Page 18 of Reformation
“Your ship is bigger than most space stations,” Ten said. “I daresay you’ve got room for two not-so-large people and one bike.” Honestly, was the logic of it so hard to follow?
“Jack.” Cody reached out and put his hand on the man’s shoulder. “We’re not going to make trouble for you. We just want to get to Pandora.”
“Right.” Jack looked at Cody like a person might look at his last meal before an execution—wanting him, but knowing that trouble was going to follow after. It was … kind of disturbing, in Ten’s opinion. Ze slid a little closer, close enough to touch if ze needed to. “All right, then. We have to get outta here before they shut down the ports.” He waved both of them toward the shuttle. “I’ll get her prepped, you load your bike into the back.”
“Got it.” They separated, and as soon as Jack was inside the shuttle, Ten sighed.
“How disturbing do you find him? Because youmustfind him disturbing.”
“He just doesn’t quite know how to deal with me,” Cody said as he rolled the bike around to the open hatch.
“That much is clear. Just … stay close to me up there, okay?”
Cody grinned, but it looked a little forced. “You think I want to be alone with anyoneelseup there? None of them have any reason to like me, I know that.”
“And hitching a ride with these people is really the best thing you can do right now? I’m not judging,” Ten added as Cody turned a glare on hir. “I just want to know.”
“It’s better than I could do in some safe house on the edge of the universe,” Cody said flatly. “Garrett wants me out of the way, and I wouldn’t be useful to anyone like that.”
Except Garrett, Ten thought, but ze didn’t voice it. “You ready to shut down your implant?” Ten asked. It wasn’t like they’d be able to use them on a Drifter ship, without the embedded capabilities of most of modern society.
“Yeah. My messages are kind of piling up.”
Undoubtedly true. Ten already had several each from Grennson and Darrel. Cody had to have more. Ze pulled outone of hir latest inventions, a tiny remote that could selectively disable nonessential parts of implants.
“Come here.” Ze stroked the curly hair at the back of Cody’s hair up out of the way—not essential, but ze took any chance ze had to run hir hands through Cody’s hair—and turned ninety-nine percent of it off.
Except for the part that would let them communicate at a distance. It wasn’t easy to do, but Ten was pretty sure ze was going to want the option of using it.
Chapter nine
Darrel
Darrel felt like the klaxon that had sounded over the Academy campus half an hour ago was still ringing in his ears. “Emergency declaration. Emergency declaration. Proceed to your towers for orders. Proceed to your towers for orders.” It had been broadcast over their implants too, and the flashing red-and-yellow indicator in the corner of his vision would stay there until Darrel reported to his superior officer for duty.
The thing was, he didn’t even know who his superior officer was supposed tobeyet.
“This is a nonstandard emergency mobilization,” Sergeant Bowers had explained to him and the rest of the cadets in Apollo Tower. “There are confirmed reports of a piracy attack on a planet in the Fringe, and the admiralty has decided to take this opportunity to improve the wartime capabilities of our student body.”
“But most of us haven’t even done a mock deployment before, sir,” Darrel had spoken up before he could talk himself out of it. He didn’t have to be Grennson to feel the apprehension rolling off his fellow cadets. This wasn’t just nonstandard, it was unprecedented. Grennson couldn’t stop shifting on his feet, quills vibrating with little shudders that only Darrel was really close enough to see. “Is there something wrong with the fleet that’s already deployed out there?”
“Our navy has downsized dramatically in recent years, cadet, but regardless, this is an executive order. Kit up and follow the directive sent through Hermes to get your personal mission plan.”
Well, that was a fucking nonanswer if Darrel had ever heard one. He’d wanted to press the point, but Grennson’s discomfort and the sergeant’s obvious dismissal decided against it for him. Instead, he took Grennson’s hand and radiated as much calm and comfort as he could when he wasn’t really feeling it himself, and he led his friend back to their quad. Their currently empty quad.
“Where are Cody and Ten?” he muttered, looking around. He waited for his personal directive to start scrolling across his mental screen, but nothing came, just the indicator towait, wait, wait.
“They’re not here.”
“I know they’re not; it’s annoying.” And a little disturbing. Darrel would never admit it out loud, but he always felt a little better when the four of them were together. More like they could handle anything that was thrown their way, instead of worrying about unsolvable science or a personal interaction that he wasn’t prepared to deal with.
“No, I mean they’re not here atall.”
Darrel turned and faced Grennson. “What, on campus?”
“No,” Grennson said breathlessly, like he couldn’t quite believe it. “On the planet.”
“What?” How could that be? Had they deployed early? Why hadn’t they sent either of them a message to let them know? “Are you sure?”
