Page 42 of Rescuing Mara

She starts walking but turns back around to give me a spontaneous hug. “I’m glad you’re here, Mara. You are an amazing support, and I’m happy to call you my friend.”

Frozen, I watch her leave. The transmitter is burning in my pocket, and I feel bile coming up my throat. I won’t betray them, and I’ll never betray them. But this is not the moment to tell O’Rec about the transmitter and my mission. It doesn’t really matter anyway since I’m not going through with it.

The sound of the sliding doors open has me jerk up my head; O’Rec enters, his arms filled with blankets. I walk up to him and take some of his load. We dump all the blankets on the table and fill the crates with blankets and food. When it’s done, O’Rec will install the lids and the locks.

Smiling, I look up at him. “How is it possible that you have the precise equipment we need ready and waiting!”

“Contraband,” he grins.

“Contraband?”

“Yes, contraband,” he laughs. “We have to do something to earn a couple of credits? So we take care of difficult transportations. We also hunt down criminals with bounties on their heads.”

“You work for credits?” Inwardly cringing because of the stupidity of the question. Of course, they work for credits.

“We do if we can, but the majority of our missions are just that: missions. Our main priority is and will always be to keep the galaxy safe.”

“You are not at all like Ananta said you would be.” The words leave my mouth before I can even think. Shit.

O’Rec freezes. “What did she say? Did she tell you something about me? About us?”

“I…I…” I stammer, not knowing how to respond to this.

Alarm suddenly fills his eyes. “There is another storm coming, and we must move quickly.”

After looking around the room, I feel confident that I have secured the food, but I’m afraid the debris I swept into a corner will be back with a vengeance.

I follow O’Rec towards Command and want to strap myself down on the couch. Then his tail grabs my wrist, and he pulls me to him.

“I want you with me, my star. No distance between us when I cannot feel you in my mind. Yet.”

With a little sigh, I take my spot on his lap. The men appear calmer this time, and I try to focus on the sounds of the storm. O’Rec’s tail is lodged firmly around my waist, and I close my eyes. The howling of the storm starts faintly, building up in waves. For a minute I think I hear something else. It almost sounds like a crackling. It’s definitely coming from outside the ship, but when I try to pinpoint it, the howling rises to a deafening volume.

The crash still startles me, and when we lose power again, I start counting. O’Rec puts his arms around me. I grab his arms, and we sit in silence, holding onto each other while I count. At 125, the emergency lights come back online, and the men furiously run their scans.

After a hot minute, T’Rak heaves a big sigh. “We shall gather in the Mess hall. We need to eat something and discuss a plan.”

CHAPTER27

O’Rec

The atmosphere is grim as we convene in the Mess Hall. Thankfully, the crates did their work, but all the other debris is scattered over the floor again - D’Var murmurs encouraging words to his mate, who has trouble seeing her once-celebrated Mess Hall in disarray.

We each grab a chair and settle in. Marra joins L’Ren in collecting food, and while L’Ren hands out the dishes, Marra distributes bottles of water. We eat in silence. T’Rak finishes first, and as usual for our captain, he does not waste time. Instead of waiting for us, he starts laying it all out there.

“We have had three storms, which means we have enough data to analyze, and our research shows the storms follow a pattern. The time between them is precisely the same, as is the duration of the storm. Every storm, the ship takes a hit. The first storm damaged our shields, but unfortunately, we cannot see how much. We do know that with every magnetic pulse, our shields take another hit, and they become weaker until they fail completely.”

I inhale with a sharp intake of breath. That does not sound good.

“We need more than 30% of the shields intact to leave the atmosphere,” T’Rak continues, and I hear L’Ren gasp. I quickly check on Marra. She looks deeply in thought, all her focus on our captain.

“We have two challenges. We need to make sure our shields do not endure any more damage and figure out a way to repair them. We also need to find something to replace the fuel we lost with the leak.” He gives us all a pointed look. “Any suggestions? L’Ren, Marra, feel free to add ideas. You might provide us with some insight we have never seen before.”

Marra sits up a little straighter; she looks like she has something she wants to share, but she keeps to herself.

“Did we do an environmental scan?” D’Var asks.

“I will get right on it.” And I up my wrist comp.

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