Chapter Thirty-Four
A half-hour later, Jia joined Erik in the galley, a scowl on her face. “We need to go back to the jumpship right away.”
Malcolm, in pants and a purple Hawaiian shirt featuring explosions, sat at a table eating soup. Erik was on the opposite of him, working on what looked like a poor man’s attempt at roast chicken. They looked up from their meals in surprise at Jia’s declaration.
“We’re not that far out yet,” she continued, “so we won’t be losing much time.”
“Why?” Erik set his fork down. “If this is about someone noticing the fight, we already talked about that. They’ll burn hard to find a bunch of rubble, and if it’s pirates, we’ll take them down. If it’s Fleet, we’ll explain and send the coded credentials from Alina over. If it’s a smuggler, we’ll tell them to min
