Rhys stared me down but I didn’t flinch. “Okay,” he said at last, “then let’s discuss the plan. Why do you want to land? You could jump from the upper atmosphere and parachute in. If we keep the ship stealthed, you might escape detection until you breached the facility.”
I shuddered. I wasn’t afraid of heights. I’d been known to perform dangerous stunts at height just for the thrill. But I’d never enjoyed skydiving. “If I jump out of this ship, it’s only because it’s on fire. And having the ship on the ground gives me a solid retreat option if I run into more trouble than I can handle,” I said.
“If this is a trap, it also gives Rockhurst a solid target,” Loch said. “We’ll be sitting ducks.”
“You think he’ll blow up a prototype ship when he has a chance to recover it?” I asked.
“If he’s sure you’re not on board? Yeah, I think he’ll blow us up and not bat an eye,” he said. If I didn’t know better, I’d think he was arguing just for the sake of arguing.
“Fine,” I said, addressing both men. “You can drop me off and return to orbit. We’ll still be able to communicate and you can jump at the first sign of danger. In fact, if I find that this is the planet where they’re mining alcubium, you can go ahead and jump to the gate. I’ll find my own way back. I’ll write down my demands from Father before I go—I’d appreciate it if you included them in the negotiations.”
If anything, Loch looked less pleased by that option. I threw up my hands. “I’m done arguing. You will drop me off and return to orbit. If it’s a trap, jump out at the first opportunity. If it’s not, you can pick me up when I’m done poking around.”
Neither Loch nor Rhys looked happy, but both nodded begrudgingly. I changed the flight plan to land us at the spaceport. The ship estimated arrival in twenty minutes.
“Polaris, make Rhys Sebastian and Marcus Loch temporary first officers,” I said. The ship prompted them to confirm their identities and voice imprints. As temporary first officers, they would be able to pilot the ship but not add or remove crew—notably me. So they couldn’t remove me from the captain’s position and take us into safer space.
They also wouldn’t be able to assign anyone else as captain, so Father would still need me in order to completely secure control over the ship. I hadn’t sent my sister the ship’s override codes and they were not codes I had used before. So if I died, Father would have to spend a great deal of time and effort cracking the codes by brute force. I decided it was an acceptable risk.
“Time to gear up,” I said. “Rhys, let’s see if that giant pile of stuff you brought is actually useful.”
“I have the codebreaker you need,” he said, “plus a few extra items that will come in handy.”
I led the way down to the cargo bay. The flight got a little rougher as the ship entered the atmosphere, but the compensators on this ship were much better than those in the escape shuttle we’d landed on TSD Nine.
Rhys sorted through his gear while Loch leaned against the wall with crossed arms and a distant expression. His posture screamed disinterest, but his eyes were sharp. I could almost see the wheels turning in his head.
While Rhys dug, I typed out my ideal concessions from Father on my spare com. I doubted Rhys would be able to get them all, but even one or two would make my life easier. I sent the list to Rhys, hesitated, then sent it to Loch as well. There wasn’t anything too surprising on the list and having a backup wasn’t a bad idea.
At five minutes to touchdown, Rhys called me over. He handed me a backpack and started loading it and my cargo pockets with the gear he thought I’d need—a backup com, grenades, ammo, a stunstick, breaching charges, door stops, and small charges with remote detonators. Smaller items went in my pockets while the larger things like the breaching charges had to be in the backpack.
On the belt around my waist he clipped the codebreaker that would hopefully get me through the doors without need for the explosives. A pistol blaster went on my right hip with extra ammo clipped to the belt. A stun pistol went on my left hip. A long blaster with a beam that could be adjusted from shotgun to rifle strapped across the backpack with a quick-release buckle.
“And now, for the pièce de résistance,” Rhys murmured. He pulled a silver disk the size of a hockey puck from a locking storage box.
“Is that what I think it is?” I said.
“It depends. Do you think this is the very latest prototype of von Hasenberg shielding technology?”
“How?” I whispered in awe. Realizing what I’d asked, I held up a hand. “Wait, I want to remain friends, so don’t tell me.” This prototype was so new I’d never seen one exactly like it. It was like the tech built into my cuff, only much more powerful. The last time I’d seen one, they were the size of a dinner plate, but the shape and markings were unmistakable.
“I’ve been told this will stop up to a dozen close-range blaster shots,” Rhys said. “When it starts beeping and the light flashes red you know it’s about to fail. You activate it by clicking the button in the middle. A long press deactivates it. It uses power while active even if it’s not deflecting shots, so use it wisely.” He attached it to the front of my belt.
The one-minute warning sounded. A storm of bees took flight throughout my system as adrenaline began flowing. “Thank you, Rhys. Take good care of my ship.”
He nodded and pulled me into a hug. “Come back safe, Lady Ada,” he murmured against my temple.
I moved to Loch. “I’m sorry we’re not parting on better terms,” I said. I drank him in with my eyes, aware that this could be the last time I’d ever see him. I let him see the regret and sadness, the longing and desire that I would never be brave enough to admit to aloud. “Look after everyone, okay?”
He could’ve been carved from ice and I would’ve received more acknowledgment. Okay, then.
I snapped on my helmet and my suit powered up. “Testing coms,” I said.
Rhys already had his helmet on. “I hear you,” he said.
“With the ship in stealth, you won’t be able to communicate with me, but you should receive my signals. You don’t need to respond unless I specifically ask for transmission confirmation. I’ll leave my com open for as long as I can so you can monitor my progress.”
Eventually Rockhurst troops on the ground would realize the outgoing transmission wasn’t one of theirs and start listening in. When that happened, I’d have to shut it down or risk broadcasting my location and plans. I couldn’t risk an active tracker or video feed for the same reason.
I waved to Rhys then sealed myself inside the docking bay airlock built into the side of Polaris’s cargo bay. This ship wasn’t big enough to bother with an atmospheric containment field over the cargo bay door, so I couldn’t open the cargo bay directly without admitting the foreign atmosphere.
The airlock hissed then the outer door opened. A short, steep ramp led down to the ground and I realized Rhys must’ve extended it. As soon as I was clear, the ship lifted into the sky and disappeared.
Loneliness tweaked my heart, but I shook it off and headed for the low bunker at the edge of the spaceport.
I had a job to do.
Chapter 20
The bunker was larger than it appeared from a distance. The opening was nearly eight meters tall by ten meters wide. It was curtained from the outside air with the faint shimmer of an atmospheric field. Hopefully that meant the air inside the building was breathable and I wouldn’t have to make my way through an airlock.
If anyone occupied this base, they likely knew I was here by now, since landing a ship was hard to miss, but the inside of the bunker was empty. Railings surrounded a wide, circular platform set into the floor with a control panel on the far side. If they had an industrial lift, they definitely transported large quantities of something.
A square room occupied the far back corner of the bunker. Solid concrete and concealed by a heavy, sealed door with a control pad on the wall, it probably contained the stairwell and elevator.