“These numbers make no sense…”Bea mumbled.“Can I comm in? I wanna get this cooling system sorted.”
Darren turned around, taking the Maine’s sleek form in. They were taking massive risks just leaving the hideout, so they needed the frigate at optimal performance. “Yeah, sure.”
Shortly after disembarking, everyone but Bea gathered in the war room. The holoboards came to life with the vault’s layout and the comms frequencies they’d used during the infiltration.
“I’ve checked everything ten times. I can’t pinpoint how they got us!” Nyle groaned, leaning back in his chair and letting his head hang.
Mulling over it wasn’t going to get them anywhere. They needed to regroup. To focus on something else. Darren wasn’t giving up on the ring, but they needed a win somewhere else while they came up with another plan to retrieve it.
“You need a break,” he said, meaning it. “Focus on George. The sooner we find someone willing to help, the better.” Letting his gaze stray from Nyle, he studied the wooden box sitting next to the device hooked to Sara’s chip. The two crowns were inside, and so was the capsule for storing Sara’s chip, which explained why it was out here. “Kristen, are you done with the transfer?”
“Yeah. All the data’s been copied onto the hideout’s network, aside from her system files. There is some security feature to her AI, and I couldn’t get past it,” Kristen said and walked around to the device, disconnecting the chip. He handed it to Darren along with the wooden box containing the rest of the Valrais valuables.
“It’s not like we need a second Sara. I’ll figure out how she’s set up when I find time,” Nyle jumped in.
Darren opened the box, trying to ignore the two crowns and the royal ring. He didn’t like to look at them because it made him miss Sara more than he could bear most days. This time and with Aiden’s hand squeezing his thigh gently, the feeling of suffocating simply washed over him instead of settling in hischest. Panic attack under control, he placed Sara’s chip inside the storing capsule and put it back inside the wooden box.
Silence ensued, everyone seeming to need a moment to shift gears.
“Right, so George,” Rick said, scrunching his eyebrows together. “Do we have—”
“Hey. Sorry to interrupt, but, Kris, why am I getting such crazy readings from the cooling bracket?”Bea’s positively frustrated voice boomed from the earpieces, accompanied by an exasperated sigh.“I ran full ship diagnosticsthreetimes, and that’s the only thing outside of normal operating parameters.”
“Did you try a restart?”
“What do you think?”
“Send me the numbers.” A diagram with activity came up on the holoboard, replacing the vault’s data. Kristen squinted at it, furrowing his brow. “That’s strange… The temperature monitoring system seems to be working fine, but I can see a spike in the synch operator… Bea, what’s the timestamp on this?”
The slight concern in Kristen’s tone made Darren’s stomach churn. He told himself that it was probably nothing, but the bad feeling didn’t go away and just spread through the rest of him.
“Forwarded it to you.”
With a growing frown, Kristen flicked through a bunch of diagnostics screens via his tablet. Each one stayed on the holoboards for no more than a few heartbeats, and as soon as the next one came, Kristen’s jaw tensed up even more.
“Bea,” he snapped, shooting up from his chair so abruptly, he sent it sliding toward the wall partition. “I need you to go to the engine room and immediatelydisconnectthe bracket from the ship’s systems.”
“I was just on my way back! Are you sure one of your magical calibrations won’t fix it?”
“Bea. Disconnect the bracket immediately! It isn’t faulty. It’s been rigged and it’s pinging location data to an external target host…” Kristen held Darren’s gaze, fear contorting his features. “It has been broadcasting the Maine’s coordinates since you left Martian space.”
“What?”
“Bea, disconnect the bracket!”
“I’m on my way! Shit! How did we miss something like thi—”Bea cut herself off, sucking in a sharp breath. “Rick was there just earlier doing ship checks…”
The moment the words were out of her mouth, Darren’s blood froze. He snapped his attention to Rick, feeling Aiden grow rigid on the chair next to him. This couldn’t be happening…
Swallowing hard, Rick looked between the four of them. His gaze lingered on Aiden, but it was hard to say what he was thinking. His expression remained neutral, and his posture tensed.
“Rick…” Aiden said in a weak voice that made Darren’s heart ache. “Please, tell me you had nothing to do with this. Please, tell me this is all a misunderstanding.Please.”
Rick’s eyes stirred with emotion, gleaming under the recessed lights. Sadness or guilt… it was hard to say which one. He looked at the ramp behind Darren and licked his lips, rubbing the edge of his phone. Darren’s entire body vibrated with the need to strangle him, to shout at him, to hit him.
“Rick… please,” Aiden begged, digging his hand into Darren’s thigh so hard it hurt.
Rick tapped his phone and looked at the screen, his eyebrows drawing together. “Look, it’s over. You should’ve never gone to Horizons, Aiden. You should’ve let Claudia go like Marcus and I kept asking you to.” His face scrunched further, ahint of regret flicking in his hard eyes. “I’m sorry it had to get to this.”
