He’d waited for the rest cycle to ensure as many of the roaming guards and crew were out of circulation to execute his plan. His eyes switched to night vision.
Silently, he rose and walked to his cell door, unlocked it, and stepped out. The murmuring, slightly panicked sounds of those around him only covered his tracks further.
Gunner tuned them out and kept moving, using their confusion before their senses shifted priority.
He lingered at the door exiting the brig, his hand outstretched...
Something stopped him from passing through.
He whiffed the cloistered stench and sought out the one smell that had come to comfort him in some small way.
Gunner turned on his heel and approached Ely’s cell. He stood outside her unit, watching her in the dark, wide-eyed and blinking, facing the direction of his own cage. His hand hovered over the lock, knowing he could open it, step in, do anything he wanted, and finally get the last damning evidence he needed, but once again his hand stilled.
Instead, the voices of the others rose around him, trying to penetrate his dark little world,theirdark little world, and was reminded of the ever-ticking clock.
His eyes remained on Ely as she shifted warily about, eventually slinking over to the bars that joined their units. Gunner had no idea why she felt safer on his side over the middle, but the reason she stayed away from Kallan was obvious.
She didn’t need to move to him now, not while in the dark. It cloaked her like it did him. His hands clenched at his sides as her lips opened to speak. He smelled a tendril of fear. She exuded it. For some reason that bothered him.
Fuck!
He ducked back into his cell and crouched beside her.
“Shhh,” he whispered next to her ear, making her jump. “Power surge, it’ll be over soon,” he consoled. Ely regained her composure and settled back. He, on the other hand, had to forcibly stretch his fingers to release the strain in his tendons, knowing he could accidentally touch her. Their deal wouldn’t be disrupted by an accident. Right?
When did I become a saint?Gunner got back to his feet and scowled, refusing to spare his entertainment another glance. He resumed his mission and returned to the door, powering off the lights beyond before stepping through, unnoticed, and only questionable to those whothoughtthey were hearing things.
He tried to alleviate some of the tension that had built in his frame, but the further he made his way into the ship, the worse it became.
Even keeping one part of himself shelled over the ship’s security, keeping the alarms from going off and replaying loops of previous feeds, helped little. His rationale demanded that he go back; his beast demanded he go back.
He extended the claws of his right hand and dug them into his palm. Clarity through pain.
Gunner pressed up against the wall as voices filled the hallway. They came from within an open door he needed to pass. Sniffing the air, although vented and sterilized, the sour tang of sweat, unease, and unwashed bodies filled his nose.
They weren’t the men he was looking for.
He was after a different target tonight.
“Captain says we’re headed for Elyria.”
“Bout’ time. I need something besides old steel and you guys to look at.”
He took in the information and crouched down, leaving his body to check the room’s feed. They weren’t facing his way. He zipped past. Their voices faded as he left them behind.
The hallway came to an end, to a small opening of disjointed parts, crates, and grease stains. On one side there was another corridor that he knew would lead him to the machine rooms and to the underbelly, the other way led to storage, but it was the elevator before him that would lead to the floor above where the crew’s quarters were housed.
He lowered and quietly took off his boots, slipping them behind one of the crates.
Gunner placed his hand on the elevator panel and forced its doors to open. Once he was shut away in the cramped space and moving up, the stink of the brig vanished. He gritted his teeth against the urge to go back to it, clawing new wounds into his palm.
The elevator opened a moment later to reveal the crew deck. The tension that howled at him before morphed into hungry, delicious, sweet anticipation.
He stepped into the slightly more lavish landing and cracked his neck.Everyone I’m looking for is here.
Gunner lifted his nose and took in another deep breath, sorting out what he needed and what he wanted.The captain is on the bridge.But Gunner wasn’t after him just yet and the bridge was on another floor entirely.
It took some time ducking in and out of rooms, longer than if he had waited until the rest cycle was at its deepest, but he kept his footsteps silent and his movements quiet. Although he could static up the feeds or replay the same previous minute on loop, he couldn’t hide the noise without it becoming suspicious.
