Keirth took a step into the room. “You really don’t want to go back, do you?”
She loosened her grip on the covers. “Everything’s different now.”
“Because of what Risciter did to you? Because he...forced himself on you?”
Ariana was glad it was dark. It somehow made it less horrible to be talking about things like this. “He didn’t.”
“You said you’d never get an offer of marriage. I thought...”
“No,” she said. She laughed bitterly. “I’m still intact.” She flopped back on the bed. “Not that it matters. It’s the way things seem amongst the nobility in the sector, not the way things actually are.”
“Even so,” said Keirth, “I’m glad he didn’t actually... You didn’t deserve that. I’m sorry I dragged you into this.”
“You dragged me? I don’t think so. This is all my own fault.” She smiled in the darkness. “But I am glad, you know. If this hadn’t happened, I might have married him. And I wouldn’t have wanted that. So thank you for showing me what he really was.”
Keirth didn’t say anything. He took another step forward. She thought he was about to speak, but then a warning beep blared throughout the ship. It repeated over and over at a loud volume.
She climbed out of bed and followed Keirth to the bridge.
Once there, he sat down in the chair and hit a few buttons on the console. The beeping stopped.
“Well, what do you know?” Keirth said.
He switched on the visual, and the view outside of the ship leapt to life in front of them. Outside the ship, there was an old ship floating in front of them. Ariana hadn’t seen a style like that since she was a little girl. It was at least ten years old.
“We were about to run into that,” said Keirth.
“Is it abandoned?” she asked. It looked like it had been floating around in space aimlessly for quite some time.
“I’m scanning it for life forms right now,” said Keirth. He paused. “Definitely nothing human on board. It is abandoned.”
Ariana sat down next to him. “Who leaves their ship floating around in space?”
“I don’t know,” said Keirth. “But this is good. The scan I just ran says the ship has a working hyperdrive. We can use it to repair our ship.”
“We don’t have to go to Trioth?”
Keirth grinned. “Nope. Which is a relief, let me tell you.” He sat back in his chair. “I am going to need your help, however. How are you with a screwdriver?”
* * *
The hyperdrive was too big for one person to get out on his own, Keirth explained. Two people needed to detach it at the same time or it would become unbalanced and unusable. The weight of the thing wouldn’t be that big of a deal, however, because as far as Keirth could tell the synthgrav on the ship wasn’t working. They’d be able to float it right back onto Ariana’s ship.
They had to dock against the other ship and attach the Ariana’s ship so that they could board it. Then they had to dig out the space suits so that they could breathe inside the other ship, since its life support systems weren’t working. The suits were bulky and awkward, and once they had them on, it was pretty hot inside. They had big helmets that fastened over their heads and oxygen tanks attached to their backs so that they could breathe. There was a comm system hooked up inside the suits so that they could communicate. Once they were suited up, Keirth tested it.
“Can you hear me?”
His voice echoed inside the suit. It was loud. “Very well. Is there a volume control?”
“Afraid not, sweetheart.”
They exited Ariana’s ship through her docking bay, which was connected to the other ship’s docking bay. Keirth went first, opening the door so that they could get inside.
The docking bay of the other ship was dark and cold. Even through her suit, Ariana could tell the life support systems weren’t up and running. There wasn’t any gravity, so there were pieces of luggage floating around inside the bay. Keirth switched on his headlamp on his space suit and Ariana did the same.
“What do you think happened to this ship?” she asked.
“No idea,” said Keirth, pushing aside floating debris to move through the docking bay.
“It’s not damaged? Did they run out of fuel? If their hyperdrive works, why didn’t they leave?”
“Does it matter?” Keirth asked. “We just need to get the drive and get off.”
Okay. She guessed he was right. She followed the small ball of light that emanated from Keirth through the docking bay. The door out was open, so they floated through into a hallway.