“We could steal another ship,” Becca suggested.
Ben gave a rough laugh. “The government has confiscated too many ships. The few that are left flying are pretty jealously guarded. We can’t steal a ship with twenty people living in the crew quarters, not unless we’re willing to space them. And even if we put down planetside and forced them off, they wouldn’t be able to carry all their possessions, so we’d end up stealing most of their stuff.”
“Which I’m not willing to do,” Allie said firmly. She didn’t think anyone would even consider that option, but she was putting her foot down on that front. “We grab this ship, or we wait until enough military ships are decommissioned that we have a chance at another one.”
“We could stop now.” Becca said the words so softly they came out like an apology, but they still hung there in the air.
“Do you think we should stop?” Copta asked her when no one else seemed to have any response.
Becca shrugged one shoulder and kept her eyes on the table where she drew circles.
“This frightens me,” Copta said, “but we still need to do the right thing.”
Ben gave a huff. “She’s right that we don’t have any alternatives, not unless your mother is willing to help us find another ship.”
“Fat chance,” Allie said before Shank could.
“We could ask.” Shank sounded pretty discouraged at the thought.
“Nope.” Allie vetoed him. “In Anpaytoo’s perfect world, you’d come home to live on her ship, and the rest of us would vanish. She likes that this is an impossible target because she wants us to give up, so she’s not going to go out of her way to get us an easier target. We take Claire’s ship, or we give up, but we can’t ask Anpaytoo for any favors.”
Shank leaned back in his chair until his vertebrae cracked. “Daring risks are actually admired in the family. The more daring the risk, the more a man is held up as an example of strength and honor. Maybe she’s giving me a chance to prove myself.” For a second, Shank had a hopeful expression that made him radiantly beautiful. Then his body slumped, and all that beauty seemed a little dimmer. “Yeah, that’s not true here. She just thinks I’m an idiot.”
Becca reached across the table and caught his hands. “I think you and Ben are both very brave.”
“She thinks I’m a brave idiot,” Shank edited himself. “So, who’s up for dinner?”
Allie wanted to comfort him or maybe slap him upside the head and call him a moron for even dreaming of calling himself an idiot, but she knew that probably wasn’t the best solution. “I am,” she said, feigning enthusiasm.
Shank looked up at her, and they stared at each other. He knew his mother was being unfair, but his pain and frustration was still there, sliding just under the surface of the skin. “Thanks,” he said in a tone so earnest she was almost sure he wasn’t thanking her for going along with the dinner suggestion.
Chapter Eighteen
Dinner had been longand awkward, filled with stories of Ben’s days of serving on an SC ship. When Allie and Shank got back to the room, Shank was still wound tightly enough that he started pacing. Allie knew the open space made him uncomfortable, but she was sure grateful for it. She had the feeling that if their room was one inch smaller, he would have stormed out and walked the corridors.
Allie frowned as she realized how much she wanted him to stay with her. This ship was his home; he was surrounded by his family. He hadn’t been back here in years, and yet he stayed with her. But instead of appreciating that, Allie could feel this cold fear that he would leave—he’d go to the main areas of the ships and laugh with cousins or track down his little brother and tell stories of his one big battle on theCandiru.
