Hagen, Lynn and Glenn, Stormy - End of the Line [Lady Blue Crew 1] (Siren Publishing Classic ManLove) (17 page)

They laughed when they handed him the pink slip. Now Remy was the one with the last laugh. Lady Blue was sturdy and reliable, and she had yet to fail getting them out of a tight situation. Now that Livewire was a part of the crew, she was going to shine like a highly polished diamond.

Remy’s communicator chimed in his ear. He was still wearing a grin when he pressed the oval-shaped device to talk. “Remy.” They didn’t stand on ceremony to the point everything was formal. A little leeway in the use of names reminded his crew that they were family.

“It’s Livewire. I need you down in engineering.”

“On my way.” Remy looked over at his pilot. “You have the helm.”

“Gotcha.” Tank nodded.

Remy walked down the corridor and then took the stairs down to the lowest deck where engineering was located. It had been a while since he’d been down here. He grimaced at the tattered way his lady looked.

“Over here,” Livewire shouted from somewhere in the front. Remy followed the voice of his crew member until he spotted Livewire standing by the propulsion system.

“What’s up?”

Livewire had one hand leaning against the wall and was shaking his head. “We may not make it to Beta Five, Commander.” He pointed to the console on the wall that said they had fifteen-percent power left in the core.

Remy cursed as he laid his hands on his hips. Now what?

Chapter 11

“I can fix it, I swear I can,” Livewire quickly reassured the commander. He wanted to make Remy aware of the problem, not make himself look inept at his job.

“What do we need to do?”

“Shut down anything we don’t need right now. We’re going to need the remaining power to get us to Beta Five. It’ll be a snail’s crawl, but we’ll make it. Landing is going to be a little trickier.” Fuck if that wasn’t the understatement of the year. They’d be lucky not to break apart in Beta Five’s atmosphere.

“Do what you have to, Livewire. We can barter for new fuel cells once we get there,” Remy said as he began to walk away. Livewire had yet to voice his concern about actually getting there, but that bridge could wait until they needed to cross it. Hopefully the son of a bitch didn’t crumble under their feet.

“Will do.” He smiled at the commander and then turned his back on Remy, blowing a long breath out. Livewire began to shut down parts of the ship that were either unoccupied or didn’t need power right now.

Quick thinking was what he needed, and a fucking miracle. He knew they had a blast job on Beta Five that would keep them in credits for a while. The only problem was getting there. Leaving the engineering room, Livewire jogged up the steps two flights to the upper level. He had an idea, but it was going to take some fancy talking on his part.

Pressing the keypad to let Gigi and Pax know he was outside Pax’s quarters, Livewire whistled while he waited. He looked around, making sure no one was watching. He plastered a big smile on his face when the door slid open and Gigi stared up at him.

“Is everything okay?” Gigi asked suspiciously. He could see Pax leaning to the side and staring past Gigi’s form at him. Livewire wasn’t sure why the blue-skinned man looked terrified, so he stayed out in the corridor.

“Peachy. I just needed to ask a favor.” Livewire placed his hands behind his back and crossed his fingers.

“Okay, ask.”

Livewire pulled his hands from behind his back and crossed them over his chest, shifting his weight to his left leg. He wasn’t sure how to ask without sounding insane. “Uh, I need you to crawl into the food replicator.”

Gigi’s right eye closed a fraction and twitched for a moment as he stared at Livewire, and then a bark of laughter escaped his lips. “Good one, Livewire. You had me going for a moment there.”

When Livewire didn’t laugh along with Gigi, the man’s mouth hit his chest. “You’re serious?”

Livewire gave one short nod and watched the commander’s mate’s hands wave in front of his body.

“Hell no. Whatever screws your brain lost, go find them.”

“Let me explain before you go all
oh no, Livewire, I can’t do it
on me.” Livewire pitched his voice higher when mimicking Gigi.

“I don’t sound like that.” Gigi growled

“Whatever. Will you listen, or are you going to keep whining your protest?” Livewire argued. “We don’t have eternity to debate this.”

Gigi heaved a sigh. “Fine, tell me why you want to shove my ass in the food replicator.”

“How opposed would Remy be to me disassembling your molecules?”

“Dude, get off of the Paktillian dust. It’s eating your brain cells,” Gigi said as he took a step back. “If you come near me, I’ll kick your sorry ass.” There was a clear warning in the commander’s mate’s voice.

“Okay.” Livewire held a hand up. “Maybe I’m not saying this right. We have little power left for the ship to make a safe landing. What I’m proposing is that when we get close to Beta Five, I use the replicator like a transporter. They’re based on the same technology. They disassemble and reassemble matter. Yours to be precise.”

Gigi stopped backing away and cocked his head. “Go on, I’m listening.”

Okay, Livewire had him so far. Hopefully he didn’t lose the little guy. “If I rewired the food replicator, I could use it for a transporter. You’d go down to Beta Five, purchase some new cells, call me, and then I could beam you back up. Simple enough.”

“And how do you change the food replicator into a transporter?”

Livewire smiled at his genius brain. Once in a while a brilliant idea fell out of his ear. “Easy, I just re-align the energy-conversion matrix.” Brilliant, fucking brilliant. He should get a gold star for this. Or in the very least another plate of cookies and milk.

