Chapter 15 : The Next Breadcrumb

Theodora's POV We were approaching the last known location of the cargo ship holding Sol. I was feeling better now than I did earlier after talking to Mads. He always knew how to make me feel better. A smile curled the side of my mouth thinking about how he demolished a stack of pancakes. Ellie couldn't get them out fast enough. I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss him. Because I did. I missed how he knew me and how I never felt the need to hide anything from him. After all, Mads was my friend before we fling-ified our relationship. I sighed, not knowing why I dwelled over him. Mads and I would never happen. I wasn't a loving person. I wasn't passionate or romantic. I didn't even like cuddling. Mads was too sweet and too thoughtful to not be reciprocated. Sure he came across as rude and cold at times, but once he made that connection, Mads was a real softie. Stupid to think we could be casual. I liked him too much to be transactional. But I had to leave it there. I'd only keep hurting him. Though I did expect him to be slightly angry when I told him I had sex with Javier, but he almost couldn't care less. Confusing in and of itself. Then there was a question of Javier. Another fling. I couldn't seem to keep it in my pants when I was around him. But I could rest easy knowing it was a mutual lack of control. Fuck, I was stupid. But I wouldn't feel guilty about it anymore. The main objection to bringing Sol home kept getting muddied by my chemistry with Javier. I had to start fucking focusing, not focusing on fucking. Clearly, Javier and I could not be left alone together or I'd beg him to fuck me again. I grumbled under my breath, feeling my insides twist again at the memory of him between my legs. The man was a damn cunnilingus expert. Would it kill him to be bad at something? Disappoint me so my body wouldn't want him anymore? Apparently. Stars in the distance moved closer and fell past us as Benji guided us through an asteroid belt. He had both hands on the controls, a controlled look of concentration pinching his brows together. "How close are we?" I asked, keeping an eye out for any ship nearby. I figured that by now the ship would be long gone, but you never know. "A few minutes," Benji answered. "Keep the comms open just in case. Let me know if you get a ping on any radio waves," I ordered. If we get a ping, we could trace it. Hopefully, get a hit on the VIN and go from there. I'd find a win even if we got a finger in the right direction. It would also give us a little warning if any other ships got within a few miles of us. I certainly didn't want the Pantomath getting a jump on us. I could only hope he was far behind us. "Any news?" Javier's voice interrupted my thoughts. Damn it. The sound of his voice sent a new jolt of guilt into the bottom of my belly. "Not yet," I answered, not daring to look at him for fear of getting sucked in by his tempting mouth. Benji kept moving forward. Then a light ping sounded from our communications kiosk. "We're getting an incoming transmission," Benji announced. "Feed it through," I said. He nodded, clicking on the message and turning up the volume as I stepped behind the controls. Javier looked over my shoulder. I could practically feel the anxiety rolling off him. Considerably stronger than any awkwardness we shared this morning. "SOS…SOS…This is Doctor Amelia Perez…" the fuzzy transmission garbled. "That's the doctor who vanished at the same time Sol did," Javier murmured, waiting to hear what else the transmission had to say. "...We've been struck by an EMP. We've lost guns. Communications. Please help. SOS…SOS," the voice of the doctor was warbled, panicked, and it looped again. Repeating the same short message over and over. "Where's it coming from?" Javier asked, his shoulders drawn up in visible tension. Benji fiddled with some controls, tracing the message. "Not far!" He glanced up at me, awaiting my order. "Proceed with caution," I ordered. Slowly, a cargo ship came into my vision. Hard to discern without lights, still and motionless. "Scan it for signs of life," I demanded. Javier was silent next to me, waiting impatiently. "No signs of life aboard, Captain," Benji reported. A sharp breath left Javier's lips. "Oh, God." His hand tightened against the control console, knuckles turning white. "Fuck." His voice shook as if moments from breaking. I whipped around, snapping my fingers brutishly. "Hey. We don't know anything yet," I stated. It was true. There could be no signs of life because everyone was gone. Or they could be dead. But I would stay hopeful. I didn't believe our search was going to end with a dead girl. I looked back at Benji. "Bring us in. We're boarding." "Aye. Aye." Benji started to bring us gingerly next to the vessel. He scanned the spacecraft again. "The seal on the ship is compromised. It won't respond to my commands." "Then I'm cutting," I replied. I tapped the comm, announcing, "Daxton, get suited up. We're going spacewalking." Instantly, I received a reply, "Hell yeah." Daxton loved to spacewalk, especially all the tools that came with it including a plasma saw. Javier grabbed my shoulder. "I'm going with you." "No shit," I scoffed. I knew that already. He had to see firsthand what happened on that cargo ship. "Go get a suit in the cargo hold. Ever gone spacewalking before?" He paled. Yeah, I already knew the answer to that one. "No. I haven't." "Then all you have to do is stand back, and follow us, one foot in front of the other. I'll even put a fancy tether on you so you won't float away into the nothing," I replied before heading to the good. "Good luck, Cap'n!" Benji shouted after me, continuing his glide to rest aside the half-extended gangway from the cargo ship. When Javier and I got down to the cargo bay, Daxton started getting into his suit. By now, Dax and I had it down to a science. We could get in and out in a space suit in about six minutes flat. "What are we expecting to find?" Daxton asked, pulling on the weighted suit up his legs. It looked more like military armor than the older spacesuits. "Hopefully, not any bodies." I got the supplies from our closet, handing Javier one of the second skin suits that went on under the actual space suit so we didn't freeze when we were out there. "Put this on," I ordered, stripping down into my sports bra and briefs to keep as little friction between me and the second skin as possible. The more clothing, the colder you'd be. Fortunately, I was quite comfortable with my body, so I had