Collision Course - By Zoe Archer Page 0,17

something within her, something he believed in.

Suddenly, navigating the storm seemed a little less daunting—knowing she was in control, but having him beside her.

“It’s time,” he said.

“Time to make this energy storm our slave.”

A corner of his mouth curved up, and she wanted to trace the shape with the tips of her fingers or, better yet, her tongue. Instead, she rubbed her slightly damp palms on her skirt. She didn’t miss how his eyes followed her movement, his gaze lingering on the expanse of bare thigh between her boots and her skirt. The heat in his eyes matched the fury of the storm.

Taking the controls, Mara guided the ship forward. As they neared the outer edge of the storm, the comm line shrilled.

“Skiren, what the hell are you doing?” She recognized the voice as belonging to a fellow scavenger.

“Heading toward Ryge, Vachan.”

“Have you lost your damn mind?”

“A long time ago.”

The ship shuddered as it breached the first energy clouds. Kell kept himself remarkably still.

“If you make it through in one piece, you’ll be a legend,” Vachan said.

“If I don’t, have a drink in my honor. And charge it to Sekou. That bastard never pays for his own drinks.”

Vachan rasped his hoarse laugh. Then, quieter, “See you in the Treasure House.”

“See you.”

The comm line fuzzed out as the clouds thickened around the ship. Mara gripped the controls tighter, struggling for stability.

“Is the Treasure House a bar?” Kell asked above the rattling hull.

“Scavenger’s afterlife.”

He gave a small nod, thick with understanding, and then everything went insane.

Arcadia was a solidly-built ship. It had to be, to produce enough power to tow sizeable cargo. Mara made minor repairs from time to time on the hull, but it held together without problem, unlike some of the cheap, old ships she saw clattering through the galaxy.

Right now, flying into the energy storm around Ryge, she seriously considered that the Arcadia was going to break into tiny fragments. The ship quaked and shuddered as energy clouds buffeted it from every side. It sounded like they were being attacked by sonic hammers.

She gripped the controls until her hands ached, fighting to keep the ship steady.

Beside her, Kell stared ahead, grim and focused. The cockpit was filled with sulfurous light, painting his stern face in harsh yellow illumination.

There was no fear in his eyes, only determination. That helped stabilize her, even as the ship was knocked back and forth like a child’s mechtop.

She cursed. “The damn energy currents are shoving us all over the place.” As she said this, they were flung to the side, and only her seatbelt kept her from being thrown to the wall.

“Don’t fight them.” Kell’s voice was level, raised only to be heard above the clamor. “Use their swells to move forward.”

It sounded like a bad idea, since she had no idea where the currents would take them, but things couldn’t get worse. At this rate, she and Kell would soon be burning fragment falling to Ryge. So, instead of wrestling the ship away from the energy swells, she steered with them.

For a moment, they careened, out of control, as the swell’s momentum took hold. Mara knew a brief panic as command of the ship vanished. The Arcadia belonged to another creature. It belonged to the storm. She wanted to pull hard on the controls, seize her ship back.

“Wait,” Kell said.

She shouted above the clamor, “We’re going to be cosmic powder in a second.”

“Wait,” he said again. Then, “Trust me.”

Despite the chaos of the storm around them, she held his dark, cool gaze. Once more, she marveled that he trusted her enough to put his life in her hands.

So she waited, letting the energy current take the ship where it willed. Incredibly, the hull’s shaking subsided, and the ship’s wild trajectory evened. Mara felt the controls ease back into her command.

“How?” she asked.

“Sometimes, it’s better to let the current take you where it wants to go.”

She chuckled, then cursed when a blade of lightning shot from the clouds and clipped Arcadia’s wing. The ship screamed and bucked. Mara held tight to the controls.

Checking the energy shield’s readout, she saw that Arcadia couldn’t take many more direct hits. More lightning struck, and Mara just managed to steer away from them—barely. She used every ounce of piloting skill she possessed to weave and dodge the lightning, sweat filming her back.

Kell’s brow furrowed, and the flashes of garish light from the lightning carved the lines and hollows of his hard face.

“Does the cockpit window have viewing filters?”