Chapter 25

"Hey, Nik, can you take a look at the isolation amplifier on the MPC?" Naomi called her over the comm system. "Alex is complaining that the flight controls are a little off."

"Got it," she replied and pulled up a schematic on her console.

A few minutes later, she was frowning at the interior of the panel. The green grounding wire for the primary circuit was bare in places, the insulating coating looked like it had been corroded. It was an easy enough repair, but the polymer coating used as insulation was designed to be corrosion resistant. Belter ships were known for using substandard materials, but the Roci had been a MCRN ship and would have been constructed with the best materials.

"What did you find?" Naomi asked from behind her.

"The ground wire's insulation is gone in places."

"Strange," Naomi peered over her shoulder. "I just found the same thing on the backup GPC."

"I'll go get some wire from the maintenance bay and replace both." She paused, "do you want me to take a look at other systems?"

"I was thinking the same thing. It wouldn't hurt."

"Well, at least I won't get bored," she laughed.

Three hours later, she was no longer in a laughing mood. Every panel she had opened had at least some of the odd corrosion on the ground wires and some panels had some on the power and control wiring. She had even found one circuit card with a ragged hole the size of her pinky finger through it. It was time to talk to Naomi and Holden.

Something else was nagging her; she was sure there was a pattern to the damage, she just couldn't quite put her finger on it.

Climbing the ladder to the bridge, she found all four of the crew members already gathered in a discussion.

"Hey, I was just going to call you up here," Naomi greeted her. "We're discussing where we're going."

"Doesn't matter to me since we can't go where I want to go until this mess with Mars is cleared up," she told the group. "Where are you thinking?"

Holden answered, "the slow zone seems like the best bet. Medina station won't turn us over to the MCRN and they can't open fire on it. The only drawback is they can intercept any information we receive or transmit so they will know what we know."

"Well, if they can't get to us, maybe we can ask them what exactly they're looking for. Offer to cooperate from the safety of the station?" Nik suggested.

"Might be worth a try," Holden agreed. "Unless anyone has a better idea, Alex, take us to the ring gate."

The matter decided, the crew started to disperse, but Nik kept her place at the top of the ladder, forestalling their departure.

"Um, there's something else," she told them. "That strange corrosion we found on the grounding wires…,"

"Did you find more?" Naomi asked with a frown.

"A lot more. Every system on the ship is affected. And it gets worse. Some systems have it on other wires also. I also found it on a circuit card in the comm system."

"What is she talking about?" Holden asked Naomi.

Naomi explained what they had found earlier.

"Are you saying something is eating the wiring on my ship?" he asked in shock.

"No, just the insulation on the wires," Nik corrected.

"What is causing it?"

"We don't know, Jim. We're just focusing on replacing the affected wires right now."

"And that brings me to the next problem," Nik put in quickly. "I'm running out of wire and we don't have the raw material to print more."

"How much do you need?" Amos asked.

"I think there's enough to replace all that I've found so far, but if it keeps degrading, we'll have to start scavenging from non-essential systems," she answered.

"What do you mean?" Amos pressed.

"Well, we don't know how long it's been going on. If it was a one-time incident, or if it's on going. If it's still happening, we don't know how fast. All we can do is replace the damaged wiring and keep an eye on it until we get to Medina."

"Okay," Holden nodded. "Do that and work on the cause."

"Here," she pulled a piece of the affected wire out of her pocked to Naomi. As the other woman reached for it, Holden grabbed her arm, stopping her.

"Maybe you should wear gloves?" he said looking pointedly at Nik's bare hand.

"Not a bad idea, but probably too late for me."

"Humor me and do it anyway," he smiled, making him look closer to Nik's age.

Down on the comms deck, Amos stopped Nik before she could get far.

"I'll give you a hand."

"There's no need. It's simple work," she waved him away.

"There's a lot of wire to replace. Two people will make it go faster."

He had a point. Arguing it further would just make her sound like a bitch.

"I need another roll of wire from the maintenance bay. Can you get it and meet me in the cargo bay?"

"Yep," he said as he turned away.

"Oh, and a pair of gloves," she called after him.

"Got it."

In the cargo bay, Nik took a moment to collect herself before Amos joined her. She had to admit that she found working with him was enjoyable. They seemed to a certain easy harmony that didn't require a lot of conversation; each knowing almost instinctively what the other person required before asked. It was when they weren't working that she found herself on shaky ground. The problem was that she could never tell what he was thinking. His expression didn't give away his thoughts like most other people. Knowing what others were thinking allowed her to predict their actions and reactions. Being around Amos was like walking around blindfolded. She never knew what to expect until she was already tripped up and falling.

Being around him wasn't like being around Hopper or Lucky. With them, she didn't have to watch for cues because she trusted them. She could just relax and be herself. She wasn't so tense around the others on the Roci, either.

