Born of Ice

“Alix? We have a problem. Could you please come to the bridge?”


She’d just hung up the dress Zarina had bought for her—a gorgeous black number that was so soft it should be sinful. She knew she’d never wear it.

But Tempest might one day.

Provided we survive this.

“Coming, Vik.” She pressed the button to shut the closet door and headed out. No doubt this was Whelms’s “present” that the others had found.

As she entered the bridge, she saw Devyn and Vik standing over a panel, discussing a leak in their fuel line.

How weird for Vik to be here after launch.

But that thought vanished as she ground her teeth at the sight of their leak. Thanks a lot, you idiot. A leak like that could get them killed.

She donned an innocent stare as she faced the men and pretended not to know what had been done to their ship. “What’s going on?”

Devyn pointed to the red area on the ship’s schematics. “We popped a seal and are leaking fuel all over the place.”

She had to force herself not to react to Whelms’s stupidity as she saw his other gift. “And our hydraulics, too.”

Devyn turned with a glower. “What?”

She pointed to the diagram. “You have no hyper-drive right now, and limited stabilizer control. You won’t be pulling any of your piloting stunts until we get it fixed.” And if they came across any unexpected debris in space, they’d be hard-pressed to avoid it, which could also get them killed.

Yeah, Whelms wasn’t the brightest bulb on the string.

Devyn’s brow was furrowed with bewilderment. “How did it clear launch prelim?”

She hoped he couldn’t detect her lie. “Maybe something snapped while we were launching.”

He cursed. “Can you fix it?”

“I can try.”

Devyn’s gaze went to Omari, who was napping in his chair, and she saw the fear that flickered in his dark eyes. That protective instinct touched her. Unlike her father, Devyn would die to protect his child. “We need to be fully operational. Immediately.”

“Will do, Captain.” She headed for the door only to have Vik follow after her.

She frowned at him. “You need something?”

“I’m along to give you a hand should you need one.”

Great. Just what she needed. Something else to make her nervous. “Shouldn’t you be at your post?”

“I was, but the leak was interfering with my link, and so I came out to tell Devyn what was happening and to see if he could repair it.”

“I find it odd that you know so little about ship maintenance.”

“Because I’m a mecha?”

She nodded.

“It’s no different than you not being a doctor. Just because you’re human doesn’t mean you have an innate ability to do surgery on your own kind or even treat a mild illness, never mind something major.”

“True, but I can’t upload a program and learn something extremely complicated in a few minutes, either.”

He pressed the controls for the lift. “Nor can you be hacked for schematics, diagrams and system vulnerabilities.”

She paused at that. “What?”

He stepped inside and pressed the button for the lower deck. “I have no autonomous working knowledge of the ship because Devyn’s father is afraid someone could hack one of my databases and use it against Dev. In fact, I have no knowledge of Devyn’s weaknesses, medical history or anything that could be used against him. Omari, either, for that matter.”

Now that surprised her. “Really?”

He nodded.

“Then how do you run the ship’s security?”

“I have to be plugged into the ship to see it. Everything goes to a temporary cache while I’m there. Once I’m detached from my post, all data is wiped.”

So that was the real reason why he was so scarce when they flew. It made complete sense now. “His father is that paranoid?”

“No. His father is that good. Syn understands computers and mechanics on a scary level. There are times when I wonder if he’s more mecha than I am. He knows exactly how to breach a secured and encrypted network and learn things about people that would astound you. I’ve never seen anyone like him. He can control the entire universe with a few well-placed keystrokes.”

Her stomach hit the ground as she considered him doing a background scan on her.

Don’t panic. There’s no way he could breach a government’s system. Merjack had assured her that they’d wiped out all traces of her past.

She was a ghost now, and not even a filch could find her history.



Devyn picked up his link while he continued to scan the ship for other problems. He checked the ID and saw his parents’ number. Putting it in his ear, he clicked it on. “Hi, Mom.”

“It’s the other parental unit. Not as pretty or as fierce as your mother, but loving nonetheless.”

He smiled at his father’s deep voice in his ear. “Sorry, Dad. It’s that time of day. I just assumed you were Mom wanting to tuck me in.”

His father laughed. “Yeah, and she’ll want to burp you, too, I’m sure.”