She grumbled something under her breath, and he lifted an eyebrow.
She huffed reluctantly. “Just stop being reckless!”
“Undoing my harness is not reckless. We’re tethered to the Zataras and we’re not going anywhere. I often have to move to the back of the ship.” He gestured with his head behind them to the small cargo hold, barely big enough for him to stand and certainly not big enough for him to stretch his arms out.
“Why?” She looked where he was gesturing, eyebrows drawn together in a frown.
“It’s where the galley is.” His words were even as if he were calming a frightened animal.
She took several breaths, trying to calm herself. “I suppose on the longer trips, you have to eat. And I hate those awful ration bars.” They shared a smile. The Taurean ration bars were a necessity on missions, but the flavor left a lot to be desired.
“You need your data.”
She nodded, still gripping his hands tightly.
“And you want to get back to the Zataras quickly?”
She nodded again, this time releasing his hands and flexing her fingers.
“So, shall we get to it?”
She took a deep breath and sighed, appearing to brace herself mentally. “Yes. Let’s do this.”
* * *
Three hours later and T’arq was bored out of his mind.
When Krystal focused, she really focused. She barely even grunted at him as she stared at the screens in front of her, flipping through them rapidly. The contrast between this Krystal and when she was panicked was massive.
T’arq had made three cups of coffee, had checked over every possible gauge and setting—twice—and was thinking that counting the rivets in the hull would be an entertaining task. His butt felt like it was chair shaped, and he shifted in his seat, warranting a warning huff from the small woman in the seat next to him.
“Krystal?” he asked, not for the first time.
She tapped on the screen and, just when he thought she wouldn’t reply, she did. “Hmm?”
“How much longer?” He had held out as long as he could. The rivets could wait a little longer.
There was another long pause as she continued tapping on the screen, a line drawn between her brows showing her concentration.
T’arq counted under his breath.Three… two… one—
“I need to test the cloak when we use the comm. That was an issue with the last cloak, right?”
T’arq grimaced. Itwasthe major flaw. The cloak worked, but would fail as soon as a communication was sent or received, which meant that the cloak could fail at any moment and calling for help would be a disaster.
“Yes, that was a problem. How do you want to test it?”
Krystal tapped on her screen, a crease between her brows. It took her so long to reply that T’arq was thinking that she hadn’t heard him.
“Let’s contact the Zataras and see if it works.”
T’arq nodded, reaching for his comm, relieved to have something to do. He had resorted to counting the number of times Krystal rubbed her temples, which she apparently did when deep in thought. Twelve. She had rubbed her temples twelve times since he had counted.
He keyed the comm. “Zataras, this is Stealth Ship Qu’Ress Alpha.”
“Qu’Ress Alpha, what can I do for you?”
“Just running some testing. Can you keep the comm open for a few minutes?”
