He stares at me, and if he had a gun, I’m pretty sure he’d be using it. He’s definitely got attitude for a religious type. But I learned a long time ago that attitude only gets you so far in this system—a gun gets you the rest of the way.
And he doesn’t have one. I do. So he can shut the fuck up.
“Cool gun,” Beckett interrupts like she’s discussing the weather, not watching a mercenary menace a priest. “How long’s it hold a charge?”
Really? Right now? “Around two months,” I tell her. Her interest is kind of undercutting the mood.
“Nice,” she says. “Really nice.”
“Okay,” I say, sliding the pistol back into the holster. I’ve made my point. “Looks like it’s decided. We’re going to Vistenia.”
Chapter 12
Kali
So…formidable I definitely was not.
Like so many of my mother’s other arcane rules, the smiling thing didn’t do nearly as much good as I’d hoped. Big surprise.
Then again, when has a smile ever trumped a gun?
Never, especially not when that gun is wielded by a guy like Ian. All of which means we’re definitely going to Vistenia.
On a more positive note—and by more positive I mean less likely to end in death than getting into a gunfight with an arrogant, draw-first-and-think-later kind of prick—I’ve never been to Vistenia, and after the complete mess of my first official duty, I’m likely never going to get another chance.
Then again, Ian can demand that we go to Vistenia all he wants—that doesn’t mean we’ll make it. Especially since no one actually knows how to fly this ship.
Sure, at the moment she’s doing it all on her own, but who knows how long that will last? Plus, if we don’t work out how to communicate with her soon, this thing is going to take us wherever she wants. Even if where she wants to take us is the surface of Serai.
Honestly, at this point, I wouldn’t even be surprised.
Now that we’re away from the immediate danger, the effects are hitting me. My feet are battered and bruised, my throat is sore from the smoke, and I’m thirsty. Really, really thirsty. I’m just about to ask someone to find me a glass of water when Gage speaks up.
“Don’t pull the gun back out, Ian, but I think we may have a problem with that plan.”
“You’ve got a lot of problems,” Ian shoots back without so much as looking his way. “Doesn’t mean I want to hear about any of them.”
“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t hear about them,” Max tells him with a sigh. “Go ahead, Gage.”
“Thanks for the permission.” Gage makes a face at him before continuing. “I had a little time to poke around before you guys came on board, and I’m pretty sure there’s no food or drink on this ship. I just got the moisture-collection system working, so eventually we’ll get purified water from that—with the fun bonus of not drowning in our own sweat—but that won’t exactly keep us fed short-term.”
“Is that supposed to be a surprise?” Beckett asks. “This thing is so old it was in dry dock. Why would there be food or drink on board?”
The fact that she’s right doesn’t stop my stomach from rumbling. I just hope none of the others heard it—it’s not what I’d call a good look right now.
“Not that big a deal,” Ian tells them. “We can go a couple of days without.”
Gage gives a long-suffering sigh. “It’s more than a couple of days, and you know it.”
“Exactly how many more?” I ask, because the difference suddenly seems very important.
“How long will it take to get to Vistenia?” Gage looks to Ian.
“With current planetary alignments, it would take fourteen Askkandian days on a mid-level freighter to travel from Askkandia to Vistenia. I’m not sure how long it will take on this ship.” Ian’s voice is completely devoid of emotion—a surefire sign that he’s starting to come to grips with just how screwed we are.
“So what you’re saying is we’ll all be dead by the time we hit Vistenia.” Max looks frustrated for the first time.
My stomach rumbles again, and judging from the sympathetic look Rain shoots me, it’s definitely loud enough to be noticed. I deliberately don’t look at Beckett, but that doesn’t mean I can’t feel her malicious gaze on me as I watch Ian plop back into the captain’s chair.
“Shit,” he mutters as he turns to look at Max and silence stretches uncomfortably between the lot of us. Max holds his gaze, then a few seconds later shakes his head with a definite frown. Ian responds with a roll of his eyes…and a reluctant nod that makes me wonder just how these two can communicate so clearly without words. Because they are very definitely communicating, even if they don’t want the rest of us to know it.
“Ian and I have enough food and water to last the two of us five days,” Max says finally. “But it isn’t enough to get us all to Vistenia alive.”
He reaches down to the bag at his feet and pulls out some bottles of water. I lick my lips, so thirsty now that I can almost taste it.
“I’ve got five bottles,” Max continues. “And Ian has the same. But I doubt that will last us more than a day.”
“So, we need to head to the nearest port.” Merrick speaks up for the first time since Ian pulled a gun on him.
“Which is Askkandia,” I point out. Looks like I’m going home after all.
“Don’t look so relieved, Princess,” Ian sneers. “You won’t be leaving us just yet.”
“You can’t actually believe that you’ll be able to keep me hidden on my home planet, do you?”
He shrugs. “Askkandia’s a big place. I don’t see any reason why we have to get you within a kilometer of the palace.”
A combination of alarm and outrage jangles through me—along with a third emotion I’m afraid to acknowledge, let alone name. Which is why I focus on the outrage when I open my mouth to argue—no matter what he thinks, he’s not actually in charge here. But when he glares at me the same way he glared at Merrick when he pulled the gun, I shut it again. At least for now.
“There is the other little problem,” Gage says.
Ian blows out his breath. “And that is?”
“We have no clue how to fly this thing. No way to steer. Right now, we could be heading anywhere, and I, for one, have no idea how to change that.”
“So, we could keep going right past Glacea and crash into the asteroid field?” Max says.
“Yup. Or we could be going in the opposite direction, and we’ll dive headfirst into the sun.” Gage shoves a hand through his hair, making his purple stripe stand straight up. “Hell, at the moment we don’t even have any of the instruments or comms online. So never mind where we’re going, where the fuck are we right now?”
“I’m not sure what you’re all so worried about,” Beckett comments with a yawn. “We’ll all die of thirst long before we dive into the sun.”
And on that cheery note…I smooth my expression. I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m really starting to not like Beckett. “This is all probably a moot point,” I say after a second. “There are probably people out searching for us right now.”