Her everything and my everything are different.The thought didn't make him feel good, and for the first time since he could remember, bile rose in his throat.
“Ask her yourself,” he gritted out.
Chesnik kept talking as if he didn't know Gunner was about to lose his mind. “I would if you’d let me speak to her alone.”
“No. Fucking. Way.” No way was he going to let Chesnik get back into her head. Not if he could help it. “If you’re so dead set on saving her from me and the choices she made, I’m not with her now. I won’t stop you. Try and get to her.” Gunner cocked his head in the direction where the jammed door was located.
A vein looked like it was about to pop over Chesnik’s brow. The wrinkles on around his eyes grew deeper by the second.
“You and I both know I wouldn’t get very far,” he accused.
Gunner took another step back, further unblocking the man’s way. His jaw ticked. “Won’t you even try?”
“No.”
Once again anger simmered Gunner’s blood. “You don’t trust me. Or her. And you won’t even try...”
“I know she’s safe.”
Gunner snorted with derision. “From everyone but me that is. When you see her next, because there will be a next, tell her that. I dare you.”
The enmity between them was palpable but short-sighted. A banging noise beside Gunner had him turning away. The elevator door shook the crate as it tried to close. It then slid back into the panel before trying again with another bang. It continued to rattle when Chesnik broke the silence at his side.
“You’re not holding up your end of the bargain well. I’ll be telling her that. Some of us died as you holed up and used her.”
The man really does have a death wish.He wondered if it was to punish his daughter for choosing him over her own father. It was more reason not to hurt or kill the man. Gunner wasn't going to give Chesnik the satisfaction.
“You mean the men in the brig, the onesyouleft to die earlier?” Gunner snapped. “I can’t control people like I can machines. If they get themselves killed because they think they know better than I do, then they’re idiots I couldn’t save to begin with.”
“Why wait until now?”
“To give the crew upstairs some time to stew, and to come up with a plan that wasn’t rushed from the heat of battle. To let the unrest congeal and solidify and to give everyone down here a chance to regroup, to eat, and to heal. I’m trying to give everyone the best chance possible to survive. We’re no longer in Andromeda, which means they have a destination in mind and oneI’mvery curious about. The captain didn’t need to warp us if we were still headed to Elyria, but he did. So what does that mean?”
“I don’t understand? Why don’t you think we’re not headed to Elyria anymore? He could warp and stay within the same galaxy, even the same solar system.”
Gunner rubbed his lips and turned from the elevator to look back at Chesnik.
“Because that was where wewereheaded from the get-go. The warp is a power sap, to do so to make it to a nearby location slightly faster isn’t done lightly. I know something about meetups and drop-offs and Elyria is ripe with them. Timing is important. He’s either sped it up...or ditched it entirely, either of which would destroy his reputation in the system. A man who can’t deliver is a man not worth permitting to live. If we’re not headed there, that means something has changed. Whether it’s with the crew or with the captain, something changed. What that change is? I don’t know, but I think it’s time for us to find out.”
***
ENERGY COURSED THROUGHGunner as he made his way back to Elodie. He’d only left her for an hour but it felt like an eternity to him.
His hand settled on his chest, over his heart, where it beat heavy under his still healing thumb. He realized it was the first time he had ever paid attention to it.
The machinesclankedon all sides, energy and power fueled them, fueled him. Though his plans were now in motion, the organ under his palm drummed steadily.
Gunner came upon his mate sleeping in the back room—in their nest—right where he’d left her. Elodie was in the throes of slumber as he kneeled at her side. Her cobbled-together distress beacon was laid out next to her.
Whether it could be repaired or not was still up in the air, but he had been impressed with her single-minded fortitude. Her fingers still clutched it to her side, as if she worked on it in her sleep, and when he touched the metal of her gadget himself he could feel the pieces conduct under his fingertips.
She’ll have it working soon.He could help her repair it, he knew, but he wasn’t good with rebuilding machines because he lacked patience. His lavatory-turned-brewery was a testament to its lack. It was a steampunk nightmare in bathroom form.
Gunner brushed the hair from her face. He meant to wake her but now he couldn’t. Elodie was all his when she was asleep. She was content. At peace.
Elodie’s eyelids fluttered.Dreaming.Gunner quietly lay down next to her and feathered his fingers over her temple.
Dirty. Now only one of us is dirty.His hand stilled.
