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“Get in.”
“Where are we going?”
“There’s a pressurized lifeboat attached to the engine room. We’re getting into it, and then ejecting out of here.”
I took a step back from her at once.
“What, you don’t believe me?” she asked. “Your boyfriend can come with—Hargrave’s men won’t be able to hurt him out in the open water. You can just telepathize with him and tell him you’ve escaped, easy, done.”
“I can’t, Donna.”
“Why not?”
I crossed my arms, knowing just how insane what I was going to say next would sound. “Because the aliens need me.”
We were so deep it’d take us a week to decompress safely and reach the surface. If we did that there’d be no way to bring batteries back for the beacon in time, which meant that Snout—and all his siblings on the mothership—would perish.
One of her eyebrows cocked up. “Did . . . they . . . tell you that?”
I sighed. It was now or never—my window for helpful action was closing. “Yeah,” I said, and went ahead and spilled the beans.
Donna did a good job of listening, then rocked back on her heels. “An entire spaceship? Full of small furry creatures?”
“Yeah.”
“Like a space SPCA?”
I groaned. Ceph was right; the ’qa was better for transmitting information. I missed its simplicity so much. “I don’t think they’re cats, Donna. They have too many legs.”
“That’s just insane—and it’s been down here three thousand years? Just setting beacons off?” She was scrubbing blood off her face with a wet towel. “I bet that’s how they found it, you know,” she said, whirling in the small place. “They probably focused in on those periodic energy bursts.”
It made sense. “Yeah, but now if I don’t bring them batteries?—”
“Okay,” Donna said with a sharp nod. “Plan change. You stay here.”
“What?”
“I need someone behind to fake out the guards. And there’s no way I’m letting you touch the habitat’s batteries, no offense.” She stood and grabbed me by the shoulders. “You stay behind, pretend to be freaked out, I’ll go get the battery, and bring it to the dock so when your boyfriend comes back for the trade, I’ll get it to him—and you’ll tell him the plan,” she said, tapping a meaningful finger on my temple. “Hargrave’s gonna want to show you off in person to make sure your kraken complies. I’ll fling it out, then he can go do what needs doing and hopefully the two of us survive.”
“And you’ll really help me?” I asked her, wanting, but not quite willing, to believe.
“Yeah,” she said, nodding. “I know you don’t watch the show—but trust me, it’s what Doctor McDreamy would do. And I’m pretty damn heroic,” she said, tucking into the narrow space. “Close this up, okay?” she said, and then crawled out of sight.
chapter 55
CEPHARIUS
I propelled myself through the water as fast as I was able, until I was back at the spaceship’s side. It hadn’t closed up its main door, so I went in, and called out for it on the ’qa.
“Have you returned with the >” the ship asked me, sending me reeling with the force of its intent. “Where is >”
I grasped hold of the nearest walls with my tentacles, like it speaking to me might blow me back outside. “I haven’t yet. Things got hard—but I need your help.”
“>” the ship said with concern, and I got the impressions it’d been running through Elle’s exceptional imagination about urgency and the massive loss of life it would experience if it didn’t get batteries in time. “>”
“I know.” I swam into the room and lifted my gaze up. “How far can you project your thoughts?” It showed me pictures of expanding circles pushing through the waves. “If I tell you what to say, can you get a message out?” I knew there had to be another kraken somewhere within fifty-thousand lengths.
I felt the ship’s hesitance like a physical thing. “Only if > is >”
