All said, it had been a great adventure, even if they were eventually killed. But he did have one regret: that circumstances hadn’t allowed he and Ben to share the pickles together. Patton had technically broken their promise, but he figured Ben would allow it since it had been in furtherance of saving the galaxy. Alas, there would be other pickles and Ben surely would have approved of the use. Just imagine the look on the Scythin’s whatevers when they realize they were chasing a jar of pickles! Soon enough.

Seeing the ride as the perfect time for a nap, Patton closed his eyes.

He had only just taken up his sword in what had the makings of a promising Viking dream, when a vibration shocked him awake. He was still in the transway, still alone, still alive. He rotated his head to the side, looked across to the other tubes. Half had been reduced to drifting glass.

CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE

CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE

Back inside the Silent Child, Izairis put her finger to a random spot on the console map. “Go.”

“That’s it?” I asked. “That makes the ship go?”

“Yes,” said Izairis with a note of light condescension.

“What if I want to tell it to do a certain maneuver, or take evasive action, like a barrel roll?”

Izairis drew a squiggly line on the map, then looked back up at me. “Then you say go and the ship will go. Or. You can describe for the ship what you’d like her to do. Run away. Dock at that restaurant. Hide on that asteroid. Match orbit with that passenger ship. Shoot at those bad guys. I’ve authorized you as a pilot. She knows your voice.”

“Okay,” I said, beginning to feel confident that I could actually do this. No harder than telling mom’s minivan to park itself. “What weapons does she have?”

“Big one is the dilaceration cannon. Takes a while to charge, so after you leave you might say something like ‘Ship, charge dilaceration cannons’. There are also your standard fissile/ fusile projectiles,” she checked the inventory, “of which you have one. So. Good luck.”

“Fissile like nuclear?”

“Like thermonuclear. Oh, Naecia wanted me to give you this,” said Izairis, presenting a small object. “We had one more. Aptat still had theirs.”

“Wow,” I said, taking the ampoule. “Yeah, okay. Smart.” There had been a tiny moment, just a millisecond where I thought maybe Naecia had offered a gesture of friendship or good luck after all we’d been through. Nope. Just a mind-erasing tonic.

“Amnesplid,” Izairis explained. “If it looks like they’re going to capture you, drink it and also stab yourself somewhere.”

Ugh. Yeah, okay. “Where should I stab myself?”

“Doesn’t really matter, as long as you do.”

“Don’t worry,” I chuckled. “There won’t be any need, because you three are going to leapfrog them to rescue me.”