either," Alice retorts. "And what about Ruth?"
Kaspar grins over at her. "When we find Straik again to kick his ass, we'll get her back. If she hasn't already kicked his ass, that is."
I squeeze her fingers. "Ruth will be fine. She's a survivor." I keep thinking about what Helen said—how Straik didn't want to kill anyone. I think she's right. I think he's left us here until he can figure out what to do with us. He'll be back…eventually. I hope.
"When I said we should use the escape pods, I meant we should pair up." Adiron gestures at me. "One female, one male. So we can protect you."
My face flushes and I can just imagine who Adiron wants to pair up with.
"Are you still thinking with your cock?" Kaspar asks him with a roll of his eyes.
"No, I think he's right," Mathiras says. "The females are recognized by the ship so they would need to be split up between pods. And if something goes wrong, we're there to protect them or to try to override the system. It's really the best choice we have."
"So where are we going, then?" Alice asks. "Where exactly can we escape to? Or are we going to try and meet up with Straik and just hope he lets our pods on board?" Her brow wrinkles. "Because I'm pretty sure he doesn't want to be infested with human cooties."
I wonder if he's found Ruth yet…and I wonder how much hell she's giving him. I hope it's a lot. A whole fuckton of hell. It's the only thing that makes me feel better about knowing that she's gone…that she's going to make him absolutely, utterly miserable.
Mathiras speaks. "We'd head for our ship, of course. The Little Sister's still out there. A bit farther out, so it'd be a bit of a journey, but an escape pod can absolutely make it. It'll take what, two or three weeks, I think, but—"
"Two or three weeks," Alice protests. "In an escape pod? Are you out of your mind?"
"You have a better solution?" Kaspar asks. "This is enemy territory. We should be glad it'll only take two or three weeks to get to a safe ship. Then once we get to the Sister, we can come back. It'll take maybe a week with the stronger, faster engine. Then we can slave the Star to the Sister and find a safe port…and figure out what to do next."
Now, Helen speaks. She looks over at me, worried. "What about the sleepy people? Where do they go if we use escape pods?"
"There's not enough pods," I say softly. "We'd have to abandon them, or someone would have to stay behind to watch over things."
"No one's staying behind," Alice replies quickly, a note of worry in her voice. "Don't be ridiculous."
"Actually." I give her fingers another squeeze, because she's not going to like my answer. "I'm going to stay. No matter what."
Both Helen and Alice turn to look at me.
"Someone's got to stay and look after the stasis pods. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if we all left and they ended up dying." I shake my head. "I can stay here and keep things running on the Star. I can send out a message if Straik has a change of heart and comes back. I can protect them if another pirate heads in this direction. If no one's here to guard them, they're sitting ducks."
"So wake someone up," Alice cries, upset. "You have to go with us, Jade. I'm not leaving you behind."
"Me either." Helen sounds dangerously close to tears. "We all stay together. The men can go."
I shake my head. "Someone has to go with them on the pods, remember? So the system will recognize them."
"So, what, you're just going to stay here alone?" Alice looks horrified. "On this big empty ship?"
But Helen's frowning at me. She's already figured it out. "If you stay back, that means only two pods can launch. We'd have to leave one of the men behind."
I glance down the table at Adiron.
He just grins. "You already know me so well, Jade. There's no way I'd leave you alone on this big derelict ship by yourself. The way I look at it, my brothers are going to come back, and I get a month of bonding time with my new ladylove." He leans back in his chair, hands behind his head, and beams at me as if this has been his plan ever since he mentioned the