“Then, we better find Xiphos,” I say. “It’s possible us Titans may never be capable of a new generation if we do not find a Creator who can fix what is broken.”
But as I hold her, a warning beep cuts through the stillness.
“Do you hear that?” I ask.
She hums a soft note that makes me wish I could carry her back inside the ship and get back to where we left off. But when the beep sounds again, I know we’re in trouble.
“Solcrue are coming.” I push back and take her hand. “Come on, we have to go.”
Aera hustles back to the ship with me. “I didn’t finish the thruster repair. There’s a mount that’s broken. The thruster doesn’t have directional stability.
“I’ll fix it,” I tell her, encouraging her up to the pilot’s seat. “Get everything online except that thruster. I’ll be right back.”
“Evolution...”
I look back at her, and she greets me with a deep, lingering kiss that heats my body. Sliding an arm around her waist, I pull her against me and bask in the softness of her and the way she conforms to my body.
“Ev—vo,” she mumbles from the grasp of my lips. Aera chuckles. “Fuutsome clothes on.”
I steal one more kiss, then slide back and grin. “Don’t like seeing all of me?”
She licks a lip and plants her hands on her hips. “We will get in trouble if you don’t. Staring at that delicious rocket ship makes me want another ride. Pack it away, sexy... If, you know, you want to evade Solcrue with my help. It’s very distracting.”
She hikes up into the cockpit and starts the ship. I crawl through the thruster’s control systems under the ship and use Magma’s skills to heat the broken metal control arms and weld them back into place. Then I climb back up the ramp, close it, and step into my armor again.
“Better?” I ask as I sit in the co-pilot’s seat.
“Ship is.” Aera slides her gaze to me, dances her eyes over my armor, and then shakes her head. “Hate that you have to cover up. I want to explore that more later.”
I pull up the target location of the outpost, and she heads us in that direction. “If there’s anything that can help us, we have to pick it up before we leave. Solcrue are already in orbit. We can’t outrun them now.”
“Then, we better come up with a worst-case scenario plan.” Aera sighs. “And I’m not talking about self-sacrifice.”
“You mean capture.”
She nods. “Unless there’s a portal or something of the sort, an underground base with bigger ships, or something else exceptional, we’re probably going to get picked up.”
“Have you had it happen before?” I ask.
She chews a cheek. “More than once. I always thought it was just because I was female. Now I know better.”
Aera fishes the chip out of her suit and hands it to me. “I don’t know if you have a way to hide this in you where they can’t get to it, but maybe it’s safer with you than with me.”
I take the chip and run a thumb over the honeycomb texture, watching it light up. “Why give this to me?”
“They’ll keep us together.” Aera flies us over the forested hills. The outpost becomes visible. “They need both pieces. If it’s tucked inside you, then you can become it, right?”
“Yeah.”
She nods. “Call it insurance for your life.”
Chapter 19: Aera
I set us down in the field outside an old concrete bunker with a large tower. Evo is already moving through the cabin, pulling together a pack of gear, weapons, and ammo.
“Looks a lot like an outpost on Ellipsis. If we’re lucky, this one has tunnels or some other way out. Otherwise, we need to make this fast. Then work on that alternate plan.”
I take a Solcrue rifle and extra magazines from the cabinets and follow him down the ramp. “Solcrue are on approach. We probably have fifteen minutes.”
