Our fighter sat off to the side, ready to slip out into battle at any time. The others must have thought we were heading out, but Krisin took us to the back. He opened the engine compartment and pulled out his pocketcomp.
"I think the problem is in a set of relays," he said, just loud enough that a couple people nearby heard. "I'll have to get some techs in to help out."
Everyone in the area disappeared. I managed not to grin as I handed over the chit. This was our best chance of keeping the information to ourselves. The bay had so much ambient noise and power surges that no one would be able to lock into our little comp.
We read quickly.
And yeah, it didn't look good. The trouble started inside the station and most likely from in command. Dundas had somewhere gotten a list of people who had joined admin for Dayer in the last year. She had a partial list from three other stations and some notes on the damage. Breached walls, massive explosions, critical air loss.
"I don't want to do this," Krisin said. He lifted a hand before either of them could speak. "Don't tell me either of you really want to do this, either. That doesn't mean we won't."
"I don't see any real pattern," Lisel added, his long-fingered hand moving toward the pocketcomp. "Not that we have enough information. Everything points to admin, but ..."
"That may be what people want others to think," I said. "We've read it. Clear it, Krisin. Decide what to do here with the engine."
He nodded and deleted the file. Then he reached in and pulled something out, holding a small chit in his hand. "I need a slight scratch, Lisel. Just through the surface, not to the interior."
Lisel looked, nodded, and one of his claws showed. He ran it softly over the little chit, his face frowning. It was delicate work.
"And now this one. A jab, not a cut."
He did it with a frown. "What are we doing?"
Krisin had pushed his head back into the engine compartment and seemed to take a long time before he pulled back.
"We just sabotaged our own fighter," he said with a quick grin. "We'll have to report it. I can handle that part, don't worry. I saw something on our last flight, talked it over with you and the captain, and I'll report it later tonight. She'll send it off the ship for repair to give our guys a break from having to deal with me."
That almost made sense since Krisin had gotten into disagreements with the bay crews before.
"We're only two days out," I said. "I don't want to wish any bad luck on Dayer, but if something is going to happen, I would rather it at least started before we got there."
"I think we need to rest," Lisel said. He stepped away from the fighter with a shake of his head. Then his voice rose. "You had better see to the problem, Krisin. I don't want to be out in the middle of nowhere and have another glitch."
"Yeah, I feel the same way," I said. "But let's go have dinner. There's no hurry. No sign of trouble in this sector."
The other two nodded and at least tried to look happier, but honestly, I felt like we were on a gangplank of a pirate ship and about to leap into the dark, deep sea.
We had a nice dinner, though. Crew no longer dared glare at Lisel when he took dinner with the two of them. The three of us had done too many things to save others, and the two humans would not allow their Catchin team member to be slighted.
I sometimes thought Lisel looked more amused than pleased, though. Still, it was good to have him here tonight. They splurged.
We who are about to die. . .
Here is the problem. I do well in combat, in the quick decisions, the outlandish actions. However, give me time to think about it, and I'm screwed. I doubt I'd sleep before we got to Dayer, and that certainly wouldn't help. I get short-tempered when I'm tired.
I know it. It doesn't mean I can sleep, even knowing it would be the wise thing to do. Instead, I sat on the bed and stared at the stark walls of my tiny cell. At least I wasn't in with others. Dundas had moved Krisin and me into private quarters after had trouble with some of our own. Mostly it was over Lisel. I didn't think he had a problem, though. I didn't know much of anything about his home life.
I should get holos or something for the walls. But of what? Earth scenes annoyed me, and I saw starscapes and odd worlds on nearly every flight. I wasn't big into current culture, either. Maybe abstracts, though. Things that were just colors and shapes and didn't make me think too hard.
Yeah.
Odd how that thought helped me relax, and I slept for several hours. The next day seemed surreal. I didn't see either Krisin or Lisel as I did some study for the next piloting test I'd have to take soon. No one else knew what was going on out there. I tried not to look worried.
I was pleased when Dundas announced we were four hours out from docking. She came down to the fighter bay, talked to Krisin, and told the bay master to have the ship repaired on the station. Nothing unusual there. Then she said to me that the three of us would deliver some packages for her and then talk to the repair crew.
"I want this done right," she said. "So you sit on them. I trust you to make sure the fighter is ready to go when we need it."
Do this right. We understood...
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