“I sincerely hope that wasn’t aimed at me,” the captain says. “Bring him on up. We’ll have a little chat.” The channel clicks off, and Code slumps. He’s finished.

Swift yanks him off the wall and shoves him toward the trainer deck door. I wait until she’s slammed the hatch behind her before sinking down onto the floor, the strength evaporating from my legs.

I should have seen this coming. I’ve let myself get so comfortable aboard the Minnow that I nearly got myself killed twice in one day. If Santa Elena hadn’t been quite as forgiving, if I’d walked onto the trainer deck without noticing something was amiss, I’d be just another corpse floating in the ship’s wake.

If it hadn’t been for Swift, that definitely would have happened.

I find myself wishing the captain hadn’t muddled the waters by tying Swift’s life to mine. I have no idea who Swift’s saving at this point. Obviously her own skin is her top priority, but when she charged onto the trainer deck to catch Code in the act, she thought he’d already done away with me.

And she was going to kill him for it. Of course, if I’m dead then she’s dead anyway. She fought like she had nothing left to lose, and she bled for it. But the way she asked about me, the venom in her voice when she thought Code might have killed me—it makes me reconsider what I know about her.

The facts are these. Swift has saved our lives on several occasions. The only thing I’ve done for our lives so far is not get eaten, shanked, or shot.

I’m still not sure if I’m in debt or not.

The engines beneath me fade to nothing as the boat slows. Santa Elena’s probably decided to stop while she sorts out Code. I don’t want to think about what that entails.

Bao bellows from the far end of the trainer deck. I get on my knees, crawl over to the LED beacon, and snap it off. He presses his beak against the still-warm lights, and I feel the deck shudder just a bit underneath me. At half the boat’s size, he’s easily powerful enough to push us around. If he were in a proper training environment, he’d be deemed ready to start escorting his imprint ship.

He’s probably big enough to take down the Minnow.