Page 7 of Chosen By Swift

“Really, Haz?” he muttered, thinking that was one surefire way to start a panic. Taking shortcuts, he crossed the ship in record time and unlocked the heavy door securing the ship’s most sensitive systems. He yanked it closed behind him and called out, “Q? Hey, man, where are you?”

When Quark didn’t answer, he grew worried. The smell of something burning heightened his concern. The loud snap of a spark caused him to move faster toward the fuel cells at the rear of the room. Halfway there, he spotted a crumpled body on the floor. He instantly reached for his sidearm and bent down to check Quark’s pulse.

It beat steady beneath his fingertips, but there was a lot of blood on the floor. He found asizablehead wound and winced at the sight of the man’s skull showing through the gash. With his weapon in hand, he left Quark on the floor and carefully crept toward the wall of fuel cells. Using his chip, he accessed the main panel and identified the bad cells. He shut them down and quickly reworked the chain of cells on the touchscreen, moving the full cells to the front of the power loop and the nearly empty to the back.

Looking at the fuel cell wall, he could tell someone had been tampering with it. Someone who had no access to the secure panels. There were tool marks on the cell covers and shards of the protective polycarbonate on the floor. He didn’t touch any of it, wanting to preserve whatever evidence he could.

Instead of contacting Hazard via his mic, he used the main panel to send a private security alert to the cockpit. When that was done, he returned to Quark’s side and crouched down next to the still unconscious engineer. He remained next to him, his weapon drawn and ready, until three Shadow Force operatives burst into the room.

Grim led his men through the door, silently communicating with hand signals that sent Fury and Lethal in different directions. As he drew near, Grim asked, “Any sign of our saboteur?”

Swift shook his head and called for a medical team to retrieve Quark. As soon as the engineer was taken to the med bay, he joined Grim at the fuel cell wall. “This wasn’t enough damage to disable the ship.”

“For lack of trying? Or was this a diversion?” Grim wondered aloud.

“I don’t know,” Swift admitted, his stomach knotted with unease. Lowering his voice, he stepped closer to Grim. “The crew survived the Purge. We’re all clear. Not one single question in any of our backgrounds.”

“Rescued prisoners,” Grim said, sharing Swift’s deduction. “We haven’t cleared them.”

“Well, it wasn’t Rampage. I can tell you that much. We’ve been together since I left the cockpit. We’ll have to check the footage from the eyes,” he gestured to the cameras that watched everything on the ship, “but I think all of them were in their seats on the deck.”

“Think?”

“I didn’t take attendance. This isn’t school.”

Grim grunted. “I don’t know anything about these. Do you have another engineer?”

“You’re looking at him.” Swift shrugged. “Skeleton crew. We’re each other’s redundancies.”

“I’ll leave Lethal with you until we dock.”

While Lethal completed basic forensic recovery, Swift returned to the main panel and ran more diagnostics on the ship’s systems. He kept in contact with Hazard and shifted systems on and offline until they were within visual distance of theValiant. At that point, they were close enough for a rescue ship if needed.

By the time Drift docked and the ship went into maintenance mode, Swift was more than ready for a well-earned vacation. Eight months and four days on this mission and then an act of sabotage? He was done with all this bullshit.

“Swift.”

He groaned at the sound of the admiral’s voice. Of course, the second he stepped foot onto theValiant, Orion would find him. With a defeated sigh, he turned toward the admiral and straightened up. “Sir.”

“At ease,” Orion said as he came to a halt. “Grim filled us in on the situation with the fuel cells. Close call?”

“It could have been.”

“I’m interested to hear what Quark has to say.”

“As am I, sir.”

“Drift brought the ship home.” Orion’s gaze followed the young pilot down the disembarkation gangway. “He did well.”

“He’s ready to fly second,” Swift remarked, watching the kid grinning at Hazard. “My report will indicate that he’s exceeded all standards. We put him through his paces out there. I would have zero issue with him as a co-pilot.”

“Good. That’s very good to hear.” Orion seemed relieved. “We’re short on pilots. Proven pilots,” he clarified. “Men I can trust behind the controls in highly dynamic situations.”

“Are they sending us more untried pilots?”

Orion nodded. “I want to talk to you about that when you come back from your leave.”

Swift knew what that meant. Promotion. More responsibilities. Better perks for his mate and the family he wanted. “Yes, sir.”

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