by Maven, Ella
My stomach dipped, and my gorge rose in my throat. That was another weakness I’d forgotten about—I got motion sickness, something I absolutely hated. Laying on my back on the seat with Nero over top of me did nothing to help. All I could feel was the car dipping and turning, but I couldn’t see out, which made my head swim.
Gram had explained why we needed to hide once we were in the car. Our driver would be entering the patrol caravan, and headlights from the other vehicles would periodically be sweeping into our car. Obviously a big, blue, horned Drix and a human female spotted sitting casually in the backseat wouldn’t end well for any of us.
Nero’s all-seeing eyes peered down at me. “Why do you look ill?”
“It’s the motion of the car,” I tried to explain. I doubted the Drix had anything equivalent, the flawless bastards.
He frowned. “It makes you sick?”
“I’ll be fine.” I closed my eyes and worked on breathing properly.
“Am I crushing you?”
“No.”
His expression softened, and I held up a hand. “Don’t.”
“I’m sorry I said something to upset you—”
“Nero, not now. Please. I beg you. Just … not now.”
I couldn’t deal with him being sweet. This wasn’t the time for a heart-to-heart, and he must have realized that too, because he clamped his lips shut and his eyes went hard. He turned away from me, and at once I wished for the warmth of his violet eyes to soothe the nerves ravaging my senses.
“Three more patrol lanes and we’ll be close to the hub,” our driver said. Belatedly, he added in a faint voice. “I’m Jarapin.”
Nero didn’t respond, which seemed rude, so I spoke up. “I’m Justine, and this is Nero.”
Jarapin banked a sharp turn and then said, “Thank you for doing this.”
His voice rang with a sincerity that made me forget about my nausea. “Thank you, Jarapin.”
“Never thought our salvation would ride on the shoulders of a Drix warrior and a human female.” Nero’s lips curled back like he was about to snarl when Jarapin held up a hand. “I mean no offense. My point is that you certainly could have told us to fleck off and blown this entire city to bits. My sister, her mate, and her child are working with Gram. I’m doing this for them. So, thank you.”
Nero’s muscle loosened a fraction. “I have many I care about riding on the success of this mission as well.”
Jarapin inclined his head. After another turn, he said, “Almost there.”
And that was one more thing to send me into a near panic. We weren’t going to park nicely with plenty of time to exit the vehicle. Oh no. We had to leap out of the vehicle’s open door—while it was in motion—and land on a small platform along one side of the hub’s pod. There was no way to stop the vehicle without drawing suspicion, and the timing of our leap had to be perfect. Too early or too late, and another vehicle’s headlights in the patrol schedule would spot us.
We had small window of time to get out of our vehicle, land on the hub platform, and get inside the hub using the code Gram provided us. He’d made it seem so easy, but the entire time he’d been relaying the plan, I had been tempted to vomit.
Nero and I got into position, which meant I wrapped my arms around his neck and my legs around his waist. I couldn’t lock my ankles behind his back, so I looped them through the straps of his back. That was how we planned to exit the vehicle, with me clinging to him like a baby monkey.
Suddenly, Jarapin barked a curse and the vehicle slowed to a stop. Nero and I nearly sailed off the seat. My stomach sank as I caught the reflection of Jarapin’s wide, panicked eyes in the glass of the front window. His shoulders heaved just as a crackly voice filled the car. “Search checkpoint ahead at Sector 26.”
I nearly came out of my skin, thinking someone was in the car with us, until I realized the voice came from a speaker at the front of the vehicle.
“Fleck,” Nero hissed.
“There’s no way to get out of line,” Jarapin’s voice shook. “If I leave, they’ll fire on site.”
Nero’s hand tightened on the seat by my head. “If they find us in the vehicle…”
“They’ll kill you.” The Uldani swallowed and glanced over his shoulder at us.
“Any ideas?” Nero peered out of the window where we could see the bottom of the pod we needed to reach.
Jarapin craned his neck to look down, then up. He swallowed thickly and ran his hand through his short hair. “I can get you to the pod, and I can try to hold them off as long as I can.”
