Luckily, Pye was still lying on the pallet they’d arranged for him.Arly threw herself over her friend, preventing the both of them from going sliding.
“Sorry, sorry,” Jin called over the comms.“Just a little bit of unexpected turbulence.Nothing to worry about.”
“This is space.”Raider’s voice was barely audible as he spoke from beside Jin.“There’s no such thing as turbulence.”
“There is if I say there is.”
“Get out of that chair.I knew you weren’t ready to fly,” Raider rumbled.
The sounds of a struggle came through the comm system before it abruptly cut off.
Kira clapped her hands to get the group’s attention.“You heard him.We’ve arrived.Prepare to disembark.”
“This side’s good,” Finn called, helping Kira do the last checks.
Kira peered through the port hole, sweeping a glance over the docking tube to make sure everything was in order.Although much of the process was automated, she still liked to lay eyeballs on the tube whenever possible.Every spacer had heard stories of some idiot accidentally spacing themselves over a glitch in the system when a simple visual check could have solved everything.
“Unsealing now,” Kira said.
Readouts were all normal.Oxygen was present on the other side and their system was picking up air flow.
All positive signs that the docking tube had done what it was supposed to.
She cranked the hand wheel responsible for unsealing the hatch a quarter turn, waiting for the loud hiss of air.
“Kira!”Jin yelled, racing into the cargo just as Kira cranked the hand wheel the rest of the way and shouldered open the hatch.“I did it!I found a contact!And you’ll never guess who it is!”
“You meanIfound someone,” Raider corrected, ambling after him.
Dylan brought up the rear, clad in a cloak much like the one Roderick had pulled from somewhere.
“Does it really matter who found what?”Jin complained.“The point is they’ve been found.”
“You say that because you’re not the one who saved the day,” Raider grumbled.
Bez stabbed a finger in the two’s direction.“Why do they get to keep their normal clothes?”
At some point, he’d taken Kira’s advice and lost the clothes he’d had on under the jumpsuit.They were now in a bag at his side.
“Raider is human.He already blends in.”
And as far as she knew, he’d never been on Titan so there were no enemies he needed to avoid.
“As for Jin—” Kira examined her friend and nodded.“No one is going to look twice at a child.”
Jin had chosen his clothing wisely, picking items made from fabrics that wouldn’t stand out.Things that appeared neither luxurious nor cheap.
His pointed ears were the only thing that gave him away.
Kira plopped a fuzzy, old hat on his head, tugging down the ear flaps so they covered the pointed tips of his ears.
Jin touched it cautiously.“This had better not have lice.”
“Let’s hope,” Kira agreed.She tossed the twin of Jin’s hat at Bez.Az and Arly’s hair was long enough to cover their ears.“Otherwise, it’s going to suck to be you.”
Bez caught the hat and held it as far away from his body as he could.“What are lice?”
“Trust me, man.You don’t want to know,” Raider assured him.
