He didn’t have to convince me. My head and my heart were already in sync. I didn’t want to work right now anymore, anyway.
* * *
Later that nightwe were in the hangar. It was late, after midnight. My eyes burned from exhaustion, but my heart pounded with anxiety. My nerves were frazzled, and my stomach had already twisted itself into a million little tight knots.
The hair on the back of my neck stood up, giving me a prickly feeling. I was in desperate need of sleep, but also wide awake with adrenaline.
I was locked in my own personal orbit of hell, just wanting to get this night over with. We were so close, yet it still somehow felt worlds away from our goal of booting Amada from the ship.
She was acting really strangely, too, which didn’t do much to help settle my nerves.
“What is up with her?" I whispered to Cyburn who was fully decked out in his protective battle gear and life support armor — wearing it just in case anything went wrong. He had me wearing the same, which made me feel like this mission was going to end up being more than what it appeared.
I had an incredible sinking feeling about this. I just hated not knowing what was going to happen. If only I could build and program a robot who would be able to successful predict the future for me.
For now, I just had to wipe my clammy palms on my suit and hope for the best. I was so stiff from the nervous tension that my muscles ached.
Cyburn subtly glanced at Amada. “What do you mean?”
“Isn’t she acting suspicious to you?”
“Shealwaysacts suspicious to me.”
“I know… but worse than usual.” I frowned at her, pondering.
My heart was in my throat and a bout of nausea began churning uncomfortably in my stomach.
“I feel like I’m going to be sick,” I whispered to Cyburn.
His eyes wandered over me, inspecting. “Why?”
I shook my head, feeling the blood literally draining from my face. “I don’t know. I just have a bad feeling about this.”
I wanted to appear assertive in front of him and the others. I would be utterly mortified if I vomited in front of them, especially Amada. I had to pull myself together.
“Just take a few deep breaths,” Cyburn murmured sympathetically. He wasn’t judging me, thank God. “I need you with me. I don’t want to let you out of my sight until Amada is gone.”
I swallowed hard and took the deep breaths as he instructed. “I know. You’re right.”
“Are the breaths helping?”
I glanced at him and nodded. “Yes, I feel a little better.”
“Good.”
Cyburn breathed in deep, too.
“The ship should be here soon,” he whispered and cracked his knuckles as if he was trying to convince himself just as much as he was trying to convince me.
A weird blinking sound started pulsating through the hangar. The low hum of confused chatter and disbelief began to charge through the room.
Cyburn and Nix exchanged a troubled look with each other. Their black eyes shimmered with dread.
“What is it?” I snapped to attention, sitting up straight. My heart hammered so noisily in my chest that I felt like it was going to burst.
Nix and Cyburn began scrambling around. It was Silver who answered me, in her steely, cool, robotic voice as if there was nothing to panic about. Or maybe she just stopped caring at this point.
“That’s the ship sensors,” Silver explained. “They make that sound when the sensors register a spatial disturbance outside.”