Stellar Debts and Spicy Jets

Chapter 10: Ghost in the Machine

"And unfortunately for us, the landlord is home, and they look like they’re about to tow us," Felix squeaked, his fingers digging into the armrests of his chair so hard his knuckles turned white.

"Felix, shut up. Don't even breathe," Odette whispered, her hand instantly snapping to his shoulder, her grip tightening until it was borderline painful.

"Breathing is kind of my favorite hobby, Odette. Along with surviving, which is currently a very distant second on my priority list!"

"They haven't spotted us yet," she hissed, her eyes darting across the dead, dark monitors of the cockpit. "We're running completely cold. No engines, no life support, no active sensors. If we don't emit any thermal signatures, we might just look like a floating piece of space junk."

"Space junk? I'll have you know the Rusty Pelican is a classic! A vintage masterpiece of Core-worlds engineering!" Felix protested, though he lowered his voice to a frantic whisper. "Okay, fine, it's a floating dumpster, but it's our floating dumpster. And right now, we are sitting directly in the headlights of an entire alien armada!"

"Felix, look at the main viewport. Eleven o'clock," Odette murmured, her silver-streaked hair brushing against his cheek as she leaned over him. "One of their scout ships just detached from the main carrier. It’s heading this way."

Felix squinted through the reinforced glass. A sleek, jagged vessel bristling with red scanner arrays was slowly sweeping the local sector, its searchlights cutting through the dark void like twin daggers.

"Okay, think, Starling, think," Felix muttered, his hands dancing uselessly over the dark, unpowered console. "What do scout ships look for?"

"Heat. Power signatures. Electromagnetic leakage," Odette said, her breath warm against his neck. "Which we don't have. Except..." She stopped, her eyes slowly drifting down to his chest, and then to her own.

"Except us," Felix said, his throat suddenly dry. "The neural sync. The drive's biometric lattice. Odette, we're practically glowing like a neon sign in the dark. My lower back is still vibrating from the feedback, and I am highly certain your skin is currently at a cozy hundred and five degrees."

"My heart rate is too high," Odette muttered, stepping closer to him, her fingers curling around his collar. "Every time I look at you, the lingering sync pulses. We have to suppress it. Now."

"Suppress it? How? Do you want to try some very unromantic, totally platonic thinking? Like tax codes? Or my uncle’s weird foot fungus?"

"Just hold still," Odette growled.

Before Felix could utter another sarcastic remark, she grabbed his face and pulled him into a sudden, bruising kiss. It was desperate, a raw and tactical attempt to override the neural sync by forcing their heart rates into a steady, matching rhythm. But the second their lips met, the lingering "Harmonic Sync" did the exact opposite. A massive, white-hot wave of electrical heat shot straight down Felix's spine, making him let out a muffled groan against her mouth.

"Whoa," Felix gasped, pulling back just an inch, his lips wet and his mind spinning. "Okay, that did not suppress anything. In fact, I think my personal thermal signature just went up by five hundred percent. My pants are definitely emitting measurable heat right now."

"Shut up! It was a distraction technique!" Odette’s face was a deep, vibrant crimson, her hand trembling slightly against his chest where his flight suit was still half-unzipped. "Why are you like this?"

"Because I'm charming, and also panicking! Now, let me go! I have an actual, brilliant, highly stupid plan!" Felix scrambled out of the pilot's chair, nearly tripping over his own boots as he dashed toward the back of the ship.

"What are you doing in the galley?" Odette yelled, following him into the narrow corridor.

"Saving our lives! Hand me those scrap metal parts from the dead drones we piled up! The shiny ones with the copper wiring!" Felix shouted back.

He returned to the cockpit dragging the ship's ancient, grease-stained microwave. He was holding a bundle of loose wires in his teeth and a highly unstable battery cell in one hand.

"Felix," Odette said, her brow furrowing in utter disbelief. "Please tell me you're not going to try to cook a meal while we're being hunted by an alien fleet."

"This is the Chef's Special, Odette. I call it the 'Go Away, Alien Scum' casserole," Felix said, stuffing the metallic drone scrap, copper coils, and the battery directly into the microwave. "The microwave operates on a 2.4 gigahertz frequency. If I bypass the safety latch, short-circuit the magnetron, and throw in these reflective drone parts, it'll create a localized, bouncing electromagnetic mess when I eject it. To their scanners, it'll look like a minor asteroid collision or a piece of exploding space debris."

"You want to use a kitchen appliance to fool a multi-trillion-credit military armada?"

"It's a very high-end microwave! It has a popcorn button!"

"Felix, if this fails, we are going to be blasted into molecular dust."

"And if it works, you owe me a very long, very naked apology in the cargo bay later," Felix grinned, his lopsided smile flashing in the dim light.

Odette let out a sharp, breathless laugh, her eyes shining with that dangerous, beautiful warmth. "Deal, Starling. Now launch the damn popcorn."

"Launching in three... two... one... ding!" Felix slammed the manual trash ejector lever.

The microwave shot out of the garbage chute, tumbling into the silent void. A second later, Felix manually triggered the remote override. A brilliant, crackling burst of green and silver static flared on their auxiliary radar screen, completely obscuring their quadrant.

"It's working," Odette whispered, leaning over his shoulder. Her breasts pressed firmly against his back, her warm breath tickling his ear. "The scout ship... it's changing course. It's heading toward the signal."

"See? I am a tactical genius," Felix purred, leaning back into her touch, his hands sliding down to rest on the curve of her hips. "Now, about that apology..."

"Don't get ahead of yourself, pilot," she whispered, her lips brushing his earlobe, sending a shiver straight to his toes. "We're still drifting."

"But we're drifting together. And frankly, it's getting a little warm in here again."

"Or maybe you just haven't zipped up your flight suit yet," she teased.

Suddenly, a massive, low-frequency hum vibrated through the floorboards, making Felix’s teeth rattle. The playful atmosphere vanished in an instant.

"Uh, Felix?" Odette's voice went deadly cold. "That doesn't sound like a microwave."

The entire cockpit was suddenly illuminated by a blinding, sickly green light. The Rusty Pelican lurched violently, its nose dipping downward.

"No, no, no!" Felix screamed, grabbing the useless yoke as the manual controls began to spin on their own. "We're caught! It's a tractor beam!"

"From where?" Odette demanded.

A shadow, vast and endless, swallowed the stars above them. A colossal Vultar heavy carrier, shaped like a jagged, obsidian ribcage, had materialized right over their ship, its docking bay glowing like an open, red mouth.

"Well, the bad news is, they found us," Felix squeaked, his hand desperately reaching out to grab hers as the ship was pulled upward.

"And the good news?" Odette asked, her knife sliding into her hand with a familiar, lethal click.

Felix looked at her, his lopsided grin trembling just a little. "We don't have to worry about freezing to death anymore. But you might want to zip up, honey. We're about to meet the in-laws."