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important thing. You know it too.”
    â€œWhat was the king talking about?” Tom said. “What weapon? The Egypt is supposed to be a diplomatic vessel between rival ESC bases. She wouldn’t be carrying something just called the weapon .”
    â€œSo you don’t know everything, do you?” Mason couldn’t help but grin.
    Tom said nothing, just raised an eyebrow.
    â€œYou know what’s more important,” Mason said. “Be logical, that’s what you’re good at. We’re going after the weapon.”
    The walkway slowed until they were able to step onto solid ground near the main engineering access. The door was a full level tall, almost ten feet, and opening it would be a little obvious. Mason hustled to an access port that, once opened, would give them entry to the crawl-paths through the walls, where engineers wiggled through to work on hard-to-reach electrical equipment.
    â€œWhat if I refuse?” Tom said. “What if I go back to the others by myself?”
    Mason tried to think of the right thing to say here. After six years of trying to manipulate his instructors, Mason knew he could accomplish more with a subtle touch. So he said, “I can’t do this without you,” to appeal to Tom’s pride.
    Tom took a deep breath. “Then I guess I can’t let you get killed.”
    Mason nodded his thanks, but was smiling on the inside. Stellan had told him to use his words, and now he did, and it was more effective than violence. The idea wasn’t something the ESC focused on very much in their cadet program.
    Tom knelt by the wall and opened the access port with his multi-tool, a thin metal rod with a tip that could be morphed into any number of shapes, if one had the skill. Molecular Manipulation and Practical Applications was not the most popular class at Academy I.
    â€œWhere are you planning to go?” Tom asked, when they were already in the darkness of a tunnel. It smelled like hot electronic equipment. Mason could feel the heat battle with the chill of space, this close to the hull.
    â€œI don’t know. We need a plan.”
    â€œI only followed you because I thought you had a plan.”
    â€œYou can do whatever you want. But I can’t just sit around while the Tremist take the Egypt from us. I think your mom would’ve agreed with me.”
    Tom was silent for two full seconds. “Don’t tell me what my mom would do. Just … don’t.”
    Tom didn’t speak again, but it was clear he thought it was stupid to wander aimlessly. And maybe it was. But Mason had to get Merrin back. They had a deal, a pact made when they were only in their first year. If either of them were captured, the other would stop at nothing to get them back. They had sealed it with a very formal handshake, and then Mason had forgotten about it over the years. He had figured they wouldn’t come across the Tremist for many, many years, until after they were no longer cadets. It was an idea he now found ridiculous and naïve—they were on an ESC warship during wartime, after all, and had been on many before.
    Now their pact was vivid, burning like a star in his mind. Merrin was a prisoner of war now, no question. Mason had a mind to reverse that.
    The tunnel led to a small door that Mason opened from the inside. He cracked it slightly, then peered through the gap. He could see a sliver of the engineering deck, probably level five. The tunnel would dump them onto one of the platforms that ringed the deck, all of them looking down on the ten levels of vertical pipes used to pump coolant and water through the ship. Railings stopped someone from accidentally falling over, but nothing kept someone from jumping on their own. Mason didn’t know where it ended; he’d never been to the bottom.
    Mason cracked the door wider and the hinge began to squeal. It probably hadn’t been oiled since the Egypt joined the fleet however