Avalon

CHAPTER 15

JETH WAITED UNTIL AFTER EVERYONE HAD EATEN BREAK fast before telling the crew the plan to get a new metadrive. He told them most of it, anyway. Even though Sierra, Vince, and Cora had retreated to their cabins to give the crew time to discuss in private, Jeth kept the part about using the Aether Project as leverage against Hammer to himself. The others didn’t need to know that part. At least not yet.

“So, is everybody okay with what we’re going to do?” Jeth asked.

“I don’t know,” said Flynn. “This involves keeping a lot of secrets from Hammer. And some of us don’t have the best track record with that.” Flynn cast Shady a significant look.

Shady waved him off. “I know how to keep secrets when it really matters. Besides, if we do this right, Hammer won’t have a reason to even question us. And that makes keeping quiet a cinch.”

“He’s not wrong,” said Celeste. “Plus, this might be our only chance to keep Avalon flying. It’s not likely Hammer will just give us a metadrive out of the goodness of his heart.”

“Right, and a ship like this without one is as good as junk,” said Shady.

“Shady,” Jeth said.

“No offense, Captain.” Shady flashed a sheepish smile. “But you know what I mean.”

Yes, he did. He had to get a new metadrive. If Hammer decided to renege on their deal, Jeth was pretty sure Hammer would send Avalon to the scrap yard rather than install one of his metadrives. Only if he plans on sending my dead body entombed inside her.

He had to get a copy of that data cell.

“Well, I think the plan’s perfect,” said Lizzie. “Everybody wins.”

Jeth heard Milton make a doubtful noise, but he didn’t look at his uncle. Sure, there were risks involved with this plan. A lot of them. But the chance for gain far outweighed them.

“We all agreed, then?” asked Jeth. When nobody said anything, he went on. “Right, first things first. We need to scavenge for the parts to fix the nav station.”

“Yeah, about that . . .” said Flynn, an anxious expression on his pointed face.

Jeth stifled a groan. “What now?”

“I was looking at the damage and, honestly, it might be easier to just swap out Avalon’s nav station with the Donerail’s.”

Jeth blinked, at first horrified by the idea of such an endeavor, but then realized that this was exactly the chance he needed. “And how long will that take?”

Flynn rolled his shoulders. “A day or two, probably.”

“Um,” said Celeste. “Won’t it be kind of obvious we boarded the Donerail if we do something so major?”

Lizzie shook her head. “Not if we reinstall the broken one on the Donerail.”

“She’s right,” said Flynn. “Those units are standard on ships like this. The only thing that makes Avalon’s special is the Explorer program, but I can swap out the memory banks easy. Hammer won’t realize we switched the units unless he goes looking for it.”

Jeth hid a grin. This was getting better and better. A day or two would surely be enough time to find the data cell and copy it. Now, he just needed a chance to talk to Lizzie alone.

That chance didn’t come until several hours later. Lizzie spent most of the day on the bridge, trying to reroute some of Avalon’s power to the Donerail.

“We need to be able to land one of Avalon’s shuttles inside the Donerail’s cargo bay,” Lizzie said when Jeth asked why she was doing this. “The nav systems won’t fit through a hatch. Besides, I’m rerouting power to life support too. I can’t work in a bulky space suit, and I don’t want to freeze to death.”

Seeing her point, Jeth sat down to wait without arguing.

Sierra and Cora spent the morning on the bridge as well. Sierra was helping Flynn with the tedious job of extracting the nav station. Cora was there because of Lizzie—and him, it seemed. Once Cora grew bored of chasing Viggo around, she climbed into Jeth’s lap and asked, “Will you read me a story?”

“Um . . .” Jeth went red. Should he push her off? Somehow that didn’t seem like the best response, so he put an arm around her back, and she leaned into him as easily as if he were her dad instead of a complete stranger.

Lizzie stopped what she was doing and came over, an amused expression on her face. “What would you like him to read?” she asked.

Cora tilted her head, thinking it over for a couple of seconds. “‘Cinderella.’”

“Okay, give me a second to find it.” Lizzie bent toward the screen nearest to where Jeth sat and entered a search for the story in Avalon’s digital library.

Jeth groaned inwardly. Great, a fairy tale about a princess. And he had to read it in front of this audience? He’d rather have a tooth pulled. But he doubted he could beg off without hurting the little girl’s feelings, and he didn’t want to do that. Especially not now that he knew her story.

And so he spent the next thirty minutes reading the ancient tale aloud. It was awkward at first, his voice ill adjusted to the activity, but it got easier as he went along. Cora asked him questions, and he found her emotional responses to the story’s events amusing. He never realized just how dramatic the story really was until he witnessed her reactions, the way she gasped when the stepsisters were being mean or how she cheered at the fairy godmother’s arrival.

When he finished, Cora clapped her hands then threw her arms around his neck. He hugged her back, the gesture natural instead of awkward for once. He caught Sierra looking at him, her expression one of approval.

“Thanks for doing that,” Sierra said from where she sat crouched on the floor beside the nav station.

Jeth cleared his throat. “No problem.”

Flynn crawled out from underneath the nav station. “You did a good job, Boss. You voiced the fairy godmother perfectly. Sounded just like I always imagined she would.” Flynn batted his eyelashes.

Jeth glared, but before he could say something back, Lizzie shouted, “Done!”

