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Chapter Two

Chapter Two

S

onic

was broke to shit.

But that’s what happened when you got swallowed by a behemoth bug queen and then blew up a trillion-dollar space station. The ship the Notches loved so well was falling apart, and Joel was doing all he could to keep it together until they found a port.

“Yo, hand me that duct tape.” He pointed to the shelf behind Reggie.

Reggie tossed it to him, and Joel pulled a strip off and placed it over a gash in one of the coolant lines. The engine was the section that had been hit the hardest. There was damage all over

Sonic

—punctures in the hull, entire sections of armor torn off, cracked monitors—but the engine room was the heart of the ship, and

Sonic

was in the throes of a full-on cardiac arrest.

“So glad we have such a genius engineer onboard,” Reggie said.

“This shit can bandage anything,” Joel said, admiring his handiwork. “Given enough time, I could make you a spacewalk suit out of duct tape. Then you could float away, and I wouldn’t ever have to hear your judgy voice again.”

Reggie laughed off the comment. “Good, then get the ship taped together, because we’ve got another job to get to.”

“Hold up,” Joel said. “I said it’s a bandage. It can keep

Sonic

from falling apart completely, but it won’t fix the problem. We need to dock somewhere and make real repairs.”

Reggie surveyed the engine room, pretending to thoroughly examine the complex machine that kept them afloat. Joel was the techie; if he said they needed repairs, then they needed repairs. But Reggie wanted to keep moving. He wanted to get on to the next job and get some cash in the bank.

“What do we need?” he asked.

Joel let out a heavy sigh. “We can make it a while with the hull breaches if I seal them as best I can, but that’s temporary. Eventually, if they’re not sealed properly, they will get bigger, and I won’t be able to maintain them. We’ll get torn open like a tuna can and vented into space.”

He waved a hand at the engine, like dismissing it as already dead. “But this is our real problem. We stressed the engine too much when we were outrunning that nasty queen. We overloaded components of it, overheated everything. It’s a miracle it’s even operational. I can only blame my superior engineering skills for patching the sucker. However, if we try to run a hard burn with it in this condition, it will explode. Hell, it might just explode anyway. We’ve basically got a giant ticking bomb strapped to our ass.”

Reggie nodded, trying to keep his face from betraying how terrifying that sounded.

“Oh,” Joel added, “and the microwave is broken. Unrelated, but equally as important.”

The two left the engine room and made their way to the galley, where Cody and Sam were scrounging for something to eat.

“Not a goddamn thing for breakfast on this tin-piece of shit,” Sam grumbled as she slammed cupboard doors.

“Fun fact,” Cody said. “Sam gets real hangry.” He held up his hand for the guys to see. The toilet paper wrapped around it showed three spots of blood. “She stabbed me with a fork.”

“You tried to eat the last of the oatmeal,” Sam said. “When are we making a supply run? If we don’t get some food soon, I may be doing more than just stabbing Cody with my fork.”

Cody fell silent as his face turned a pale shade of green.

“I’m going to eat you,” Sam clarified.

Cody swallowed hard. “I got that.”

Joel listed off for Cody and Sam all the problems with Sonic that needed repairing. “If we don’t get all of that fixed, nobody’s eating anybody, because we’ll all be dead.”

“Can we stop talking about cannibalism?” Cody said. “I’ve got a weak stomach.”

Reggie waved his arms like he was signaling for help. “Listen, none of that matters right now, because we don’t have money for food or repairs. We’re broke.”

The Notches looked at him like an alien had just popped out of his chest.

“We just eradicated an entire space station full of ShimVens,” Sam said. “And a queen the size of a small planet.”

“Unfortunately, we also eradicated the space station,” Reggie said. “Apparently StrobeNet doesn’t have a bunch of those just lying around. I caught the news last night. That station was meant to be their flagship, the most advanced station ever built. It was a major hub for all of their business. Once news broke that it blew up, StrobeNet’s stock took a nosedive. They’re totally bankrupt.”

“Meaning?” Sam said.

“We’re shit out of luck,” Joel said.

Sam stabbed her fork into the counter. The guys backed away from her like she was a hungry wolf, snarling her displeasure.

“Okay,” Reggie said, trying to soothe the beast. “Be cool. We’ll figure this out.” He turned to Joel, but was careful not to put his back to Sam. “How long can we go with the ship as is?”

Joel shrugged. “Hard telling, not knowing. I’ve patched everything as best I can. Best-case, it holds for a couple days. Worst-case, it explodes the second we kick the engines into gear.” He cast Sam a cautionary glance. “Actually, that’s the second worst case. Worst-worst-case is Sam eats us. So I vote we risk it.”

“We’ve got a job lined up,” Reggie said. “I say we take it, make the repairs to the ship, stock our pantry, and move on from there.”

That seemed to settle Sam and Joel slightly, but it only agitated Cody.

“Can we talk about the massive corporate conspiracy first?” Cody looked from Joel to Reggie, both rolling their eyes. “Or, at all, even?”

“Let it go, man.” Joel sounded tired by the topic. He swiped a piece of stale bread when Sam diverted her attention to Cody, and took it to the corner of the galley. “There is no corporate conspiracy.”

He knelt down, pretending to tie his shoe, and snuck the hunk of bread to General Pepper, his as-of-yet unidentified, but absurdly adorable pet.

“Are you serious?” Cody’s voice jumped a decibel and climbed in pitch. “With all the evidence I’ve found, it’s like you’re

trying

not to believe me.”

“Your evidence sounds like some crazy bullshit,” Joel said.

“It all just seems like it could be a coincidence,” Reggie said, trying to act the peacemaker.

Sam paced around the edge of the galley, sneaking behind Reggie, a wolf stalking her prey. “I don’t think so, sounds pretty conceivable to me. Galactic corporations sabotaging each other with no regard for the innocent lives lost or damage caused? Sounds about right.”

Reggie watched her with a hefty dose of apprehension.

Joel wasn’t paying her any attention at all. “Whatever. I think it’s all a big pile of—”

“What the hell are you doing?” Sam jumped out from behind the table, surprising Joel and Peppy.

Joel fell backward, and Peppy scurried behind him and pressed against his back. “What’s the matter with you? Are you insane?”

“You just fed something to that fuzzy creature of yours.” Sam’s eyes were wide and wild.

“Holy shit, Sam,” Joel said. “You ate like three hours ago.”

“What was it? Where are you hiding the food?” She inched closer to Joel and Peppy.

Joel stood slowly. “I’m not hiding anything. It was just a piece of stale bread.”

“You expect me to believe that?” Sam said. “That thing has grown a foot since you got it. Must be twenty pounds heavier. It grew like that eating stale bread?” She leaned around Joel and caught the creature in her frenzied sights. “Maybe I should eat your dog.”

Fire shot through Joel. “Don’t you touch Peppy!”

Reggie stepped in between Joel and Sam, still playing at peacemaker. “So, just so I know, was that a yes on taking this job?”

“Yes!” Joel and Sam both shouted.

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