Page 35 of Full Speed to a Crash Landing

“Let’s get the hell out of here,” Rian says. He grips the grab bar by his seat, and even if his hands are gloved, I suspect his knuckles are white.

Magnusson tilts the nose of the shuttle up, the horizon dipping down.

“Are all your missions this exciting?” I ask as the thrusters slam us back into our seats. “I would definitely prefer a little heads-up next time. Also, remind me to negotiate hazard pay with my buddy Ursula.”

One of them snorts, but I can’t tell over the comm who it was.

• • •

Everyone’s there to greet us in the shuttle bay by the time the area’s repressurized. The captain stands in front, but Nandina and First are at attention, tense. I’m the last one off the shuttle, and while Ursula already has Rian distracted and reporting in on the success of retrieving the cryptex drive, Nandina rushes to me.

“Your suit’s not connected to our system, so I couldn’t monitor you, but Rian let us know that you sustained multiple impact injuries in a jetpack malfunction and then rigorous activity when you—”

“I’m fine,” I say, dismissing her.

She does a once-over on my suit, coated in black dust.

“It was interesting down there,” I allow. Then I turn my attention to First. “Would have been easier if you’d been there to carry me. I had towalkback to the shuttle. And then alsorun.”

“My apologies,” First says with an expressionless face.

My whole body aches, but there’s not that much I can do about it until I can get this suit off and get cleaned up. Magnusson and Saraswati are already heading up to the main part of the ship, so I trudge up after them.

Just before I go through the door, I hear the captain gasp.“Really?”she says in a carrying voice. When I glance over, both she and Rian are watching me.

I know what they’re thinking. I’m not a member of their elite crew, and I got the cryptex drive. And, even more surprisingly, I just handed it over to them. I don’t look back again. I don’t want or need the drive in Rian’s hand. It’s locked, and they can’t access any of the information on it unless they find the cryptex key, and they have no idea where that is. And now that the forward part of the ship fell into a river of lava, there’s only one place left for them to search—through every single cargo crate and piece of debris scattered over the volatile earth from the aft section.

In my bunk, I carefully peel away my suit. The moisture-wicking inner liner smells rank; I’ve pushed that to the limit for sure. Before I do anything else, I hoist my life-support unit and jetpack up to the rechargers, then do a thorough inspection of the suit itself.

My body is sore from the climb, but there’s a different sort of tension winding in my shoulders now.

Everything’s falling into place.

After making sure my suit is exactly the way I need it to be,I slide into the tiny wash unit connected to my room. My body goes through the motions—scrub sponge with antiseptic, vita lotion into my sore muscles, clean comb through my hair.

Elsewhere on the ship, Magnusson and Saraswati are probably doing the same things I am. And Rian would need to get out of his suit too, get cleaned up. I think he’d trust Ursula with the cryptex drive. He must. Yes, he had to have given it to her, and she has some secure location on the ship to store it. The bridge, perhaps, just like theRoundabouthad done. That standard lockbox. Ursula and First will take turns guarding that drive. They might not have if I weren’t here, but...they might.

I wonder if Saraswati or Magnusson or Nandina know what information is on that drive.

I wonder if the captain or First do.

I know Rian does.

I saw the way he took it from me, the way he looked when he held it.

He knows not only what it is but why it is so important. Beyond what he told me.

He knows.

All I have to do is make him think that I don’t.

14

Sure enough, the captain’s not in the mess hall when it’s time to eat. Guard duty, I guarantee it. I didn’t check, though. Didn’t wander around, look for where a new lock’s been set. I went straight from a fresh set of clothing to food.

All the others, except for Ursula, are there. Magnusson stands by the dispenser with a covered box on his tray.

“Who would have thought you’d be the last one to eat?” Magnusson says, but he’s grinning, even as I take the tray from him and make him get a new one.

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