Free Cyberella: Preyfinders Universe by Cari Silverwood Page B

boards, leaving trails of silvery slobber that evaporated as Ella gaped at it.
    “Oh fuck. What have you done? When did you acquire a tongue?”
    Mimi grinned in a wide-set, Cheshire cat way only a piece of living rock could manage. A malevolent smile, some might think. Which might be exactly right, considering she’d once squashed a man’s head flat as a pancake.
    “Wish I knew what was going on in your mind.” Assuming Mimi had a mind.
    Tomorrow they landed, thank god. Torgeir could maybe find new parts. Chocolate fish for a day was bearable.
    She laid her palm on the boards. Touching cybernetics, AI chips, it helped her somehow to appreciate the damage – as if knowledge seeped in through her skin. Before, she’d felt the wrongness but now, even when she peered closer, there was only shiny new metal and rightness . Would it still function like a chef?
    “Hmmm.” She looked at Mimi, then went to the controls and ordered a roast meal with the red sauce that had seemed edible in the past.
    When it arrived in front of her, steaming, with all the correct ingredients, as far as she could tell, she raised her eyebrows. Interesting.
    *****
    The approach to Riptide was a whole new experience for Ella. Captain Lyet, bastard Captain Lyet, had never allowed her on the bridge on landings or take-offs. This time she was strapped into the navigator’s seat. Which worried her.
    Seemed like the long holoscreen that stretched across the room had a habit of flickering too. She clutched the arm rests. They must know what they were doing. Both Torgeir and Dresdek were tapping away at buttons on the virtual control board. The planet on the holoscreen looked close enough to suck them in – a revolving gray-fogged globe with glimpses of green-gray land and blue sea showing in the gaps.
    Even though being this close to Torgeir bothered her, she’d rather be here than by herself.
    “Who is navigating if I’m sitting here?”
    Torgeir half-turned. “Dresdek. We’re doing multiple roles. Sit. Watch.”
    Miffed but seeing the sense in that, she listened.
    “They’re wanting to send us up a guide,” Dresdek said.
    “That’ll cost us heaps. No.”
    “We have limited insurance. We’re doing so many...” He glanced at her as if wondering how much he should say. “If we damage anything, they will suck every last unit out of you in compensation.” As he spoke he was tapping things, glowing squares, pulsing circles. Hopefully, he was steering and not playing a video game.
    “I know. We can’t afford a guide. We go slow. We stick to the plan.”
    “Yes, lord.” More tapping and some words she couldn’t hear properly. “They’ve given us clearance, grudgingly. One minute. Then we hit the flight path.”
    Blinking red lines appeared on the holoscreen, drawing a cone-shaped path diving down to the surface of Riptide.
    “Good.” Torgeir said over his shoulder to her, “This isn’t some tourist spot. Riptide is one of the poorest, most over-populated and under-financed planets in the ’verse. The war depleted a lot of planets, made them resource poor.”
    Wow. She’d looked it up but that must be in the fine print. The planet had sounded...industrious, old. The government was via a hegemonic monarchy, whatever that was, and some of the cityscapes had made her feel claustrophobic. “Remind me why I’m following you down there?”
    He grinned, and it reminded her of that sense of humor of his that made all his bad points fade away, temporarily anyway. “Because you’re on the same ship as me. Because no one else would let us even attempt to land this heap, with only two crew, without levying a hundred charges on our tail. I’m not rich, Ella, haven’t been for years. This place here.” He pointed at the screen. “It’s where I start to make a new life. The Finatar , if we land her okay, will be a great beginning. ”
    “Oh. Me too. A new beginning.” She firmed her mouth, staring at the revolving planet.
    The night