Home > Nightchaser (Endeavor #1)(8)

Nightchaser (Endeavor #1)(8)
Author: Amanda Bouchet

I left the others to enjoy their first taste of Albion 5 while I ducked back into the ship to change out of my flight suit and wash my face. What I found in my room was even more of a mess than the ruined starboard door. There was a big hole in the wall, and many of my belongings had been sucked out into space. I’d lost bedding, books, and a lot of clothes. Anything that hadn’t been screwed down or locked in the closet was gone.

I pieced together a decent outfit from what was left and then turned my back on the shambles of my once-tidy living space. I refused to mutter even a single curse. We’d survived. Period.

We needed to know what we were dealing with in terms of time and cost, so I steeled myself for a thorough look around the Endeavor. An hour later, I couldn’t fathom how we’d survived. Shot full of holes, we’d traveled at warp speed and then put the ship through the heat and pressure of atmospheric entry. Not to mention the fact that we’d jumped right into a black hole.

The repair budget was going kill us, even if the Black Widow hadn’t.

From Jaxon’s colorful language as he inspected the inside and outside of the ship along with me, I was pretty sure he agreed. Big Guy came along, too, looking stoic. He grunted every now and then. He seemed to know his way around electronics and fixed a few things while Jax and I took inventory of the more significant problems.

I limited the list of issues to actual structural damage on the Endeavor, although it seemed as though it should have included a lot more, like how to take back having revealed my true identity, and what the hell to do with the stolen lab.

Miko found us finishing up in Cargo Bay 3 and insisted that the Endeavor wasn’t the only one that needed recharging. We ate a quick meal all together and formed a plan. I would head into the city immediately to see about parts and repairs while Jax got busy on the damaged circuits. No matter how exhausted I was, there was no waiting until tomorrow to find a repair person for the Endeavor. Whether we stayed a while or left Albion 5 quickly was fluid and would depend on how things went. Being able to go was a must, which meant patching holes and fixing the electrical problems.

Fiona opted to stay on board and set her lab to rights after all the hard bumps we’d just experienced, and Miko and Shiori almost never left the ship. The Endeavor, or right next to her, was where they felt the safest.

Everyone came to see me off after lunch, even Big Guy, who’d declined to eat with us. Anxious to get going, I hopped down onto the platform and then bounced a little, getting used to the gravity level here. It wasn’t far from the universal standard used on ships, but there was a slight drag on my weight that would take some getting used to.

The heat from the dock’s dark surface rammed into me from the feet up as I reached into the shadowed doorway to grab the go-pack I’d snagged from my closet. I double-checked the pack for essentials as I squinted against the early-afternoon sunlight, both bothered by and enjoying the rare-for-me sensations of planet-dwelling life.

Big Guy jumped down next to me while I rummaged in my bag, my eyes watering and my skin already feeling baked. I knew from experience that the impression of being shoved into a big, bright oven would pass. Objectively, Albion 5 wasn’t that hot. It was reputed to have a pleasant climate overall, and I’d seen forests and an intriguing large body of water as we’d dropped down from the Dark. It was simply that I’d been a space rat for so long that being on the ground again took some getting used to.

We made occasional stops, usually in big cities, and there was always an adjustment period to get used to the inevitable variances from one place to another. I didn’t long for a planet home, but I did enjoy coming down. Being on the ground reminded me of my mother.

“You got everything you need?” Jax asked.

I nodded, zipping up my pack again on the bottle of water, snacks, a sweater, a few implements for basic hygiene, a fold-up multitool that looked harmless enough but actually contained a very sharp knife, and some universal currency. Everything I needed in case I couldn’t come home tonight.

There wasn’t anything conspicuous about me now that I’d ditched my all-gray, full-length flight suit for more typical civilian clothing. My fitted black pants, ankle boots, and pale-yellow tank top were more weather-appropriate anyway. I figured I’d be fine, despite the Dark Watch’s chilling propensity to arrest people for little or no reason.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to come with you?” Jax asked, crouching in the sawed-open doorway. He rubbed the back of his neck in that way he had when he was torn about something.

“No, thanks,” I answered, meaning it. I was competent in any huge galactic city full of tech and crawling with anonymous faces. It was anywhere natural that freaked me out. “Just work on whatever’s wrong with those electrical circuits, like we said—especially anything leading to the bridge. And guard the ship,” I added.

Jax nodded. He never argued with that last part. It wasn’t so much the ship he’d worry about if he left it unprotected by either me or him; it was the people on it, people he thought of as his own. It left deep, invisible scars when you came back from a battle that had really only been a diversion to find your home burned and your family incinerated inside it. Wife. Kids. Everyone and everything—gone. There had been nothing left, except for a trap. That was when they’d taken Jax and locked him up.

Huge, scarred, been-to-the-other-side-and-back-of-just-about-everything—that was Jax. He wasn’t paranoid. He was vigilant with the people he loved.

“So, Big Guy…” I turned to the not-so-stranger who was more of a big beast of a man than even Jax. “You got a name?”

“I do.” He clapped me on the shoulder so hard I might have shrunk an inch or two. He squeezed, and my shoulder went numb. If it hadn’t been for his friendly smile, I’d have thought he was trying to break my bones. “It’s See-You-Around.”

With that, he sauntered toward the elevator tube that would take him down the many levels of the massive Squirrel Tree to the streets of Albion City.

I stared after him without a blink. A moment later, he was gone.

Shit. A man full of my secrets had just walked away, and short of gunning him down, there wasn’t much I could do about it.

I glanced up at Jax, who now stood leaning against the doorframe. He shrugged, not seeming too worried.

“That was abrupt,” I said, my words making me realize that worry wasn’t my primary feeling, either. I was stung.

I’d gotten used to having Big Guy around. He was clearly no fan of the Dark Watch, and I’d been about to offer him a spot on our crew. He’d stuck with us when the going got more than tough, and that meant something to me. Truly scary and adversarial situations were the sieve through which real friendships were formed, where the watery and weak washed through and away and those left standing beside you were the solid units a person could count on for life.

Or in Big Guy’s case, for a few harrowing days.

“He was weird,” Fiona announced from alongside Jax in the doorway, shoulder to shoulder. Well, more like head to triceps. Fiona was a foot shorter.

“He was awesome,” I argued. He’d gone into the Black Widow with us. He’d kept me on my feet. He’d fixed the lights in the central cargo bay. And I had a feeling he’d keep my secrets. “He had no bodily functions. How cool is that?”

Miko’s brow wrinkled in thought as she leaned against the other side of the open doorframe. “Maybe he was a cyborg or something.”

“My vote’s for super soldier,” I said. “They must have tested that enhancer on someone.”

“If that’s the case, I don’t think he was a willing lab rat,” Fiona said. “One time when I checked on him in the lab, he was glaring at those syringes like he wanted to destroy them.”

Odd then, that he’d just walked away from them.

“Maybe the Sky Mother sent him to us,” Jax said in a low voice.

My immediate denial died on my tongue. Jax was the spiritual one of the two of us, although he’d never tried to convert me or anything. I still usually naysaid him right away. This time, I couldn’t. There had been a lot of inexplicable things about Big Guy. Still, I had trouble believing the Sky Mother was anything other than a big fat sun.

   
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