Mindee Arnett - Avalon

Jeth sighed. And this is why cats have no business on starships .

Cora slid to a stop, and the crestfallen look that came over her face was so miserable Jeth almost laughed.

“Cora,” Vince called as he marched up the stairs. “You can’t just go running around by yourself.”

“It’s all right,” Jeth said. He squatted before the little girl, taking pity on her. “If you want to catch a cat, you’ve got to use the right tools.”

Cora looked up at him with her big dark eyes. “What kind of tools?”

“This kind.” Jeth stood and walked to the maintenance cabinet near the stairs where he knew Flynn kept old pieces of wiring that he thought might be usable for some future repair job. Jeth selected a suitable-sized piece and walked back to Cora. Kneeling, he slid one end of the wire underneath the rack where the cat had disappeared and started to wiggle it back and forth. In seconds, a furry yellow paw poked out, trying to snag the wire.

Jeth worked it back and forth, slowly coaxing the cat out while a delighted Cora watched.

The moment Viggo was fully out from underneath the rack, Cora grabbed him and hauled him into her arms. The cat struggled, but the little girl was too much for him, and after a moment he gave into the inevitable and let Cora stroke his head and neck.

“Have you found anything?” Vince asked, now that Cora was distracted.

Jeth shook his head. “Nothing on the exterior, but I just got started in here.”

“I’ll help you look.” Vince headed for the starboard side and began examining the first equipment rack.

Jeth took the rack opposite and did the same. They searched all the way down while Cora played with the cat. He was relieved when they reached the end of the deck without finding any holes. Only the metadrive compartment remained, but from the outside it looked as undisturbed as everything else.

Just as Jeth was about to pull open the door, a burst of white noise erupted around them. The screech was louder than any that had happened before, and it made Jeth’s hair stand on end. Behind him, Cora cried out. He turned to see Viggo racing down the stairs away from them and Cora clutching her arm. At the sight of blood seeping out from the ragged scratch across the top of her hand, she started to cry.

Vince stooped and picked her up. “Shush. It’s okay, Cora,” he murmured stroking her hair. He was so big, she seemed to disappear inside his arms. “It was just an accident. Doctor Milton will make it all better in a moment.”

“Are you sure?” Cora said between sobs.

“I’m sure.” Vince glanced at Jeth.

He waved them on. “I’ll finish up here.”

“Okay,” Vince said, and he carried Cora toward the stairs.

Crack .

Jeth instinctively ducked at the sound that echoed as loudly as cannon fire. At the head of the steps, Vince did the same, wrapping his body completely around Cora as a human shield. Bright light filled the room, and Jeth shut his eyes only to hear the loud shriek of metal splitting.

He opened them again. A smattering of fist-sized holes marked the wall near the stairs, exposing the ship’s insides. Vince and Cora stood less than a meter away from them.

Jeth raced over. “Are you two all right?”

Vince nodded as he struggled to calm Cora.

Jeth turned toward the holes, examining them with his heart in his throat. They weren’t deep, and the area behind them appeared mostly empty. He didn’t think anything critical had been damaged. At least not here.

“Take her to sick bay,” Jeth said to Vince, and then he raced down the stairs toward the bridge, terrified at what he might find when he got there.

“I NEED MORE TIME,” LIZZIE SAID AS SHE STOOPED toward the maintenance computer’s screen.

“We don’t have more time.” Jeth paced back and forth across the bridge. Once he’d determined no new damage had occurred there, his impatience to get out of there had quadrupled.

“I know.” The glare she shot him was hot enough to incinerate. “But this isn’t something you rush. One mistake and we all die.”

Jeth stopped pacing, all the muscles in his body tense from the effort to be still. He knew pressuring her was counterproductive, but he was having a hard time keeping calm with his ship falling apart around him.

“You keyed that wrong,” said Sierra from where she stood beside Lizzie. She pointed at the screen. “The last four should be eight, zero, one, five.”

“Oh. Right.” Lizzie made the correction.

Unable to stand inactivity a moment longer, Jeth said, “I’ll go check on the others.”

Sierra glanced up at him, her expression cool. “Sounds like a good idea. We’ll be done soon. I promise.”

Jeth didn’t reply as he exited the bridge. He was determined to stay away until they were done. He wasn’t stupid. He understood the danger of performing a manual jump. Navigating space wasn’t like driving a land vehicle. It was like jumping blindfolded off the top of a building and trying to catch hold of a passing jet. At least that was how Jeth imagined it in terms of difficulty. One single decimal point of miscalculation and the jump could be off by hundreds of light-years, launching them out of metaspace into anywhere.

Or nowhere at all.

Shuddering, Jeth headed back up to engineering. Flynn stood near the top of the stairs, already making repairs to the new set of holes. He looked up at Jeth’s approach.

“Anything important damaged?” asked Jeth.

Flynn grimaced. “Nothing I can’t repair, but only because I’m brilliant and I stocked up on supplies before we left Peltraz.” He pulled a piece of candy out of his pocket, unwrapped it, and popped it into him mouth.

Jeth considered asking him if by “supplies” he really meant chocolate, but he refrained. “Well, good thinking.”

Flynn seemed surprised by the compliment, but it was momentary as he returned his attention to the task at hand. Jeth left him to it, heading down the stairs to the passenger deck. He heard voices from the common deck below, including Shady’s, and figured he and Celeste must’ve finished their second damage sweep of the lower decks. He was about to head down to check for an update when he saw that Milton was still in sick bay.

The austere room was the only place aboard Avalon that Jeth ever found uninviting. Milton kept the place immaculately clean and organized, a complete one-eighty from the clutter of empty bottles in his cabin.

Milton looked up from where he stood in front of his main worktable. Some kind of medical instrument whose name and purpose Jeth didn’t know sat on the table. A soft whirring sound issued out from it.

“What are you doing?” Jeth said.

“Nothing important. Just some boring doctorish stuff.” Milton pressed a button on the machine and the whirring stopped.

Jeth shook off his curiosity. Milton doing anything doctor related was better than his usual activities of boozing and pipe smoking. “Anything get damaged in here?”

“No. Everything’s fine. You should check with the others.”

“Did our passengers check out all right?”

Milton smiled. “Yes, at least Vince and Cora. I’m sure Sierra will pass inspection, too. They’ve been very lucky.”

Depends on how you look at it, Jeth thought, considering everything that had gone wrong since he’d brought them on board. The desire to run back to the bridge and check on Lizzie’s progress gripped him again. Ignoring it, Jeth said, “Yeah, very lucky.” He inclined his head toward the doorway. “I’m gonna check in with Celeste and Shady.”

Jeth headed down to the commons deck, flinching at every sound he heard. He’d never before realized how noisy a starship could be. Even the low, constant hum of Avalon’ s engines seemed ominous at the moment.