Gigi’s mouth dropped. “What?”
“I need you to shut down all electronic devices, anything that needs power.”
Gigi waved his hand back toward the kitchen. “But you just told me to cook a celebration dinner.”
Remy arched an eyebrow. “And now I’m telling you to shut everything down.”
“Why?”
“Gigi.”
“Fine,” Gigi said when he heard the warning in Remy’s voice. His shoulders dropped as he turned and walked back into the kitchen. He started putting away all of the food he had pulled out for the celebration dinner.
“What are you doing?” Pax asked.
“Remy wants us to shut everything down.”
“But, I thought—”
“So did I, but apparently I was wrong.”
Gigi grumbled to himself as he put the last of the food away and started on the dishes. He didn’t like doing this. Luckily, they had gotten them all cleaned up from the last fiasco, so there wasn’t a huge mess to put away. Gigi put the last dish away just as Pax turned off the last of the machines.
“Now what?” Pax asked.
Gigi shrugged. He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back against the counter. He really didn’t have a clue what they should do now. “Your guess is as good as mine.”
Pax grimaced. “Want to go up on the bridge and find out what’s going on?”
“I think the bridge is the last place we need to be. We’d just get in the way.”
Pax frowned. “Want to go back to your room and play cards?”
“I don’t play cards.” Gigi laughed. “I wouldn’t know how to even if I did. Drake didn’t let us play games.”
“Us?” Pax asked. “There was more than one of you?”
Gigi sobered instantly. “Yes, Drake likes keeping pretty things around him. He has an entire stable of sex slaves.”
“He sounds like a real jerk.”
“Drake is…Drake is hard to understand. He can be kind one moment and a cruel monster the next, depending on his mood. He used kindness like a boon and torture for entertainment.”
“Damn,” Pax whispered. “If he’s so horrible, why did you stay?”
“I was his property. I wasn’t allowed to leave. I tried a few times, but I was always caught and returned. Hell, even the law returned me to him. On Earth, when you are considered property, you have no say in what happens to you. Drake could do anything he wanted with me, and I couldn’t do anything about it.”
“How did you end up with him anyway?”
Gigi sighed. Remy had asked this very same question, and Gigi had gone ballistic. He knew now he probably should have talked things out with Remy. There just hadn’t been time. If they weren’t being chased by a madman, they were running off to complete their next job. There never seemed to be enough time to just sit and talk.
If there had been, Gigi might have been able to tell Remy that he had realized that his family had sold him into slavery. It was something Gigi hadn’t wanted to face before, but after experiencing all that Remy gave him, Gigi knew what true love was. And it wasn’t selling those you loved for credits.
“I was sold to Drake by my father. I was with Drake for almost five years before I escaped the last time.”
“Is that why Drake is trying so hard to get you back?” Pax asked. “Because you belonged to him?”
“To be honest, I’m not sure. I always knew Drake was somewhat egotistical, but I never thought he’d come after me this far out in space. I gave him quite a bit of trouble. I’d think he’d be happy to get rid of me.” Gigi shrugged. “It wasn’t like he paid that many credits for me in the first place.”
“He really bought you?”
Gigi nodded. “Paid three hundred cold hard credits for my ass.”
Pax’s finger glided over the shiny countertop as he stared at the far wall. “At least you knew why,” he whispered.
Gigi cocked his head to the side as he stared at the fragile-looking man. He wasn’t sure what Pax meant, but something told Gigi that Pax may have had it worse. How? He couldn’t put a finger on it, but his gut was screaming to pay attention.
“What do you mean, knew why, Pax?” Gigi probed a little, hoping that Pax would finally open up. He knew Pax liked locked doors and the feeling of safety. Most people liked feeling safe, but Pax went beyond normality.
Gigi plunged a hand through his hair when Pax didn’t answer him. Pax started to leave, but Gigi caught his arm on the way by. “I won’t tell anyone, I promise.”
