Zyair refocused the navcube. It zoomed over the extensive swampland until it came to a city.
The static images showed it to be a large community. He commanded the cube to locate a shipyard—and it found one.
“You’re going to walk in there and buy a power core?” Kurt sneered. “With what?”
“We are not going to buy it,” Zyair said.
My mouth went dry. “We’re going to steal a power core from a Nirzk shipyard?”
His emerald eyes fastened on me. “It is the only way theStardrifterwill ever fly again.”
“Why don’t you just steal us a ship?” Kurt had his arms crossed as he glowered at Zyair. “If you’re going to go to all that trouble. Face it, theStardrifteris trashed beyond repair.”
“She’s not trashed,” I snapped. “She can be repaired. And stealing a slipstream-capable ship would be much more difficult than just getting a core.”
Kurt snorted a derisive laugh. “Just sayin’. Stealing a ship would get us out of here fast. Which would be good.”
Zyair lifted a brow. “Nirzk ships are programmed to their pilots. Although you have a lot in common with a manticore, so I am not sure the ship will know the difference.”
Kurt frowned at him. “There must be a way past it. You figure it out. You’re the almighty Drake. I’m just a lowly human.”
I think I actually rolled my eyes. The Primal word for ‘lowly’ meant a few other derisive things, which I doubted Kurt realized. What an idiot.
Zyair’s lips twitched as he turned to his brothers. “Rhodes and I will get the core. Xandros, cut sheet metal from the buildings in thatsettlement. Jaz, you can help with the repairs, too.” He glanced to me. “How are your skills at mechanics?”
“Not bad,” I said cautiously. “But won’t you need help getting the core?”
His lips twitched. “We have done assignments in enemy territory.”
“The last one did not go so well,” Rhodes reminded him.
“This one will go fine,” Zyair stated. “They do not know where we crashed, or evenifwe crashed. This city is small by Nirzk standards. It will be easy.”
Okay, that had to be a simplification. Rhode’s brows lifted, but he didn’t say anything. Xandros opened his mouth, glanced to me, and shut it again.
My pulse was galloping like a racehorse. They were going into a Nirzk occupied city to do this. It had to be dangerous as hell. “What happens if you get into trouble?” I asked Zyair. I groped for the Primal equivalent, and ended up switching to English. “What is the Plan B?”
He took a deep breath and answered in the same language. “I know not the meaning of ‘Plan B’.”
After I explained it, Xandros answered my question. “There is no Plan B.”
While Xandros returned to tearing trees out of the ground and laying them on top ofStardrifter, Rhodes and Zyair prepared to leave.
I hung around with Yani in the engine room, but I was all thumbs. My mind was focused only on one thing—that Zyair would be going deep into enemy territory to get us this core.
When I dropped the spanner for the third time, Yani picked it up and waved an impatient hand at me. “Go see him off,” she ordered.
“But—”
“You’re not any helplike this. Go!”
I went. By the thumping along the hull, Xandros wasn’t in any better state about being left behind than I was.
I found Rhodes and Zyair in, of all places, the locker room. They were applying tape to human boots. It took me a moment to realize they’d sliced the boots open to make them large enough for their feet, and now were taping them up again.
Rhodes glanced at me when I walked in. He rose, tucked both boots and tape under one arm, then turned to Zyair.
“Fix this,” he said, and walked out.
