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 escape pods. Maybe it has been. There's one thing I'm learning about Adiron. He plays stupid, but he's absolutely not.
Alice's lip curls in disgust as she looks over at Adiron. "You are seriously gross. This is not a date! Jade's being selfless—"
He gives her a wounded look. "So am I."
"Alice, come on, now," I say. I'm trying not to blush, but…I did know Adiron was going to stay the moment I said I would. Oddly enough, I trust him, and it fills me with a comfortable sort of sensation to know that I wouldn't be here all alone. That of course he'd stay with me. "It makes me feel better to know you and Helen are going to have someone with you that knows how this universe works. They have a plan. They know what they want to do. More importantly, they know how to operate a ship." I give her a rueful smile and turn to Helen. "The best chance for us to succeed and save everyone is if we split up. Two pods—two pairs—head out for the other ship, one pair stays behind. This way, even if they're betraying us, there's a reason for them to come back. And we all regroup a month from now and we find homes for everyone. Stasis people and all."
Alice and Helen exchange a look. Alice thinks for a moment, then reaches for my hand. She gives me a falsely bright smile. "Just so you know, I hate all of this."
I chuckle, because it's not my favorite either. We've lost Ruth, and now we're splitting up even further. This might be the last time I ever see Alice and Helen again. But I keep my expression calm, because I can lose my shit later. "It's just a month. We can survive a month of bullshit. We have before, and we'll do it again."
Helen takes my other hand and clings tightly to it. I can feel how tense she is, and I imagine this is both frightening and exciting to her. "When should we go?"