Beyond Galaxy's Edge (24 page)

Nissa watched the
woman settle in beside Rynan. It was clear the two had an easy camaraderie. Nissa leaned in close to Justyn’s ear and lowered her voice.

“Are they…?” She nodded her head toward the couple.

“Nah. Best friends. Thick as thieves since Elana joined the crew. Ry would
never
, ever sleep with her. He never shares his bed with the same woman more than once. He’d never jeopardize his friendship with
Elana.”

Nissa watched the way their heads were close together, saw Elana elbow Rynan out of her way in a practiced way that said she did it daily. Rynan flicked her ear in retaliation, then pointed to something on the screen.

Hmm
. Rynan might keep women at arm’s length, but this one was so far under his skin, he hadn’t even noticed. Nissa smiled. It might be fun to watch the fireworks when
he realized the fact.

“There’s definitely something here.” Elana tapped the screen where a vaguely rectangular blob appeared on the moon’s striated surface. “It shows a few features you’d find with a ship’s wreckage.” She zoomed in on another part of the scan. “This area is promising too. The contrast with the surface really stands out, but it’s more broken up.” She frowned peering in closer.
“Hang on. There’s something moving! It’s really large…no, wait…it’s gone.” Her frown deepened. “That’s strange. Must be a radiation artifact. But the other two are definitely targets I’d check out.”

“Okay.” Dare moved forward. “We need visual confirmation next.”

“The broken mass is close to the equator,” Rynan said. “We’ll be in visual range in another few minutes. The other is close to the
moon’s northern pole. I’ll send in a recon probe and see if it can survive the radiation long enough to get any clear images.”

They waited. Nissa tapped her fingers against Justyn’s chair until he grabbed her hand and twined it with his.

“Coming into view now,” Rynan said.

At first, Nissa couldn’t detect anything in the shades of gray. Then she saw a darkened area. She squinted. It still
didn’t look like much.

“Running ship recognition software now.”

“Recognition software?” Nissa asked.

Justyn squeezed her hand. “Ry put it together. It’s a database of all known ship designs in the galaxy and what we’ve come across in uncharted space. He can run scans and it checks against the database.”

Patrol had simple databases, but it still required technicians to run the comparison.
She thought of all the applications of Rynan’s software. “He could make a fortune selling it.”

Justyn grinned. “Ry doesn’t like sharing his toys.”

The console chimed.

“Damn.” Rynan shook his head. “It is a ship, but it’s the remains of modern runnership.”

Justyn huffed out a breath. “Probably a pirate ship.”

“Or a smuggler,” she said.

He pressed a kiss to her knuckles and winked.

Okay, one down one to go. Her heart thudded hard in her chest. It had to be the
Nero
. It had to be.

“Probe launched,” Elana said. For a medic, she seemed very at home at the bridge controls.

“Give it a few minutes and it’ll start sending back images.” Rynan leaned over to look at another screen. “Probe hull integrity is holding.”

Elana tapped her screen. “Radiation is affecting it though.
It’ll probably only last ten minutes, max.”

“Let’s hope we get what we need then.” Rynan straightened. “Lana, put the images on the viewscreen. First image coming through.”

It looked like…a dark-gray box. Nissa tried to make sense of what she was seeing. The image was far from clear. “That software tell you anything?”

“It’s working on it.”

“It’s definitely a ship,” Elana said.

Suddenly
Justyn leaned forward. “You won’t need the software. Look.” He pointed to something.

Nissa leaned forward, too. It was the remains of an engine. And all engines were stamped with a maker’s plate containing the ship’s name. “Can you zoom in? Find the plate?” Excitement was lightning in her blood.

The image zoomed in.

A square plate etched with writing came into view.

Engine Maker: Rolls-Royce
Aero

Starship: The
Nero
.

Justyn laughed. He reached around and tugged Nissa into his lap. Without a care about Elana and his brothers watching, he kissed her silly.

With a laugh, Nissa gripped his cheeks and kissed him back.

“If you two are done—” there was a smile in Dare’s voice “—you’d better suit up and get over to investigate that ship before Gunn tracks us down.”

Elana stood. “Before
you do that, come down to the medbay. You’ll need some anti-radiation injections.”

