Stellar Debts and Spicy Jets

Chapter 8: Manual Labor

"I love the honesty in this relationship," Felix whispered, his voice cracking as the last of the cabin's residual heat began to vanish into the sub-zero void of the cargo bay.

"Great. Now get your hands off my waist and help me figure out if this ship is officially a coffin or just a very expensive, very cold metal box," Odette replied, though she didn’t actually move. Her body was still a furnace against his chest, a stark contrast to the frost creeping up the bulkhead.

"I’m fairly sure it’s a coffin with a really nice sound system," Felix said, teeth beginning to chatter. He pulled back, his breath a thick plume of white. "I fried the Core-Sync, Odette. The drive is fine, but the ship’s brain is basically scrambled eggs. We’re not going anywhere without a Phase-Flux bypass."

Odette stood up, her movements stiff from the cold, and pointed a gloved finger toward the jagged horizon visible through the viewport. "There. About three clicks north. You see that silhouette? The one that looks like a skeletal whale?"

Felix squinted, rubbing his arms. "The crashed Aegis cruiser? Please tell me you aren't suggesting a scenic hike in minus-forty-degree weather to go grave-robbing."

"It’s not a hike, it’s a scavenge. Those cruisers use the same modular bypass systems as the Pelican. If we can rip one out of their secondary engine room, we might have a chance of getting off this rock before the Vultar find us."

"And the air? My lungs are already starting to feel like they’re being scraped by sandpaper."

"The suits in the locker have forty minutes of oxygen each. Maybe thirty-five if you keep complaining and using up your lung capacity," she said, already heading toward the cockpit to grab their gear.

"Thirty-five minutes? That’s barely enough time for a decent lunch, let alone a high-stakes heist on a derelict warship!" Felix scrambled after her, tripping over a dead scavenger drone. "And what about the radiation? That cruiser looks like it leaked its soul all over the crater!"

"Then move fast, Starling. And put on some damn socks. If I have to amputate your toes, I’m charging you extra."

The trek across the lunar surface was a miserable symphony of crunching ice and Felix’s heavy breathing over the comms. The Aegis cruiser was a nightmare of twisted alloy and frozen corpses, its hull cracked open like a rotten egg.

"Okay, I’m in the engine room," Felix wheezed, his visor fogging up as he wrestled with a rusted access panel. "Odette, tell me again why I’m the one crawling into the hole filled with glowing green sludge while you’re standing guard?"

"Because you’re the pilot, Felix! You know what a bypass looks like! If I grab it, I’ll probably just break it into three pieces," her voice crackled in his ear, punctuated by the rhythmic thud of her boots against the deck.

"I’ve found it! It’s... oh, it’s beautiful. It’s also covered in some kind of alien mold that I’m eighty percent sure is sentient." He grunted, yanking the glowing component free. "Got it! Let’s get out of—"

A sharp, static hiss cut through the comms. "Felix. Stop. Look at the console next to you."

"Why? Is it going to tell me my horoscope? Because I’m guessing it says 'Run like hell.'"

"The terminal. It’s still humming. This cruiser... it wasn't shot down. It was scuttled."

Felix leaned over the flickering screen, his gloved fingers dancing across the keys. A surveillance log popped up, dated only two days ago. A face appeared on the screen—a man with a scar running through his lip. Vane. Odette’s former employer.

"Asset 412 is in position," Vane’s voice echoed through the derelict's speakers. "The drive’s ping is active. Once the pilot clears the sector, the Hive will wake up. They’ll be the bait that draws out the Vultar fleet. Sacrifice the girl. Secure the coordinates."

Felix felt a coldness that had nothing to do with the moon’s temperature. "Odette... he set you up. The drive wasn't a prize. It was a homing beacon. You were never supposed to survive the decryption."

Silence stretched between them, heavy and suffocating.

"I know," she whispered. "I just didn't think he’d use a cruiser full of his own men to make it look convincing."

"We have to go. Now!" Felix grabbed the bypass, but as he turned, his oxygen gauge let out a mournful, high-pitched beep. "Uh, Odette? My tank just hit five percent. The radiation must have eaten through the seal."

"Mine’s at four," she said, her voice remarkably calm. "The walk back is ten minutes."

"Okay, so we’re dead. That’s the plan? We just become very attractive ice sculptures?"

"Shut up and come here," she commanded, grabbing his arm and pulling him toward her. She unlatched a secondary hose from her suit and clicked it into his intake valve. "We share. One breath for you, one for me. We sync our rhythm, Felix. Just like on the bunk."

"You want to play 'pass the air' while we’re standing in a radioactive graveyard?" Felix’s eyes widened behind his visor as they pressed their helmets together to stabilize the connection.

"It’s the only way, Starling. Now, breathe. Slow. With me."

As they stumbled back across the frozen waste, the intimacy was even more intense than their night in the cargo bay. Every breath Felix took was warm, flavored by the scent of her skin and the frantic, rhythmic beat of her heart echoing through the shared link. They were a single organism, swaying through the dark, their lives literally flowing between their lips through a plastic tube.

"You... you’re doing it again," Felix gasped, his head light as they reached the Rusty Pelican’s airlock.

"Doing what?"

"Making me fall for you in the most life-threatening way possible. It’s a very toxic trait, Odette."

"Save it for the ship," she grunted, slamming the airlock cycle button.

They collapsed onto the floor of the cockpit as the pressure equalized, ripping their helmets off and gasping for the recycled, metallic air. Felix didn't wait. He lunged for the bypass, slamming it into the ship’s core. The Rusty Pelican shivered, then groaned, as golden light flooded the consoles.

"We’re back! We’re alive! I’m going to kiss the toaster!" Felix cheered, his hands flying over the controls.

"Felix," Odette said, her voice trembling as she looked out the main viewport.

"Not now, honey! I’m busy being a genius!"

"Felix! Look up!"

He looked. The bruised purple sky of the Forbidden Zone was no longer empty. Thousands of white-hot streaks were tearing through the atmosphere, a literal curtain of fire descending toward their position.

"Is that... a greeting party?" Felix whispered, his face pale.

"No," Odette said, her hand finding his and gripping it hard. "That’s the Aegis fleet. And they aren't here to rescue us. They’re here to burn the evidence."