Drawing in a deep breath, Pax reluctantly turned back around and locked eyes with Gigi. “I lived from hand to mouth with no one to take care of me. I wasn’t looking for anyone to take care of me, but it would have been better than—”
Damn, Gigi’s mind went numb when the ramifications of Pax’s words finally registered. “You sold yourself, didn’t you?” Pax tried to yank his arm away, but Gigi kept a tight grip. “I’m not judging you, I swear.”
Gigi released Pax’s arm when he tugged again. The blue-skinned man walked over to the porthole, staring out into the black sky. Okay, he was being brushed off. Gigi wasn’t going to push.
“I’d love to play cards if you’re willing to teach me,” Gigi said with a big smile. “Maybe I’ll get so good that I can play against the crew and take their credits.”
This got a smile from Pax. “We could double-team them and then go on a shopping spree.”
Gigi giggled, glad to see Pax’s somber mood gone. He still had questions, but they could wait.
Crank didn’t like this one bit. He was back on his home world, and old feelings began to surface, feelings he’d rather have kept buried. He wondered briefly if Blay was still here. Crank’s anger skyrocketed and his back teeth ground together thinking of the man that had betrayed him.
“You with us?” Remy asked with a touch of concern in his eyes.
Crank nodded. He narrowed his eyes against the glaring suns that shone brightly around his home planet and then focused on his hands. He wasn’t going to allow his thoughts to go down that pothole-filled road. It would be dangerous for everyone onboard if he continued to stew about it.
“I have life readings. Two to be exact, and they’re getting close,” Colt said from across the bridge. “The bio readings are about two klicks away.”
“I want everything shut down and everyone to remain quiet,” Remy ordered from the commander’s chair.
“Everything?” Livewire asked from the floor. Crank almost smiled when Tank shot his foot out and nudged Livewire, tightening his face at the mechanic. Livewire flipped him off as he laid back.
“Everything,” Remy confirmed.
“I’ll go tell Gigi and Pax.” Livewire got up and walked off of the bridge.
Crank watched the monitor closely as the two bio signatures quickly closed the gap between them and the ship. This wasn’t good. Sweat began to trickle down his temples as the two signatures got close as hell and then veered off, going the other way. He wanted to breathe a sigh of relief, but he would wait to do that once they cleared the planet.
Remy glanced over at him, and Crank raised two fingers and pointed in the direction the two had gone off in. Remy nodded.
Crank knew the waiting was the hardest part. Having to sit on his ass and do absolutely nothing was starting to unravel his nerves. He was a fighter, loved to blow shit up. This sitting still and waiting to be discovered was going against everything he’d been taught.
“Bio signatures are gone,” Crank finally said when the monitor appeared empty.
“Good,” Remy commented. “Let’s hope we don’t have any more visitors while our thrusters cool off.”
A grin broke out across Tank’s face as he began to chuckle. Crank knew the man was nuts, but now was not the time to finally confirm it.
“I just thought of something.” Tank snickered.
“Do we even want to know?” Remy asked with a smile.
“I’m raising my hand and sa
ying hell no,” Blade said as both his hands went into the air.
Crank rolled his eyes. He could see everyone was going to get in on this. He had to admit, these guys knew how to lighten a dark mood.
“Go ahead,” Colt encouraged the pilot.
“We need to get away, right? We need to get Drake off of our asses, right?”
“Get to the point,” Remy growled.
The entire bridge watched as Tank got up and walked out.
“I told you.” Blade threw his hands up. “I told you we didn’t want to know.”
Tank walked back in with Livewire hot on his heels. They watched as Livewire crawled between Remy’s legs and scooted under the helm. Remy cocked a brow at Tank.
“Watch and learn, ladies.” Tank winked.
“Got it,” Livewire yelled from under the helm. “Just give me a few more seconds.”
Crank sat forward, wondering what in the blazes these two were up to. He gasped when a computerized voice flooded the bridge. “Cloaking engaged.”
“You’re a fucking genius!” Remy shouted and whooped. “We’ve been without it for so long that I forgot we had that little charm.”
“Fuck yeah!” Crank pumped his arm and bit his bottom lip. “Get us the hell out of here, Tank, pronto.”
