Riding on Whispers (the Wolfegang series Book 3) (6 page)

I found the loose wire. Gently, I pulled it out and shaved the plastic off so I could reattach it to the metal on the inside of the record player. I grabbed a wireless tool from the set Ricky loaned me. If I was doing this right…the pressure from the pad of my fingers activated the wireless soldering tool. The metal between the two pieces melted and joined together. The tool didn’t use gas or any ignition that I could see. From what I could tell it activated the molecules and excited them to the point that they liquefied. I put the wire back in the box, and replaced the cover. I grabbed a borrowed record from Ricky and placed it very carefully on the turntable.

I let the needle fall softly, the record turned slowly and the needle landed gently, barely touching the grooves. Music poured out of the speaker. It was Mozart. No words; just pure, undiluted emotion weeping from the notes. I sat down, refusing to cry. I couldn’t be homesick, because I had no home.

I buried my face in my hands. I hated this feeling. It was almost like heartbreak, but not quite, like yearning for something that had no words. I took the needle off the record, threw my wire cutter across the room, and watched it hit the wall. It clattered loudly as it hit the ground.

“Are you all right?”

There was an awkward pause as I realized who was standing in my doorway. Of course I hadn’t locked the door, and Wolfe witnessed another moment of my weakness.

I stared at the wall instead of looking at him. I avoided seeing whatever he thought about me just then. “I’m fine,” I said tightly, uncomfortable and on the spot. I didn’t like it. “Can I help you with something?”

What was he doing in my quarters anyway?

“May I come in?” Wolfe asked.

I looked over my shoulder and saw that he was still standing in the hall, just outside my door. Wolfe hadn’t taken a single step into my room. The realization shocked me. It was
his
ship. He owned the whole damn thing. He could go wherever he wanted. So why didn’t he? What made him respectful instead of doing whatever he wanted? What made him different than most men?

Wolfe stood at the threshold to my quarters, patiently waiting for me to say something. I almost wanted to say no. I was not in the mood to try and act normal, or pretend that I wasn’t being moody.

He’d given me my twenty-four hours, and I’d found what I was looking for, but it yielded nothing I wanted. I was tired of clues and stupid mind games, but it wasn’t Wolfe’s fault my brother was making this difficult.

“Yes, sorry to keep you waiting.” I waved him in. I sat on the edge of my bed in defeat. I couldn’t bring myself to even care that I was being rude.

I watched the captain warily as he crossed into my quarters and took a seat at my desk. He seemed relatively comfortable in my tiny space. The only space I could kind of call my own.

“It’s cold in here,” he stated.

“Is it?” I didn’t know what else to say.

Wolfe didn’t respond. He just looked at me. It was strange to watch him. I searched his face, but there was no judgment or irritation at how I was acting, and he didn’t look like he pitied me or felt sorry for me. He was just there.

I wanted to talk to him, simply because I didn’t feel like I had to. We could sit there for hours or minutes, and I didn’t think Wolfe would mind.

“Did you come to see me about something specific?” I asked. My fingers were fidgeting in my hair, almost against my will.

“Yes, but it’s not that important.” He hesitated before he asked, “Is there something you want to talk about? Maybe I can help.”

I eyed him again. Open up to Wolfe, my captain? This was the man who gave me another life to live, an opportunity I wouldn’t have without him. I didn’t know if I wanted to risk getting close to him. Everything depended on whether or not he thought I was worth the trouble to keep around.

I decided it couldn’t hurt to talk about what he was already aware of. “I’m worried that I’m putting all of you through the trouble of finding my brother, when it may not work out the way I want it to. It’s a lot harder than I originally thought it would be,” I said. I forcefully moved my hand from my hair and placed it in my lap, twisting the fingers of my hands together.

God, I was so nervous and it made no sense to me, but I continued talking anyway, hoping it would help. “There is a reason he’s hiding, and I’m afraid to find out what it is. I’m afraid to find out why he left me.”

My gaze remained on my hands. I felt almost sick to my stomach as I waited for a response from Wolfe, though I didn’t really expect one. The silence seemed to drag on, and it ate at me. Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore; I stole a quick glance at him, and then looked back at my fingers.

Wolfe was silent, but he looked thoughtful. There still wasn’t any pity in his eyes, which I was grateful for.

“Do you want my speculation?” he asked.

I kept twisting my hands together. If I looked into his eyes I might start crying. I didn’t want to say anything, because I knew my voice would crack and give me away. Something shifted and the air was suddenly thick and somber. Wolfe seemed to realize the enormity of my concern. In the corner of my eye, I saw him frown as he watched me nervously twist my fingers together. I could feel the weight of his gaze, and it made me self-conscious.

Wolfe took two steps to cross the room, and then he sat beside me on my bed. I still didn’t look at him as he took each of my hands in his. I couldn’t twist them together anymore, and the outlet for my nervous hysteria disappeared. I looked up at him, and his expression was convoluted—his eyes were sympathetic, yet his brows pulled together with worry.

“Katerina,” he said. “I’m sure your brother has a good reason. I don’t think the sort of closeness you two share is easily discarded.”

How could he possibly know? He knew almost nothing about me.

“For years?” I asked. “What could possibly keep him away for years, and somehow land him on a top-secret military base?”

Wolfe’s eyes clouded over, but only for a second. There was something he didn’t want to tell me.

I yanked my hands out of his grip, angry. “Don’t try to comfort me if you’re going to do it while lying to my face.”

Wolfe’s lips parted slightly and his eyes widened. “I haven’t lied to you,” he said.

“I know,” I spat. He made me furious. “But you were going to.”

I stood up and paced. How dare he come in here and pretend to reassure me. I was sick and tired of him holding back information from me. Ever since I’d shown him the note, he’d been hiding something.

