Jordan slammed his hand on the intership communicator. “Sean, have you replaced the blown circuit?”
Sean’s voice echoed back. “Almost done.”
“What’s your ETA?”
“Five minutes.”
“Shuttle will be here in two,” Gray said.
“Sean.” Jordan began climbing into the second spacesuit. “Forget the repairs.”
“Repeat that?” Sean asked.
“Don’t fix the door. It’ll only help the Tribes to board.”
“Understood, Captain.”
Jordan grabbed a spacesuit and shoved it into Vivianne’s arms. “Get in.”
Gray’s voice filtered down from the bridge. “We’ve got a problem. I’m watching Sean on the monitor, and despite your direct orders, he fixed the circuit.”
“Stop him,” Jordan ordered.
Vivianne froze. “Oh, my God. Sean’s the mole. He jammed that door so you couldn’t get out. Now he’s fixing it to let the Tribes inside.”
Vivianne eyed Jordan. “What’s the plan?”
He shot her a hard look. “I’m going to set off an explosion from engineering. The only thing between this deck and space is one bulkhead. The spacesuits will protect us from the explosion long enough…”
He wanted to blow a hole in the Draco’s hull? Even if the spacesuits protected them, no one else would survive. “That will kill… the crew.”
“I know—” Jordan’s voice was tight, hard, and angry.
“But—”
“Every one of them agreed that they’d do whatever it took to save Earth. In times of war, terrible sacrifices must be made.” He grabbed her shoulders. “There’s no time to argue. I need you to finish suiting up.”
“We’re the only two with spacesuits. That’s cowardly.”
“When our air runs out, we’ll die, too. And if I fail, if the blast knocks me out, you’re my plan B. It’ll be up to you to save Earth.”
“Why me? Why not—”
“Because you are the only other dragonshaper here. You are Earth’s next-best chance to stop them.”
Jordan wanted to destroy her ship. Horror filled her. “We can’t just kill everyone…”
“You have a better idea?”
She didn’t, and he knew it. Jordan gave her a quick hug. “I’m sorry.”
His mouth crashed down on hers for a quick kiss. Her pulse quickened, and automatically she fed him fear, hope, and love.
She heard shouting, then Lyle over the com. “Sean’s dead.” He was panting. Clearly, Lyle had overpowered and killed the traitor. Who would have thought Lyle would take out the enemy mole all by himself?
They heard a clang. Gray spoke calmly, “The shuttle’s latched directly over our airlock.”
Lyle spoke in a high-pitched but fierce tone. “I’ve got a weapon. Whoever comes through first is dead.”
“Hurry.” Jordan helped her with the helmet and handed her the Grail. He clamped his own helmet on. Then he ripped the spare oxygen tank from the wall.
“Ready?”
She nodded. But no one was ready for this.
“Keep a firm grip on the Grail.”
She wrapped her arms around it.
With one gloved hand, Jordan held the Staff tight. He removed his ax from his spacesuit’s belt loop and swung it down hard, knocking off the valve.
Oxygen burst out of the tank’s broken valve, rocketing the tank straight into the hull, where it exploded. Metal moaned, twisted, and screamed. Air rushed into space. The vacuum of space rushed in.
Jordan slammed the hilt of the Staff into the cup of the Grail. The two ancient relics burst into pure energy and erupted with a shock wave that slammed her backward. She banged her head, and for a moment her vision narrowed. When she could see once more, the Staff was glowing dark purple and the Grail swirled with a reddish-coppery glow that radiated in brilliant shimmering waves of energy.
Then the Grail and Staff vanished. Simply disappeared as if they’d never been.
“Look!” Vivianne spoke through the speaker of her spacesuit and pointed, her arm shaking. “The glow…” Energy released from the Staff and the Grail rippled through space, enshrouded the space station. And Pentar. Oh, my…“The wave’s sweeping across the solar system.”
Maybe even farther.