no reservations about stripping down. Besides Javier had already seen me in my sportswear last night. Javier followed my example, trying to undress as nonchalantly as possible. I tried not to look at him in the blue light but watched all of his muscles move underneath his skin. He was just as cut as I thought he was. Large muscles contoured his chest, moving into chiseled abs. My belly churned with desire, my mouth dry with the longing to run my tongue along the dips in his muscles, down to trace the bulging vein that disappeared into his briefs. Damn it. Could he put on his clothes a little faster? I turned away, zipping up the back of my second skin, gathering the suits reminiscent of military armor with a perfect indention for the helmet. They were worn around the joints and reinforced with extra stitching. Practically molded to my body by now. A light shade of brown separates us from the black. Over the intercom, Benji announced, "We're as close as we're going to get. Ready when you are." Good. Daxton helped Javier into the spacesuit, making sure there weren't any holes or scratches to compromise the safety of it. "Damn, this is heavy," Javier stated, the unnatural weight of the suit weighing on him in weird spots. "You won't feel it out in space," I said, zipping up all the nooks and crannies in my suit until it was sealed to my body as close as possible. I clipped a tether around a loop on Javier's waist. When we were ready, we opened the middle door between the cargo bay and outside. Double-checked our safeties and helmets, and that our oxygen was pumping. I turned to Javier and Daxton. "Ready?" I asked through our comm. Daxton gave me a thumbs up and Javier nodded, still looking oddly pale. "I'm not going to let anything happen to you, Javier," I promised. "Just float behind me. It'll get disorienting if you fight it too much." "Okay." Let's do this. I closed the middle door and hit a button that sucked all the oxygen out of this little compartment to reduce pressure between the ship and open space. Then, without further adieu, we opened the main bay door. Benji extended the gangway with just a few meters gap between both bridges. Weightlessness hit me instantly. Slowly, one step at a time, we walked across the gangway, using the pressure from our gravity boots to keep from floating into the nothing. I stared out at the stars…the black. A beautiful void. I'm sure it would be terrifying to a newbie, knowing any step could be your last. You couldn't even hear your steps and had to keep looking down to ensure you were still on the gangway. The tether behind me pulled Javier gently across the bridge. I looked over my shoulder as far as my mobility would allow me with my helmet, noticing how he stared out at the nothing with wonderment. He had never seen or felt anything so spectacular. Once we reached the gap in the bridge, Daxton and I easily got over it, pausing to make sure Javier stayed calm and followed our instructions. The cargo ship was completely dark. Didn't even respond when we tried to override its lockdown controls. My brother opened his satchel, using a plasma saw to cut into the metal. There were no sparks. No sound. "There's still pressure inside," Daxon announced, the plasma saw warbling against the force. The pressure was a good sign. The interior was still intact. He cut a square hole, discarding the metal when he finally got inside. The inside of the cargo hold was torn apart. Scavenged. Even the shelves were scrapped of their metal. So the ship was ransacked. That was not a good sign. But it could have happened after the ship lost power and after they were rescued. We continued forward, closing the middle door and creating a new pressurized seal. Good. "Let's look around," I stated. "Be on your guard." Never knew when a group of scavengers was waiting to hijack our ship and leave us stranded on an empty ship. Oddly enough, the ship was completely devoid of life. And bodies. "No one is here," Javier said, looking around the living quarters, completely turned upside down. All scrap was picked clean. "Not even bodies," Daxton stated. Usually, even if they were hit by a ravager ship, there would be bodies. Space pirates were a violent bunch. Pressure sickness ran rampant during extended space travel, easy to make even the most seasoned space goers fall sick to psychosis. Usually in deep space, at the edge, where there are no more stars, only blackness. That much dark could break a mind. But this ship…didn't have any bodies at all. If they were hit with an EMP, then whoever hit them would have come aboard and slaughtered them once they were defenseless. Unless… "There's nothing here," Javier interrupted my train of thought. "Nothing at all. No Sol. No Amelia. Nothing to say where they were going." Frustration welled in his voice. "Damn it!" "We will find her," I snapped. "There is always something. Even a breadcrumb." Daxton stepped away from us, looking into some of the sleep compartments, common on cargo ships since they weren't designed for extended trips. "Hey, Theo, check this out!" he called from the other room. "Yeah?" I answered, following his lead into the cockpit. And there it was. A breadcrumb. The pilot, blue in the face, a slumped corpse in his seat. His head was beaten in. Coagulated blood like it had been some time since his death. "Holy shit," Javier said over the com. "What happened to him?" "Looks like he was bludgeoned," I replied, using my gloved hands to tilt his head from side to side. "Clear signs of space psychosis." "What makes you say that?" Javier asked. "The color of his eyes, the whites are muddied with burst blood vessels," I stated. "Do you recognize him?" "I do…he was the guard that Sol supposedly left with. I guess the intel was correct there. Damn," Javier said with a heavy mournful sigh. "What do you think happened to the rest of the crew?" "I have an idea," I murmured, gesturing to the pilot console, noticing several odd things missing. The wheel for one is useless without its ship. You can't pick it up like a key and replace another helm with it. Daxton signed. "Only one group of ravagers does that." Javier gave him a questioning look. "They like to take the helm as a trophy for every ship they ransack." "The Lunar Ravagers," I added, standing up straight. "And they could be anywhere." I watched as Javier's face screwed up in a combination of irritation and desperation. "So we have nothing?" "On the contrary, mon frair-y," I started. "One of my crew members is an ex-ravager." And he was my next breadcrumb.