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Hargrave did not miss a beat—he whipped his gun out like it was a part of him and shot it.
Prior to that, I had no idea how incredibly explosive lithium-ion batteries could be.
The thing instantly turned into a fireball.
I screamed—but at least I was behind the front line of soldiers, who caught the worst of the sudden burst of flames with their bodies as we were all rocked back by the concussive blast. I could smell the scent of synthetic materials burning, and the soldier holding me let go, right before falling and taking me to the ground with him. There was a piece of battery casing sticking out of his eye.
chapter 59
CEPHARIUS
“Elle!” I shouted, having witnessed the battery’s explosion on the water’s far side.
The only thing that stopped the habitat from breaking apart from the force of it was the remarkable resiliency of the magic that kept the dock’s water-wall in place—the force burbled out in my direction, releasing the tension, but it didn’t break the seal.
“ELLE!” I shouted louder.
“I’m here!” she shouted back. I could tell she was intact but stunned.
“Get to that lifeboat NOW!” I bellowed at her.
“I’m trying, I’m trying!” she said, and I had an image of her scrabbling down a hall. The other woman was with her at least, and although both of them seemed frightened, they were whole.
Until they passed the engine room—and my pearl made them take a detour.
“What are you doing?” I demanded.
“Getting the last battery!”
“No!” I swam alongside the habitat, holding back an entire army’s worth of strength. “Do not?—”
“Ceph, we have to!” she howled—and I had an image of her getting cut on her hand while operating a tool, which drove me to insanity. “Donna’s helping. We’re going to pull this off.”
I did not know whether or not she meant metaphorically or physically, all I knew was that she was in danger and what she was trying to do was absurd.
“Do not—do not—do not,” I told her, willing her with all my might to be safe and whole.
I could not lose my mate again.
“I know, Ceph. I love you,” she said back on our ’qa. I watched her through her eyes as she and the other woman fought with a piece of the habitat’s machinery. “Get ready to take this to the ship—we’re coming back.”
chapter 60
ELLE
If Donna hadn’t been with me, I couldn’t have done it. As it was, when we got to the final piece to get the battery free, she did it with gritted teeth.
“Okay, this is it. And—just so you know—now we’re fucked.”
“What do you mean?” I said, holding the edge of the cold slab of electronics and metal as we waddled it back to the dock room.
“The other one was the spare. This is the actual battery. There’s nothing to replace this. All of ALRI will run out of juice in about an hour.”
“Oh,” I said, and winced, hoping I could keep that piece of information from Ceph.
I could not. “You drop this off, I watch you get into the lifeboat, and then I will take it to the spaceship to drop the battery off,” he thought at me with a growl.
“Understood,” I told him—but then Donna and I heard the sound of feet coming up the metal hall.
