Page 29 of Dark Space
He hesitated. ‘Defineclose.’
‘By the stars,’ I muttered. ‘Is thereanythingclose? A space station? A ship?’
‘The Tirian peacekeeping vessel we’ve been trailing, and another small ship they seem to be following. It’s of Nataran make.’
I stared at him. ‘That’s it?’
‘That’s it.’
My eyes flicked to the bed. ‘The Tirians would have a healer.’
‘Yes. But if we asked to board the peacekeeping ship and the Tirians find out we took her from Earth, they’ll fire first and ask questions later. The doctor would need to come to Anna. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but the entire universe pretty much hates us, so I’m not sure a distress call will work.’
‘So we steal them.’
The Roth frowned at me. ‘I –what?’
‘We steal the doctor,’ I said, leaning forward. ‘We bring the doctor to Anna.’
‘How do we do that, starling?’
I raised my ankle. ‘If you got this off me, I could have a doctor here in a handful of heartbeats.’
‘That’s not happening.’
I hadn’t expected him to go for it, but it was worth a try. ‘Then we’ll need to do it the hard way. Get on board the ship and take what we need.’
‘How do we get on board a Tirian peacekeeping vessel? We can’t just take a scuttler and dock.’
‘Well, what else have you got?’
‘What else? We don’t have anything else.’ He tugged on one of his horns. ‘Well, except the Darnagh craft in the hold. We picked it up as salvage.’
‘The Darnagh …’ I considered it. ‘Is it in working order?’
‘Perfectly. But they wouldn’t just let us board the peacekeeping ship, even in the Darnagh craft.’
‘No.’ My lips pulled up at the corners. ‘But what if we were flying one of their own?’
It was almost too easy.
It was a version of a play I’d used before. A distress signal used as a lure, a trap laid in the dark, a uniform change. Swanning into enemy territory like you belonged there – because they believed that you did. Then taking what you wanted, and hightailing it before they realised that the thing you wanted was missing.
I didn’t trust the two meatsuits to pull it off, but I didn’t have any other choice.
‘You need to watch Anna while we’re gone,’ Cal growled at me.
‘We’ve overridden the security codes again,’ Alcide agreed. ‘No one will be getting in. But just in case –’
‘I’ll watch her, Prince,’ I said crossly. ‘Though stars know what I’m supposed to do if something happens.’
‘Glare,’ Cal suggested. ‘Or pull the supernova move you keep threatening. Put your balls on the table instead of just talking about them.’
‘Put my … Do Roth actually do that?’
Alcide grimaced. ‘Of course not. It’s unhygienic.’
‘Is that why you two stopped the other night? Hygiene issues, Prince?’