Nissa smiled, giddy with excitement. Right now, neither Gunn nor the deadly radiation bothered her one bit. “Let’s go find our treasure, Phoenix.”

“Ready?”

Justyn watched Nissa glance up. They were both encased in spacesuits, the silver fabric slicked over their bodies. She held her slim-line helmet under her arm.

She nodded. “I’m ready. So, how are we getting to the wreck?”

Rynan strode in. “On my modified space skimmers.” He waved them through to the shuttle bay.

Inside, two streamlined space skimmers sat
side by side. They were designed for the user to lie flat on, gripping the handgrips that contained embedded controls. Tiny plasma thrusters provided propulsion.

“I’ve never seen any skimmers that look like this.” Nissa squatted beside one, running her hands over the sleek design and small engines. “The skimmers on the
Freedom
are bulky cylinders.”

“My little hobby is redesigning the tech
we use a lot. I found standard skimmers too big and lacking maneuverability for some of the things I wanted to use them for.”

That was Ry, always charging in to fix a problem. Justyn nudged his brother. “I’m just happy you’re parting with these babies and I finally get to use one.”

Rynan gave him a hard stare. “Take care of them.”

Justyn dragged a finger over his heart in the shape of a
cross. “I’ll do my best.”

“Yeah, I know your best. Things usually end up shot at or exploding.”

Nissa’s lips twitched. “We ready to go?”

“Yep.” Justyn moved to his skimmer. “These babies have reinforced hulls, so they can withstand the radiation. And with the injections Elana jabbed us with, we have an hour to explore the wreck.”

“I’ve studied the design of the
Nero
,” Rynan added. “Cargo
was in the back of the ship. But, there’s a chance Captain Griffin kept the document locked in a safe in the captain’s cabin. That’s at the front. I’ve sent details to your mini-Syncs.”

Justyn nodded. “We’ll check both out.”

“All right. Good luck.” Rynan slugged a fist into Justyn’s shoulder then nodded at Nissa before he strode out.

Justyn tugged his helmet on, listened for the quiet hiss
as the air circulated through his suit. As Nissa put her helmet on, he pressed the ignition button on the skimmer. With a quiet hum, it rose off the ground. Leaning forward, he curled his hands around the handgrips

Nissa did the same.

“Let’s go.” He pressed down on the throttle and the skimmer moved forward smoothly. He approached the huma-field covering the opening of the bay. He noted Nissa
and her skimmer moving in behind him.

Seconds later, he shot out into space.

Ahh, he loved this. Many people found spacesuits claustrophobic and being out in the vastness of space without a metal hull surrounding them downright terrifying.

For Justyn, it was the opposite—the ultimate freedom. He found it damned exciting and exhilarating.

Nissa skimmed up beside him and even with the fierce
look of concentration on her face, she was smiling.

They pointed themselves toward the nearby moon. Behind it, the green glow of the planet provided an intense backdrop. Minutes later, they were skimming across the moon’s cracked, dark surface.

The wreck appeared ahead. A large hulk looming up from the landscape.

Holy space dust, it was fairly intact. Awed, Justyn took in all the details
of the wreckage of what was once the
Nero
.

There was a large tear on the side closest to them. He pointed to it and Nissa nodded. It would be an easier option for entry than cutting their way in.

Justyn nosed his skimmer in through the gaping hole, into what had once been a shuttle bay.

Once he and Nissa had moved all the way to the far wall, he activated the skimmer’s magna-brake. The sled
dropped down to the metal floor and clung. Nissa secured hers as well.

“That way?” she said through the comm system built into the helmet. She pointed toward a double doorway leading into the ship’s interior.

He pushed off from the skimmer and held his body horizontal as he shot toward the doorway. The door had been torn away and hung at a crooked angle. He adjusted the light attached to his
helmet and moved into the corridor.

The light illuminated the tight space. A thousand years before, starships were smaller, with far less room. He made sure Nissa was right behind him as he made his way down the corridor, headed for the cargo bay.

Everywhere he looked, it was still as a tomb. Any loose objects had long since floated away. Metal was torn and twisted, and pieces of wiring and
paneling hung down from the ceiling.

Justyn squeezed past some metal sheeting blocking the corridor. “We should almost be at the cargo bay.”

Nissa glanced at the mini-Sync attached to her forearm. “Just around the corner.” She followed him past the debris.

