Where Weavers Daire

Chapter Five

Sleeping Dragoons Lie

You must tell her sooner or later, Thomas thought and unbuckled himself from the seat.

He climbed up the ladder, passing through the empty cabin to the cockpit.

The view ports of the shuttle were bigger than he expected. The cockpit was a four-seater, Panya and her co-pilot in front two seats. The engineer seat on the port side was empty along with the communications seat on the starboard. The designers had opted for a curved high ceiling for tall folk unlike what Toy's designers had done.

He settled into the empty communication seat. The wall of screens was dark. Several access codes were needed to even unlock the station. There was a non-descript port off to the side. It was for a House key. The same one around his neck.

"You missed this, didn't you," Thomas said to her.

Panya looked over her shoulder and grinned. "Haven't stopped flying for three days. Give me a stick and rudder any day. Don't worry about my defense genies. I'll check them once we land."

"I'm not," Thomas lied. "I see you found someone to fly with you."

"He's on loan," Panya said. "Once the Houses rotate, I've got a line of free recruits waiting to train. I was about to announce it, but there's a queue. It's going to be a while."

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about. Can I use your com station? I need to type up an After-Action Report?" he said. "I didn't see it on my way in, but is there a brig seat on this ship?"

"You've got control," Panya said.

"I've got control," her co-pilot said.

Panya unstrapped herself from the pilot's chair and eased her way back to the engineer seat. "What you going to need a brig seat for?" she said.

"I have no idea what's down there waiting for me. Once we get into the atmosphere, I'll need you to open the vents and let my buggers wake up," Thomas said.

"You think it's going to be that bad?" Panya said.

You have no idea, he thought. "This is Mindy we're talking about."

Panya crossed her limbs and settled back into the high-backed chair. "What did Mindy find exactly?"

"Her test went a little sideways and got herself tangled up in a runaway shuttle. I need to make sure once we're on the ground, I'm not flat on my back while my augmented blood is re-learning how to breathe whatever toxic crap they used down here during the war," Thomas said.

Panya chuckled. "I almost believed that, too. What happened to getting yourself out of it?"

"I need to make sure someone is there to debrief her when she gets herself out of it," Thomas said.

Panya snickered. "Uh huh. And you want to re-activate that lovely augmented blood to do what, exactly?"

Gahsakes, you're just as infuriating as Jainey is. Thomas closed his mouth before responding. "Wait, are you just reading off the psych eval questionnaire checklist?"

Panya tapped her nose. "You pick up things quick. There are twenty-five more questions to answer before I sign off on your re-activation. And Wallace is right, you cannot lie to a lovely creature such as myself. So, what else is going on, Mister Scott?"

"I am following up a lead," he said.

"This pertains to me or my family because you haven't looked me in the eye since you got on board," she said.