“Mr. Genius is on it.” He chuckled.
“Oh god, now he’s going to have a bigger head than he already has.” Blade groaned.
“Gentlemen, we have lift-off,” Tank announced as the ship lifted and they got the hell off of that rock. “We can rest on Beta Five. It’s the next planet over.”
“Sounds good.” Remy patted Tank on his shoulder and then looked down at Livewire, who was backing out from under the helm. “Go check the fuel cells and make sure they’re steady.”
“On it, Commander,” Livewire said with a spring in his step.
Remy sat in his commander’s chair in the middle of the bridge and smiled to himself. Lady Blue was finally getting the repairs she needed after so much unintentional neglect. He still couldn’t believe he won his baby in a card game against a bunch of Vykillians.
They laughed when they handed him the pink slip. Now Remy was the one with the last laugh. Lady Blue was sturdy and reliable, and she had yet to fail getting them out of a tight situation. Now that Livewire was a part of the crew, she was going to shine like a highly polished diamond.
Remy’s communicator chimed in his ear. He was still wearing a grin when he pressed the oval-shaped device to talk. “Remy.” They didn’t stand on ceremony to the point everything was formal. A little leeway in the use of names reminded his crew that they were family.
“It’s Livewire. I need you down in engineering.”
“On my way.” Remy looked over at his pilot. “You have the helm.”
“Gotcha.” Tank nodded.
Remy walked down the corridor and then took the stairs down to the lowest deck where engineering was located. It had been a while since he’d been down here. He grimaced at the tattered way his lady looked.
“Over here,” Livewire shouted from somewhere in the front. Remy followed the voice of his crew member until he spotted Livewire standing by the propulsion system.
“What’s up?”
Livewire had one hand leaning against the wall and was shaking his head. “We may not make it to Beta Five, Commander.” He pointed to the console on the wall that said they had fifteen-percent power left in the core.
Remy cursed as he laid his hands on his hips. Now what?
Chapter 11
“I can fix it, I swear I can,” Livewire quickly reassured the commander. He wanted to make Remy aware of the problem, not make himself look inept at his job.
“What do we need to do?”
“Shut down anything we don’t need right now. We’re going to need the remaining power to get us to Beta Five. It’ll be a snail’s crawl, but we’ll make it. Landing is going to be a little trickier.” Fuck if that wasn’t the understatement of the year. They’d be lucky not to break apart in Beta Five’s atmosphere.
“Do what you have to, Livewire. We can barter for new fuel cells once we get there,” Remy said as he began to walk away. Livewire had yet to voice his concern about actually getting there, but that bridge could wait until they needed to cross it. Hopefully the son of a bitch didn’t crumble under their feet.
“Will do.” He smiled at the commander and then turned his back on Remy, blowing a long breath out. Livewire began to shut down parts of the ship that were either unoccupied or didn’t need power right now.
Quick thinking was what he needed, and a fucking miracle. He knew they had a blast job on Beta Five that would keep them in credits for a while. The only problem was getting there. Leaving the engineering room, Livewire jogged up the steps two flights to the upper level. He had an idea, but it was going to take some fancy talking on his part.
Pressing the keypad to let Gigi and Pax know he was outside Pax’s quarters, Livewire whistled while he waited. He looked around, making sure no one was watching. He plastered a big smile on his face when the door slid open and Gigi stared up at him.
“Is everything okay?” Gigi asked suspiciously. He could see Pax leaning to the side and staring past Gigi’s form at him. Livewire wasn’t sure why the blue-skinned man looked terrified, so he stayed out in the corridor.
“Peachy. I just needed to ask a favor.” Livewire placed his hands behind his back and crossed his fingers.
“Okay, ask.”
Livewire pulled his hands from behind his back and crossed them over his chest, shifting his weight to his left leg. He wasn’t sure how to ask without sounding insane. “Uh, I need you to crawl into the food replicator.”
Gigi’s right eye closed a fraction and twitched for a moment as he stared at Livewire, and then a bark of laughter escaped his lips. “Good one, Livewire. You had me going for a moment there.”
