“So here. Usually, you want to hit this.” He pointed to a green button. “But don’t. Unless you’ve got this one lit up.” He pointed to a square box with a switch under it. “Flip this, box lights up, you’re good to go.” He gave me a big smile, but it wasn’t his real smile. He was faking it, and that sucked a little bit of hope from me.

“Whatever you do, don’t hit the green before you do that. That shit is crazy. It’ll eat up the fuel too quick and stall out. You’ll be floating dead in space.” He paused, solemn as he met my gaze. “Don’t forget.” His words were deadly serious. “Please, don’t forget.”

“I won’t.” I’d been listening to everything he’d said. I wasn’t going to forget it.

“Good. You’ll be fine then.” He smiled, but his look had a twinge of sadness that went against his words. The whole conversation, that look had come again and again. Each time, I felt more and more sure that he didn’t think I would come back alive.

That scared me more than anyone else’s warning.

By the time he was done, I felt like I was going to be sick.

He patted my shoulder. “Survivors Together. I don’t want to tell Jorge you died on my watch, in one of my ships.”

“Survivors Together.” I was hoping for the same thing. “I’ll do my best.”

He looked like he was about to say something else, but stopped as Ahiga came in. “Hey. I’ve got this for you.” He held out two wrapped packages.

I peeked into the first, but Ahiga glanced at Santiago.

Right. Don’t be obvious about it. I looked in the second. “Food? You knew I skipped breakfast?”

“I waited for you,” Ahiga said. “When you didn’t show, I figured you were here instead.”

I stepped farther into the ship, and Ahiga followed me, blocking Santiago’s view of me. I quickly opened the smaller package, taking out the small earbud, tapping it on as soon as it was in place.

Ahiga stepped aside, and Santiago looked at the biscuit in my hand. “What? You didn’t bring one for me?”

“Knew you probably had food squirreled away here.”

“Who wouldn’t?”

“Are they on? You hear me okay?” Declan asked in my ear.

“Yes.” I ignored the look Santiago sent my way. “Thank you,” I said to Ahiga and took a bite of the biscuit.

“Good,” Declan said. “I didn’t want anyone overhearing us, so I didn’t go through the ship coms, but I can see you from their cams.”

I hated being watched all the time. I searched around for cameras, but I couldn’t see any inside the ship.

“Keep in mind that they’ll still hear your end, so be careful what you say.”