This is the thing that sets you apart, makes you who you are, and gives those who are more powerful than you reason to respect and even fear you. That you will never ask anyone else to risk more than you yourself do. And that you care, about everyone, even those who are or were once your enemies.
“So, we’re back to risking our lives?” Mossy asked, bringing me out of my head and back into the current situation. Realized that my conversation with Lilith had taken far less time than it had felt like. “I just want to be sure.”
“Yes. We’re going with my gut, my feminine intuition, and whatever else we want to call it. Full speed ahead to get out of the galaxy. Sort of thing.”
“One suicide mission coming up,” Reader said ruefully. “I have to be honest—there was a part of me hoping that Brian would win the argument.”
“Look, I get it. It’s dangerous. You guys can stop whining, though. Lilith, John, and I went into the middle of a freaking sun. With a rabbit. Let’s talk danger and suicide missions, shall we?”
“I still don’t know how you managed that,” Brian said.
Had a thought and dug into my purse. Sure enough, the Z’porrah power cube was still there. And the knowledge of how to work it—how to really work it—was still inside my brain parts. “Wow. Have I got an idea for all of you.”
CHAPTER 94
“I CAN’T BELIEVE WE’RE DOING THIS,” Jeff said.
“This is riskiest for Lilith,” I pointed out. Jerry had taken my place and I was enjoying not having the helmet on. My purse was over my neck, so I was prepared for anything.
“No,” Chuckie countered, “we’re all at risk in a big way. But this does seem safer. Somehow.”
My idea was simple—use the power cube to move the Distant Voyager to Ixtha. But in order to do that, whoever was touching the cube had to be touching everything and everyone in the ship.
So Lilith had expanded herself to cover the entire ship and everyone in it, like the biggest Cradi Moon Suit imaginable.
“If this doesn’t work, you’re going to be floating in space, Kitty,” Brian said, sounding as worried as the rest of the guys looked.
“And I can think of this ship and this exact spot in less time than it takes to blink, let alone try to breathe, or freeze to death, so I’m good.”
“If this works,” Kreaving said, “it solves the biggest issues we have—getting out of and back into the galaxy. And if it doesn’t, hopefully we lose nothing.”
“Remember that the ship will be moving if you have to get back fast,” Reader said.
“Dudes, the Earth is moving all the time when we use these cubes. The Z’porrah freaking move their fleets with these puppies. We will be fine. Fine.”
“I’m not worried,” Wruck said calmly. “As Kitty said earlier, this seems less terrifying than going to the center of a sun. If you’d prefer that only Kitty, Lilith, and I go, we’ll all understand.”
“Hilarious,” Jeff growled. “No, we’re all going.”
“Good to know.” Pulled out my phone and earbuds. Earbuds into my ears, phone into my back pocket. Hit play on my music. “Alright” by Lit came on. Good—Algar approved of my plan.
“Really?” Jeff asked.
“You want me calm or you want me freaked out? I wore this setup into the star, okay?”
“Yes, and it was totally the bravest thing ever and only you, John, Lilith, and a rabbit did it,” Chuckie said. “And we’re going to be hearing about it for the rest of our lives.”
There was a moment of stunned silence on the deck that I tried to draw out and couldn’t—the Inner Hyena appreciated Chuckie’s sense of humor too much.
Once I started laughing my butt off, everyone else did, too. “Thanks, dude, we all needed that.” Chuckie grinned at me. “And, for the last time, Jeff in particular, everyone has their process. This is mine. When a mission fails because I’m listening to music? Then I’ll stop. Until that time, however, if I’m going, I’m going with tunes.”
“I’m ready,” Lilith said. It sounded like I was hearing it in my mind and through my ears at the same time. Could tell that everyone else was hearing it the same way.
“That’s freaky but cool. So, everyone, let’s do this thing.”
I stared at the picture of the system. We were in a spaceship so I didn’t need to know anything about any of the planets, other than that I wanted to be somewhere outside of them. Also wanted to avoid their gigantic asteroid belt, because landing in that would not be healthy for the Distant Voyager or her crew.
Manipulated the cube to account for a full ship and crew. The Z’porrah didn’t need a Lilith because they had one of these in each of their ships, tied to their navigation systems. For those of us using them in this fashion, however, the Lilith Approach was going to be necessary, or at least the safest option.
The music changed to “Ready, Steady, Go” by Meices, meaning it was time.
Focused on the space around the big blue planet, then chose a spot that seemed clear in the space around it. Took the proverbial deep breath and triggered the cube.
Traveling by cube was always the way to go.
Felt the movement, probably because of our leaving the galaxy or due to our using the Lilith Method, though it was gentle and nothing like using a gate, more like a gentle tug moving us from one place to another. However, I was still inside the ship and so was everyone else. And we were in a solar system that looked very much like the picture. Only a lot bigger.
The sun was huge and red. The blue planet was easily four times larger than Earth, and I was prepared for someone to share that it was larger even than that. We were far enough away from the blue planet that we could make out the asteroid belt—which up close was even bigger than the picture had shown—and the slightly smaller but still huge red planet. The moons and dwarf planets were all present and accounted for, too, and then some. This solar system was littered with asteroids of all shapes and sizes. It was like some giant solar beanbag chair made of rocks instead of tiny beans had exploded.
The guys at the controls instantly started doing things that I was happily able to ignore. “Shields on full,” Brian said. “Weapons loaded, just in case. Scan the system.”
“Do I start hailing?” Jerry asked.
“Kitty?” Brian asked. “That’s your area.”
“Um, you know . . . I have no idea, really. But I’d think Lilith could condense now.”
“Belay that,” Hughes said sharply. “We have projectiles coming at us from the red planet.”
“Of course we do,” Brian muttered.
“I heard that. Do we want me to use the cube and skedaddle out of here, or are you going to try evasive maneuvers?”
“Doing that now, Kitty,” Hughes said, sarcasm knob at six, easy. “Thanks for the tip.”
“Everyone’s a critic.”
“This seems incredibly fast for someone to be firing at us,” Chuckie said. “We literally just appeared. Even the fastest computer reactions would take longer than this.”