I'VE PRIED one hundred and twenty chips out of the coffins
when Zoe heads into the cargo bay, breathless. Her gaze is
focused on her mate. "Have you seen Harlow?"
I glance up and watch as Blue Guy wipes sweat from his brow
and puts aside the equipment he's working on. "What do you
mean?" He glances back at me.
Was I the last one to see her? "She was bringing lunch, wasn't
she? I haven't seen her since I came in." I look over to find
Maria, but she's gone.
Well, shit.
Zoe makes an alarmed noise. "Gorgon (one of the Reds) is missing, too. The
others think he might have taken her."
I feel sick at the thought. I know Harlow's been trying to
befriend him. This is what happens when you try to be nice.
That doesn't explain where Maria went, though.
"You have to help us look," Zoe tells Kyros. "We need
you."
Kyros hesitates, clearly torn. I know he wants to finish
salvaging the ship. Domitrius's already been in several times
while we've been working to tell him to hurry along. Now that
we're on the shore, he doesn't want to wait any longer to ditch
the ship. Every moment it's here is another moment he clearly
feels its presence is threatening the tribe. Maybe he's not
wrong. I do know Kyros's been stripping—and crushing—
several components as he works. Maybe a fiery inferno is the
best solution for this ship.
But if that's the case, I need to find Maria.
Kyros glances back at me and I wave him on, doing my best
to look like the industrious little human I am. "I'm just going
to finish these," I lie. "You go ahead. I'll catch up with the
others when I'm done." It's only a half-lie. I am going to finish
up…but I'm going to do my best to find Maria first. People
are more important than parts, and if the Dragons are super
fired up to get rid of the ship, then I need to find her, pronto.
They turn and race out of the cargo hold and I immediately put
down my tool and the bag of chips I've been working on and
head down the hallway. "Maria?" I call out. "Are you in
here?"
I know it's futile to call her name out—she never answers—
but I can't help but try.
"Maria?" I try each time I enter a new room. In the last two
days, the ship's been looking more and more ravaged. Pieces
have been torn out of the walls, components stripped from
their circuit boards, and wires dangle from the ceiling in more
than one room. The lighting and motion-sensitive doors no
longer seem to work, either, and I have to slide my way into
the hall that leads to the bridge.
There's a big metal bar in front of the door, just about forehead
height, and I nearly bang my head on it as I enter. Must have
fallen when Zoe and Kyros were stripping parts. I try to
shove it out of the way, and when it doesn't budge, I duck and
slide my way into the bridge, squeezing past the now-broken
door. "Hello? Are you in here, Maria?"
She's not there, either, but I am a little surprised to see stacks
of strange-looking parts set in most of the chairs and on every
surface. I have no idea what these are, but when I look closer, I
see a warning symbol of some kind, and something that looks
like squiggles of fire.
Fuck. I know what those are. These are explosive parts
salvaged from the ship. They must be stacking them here at
the front to ensure that when the ship's set on fire, it explodes
and the bridge isn't usable by anyone thinking of salvaging her.
My skin prickles with awareness. It's definitely not safe here.
"Maria!"
No answer. I kneel down at one of the stations and hold on to
the counter, peering underneath. It looks like a good hiding
spot.
"Activating distress beacon," the computer calls out in a
garbled voice.
What? I jerk to my feet and stare in horror down at the panel.
The spot where I put my hand is lit up, covered in lots of
squiggly-looking keys that I probably hit somehow. I don't
know what I did to make it light up, but I know I can't
duplicate it. Holy hell, what have I done? This is exactly what
the others didn't want to happen.
"Cancel distress beacon," I call out. When that elicits no
response, I try again. "Hello? Cancel distress beacon!"
Seriously, what the fuck? Why did no one cover up this panel
if it was so damn important? I smack it with my hand.
"Activating distress beacon," the computer calls out again in
that calm, eerie voice. It sounds like it's slowed down, as if the
computer itself is slowly dying. I don't know if it's repeating
itself or if I've somehow now sent out two distress beacons. I
whimper in frustration.
I have to let someone know about this. I have to tell them that
we need to stop this thing before it's too late. Kyros will
know what to do.
I turn and race for the door.
BANG.
The bar I forgot about in my haste? It knocks me on my
forehead and I realize I should have ducked about two seconds
before the world goes dark