“I moved around a bit before you caught me.” He gave a half-smile with a hint of guilt.
Blaize had to retrieve a small stepstool to reach the sticky web.
He helped her wrap it around the remaining threads and fit it to the hole.
“It works. A perfect fix.” She gave him a happy smile. “At least temporarily, until I can get replacement parts.”
Cifer’s heart pounded with her approval.
Each cycle, Blaize found items Cifer could help her with, usually after a meal. After a few cycles, there were no more small projects she could take to him. For some reason, the lack of time together made her uncomfortable. Probably because he was bored and lonely and locked up. The more she got to know him, the more uncomfortable she was with keeping him in a cage. Perhaps she could find a way to fix that.
“Dez?” Blaize entered the galley where the big gray male cooked with such ease, as if he hadn’t recently lost a hand.
“This about Cifer?” he asked without looking up from the pan.
“Well, you know he’s been helping me. Small repairs, but I could use an extra hand to do some efficiency tests…” She trailed off. Did she really just tell Dez she needed an extra hand? Her cheeks heated. So insensitive.
“You need more of his help.”
She bristled at the word “need.” It would be possible to accomplish the task without assistance, but more risky and slower. “Not need. But he’s very clever. And strong.”
Dez faced her. His yellow-eyed gaze seemed to cut through her layers to parts of her she didn’t care to examine.
“Never mind.” She spun, intending to retreat.
“Wait.”
Dez’s command halted her steps.
“It’s fine. We’ll be at Cassan soon. I’m sure I can get—” She cut off the word help, regretting her decision to come to Dez in the first place.
“You trust him to help you?”
“I do. We’ve been working in his cell on assemblies I could bring to him. He hasn’t made any threatening moves. And if I’m honest, I’m pretty sure he can get out of his cell somehow, although the door is never unlocked and nothing is ever out of place, but he knows things. Maybe from when he was on the ship before we put him in the cell, but I’m not sure. He just seems bored and?—”
“It’s your decision.”
“What about Cyra?”
“She trusts her partners. You have our best interests at heart.”
If only Dez would decide and take the pressure off her. If she let Cifer out and something happened, she’d feel horrible. But she’d spent cycles with him, or at least parts of cycles. And he was always respectful and non-threatening. It could be a ruse, but for what?
They were nearly at Cassan. He had everything to lose if he did something dumb and the crew decided to space him.
Once they got there, she might never see him again. The fact that it mattered if she saw him again after they landed disturbed her, but not as much as the idea of not seeing him.
On the station, Cyra would be able to recruit another engineer if she didn’t think Blaize could handle the job. Better to have everything in working order and as perfect as she could get it. Dez couldn’t safely help her. Veda was too short and busy with her plants and Dez’s medical care. Bodi and Rhysa would help in an emergency, but not with cycle-to-cycle stuff. They had their own jobs.
She sighed. Her decision. Her stomach reminded her how it felt to cross a wormhole. “I’ll test it. See how it goes.”
“I’m one heartbeat away. And I can take him, one-handed.” Dez grinned at her over his shoulder.
“Right,” she agreed, unsure if he meant for her to laugh. “I’ll…uh…” Leave before she said anything stupid.
Blaize paused outside the cargo bay door. She had to get her head straight before she tried to speak to Cifer. There was something about him that made logic fly out the porthole. Princess’s crate was empty. Cyra kept the thuringy with her more and more lately. But that meant Blaize couldn’t avoid her decision by playing with the pup.
Cifer stretched out in the cell, doing pushups without a shirt on. His muscles were pumped, and he’d probably been at the activity for a while. He sped up and then added a clap. When she expected him to quit, he started doing one hand for a two count and then the other. She wasn’t sure how long she watched him, a tightness winding between her legs.
