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“It’s going to put you to sleep while we travel to Carta.” Garrett worried for a moment that the straps wouldn’t go small enough to form a seal around Rhast’s face, but just as he almost ran out of room, he felt the seal take. “We’re going to have to go really fast, and it’ll hurt really bad if you’re awake.”
“Okay.” Rhast’s heartbreakingly uncertain voice came out muffled through the gas mask, and Garrett settled him against his chest and wrapped his arms around him.
“It’s gonna be fine.” Garrett flipped the switch to start the process of putting Rhast to sleep and hurtling through open space toward Carta. “I’ll see you again before you know it.”
Rhast’s eyes drooped closed before he could reply, and Garrett lay back in his pilot’s chair and prepared himself for an excruciating six hours. The ship was only designed to hold one person, which meant it only had one mask, which meant Garrett would be making this high-speed trip awake.
And he hadn’t been lying when he said it would hurt really bad.
* * *
After what seemed like an eternity of being slowly crushed under a building, the ship finally chirped and beeped a few times, then slowed. Garrett could have cried with relief, and if he had been alone, he might have, but he could already feel Rhast stirring on his chest.
“Is…is that it?” Rhast lifted his head and coughed into his mask a few times, and Garrett quickly started undoing the straps. “Are we there?”
“We are.” Garrett pulled the mask off him and pointed past Rhast’s face out the windshield toward the planet that rapidly expanded to fill their view as they approached it. “Look where we’re going before we get too close. Isn’t it pretty from this view?”
Rhast sat up and turned in Garrett’s lap to follow his gaze. They were coming in at sunset on this side, and the orange and blue glinted off the expansive shallow oceans that made up most of the planet. Rhast’s little mouth dropped open in awe, making him cough, but he quickly got his breathing under control. “Where is that?”
“Carta.” Garrett took control from the autopilot and sped them down to the surface, more than ready for this mission to be over. “The Resistance… Well, the Tava government has a camp there. It’s where everyone comes when they escape Tava.”
“Carta.” Rhast stared out the windshield and picked at the frayed cloth over Garrett’s knee. “Are we all going to live there now?”
“No.” Garrett jerked a little hard on the control stick in his haste to answer. “No, not forever.” Not forever. Garrett couldn’t stomach the thought. “Just until we get rid of the storms and the pirates.”
“But how—”
“No more questions.” Garrett shook his head and picked the child up to set him to the side again. “Get back down. We’re landing, and I don’t want you going through the windshield if we crash.”
Rhast poked his head back up in alarm. “Are you going to crash?”
“No, of course I’m not going to crash.” Garrett pushed him back down. “It’s a safety precaution.”
Garrett waited until his screen blinked green with clearance for landing, then descended toward the runway. The Cartel had always kept their somewhat less than clandestine sky port busy, but it had seen almost nonstop usage in recent weeks. Even as Garrett hit the tarmac and braked to a stop, a ship just in front of him taxied away, and another came in behind him.
After a few minutes of taxying, Garrett found a spot with some techs ready to take care of the holes in his siding. The mechanics didn’t even blink when they saw the scorch marks, too used to seeing the evidence of the pirates who grew bolder by the day.
“Alright, we’re here.” Garrett hit the release on the cockpit and air hissed in as it opened.
“Wow! It’s warm here.” Rhast stood and stared up at the sky, turning in a circle. “It’s hot. Is it always like this?”
“Yup.” Garrett climbed up and out of the cockpit and onto the ladder and then opened his arms for Rhast to grab hold of his neck so he could carry him down. “Reminds me of summertime back home.” Except without the smell of the flowers that bloomed on the hill behind his house or the crops that needed to be harvested. Carta only ever smelled of fish and salt and mud and too many people.
“There’s a lady coming.” Rhast pointed over Garrett’s shoulder as Garrett carried him down the ladder, and Garrett glanced back once his feet hit solid ground.
“That’s Joan. She’s my friend.”
“Pirates again?” Joan asked without preamble as she strode to a stop in front of them.
“As usual.” Garrett nodded and leaned down to put Rhast on the ground, but the boy didn’t loosen his grip around Garrett’s neck, so Garrett just straightened back up and adjusted him to sit more comfortably on his hip. “Still just in the debris field, though. No reports of them on the surface.”
Joan crossed her arms. “Yet.”
“Yet.”
“What’s with the kid?” Joan pointed her chin at Rhast, who just stared at her curiously, his skin now a much less depressing grass green but his breathing still rattling in his chest.
“Rhast, this is Joan.” Garrett motioned with his free hand to the woman in front of them. “Joan, this is Rhast.”
