“You gotta stop freaking out on me. You’re going to be okay. If something starts going bad out there, you come in. Simple as that.”

I snorted. There was no way Jason would’ve assigned this job for me if it was going to be that easy, but there was no easy way out of this, no matter how much I wanted it.

“I’m going to figure something out,” Ahiga said. “We just got here. Give me time to work on the CO.”

What a load of shit this was. Just being on Abaddon was dangerous, but I never—not in my wildest dreams—thought my job here was going to be this asinine.

“Here’s what you’re going to do.” Ahiga stood up. “You take a shower. You had a hard trip here, so just try to calm down, and then you go to sleep. But don’t skip breakfast in the morning, okay? Your body is going to need all the calories it can get tomorrow, and drink as much water as you can stand so you stay hydrated out there. Water will also help you flush out the rest of the cryo drugs.”

“Thanks for the tip.” That came out shittier and snappier than I wanted, and I winced. “Sorry.”

“Don’t apologize. That’ll just piss me off. Pick a bunk and get settled. The glow is lessening, but it needs to get gone before your bunkmates get back.”

I took a breath in for a count of six. “I’ll work on it.”

“Good. And check your wrist unit for where to go in the a.m. Don’t be late. I’ll find you when I have news.” Ahiga didn’t wait for me to say anything before spinning on his heel. The door slammed behind him.

I wanted to run after Ahiga and ask where he was staying, but it didn’t matter. He was an officer here. If they separated the workers from the officers, then it might be a while before I saw him again. He was here to help me, but I couldn’t lean on him too hard or else his cover would be blown.

I strode down the line of bunks. I didn’t really care which one I had. There were plenty available, so I threw my bag down on a lower one and sat.

The detail I’d been assigned was total bullshit. Maybe the suits would be enough to keep me alive out there, but Jason had clearly gone out of his way to put me on tarmac detail. Something told me my chances of survival weren’t great.

So I had to think of something. I stood and started pacing up and down the aisle between the bunks. Now that I was here, the insane idea of going on mining runs sounded less and less crazy. Roan said he thought he could do it, and if he could, then…