Weaving through the tables and chairs, Jack neared them. As he drew near enough to see their actions, he slowed, anger building in his chest.
“You have got to be kidding me,” he barked at his crew as he reached their table.
The crew and locals jerked, oblivious to his approach. Unlike the locals, his crew scrambled to their feet, trying their best to stand without disrupting their cards and stacks of money.
“One of your crewmates came to us by being traded in a hand of poker. She was just tossed on the table as carelessly as you toss your earnings. Do you really think she would be comfortable watching you play poker?”
“She’s not here, sir,” said Nathyn, the only one brave enough to speak up.
A few of his crew hung their heads in guilt, while others stared at Jack, their expressions just shy of glaring. Jack returned their glares ten-fold.
“That doesn’t matter. We don’t gamble in this crew! All of you get back to the ship. You’re to remain aboard the Lenore for the next forty-eight hours.”
The men grumbled under their breath as they gathered their money and waved to the workers. Slowly, they each headed for the ship in twos and threes, some looking chagrined, others still glaring at the floor. Dirk stayed behind.
“You’ve never told us what we can and cannot do on shore leave before… Captain.”
With that, Dirk followed the others. Jack turned back to apologize to the local workers and spotted Katrina, money in hand. She stepped up to Jack and nodded for him to proceed her. He gave the workers a wave and walked away, followed by Katrina.
“May I speak freely?”
Jack didn’t much care to hear what she had to say, but after Dirk’s remark, he knew he needed to reign in his emotions. He nodded.
“Would you have done what you just did for any other member of the crew?”
“I won’t have to. No one else came to us in such an unusual way.”
“Jack, you’re missing the point.”
He pivoted and gave her his best glare. “And what is the point?”
“You’re treating Bit with favoritism. If she’s just your indentured servant then by law you can treat her however you want.” Kat held up a hand when he opened his mouth to interrupt. “But if you are trying to make her into a crew member, with the same rights as everyone else, you have to treat her with the same distance as everyone else. Did you ever punish her for falling asleep at the helm?”
Jack just stared at her, hating every word of her speech. “You…I…”
“Captain, I know your heart is to help Bit, and heaven knows she needs true friends, but what you are doing is creating enemies—for both you and Bit. Don’t raise her up on a pedestal where no one can reach her.”
Jack frowned, not completely following Kat’s imagery.
“The more you baby her, the more the crew will resent her. In the long run, you’re not doing her any favors by treating her differently than everyone else.”
The truth of her words sunk in, and Jack nodded. “You’re right.”
Kat threw him a mischievous smile. “Of course, I’m right,” she said as she linked arms with him.
They walked back to the ship in silence, Jack deep in thought. He hated when Kat was right, about anything. She had a way of holding it over people. But mostly, he hated being at fault.
Now the question is what are you going to do about it? his mind badgered him.
They reached the ship and transitioned through the airlock.
“Hey Cap,” Forrest said, catching them as they entered; Jeremiah stood beside him. “Have you seen Bit?”
“No. Shouldn’t you all be working?”
“Bit went ahead of us to engineering. When we got there, she wasn’t there. We came back to the ship and searched, but can’t find her here.”
“Did you check her room?” Kat asked.
“Of course. She’s not there,” replied Jeremiah.
“Okay, you guys get to engineering and get working. We’ll find Bit and send her to you. You have comm. devices?”
“Yes, sir, though we try not to use them in case someone else picks up their frequency.”
The engineers nodded and scurried into the airlock.
“Oden! Bit seems to have missed her shift. Will you search the ship for her then report to me? We’ll be in my cabin.”
Oden stared at him wide eyed for a moment before nodding and beginning his search. Jack motioned for Kat to follow him, and they moved into his quarters—one of the few places on the ship where they could speak privately.
“How was that?” Jack growled.
“It killed you, didn’t it, to not go look for her yourself.”
“Crew or servant, she is under my protection. So if she’s lost somewhere on that space station, she is my responsibility.”
“Yes, but that doesn’t mean that delegating the task is wrong,” countered Kat.
Jack nodded and turned the conversation onto the project and their impending departure. Within just a few minutes, a firm knock on the door interrupted their discussion.
“Enter.”
The door opened to reveal Oden. “I can’t find her anywhere on the ship.”
“Get Randal and search for her in the space station. The rest of the crew is to stay on ship. And let’s keep this quiet, okay?”
“But, sir,” began Oden.
“If she got lost it’s her own damn fault. I only want you and Randal off ship.”
Oden gave him a veiled scowl before exiting his quarters.
Chapter Twenty-One
Oden exited Jack’s quarters, his hands balled into fists. He had no idea what had produced such a dramatic change in Jack, but he hated it. As quickly as he could, he searched the entire ship and found no sign of Bit. The other crewmembers agreed—they hadn’t seen her since before the poker game.
“Randal,” Oden called, poking his head into the long room used by the crew as sleeping quarters. “Bit’s missing. You up to helping me with a quick search of the space station?”
“I can help too,” Reese said as Randal nodded.