When Livewire didn’t laugh along with Gigi, the man’s mouth hit his chest. “You’re serious?”
Livewire gave one short nod and watched the commander’s mate’s hands wave in front of his body.
“Hell no. Whatever screws your brain lost, go find them.”
“Let me explain before you go all oh no, Livewire, I can’t do it on me.” Livewire pitched his voice higher when mimicking Gigi.
“I don’t sound like that.” Gigi growled
“Whatever. Will you listen, or are you going to keep whining your protest?” Livewire argued. “We don’t have eternity to debate this.”
Gigi heaved a sigh. “Fine, tell me why you want to shove my ass in the food replicator.”
“How opposed would Remy be to me disassembling your molecules?”
“Dude, get off of the Paktillian dust. It’s eating your brain cells,” Gigi said as he took a step back. “If you come near me, I’ll kick your sorry ass.” There was a clear warning in the commander’s mate’s voice.
“Okay.” Livewire held a hand up. “Maybe I’m not saying this right. We have little power left for the ship to make a safe landing. What I’m proposing is that when we get close to Beta Five, I use the replicator like a transporter. They’re based on the same technology. They disassemble and reassemble matter. Yours to be precise.”
Gigi stopped backing away and cocked his head. “Go on, I’m listening.”
Okay, Livewire had him so far. Hopefully he didn’t lose the little guy. “If I rewired the food replicator, I could use it for a transporter. You’d go down to Beta Five, purchase some new cells, call me, and then I could beam you back up. Simple enough.”
“And how do you change the food replicator into a transporter?”
Livewire smiled at his genius brain. Once in a while a brilliant idea fell out of his ear. “Easy, I just re-align the energy-conversion matrix.” Brilliant, fucking brilliant. He should get a gold star for this. Or in the very least another plate of cookies and milk.
“And what happens to me if this brilliant plan of yours doesn’t work?” Gigi asked as h
e and Pax followed Livewire to the mess hall.
“Details, details, details. Stop worrying so much.” Livewire couldn’t think of failing. “Let’s get you down there and back before anyone knows you’ve gone.”
“I don’t like this.” Pax bounced from foot to foot in front of the replicator Gigi was climbing into. “Why can’t one of the other crew members go?”
“Because they won’t fit into the food replicator,” Livewire stated the obvious. “Now stand back while I work my magic.”
Gigi climbed in and held the door in his hand. “I told you this damn thing was going to eat me,” he huffed before slamming the door closed.
Livewire glanced over at Pax and smiled tightly. “He was just kidding, really.” He turned back around and lifted his eyebrows to his hairline. He fucking prayed Gigi was kidding.
Remy walked into the mess hall looking for his mate. He thought Gigi was in Pax’s room, but the room had been empty. He saw Livewire standing by the food replicator, rocking back on his heels and whistling, his eyes darting everywhere.
Something wasn’t right.
“Have either of you seen Gigi?” he asked, looking from the mechanic to Pax. Pax stood there with sweat glistening on his brows, his eyes looking down at his shoes. Remy stepped closer to Pax, noticing his body slightly shaking. “Pax?”
“I said he shouldn’t do it. It was Livewire’s idea,” Pax wailed. He pointed to the mechanic. “I swear, I was against it from the beginning.”
“Against what?” Remy growled as he turned his attention back to Livewire. “Against what!” he shouted this time.
“Livewire shoved Gigi into the food replicator,” Pax bawled.
“You did what!” Surely he didn’t hear that right. There was no way his mate was inside the food replicator. He stormed across the room and yanked the door open, almost making it fly off the hinges. The box was empty. “Where the hell is he?” He rounded on Livewire.
“On Beta Five,” Livewire said with uncertainty in his voice.
“And why would he be on Beta Five? Why wouldn’t he be on the ship?”
“Grocery shopping for parts?” Livewire answered as he backed away.
Hagen, Lynn and Glenn, Stormy - End of the Line [Lady Blue Crew 1] (Siren Publishing Classic ManLove) Page 11