“Will you be okay?” I knew Jarapin was risking everything once they realized he was a traitor.
He swallowed and shot me a small smile over his shoulder. “Don’t worry about me, human.”
“But—” My words cut off on a shriek as Jarapin spun the wheel wildly and slammed down a lever. The vehicle shot up and right, clipping a vehicle in front of us before we sailed up and over the checkpoint line. Nero hauled himself upright, no longer worried about not being seen. I sat up, plastered to the back of my seat like I was in an airplane at takeoff. An alarm blared from somewhere below us and the speaker crackled to life as my ears popped during our sharp ascent. “Vehicle G-967 is now considered hostile. I repeat, vehicle—”
Jarapin slammed his hand down on a button, silencing the voice. I glanced out of the window to see numerous vehicles pealing out from the depths of the city, heading right for us. Arcs of solar gunfire erupted all around us. Jarapin swerved and zig-zagged like a gazelle escaping from a cheetah. Sparks sprayed outside my window just as our car lurched forward. Lights flashed along the dashboard, but Jarapin ignored them as he continued to drive like a bat out of hell.
Nero turned to me; his expression controlled despite the utter chaos that had become our mission. “No matter what, you get inside that pod.”
“No matter what?” I was panicking. I couldn’t hide the shrill tone of my voice. “What does that mean? Where will you be?”
“Right behind you,” he said, clasping my hands. “But I can’t have you worrying about me as I hold off the laser fire. Get those doors open as fast as you can and get inside.”
“What if they bring the whole pod down with us in it?”
“They won’t,” Jarapin answered through gritted teeth as another explosion rocked our car to the side. “They destroy that pod, and they destroy every hope they have of winning this war. They suspect a Drixonian has breached the city, and they expect an attack to follow.”
Nero had begun assembling a weapon from his pack—a modified laser gun I’d seen him use a few times. He had a regular pistol-looking laser gun attached to his hip we well.
He clicked the last part of what looked like the muzzle in place before looping it through the back straps on his pack so that the grip jutted at an angle past his right shoulder.
“There will be guards at the pod,” Jarapin said.
“I know.” Nero hauled me into his lap. “Just get us there, Uldani.”
“You got it, Drix,” he answered.
Nero glanced out the window and his eyes went wide. He wrapped one arm around me and with the other reached for the door latch. I wrapped myself around him. “Hold on,” he said.
“Always,” I answered breathlessly, trying to get my wits about me.
“Door’s opening in 3…2…”
I stared into Nero’s eyes.
“1.”
The door flew open and together as one, we jumped.
Eleven
Nero
For a moment, we were weightless. It was as if time slowed to a crawl. Justine’s hair fluttered in the night air while vehicle lights and laser fire dotted the sky below us like exploding stars. The smell of smoke hung thick in the air as Jarapin returned fire from his vehicle to protect us. He let out a shrill war cry as Uldani generals snapped orders in the city below.
Yet all I felt was Justine’s arms around me and the beat of her cora strong and determined against my
own chest. Airborne as we sailed toward the pod platform, I prepared for what was to come—protecting her and taking down this city.
An orange ball of flames burst in front of us, singing my hair and skin as fire erupted from the vehicle where we’d been sitting in moments ago. Justine’s head whipped to the side, and she screamed. “Jarapin!”
I couldn’t spend more than a moment grieving the Uldani, whose vehicle plummeted to the ground in a ball of fire. He’d played his part, and he’d had a purpose that he remembered to the end. I’d make sure Gram told his sister of his sacrifice.
A few laser shots flew past us. Pain streaked up my left leg, momentarily stealing my breath. I shoved down the agony coursing up into my torso.
We landed on the platform with a thud, me on my back with Justine on my chest. Her breath left her body with an oomph, and I felt a drop of her tears hit my face before I was on my feet. Running down the small railed deck along one length of the pod were Kulks, maybe half a dozen, with their laser guns aimed at me.
Shoving Justine toward the door, I made to stand, except my left leg buckled beneath me.
