New Elysium: Breakout

Bumpy Ride Part 34

Red entering the pilot's chamber startled Ember more than coming upon the ship when she'd dropped out of hyperspace. 

He was missing his shirt, as she knew he would be, but he was striking without it all the same. Wordlessly she held out his shirt to him, which he took staring at her.  There was a question on his face that he didn't voice just yet. He slipped his shirt on back over his bare chest and muscles and Ember's mouth stopped being dry and she felt she could breathe again.

Her own shirt she just held in her hands, she was still wearing her white long-sleeved undershirt at least. It rode high on her waist as the nodes connecting her to the ship pulled it up. His eyes were drawn there first before he turned away. 

She wanted to tell him about her sudden panic, that she'd run away, but the hard set of his jaw made her slightly afraid of what he'd say to any of that. He wasn't too happy waking up without her. She could see that now. But he wasn't pushing her either. 

I just want to go back to that last hour...

He waited, and for a moment so did she, before remembering why she'd called out to him in the first place. "There's another ship out there, just waiting."

"Have they tried to make contact?"  He moved to the chair, all business, and sat down studying the image projected there in front of him. Placing a palm down he connected his augments to the ship and she felt him accessing the ships data records. He already knew what kind of ship it wasn't; non-military grade, but that didn't make it nonlethal. 

Ember was a small ship whose greatest weapon was the Vesper on board. They had no weapons, only shields.  

Red promised me a railgun. 

She smiled at the thought, even as he was bent over the desk figuring out their next move. "So they've made no move at all?" He looked over at her. "Scans?"

"There are bio-signs on board. Someone is there. They scanned us already."

He stared at her. "When?"

"Five minutes ago."

"You could sense that?"

She narrowed her eyes at him as he stared at her. "You scanned me in the prison yard. You didn't remember I could sense that?"

He ran a hand through his hair, wincing when he hit the staples, his gaze going back to the screen in front of them as he furrowed his brow. 

Ember contemplated dragging him out of the chair and up into her chambers.

"Sometime soon, we'll have to have a serious talk about everything I am capable of, so you're not guessing," she muttered, stretching her arms up behind her head and yawning. They both should have been going to sleep by now.  

His gaze moved to her middle as her shirt pulled up a little higher. She settled her arms back down and she caught his gaze, his expression embarrassed, he shrugged crossed his arms and stared at the console in front of him. She'd caught him, and she loved it. 

"Maybe next time you'll stick around and tell me." He muttered turning away from her and back to the screen.

"I have to physically connect to recharge, Red." She snapped, startling him. "Why don't you just move all your stuff into my chamber. I do have a shower."

The invitation hovered between them like a beacon. Her recharge, it was an escape, not truly the reason she'd fled, but she didn't want him to think she was afraid of him. He sat there with his mouth hanging open, no response formed. He turned back to the screen.