He made the turn, then stifled a yell. A body floated gently past him.

He reached back and gripped Nissa’s arm before she ran into
it.

“What?” She sucked in a sharp breath. “Oh, Goddess.”

The body was frozen solid, mouth wide open, eyes glazed over. Trapped here with a limited atmosphere, his body had been preserved. He looked as though he’d only recently died—certainly not a thousand years ago. Justyn just hoped the poor guy had moved on to a better place. With a tug, Justyn pulled Nissa with him down the corridor.

“Cargo hold.” He gripped the edge of the door frame. The words “Cargo Bay 1” were emblazoned on the metal door.

He tried to open the door, but it was wedged shut. He withdrew an expandable pry bar from his tool belt, expanded it, and stuck it in the middle of the doors. With a few grunts, the door gave way and opened.

He shone the light around. “Fuck!”

“Oh, no. No, no.”

The entire cargo
hold was gone. Ripped away. Only tatters of metal made up the remainder of the hull.

“What the fuck happened to them?” Justyn studied the shredded wall. “Radiation didn’t do that.”

“They must have hit something.” Nissa’s voice sounded dejected. “It would have caused rapid decompression, they’d have lost control and hit the moon.” She closed her eyes. “It’s gone. The Constitution is gone.”

“Hey.” He grabbed her helmet and tipped it up until he stared straight through her visor. “We still need to check the captain’s cabin.”

She pulled herself together. “Right.” She pulled up the schematics on her Sync. “It was right behind the bridge. At least we know the forward part of the ship is still intact.”

“Lead the way, Captain Sander.”

Their journey through the dead ship was eerie.
A prickling feeling crept along the back of Justyn’s neck. He was a man always in motion, chasing what life had to give. This wreckage was nothing more than a tomb for the long-dead who’d lost their lives here. And it gave him the creeps.

He pulled himself up a set of stairs behind Nissa, and let his attention focus on admiring her shapely ass highlighted by the tight spacesuit. It wouldn’t
be long before they’d have to head back to the
Nomad
. He smiled to himself. And when they were back up there, safe and sound, he’d sweet-talk the lovely captain into his bunk to do something life-affirming.

“Just down this corridor,” she said quietly, interrupting his little fantasy.

“Got it.”

The door to the captain’s cabin was closed. Nissa tried the door but it didn’t move. Then she frowned,
studying her Sync. “This can’t be right.”

“What?”

“My scans say that the cabin is still
pressurized
.”

His mouth dropped open. “No way. It can’t be.”

“Guess we’ll find out. Unbelievably, the door lock is still operational.” She pressed the Sync to the old-fashioned door lock. A second later, the Sync broke the code and the doors opened.

Air whooshed out in a blast. Gripping the door frame,
they shoved themselves inside, and Nissa got the door closed again.

They dropped to the floor with a thud.

Justyn angled his head so his light illuminated the dark room. Everything in the cabin was in place. A double bunk against the back wall was neatly made, and a large, polished-wood desk sat in front of a large round window, giving a view of Sargasso.

“Unbelievable.” Nissa walked over
to the desk. On the surface, books were stacked in neat piles. There was also a pile of dust that may have once been paper. A small glass container held old-fashioned pens, and a precursor to the modern-day Sync lay in the center of the space.

Justyn turned around slowly, noting the doorway to the small bathroom and a lovely framed painting hanging on the far wall. It showed an ancient Terran
ocean-going vessel battling a rough sea, its white sails unfurled. “It’s like Griffin just walked out.”

“Why is this room pressurized? The scans aren’t showing any pressure anywhere else on the ship.”

“The ship ran on nuclear power, right? Some small sliver of that power was obviously rerouted to keep this room in perfect condition.” He smiled. “Makes me wonder what they wanted to protect
in here.”

Nissa’s smile matched his. “Let’s find out.”

***

Nissa swung her Sync around the room as it scanned the entire space. Beside her, Justyn was searching behind the painting for a safe.

“Damn, nothing,” he said.

“Too obvious.”

He moved onto the tiny closet, searching through the debris left inside. Probably the rotted remains of Captain Griffin’s clothes. After a cursory look,
Justyn backed out quickly. “Man, something smells bad in there.”