Free The Key by Pauline Baird Jones Page A

he’s going down, though,” Sara said. “He’ll make it back to mother. He’s good.”
    Carey keyed the mike on the panel. “Good shooting, Chewie. How does it feel?”
    “It’s good.” He brought the “damaged” bird back into the hanger, dropping it lightly in place.
    “You’re right, he is good,” Carey said. “Nice find, Donovan.”
    Sara blinked, not quite sure who’d found whom. “Thank you, sir.” She hesitated, “Since you’re here, I’ll go get to work on my bird.”
    He nodded absently. “Hey Chewie, let’s try you with this scenario I worked up…”
    Sara left, hiding a grin. Boys would be boys.
    Down in the repair bay, she found Briggs working on her ship.
    “You and Chewie got a lot done yesterday,” he said, without looking up.
    They had got a lot done, but she’d gotten more done when she came back later. Couldn’t sleep last night and finally gave it up and came back. Now that lack of sleep was catching up with her. She could feel it like an incoming wave, trying to take her legs out from under her.
    She pushed it back. “Where do you want me to start?”
    He looked at her then, his gaze piercing and thorough.
    “You were supposed to rest last night.”
    She managed to meet his gaze for a twenty count, then gave it up as a bad job. She never could bluff him.
    “I tried.” She kept having weird dreams, not bad exactly, just…weird. She was in this city, looking for something, but she didn’t know what it was. Usually her anxiety dreams revolved around not being ready for a test in school. For some reason the new dream made her feel…edgy.
    “Climb in the cockpit and check for light leaks. I don’t really need your help yet.” His voice was gruff, annoyed, but his eyes were worried.
    She opened her mouth to protest, but closed it again. She needed the nap. She could feel it.
    Not everyone considered the cockpit of a Dauntless a good place for a nap, but for Sara, it was as good as the womb. She settled down and closed her eyes. No light leaks…the wave passed over her head…
    * * * *
    It felt good to be back in a cockpit again, even if it was a sim. Fyn was interested to see how Sara’s people had already adapted from their encounter with the Dusan. The Dusan might be in for a surprise when they came back. The Dauntless was a fast ship, the fastest he’d ever flown.
    Kalian would kill to get his hands on just one of them.
    They finally had to call it quits. Carey wanted his squadron to practice with the updates the computer had made from Fyn’s flying. Released from the sim, Fyn made his way down to the repair bay. He couldn’t help himself. And he didn’t know where else to go, except maybe the cafeteria, and the crew only seemed to go there three times a day for what they called a gut bomb. He should have brought something from Kikk for them. Now that was a gut bomb.
    He’d been issued a key card and ID that got him into a few places, but not that many. The SO, the security officer, had made it pretty clear that if he tried a door he wasn’t supposed to, bad things would happen, possibly involving fast moving projectiles.
    Fyn didn’t plan on wandering where he shouldn’t. Part of him didn’t want to find out too much.
    In the repair bay, he found Briggs working on Sara’s bird, but there was no sign of its pilot. Briggs waved a tool at him, then pointed up at the cockpit.
    “She came down here last night and worked some more. I told her to check for light leaks.”
    After a minute’s thought, Fyn figured out this meant sleep. He bent over and examined the engine.
    “How’d it go in the sim?” Briggs stuck his head back inside again.
    “Good.” Fyn reached over and made a small adjustment. He wished he could study the propulsion in more detail. How could they get so much thrust and hyper-speed capability in such a small space?
    Briggs studied it for a moment. “You got a good feel for engines. You been flying long?”
    “Be longer if I hadn’t