HMS Valediction

Chapter 26.2

"What does that mean?"

Moon chuckles into his drink. "You're a shit liar."

The urge to throw my glass at his head courses through me again, so I shove it down and focus on Nuna. "I know you're a spy and lying is your most basic professional skill, but you should have told me. You should have let me in on this because I actually thought I was dying." My breath hitches. The air rushes from my lungs as I try to gasp and speak simultaneously. "I actually was dying."

Moon places his empty cup on the table. "You were fine. I was monitoring you the entire time."

"How?"

"Your suit."

They knew. I was never in danger. They knew exactly what I was going to do and how I was going to do it.

It all went according to plan and I had no idea.

It was an act.

I place the glass on the table and wrap the crackling blanket around me tighter. "I think I've endured enough deceit to last a lifetime. Can I go back to my cell, now?"

"Cell? Oh no, dear girl! I'm mighty disappointed at our Captain's sense of hospitality. Our star and savior will never see the inside of another cell aboard the HMS Valediction if I have any say in it."

"Don't make any promises I have to keep, Teeno," Moon grumbles as he rises toward the bar cart.

The emptiness in my stomach stretches to the rest of my body. Tricked. This whole time I was tricked into believing I was part of the team. Then I was duped into thinking I was sold as collateral. Then after believing I was in danger and on the brink of death, I learn all of it was controlled the entire time—no words could describe the exhaustion in my bones. I'm too tired to be angry.

"Am I excused, sir?" I plead with my eyes, hoping Teeno will just let me go so I can shower and begin concocting plans of my own.

"First, my dear, I have a surprise for you."

I want so much to roll my eyes, tell him he can fuck his surprise because I'm going to bed.

Teeno leans back into his chair, holding his sipped drink up to his lips. Mischief flashes in his deep blue eyes. "Ledi, is the surprise ready?"

"Yes, sir."

"Excellent. Let's take a stroll, shall we?"

I stand, the mylar crunching with each movement. At first, I want to ask if they're going to provide me with a new uniform, but I just want to get the stupid ordeal over with. As we parade through the passageways, none of the passengers react. I remember the finger-pointing, the laughing, the mockery of the people of the URE the last time I was pulled through the halls. 

I wrap the mylar around me tighter.

This is different. I have to remind myself. Teeno said it—I'm not a prisoner here. I'm a guest.  A guest wrapped in silver.

We descend in Teeno's cushy elevator and ride it down to the bottom of HMS Valediction, Teeno humming some unknown tune to fill the tense silence.

When we arrive, I realize it's the same holding that Nuna and I had trained in before. The hangar is the same as it was before with the exception of a new, small ship resting in the middle of the open space. It is black and disfigured like charred bits of meat left too long in hot oil.

It's a shape I can't identify—a twisted block of familiar metal yet unidentifiable from my wide range of alloy acumen. It reminds me so much of ARC10, but that's impossible. It reminds me of that piece of ARC10 that had been blown off by—