Page 21 of Swept By The Alien Pirate Prince

“I think so,” I said with more optimism balancing my voice now. “I’m chipping away at it.”

“You’re doing a great job,” Cyburn praised.

That was one of the things I loved about him. He never hesitated to make me feel good. His support meant the world to me.

I inhaled slowly and stepped forward to face her. I looked at Silver directly in her eyes, which were now open. “Alright, Silver. I’m going to switch the ‘self-diagnostics’ button on your control panel. Do you think you could help me out and scan through them to see if you find any glitches?”

“Glitches,” Silver declared in a flat, robotic voice. “Performing self-diagnostic testing in three…two…one…”

Silvers eyes closed and her arms fell by her sides and went stiff again. My crestfallen heart plummeted.

“No, Silver, come back to me. It’s Carmela. Remember all the jokes we had in the maintenance room? The ones I taught you from Earth that made you laugh so much?” I didn’t know if appealing to her emotions would make any difference, but there was no harm in trying.

Silver’s eyes jolted open. The control panel screen wasn’t black anymore, but it was going through a series of coding numbers and flashing green going across the screen. I held my breath as I waited to see what Silver’s diagnostic testing would come up with.

However, I became distracted when I noticed Cyburn stomping from his chair to the doorway.

His head was down and his eyes were focused on the floor. His jawline was tight, his shoulders rounded, not straight and confident like they normally were — even under pressure.

His name got stuck in my throat. I didn’t manage to get the word out until he had disappeared into the corridor. And only then, did his name sound like a croak coming from my lips.

I glanced at Silver, torn between whether to follow Cyburn to see what was wrong, or wait for her diagnostics check to complete.

When I looked at the control panel on her back, the coding was still racing across the screen.

I took the opportunity, calling to Silver over my shoulder that I would be back, and not to worry. I just prayed she understood and didn’t start shorting out again with despair.

I heard Nix and the others start cheering behind me on my way out the door. They were declaring that we’d made it to one of the outer worlds and we were on our way to refuge.

So, why then, did Cyburn abandon the celebration and reassuring situation without a single word to anyone?

ChapterSeven

CARMELA

“Cyburn.” My voice was a gentle whisper on the other side of the sliding pocket door of Cyburn’s private chambers.

A door, which remained sealed shut and locked. He wouldn’t let me in, but I knew he could still hear me.

“Cyburn, are you alright? I just want to talk. Tell me everything is okay.”

Silence.

I didn’t get the assurance I craved from him.

I took a deep breath and leaned my forehead against the cool steel of the door. “If you don’t want to talk, that’s fine. I just want to make sure you are okay. You left without a word, and I’m worried about you. The others are still ready to celebrate—”

The door popped open with a hiss and retracted into the narrow slit of the pocket in the doorframe.

Cyburn sat on the edge of his bed. His elbows dug into the skin of his knees. He hunched forward. His eyes were rooted to the floor, unblinking.

I stood in the doorway, waiting for him to beckon me inside but he didn’t so much as give me a general glance over his shoulder.

He had the remote button for the door in one hand, and a bottle of amber liquid — Alesian bourbon, clutched in the other.

He held the neck of the glass bottle as he drew it up to his lips. He took an enormous swig, swished it around in his mouth and then guzzled it down his throat with a deep gulp.

“Ahh,” he whispered and winced. “That burns.”

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