“Oh… um… you don’t have to,” Oden replied, grimacing at his own words.
Reese still looked battered. Oden suspected the security guard would always look battered. The gashes on his chest and face had been treated in their own understocked infirmary, and the result was a few nasty scars, two of which were on his face.
“I want to help.” Reese gave Oden a look that would brook no argument.
“Good. We need everyone we can get. What about the others?” Randal asked before anyone else could argue.
“Jack said just you and me, he doesn’t want anyone else off the ship after the poker incident.”
Reese gave him a dissatisfied glare. “I wasn’t even a part of that.”
“Your call, Randal,” urged Oden.
“He’s under my jurisdiction. C’mon.”
The three men exited the crew quarters. Oden stopped at the captain’s cabin to inform him of their departure and Reese’s addition. Jack gave a gruff response and went back to reviewing a document on his pad. Oden stifled the snide remark boiling up inside his chest and joined the others in the airlock.
“You upset, Oden?” Randal asked as they waited for the pressure to stabilize in the airlock.
“I just don’t get the captain. One minute he’s yelling at us for playing poker ‘cause it might upset Bit, the next he’s ignoring the fact she’s missing. It just doesn’t make sense.”
“Oh, I suspect it makes perfect sense,” sighed Randal.
“Do explain.”
“Either her being missing has him in so much of tizzy he doesn’t know how to respond, or Katrina gave him a hiding for showing such favoritism.”
Oden stared at Randal for a second as the airlock chimed and the door to the space station opened. “Favoritism?”
“Please!” cried Reese. “You seriously don’t see the favoritism?”
Oden frowned at the security
team as they exited the airlock and headed down the corridor toward the main loop of the space station.
“She’s a battered, emotionally stunted young woman. Of course Captain is going to treat her differently.”
“Now who’s sexist?” Reese asked, referring to a previous confrontation between Jack and Oden over Bit. “I know you’re really close to her, Oden, but you don’t know everything about Bit. She can handle Cap treating her like everyone else. In fact, I suspect it would be the best thing for her.”
Oden’s frown deepened as he tried to wrap his mind around Reese’s words. The voice inside his head kept screaming that he needed to protect Bit, but maybe Reese was right.
“She’s a strong woman, Oden. Give her a chance to realize it,” added Reese.
“Now if we could just instill a sense of direction in her,” add Randal with a smirk.
They all laughed, remembering the numerous times Bit had gotten lost since she’d joined the Lenore.
“We should install a GPS on her,” suggested Oden, trying to add his own levity to the conversation, despite how worried he felt.
The men reached the main loop of their level and glanced up and down the enormous corridor.
“Let’s split up,” Randal ordered. “Everyone got their comm. devices?”
The two other men nodded, some patting the small electronic attached to their hips.
“Good. Call in if you find her.”
They split up, each heading in a different direction. Oden went straight for the lounge, assuming she had gone there to kill time before her shift. Maybe she just lost track of time. He didn’t want to admit to himself she could be in real trouble, again. As he hurried down one corridor, he passed a group of engineers rushing in the other direction.
“Is the leak confined?” one engineer asked the others.
“Yes, but sensors show movement in the compartment beyond the leak.”
“What do you mean movement?” demanded the first engineer.
Oden skidded to a halt. As much as he didn’t want to admit it, he knew Bit had a penchant for getting into trouble. If anyone could get mixed up in an atmospheric breach on the enormous space station it would be her.
“This is Randal,” screeched his comm. device as he did an about-face. “I’m hearing rumors that there’s been an atmospheric breach.”
“This is Oden, I’m on the heels of the engineers. They’re saying sensors show movement in the compartment beyond the leak.”
“Keep us informed,” came Randal’s voice.
Oden weaved through the space station, once again amazed by how confusing the original designers had made the enormous tangle of interconnecting corridors attached to each loop or level. Had he not been following residents of the shipyard, he would never have found the right passage.
“You there. You can’t be here,” called the nearest engineer as they noticed his approach.
“I understand there is someone stuck beyond the breach? A crewmember from my ship is missing.”
The engineer let out a long sigh before pulling out his pad and stabbing it with the mandatory stylus. “The camera angle isn’t great, but we have two people trapped beyond the bulkhead.”
Oden looked at the images on the pad and felt his hands ball into fists. Sure enough, Bit paced in the small space, with Blaine sprawled out—looking as though he’d fainted.
“Yep. Those are both mine,” growled Oden.
“Don’t worry, they’re safe enough where they are,” the engineer replied in response to Oden’s apparent anger.
“Oh not as safe as you might imagine. If we don’t get them out soon, she might murder him.”
“Look, boy, I don’t care about no lovers’ feud. We’ll get them out when it is safe.” The engineer stared at him for a second, his eyes drifting down to Oden’s fists. “Or is it you who’s the lover?”
Oden ignored the taunt. “How do you plan to rescue them?”
“That’s none of your concern.”
“Two of my crewmates are trapped beyond a decompressed compartment. Hell yeah it is my concern.”
