before, I look anywhere other than her face, tapping at the planet files Bat is flipping through.
“Aaron?” Lalia leans around the corner of the bunkroom door. “What do you have for pain?”
Right. Zane’s been out of it. Waking up is probably doing a number on him, especially if the idiot tries to move too much. I rummage through the medical kit until I find the same painkillers I used on Lalia back when she broke her leg. Pills might be hard for him to swallow in his condition and won’t be nearly as fast.
“Ew, needles,” I hear him grumble as I take the cap off.
“Be quiet. You sound like me.”
He’s trying to sit up, and I put my finger on the uninjured middle section of his forehead, barely poking him but succeeding in making his shoulders drop back to the pillow. “Stay.”
“Stay,” he mimics, giving the ceiling a look like it shares his exasperation with me. I’d laugh if he wasn’t also grimacing in obvious discomfort.
He grumbles something that sounds suspiciously vulgar when I give him the shot, but his eyelids droop a moment later, his pinched expression smoothing out. Yeah, that’s why I used this, idiot.
“Still don’t like needles,” he grumbles, looking about ready to pass out at any moment.
“Here,” I say, grabbing him some water and offering the cup.
He stares at it, unimpressed. I’d like to call him dramatic but he might just tell me we’re a lot alike. I hand the cup to Lalia so she can hold his head up like he’s an infant. Let him give her snarky looks instead.
There’s no permission to enter the atmosphere on this planet, so we drop down without a warning in sight or any sort of drones patrolling the atmosphere. I keep a close eye on the viewport as the fire of the atmosphere wraps around us, but as I suspected, it holds well. Ships need to be able to land even when there’s damage. The crack is worrisome, but the shot wasn’t enough to actually break the structure. Still, I breathe a little better once we drop past the clouds.
Green stretches as far as I can see, rolling mountains in every direction coated with trees and grasslands. Peaceful. No cities in sight, though the map on the console says the nearest one is a few hours away at our slow speed. I’m still not sold on the idea of actually walking into a city now there’s a bounty on my head as well, even if the intention is just for Bat to steal. If we do, we’ll have to land in the trees and sneak in anywhere we want to go. Slowly, I drop the ship all the way down until we’re cruising low over the mountains, keeping a lookout for smaller settlements, individual homes, or heat signatures of anything interesting.
“It’s so pretty here,” Yvonne mumbles. She nudges me gently. “What do you think of the idea of our original plan?”
“Huh?”
“Turn me over to some small-time authorities, get paid, break me back out.”
I can’t tell if she’s serious. Her lips quirk, but I still think she may be considering it.
“Sounds like the worst idea I’ve ever heard. If nothing else but for the fact that now my face is on the bounty charts. Just because the average person doesn’t check them doesn’t mean I should be parading around in front of any authorities.”
“Yeah, kinda figured it was a bad idea.”
“Don’t get any ideas, they scare me.”
She presses her lips together in a withheld smile. “Cross my heart.”
Someone pokes my lower back and I jump more than necessary.
“Sorry,” Anya says. She’s holding her unattached arm and looking up at me with the saddest pair of eyes I’ve ever witnessed. I was going to help her with it no matter what, geez.
I sit her down on the captain’s chair. “Does your arm hurt today?”
“Not really.”
“Not really?”
“I’m kinda sore all over.”
Yeah, that was a lot of running and panic for a kid who’s just barely recovered from a traumatic accident. Out of worry, I feel her forehead, but she isn’t warmer than she should be. I ignore Yvonne’s eyes on me. This doesn’t count as bonding.
I have a look over her prosthetic, checking for damage—it isn’t exactly supposed to be detached because someone is dragging her along by it, but there don’t appear to be any problems. These things are tough. And they should be considering the amount they cost. I fit it back on the stump of her shoulder while she watches.
“Do you think you can do that by yourself?”
She shrugs, moving her fingers one at a time. “Probably.”