That was the problem, she realized. She was still treating him like an outsider. What was it about him that made it impossible for her treat him like the others?

"I just need to stop being an idiot," she muttered. Quit trying to analyze everything he said and did. Quit being on edge around him. Quit getting angry every time she thought of him with those prostitutes. Imagining what he did with them. Remembering what it felt like to be held against his body. Wondering how it would feel naked.

Something creaked in the bay, making her jump and derailing her thoughts. Where the hell did those thoughts come from?

"I've got to be out of my damn mind."

To take her mind off that disturbing train of thoughts, she pulled open the first panel just inside the bay door.

"Felota," she whispered in shock.

By the time Amos got to the bay, she had four more panels open, each one closer to the airlock, the last one the airlock door controls. The pattern that had been niggling at the back of her consciousness was suddenly clear.

"Amos, I figured it out," she rounded on him as he walked across to where she stood by the airlock.

"What?"

"The pattern! I see the pattern now. Look," she grabbed him by the hand and pulled him closer to the panel. Inside almost all the wires were bare. The display for the airlock was flashing ERROR in broken letters.

"Shit," he breathed. "This is bad."

"Yes, yes, it is, but that's not what I'm looking at. Here," still holding his hand, she pulled him behind her to the next panel away from the airlock. It was bad, but not as bad as the other. She showed him each panel until they were back at the door into the bay.

"Can you see it?" she asked, her eyes wide.

"They get better as we get farther away from the airlock."

"Exactly!" she slapped him on the arm in her excitement. He looked baffled at the move but didn't say anything.

"That means the contamination started in the airlock," she explained.

He nodded, "then we can use that to figure out what caused it." He smiled, "good job, Kitten."

This time she just beamed back at him.

They barely had enough wire to cover all the repairs in the cargo bay. There were still other parts of the ship they needed to check, but all the primary systems were complete. After briefing the others on what she found and explaining the pattern that had emerged, Nik went to the galley to grab a quick bite to eat before she surveyed the rest of the ship's electronics. If her theory was correct, though, there shouldn't be a lot of damage anywhere else on board.

Before she could grab a pouch of kibble, Amos entered and tossed a pouch at her. Catching it, she looked at it with disbelief. It was one of the MCRN combat rations like what her and the others had found on Tycho.

"Where did you get this?"

In reply, Amos hefted a heavy bag and dropped it on the tabletop. It was the bag that Mac had been carrying while she stalked him. Swallowing her next question, she stayed silent, willing him to explain.

"He won't be hurting anyone else," was all the explanation she got before he turned and walked away.

She stood there stunned at the revelation for a few breaths, then threw the pouch on the table and went after him. She caught up with him as he shut the door to his room, grabbing it to keep it from closing completely and following him inside.

"What the hell, Amos?" she asked as he turned to regard her. "You told me to go back to the ship and then you went and did what you stopped me from doing?" She stepped close to him to glare up at him. "I was supposed to do it. Me!" She shoved him in the chest with the last word, but she might as well have been shoving the wall.

"Hopper was my friend, my family. You didn't even know him. I should have been the one to avenge him. I should have been the one to protect him. I should have known better. I should have said no," her voice cracked. She pushed Amos again.

"I should have said no. I should have known it was too dangerous."

At the last, she burst into tears and would have sagged to the floor if he hadn't caught her and held her close.

"It's okay. Let it go," he told her.

"No, it's not okay. He's dead and it's my fault. He was just a kid and I should have protected him better," she sobbed.

"You can't protect everyone, Kitten. No matter how hard you try."

After that, she just cried herself out while he held her, offering her support in silence. When she ran out of tears, she pushed away from him.

"I'm sorry," she wiped her nose with her sleeve and tried to compose herself. She was sure she looked a mess and was embarrassed by her display. Putting some distance between them, she looked up at him again.

"Can I ask you something?"

He shrugged.

Taking that as a yes, she asked, "why? Why did you do it?"

He considered her question for just a bit before answering. "Two reasons. First, nobody should get away with what he did."

When he didn't go on, she prompted, "and the other?"

He did that strange thing where he looked at you with a blank expression and shrugged, "you wanted him to die."

Nik opened her mouth, but no sound came out. She just stood there gaping at him trying to get her scrambled thoughts together to produce a coherent sentence.

Finally, in a weak voice, "you killed him because I wanted him dead?"

"And because he deserved it."

She had nothing to say at that. She stepped towards the door, "I think I better go."

Reaching to open it, she paused as another thought hit her. Turning back to him she asked quietly, "did you buy me the clothes?"

He nodded. "You wanted them."

She thought about it for a moment, then walked over to him. Reaching up to grab his shoulders, she pulled him down to her as she stood on her toes to place a soft kiss on his lips. He didn't push her away, but he didn't touch her either, he just let her kiss him. She pulled away a hair's breadth and whispered, "thank you. For everything."

Then she released him and left the room without looking back.