Dragon Pearl(67)

If we landed planetside, I could probably find some way to survive. The Fourth Colony had been settled at one point, so it should have a breathable atmosphere and, with any luck, edible plants and/or wildlife. If we missed the planet entirely and floated out into space, however, we would be at the mercy of whoever found us—if anyone came to rescue us at all.

“How long was I out?” I said.

“A couple of hours, I think,” Haneul said. The air around her was moist, and it crackled with suppressed lightning, a sign of how miserable she was. “I didn’t think the ghosts would be able to influence our systems this far out.”

So the spirits were already making their presence known. “Well, if the ghosts are affecting us, maybe they’re affecting the Pale Lightning as well,” I said. “I thought it would have caught up to us by now.”

“I might have done a little extra sabotage on the way out,” Haneul said. The air around her grew even more crackly. “It was you who blasted the wires on Deck Three, wasn’t it, just before you escaped with the mercenaries? That’s where I got the idea.”

Clearly, I hadn’t been a very good influence on these two. “Help me get out of this couch,” I said.

“What are you going to do?” Sujin said.

“See if I can fix the system,” I said, “before we swing past the planet and into outer space”—Sujin turned green—“or crash-land in some ocean.” I was pretty sure I could deal with the problem, given my knack for repairing machines, but I had to get free of those cushions first.

“Well, ocean wouldn’t be horrible,” Haneul said, “although I’m not sure how much control I would have over waters on a planet ruled by ghosts.” As she spoke, she came over to unstrap me. I suppressed a yelp when she touched my shoulder and static electricity sparked at the contact. I knew she hadn’t meant to hurt me.

The acceleration hadn’t helped my battered body recover, but I had no choice but to get moving. I clomped over to the interface and began digging through the menus. It became clear pretty quickly that the problem wasn’t in the scan software, though, but somewhere in the hardware.

Sujin wordlessly handed me the repair kit. I unscrewed a panel and took a look. A little quick testing confirmed my worst fears. Some of the computer systems had shorted out.

Still, not everything was lost. The computer contained survey data for the Fourth Colony, which it would have been updated with when the Pale Lightning Gated nearby. I hastily looked over the maps for what remained of the city of Jeonbok and committed them to memory.

“There’s a slate with local scan capability in the supply kit,” Sujin said. “Won’t help us out in space, but once we get on the surface, maybe we can use it to gather some information.”

“You don’t think this pod somehow got sabotaged, too, do you?” I asked.

“Well,” Haneul said slowly, “when I sabotaged the Pale Lightning, the escape pods were technically part of the ship . . .” Her voice trailed off unhappily. “Given the way luck works, it might have backfired on us.”

I continued poking at the systems. I might not be able to repair it entirely, but I could restore the most basic navigation functions and guide us toward our original destination. “Since we have time before we land,” I said as I worked, frowning at the delicate wires, “tell me why you turned coat.”

Haneul winced, but Sujin said steadily, “Because some things are right and some things are wrong. We had to do what was right.”

“The captain has lost it,” Haneul said. Her voice was subdued. “I know Jun—he’s a loyal cadet—and what happened to him is horrible. Hwan is holding him hostage who knows where. When the captain threatened us as well, I figured all bets were off.”

“You have some explaining to do, too,” Sujin said to me. “You went around pretending to be Jang. After you left, the captain told us that he’d died. Is that . . . is that true?”

“Yes,” I said with a sigh. “It happened right after the boarding mission on the Red Azalea. His injuries were too severe. I . . . His ghost allowed me to use his body.” I hoped that Jang was having better luck back on the Pale Lightning than I was here.

The others looked shocked.

“I guess you can never tell who to trust,” Sujin said. I wondered if the goblin was making a dig at me.

I flinched. “I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you the truth,” I said to them. “I was trying to find out what happened to my brother, Jun. I didn’t mean for you two to get dragged into this mess. I really do consider you my friends.”

“Yeah, nothing creates a bond like a common enemy,” Haneul said with a grimace. Still, the air around her stopped crackling. “Besides,” she added, “I’m worried about Jun and the other ‘deserters.’ If there’s any chance that we can help rescue them, we have to take it.”

The navigational system came back online. “One moment,” I said. I bent to the task of correcting our course.

Sujin and Haneul fell quiet, not wanting to distract me. I was grateful for a respite from the conversation.

“It’s done,” I said after I’d triple-checked the coordinates, only to be embarrassed when my stomach growled loudly.

Haneul smiled at the sound. “We should eat while we have a chance,” she said. “Sujin?”