you want to do it?” I asked. Just because I could didn’t mean I should. I would be furious if someone messed with my ship’s registration without permission.
Ian shook his head slightly. “I trust you,” he said.
His tone was serious, not teasing, and the words arrowed straight into my chest. I ducked my head before the heat in my cheeks could give me away. “Okay, I’ll save the existing registration so you can use it again when we get back. Do you have a name you’d like to use for the next couple of days?”
I peeked up at him and found his eyes were still on me. “How about Opportunity?” he asked.
I tried not to read anything into the name, but it was difficult when he kept looking at me, warmth and worry in his eyes. I cleared my throat. “It’s a good name,” I agreed. “I’ll get to work on the registration change. I’m also going to buy, steal, or fake a MineCorp authorization seal.”
“If you can, find out where their ships normally jump in. Our intelligence is showing a lot of activity in that area.”
“I’m on it,” I said.
I used my second spare com to set up a secure connection and bounced it through a few servers I didn’t usually use. Then I carefully probed MineCorp’s network, looking for the terminals I’d compromised. Two of them were down, but the third responded.
So had the sysadmins found my back doors and left this terminal as a honeypot, or had they merely overlooked it in their search?
Either way, I needed to move quickly and grab enough data to cover my true intent. I got to work.
I leaned back and stretched my arms over my head. I’d gotten closer and closer to the console over the last couple of hours as I raced to stay ahead of the sysadmins who were trying to keep me out. They’d been good, but I’d been better, and satisfaction filled me.
“You look pleased with yourself,” Aoife said. She was sitting in the captain’s chair and Ian was nowhere in sight. “Did you find what you were looking for?”
“I did.” I’d carefully collected ship authorizations, employee rosters, and approved jump coordinates. It had taken so long because I’d had to dig through a bunch of data I didn’t need to cover my tracks, but I had some interesting reading for later. Finally, I’d unleashed a destructive, fast-acting virus guaranteed to keep the sysadmins busy for a day or two.
I updated Phantom’s registration and added the MineCorp authorization seal I’d lifted from their servers. I was tempted to leave the internal name the same, but Ian needed to get used to the new name before we had to answer questions about the ship.
I turned on the ship-wide intercom and said, “The ship’s temporary new name is Opportunity. Please use that name when making requests.” I closed the intercom and followed my own advice. “Opportunity, where is Ian?”
“Captain Bishop is in his quarters,” the ship responded.
Invading Ian’s quarters felt a little too personal after our conversation earlier, but I needed to see what he’d found and let him know we could jump whenever he was ready. I also wanted to run my plan past him.
Aoife grinned at me when I stood. “Ian asked for you to come find him when you were done, but it seems you were ahead of him.”
“I’m not sure that anyone is ever ahead of Ian Bishop,” I said.
“Isn’t that the truth,” Aoife groused good-naturedly.
The door to Ian’s quarters was closed. I knocked quietly. I heard a muffled voice from inside, then the door slid open. The room was small, with a double bed, a single chair next to a tiny table, and a door leading to either a closet or an en suite bathroom.
Ian sat in the chair, a tablet in his lap and a steaming cup on the table next to him. The room smelled like coffee. My stomach rumbled and I glanced down in surprise. I actually felt pretty good, despite the signals from Sedition. I would try to eat something before we arrived on XAD Seven.
“Come in, Bianca,” Ian invited when I remained in the doorway.
I stepped into the room and the door closed behind me. I refused to let this be weird between us. I sat on the edge of the bed, facing him. “I got us MineCorp authorization and jump coordinates,” I said just to break the silence.
“It’s no wonder Albrecht is desperate to have you home,” Ian