Page 282 of Gladiators of the Vagabond Boxset

“I think everything is pretty under control. You should go find her,” Eoin remarked from where he was leaning over the main console.

His mercury eyes were on the readings, where they’d been for the past ten minutes as we re-calibrated the engines yet again.

Our high speeds to get to Arianna had done a huge number on the system, and I had to admit that Eoin had been invaluable in ironing out as many of the issues as we could while flying.

I had expected the young Terafin male to help me refine the ore and then leave, but he’d planted himself in the engine room and just stayed.

When Jakar had done that in the first months after we’d regained our freedom, I’d gone a little crazy.

The young Pretorian just never stopped asking questions.

I was glad that he’d found his own niche on the ship; now we only occasionally worked together, which worked.

Eoin, however… he didn’t speak much either, and he worked with intense focus and precision.

Sometimes I forgot he was there. I suspected that when I went to sleep, at most, he crawled behind some consoles and caught some z’s right on the floor.

I might’ve struggled to find time to hunt down Arianna when she was avoiding me, but he was definitely avoiding Tori.

Grunting to acknowledge what he’d said, I pointed my tail his way.

He didn’t look up from the readings, so I jabbed his shoulder with the sharp tip until he did.

“Like you have taken the time for your girl? You are actually living in my engine room. When was the last time you took a fucking shower?”

He had the good grace to look a little embarrassed, but he was spared from further conversation when the coms turned on and Ziame’s voice filled the awkward silence.

“Da’vi, can you prep the engine for a slightly faster-than-normal FTL jump?

We appear to have company…” Cursing, I rushed to push Eoin aside and pull up the sensor readings so I could see for myself.

Yes, there, the clear signature of the Kertinal Raptor Class vessel.

The same one that had been chasing us since we rescued Arianna.

“Definitely Allignon, damn it! I’m sorry this is happening, Ziame.

I hate causing all this trouble,” I said as I worked, reading the stats and calculating the safe margins.

I asked Akri to double-check my predictions while I started prepping the engine for an enhanced FTL jump.

It was a risk to do that after we’d suffered such catastrophic damage, but the coating Eoin had helped me apply should have improved the odds and repaired the microfractures.

“Shut up, Da’vi. This isn’t your fault. Besides, we voted, right, brothers?

” Ziame said, and his query was followed by a chorus of ayes and various urgings for me to shut up.

Yeah, the Kertinillian Army had fostered a sense of brotherhood, but I’d been thoroughly disillusioned, males like Allignon were everywhere, and they called the shots.

It was these gladiators that really knew how to have a guy’s back.

“Okay, okay, calculations are in. We can do a thirty-second jump at a hundred and ten percent. Is that enough?” I said.

Sharing a brief look with Eoin, the younger male started plugging the cables in with calm, steady hands.

I’d shown him how to engage the enhanced drive when we’d been refurbishing everything right after our trip to Zosma Y.

It still made me uneasy, but at least I was certain that Eoin was a good person.

He also didn’t understand the complete mechanics of it, so he should not be able to replicate it.

Chloe’s softer, serene voice over the com was reassuring.

“I’ve calculated the route. We’d land on top of Yengar Space Station with a thirty-second FTL jump at those speeds.

Are they less inclined to bother us in front of witnesses, Da’vi?

” I wasn’t sure if that was going to be the case, but it was the best we could hope for.

Leaping away from Yengar would make us even more likely to miss Drameil’s auction of those human slaves.

“Best shot. We can’t push the engines any more…

We need a cool-down after this leap to reassess.

” They should hold, but I’d want major diagnostics after the jump to make sure this new material was holding.

If it worked… I didn’t know how that made me feel.

What if I had found a way to permanently enhance our engines?

I still didn’t want the Kertinillian Army to get their hands on the technology, but it was proving helpful to us.

“They are closing in. Engaging evasive maneuvers,” Kitan declared.

The readings on the console screen showed me the ship right on our tail.

They definitely had a faster cruising speed; we needed to get this FTL up and running.

Kitan’s flying was making our ship move erratically on the screen, but it wasn’t noticeable as long as our gravity generator was keeping up.

“Ready?” I asked Eoin, then checked in with Akri one last time for the calculations, adding in the erratic variables of the evasively moving Vagabond.

My companion nodded right after he plugged in a final cable, and Akri was calling out an affirmative as well.

I found myself holding my breath in anticipation for a moment, it was like being back in the engine room of the Balista, confidently announcing that we could leap into FTL without knowing the true risks.

I knew the risks now, and I wasn’t feeling confident, yet.

“We are ready for FTL,” I announced, my hand shaking against the console.

“Everybody strap in, if you haven’t already.

” I suddenly regretted that I hadn’t made time, in between all the repairs and the anxious work on the Vagabond’s systems. I should have told Arianna that I loved her, and that I wasn’t going to let her run scared.

“Go,” Eoin said next to me, and I couldn’t keep the shock from my face when I realized that the male had read where my thoughts had gone. “You should talk with your female. I can flick that switch and keep an eye on the readings. It’s only thirty seconds. Go now!”

My feet were carrying me out of the engine room before I had fully thought this through. The leap could happen at any moment, all Kitan and Chloe were doing was creating enough distance between this ship and our pursuer to safely go into FTL. We couldn’t risk dragging them with us somehow.

When Babbit appeared out of one of the cleaning bot vents just down the hallway, I felt like it was a sign.

“Where’s Arianna?” I called out, breaking into a full sprint when the male Riho turned around and started running, his black-and-blue-striped tail waving like a plume behind him.

I had suspected that the animal had been forsaking me to hang out with her; that was proven when he dove into an empty set of crew quarters and Arianna’s voice rang out to greet him.