"Tom!" Kryn called, tugging on the steering column sharply. "Tom! Tom!" Her voice got louder as she flicked her sight back from his slumped form in the restraints and to the shield in front of them, and largely to the massive trees that blocked their greater take off. He'd taken quite the hit before they'd been able to board the ship proper and had regenerated well enough awake, until he'd been put under by the second round of medication from the ship's health monitor.
"Tom, you've picked a hell of a time to go soft on me, old man." She snarled eyeing a gap in the foliage ahead, as she steered the vessel past the towering vegetation and energy bursts that would splinter their atoms if one so much as brushed the hull. She turned off their comlink to the council fleet, trying to focus on the task at hand rather than the panicked voices on the line that would only fuel her anxiety.
"Shit," She whispered as a tree caught a burst and splintered before falling in front of them and she turned the thrusters on to max ground level, causing the vessel to tip and careen upwards, narrowly scraping the bottom hull in a move that would have grounded a rookie pilot.
The gap closed faster than anticipated and one enemy hopper sent a few more bursts before she righted the vessel and closed her hand around the hyper-thrust lever, hoping to whatever greater force be that it would work. She pulled the lever, yanking the steering column into her lap before hearing the groaning of the engines and the following roar that shook the vessel, sending it arching into the foliage gap.
Kryn leveled the ship, taking in the brightness of Lendar's double blood suns, and adjusting the screens for the windshields accordingly. She hit the auto button with her thumb before undoing her safety harness and watched the Nova Ship levitate itself to the elevation site, as she stepped to Tom's side.
She kneeled in front of him, minding the bruise forming on his defined cheekbone from the ambush, and slid the harness down to its relaxed state. She ran a hand gently along his jawline and checked his pulse. "Come on, Tom," she whispered as his copper curls brushed her brown fingertips, sending a shot of yearning through her.
He groaned, "Kryn that is the last time I take you on an intra-system transfer." He nudged her hand with his chin before opening his eyes.
"You always say that."
"Well, I mean it this time. You're bad luck, kid." He smiled, accepting the arm she offered and allowed her to pull him to his feet. He clapped her shoulder, laughing lightly when she shrugged him off and moved so he could pass. "Suns, it's bright out there."
"Come old man, let's get you to bed. I'll mind the ship."
"Nova can mind herself." He said, stretching his long limbs across his body as he ambled down the narrow hull passage to the quarter room.
"Aye, but we need a live person to reconnect the comlink and sweet talk Devero into letting us turn in before heading to the council." Kryn smiled, watching the way his muscles pulled and bunched as he flexed. Tom was her master and copilot—a bond tighter than friends, but never able to turn into more. The council remedied cases of "more" quickly and efficiently, split the offending pair and parted them by galaxies.
"I'm serious Kryn," Tom turned his head before his bunk, opposite hers, "Kid, you did good and you need sleep. We've been running through Lendar for days now—and you got us out alive. I'll handle Devero, you're my rookie. I'll lock her down, go to bed. "
Shrugging, Kryn slid the dark graphite-colored curtain down her side of the quarter hall, and pulled her outer uniform off, and down her legs before hooking it on its peg. She slid into her bed and relaxed as her bare skin slid against the cool chenille sheets. She heard Tom turn on the comlink long enough to leave a report that they were safe and would be bolting down for a sleep, and turned it off again after answering Devero's question about how she was faring.
Kryn let the lull of Nova's anterior engine guide her to sleep, her last waking memory of Tom's cool hand brushing her thick braid back from her forehead and then ambling into his own bunk opposite as he muttered to himself, "never thought a kid would make me soft."
She smirked in response and slid into a deep sleep as the ship optimized itself for a deep sleep, the pressure increasing and then dropping before a series of delta binaural beats slid them from consciousness, as it locked in the elevation pattern and homed itself in for the time being.