She stared in awe at the galactic-sized energy storm. The former blackness of space now shimmered with energy.
Everywhere she looked was now glittering with a coppery glow.
“What’s happening?” she asked.
Jordan didn’t answer. She turned to him and watched as he collapsed. Unmoving, eyes wide open, he floated, staring blindly ahead.
The Staff was gone, and so was he. With the hull blown wide open, her crew was dead. And soon she’d join them. Yet, along with the sorrow, fierce pride raged though her.
Tears streaming down her face, she gathered Jordan to her. “We did it, Jordan. It’s done. You can finally rest in peace,shari-ki, my love.”
When you give up, hope ends.
—KING ARTHUR PENDRAGON
41
Vivianne, Jordan, are you all right? Gray shot a telepathic thought straight into her head.
You’re alive? Vivianne asked, wondering if the stress had made her lose her mind.
Yeah, I’m alive. Just don’t ask if I’m still breathing.
What? She must still be in shock. Gray couldn’t possibly have survived. Or be speaking to her telepathically. Her mind was simply flailing from the stress. A person could take only so much.
She’d obviously just reached her limit.
Spinning, she stared out again at space. The coppery glow that reached as far as her eyes could see was slowly fading.
Gray’s thoughts came through again, this time with confusion and amazement. The Draco has no air, but apparently none of us needs to breathe anymore.
None of them? The implications staggered her. That meant she no longer needed oxygen. She no longer needed an atmosphere to survive. She could live on Mars or Venus or thousands of other worlds that lacked air.
What about the boarding party?
Gone. The Tribes still need air and pressure. After that explosion, they… disintegrated.
Jordan united the Staff and the Grail. Had he altered some universal fundamental constant? She recalled back on Arcturus how Jordan had evolved, how he’d no longer needed to breathe. Arthur had whispered into her ear that her weakness would strengthen her. Was he referring to evolution? Had their weakness of requiring air, which so severely limited their galactic exploration, been turned into a strength? If their bodies no longer required oxygen, had they all evolved to a new level? The possibility of exploring oceans, as well as new planets with all kinds of atmospheres, was now open to them.
We have all changed, evolved.
Jordan suddenly blinked and sat up.
Vivianne’s jaw dropped. Either she really was cracking up or she was dead. But if Jordan was here, she must be in heaven.
Vivianne floated over to him. “Jordan? Are we dead?”
“Apparently not so much.” He grinned, his cocky attitude warming her.
She straightened until she could look him straight in the eye, their helmets almost touching. “But you said you needed the Staff to survive—”
“I was wrong.”
She scowled. “Now I know I’m dead and have gone to heaven.”
“What?”
“You’re never wrong.”
He chuckled. “The unification of the Grail and the Staff has changed the old rules of evolution.”
“What are you saying?”
“I’ve changed on a critical biological level. Mitochondria in my cells are creating energy for me… just like you.”
Gray interrupted. The warship’s out there and bearing down on us. It still has us in the clutch beam, and they’re sending another boarding party.
Hang tight. I’ll handle them, Jordan answered.
Vivianne gestured to the hol
e in the Draco’s hull. “We can’t fix this.”
“True, but there’s no reason we can’t fly.” Jordan placed an arm on her shoulder and began to unbuckle his helmet. Excitement burned in Jordan’s eyes. “Take off your spacesuit.”
“What?”
His eyes sparkled with a newborn energy. “And then let’s shred our clothes.”
She frowned at him. “I think being dead twice was too much for you. You should rest.”
Jordan unfastened his helmet seal and stepped out of his spacesuit. Haven’t you ever wanted to dragonshape and fly through space?
She felt nervous and edgy and just elated, too. We’re going to dragonshape and fly?
Yes.
But how’ll our wings propel us without air?
The same way the Staff powered the ship.
We’re going to convert cosmic energy? she asked, shocked once again.
Yes.