Jeth gave Cora an encouraging push and she slid off his lap, her attention once more centering on Viggo, who was rolling a screw across the floor with his paws.

Jeth stood up from the comm station chair and stretched. “About time. So, we good to dock now?”

“Uh-huh. I’ll head over and start working on detaching the Donerail’s nav,” said Lizzie.

“And I’m coming with you,” said Jeth.

Sierra fixed her gaze on him. “So am I.”

Of course you are. Jeth did an inward eye roll. He wondered if she suspected his motives for wanting to go over there. He had a feeling she was one of those people who were super smart and clever. Shame. Super smart and gullible would’ve worked out a lot better for him.

“It’s not necessary,” he said. “Lizzie and I can manage.”

Sierra shot him a skeptical look. “Maybe so, but I’m more familiar with the ship and will probably be of more help.”

“She’s got a point, Jeth,” Lizzie said, grinning. “You’re better at breaking things than fixing them.”

Jeth glared at her. Not helping, he tried to say with his eyes, but Lizzie failed to notice.

Flynn raised his hand. “I second that motion. It’s important to do the thing right and with no breakage.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” Jeth muttered.

“You’re the one who divvied up the work assignments,” said Flynn, his tone scathing.

Jeth ignored the comment. Flynn was just irritated that Jeth had insisted Lizzie handle the job of unhooking the Donerail’s nav system. He’d wanted to do it himself. Jeth had his reasons though. Lizzie knew enough about wiring and hardware to manage it, and of the two of them, she was less likely to be rattled by the body stuck in the wall. Or at least, he could count on her to keep quiet about it and not upset the rest of the crew.

“I’ll ask Vince to come up and take over for me,” Sierra said to Flynn. “He’s not doing anything important right now anyway.”

No, he wasn’t. Last time Jeth checked, he, Shady, and Celeste were playing Robot Revenge 7 on the gaming console in the common room. Must be nice sometimes not to be in charge.

“Better him than Shady,” Flynn said, then disappeared underneath the station again.

Jeth flashed an appreciative grin at Sierra. She had a knack for smoothing things over.

Sierra smiled back, once again stunning him with the way it transformed her face from pretty to beautiful. “Come on, Cora,” Sierra said, holding out her hand. “Let’s go find Vince.”

“Meet us down in the common room,” Lizzie said. “I’m going to throw on some warmer clothes before we go.”

Relieved the time had finally come, Jeth waited a moment after the others had left before heading down to the passenger deck himself. He double-checked no one was watching and then slipped into Lizzie’s cabin.

“Hey!” she shouted, as she struggled to pull down a heavy shirt over the rest of her clothes. “How about knocking next time?”

Jeth shrugged. “Why? Not like you might have a boy in here.” He frowned, realizing the joke wasn’t as funny as he’d intended. If she ever did have a boy in here, Jeth would have to kill him.

Lizzie stuck out her tongue. “No, but I might’ve been naked. Ever think of that?”

Jeth scrunched up his nose. There were some topics you should never discuss with your older brother.

“So what do you want, anyways?” Lizzie said, hurrying on.

He stepped closer to her, lowering his voice. “This data cell that Sierra’s got hidden, how difficult do you think it would be to make a copy?”

“Well, it depends. If it’s encrypted it could take me an hour just to access the data. If it’s not, shouldn’t be more than a couple minutes.”

“So we have the equipment on board to do it?”

“Sure.” Lizzie walked over to the desk in the corner and opened a drawer. She pulled out a small rectangular object that Jeth vaguely recognized. She handed it to him. “That cell there should be big enough to hold all the data, and Avalon’s got a couple programs for running a copy.”

Jeth shook his head, amazed by Lizzie’s resourcefulness.

“So, whatcha planning?”

“I want to make a copy of the Aether Project.”

She gave him a withering look. “Put that one together for myself, thanks. But why?”

“To use as leverage.”

She frowned. “On who?”

“Hammer. You heard what that guy Renford said. Hammer might not go through with selling me Avalon. Not if he thinks we’re too important to him.”

A knowing expression crossed Lizzie’s face, and she nodded. So she had thought about it, too. Jeth wasn’t surprised. She might be an optimist at heart, but she’d grown up the same way he had, in a world with few illusions of safety or a certain future.

“I take it you want to make this copy without Sierra knowing about it?”

Jeth ran a hand through his hair, not meeting his sister’s eyes. “Don’t see any way around it.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right.” She sighed. “Still, I hate deceiving her. She and Vince seem really nice. And Cora’s a sweetie.”

“Yeah, she is,” Jeth said, guilt making him antsy. It had to be done, though. He had to do what was best for him and his crew. Taking care of them was his job. His life. “Anyway, do you have any tools or equipment that might help me figure out where Sierra’s got it hidden?”

Lizzie snorted. “You’re kidding, right?”

“What?”

“It’s a data cell, Jeth. You know, just like that one. All it does is hold data. It doesn’t emit any kind of signal or pulse.”

Jeth huffed, disappointed. This was going to be a lot harder than he thought.

“No worries,” Lizzie said, winking. “We’ll just have to steal the data cell once she shows it to us. She’s going to have to sooner or later. Fortunately, we are the best gang of thieves in the galaxy. Should be easy, right?”

“Right.” Jeth’s heartbeat quickened, his grip on the empty data cell tightening. One last con. That was all. Then he would finally be free.