“Nero, you’re hurt!” Justine’s voice rang out.
I shook my head and stumbled to brace my body on my one good leg. I surrounded her with my bulk, withdrawing my short-range laser gun from my vest. Opening fire, I took out two Kulks with two carefully aimed shots through the eye slits of their armor. The next two, I sent sailing over the railing to the ground below with a whip of my tail, nearly losing my own balance in the process. The last two, I took out with my machets and zero finesse, making a bloody mess on the slatted railing floor.
I collapsed on my last swing, the agony in my leg nearly blinding me. I glanced down to see my pants torn and my whole thigh exposed. Black blood pulsed from the shredded muscle, running down my calf in ringlets to drip onto the platform
Hands grabbed my shoulders, tugging me backward, and I glanced over my shoulder to see Justine working valiantly to get me inside the pod. The door, thank Fatas, was open.
“You got the door open,” I said unnecessarily.
“That was my job,” she huffed as she pulled at me. Between the two of us, we managed to get my body inside the door. Pulling my legs clear, Justine slammed a button on the wall, and the doors slid shut. A moment later, laser fire slammed into the metal paneling, denting it. The doors, most likely reinforced, held firm. I wasn’t sure how long that would be the case. More Kulks would be arriving.
Still on my back on the floor, I rolled over to find Justine digging through her pack. “Get to the controls.” I grimaced as my voice trembled, weak with pain.
“I’m looking for medis!” Her eyes were wild as she pawed through our supplies, tossing things everywhere.
“I have some in my pack,” I said. “Stop worrying about me and get to the controls.”
“Your leg is shredded!” She cried out, and that was when I saw the tear tracks on her cheeks. She was panicking, her hands shaking and her face pale.
“Justine,” I sought to keep my voice even. “I will live.”
“Nero.” Her voice caught as her worried gaze dipped to my injury.
“Go,” I reached for my long-range weapon. “I need to hold our position and keep them from taking back control of the pod.”
She bit her lip. “How are you going to do that?”
I pointed to a porthole window. “I’m going to shoot at anything that gets close to us.”
“So, wait… I—”
“You’re going to have to do disable the security system yourself.”
Her breathing sped up until she was nearly panting with anxiety. “This is FUBAR,” she muttered, shaking her head. “Tit’s up. For fuck’s sake, I’m trying to be positive here, Nero, but I can’t think straight with you bleeding all over the goddamn floor—”
“You can do this,” I grabbed her shoulders and shook her. “I know you can.” She sniffed as her gaze trailed to my leg. I avoided looking at it again. “Come on, little bird. Do this for me so we can fly.”
She nodded wordlessly, her eyes a bit dazed as she staggered to her feet and stumbled toward the control panels. The hub looked exactly as I thought it would, so what I’d taught Justine would be relevant. A wheeled chair sat in the middle of the rectangular pod. Along each long wall were control panels. The one with a dozen monitors controlled the security system and the other with fewer screens controlled the city’s communication, utilities, and data bank. Justine sank down in the chair, her body tiny in the room meant for the tall Uldani and broad Kulks.
Grabbing my long-range gun from where it was strapped to my back, I crawled over to the porthole window. Punching it out with my machets, I set the tip of my laser gun in the hole I created. Then I placed my eye at the scope, and waited.
Jarapin had been right. They wouldn’t risk blowing the entire pod to pieces, but they’d do their best to gain entry and take us out. If I could hold them at bay, Justine would have time to hack into the system.
A vehicle whizzed by, and I aimed at the driver’s head. Pulling the trigger, I watched the arc of laser fire sail through the glass to nail the Kulk driver right in the neck. His head lolled off his body and the vehicle, with a Kulk passenger set to lob a laser bomb, tilted wildly to the side before sailing to the left and dropping like a rock.
I glanced behind me to see Justine sitting at the control panel, her trembling fingers motionless. Her lips were moving and her hair that had escaped from her tie circled her head in wild waves.
“Justine!” I barked at her.
