Rhys knew me well. The curiosity would eat me alive until I had to talk to Loch. It was a genius plan on Rhys’s part, but I vowed to hold off as long as I could because he was also right that I needed to get my head straight.
A glance at the commander’s console showed our orbit had covered 75 percent of the planet’s surface. I decided to wait to jump until the ship scanned the final 25 percent. It was unlikely anything would be found, but if I didn’t know for sure, I’d wonder about it later on.
I drifted in the realm between awake and asleep until the gentle beeping of the ship’s alarm pulled me fully alert. The planet’s entire surface had been scanned and no life-forms were found. No radio transmissions or signs of human settlement were found, either. As far as the ship was concerned, nothing man-made existed on this planet.
The feeling of defeat was unexpected. I’d known this planet was a long shot, but subconsciously I must’ve been hoping to find something that would allow me to stop here. Without that find, I had to move on to more dangerous waters and drag the rest of my passengers along with me.
The door slid open again and Lin’s excited chatter entered with him. He went silent when he caught sight of the planet through the window. Veronica nudged him forward.
“I hope you don’t mind,” she said, “but this is his first space voyage. Rhys said we were over a planet, so I hoped it would be okay for Lin to look.”
“Of course it’s okay. I’m sorry, I should’ve offered. Lin, if you’d like to sit in the navigator’s chair, I’ll stream over the data we’re getting from the planet.”
He looked at me with wide eyes, then a grin split his face. He looked up to his mama for permission and she nodded solemnly at him. She smiled when he turned and raced to the chair. I duplicated my display on his console but locked him out of input.
Veronica came to stand on my left while Lin marveled at the console and window in turns. “How are you?” she asked quietly.
The simple, genuine concern almost unraveled me. “I’ve been better,” I allowed. “But I’ve been worse, too.”
“I know we are not close, but if you need to talk,” she said, “I’ve been told I am a good listener.”
“Thank you,” I said. “Same thing goes for you. And if Loch bothers you or if you decide you’re done with Rhys and he won’t take a hint, definitely let me know.”
Color rose on her face. “I don’t think that is going to be a problem,” she said. “I didn’t expect to see Rhys again, but now that he’s here . . .” She trailed off, her expression going warm and distant. She had it bad, but from the heated glances Rhys had been throwing her at dinner, he was in the same boat. Maybe she’d end up settling down after all.
While I continued on alone.
I turned back to my console to hide the pain I couldn’t keep off of my face. I knew it was better that everyone was getting settled, especially if House von Hasenberg was going to war, but I envied her future.
Sensitive to my mood, Veronica called Lin away from the navigator’s chair. “Time for bed, pumpkin,” she said.
He cast one more awed glance out the window then moved to her side. “Thank you, Lady Ada, for letting me visit,” he said in carefully formal tones.
“You are welcome to come back anytime,” I said. “When we have more time, I can teach you about the various console displays.”
Joy suffused his face, so bright I had to smile back. “Thank you!” he said. Veronica mouthed the same words then ushered Lin out of the flight deck.
I pulled up the list of reachable locations. Xi Antliae Dwarf Six, Rockhurst’s closest planet in this sector, was first on the list. Two more Rockhurst planets and the gate completed the main list.
I could dig deeper to find planets without human occupation, but most of the time pilots never bothered unless they were specifically looking for a place to disappear or had a dire emergency. Most of those planets were unsettled because they were inhospitable to life.
I plotted our course to XAD Six, then, in an abundance of caution, plotted the continuing jump to the gate. I needed to be sure we would only be stuck in Rockhurst territory for a little over an hour.
A red warning flashed on-screen: insufficient alcubium. The second jump required a six-hour cooldown. I plotted a third jump. The same warning appeared and the third jump required a forty-eight-hour cooldown.
My pulse quickened. I’d never heard of alcubium, but it seemed to be responsible for the faster FTL jumps. Originally, I’d thought House Rockhurst was mining a resource needed to manufacture the faster FTL drives. But if alcubium was instead used on a per-jump basis, Rockhurst would absolutely go to war to corner the market on it.
I checked the ship’s manifest, but alcubium was not listed. Did we not have any extra? I looked more closely, checking each line against what was normal. I found the most likely option buried deep in the engineering section: a hundred units of copper. It wasn’t strange enough to raise flags, but with synthesizers on board, ships usually didn’t carry raw minerals.
I would have to go down to the engine room and look for it, but for now I needed to see if I could disable the faster jump. If I could disable it now, I’d wait the six hours and save the fast jump until we needed to leave Rockhurst’s territory. Plus, even if we had extra, Father’s scientists would need as much alcubium as I could provide to figure out how the drive worked.
It took twenty minutes of persistent poking through the ship’s various settings, but I finally figured out how to turn off the alcubium drive and rely on the standard FTL for our next jump. The cooldown had started after our previous jump, but even so, we had over four hours to wait until we could jump again.
I could’ve spent the time sleeping, but I was trying to be a little more productive. And it was possible I didn’t want to be alone with only my thoughts for company.
I knew just enough about FTL drives and ship engines to get myself into trouble, so it was with some trepidation that I breached the maintenance tunnels. But the alcubium wasn’t going to find itself and if I needed it resupplied in a hurry, I had to know how to do it.
The maintenance tunnels were narrow and warmer than the rest of the ship, but they were spotlessly clean and perfectly illuminated. I wondered if Richard had even used this ship before he came after me. Perhaps it had been kept in the Santa Celestia’s hangar to use as an escape ship. Or maybe Richard was testing it as a prototype. That would be best because if their entire fleet was already equipped with fast FTL drives, they would slaughter us if it came to war.
The maintenance tunnel ended in a ladder down and a crawl space that continued on. Luckily, I’d retrieved the smart glasses Veronica had procured for me on TSD Nine. “Polaris, show me a map of the ship and my current location.”
The map overlaid the display of my glasses, automatically oriented in the direction I faced. The crawl space led to several life-support systems, but the ladder led down to the engine compartment. I waved the map away and slid down the ladder.
A couple meters farther on, the narrow tunnel widened into a workshop. Lined in cabinets with pristine plastech counters, it looked brand-new. Neither dirt nor grease had the audacity to cling to a single surface. A large industrial synthesizer took up most of the far wall, while a sizable lift platform in the floor could be raised through the doors in the ceiling to retrieve parts directly from the cargo bay overhead.