“I have never doubted you.”
She tucked her chin. “That’s because you can’t see the panicked mess I am inside.”
“Kufzasin do not have flesh-penetrating vision, it’s true,” he said with great seriousness. “But I have seen what youdo, and I say that matters more.”
His sincerity and his trust warmed her as much as his kisses had, just in a different way. Was that the devotion of his people? Partnership and passion, faith and feeling.
“Let’s go save the ship,” she whispered.
He didn’t release her hand as they returned to the crew working on the unit. Suvan’s pale eyes locked on them, blinking once, and Felicity would’ve laughed at Griiek’s audible gulp but that seemed rude. Instead, she concentrated on the chief engineer’s explanation of the containment unit and how it would negate the harmonic distortion plaguing their systems and yada yada.
Okay, so most of her focus was actually on Ellix’s big paw engulfing her fingers. Anyway, it wasn’t like she could offer sensible critique of a “capacitorus”, as Suvan called it. At first she thought the name referenced the large size of the unit and the long conduits of tubing, one at each end, that created a vaguely brontosaurus-looking device suspended in the middle ofthe room. But as the engineer went on—and on—her translator deciphered that the unit functioned as a sort of capacitor for storing an energy charge in the donut-shaped torus of the core component.
Suvan finally wrapped up, saying, “Assuming the distortion can be nullified by the wavelengths we calculated, the draw on the engines will be significant. We have one opportunity to do this.”
In the tense silence as they considered the situation, an urgent beep sounded.
“Captain,” Delphine said. “Not that we can do anything to stop it yet, but you should know, that alarm meant we’ve likely crossed into the Zarnox Zone. There aren’t hard borders to the zone, but at our speed, we’re probably already out of reach of any jurisdictional authority.”
Felicity swallowed hard. “So we’re really on our own.”
“That would be preferable,” Suvan grumbled. “Instead, the worst of the worst are out here in the zone with us.”
Ellix squeezed her hand. “I’ve been told this cruise launched on a chance and a hope. Let’s see if that’s enough—along with some engineering—to get our ship back.”
In retrospect, she should’ve paid more attention in those math and science classes, but since astrophysics hadn’t been offered at community college she wouldn’t be too hard on herself. Hey, probably her therapist would consider that progress. So while Suvan and Griiek led their captain aside to show him how to control the capacitorus, she took a few deep breaths of the metallic air.
The brochure she’d written for the Cosmic Connections Cruise had proclaimed lightspeed dating was all about taking a chance on hope. When she’d mentioned it to Ellix before, he’d seemed to dismiss the sentiment as purely silly. To find out nowthat Captain Never-Smiles had listened… Maybe she had a knack for this gig after all.
And maybe she was getting the knack of a certain captain too.
She felt almost not too freaked out by the time Ellix returned to her.
“Once we activate the capacitorus, the interference will cut off our comms until we separate the distortion from our systems,” he told her quietly. “Is there anything you need before we begin?”
“No. Everything I have is right here.” Hearing herself, her face heated. “I mean here on the ship. Not…” She cut her gaze away from him, only then realizing the rest of the crew had gone. “Anyway. I should tell you…”
He straightened, his whiskers flaring. “Yes?”
“I didn’t really understand Suvan’s calculations. Do we actually stand a chance, or is this more of a hope?”
His whiskers slicked back. “Maybe a wish?”
Despite her nerves, she smiled. “This time I won’t ask if you are teasing.” She turned to face the capacitorus. “Let’s do this.”
“Felicity.” He caught her elbow, swiveling her back around, and his expression was severe. “Whatever happens, I need you to obey me. And nay, I am not teasing.”
She studied the fierce glint in his golden eye. “You are the captain.”
He extended one arm and she took two steps into his embrace.
Chapter 12
His delicate closed worlder, walking beside him into the unknown. Ellix’s muscles tightened with the violent urge to put his mark on her, so that the universe itself would know she was taken, that he would protect her with teeth and claws, with his life.
With his love.
And yet he was the one asking her to take this risk?