As she took off her spacesuit, she began to think that anything was possible. She realized something else, too. People hadn’t worn spacesuits just so they could breathe. Spacesuits shielded them from pressure, temperature, and radiation. Yet here she was floating in icy space without so much as a shiver.
Her hand should be frozen. She lifted it. Healthy enough. Normal pink. Maybe they were dead and this was their next life.
Stop.
She couldn’t let herself become unhinged. “How’s this possible? What’s happened to us?”
“We’ve just climbed the next rung in the evolutionary ladder. Must be some kind of genetic skin adaptation that shields us.” He strode toward the hole in the hull. And dived out.
Once he was free of the Draco’s confines, his clothes shredded as he dragonshaped. When he unfolded his wings and tucked up his feet, he was beautifully streamlined. But his wings’ coloring caught her attention. Shiny crystals glowed along the surface, no doubt his cosmic energy collectors.
While she stood there admiring him, he soared straight toward the enemy shuttle.
Without hesitation, Vivianne immediately dragonshaped. Oh, wow. Wow. Awesome. Normally when she changed shape she gave up much of her human intelligence. But with these new evolutionary enhancements, Vivianne possessed all her natural human intelligence in her dragon form.
Gray’s mind touched hers, his amazement attached to his message. Jordan? Vivianne? Are you flying outside the ship?
It’s us. Jordan flew straight for the oncoming shuttle.
And joyously, Vivianne flew after him, relishing the freedom, the awesome power, and the glory of flight.
Jordan, I’m so glad you didn’t die on me.
Me, too, shari-ki love. Now help me take out the shuttle.
It is not sex that gives pleasure but the woman.
—SIR LANCELOT
42
The Tribes’ shuttle opened up her ports in preparation for firing missiles at the Draco.
Still caught in the mother ship’s clutch beam, the Draco was like an injured bug in a spider’s web. Vivianne and Jordan had to stop the slaughter.
With the mother ship clearly trying to haul the Draco into her cargo bay, Vivianne and Jordan both flew around the alien shuttle that had shaken loose during the explosion on the Draco. The tube the boarding party had used hung broken, but the hull looked intact.
Vivianne peered into the shuttle through the viewport and she could see the Tribe crew scurrying about, getting ready to fire at the Draco. If she could spread her wings to block their view, it would shake them up, maybe enough to throw off their aim enough to miss the Draco.
Be careful not to block a weapons port with your wings, Jordan warned.
She slammed into the bow and her weight rocked the ship. Gripping the hull with her claws, she changed plans and beat her powerful wings.
She spun the tiny shuttle, shaking the crew from their stations.
You’re brilliant. Jordan flew onto the stern, and together they shook the ship.
No one could survive the shaking. The ruthless killing troubled her, but she had to remind herself that the shuttle crew had been about to fire on and board the Draco and the mother ship still had the Draco in a clutch beam.
When Jordan released his grip, she did, as well. The shuttle quickly spun away, out of control. Until it ran into the gravity well of a planet or star, it was fated to tumble through deep space.
Now what? she asked Jordan, glancing back toward the Draco to make certain it was still in one piece.
We destroy the mother ship.
Finding the Tribe warship’s hulking mass was easy, since Pentar’s silvery atmosphere outlined her dark silhouette. Apparently the warship’s captain was certain of his tactical superiority. As she flew toward the huge beast of a ship, she understood why.
We can’t shake her mass. Vivianne flew, keeping a sharp lookout for any advantage.
But it was Jordan who found a garbage chute. No dragon could insert so much as a claw through the narrow opening. It was too small even for a human.
Wait here. Jordan suddenly shifted from dragon form. If not for her sharp eyesight, she wouldn’t have seen the owl he’d morphed into fly right up the trash chute.
She knew how much Jordan detested that form, yet he hadn’t hesitated. Can you get in?
No. I’ve hit a sealed air hatch, and the metal’s too thick for me to break.
Come back. We’ll find another way inside. She didn’t like him being that small and vulnerable.
