Mindee Arnett - Avalon

Flynn took another deep breath. “Well, okay then. Let’s 0 do that.”

“You think you can?” said Jeth. Please say yes, please say yes .

Flynn nodded, looking considerably calmer.

Jeth exhaled as some of the pressure that had been squeezing his chest eased.

That was until Lizzie said, “But what if it happens again before we’re done?”

A vision of Avalon riddled with holes flashed in Jeth’s brain, making his stomach clench. The feeling only worsened when he pictured what those holes would do to the crew if they were in the wrong place the next time it happened.

“If it goes down like it did on the Donerail ,” said Vince, “then we’ve got a little time. It started off slow at first, just a couple here and there, and then it got worse at increasing intervals.”

“How long?”

“A day. Maybe.”

“Oh that’s just great,” said Flynn. “There’s no way I can get this done that fast. The recalibration will take most of a day all by itself.”

Jeth closed his eyes. The pressure around his chest strengthened again, cutting off his ability to breathe. Avalon had been wounded. She was in danger. All of them were.

Lizzie stepped forward, biting her lip. “We’ve been in the Belgrave almost a week and nothing like this happened until we got to this area of space. So if we jump out of this area, we should be safe again, right?”

Jeth looked at her, hoping that some brilliant idea was sprouting in her genius brain.

“Well, obviously,” said Flynn, sneering. “That’s why we’ve got to fix the nav computer.”

Making a mental note to strangle Flynn later, Jeth kept his gaze locked on Lizzie. “What are you thinking?”

“If we can hardwire the portable maintenance computer into the metadrive control unit, I might be able jump us manually.”

“That’s insane,” said Celeste. “Without navigation we’ll be jumping blind. We could end up too close to a star or crash into the Belgrave’s energy field or a hundred other things.”

“That’s just it,” said Lizzie. “It won’t be a blind jump. I think I can plot one.”

“How?” said Jeth.

Lizzie began to fidget, twirling a finger through her hair and shifting her weight from foot to foot. “I’ve got some detailed charts on the Belgrave. They’re not complete, but I think it’s enough that I can calculate a safe course.”

“Where did you get these charts?” said Milton, voicing the question before Jeth could.

Lizzie glanced at him. “On a data crystal I found a couple of days ago.” She shifted her gaze back to Jeth. “That’s what I was going to tell you about this morning. I think it was Mom’s. At least it’s got a lot of her video journals and stuff on it, too. She must’ve hidden it in this little compartment inside the air vent in my room. Viggo got up there the first night we were in the Belgrave, and when I went to get him out, I found it.”

A weakness struck Jeth’s knees, and he wished he could sit down. Lizzie had found a lost relic from their parents’ past? She might as well have found a ghost. The ITA had confiscated all their personal items when they’d been arrested “Why didn’t you tell me when you found it?”

She shook her head.

After a moment Jeth nodded, intuitively understanding that she hadn’t wanted to tell him. She wanted to explore the data alone for the same reasons he would’ve wanted to—the desire to experience this hidden piece of their parents’ forgotten lives without having to share. No wonder she’d been spending those long hours in her cabin.

But what else was on the crystal? Why had their mother hidden it? With an effort, Jeth forced the questions away. There would be time for that later—he prayed.

He turned his attention to Sierra and Vince, once again hoping their experience on the Donerail might help. “Our mother was an ITA surveyor in the Belgrave. If she put these charts on this crystal, they’re accurate. What do you think? Should we risk staying here or should we jump?”

Vince answered at once with no hesitation. “If you can’t repair the nav by tonight, then jump.”

“And I can help her set the coordinates,” added Sierra. “I’m familiar with meta technology.”

Jeth eyebrows shot up. Someone familiar with metatech? A teenager no less? But he didn’t question her. No time to waste. Plus, he trusted Lizzie not to let anyone else trip her up. “All right. Let’s do it then.”

“Okay,” said Lizzie. “I’ll go get the data crystal. Be right back.” She turned and left the bridge.

“And I guess I’ll get the maintenance computer and start hooking it up to the metadrive system,” Flynn said. He cast Sierra a somewhat dubious glance. “Do you want to help me?”

“Yes.” She looked down at Cora. “I need you to stay with Vince for now. Okay?”

“Okay,” Cora said.

“I still need to examine her,” Milton said. “Just a routine check to make sure everything’s all right. Besides, it’ll give us something to do while we stay out of the way.”

Sierra looked ready to argue, but Vince said, “She’ll be fine. I’ll make sure.” Vince turned his gaze to Jeth. “But somebody should check the rest of the ship. It’s possible there’s more damage than what’s up here.”

Jeth swallowed. “Yeah, okay. Celeste and Shady and I can do that.”

Vince nodded as he scooped up Cora. Then the two of them followed Milton off the bridge.

Sierra took a step toward Jeth, drawing his attention. “You might want to use one of the shuttles to check Avalon’ s exterior, just in case. There could be damage to some of the shielding that’s too minor to trigger any warnings. It couldn’t hurt to check.”

Jeth exhaled then turned to Celeste and Shady. “I’ll do a sweep of the ship with Flash and then check the engineering deck. Shady, you take the cargo deck, and Celeste, you check the commons deck and Sparky . Once you two finish, tackle the passenger deck together. All right?”

“All right,” Celeste said, then marched out the door with Shady following after her.

Jeth trailed behind them, afraid of what he might find. Once outside the bridge, he took the stairs up to the engineering deck. He scanned the machinery and the various equipment racks as he walked down the long bay toward the shuttle entrance. Nothing looked amiss, but he would have to check more closely once he finished the sweep.

He stopped beneath the ladder to the shuttle and pulled it down. Once inside Flash, he scanned around, relieved to see no obvious damage here either. And when he powered the shuttle on, everything booted up correctly except for the nav system display, which showed a “no signal” error across the screen. But that was okay. He didn’t need the nav for this.

Jeth piloted Flash out of the dock and began his scan. He did four sweeps, just to be sure, but he found nothing amiss, not so much as a new scratch. He knew his ship well enough to be certain.

Relieved, Jeth docked the shuttle and stepped back down the ladder onto the engineering deck. He checked the time, pleased to find that he’d burned up forty minutes already. He was tempted to go down to the bridge to check on Lizzie’s progress, but he resisted. He doubted she could be done yet, and he still needed to check all the equipment and machinery up here.

A loud shriek from behind him made him jump. He spun around, certain the holes were about to start again. He spotted Cora dashing up the stairs toward him, hot on Viggo’s tail. The cat’s paws, ill-adapted for the hard floor of the engineering deck, slipped out from underneath him, forcing him to take an extra four strides for every step forward, but still he managed to escape her, disappearing underneath one of the racks.