Opal 77: Skewed Space (Jerrie)

Part 27

A/n: thnk. u. 4. 3k. Um. whAT? My heart explodey.

*unedited am sorry :(

"Are you thinking about your mom?" Perrie asked from her spot beside Jade on what had become their bed. There was quite a bit of time between now and when they could enact their plan, so they were trying to rest as much as they could. But it wasn't really working.

"Yeah, how'd you know?" Jade asked, brows knit together with a matching frown.

"You have this... really unique energy when your thinking about her." Perrie sighed, brushing her fingers over the other girls forehead to smooth the crinkle. It worked instantly. "I don't know how to describe it."

"I guess you can't answer my next question then." Jade said, a lopsided smile gracing her lips as she turned to meet the blondes eyes.

"You can ask it anyway." Perrie encouraged. "I'll try my best."

"Well..." Jade started, playing with a strand of Perrie's short hair as she talked. "You say you can like... see people's energies? Or vibes? And like... I just, wonder what that's like I guess."

"For me it's nothing different." Perrie replied with a teasing look in her eyes. "Since I've always been like this."

Jade shoved her shoulder playfully with a pout, causing the blonde to giggle. "That's unhelpful."

"I know." The blonde smiled proudly, happy to get that reaction out of the brunette. When it was clear that the pout wasn't going anywhere, Perrie decided to kiss her gently on the cheek. It worked, the pout transformed into a full toothy grin.

"Are you trying to distract me?"

"Mhm."

Just then the tablet on the bedside table dinged. It was the quarter hour update that Jade had programmed to monitor the other ship. With a sigh she rolled over to check it. Perrie watched her with a solemn expression, noting how her features tensed as soon as she started to read. But it was the same as it had been the last few updates; the ship was at a safe distance out of firing range, they were still following, and currently the old bounty hunter ship was in stable condition. They didn't need a status update this often, but Jade was stressed and needed the micromanaging to cope with it. All Perrie could do was hold her hand.

Time passed slower as the hours progressed. Now that their stalker had realized they had destroyed the tracker, they were following a lot closer. This would give the rag-tag team an advantage later on, but currently it was nerve wracking. It loomed over their hands as they planned, slept, talked, ate. It was inescapable.

When The moon orbiting Malcarri came into view, they slowed down. The four of them were sat at the command center, going over the plan for the Nth time.

It was a long shot, literally. Their plan was to use the moons gravity to slingshot them around the moon and at their stalker. But they had to time it right; they had to get as close as possible within the enemies range so that they had a better chance of taking them from behind. The old bounty hunter rig wasn't equipped with much protection at the back, but it had heavy weight class cannons that if they used correctly, had a small chance of being able to take down the huge carrier. There wouldn't be a do over, they had to get this right. There was a lot of pressure on Jade to code everything correctly. It was hard for everyone else to deal with not being useful, but Jesy was able to relay some of her tactics training and where a weak spot could be. Leigh-Anne decided to teach Perrie chess, having found an old set in one of the rooms.

"Is this right?" Perrie asked as she moved a creature-shaped pawn in an L shaped arc on the board. It was carved from some kind of INSERT ROCK.

"Yeah..." Leigh-Anne said, eyeing her own pawns within range of Perrie's with thinly veiled worry. "You're doing great."