“We’ll practice. It’ll be good if you can learn the basics of how to maintain them. They’re too complex for you to fix if they actually get damaged, but it’ll be good to know the basics.”
“Can you fix all your prosthetics?”
“I don’t have prosthetics, just implants.”
“Oh. Can you fix all those?”
Yvonne is watching. I’m pretty sure I’ve had a similar conversation with her.
“Not so much my eyes, but most anything else. Bat can fix anything.”
“Bat’s the best,” Anya agrees.
From the console, Bat makes a snorting sound. I glance at him, but he has his ears down, sheepish. It’s as weird for him to get compliments from the little girl as it is for me. I scratch his ears, then notice something on the heat chart of the console.
“Bat, what does that look like to you?” I ask, tapping the screen.
His ears perk up. “Crashed ship?”
“That’s what I thought.”
“Do crashed ships give off heat signatures?” Yvonne asks.
“Only if the metal bakes in the sun. It’ll be hotter than the surrounding trees.”
It does indeed appear to be a crashed ship. There isn’t much to see with it half-concealed by overgrown trees. I circle the ship, taking a look out the spiderweb crack of the viewport.
“Interesting,” I mumble. I’m not sure if a downed ship will help us. It isn’t the same model as mine at all, just a one-person vessel, so it isn’t like I can yank the viewport out of it and get it into my ship. But maybe there are leftover supplies. The fewer things we need out in the public eye, the better.
I circle us over the nearest patch of grassy outcropping where I can land without hitting trees. “I’m gonna take a quick look. Ten minutes.”
“Can I come?” Anya asks.
“No, everyone stays in the ship.”
Yvonne snorts. I’m nearly certain that means she’s going with me. I sigh. Not much use arguing—there doesn’t seem to be any heat signatures of actual people in the vessel. Even if there was anyone around, it’s a one-person craft, not even meant to be lived in.
The trees here are thick and deep green even in the trunks, but it isn’t as damp a planet as Amethyst, not quite a jungle. The grasses growing on the few hillsides that aren’t coated in trees are long and waving gently in the breeze. It’s a nice place. Like Falla, I wouldn’t mind hanging out here for a while, but we have more pressing matters.
Lalia joins me as I cycle out the airlock. “Don’t get shot again.”
“It looks abandoned. Pretty old.”
“Regardless.”
She seems much more on edge, arms folded, posture stiff. It’s been a hell of a forty-eight hours for her, I know, more than it has for me even. I got beat up and almost killed, which isn’t exactly out of the usual, but she watched her brother nearly get blown up and burned alive, and the ship she called home destroyed. Emotionally, I’m sure she’s having a go of it.
Awkwardly, I pat her on the arm. A little bit of tension relaxes from her shoulders.
“If anyone walks out of the trees that isn’t me, close up the airlock. Call Bat on the comm if you need to, mine’s toast. Keep an eye on the heat map.”
She nods. I’m only heading a dozen feet down the slope and into the trees to give a quick check to an abandoned ship, but after yesterday, I can see why they don’t want to separate even that much.
“Everything’s fine,” I say, and it really isn’t even a lie.
“Aaron…” Zane’s voice calls from the bunk room, slurred and sleepy. “Are you breaking into a ship in the jungle without me?”
I laugh without meaning to. “Yeah, well, that’s what happens when you get yourself blown up.”
He gives a dismissive noise as I let out the ramp so I don’t have to jump. Was feeling almost all better after the madness on Amerov. Bat leaps to the ground alongside me, rolling in the grass until his hairless back is smudged green. Anya giggles from the edge of the airlock.
“I’m serious, stay there,” I tell her, while Yvonne unhelpfully drops to the ground next to me, adjusting my coat. It’s too warm to be wearing it. She’s back in shorts, so I can see bruises and cuts on her legs and the rather nasty scrapes on her knees. I’m not sure where or when she fell, but the metal was rough enough on that hangar floor that she could’ve easily broken skin just by falling.
“Did you clean those?” I ask, pointing to the barely-scabbed over cuts on her knees.
