Avalon

“I know.” The glare she shot him was hot enough to incinerate. “But this isn’t something you rush. One mistake and we all die.”

Jeth stopped pacing, all the muscles in his body tense from the effort to be still. He knew pressuring her was counterproductive, but he was having a hard time keeping calm with his ship falling apart around him.

“You keyed that wrong,” said Sierra from where she stood beside Lizzie. She pointed at the screen. “The last four should be eight, zero, one, five.”

“Oh. Right.” Lizzie made the correction.

Unable to stand inactivity a moment longer, Jeth said, “I’ll go check on the others.”

Sierra glanced up at him, her expression cool. “Sounds like a good idea. We’ll be done soon. I promise.”

Jeth didn’t reply as he exited the bridge. He was determined to stay away until they were done. He wasn’t stupid. He understood the danger of performing a manual jump. Navigating space wasn’t like driving a land vehicle. It was like jumping blindfolded off the top of a building and trying to catch hold of a passing jet. At least that was how Jeth imagined it in terms of difficulty. One single decimal point of miscalculation and the jump could be off by hundreds of light-years, launching them out of metaspace into anywhere.

Or nowhere at all.

Shuddering, Jeth headed back up to engineering. Flynn stood near the top of the stairs, already making repairs to the new set of holes. He looked up at Jeth’s approach.

“Anything important damaged?” asked Jeth.

Flynn grimaced. “Nothing I can’t repair, but only because I’m brilliant and I stocked up on supplies before we left Peltraz.” He pulled a piece of candy out of his pocket, unwrapped it, and popped it into him mouth.

Jeth considered asking him if by “supplies” he really meant chocolate, but he refrained. “Well, good thinking.”

Flynn seemed surprised by the compliment, but it was momentary as he returned his attention to the task at hand. Jeth left him to it, heading down the stairs to the passenger deck. He heard voices from the common deck below, including Shady’s, and figured he and Celeste must’ve finished their second damage sweep of the lower decks. He was about to head down to check for an update when he saw that Milton was still in sick bay.

The austere room was the only place aboard Avalon that Jeth ever found uninviting. Milton kept the place immaculately clean and organized, a complete one-eighty from the clutter of empty bottles in his cabin.

Milton looked up from where he stood in front of his main worktable. Some kind of medical instrument whose name and purpose Jeth didn’t know sat on the table. A soft whirring sound issued out from it.

“What are you doing?” Jeth said.

“Nothing important. Just some boring doctorish stuff.” Milton pressed a button on the machine and the whirring stopped.

Jeth shook off his curiosity. Milton doing anything doctor related was better than his usual activities of boozing and pipe smoking. “Anything get damaged in here?”

“No. Everything’s fine. You should check with the others.”

“Did our passengers check out all right?”

Milton smiled. “Yes, at least Vince and Cora. I’m sure Sierra will pass inspection, too. They’ve been very lucky.”

Depends on how you look at it, Jeth thought, considering everything that had gone wrong since he’d brought them on board. The desire to run back to the bridge and check on Lizzie’s progress gripped him again. Ignoring it, Jeth said, “Yeah, very lucky.” He inclined his head toward the doorway. “I’m gonna check in with Celeste and Shady.”

Jeth headed down to the commons deck, flinching at every sound he heard. He’d never before realized how noisy a starship could be. Even the low, constant hum of Avalon’s engines seemed ominous at the moment.

He arrived in the common area to find Celeste, Shady, and Vince standing in the middle of the room and looking down at one of the armchairs—his favorite one. Jeth spotted the holes in it right away.

Son of a bitch.

Lucky, indeed.

“Is that the extent of the damage?” Jeth asked, motioning toward the chair. It wasn’t entirely ruined, but he doubted it would be very comfortable to recline in anymore with the series of holes running up its back.

“Yes,” Celeste said. “Unless there’re some in the cabins. We haven’t checked them yet.”

Jeth grunted. “I guess one damaged armchair is good news.”

Cora, who had been sitting on the sofa when Jeth arrived, stood up and walked over to him. “See my bandage?” She held up her arm, where Milton had placed a small white bandage over where the cat had clawed her.

“Um, yeah. It’s great, Cora.”

She beamed at him.

Feeling awkward, although mildly pleased by the kid’s delight, Jeth cleared his throat. But whatever he’d intended to say got lost, as Lizzie’s voice echoed out from the comm speakers. “We’re ready.”

Without a word, Jeth turned and bolted up the stairs. Lizzie was already sitting in the copilot chair with Sierra at the nav.

Jeth sat down in the pilot chair and looked toward his sister. “Are you sure you’re done?”

She nodded, her expression a little too fearful for comfort.

Jeth glanced at Sierra in a silent question.

“The calculations are as accurate as humanly possible.”

Jeth grimaced. Whatever that meant. He turned back to the front and switched on the main comm. “We’re jumping now, people. Get ready.” Then, not bothering with goggles, he leaned forward and placed his finger against the button that would the engage the jump. Butterflies flitted through his stomach. “I guess if this doesn’t work none of us will be around to complain about it, right?”