But I think that’s just her way of covering up her fear about Jimmy.
“Where is that damn signal?” Dicker says. “We can’t go anywhere until we know where to go!”
“I know,” I say, frowning. I really expected Flicka’s tracking to come online by now. It’s a bad sign. It means Jimmy didn’t turn her on when he got on the ship. It means he’s probably incapacitated and maybe—though neither of us is mentioning this—dead.
He can’t be dead.
It could also mean that Flicka is dead. But I just keep telling myself that she was powered down when this kidnapping happened, so they didn’t know Jimmy was carrying her. And she will power herself back up eventually, it just might… take a while.
“Tell me everything again,” Dicker says.
I sigh. “I’ve already explained it like ten times,” I say. “The story hasn’t changed.”
“Yeah, yeah. Your brother. This Loathsome One. I get that part. The part that doesn’t make sense is this Queenie ship. What’s in it for her?”
“I don’t know,” I say. “I’ve told you that too.”
“Well, think harder, Delphi. There has to be a reason a sentient ship like that would just partner up with you for this stupid Jimmy kidnap job. What is it?”
“I don’t know! I barely know this ship. She was assigned to me for this job, that’s it!”
“Incoming!” Dicker says. “Incoming tracking information from Flicka.”
“Yes,” I hiss. “Finally. Where is she?”
“Oh, you’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”
“What? What’s happened?”
“They’re on the edge of the galactic cloud.”
“Why is that bad?”
Dicker doesn’t answer me. But lots of screens start lighting up as she plots a course. “They’re still traveling,” she finally says. “Which means whatever is going to happen on this Lair Station hasn’t happened yet and we have time to catch up. I highly advise you to strap in a cryopod, Delphi. We’re gonna hit fifteen gates in the span of sixty minutes and this is gonna hurt.”
“Shit,” I say, unbuckling my harness and running towards the rear of the ship where the stairs are leading down into medical.
“You have three minutes before I enter the first gate.”
“Gee, thanks for the advance warning,” I mutter. She starts a countdown, letting me know every time thirty seconds pass. I’m not any kind of cryopod expert so I take every last second to get myself situated and when the countdown ends and we thrust forward into the first gate, I’m still semi-conscious.
But it doesn’t last long. Because a moment later I fade into blackness.
I wake to silence. My cryopod lid is open and the only lights here in medical are those on the vital sign screens above my head.
I’m alive. Other than that, I know nothing.
“Dicker?” I whisper.
No answer.
“Dicker,” I hiss louder as I unbuckle my harness and pull myself up into a sitting position, then realize there’s no gravity and I’m floating up towards the ceiling.
“I’m here,” she says. “We have two more gates before we reach the lair. Your dragonbee bot and I are in communication now. She just docked on the station and they’re waiting for airlocks to cycle before they remove Jimmy’s body.”
“Body!?”
“He’s alive, but unconscious. Flicka says they gassed him hours ago and he hasn’t moved since.”
“Shit,” I say. “Why are we stopped? Why is there no gravity?”
“We’re waiting. These two gates are very close together and once we come out the other side we have thirty-seven seconds of cloaking before the Lair Station targets us with cannons. Flicka is going to start some kind of distraction to buy us more time because the station is more than a million klicks out from the gate.”
She’s right. It’s tricky. I’m not sure thirty-seven seconds is enough, but if that’s all we have, that’s just the breaks.
“I suggest you go to the armory on level one and get yourself some gear and weapons while you still can. Because we are an army of two, Delphi. And your ass is going in there to save my Jimmy.”
I guess I didn’t really think this through. Because me against an entire station? That’s not even logical.
“I don’t want to hear any objections from you,” Dicker says. “This is all your fault.”
“I know,” I say, wilting a little.
And it’s true. It is all my fault. Both Jimmy and Flicka are in danger the moment the Loathsome One gets her hands on them. The things she will do to Jimmy—I can’t even think about it. I feel so much shame for my participation in this whole plot of hers.
I grab onto the nearest handholds and pull myself along the wall of the medical bay, then point myself up the stairwell and kick off. Shooting up several levels before I reach the one where the armory is.
I grab onto another handhold to stop my momentum, then fly into the armory. There are several armored suits standing up against the far wall, a beam of lavender light shining down on each one.