His tense shoulders slowly unwound.
But I didn’t let him off the hook, not by a long shot. “You just admitted that you like me,” I said.
His eyes widened. “I did.”
I couldn’t help smiling as I let go of his face. “What else were you saying? I can’t remember.”
He huffed a laugh. “You’re too good for someone like me.”
In reply, I reached around him to flick a random switch. “I know.”
Suddenly, the generator hummed to life, the long tubular lights above us blinking on. They popped on one by one, back the way we’d come, and from the front room we heard the tell-tale sound of computers booting up, their processors sounding like chewed-up nails in a blender.
I shrugged. “Lucky guess. C’mon, I need to get some air.” And without thinking too much about it, I took his hand and led him out of the building. He let go of my hand the moment we got outside, in sight of the droids, and I tried not to think too much about that, either.
“There’s a transceiver in there that we’re going to try,” he told them, thumbing back toward the facility.
Trywas doing a lot of heavy lifting, sadly, because the transceiver console was so old it took two swipes to get enough dust off the display for me to read it at all, but somehow the console itself still worked. Hope rose in melike fizzy soda, and I quickly keyed in the prompt for the ship’s calling code.
Veebee and Entoo came into the building on the way to the fuel and stopped beside me instead. Sian leaned against the doorway, tapping his fingers on the frame nervously.
The astromech droid gave a series of beeps.
I sighed. “Iknow, but I have to try to reach them again anyway.”
Even though the last time we’d tried, Dad had told me to run. Of course he should know I wouldn’t. And maybe it was a miscommunication. Whatever it was, either they would answer me—a random ping from a defunct research facility in the middle of nowhere—or they wouldn’t.
So I adjusted the mic and switched on the broadcast. The sound crackled. “Starfarer, this is Ardent Quay. Please answer.”
For a long moment there was nothing.
“Starfarer,” I repeated, “this is Ardent. Pick up.”
From the doorway, Sian said, “What if somethingiswrong?”
Helplessly, I shrugged. “I don’t know, but—”
The comm crackled, and a garbled voice replied,“Arie?”It was Val.
Sian pulled his hands through his hair and nervously paced.
“Arie, where are you?”He sounded genuinely worried.“Why did you leave the ship? We’ve been looking everywhere for you.”
But that couldn’t be true, because DadknewI wasn’t on the ship. And Val hadn’t asked about the droids, or if I knew where they were—becauseheknew. Or at least he thought he did.
“It’s a long story. Where’s Daaric?” I asked. “Doesn’t he usually man the comms in flight?”
“He’s preoccupied for the moment looking for you,”Val replied, sounding annoyed. Then, a little quieter,“Did that criminal kidnap you? Tell me where you are. You don’t need to protect him.”
I locked eyes with Sian. “I don’t?”
Sian looked wounded.
“Look, Arie, he’s dangerous. I don’t know what lies he told you—but he’s no good. Where are you? Send me your coordinates,”he said.“You trust me, don’t you?”
I realized then that the flowers of this place wouldn’t let me lie.I did, I could say.I want to.But I couldn’t lie and tell him what he wanted to hear, because the simple fact was that Ididn’ttrust him. I hadn’t since he’d returned to the ship, and I couldn’t figure out why. Because I should. He was mybrother.
I curled my hands into fists. “Okay.”