“And exactly who are you?”
“I’m the second—I mean—first pilot of the Lenore.”
The engineer gave him a look. “Don’t know your own rank?”
“A recent promotion. Are you going to stand there and chit-chat with me, or are you going to help them?”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” grumbled the engineer as he turned off his pad and rejoined the other two workers looking at the wiring of a control panel.
Oden pulled his comm. unit out. “Hey guys, this is Oden. Bit and Blaine are trapped beyond the breached compartment. Blaine already looks to be unconscious. Go get the captain. We’re in compartment S1138.”
Bit let out a long sigh and popped her neck, straining against the stress of Blaine’s continual apologizing. He had been talking nonstop since he recovered from her punch. Bit willed her hands to relax as they tightened into fists yet again.
“Why won’t you forgive me?” cried Blaine.
“No. You don’t want forgiveness. If you did you would have backed off by now. ‘Cause the fact is I have forgiven you. What you want is to go back to the way things were before all this… before you kissed me. Before you got poisoned and acted like a lunatic. But I can’t do that.”
“You forgive me?”
“You never needed my forgiveness. I never held a grudge for what happened on the surface.” She wasn’t sure if it was a lie.
“Why did you punch me, then?”
“It pretty much sums up my current feelings right now.”
“Then why won’t you talk to me?” asked Blaine, looking and sounding like a lost puppy—a puppy with a black eye.
“’Cause I want nothing to do with you.”
“But…”
Bit held up her hand to forestall his speech. “Blaine, I forgive you for the things you had no control over, but that doesn’t mean I can forget them. The human brain doesn’t work that way.”
“Yeah, but…”
“No, Blaine. Listen to me. Really listen to what I’m about to say. You went crazy down on Mars. To the point that you kidnapped me. Do you remember that?” she asked, suddenly realizing he might not remember what he had done while drugged.
Slowly, he nodded, his brows pulled together in a deep frown.
“You kidnapped me, waved a gun around in my face while I was tied to a chair while I had multiple broken ribs. I know, in your drugged state, you thought you were protecting me, but that doesn’t change my experience. I thought you were going to kill me.”
Blaine just stared at her.
“So I know you want to go back to the way things were, but I can’t. I see you and all I can think about is being tied to chair, not knowing what you’re going to do with me,” Bit explained as she wiped tears off her cheeks.
Blaine lowered himself to the ground and pulled his knees up under his chin. Bit watched him for a few minutes before heaving a sigh of relief. He had finally heard her, really heard what she was saying.
“I loved you,” he suddenly whispered, repeating himself.
“No. No, you didn’t. You saw a pretty girl on your ship… the only girl on your ship… and you latched on.”
“How dare you say I did or didn’t love you!”
“You barely knew me,” snapped Bit. “You still barely know me. It was a crush, nothing more.”
Bit knew he did love her, in his own twisted way, but she couldn’t accept it, couldn’t support that burden on her frail shoulders.
“Then why do I still feel the same way?”
“Because you’re stubborn.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Jack reached the proper compartment out of breath. Man you need to work out more, his tired mind chided.
“What’s the status?” he asked Oden.
“They won’t tell me anything.”
Jack marched up to the engineers. “Gentlemen, I’m Captain Jack Macleef of the L
enore. I understand you have two of my crewmembers trapped beyond this compartment.”
All three engineers glared at him, and one of them climbed to his feet. “That’s correct. Like I told your pilot, we’re working as fast as we can.”
“I brought one of my own engineers in case you need another set of hands,” Jack said, waving for Forrest to step forward.
The engineer’s eyes grew wide with surprise before he turned the expression into a glare. “That won’t be necessary, Captain.”
“Where does this corridor lead?” Jack asked, ignoring the dismissive tone of the engineer.
“Nowhere. At the end is a hatch for a military vessel port, currently unused. That’s it.”
“A hatch? So you’re saying a ship could dock there and retrieve them, getting them out of harm’s way?”
“They are not in harm’s way.”
“You’re joking, right?” demanded Forrest. “You have two human beings trapped in a solitary compartment on an arm of the space station that has proven unstable…without life support. Or, I might add, EV suits. If their compartment should spring a leak…. They are very much in danger. Now, can a ship dock with that port and retrieve them?”
“Technically,” grumbled the engineer. “But you’d have to take it up with Control.”
“Okay then,” replied Jack. “Oden, Forrest, stay here. Provide any assistance they might need. Randal with me. We’ll contact you when we get authorization to move ports.”
Jack and Randal hurried through the shipyard, occasionally asking for further directions. Just as Jack was losing hope of ever finding Control, they found a door with the words splayed across in bright green paint. Jack hit the release pad and waited.
Nothing happened.
Jack hit the release again.
After another short wait, they heard the click of an electronic lock being released and the door slid open. A man stood in the doorway.
“Can I help you?” he asked, sounding as though they had personally killed his pet.
“I’m the captain of the Lenore. Two of my crew are trapped beyond a leaking compartment.”
“Yes, we are aware of the situation.”
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