Page 55 of Bonded

Here, on a ship full of prisoners, they treated me with honor and respect the moment I woke up. Arguably, before I even woke up, given that Ruzan and Vryek had placed me inside a healing pod in the medical bay.

“I will honor your request, ship. If you say that you can do it, I believe in you.”

“The one contingency would be that going through those would blow my circuits, and I might need to be under repair. But my probability tells me it would only be a maximum of eight hours. About the same as one sleep cycle.”

A Cephela’s sleep cycle varied, but eight hours was a good average. Usually, the primary functions were diverted while a bio ship slept. Gizmo, Minion and Dash, along with their team of jacks, existed for such a purpose.

I was as nervous for the ship as I would be for myself were I in their shoes. But the ship’s courage gave me much needed confidence. If they believed they would be okay, then I needed to trust their judgment.

Same as what I asked from my bonded pilots and Ithran.

“Tell us what we need to do to prepare to give you the most optimal fighting time that we can give you.”

Priya

“The ship believes they can hyper jump successfully. When they do, we will be far from here, and then, after they wake, we would just need to jump back.”

“It’s as good a plan as any we can come up, Captain,” Vryek said.

“Agreed. There is danger from all sides. At least this way, the crew’s exposure to any danger would be minimal.” The way Ruzan emphasizedthe crewand the way Ithran flicked his gaze toward me made it obvious that he referred to me.

Ithran was thoughtful. Then, a carefully neutral mask came over his face. “The ship is already in pain. If this maneuver would help, then I fully support it.”

I beamed. “There really is very minimal risk at this point. Besides, if we can just get the long range sensors going, we should be able to keep everything running.”

I had diverted all power to fuel the ship’s primary nerve clusters and the main area where it needed in order to hyper jump away.

Vryek pressed his lips together into a fine line, a gesture that I recognized now to calm himself.

“You don’t have to be nervous,” I said. “The ship says they can do it and they will do it.” I said it with more force than I intended, but I needed him to believe me. To believe in the ship. They were often overlooked and dismissed; I needed to be the one to speak for them.

Vryek cupped my cheek with his hand and rubbed his thumb over my cheek. He said nothing, but he didn’t need to. Our bond was beyond words, and his belief in me was enough to fill my heart.

Ruzan came in behind me and molded me to the front of him. His arm around my shoulders. I look up at him and he smiled down at me. I felt surrounded by love. “We believe in you,” he said.

And that was all that I needed.

We pushed ahead to the designated area. Even though the ship felt good, I was the one who was nervous. I tried to keep it to myself as much as possible, so I didn’t distress the rest of my friends—the ship’s robots—with my worry.

Vryek continued to rub my back. “It is a good plan, Priya. You did well.”

“I had help. I wouldn’t have been able to figure it out without you. Any of you. But especially without you and Ruzan.”

It was true. Without the bond, and without the inherent trust that was needed between pilots and the ship, there would never have been this moment where we could save the crew.

Ithran returned to the foredeck. “The rest of the crew are in the main halls and docking bays.”

Those were the safest areas of the ship. If we were going to be attacked, and if they ended up getting a lucky shot from behind, the casualties would be minimal.

As it was, we had shields up behind us and also in front of us. They would do nothing, though, unless it was a choice of last resort. After all, they wouldn’t bother with a net or control collar if they wished to destroy us.

“Let’s do this,” I said.

I linked up to Minion and Dash. They had been corralling the intruder-bot, cloaking the signals that it had been transmitting to the shadowing ships via a hijacked communications array. Minion mimicked the intruder’s reports, making it seem as if it operated on the ship undetected. “Let the intruder go and the jacks follow them. This would give us enough time and at least give us some warning.”

“What are they saying?” Vryek asked me.

Gizmo was translating some commands. “The other ship that is following us is not just one ship. There are about three of them. They are sharing communication that we would be an easy target. They celebrate the thought we will soon be dead in the water.”

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