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“We need to take out the Banti ships.” Heather took a step toward the door.

Loka shook his head. “You’re not doing that. You’re injured.”

“It’s a little bruise.” Heather touched her swollen leg and winced. “Nell. Ivy. You stay here and work with Hoan. I’ll go with Loka and stop the Banti altering the code from their ship.”

“No. I’ll take Hoan with me to investigate the Banti ships.”

Heather touched Loka’s arm. “He’s needed here to protect Nell and Ivy.”

“We can look after ourselves,” Ivy said.

Loka glanced at Ivy, noticing she didn’t have a mark on her. What Heather said made sense. Ivy and Nell needed protecting if any cyborgs found them while they were working in engineering. But he loathed the idea of putting Heather at any more risk.

“I’ll help from here, but you need to show me what to do,” Nell said. “I’m no good at code.”

“You are great at eating cake, though.” Ivy went back to checking her manicure.

“I can help with the code.” Hoan nodded at Nell. “I’m better with viruses, but I can figure out what we need to do.”

Heather pulled up another screen. “This is the code I’ve been working on. It’s not half as sophisticated as the Banti code, but it should do the job. It’s fast, messy, and it mutates. They’ll be chasing it through the system for hours.”

“How do we get it to work?” Nell peered at the lines of code.

“Take this code and put it next to theirs.” Hoan slid his fingers across the screen and pasted the code into the system.

“How do we control it?” Ivy sauntered over.

“That’s the risky bit,” Heather said. “You can’t, not really.”

Ivy sighed. “I shouldn’t have agreed to help. You’re going to get us killed.”

“Either way, we’re dead,” Heather said. “If we leave the Banti to do what they like, they’ll take us away and eat us. At least, this way, we’ve got a chance. Keep on top of the code and watch where it goes. Whatever you do, don’t give our code access to navigation. It could slam the station out of orbit.”

“You make it sound so simple, nerd girl.” Ivy nudged Nell out of the way and stared at the screen.

Heather grinned at Ivy. “Sometimes, it pays to be a nerd.” She looked around the group. “Can we do this?”

Loka found himself reaching for her hand again. He grasped it between both of his. “If there is any danger, we’ll come back here. We’ll find a way of blocking the Banti safely.”

Heather stood on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek. “Of course, there will be danger. We’ll handle it together. With you by my side, I know I’m safe.”

Ivy made a gagging sound in the back of her throat.

Loka didn’t care what this skinny, prickly female thought of their behavior. He grinned down at Heather. He felt the same as she did. He could do anything with Heather by his side.

Hoan cleared his throat. “As sweet as the two of you are, we do have a space station to save.”

Dropping his hold on Heather’s hand, Loka nodded. “Let’s get this code working.”

“And let’s beat the bad guys.” Nell held her hand up for a high-five.

Heather slapped her palm. Ivy ignored her. Loka and Hoan looked confused.

Loka raised his hand. “Is this an Earth custom?”

Heather shook her head and grabbed his hand. “You missed the moment. Come on. Let’s get to these ships.”

Chapter 20