Chapter 14

Pit spent several minutes fighting to imitate the Koolie's escape before he realized he had an incredibly valuable tool available to him. With a conscious thought, he accessed the database in his bionic brain and sought a code, a command, anything to release the latch on a dog carrier.

Another few frustrating moments, and then he located salvation in the form of a beam of light he could shoot directly from his fake eye to overload the tiny processor and convince it to open up automatically.

He had an eyeball laser-fucking cool.

As soon as he shut off the laser, he butted his head against the door, it flew open. He immediately galloped after the Koolie, tracking her tantalizing, if infuriating, scent.

Past the seam, the walls and floors and ceilings were even darker than when Fionn had carried him in, and indecipherable to his stranger's eyes. Cleverly, or cruelly, Fionn included no guiding lights in his design. Pit grudgingly acknowledged it was a very good strategy. Enemies determined to take off the pilot's head would first have to traverse a dark maze.

At last, Pit found the trail again. He doubled his pace, trotting now, using his HUD to avoid running into walls. He turned a corner and squinted his eyes against the sudden flowering of light.

Certainty's displays consisted of thousands of individual lights that together formed a comprehensive idea of her vitals. Engine levels. Coolant levels. The levels of the ship, their air pressure and heat profiles. Everything in between, and so much Pit didn't understand.

Two high-backed seats broke the bank of light with their dark profiles. Legs splayed, leaning forward, Fionn occupied one of them.

Perched upright, with one paw on a sliding control, the Koolie sat in the other.

"Here. This is what happens. Increase it a few days, and..." She moved her paw very slowly upwards as she spoke, and something subtle changed on the display. Pit blinked, disappointed to find his brain hadn't registered the change as anything he could name.

Well. The Koolie wasn't just a dumb sheepdog. She was a daugment.

A daugment whom Fionn evidently allowed on the deck.

Pit cleared his throat.

Fionn swiveled around, looking less shocked than Pit had hoped. Instead, a sticky smile clung to his features. "Ah, Pitney, good of you to join us, my boy. Had a bit of a run-in with the local law on our way out, but no matter, Certainty outruns everything. And I mean everything. Ravenna here is clearing our cache, so to speak. Getting us a bit of air time with the next system over, on their favorite morning program. Drawing attention away from our present location and towards our supposed future location."

The Koolie glanced over her shoulder. Delicately, she folded her tail up around her back paws and turned to the display again. "Fionn, I need your eyes front for just a few more minutes. Then you can talk to our guest, who evidently considers most canines to be of vastly inferior intellect to himself."

Fionn grinned fondly and hooked a thumb in her direction. "She's my taskmaster. Keeps us both on point. Keeps me honest, and keeps the authorities off Certainty." The grin widened. "Keeps you out of the wrong hands, now, too. Be nice." He swiveled around, resting his chin in his palms. "Right, Rave. The details, if you would."

"Your social capital is high right now, thanks to the entry I ghost-wrote for your glog." Ravenna's right ear flicked back accusingly. "That's 'galactic log,' for those who were about to mock my word choice. Fionn, nice job. Keep doing things I can capture in picturesque im-logs."

"What was this one on?" Fionn asked.

"The foiled arson on Yekna and the medicine delivery to Poltervale, of course. I even dug up stills from Poltervale Primary of you and those recovering children. Very popular with decision-makers aged thirteen and up."

Pit glanced from one to the other during this exchange, unsure whether to whimper or laugh. It was like watching a sitcom, one of the ones that stripped an old premise off of a classic and added "but in space!" The smart-ass sidekick animal. The chiseled swashbuckler.

No, it wasn't like watching the sitcom. It was like watching the sitcom's behind-the-scenes footage.

They were discussing their own ratings.

He couldn't help himself. He thumped his tailtip on the floor.

When that elicited no response from either of the chairs' occupants, he whapped it again, more insistently. Ravenna's ears flicked back, but she still didn't turn.

Sighing, Pit examined the bridge. The floor and ceiling were made of the same material as Certainty's exterior. He saw a thousand reflections of himself, all warped in some way. Long, melting beagle-bassets; short, squished beagle-bassets; beagle-bassets with legs that twisted in towards each other.

Beagle-bassets.

Pit trotted to a flat metal panel on Ravenna's side of the ship. He stood before it, taking in his full, unaltered reflection through both eyes, real and computerized.

His ears drooped like sacks on either side of his face, dangling just above the tops of his paws. No wonder he stepped on them whenever he bent his head forward. The tip of his nose shone with moisture, glinting as brightly as the reflection in his bionic eye. He blinked, turned slightly to one side. Heavyset chest, stumpy legs, and that half-robot tail.

Something buzzed unpleasantly behind his eyes, and he realized his human brain was trying to cry. His dog body couldn't cooperate.

So he made a beeline for the worn cushion he'd spotted against the wall, flopped onto it face-first, and felt sorry for himself again.

They let him marinate in his pity for a while, but at last a hot breath on his ear brought him out of his misery. He raised his head to find himself face to face with the Koolie.

She arched one brow. "Excuse me. I need this to increase my height. I can only reach so many of the controls designed for humans." She gently put her teeth around the cushion's corner and tugged.

Pit snarled. It was a reflex, though he would have done the same had he thought about it. His lips peeled back and a rumble issued from deep in his chest.

The Koolie let go of the cushion and tossed her head. "Is this your usual travelling behavior? Do you reserve a room on those luxury liners, only to lie in your stateroom swimming in your infinite sadness? Gods. It's a bit pathetic."

Pit's teeth snapped shut on the air where her nose had been a split second before; she knew it was coming. Her eyes flashed and her own lip curled, revealing a very sharp set of teeth.

"Lighten up, Rave," Fionn said quietly, before a growl could build up in the Koolie's chest. "He's in about as a good a place as either of us were when you found me."

Ravenna gave Pit an inscrutable golden stare until he inched backwards off the cushion. Slowly, she bent her neck to take the cushion in her teeth, never taking her eyes off him until she swiveled around and bounded back to her chair. She deposited the cushion, leapt up onto it, and reached for her sliders again.

Pit was panting with distress, his heartrate only just starting to calm as he regulated his breathing with help from his HUD. On the one hand, he was thoroughly miffed by Ravenna's lack of respect for him. On the other, he couldn't believe he'd let himself snap like that. He'd tried to physically assault a female.

As if sensing his aghast, judgmental exasperation, the Koolie swiveled her chair around. For the first time, Pit noticed her bionic alteration, besides the obvious brain enhancements. A series of thin, segmented plates ran down her belly, almost hidden by the longer fur there.

She saw him eyeing her and placed her paws deliberately, blocking his view of the plates. "You're not the only one, Pit. And please keep in mind that you're listening in on a private and confidential conversation. Your presence on the bridge is a privilege."

You're not the only one, Pit.