“You won’t need to. It’s a simple sequence. You move your hands with mine to the same place on your panel and we’ll be fine. Or we’ll explode, but I’m hoping you have more rhythm than Hauk.”
Cringing over what she hoped was more humor and not a true prognosis, she sat down and ran through it with him. She had no idea what she was doing, but his patient, calm voice walked her through every stroke and made it as simple as he’d promised.
Luckily they didn’t blow up.
Just as she finished, Hauk and Fain returned. There was a satisfied gleam in Fain’s eerie eyes that said he’d thoroughly enjoyed tossing the other Andarions off the ship.
Hauk moved to stand behind her chair as he went over her settings. Then he looked at Caillen. “We’ll have about two more minutes until the Andarions realize we’re alive and on this ship.”
Caillen nodded, punching in coordinates. “You know the drill. Strap tight what you don’t want to lose.”
As soon as they did, Caillen banked the ship and spun it straight toward the wormhole. That alerted the Enforcers who instantly gave chase.
Fain cursed as the Enforcers opened fire on them again. “You could learn a little subtlety, Dagan.”
Caillen scoffed. “Subtlety is for those who lack the skills and the balls to be bold.”
Fain’s glare was murderous. “Subtlety is for those with the brains to not get a fleet chasing after them.”
Caillen snorted a denial. “I’m in a real ship now, boy. You forget that this is what I do for fun. There’s no danger here.”
Desideria would argue that, but instead she gripped the arms of her chair as Caillen narrowly flew between two fighters, shooting the whole way.
A warning light flashed.
Fain cursed. “Ah now you’ve gone and broke the damn ship, Dagan. Can’t we let you do anything?”
Caillen made an obscene gesture at him.
Just as she was sure they’d be caught again, Caillen did a hard right and dip that slid them straight and smoothly into the wormhole. For a merest slip of time everything went dark. All power vanished before it came back on and they shot forward with a force so strong, it plastered her against the seat.
As they leveled out, Caillen turned a smug smirk at all of them. “And you actually doubted me.” He tsked chidingly.
“Every minute you live and breathe,” Fain muttered. He took the controls by slapping Caillen’s hands away. “Now get away from there before you do any more damage to my limited sanity.”
Caillen started to protest, but Hauk stopped him. “We have a couple of hours before we make it to Sentella VII. Why don’t you two take a breather?”
Fain agreed. “And a bath while you’re at it.”
“I don’t stink.” Caillen’s tone was completely offended.
Fain raked a contradictory grimace over Caillen’s scuffed appearance. “Trust me, human, you reek. When was the last time you washed anyway?”
Caillen tucked his hands into his back pockets before he recovered his usual good humor. “Yeah, all right. So I might resemble that remark. You still don’t have to be so rude about it.”
“You think this is rude—”
“People!” Hauk said, breaking up their argument. “Let’s stow the attitudes and take a moment to be grateful we’re alive and intact which given Caillen’s suicidal tendencies and limited piloting abilities is amazing. You know, we did just live through a miracle.”
Caillen would argue that it was a testament to his skills and not an esoteric being, but as he caught the grief that hung heavy in Desideria’s eyes, he decided to heed Hauk’s words. She could use a break and honestly, so could he. “Fine. We’ll be in the crew quarters if you need us.”
Hauk took over his chair the minute he left it. Relinquishing the controls—which was a really hard thing for him to do—Caillen led Desideria down the narrow hallway, so designed to keep any outside attackers in single file and to limit their movements, to the small bunk room where the normal crew could take their breaks should they be on a long patrol. There wouldn’t be much of a shower there, but it would be enough for a quick rinse and hopefully one of the original Andarion crew members would have had a penchant for soap. Maybe even shampoo.
He opened the door to the room and let Desideria enter first. The lights came on automatically as she headed to the corner where a small round table and two padded chairs were set next to a cooling unit and food cabinet. Three narrow, stacked bunks lined the opposite wall next to the small shower stall. “You okay?”
Her eyes were haunted. “Nnse andeally. I’m… weirdly numb.”
“Yeah. Me too. It’s a lot to take in and we’ve been hammered with it over a very short period of time. The mind tends to shut down so that we can cope.” Unfortunately, it would hit them both later and be even harder to deal with.
Like when his adoptive father had died when he was a kid.