The troubleshooting menu had no mention of the blinking light. I ground my teeth and broadened my search terms.
“Do you know what the answer is?” Paz asked, grinning. “Agaylien! Man, that one's cheesy...”
I sure wished a gaylien mechanic would come fix this fucking light right now.
“How about this one—”
Paz was interrupted by a loud, neutral-toned beep.
My blood ran cold.
“What was that?” Paz asked mid-chew.
“Nothing,” I said quickly.
This wasn't my first time piloting a ship. I was a seasoned captain with thousands of hours of practice flights and real low-orbit ones. Never in that time had I seen this irritating red light, or heard that godforsaken ominous tone.
And then the worst possible thing happened: the blinking light and the tone synced up.
They were related to each other.
A string of curses ran through my head. The tone was an alarm, one that went hand-in-hand with the visual light cue. That could only mean that whatever malfunction the light indicated was getting worse. More urgent.
“Guess that's not your choice of in-flight playlist?” Paz asked.
“Don't worry about it. Everything's under control,” I said through my teeth. It had to be. Otherwise...
Actually, I didn’t want to think about otherwise.
Now I was starting to freak out. I checked the map system. Our destination was light-miles away. There was no way we'd reach it before whatever was wrong with the ship struck first.
I had to stay calm. I didn't know for a fact what was wrong, so there was no need to jump to conclusions. Maybe it was just alerting me to the lack of ice in the juice machine.
The tone got louder.
Okay, fine. It wasn't the juice machine.
“This track would sound better with vocals,” Paz joked.
At least he was still in a good mood. Meanwhile I was rapidly descending into panic. Not a good look for a captain.
Stay calm,I repeated.The others need you to focus.
As if on cue, the sliding door opened behind me.
“What is that racket?” Jaeyoung grumbled.
Paz grinned. “It's Levi's hot new track, available on starTunes.”
“Hilarious,” Jaeyoung deadpanned.
I chewed the inside of my cheek. Jaeyoung was a doctor, but he also had a degree in engineering. If I swallowed my pride, I could ask him for help. But this wasmymission, the first serious one I'd ever been sent on. Asking for help would make me sound weak, or worse, incompetent. I couldn't let the admiral think I was some newbie who didn't know what he was doing. I deserved this position as much as any of the older pilots, and I'd prove it.
Was the light getting redder or was it just my frayed nerves?
I felt the gazes of both my crewmates boring into my head. They trusted me. I couldn't let them down.
This ship wasnotcrashing, dammit.
