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She caught me looking and shifted so her knee rested against my thigh, casual, like the contact was an afterthought and it didn’t set off my desire to pin her to that seat and take her.

Cass pulled a fragment loose from the noise. “Navigation logs. Your lady of the stars ran a fixed route for years. Same ports, same timing. That would be a military or commercial program.”

“Commercial routes don’t require a bonded crew. Military deployments always do. Troops need total trust when they’re on missions.”

“This isn’t a military vessel, though. Or has it ever done anything undercover? That would need to be disclosed prior to sale, wouldn’t it?” She glanced at me sideways, one eyebrow up.

“We’ve established that the papers attached to this ship are bullshit, so anything is possible.”

“Military-level bullshit is never fun to unpick. Why ditch this beauty?” Cass gently stroked the console.

“Those memories you’re getting show trauma.”

“Yeah, but who caused the trauma? Was it a covert op that went bad?”

I didn’t reply because the answer was essentially yes. My family had influence at most levels of government, military ops included, which was often the most lucrative. It was also the murkiest of lines, and one I had zero interest in crossing. That was why I’d walked away when my uncle tried to recruit me.

“The Habor Nogea entry.” I pointed at the screen. “Can you clean that up?”

Her fingers moved across the console, stripping noise from the data.

“Got it. Huh, if this is correct, your relative wasn’t just crew.” She sat back. “He was a bonded captain.”

I stilled in my seat. The highest neural connection a Kelvane could hold with a living ship. The captain’s signature anchored the entire crew bond. Without it, the matrix wouldn’t complete, store signatures, or move on. Kill the captain, and you hobble the entire ship and crew.

“His signature should be the strongest in the matrix,” I said. “Habor’s the keystone. And his fingerprints should be everywhere, but I’ve never heard of a Nogea connected to this ship.”

“That’s because we have a clear case of tampering. Look at this.” Cass pulled up the neural map and spread it across the display. Eleven nodes glowed amber, each one a half-recorded life caught mid-transfer. The twelfth slot sat dark. “The captain’s anchor point is empty. Or scrubbed. Somebody went in and pulled it to make sure no one connected your family to this ship. Why would that be?”

I stared at the empty node. Removing it without destroying the ship would take expertise, access, and a reason cold enough to justify leaving eleven souls trapped in a living hull forever.

A biting pain radiated through my stomach. It was no wonder the Hollow Chorus didn’t trust me if my family was behind this. “She’s being tortured!”

Cass turned in the chair and looked at me straight on. “Whoever removed that signature crippled her. That’s why she’s sending out harsh distress calls and refusing you. She associates your name with pain.”

I hissed out a breath, my hands clenching. “And that’s why the crew’s signatures are trapped like ghosts?”

Cass nodded. “Who do we need to talk to about this?”

My uncle’s face came to mind, as did his warnings. Don’t buy that ship. Nothing good lives in a vessel that old. He wasn’t being superstitious. He’d been trying to stop me from figuring out the shady shit that happened on this ship. My ship.

I sat back, my gaze fixed on nothing. “My uncle Navarre told me not to join with the Hollow Chorus.”

Cass’s hand landed on mine, locking our fingers together. “We’ll figure it out. Whatever was buried, the ship still has it. She showed me pieces already. She’ll show us the rest when she can get past her trauma.”

I turned my hand under hers and held on. The contact burned through me. This woman had walked into my disaster and decided it was hers to fix. And I didn’t hate it.

I should tell her what happened to me every time we were together. This was more than fucking for fun, and it would tear me apart when it came time to leave.

But once the Hollow Chorus was ready, we would leave, and Cass would stay here. She’d given me her body because she needed relief, and she’d wanted an outstanding fuck. Those were her terms, with no promises attached. Loading my Kelvane bonding onto that transaction would be the worst thing I could do. I’d lose the time left with her. She’d retreat and deny me her touch. That was unthinkable, so I’d take what I could.

She squeezed my hand and let go. “I can hear the gears from here.”

I cocked my head. “You think there’s a mechanical problem?”

Her smile broadened, lighting her face, and she tapped the side of my head. “You’ve got the same energy as an unexploded bomb.” She stood and stretched, and every line of her body caught my attention. “Talk to your uncle and find out what he knows. I’m gonna brief the crew. The captain’s bond being scrubbed changes the repair strategy. Doc needs to know what we’re working with medically, and Tambi needs a new strategy for remodel. One where we don’t drown in gooey spunk resin.”

“I’ll stay and run the rest of the encrypted files.”