[LEGACY VERSION] The Enemy of Time (Book 2 - The Kaireyeh Chronicles)

Chapter 15 - Talina

Talina finished manually checking the levels on one orium tank and began to unhook her equipment to move to the next. She still didn't like the lines the tank was running, and if Campa was going to give her at least a few hours in normal space, she would make the best of them. Maybe those few hours would be her last on this ship.

She hadn't been invited to the Resistance Council's meetings, of course, but Milla had told her that they were docking, and that Talina might have the chance to leave if she wanted to.

Did she want to? It was all well and good that the Resistance had helped her escape her mother, but she wasn't one of them. She didn't want to be. She didn't want Jonas' name or any obligations that might come with it--she'd never asked for that.

Talina began clamping sensors to the column of another orium tank.

Where would she go if she left? She'd have to get encrypted. Maybe she should be in the infirmary now--the Resistance couldn't deny her that much. She'd helped them escape, too. She could encrypt as an anonymous mechanic and get work on a merchant ship. All stations had traders docked there, even pirate stations like she suspected this one was. And really, was working for Resistance terrorists that much different than working for shady traders?

She decided she wasn't going to think about it. She finished hooking her sensors and turned on the bulky antique diagnostic scanner.

"Talina?"

Talina tensed and turned, then registered Milla. "What--aren't you supposed to be on the station?"

"Yeah, Campa sent me back. I--" She looked around and came closer. "Listen. Campa didn't want to say this over the comm, but we might hit a bit of trouble. She wants the Kaireyeh engines hooked up and ready to power if we need them."

Talina blinked. "The Kaireyeh engines?" She looked over at the large bulky cubes in one corner of the engine room, covered in tarps. The original Kaireyeh engines--a lot of older ships had them. They were too big to take out, and too dangerous to be disassembled, so they were disabled and left as-is. The compartments of the engine room had been enlarged around them to house the translight engines.

"Are you sure about that?" Talina asked. She tried to run through what it might take to bring the Kaireyeh engines back online and in sync with the ship's systems. Most had fairly simple hookups--they were no-brainer engines compared to the complexities of the translight systems--but that wasn't the point. Kaireyeh engines had been banned for a reason--she could hear her professors at the Academy intoning the horror stories. Kaireyeh couldn't be controlled. A ship that travelled with a Kaireyeh engine might end up where the crew told it to go, or it might go somewhere else entirely. It might take the prescribed amount of time to get there, or it might take longer, or less. It might make the crew see visions and go mad.

"Yeah," Milla said. She gave the Kaireyeh engine a wary look, but shrugged. "Campa wants all our options. So...hook it up? I've got to get back to the station." She turned, her tiny braids swirling around her.

"Milla, what kind of trouble?"

Milla hesitated, but didn't fully turn. "For us, trouble usually means people die."

Talina squinted after her as Milla strode out. Then she set her diagnostic equipment to standby and moved to the tarp that covered the Kaireyeh engine. She'd served in the engine rooms of three ships in her career, and only the first had had a dormant Kaireyeh engine. As an ensign, she'd been dared to touch it. She had, of course. The metal casing over that engine had been thick enough that if anything should have happened, she hadn't felt it.

She reached carefully now toward the flimsy tarp, half expecting her hand to buzz with a weird charge. But when she touched the black plastic, it felt like plastic.

Campa wanted her to connect the Kaireyeh engines? Was that a reasonable order to follow? Milla had seemed...in a rush. Milla usually lingered--Talina rather liked the woman, and of all of the Resistance members on this ship, Milla was the one she might actually miss. Milla was usually brusque, but not demanding. How much trouble were they in?

But that wasn't why Talina strode toward her main console to call the bridge. Something felt...off.

"Bridge, Campa," came Campa's gruff voice.

"Engine Room," Talina said. "Did you send Milla down with...instructions for me?"

Campa was silent a beat. "Yes, is there a problem?"

Talina let out a breath, eyeing the Kaireyeh engines once more. She'd learned the bare basics of them in the Academy--though Kaireyeh travel was illegal, it was still considered an emergency tactic that might one day be used--though after learning about it, every cadet had prayed they'd never have to. She could get it ready, and it probably wouldn't take long. But she would only hook it up, not turn it on. She'd only switch the ship over to Kaireyeh power if Campa gave that order herself.

"No problem," Talina said.

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