Jordan flew back out and once again dragonshaped. There’s got to be a way inside.
Too bad she couldn’t breathe fire on it until it caved. But she required an atmosphere to create fire.
Jordan, what if we sling the Tribe’s shuttle at the mother ship like a cannonball?
He caught on quickly. If they think the shuttle’s damage is limited to communications, they might open the bay doors in an attempt to recover their own people.
Together, they veered away from the mother ship in search of the damaged shuttle.
Shari-ki love. I see the shuttle.
They landed on the shuttle and swung it in a giant circle, using its speed to sling it back at the warship. If we can’t slow the shuttle down, Jordan suggested,we could lob it at the warship like a bomb.
She grinned, liking the idea of using the shuttle the Tribes had sent at the Draco against the mother ship. But even more, she liked the give and take of working with Jordan. Being with Jordan was like being with an extension of herself. Only better, because they stimulated each other, bounced ideas off each other, encouraged each other, supported each other.
The warship loomed large in the heavens as it bore down on the Draco. No, she had that wrong. The clutch beam is still pulling the Draco toward the mother ship. Why aren’t they just firing on the Draco? The Grail’s gone, and they can’t recover it.
They don’t know that.
But they had to have spotted us flying out here in dragon form.
True, but maybe they think we’re a new kind of weapon, or a new kind of spaceship.
They had to have seen the glow after you united the Grail with the Staff. The entire solar system turned coppery.
Jordan’s silence told her he didn’t understand the Tribe tactics, either. But then as they neared the huge warship he suggested, Their hauling in the Draco might be a trap.
For us?
Trendonis has to be beyond pissed right now.
That had to be the understatement of the millennium. By uniting the Grail and the Staff, they’d destroyed Trendonis’s two-thousand-year-old plan to dominate the galaxy.
Ready to let this shuttle fly home? Jordan asked.
On your mark.
Now.
She retracted her claws and prayed the Tribes wouldn’t realize the shuttle was out of control until too late. That they’d think they could still recover the vessel. A shiver of apprehension grazed her scales as for a moment she feared the shuttle would swing wide of target.
But as usual, Jordan’s calculations we
re right on. The shuttle collided with the great warship, taking out a huge chunk of metal.
Watch out.
Debris scattered, some of it coming their way. Jordan shifted to avoid part of the hull. She ducked and let a piece of pipe soar by.
When she swung around to look again, she could see the clutch beam still steady, still drawing the Draco into the mother ship’s underbelly. But they’d done enough damage for Jordan and Vivianne to fly into the ship through the gaping charred hole in the side.
Let’s go.
They landed amid a pile of wreckage, twisted metal parts and debris so burned she couldn’t identify their original use. But they still didn’t have access to the interior. The warship had closed internal emergency hatches to contain the damage.
Jordan clawed at a hose spraying gas into the vacuum. Bingo.
What? She’d felt his elation come through but didn’t understand his excitement.
This is oxygen. He ducked his head into the gas and roared out a flame. The heat did no damage to the hatch. But the oxygen caught fire and shot back up the tube of gas.
Get back.
They huddled behind a giant pile of smoking metal. Explosions rocked the warship, and the deck rippled under her feet. She waited a few seconds for the dust to clear, then peered outside. The clutch beam was gone. The Draco’s free.
Go back to our ship, shari-ki, my love. I have unfinished business here. I need to make sure Trendonis never destroys another planet.
We don’t even know if he’s here.
He’s here.
You’re scanning his mind?
I can feel him blocking me. And that shield has a signature I’d now recognize anywhere.
Keep your lifestyle positive, because your lifestyle becomes your destiny.
—LADY CAEL
43
We have unfinished business here. Vivianne’s thought came to Jordan, determined and strong. They were a team, and she was the best of partners. Although he would have preferred for her to remain at a safe distance, as long as Trendonis lived, nowhere was safe.
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