“You were not,” he countered, his voice grim. “The only way he can truly hurt me, Mia, is by hurting you. He knows that.”
“That’s crazy. And not true.” I’d told him I loved him, and he had not said it back. Yes, he’d been busy trying to save our lives at the time, but still, a woman had needs.
“It is, my Mia. Without you, I’m nothing. I have no home, no family. I have the fleet and I have you. Ask me which one matters more.”
Damn it, I took the bait. “Which one matters more?”
His eyes met mine. Held. “You, love. I love you, too.”
Ahhh. Everything inside me melted, and I allowed the feeling to flood me. I deserved this moment. We both did. “I wish I could take this helmet off and kiss you.”
Kass squeezed me tightly. “When we get these suits off, I’m going to do a lot more than kiss you.”
“I’m going to hold you to that.”
“I don’t lie, remember.”
By tacit agreement, we turned to inspect our options for an exit from the wreckage.
“We can crawl through there.” I pointed to a particularly large hole near the rear of the ship.
“Yes.” Kass reached behind me and pulled a portable mission kit from a large cabinet that, luckily, was still in one piece. Inside the case would be the equipment we would need to hack into the base’s automated system, sync with it, and shut it down.
I wasn’t used to doing this away from a computer, but I could do an on-site job. I’d just never imagined doing it on a moon.
Kass took my hand and helped pull me through the opening to stand on the moon’s hard surface. It was like walking on top of a cast-iron skillet, except red, not black.
I stomped my boot and regretted it as the reactionary force sent me into a jump high enough that I could have kicked Kass in the chest without trying. I landed with a soft thud. Awesome. “This moon is hard as a rock.”
“It is a rock.”
That made me smile as the ship was struck by laser cannon fire. The weapon was mounted on the base. We ducked and ran low to the ground as the base’s automated system continued to fire on what was left of our beautiful ship. The abandoned moon base looked like a giant leech from the ground, too. Oblong and segmented like a worm, the ends tapered toward the moon’s surface, perhaps even tunneling below.
“Why is this base so ugly?”
“The Velerion engineers were not concerned with aesthetics. The shell-like structure can be retracted in sections as needed, and the curved armor is more effective against random space debris. A straight wall would take more damage. With this, much of the impact forces can be partially redirected.”
We were halfway to the nearest segmented piece of curved wall when our ship exploded. Must have been the fuel tanks. Nothing left but a shell. A burned, crispy shell. “Ashes to ashes and dust to dust, Phantom. You were a good ship,” I said. Now we were stuck on the moon.
“We’ll get another one,” Kass said, pulling me along behind him.
“I’m calling the next one Bad Bitch so no one will fuck with her.”
I heard Kass’s smile in his voice. “That is a horrible name for a ship. You named the Phantom. I think I should name the next one.”
We ran into the side of the base and leaned against the smooth wall to catch our breaths. “Oh yeah? And what would you name her?” I checked my oxygen readings and closed my eyes in relief when they read normal. The suits had complex life support systems built into the lining, as well as all kinds of data I didn’t understand moving across the visor. I was not a biochemist. In the game, these space suits would keep the player alive for several days with complex recycling technology. I had to hope that was actually true in real life as well. And I wasn’t going to ask. If that was not the case, I did not want to know.
“I was thinking I would name her after your favorite thing in the universe.” Kass turned toward the wall and withdrew a small cutting torch from somewhere. He was a space Boy Scout. He had a hole big enough to crawl through about half-done when I surrendered to curiosity, despite my better judgment, and decided to take the bait.
“We can’t name our new ship Kassius.”
He laughed but kept focused on his task. “I knew you loved me.”
So, he was funny and cavalier and charming, and totally distracting me from the thought that we were going to die on this stupid moon. “All right, I’ll bite. What is my favorite thing in the universe?”
Finished cutting, he kicked a hole in the wall, and the thick piece he’d cut clattered to rest inside the dark interior of the base.
“Justice.”