“Maybe another day and a half,” Sway said, a grin forming. “We have time.”
Vytln couldn’t help but chuckle along with him. “Too much time, really. It’s not fair.”
The three females shared a look. One of confusion. Incredulity. He wasn’t sure if they were baffled by their confidence or their amusement, but it didn’t really matter.
They’d see soon enough. And it had been a while since they had a good challenge.
Chapter 40
Haven
Thanks to Sway, they knew down to the half mark when they were going to be swinging out of subspace. And they were able to set themselves up for what they knew would be happening. All of them put into position under Tanin’s command, ready to go. Ready to fight.
Goldie, Garnet, Grace, and Rok were all put in the shelter room. Rok was an excellent fighter. He might even be the best on the ship to hear the guys tell it. But he also didn’t like to fight. He didn’t enjoy hurting people. He requested that he not fight unless he had to. The best place for him was with the weakest crew members. If they somehow managed to get that far, Rok was the last, and also the best, line of defense.
Haven was near the shelter room, but not inside it. She couldn’t be in there. Absolutely no signal worked in that room, and her termites couldn’t communicate while she was inside. She was near enough to get to the shelter room in a moment if she had to, but far enough away that she was ready to work. Her fingers poised over the tablet, waiting for the moment they swung out so she could get the hijacking device off of them.
Sway was up in the bridge, ready to do his math to get them out. Alred was also up there. He required so much energy and focus to fight off the hijacking device, he couldn’t be everywhere like he typically was, so he was instead going to stay with Sway and make sure they swung out as quickly as possible.
The rest of the guys were spread throughout the ship, covering all possible entry points. Ready to take down anyone who would board.
And there didn’t seem to be any doubt thatsomeonewould be boarding. If the aim was to kill them, it could have been done already. Especially with the explosives in their cargo hold. No, someone was bringing them somewhere. Which meant someone did not want them dead. At least, not immediately.
Which meant that they had a chance to fight back. And the guys were going to take it.
They all waited. Haven could see them through the video feeds she was watching thanks to her termites on the inside of the ship. Since Alred couldn’t be the eyes in the sky, she was performing that duty. Her termites, running on her custom-built code, couldn’t be touched by the hijacking machine. She was completely invisible to it, and thus able to watch the others as they all waited.
Tense.
Expectant.
She knew the moment they dropped out. Not because she felt that drop in her belly. Their shields were fully operational, and they kept them stable and protected as they swung out.
No, she knew by the distant, echoing bang and the way that the entire ship rocked.
Tethered. They'd been caught. Just as Vytln predicted.
She immediately got to work. Her only task was to dislodge this hijacker. Once it was off, Alred would be fully functional.
Her termites, in position, immediately got to work at her command. No longer in subspace, she wasn't limited by all the background noise that made their data return so broken and slow.
But it also meant that the hijacker could get a signal again. The lights overhead flickered as Alred diverted power to fighting off their counter attack.
Haven didn't look away from her task. She had a quarter mark – about half an hour – to get this thing off. She had her all termites focusing on infiltrating and eating through the components.
Eat wasn't precisely correct, but nor was it an inaccurate way to describe what her termites did. They didn't eat anything in the way of digesting for energy or resources. But by the way they interfered with their tiny electrical charges, a charge that got stronger the more of them were involved and connected, she was able to erode at the device and eat away at the connection. It wasn't a quick process, and it was slowed significantly by the cold of space.
But it was also a physical thing. It wasn't something the device's code could block or resist. In a way, it was like she was pulling at it with her own fingers. If the device didn't have a physical way to protect itself, it wouldn't be able to stop her termites.
She sat crouched in the hall monitoring her termites, occasionally giving them instructions, and listening.The lightswere dimmer than usual, and they were flickering every now and again. That told her how hard Alred was working.
But it was the distant sounds that really put her hair to standing on end.
She was used to listening to the ship through the metal. She was used to how it felt and hummed. She knew based on the distant, harsh clangs and the hard vibrations exactly when their enemy were boarded. And she was uneasy, because it didn't feel like a proper connection.
When it came to boarding a ship, legally or otherwise, there were only two ways to do it. Easily, by attaching properly to one of the exit doors. A process that required the approval of the ship being boarded. Or forcefully, by literally ripping your way inside. If you didn't care about the functionality or livability of the ship you were tearing open, it worked just as well and didn't require permission.
She had a terrible feeling in her belly about the way they had chosen.