Her head went up, and she looked on the verge of a total mental shutdown. “I can’t—” she swallowed. “I can’t think. I can’t...” She shook her head helplessly.
I resisted cursing. This wasn’t her fault. We’d barely had time to practice. Even the most experienced warrior would be panicking at all that had gone wrong. I fired off another shot at a passing vehicle before turning back to her.
“Focus.” I kept my voice calm but firm. “Picture us back in my hut. Remember my voice and what I taught you. Start with their communications satellite.”
“Right.” She swallowed heavily as her eyes darted across the massive control panel.
“Focus on our goals, little bird.” A shudder ran down her body at my lowered voice. “Remember what we’re fighting for.”
A sob burst from her lips as she covered her mouth with her hand.
“You can do this. I know you can.”
Her shoulders heaved as she inhaled deeply. “Focus, Justine,” she murmured to herself. “Focus. Communications satellite. The mission.” She licked her lips as her gaze met mine for a brief second. “Our future.” She tapped at a screen and the outline of the Uldani communications satellite appeared on the screen, outlined in green. With a few more taps of her shaking fingers, the satellite blinked red a few times before going dark. She exhaled and let out a bark of laughter as she turned tear-filled eyes to me and pumped a fist in the air. “Done!”
I could see her confidence returning as her spine straightened and her eyes cleared of the haze of panic. I smiled at her. “You’re doing great. Keep going.” A careening vehicle entered my vision a minute too late for me to get a shot off. An explosion rocked the front of the pod. The floor tilted, and Justine shrieked as her chair rolled.
She grabbed onto the control panel in front of her to keep herself in place.
My head slammed into the wall and for a moment, I saw stars in my eyes. “Fleck,” I muttered, shaking my head to clear my vision. I blinked as a trickle of wetness slid down my forehead.
“Nero!” I heard Justine scream right before my head swam and my vision went black.
* * *
Justine
When Nero’s eyes rolled back into his head and his body slumped over, something came over me. It was as if the cool collectiveness of his soul transported into mine. My blood no longer flushed hot. If anything, an eerie chill descended over me.
I had almost no
control over the situation, and in any other time that would have sent me into a raging panic. I threw myself across the room to Nero’s side and cradled his head in my arms. At the feel of his steady heartbeat and strong pulse, I calmed somewhat. He was alive, but that hit to his head had been a doozy. The thud of it still echoed in my head.
But I didn’t let myself lose it. I couldn’t control what was going on around me, but I could control how I reacted. He was alive, so was I, and we still had possession of the pod. And as I stared down at his face while doing my best to wipe the blood from his eyes, I let the compartments in my head I worked so hard to keep separate blur.
Nero had said to remember what we were fighting for, and those images flitted through my brain now. Everything I hadn’t let myself dream—a future with Nero on his home planet. A small hut full of my art. Our chit running between our legs and spilling my paints.
I had the power to get that future. I knew what I was doing, and the dreams calmed my nerves enough for my confidence to roar to the front of my brain like a steam engine. I could do this. I would do this. These fucking Uldani would see what happened when they messed with human females.
I didn’t let myself lose my shit over Nero passing out.
He was okay; just knocked out.
I ignored the flashes of laser fire that erupted from outside and pinged off the metal walls of the pod. Reaching into my pack, I withdrew a vial of medis. My hands no longer shook, and I spoke a random babble of words to Nero to drown out the sounds of the Uldani attack. Already Nero’s head wound was clotting in that amazing Drixonian healing way they had. I plunged the medis into Nero’s neck, emptying half of it, before slamming the rest into his mangled leg.
His body jerked, and his eyelids fluttered. He didn’t wake, but his face was no longer pinched with pain. Satisfied he would be okay, I didn’t dally. With controlled movements, I stood and returned to my place at the control panels.
I lifted my hands to the screen and while my mind raced with all I had to do; I took it one step at a time. The satellite communications were down, which would render most of their comms useless. Unable to communicate between the troops on the ground and those in the air attacking us, I suspected they’d need to regroup before launching another offensive. The laser fire seemed to have slowed, which proved my theory might be right.
