Chapter 2: A Rope Between Life and Death (Part 5)

“Kai, you’re not exactly young yourself, I’d say." Dex chuckled just loud enough for them to hear.

“Am not! I’m turning twenty-nine in two weeks!” Kai cried indignantly, his voice pitching higher with mock outrage.

A young woman with pale sun-shy skin and a low, messy bun that looked like she’d thrown it together between a hundred little mechanical tweaks, joined the conversation from across the deck. She was fiddling with a device on her wrist that hummed and blinked under her deft fingers. “Relax, Kai.” As she spoke, she started adjusting the straps of her tool belt, which held various small devices she had modified herself. “Let’s just be grateful Dalton didn’t steer us into a reef while you were busy running your mouth.”

“Oh, ye of little faith,” Dalton muttered, more to himself than the others, as he held the map up to look at it, finally cracking a smile of his own. “I haven’t led you wrong.”

“Yet.” Replied a voice from behind the helm.