“And what happens to me if this brilliant plan of yours doesn’t work?” Gigi asked as he and Pax followed Livewire to the mess hall.

“Details, details, details. Stop worrying so much.” Livewire couldn’t think of failing. “Let’s get you down there and back before anyone knows you’ve gone.”

“I don’t like this.” Pax bounced from foot to foot in front of the replicator Gigi was climbing into. “Why can’t one of the other crew members go?”

“Because they won’t fit into the food replicator,” Livewire stated the obvious. “Now stand back while I work my magic.”

Gigi climbed in and held the door in his hand. “I told you this damn thing was going to eat me,” he huffed before slamming the door closed.

Livewire glanced over at Pax and smiled tightly. “He was just kidding, really.” He turned back around and lifted his eyebrows to his hairline. He fucking prayed Gigi was kidding.

* * * *

Remy walked into the mess hall looking for his mate. He thought Gigi was in Pax’s room, but the room had been empty. He saw Livewire standing by the food replicator, rocking back on his heels and whistling, his eyes darting everywhere.

Something wasn’t right.

“Have either of you seen Gigi?” he asked, looking from the mechanic to Pax. Pax stood there with sweat glistening on his brows, his eyes looking down at his shoes. Remy stepped closer to Pax, noticing his body slightly shaking. “Pax?”

“I said he shouldn’t do it. It was Livewire’s idea,” Pax wailed. He pointed to the mechanic. “I swear, I was against it from the beginning.”

“Against what?” Remy growled as he turned his attention back to Livewire. “Against what!” he shouted this time.

“Livewire shoved Gigi into the food replicator,” Pax bawled.

“You did what!” Surely he didn’t hear that right. There was no way his mate was inside the food replicator. He stormed across the room and yanked the door open, almost making it fly off the hinges. The box was empty. “Where the hell is he?” He rounded on Livewire.

“On Beta Five,” Livewire said with uncertainty in his voice.

“And why would he be on Beta Five? Why wouldn’t he be on the ship?”

“Grocery shopping for parts?” Livewire answered as he backed away.

Remy howled, his third form emerging as he stalked Livewire across the room. “Bring him back!” Remy shouted as he grabbed the dangling wires hanging by the food replicator and pulled them from the wall. He was enraged.

“I–I can’t. He has to call me so I can lock onto him.” Livewire yelped when Remy picked him up by the front of his shirt, lifting him off of his feet and placing his snout against Livewire’s nose. “And since you just ripped the wires that would bring him back, we’re going to have to do an emergency landing.

“If anything has happened to my mate, you’re a deadwire.” Remy shoved the mechanic away. He stormed out of the mess hall and headed for the bridge, Pax running behind him.

“Holy fuck!” Blade shouted as Remy walked on the bridge, snarling at everyone.

“Beta Five, now!”

“But—” Tank began to protest, but Remy cut him off.

“My mate is on Beta Five. Get me there now!” His fisted hand slammed down onto the back of his commander’s chair, making it groan under his assault.

The entire crew stared at him in utter disbelief before the bridge came alive, everyone scrambling to do as commanded. Remy ran his clawed-tip fingers over his head as his gut tightened into a knot.

“Where on Beta Five are we landing?” Tank gulped when he asked, staring at Remy from the corner of his eyes.

Fuck, Remy’s head began to ache. “I don’t know,” he said helplessly. “I don’t fucking know.”

* * * *

Gigi’s molecules reassembled in some sort of back alleyway. He glanced around, wondering where the hell he had landed. It was eerily quiet back here, giving him gooseflesh. Gigi clutched the hem of his shirt as he walked from the alleyway and onto the main street.

He could do this. All he had to do was buy a part and then call Livewire. How hard could it be? Gigi sidestepped a man with tentacles protruding from his head. The sight was very…strange. Now he really stuck out like a sore thumb. Why in the hell did he always let someone talk him into stupid shit? When would he learn?

It had sounded logical when Livewire explained it to him. But he doubted the plan as he looked around the storefronts, confused about where to go. He approached a semi-normal-looking man wearing a blue toga-like outfit. “Excuse me. Do you know where I can buy fuel cells?”

The man smiled kindly at him and then started speaking a language Gigi didn’t understand.

“Thanks anyway.” He walked away feeling frustrated. It wasn’t supposed to be this hard.

“
Psst
.”

Gigi looked over at a man leaning his shoulder against a brick building. His hands were shoved in his front pockets as his eyes roamed over Gigi’s body. Familiar feelings made him feel disgusting and dirty all over again as Gigi turned the other way and started walking away.

A cold, light rain began to fall, making Gigi feel all alone. He missed Remy and wanted to go back to the ship. All he had on was a thin shirt, pants, and an old worn-out pair of shoes. He wasn’t dressed for this climate.

“You should get out of the rain,” a man called from the doorway of what looked to be a tavern. “Come on in and get something warm to drink.”

His clothes were beginning to get wet, and his hair was dripping with rain. Against his better judgment, Gigi went inside. The stranger smiled at him as he walked back behind the bar and began to mix something that had smoke curling up from the cup.

Gigi took the offered mug, his hands warming instantly as he took a small sip. His body began to warm with just that small amount. “Thank you.” Gigi gave a wavering smile as he looked around.