She looks at them and gives me an even stare. “Yes, Mom.”
“Well, I’d hate to have you get an infection and die before I collect your bounty.”
Snickering, Bat scurries off through the grass while I follow.
“Ah yes,” Yvonne mocks. “Die from getting skinned knees. Says the guy with a pummeled face.”
“Well, I’d be more confident in your staying-alive-abilities if I hadn’t been exposed to you for the last few weeks.”
She’s fighting a grin. “Have you met yourself? You’ve been injured more than not.”
“I feel like a good half of that had to do with you.”
“No, a good half of that had to do with your fighting style being ‘I can beat that guy to death before he beats me to death.’”
She’s got me there. “Probably because my bounties are more trouble than they’re worth.”
Bat keeps snickering, trotting alongside me. He tried sitting on my shoulder earlier but I’m not exactly in the shape for that. It hurts more than it’s worth.
“I’d like to give you a punch in the shoulder,” Yvonne grumbles. “But that’ll either hurt me with all the metal or you with all your injuries. This is a tough one.”
“Break your hand if you’d like,” I say, overly sweet.
She flicks me on the side of my face with no injuries.
“Where we going?” Zane asks as I limp to the console to get a better look.
“Small planet without many people. It’s out of the way. We need more medical supplies at a minimum. If we’re really lucky, someone can fix my stupid viewport.”
Yvonne joins me. When I glance back, Anya is seated under the blankets still, watching. She smiles at me.
“Will this be more difficult now you have a bounty up too?”
I haven’t forgotten, but bringing it up makes me grimace. “I’ve no idea. The average person doesn’t check the bounty listings. We keep running into the types of people that do, but random people don’t as far as I’ve seen. It might help that lots of people try to look away when they see me.”
It’s a slight bonus for now, but Yvonne makes a face. As if she didn’t know. As if she didn’t find me repulsive until she eventually got used to me.
Does she not find me that way, now? The idea is bizarre. I suppose the siblings don’t either, and Anya obviously doesn’t care, but it’s weird to think of Yvonne being just as defensive about me as Zane and Lalia. I don’t really want to think about it. Makes my stomach twist.
Bat clicks across the floor and joins me on the console, scrolling through the planet charts. “Where are we going to land?”
“I don’t know. Maybe fly over the area until we find a place that strikes us as less dangerous.”
“If we find a medical facility, I can sneak in and steal some stuff.”
Not a bad idea. “We might go with that.”
Yvonne snickers.
I eyeball her. “I feel like you shouldn’t be allowed to laugh when you roped me into breaking into Amerov.”
“You’re not wrong,” she says. “But I’m going to laugh anyway.”
I even a glare at her, but she just smiles serenely. With her hair a mess, clothes wrinkled and torn, and her face kinda puffy, it’s hard to take the smile seriously. Remembering her hug the night before, I look anywhere other than her face, tapping at the planet files Bat is flipping through.
“Aaron?” Lalia leans around the corner of the bunkroom door. “What do you have for pain?”
Right. Zane’s been out of it. Waking up is probably doing a number on him, especially if the idiot tries to move too much. I rummage through the medical kit until I find the same painkillers I used on Lalia back when she broke her leg. Pills might be hard for him to swallow in his condition and won’t be nearly as fast.
“Ew, needles,” I hear him grumble as I take the cap off.
“Be quiet. You sound like me.”
He’s trying to sit up, and I put my finger on the uninjured middle section of his forehead, barely poking him but succeeding in making his shoulders drop back to the pillow. “Stay.”
“Stay,” he mimics, giving the ceiling a look like it shares his exasperation with me. I’d laugh if he wasn’t also grimacing in obvious discomfort.
He grumbles something that sounds suspiciously vulgar when I give him the shot, but his eyelids droop a moment later, his pinched expression smoothing out. Yeah, that’s why I used this, idiot.
“Still don’t like needles,” he grumbles, looking about ready to pass out at any moment.
“Here,” I say, grabbing him some water and offering the cup.
