Chapter Nineteen: Honor Unchained — Part 1

After sleeping a few hours, Shadow checked on their course. Most people would have been groggy, but Shadow concealed it well enough, burying the slight numbness of fatigue in the careful protocol of movements needed to keep a ship flying fast and hard. Vodia was a few days away, and the Mercy was hurting, having been pushed and strained to its limits. Shadow’s sensors notified her that another ship had passed into and out of sensor range, heading toward Vodia, which should have been impossible, if the ship were human in origin. She checked tachyon wave-pulse transmissions, but most of them were encrypted, and Roxy was unable to break the codes. The ones that weren’t encrypted seemed to be used as a digital transmission sensor net: That her computers could understand the signal told her that the ships owners used human computer and broadcast technology. The other ship out-distanced the Mercy in a matter of moments, leaving little time for consideration. Hours passed as Shadow worked, keeping a step ahead of the ship’s expected and unexpected complications. Shadow barely slept between shifts, as the needs of the ship came above all else. Between what passed as feeble catnaps, Shadow adjusted the course and fine-tuned the engines to gain a little more speed while traveling transgalactic. Trying to slap some feeling back into her fingers, Shadow stood quickly, longing for a nap, but certain that the engine room needed a thorough going over.

“I’m going to grab Xeti and inspect the coolant system.” Shadow said to Roxy.

“There are only two flagged pipes, neither ready to be bypassed yet. Don’t you trust the ship’s sensors?” Roxy asked.

“Of course not.” Shadow said, knowing that Roxy would be hurt by her comment.

Shadow met Xeti at the cargo bay doors, where he was just finished repairing a damaged hatch closure piston, and led him straight back into the engine room, which was cramped and hot from heat that radiated off the coolant system. Shadow and Xeti worked alone. Shadow normally wouldn’t have had a trainee working on a live system, but the tasking Mercy was under left the ship in need of considerably more repairs than usual. While working on the hot side of the system, one of the flagged pipes burst unexpectedly, blasting a miasma of chemical steam so hot it could have ripped straight through flesh and bone. There had been almost no warning, and while Shadow fell back from the blast, covering her face and throat with her gloves, knowing that her life might well be at an end, Xeti used his entire body to shield her, taking the brunt of the blast across his chest. He had seen the pipe bubbling outward even as Shadow was approaching it, had somehow moved fast enough to protect her.

Slowly, Shadow realized that she’d only suffered minor burns to the cheeks and arms, and the sound of blasting steam diminished. Shadow cautiously put her gloves down, expecting to see pieces of her crewmate everywhere. Xeti seemed to be in incredible condition for a man who had just been hit by super hot gas. Though the safety system had kicked in and sealed the pipe off, the main valve was badly cracked and leaking slightly. Xeti forced an ivory hand down tight over the leaking valve, blocking the dangerous line of steam flowing from it. Shadow fell back down the line, cranking closed a valve that would divert the coolant to an auxiliary pump. Clumsily, Shadow started tearing the damaged pipe section and valve out of the wall. With hands hampered by thick gloves and burns, Shadow replaced the broken section, tightening the fresh pipe and restoring the pressure flow back to the primary conduit, fast enough that she didn’t have to tell Roxy to cut power to the engines.

“You all right?” Shadow asked, checking him over.

“Perfectly fine. I got in front of you in time, right?”

“I’m not dead, so I reckon you were plenty fast enough.” Shadow said. “You might want to go get cleaned up, that stuff’s a terrible skin irritant. Unless of course it’s another thing you’re immune to.”

“It is, actually.” Xeti left her alone to work on the second broken pipe, which proved in considerably better condition.

“Roxy, change the flag controls for the coolant system. If a pipe is even remotely suspect, the auxiliary system for that portion of the pipe should take over and you should put it on the repair list.”

“Yes Ma’am.” Roxy said. “He talks about you when he’s sleeping.”

“Really?”

“I think he’s fallen in love with you.” Roxy said, sounding quite the gossip. “Didi seems to think so too.”

Shadow looked at her supply log, calculating repair costs, started smiling. “Guess what.”

“What?” Roxy asked.

“Just guess.” Shadow said again.

“You’re in love with Xeti, and don’t know why.” Roxy suggested slyly.