“What is it that you don’t want to tell me?” I demanded. “Don’t try to lie. I can see it in your eyes whenever you think of that place.”

Every part of his face seemed to crumble. The dark circles underneath his eyes made him look tired. “Please sit down,” he said. “I will tell you what I know and why I think your twin might know where that base is.”

I crossed my arms as I glared at him. “You better not be lying.”

Wolfe’s smile was so drained it could barely be classified as movement. “I wouldn’t dare.”

I sat down and waited for him to talk. For someone who knew exactly how to push my buttons and rile me up, he was equally as good at calming me down. It was unsettling.

“That particular Federation base runs experiments on soldiers. It’s a rumor that only the best are selected. Humans are inherently weaker than most species. If humans were going to be a major power in the universe they needed to be enhanced.”

Every muscle in my body froze, and my stomach clenched. I was instantly filled with a sick-feeling of dread. No, I didn’t want to know anymore. I no longer wanted to have this conversation. Wolfe was probably suspicious of what was going on with my twin already.

I sliced my hand through the air to cut him off. “I don’t want to hear anything else.”

“Kat, I swear I’m not lying to you.”

I stood up and went to pick up my wire cutter. “I know you aren’t,” I said with a shrug. My gut was telling me he was being honest, though I hadn’t figured out how I knew that yet, or how I knew he was going to lie earlier. “I just don’t want to know what’s going on there. It’s bad enough we are going to a Federation base to begin with.” I threw the wire cutter back in the tool box, and everything rattled.

Wolfe looked apologetic. It was the first time I’d seen him almost cross the line into pity. “I’m sure Kris has very good reasons. He’s protecting you.”

I spun around to glare at him. “How is sending me to a secret military base protecting me?”

He shrugged and seemed at a loss for words.

It was time to change the subject. It was a perfect chance to ask him what I’d been thinking about earlier. Something I could do to throw him off. “I want to be more useful to you and this ship,” I said. “Do you have a suggestion? I learn quickly.”

He tried to smile but didn’t quite manage it. “That’s actually why I came. Ricky informed me you wanted to learn the crystals.”

“Did he?” My voice rasped. I wasn’t sure that it would ever sound normal again. It’d been weeks since the questioning. Every time I spoke, the sound reminded me of what had been done to me in that prison cell. Maybe I should always be reminded. So I wouldn’t forget that I never, ever wanted to feel that helpless again.

Wolfe watched me. He seemed to be studying my face, trying to figure out what I was thinking.

“Then let’s go down to the engine room,” I said.

Wolfe got up and we walked together through the cargo bay to the stern of the ship where the engine room was. I nodded as I thought. This would help. I
had
to keep busy. Learning the crystals wasn’t learning to fly, but it was still something I was interested in. I couldn’t let myself think too much. When I did, it always ended in tears or rage, sometimes both.

When we reached the engine room, none of the lights were on. The only glow was from the crystals. Wolfe left it that way.

He moved around the room carefully, but gracefully. The simple elegance in his movements surprised me. Wolfe didn’t quite touch the surfaces as he looked for something. “We’ll start with the basics,” he said. “And then move on from there. It’s not as difficult as everyone makes it out to be.” Wolfe stopped, pulled out a drawer of crystals, and set them on the work table.

My stomach seized with apprehension. Those crystals looked important. My eyes followed the movement of light as the power stuttered and the lights flickered.

He smiled at the expression on my face. “We have three sets of back-up crystals. If life support stopped in the middle of space, too far from any planet or docking station, we’d be out of luck,” he explained.

I looked at the row of glowing crystals. They reminded me of slots for computer chips, and they probably worked the same way too.

Wolfe put on a pair of leather gloves and handed me a much smaller pair. “Whenever we work with the crystals, always wear these gloves. If a crystal gets scratched, or even has fingerprints on them, the crystal can’t be read, and the whole system will malfunction.”

I took the gloves and slipped them on. They fit perfectly. I glanced at him. I never would’ve guessed he was angry with Celeste only a few hours ago.

Wolfe continued explaining, interrupting my thoughts. “It takes a while to inscribe crystals, but that’s neither here nor there. If we happened to be out of blank ones, we’d be dead in the water. So the crystals are very important.”

He placed his hands flat on the table and made sure I was paying attention. “The most important type of inscribed crystal is the ones we use for our hyperdrive. These crystals are very rare and very sensitive. They’re what give the drive the power to enter hyperspace. I’ve interfaced the crystal system with a standard electrical hyperdrive system to ensure our safety in hyperspace. I’ll explain that to you further when we get to those crystals,” Wolfe said.

He took out one of the red crystals. This one was very thin, so much so that I could see through it like glass. He took it to the digital magnifier that was bolted onto the table and tapped something on the worktable. It powered up and three dimensional, holographic images popped up and Wolfe placed the crystal right under the digital magnifier. It hovered a few inches above the table. I watched the process in fascination.

“Take a look.”

Wolfe turned on the warm light under the crystal. I stood next to him and leaned over to look through the magnifier. I inhaled sharply and moved even closer. It was breathtaking. The scribbles turned into shapes and words; like art. The hieroglyphs of the future.

“You drew these?” I asked.

He was so close I could feel him inhale. “I did. I used this tool.” He showed me a metal pen; the end was so sharp and pointed I could barely focus my eyes on the tip. “These tools are all made out of diamonds, carved and shaped differently for different purposes. I get the best detail on the crystals with these.”

I took it from him and put it under the light as well to take a look with the magnifier. It glittered and shone like the most delicate jewelry, but it was just a tool. So there
was
some beauty in this cold, harsh world.

Wolfe handed me a leather-bound journal full of his neat handwriting and loose papers. “These are the papers for each system, and I wrote notations for my alterations. On the back of each page are the new schematics I drew up with the changes I made.”