He stares at it, unimpressed. I’d like to call him dramatic but he might just tell me we’re a lot alike. I hand the cup to Lalia so she can hold his head up like he’s an infant. Let him give her snarky looks instead.
There’s no permission to enter the atmosphere on this planet, so we drop down without a warning in sight or any sort of drones patrolling the atmosphere. I keep a close eye on the viewport as the fire of the atmosphere wraps around us, but as I suspected, it holds well. Ships need to be able to land even when there’s damage. The crack is worrisome, but the shot wasn’t enough to actually break the structure. Still, I breathe a little better once we drop past the clouds.
Green stretches as far as I can see, rolling mountains in every direction coated with trees and grasslands. Peaceful. No cities in sight, though the map on the console says the nearest one is a few hours away at our slow speed. I’m still not sold on the idea of actually walking into a city now there’s a bounty on my head as well, even if the intention is just for Bat to steal. If we do, we’ll have to land in the trees and sneak in anywhere we want to go. Slowly, I drop the ship all the way down until we’re cruising low over the mountains, keeping a lookout for smaller settlements, individual homes, or heat signatures of anything interesting.
“It’s so pretty here,” Yvonne mumbles. She nudges me gently. “What do you think of the idea of our original plan?”
“Huh?”
“Turn me over to some small-time authorities, get paid, break me back out.”
I can’t tell if she’s serious. Her lips quirk, but I still think she may be considering it.
“Sounds like the worst idea I’ve ever heard. If nothing else but for the fact that now my face is on the bounty charts. Just because the average person doesn’t check them doesn’t mean I should be parading around in front of any authorities.”
“Yeah, kinda figured it was a bad idea.”
“Don’t get any ideas, they scare me.”
She presses her lips together in a withheld smile. “Cross my heart.”
Someone pokes my lower back and I jump more than necessary.
“Sorry,” Anya says. She’s holding her unattached arm and looking up at me with the saddest pair of eyes I’ve ever witnessed. I was going to help her with it no matter what, geez.
I sit her down on the captain’s chair. “Does your arm hurt today?”
“Not really.”
“Not really?”
“I’m kinda sore all over.”
Yeah, that was a lot of running and panic for a kid who’s just barely recovered from a traumatic accident. Out of worry, I feel her forehead, but she isn’t warmer than she should be. I ignore Yvonne’s eyes on me. This doesn’t count as bonding.
I have a look over her prosthetic, checking for damage—it isn’t exactly supposed to be detached because someone is dragging her along by it, but there don’t appear to be any problems. These things are tough. And they should be considering the amount they cost. I fit it back on the stump of her shoulder while she watches.
“Do you think you can do that by yourself?”
She shrugs, moving her fingers one at a time. “Probably.”
“We’ll practice. It’ll be good if you can learn the basics of how to maintain them. They’re too complex for you to fix if they actually get damaged, but it’ll be good to know the basics.”
“Can you fix all your prosthetics?”
“I don’t have prosthetics, just implants.”
“Oh. Can you fix all those?”
Yvonne is watching. I’m pretty sure I’ve had a similar conversation with her.
“Not so much my eyes, but most anything else. Bat can fix anything.”
“Bat’s the best,” Anya agrees.
From the console, Bat makes a snorting sound. I glance at him, but he has his ears down, sheepish. It’s as weird for him to get compliments from the little girl as it is for me. I scratch his ears, then notice something on the heat chart of the console.
“Bat, what does that look like to you?” I ask, tapping the screen.
His ears perk up. “Crashed ship?”
“That’s what I thought.”
“Do crashed ships give off heat signatures?” Yvonne asks.
“Only if the metal bakes in the sun. It’ll be hotter than the surrounding trees.”
It does indeed appear to be a crashed ship. There isn’t much to see with it half-concealed by overgrown trees. I circle the ship, taking a look out the spiderweb crack of the viewport.
