I ground my teeth together to keep from making a snarky reply.“Not yet.Tell Mercer I need wire strippers and snips from that tool chest.”
“You need what?”
“Wire cutters or something that can cut through wire.And wire strippers.They’ll have a series of holes on the blades to pull the plastic off the wires.”
The light bobbled as Burn passed my request on to Mercer.While I waited, I mapped out the wires for the most crucial systems to have a working, flying shuttle.
“Are these what you want?”
I held out my hand and she carefully set the tools in my palm.I pulled them closer and, surprisingly, they were exactly what I wanted.
“Perfect.Tell Mercer he did good.”Maybe being a people doctor helped him recognize ship doctor tools.
I took a deep breath, then got to work.I stripped and twisted wires, made and tested connections until I was satisfied.The whole time, I ignored Burn’s increasingly concerned questions or answered with single words or grunts.
I patted the underside of the console.“Okay, baby, if you get us through this, I’ll make sure to fix you up right.”The shuttle didn’t deserve to be left here with people who treated her so badly.We could fit her onto our ship.
I slid out.“Okay, we’re good to go.”
“Good.The boys are getting antsy.”Behind her words were the faint sounds of a fight.
I understood, since I was feeling the same way.
I smoothed my hand over the shuttle’s console again, then tried the ignition.After a cough she sprang to life.More of a stutter than a purr, but I could fix that later.
“Good girl,” I crooned.“Get the guys on board and have someone open a door for us,” I told Burn, while continuing to pet the shuttle.
She nodded and raced to the open shuttle door.“Somebody open the door.Everyone else, get onboard!”
Pounding feet and the sounds of a scuffle came from behind me, but I was too busy familiarizing myself with the controls to worry about them.Either Burn had my back or she didn’t, but my job was getting us out of here on the shuttle.
Burn appeared in the space just behind the pilot’s and copilot’s seats.“Go now!”
I eased the shuttle a few feet off the ground, prayed there wasn’t anything in the way, and aimed for the slowly opening hangar door.
The shuttle glided forward more smoothly than I’d expected and I gave her another approving pat.“Such a good shuttle.”
I kept a slow, steady hand on the throttle.We were airborne, but I had no idea how she would fly until I put it to the test.
Burn dropped into the copilot’s seat next to me.
“Everything okay?”I asked.Please don’t let there be a problem.
“So far.Orion and Mercer are in the back keeping an eye out from the side doors.Dax is opening the door for our departure.”
My heart leapt into my throat.He could handle himself, but that didn’t stop the worry.It just increased my need to not screw this up.
“He’s a professional.This is what he does.”It was like she read my mind.
“I know.It doesn’t make it any less worrisome.”
“If the two of you are going to make this relationship work, you’re going to have to get used to this.”
“Get used to stealing a shuttle and sneaking out of a hangar in the middle of the night to meet up with more bad guys?I didn’t think you guys wanted to be that kind of cargo runners.”I had to keep this light, so I could function through the tension riding me.
Burn laughed like I wanted her to.“Well, true.But given our backgrounds, I don’t think we’ll be able to escape exciting situations like this every once in a while.”
“That’s good to know.”
