Читать книгу Defiant. Tome 1. Defiant - - Страница 3

Laneth sighed, seeing Kayla grasping at the Scythian guitar again. The girl kept the instrument in her hands at all times – ever since what happened on Garmfrig.

Now, seeing Kayla sleeping soundly with the guitar by her side, Laneth couldn’t help but wonder if she would ever let go of the instrument. The woman heard John stepping behind her and felt him placing his palm on her shoulder, gently caressing.

She stood, leaving the girl she basically adopted over time, and walked out of her room, followed by John, who closed the door softly behind them.

«Any news from the others?» Laneth took a shaky, shallow breath.

«Not yet.» John shook his head.

The man saw Laneth stopping and suddenly turning to him, embracing. He didn’t deny her this bit of comfort, caressing her shoulder and landing a kiss to her head.

«It’s going to be alright.» he whispered.

«Will it, though?» she said, hiding her face on his broad chest.

«I’m sure it will.»

Laneth took a very deep breath and leaned back, feeling herself shivering.

«Will you be okay tomorrow, if I’ll go to work with Ilzer and his Engineering crew?» she asked.

«Of course! I can take Kayla to the museum, maybe distract her from all this… shit.» the man replied, feeling unnerved that everyone has been coping with the situation in such different ways.

Ever since Garmfrig, Laneth began to throw herself into work whenever she could – desperately trying to grasp at something she was good at and trying not to think about Serena. With the Empress’ introductions, Laneth started to work with the Royal Engineer Ilzer Garad, who was fascinated at the woman of Terran descent, who managed to find out so much about technology in such a short time – and all on her own.

Ilzer kept saying Laneth was a prodigy, and the woman waved it off every time, preferring to work, and not get swamped by the very same thoughts every time she stopped.

Something calming was in a way the Royal Engineering Bay worked.

This time it wasn’t any different. Laneth arrived, parking her Dragon in one of the corners, and Ilzer hurried to greet her. The man loved working with the mechanic from MSS Lyssandra – she had shown him so many designs he found extremely intriguing.

Together they now worked on a few of those – the very same ones Serena always said they would need more space, manpower and resources to build.

Laneth knew that even though she already had credits rolling in for supplying the Royal Engineers with her ideas and expertise – however little she thought about it – she wasn’t exactly looking to get money out of bringing her designs to life. It was the work that helped her be distracted, collected and calm.

She desperately needed to stay calm – for Kayla’s sake.

The girl, even though she was young, kept her emotions in check, which made her almost undistinguishable from Veluthian kids. But, unlike those, Kayla studied at home – mainly on her own, or with John helping her while Laneth was out.

«Laneth?» Ilzer’s voice made the woman flinch.

She froze, thinking about her adoptive daughter.

«What is it?» the woman replied, shaking of the sudden tension in her shoulders.

The Royal engineer offered her the wrench that slipped out of her grasp. He was silent, but in his eyes she saw him being worried for her.

«Thanks.» Laneth took the tool, shaking her head. «I got a little carried away in my thoughts.»

«We can take a break…»

«No need, I’m fine!» the woman gritted her teeth, then froze for a second and straightened. «On the other hand… I do need a moment or two!»

She handed Ilzer her tool and stepped away, grabbing her information tablet.

A new idea struck her suddenly – out of the blue – and she needed to write it down. She didn’t know how long she was sitting there, drafting her design, until Ilzer walked up again:

«Laneth?»

The woman turned the screen to the Royal engineer and he leaned in studying her new idea with a frown.

«You haven’t had success in making small scouting ships equipped with a reconfiguration module. This one will do the trick. Small and doesn’t use as much energy.» Laneth handed the tablet to the man and stood from the floor. «Plus it will show up during scanning, unlike any holographic cloaking you might have used before.»

«You based this off our armour pins…» Ilzer was shocked to see the same principle used in the device.

«If you can find an appropriate way to unite the systems without having to add an additional code…»

«Oh, that won’t be a problem…» Ilzer smiled to the woman. «Look!»

Laneth stepped closer to the man and saw him making a few notes, adding to her design a variation that would provide an additional shield to the scouting vessel. He showed her a couple of circuits that could be replaced with a higher capacity ones to make sure this upgrade module wouldn’t need any additional coding or programming involved.

«This way, if we program the initial module the same way we do our armour pins, it will be able to provide a reconfiguration option to all the models of our scouting ships.» Ilzer finished with a beaming smile.

Laneth nodded, agreeing and remembering the few details he changed, so that she could use the same things later in other designs and ideas.

«I wasn’t sure about which metals to use, though, but I guess you figured it out.» she said.

«Can I ask you a favour?» Ilzer suddenly became collected and glanced aside. «I have a personal project I wanted to make a prototype of to show the others and the Empress herself, but I have encountered a couple of problems. Maybe you could help me find where my calculations went wrong?»

«Sure.» Laneth was eager to stay focused and working, so that the thoughts about Serena wouldn’t come crawling into her mind again.

«This way…» Ilzer gestured aside.

He led her into another hangar, where the space was divided into cubicles big enough to hold a small space ship, similar to those scouting ones they’ve been talking about. Laneth saw the man approaching one of the cubicles, where an old model of a scouting ship stood, its insides taken apart and some new module in their place.

While Ilzer explained to her his thoughts about the project, the woman stepped up to the ship, examining what he had replaced. It took her less than a minute to understand that he was working on connecting Falana’s cloaking device to the ship.

The prototypes she provided were used in large ships, and she never supplied Veluthians with something that would work on smaller ones.

«Having trouble not frying the engine, when the device is switching on, right?» Laneth asked suddenly, when Ilzer paused to see her leaning into the engine compartment.

«Yes, unfortunately Falana, however dishonourable and foul she was, gave us only the schematics for a powerful cloaking device. We’re having trouble figuring out how to change it to make it work for our smaller ships.»

Laneth nodded, already engaged into her work. She examined the connections, circuits, chips and everything else, before frowning and extending her arm to the Royal Engineer:

«Hand me a screwdriver, please…»

The next few hours she grasped at the whole concept of working with Ilzer directly, feeling strange seeing the man working alongside her more as an assistant, rather than one of the leading engineers that he was.

When they finished, Ilzer was extremely glad to see his prototype working.

«I am so happy I came to know you, Laneth. You are a miracle of a mechanic!» Ilzer bowed, grateful for her help.

The woman didn’t answer. And although she was happy she could help, the feeling of dread slowly filled her heart again. She needed to go home – to John and Kayla. However strongly she loved and cared for them, it was at times like those she remembered how badly she missed Serena.