Chapter 12

The sixth garage's owner was the one who'd taken the panel off, and Pit could hear said owner shifting around in the room. He poked his muzzle slowly, very slowly, into the square of light, and blew out a sigh of relief when he saw the owner's knees. That explained the ventilation shaft's slight downward slope.

His belly scraping the floor, he crept past the sixth garage.

When he found the seventh panel, he had to stop and monitor his breathing and his heartbeat. Both were out of control. Then he raised a paw and scuffed the panel with his claws.

The rasp barely rose above the sounds of the sixth garage a good distance away. Pit could feel the invisible countdown ticking away the seconds. He blinked on his HUD and flipped mentally through its settings. Belatedly, he realized he had settings, and could access them by thinking about it.

Finally he found the heat signature sensitivity and cranked it up. Past the solid stone wall, he could see faint sheens of detected temperature differences. Two of them. One the size of a large human, the other not much larger than he was.

He swallowed hard and squatted down on his back legs.

"This is it, Pit," he whispered, woofing out a bitter laugh.

He put both paws on the door and softly scratched.

Harder, when there was no answer.

Harder again. Then he butted it with the crown of his skull.

The panel sprang free and he tumbled forward, caught off-balance. He found himself at floor level, staring into the boulder-like features of a massive man dressed in coveralls and a smoking jacket. Tools were scattered everywhere.

"Ah. Pitney." The man pronounced Pit's old name with "eh" on the end. He rolled over onto his stomach, his considerable biceps shoving him up onto his feet. "Wondered if I'd see you before preflight. Well, in you go."

"In?" Pit said, the start of a series of questions he'd planned to ask, but the man grabbed him under the front legs and dragged him out of the ventilation shaft before he could dig in and resist.

Pit flailed, snapping his teeth together. "Put me down!"

"Can't do that. Need to be on our way," the man said, snapping his fingers. All of the tools whipped with an eye-popping magnetic force to a shiny red toolbox sitting nearby. "I'm Fionn, by the by. Welcome aboard my girl Certainty."

Still struggling with the indignity of being carried, Pit at first barely noticed the ship sitting in the double-wide garage.

When he finally paid attention to the thing of beauty before him, he was riveted.

He'd never really been one for ships. Not as a hobby, not like his father had demanded. Young Pit appreciated ship's engineering, their practicality, sometimes even their sheer power. He'd never cared much for their lines or their features.

But Certainty...

She was gorgeous. Shaped like a fluted bowl tapered into a slender pyramid. Made of gleaming liquid silver, the stationary lights playing across her sleek surface like dancers.

Seamless. Sensuous. Perfect.

Pit couldn't contain his enthusiasm. He howled.

Fionn clamped his hand over Pit's muzzle, still somehow managing to hold him upright without hurting him. "Stow it. You're not here on a permit."

Pit twisted free of Fionn's massive hands, flailing his hindquarters awkwardly to land on his feet. "Your ship's beautiful. How's she fly?"

"Aren't you supposed to be on the lam with your life?" Fionn eyed him sideways. "Won't escape by admiring my darling, certainly."

"Just-making conversation," Pit said, lapsing into a grumpy silence. The spell was broken; the weight of Jace's absence rose in his throat. Fionn was just another in a long line of strangers parading through his life.

Then Fionn came around the side of Certainty. Pit's eyes widened when he saw the ramp leading up into the ship. The exterior was every bit as shiny as the interior was dark. Neon blue and green lights shone at intervals, but the walls seemed to absorb all illumination. The effect was of a black hole inside a silver whirlpool.

"Practically impossible to navigate if you don't already know where you're headed," Fionn said with obvious pride. "A personal invention. Can't reveal trade secrets, sorry about that. Alright, enough shit-shooting. Let's get a few things straight."

The big man pounced without warning, effortlessly catching Pit, and brought their noses a few inches apart. Fionn's smooth, tangy odor swept over Pit's senses, carried by his hot breath. "Certainty is my girl. My girl, my rules. Rule number one: any time there's a chance someone's going to inspect my hold, you go in the box. Rule number two: takeoffs and landings, you go in the box. Rule number three: it strikes my fancy, you go in the box. Now, so far it might sound like you'll spend most of your time on board in the box. That's not precisely true. Just want to make it very, very clear that's a place I have the right to send you."

Pit's hackles rose. He glared at Fionn's craggy face, hating the lines and the stubble.

A thought bubbled to the surface of his rage. How far along would his five o'clock shadow be, if he were still in his own body?

Pit shook his head, his ears slapping at his cheeks. No more distractions. Focus.

"Understood," he said. "And understood that you've been paid by my man, which makes you responsible for my safety, at least to the limits of your moral standards."

"Limits," Fionn chuckled.

Pit glowered. "You're still here, so I've decided to assume you have some interest in keeping me alive, and possibly even some of those moral standards I mentioned. And considering that, I've decided I will go with you. Keep in mind," he added, growling deep in his chest, "you're carrying a decorated veteran of the Human Authority Government command. If I disappear, you won't be able to."

Fionn chuckled again, even less pleasantly. "Hate to be the bearer of bad news, my boy, but you're all over the news. Have been for days now. Tristan's been making sure everyone knows what a coward you are. Y'know, before the big trial."

Pit's heart sank. "A...coward?"

"Tristan just about pinkie-promised to the whole HAG army," Fionn said with a shrug. "Said in a sworn statement to the other generals, you played favorites with the soldiers you sent to defend the front lines."

"Gods. And they believe him?"

"The word of the handsome darling against the icy recluse? Which general would you believe, my boy?" Fionn shook Pit once, not very roughly. "No offense, but the new style doesn't exactly win you extra credit."

Pit slumped. A whimper slithered out of his throat.

"Don't pout, or it's into the box with you," Fionn said warningly, then tucked Pit under one arm, pressing buttons and touching displays with his free hand on his way up the ramp. Out of the corner of his eye, Pit saw the toolbox roll up into the wall of the garage.

A wave of panic washed over him at the sound of the ship starting up. Pit kicked all four legs just once, as if trying to swim back to his former life, then gave up and let Fionn carry him into Certainty and, finally, up off the surface of Makops.

His paw-pads tingled.

It felt like the start of a deebee.

He hoped Jace would be all right.