“Interesting,” I mumble. I’m not sure if a downed ship will help us. It isn’t the same model as mine at all, just a one-person vessel, so it isn’t like I can yank the viewport out of it and get it into my ship. But maybe there are leftover supplies. The fewer things we need out in the public eye, the better.
I circle us over the nearest patch of grassy outcropping where I can land without hitting trees. “I’m gonna take a quick look. Ten minutes.”
“Can I come?” Anya asks.
“No, everyone stays in the ship.”
Yvonne snorts. I’m nearly certain that means she’s going with me. I sigh. Not much use arguing—there doesn’t seem to be any heat signatures of actual people in the vessel. Even if there was anyone around, it’s a one-person craft, not even meant to be lived in.
The trees here are thick and deep green even in the trunks, but it isn’t as damp a planet as Amethyst, not quite a jungle. The grasses growing on the few hillsides that aren’t coated in trees are long and waving gently in the breeze. It’s a nice place. Like Falla, I wouldn’t mind hanging out here for a while, but we have more pressing matters.
Lalia joins me as I cycle out the airlock. “Don’t get shot again.”
“It looks abandoned. Pretty old.”
“Regardless.”
She seems much more on edge, arms folded, posture stiff. It’s been a hell of a forty-eight hours for her, I know, more than it has for me even. I got beat up and almost killed, which isn’t exactly out of the usual, but she watched her brother nearly get blown up and burned alive, and the ship she called home destroyed. Emotionally, I’m sure she’s having a go of it.
Awkwardly, I pat her on the arm. A little bit of tension relaxes from her shoulders.
“If anyone walks out of the trees that isn’t me, close up the airlock. Call Bat on the comm if you need to, mine’s toast. Keep an eye on the heat map.”
She nods. I’m only heading a dozen feet down the slope and into the trees to give a quick check to an abandoned ship, but after yesterday, I can see why they don’t want to separate even that much.
“Everything’s fine,” I say, and it really isn’t even a lie.
“Aaron…” Zane’s voice calls from the bunk room, slurred and sleepy. “Are you breaking into a ship in the jungle without me?”
I laugh without meaning to. “Yeah, well, that’s what happens when you get yourself blown up.”
He gives a dismissive noise as I let out the ramp so I don’t have to jump. Was feeling almost all better after the madness on Amerov. Bat leaps to the ground alongside me, rolling in the grass until his hairless back is smudged green. Anya giggles from the edge of the airlock.
“I’m serious, stay there,” I tell her, while Yvonne unhelpfully drops to the ground next to me, adjusting my coat. It’s too warm to be wearing it. She’s back in shorts, so I can see bruises and cuts on her legs and the rather nasty scrapes on her knees. I’m not sure where or when she fell, but the metal was rough enough on that hangar floor that she could’ve easily broken skin just by falling.
“Did you clean those?” I ask, pointing to the barely-scabbed over cuts on her knees.
She looks at them and gives me an even stare. “Yes, Mom.”
“Well, I’d hate to have you get an infection and die before I collect your bounty.”
Snickering, Bat scurries off through the grass while I follow.
“Ah yes,” Yvonne mocks. “Die from getting skinned knees. Says the guy with a pummeled face.”
“Well, I’d be more confident in your staying-alive-abilities if I hadn’t been exposed to you for the last few weeks.”
She’s fighting a grin. “Have you met yourself? You’ve been injured more than not.”
“I feel like a good half of that had to do with you.”
“No, a good half of that had to do with your fighting style being ‘I can beat that guy to death before he beats me to death.’”
She’s got me there. “Probably because my bounties are more trouble than they’re worth.”
Bat keeps snickering, trotting alongside me. He tried sitting on my shoulder earlier but I’m not exactly in the shape for that. It hurts more than it’s worth.
“I’d like to give you a punch in the shoulder,” Yvonne grumbles. “But that’ll either hurt me with all the metal or you with all your injuries. This is a tough one.”
“Break your hand if you’d like,” I say, overly sweet.
She flicks me on the side of my face with no injuries.
