She’d spent countless nights restless and dreaming of him. This morning she’d woken to the clear thought that instead of avoiding him for these past days, she should have done everything in her power to mend the rift so they could have spent every spare second they had taking comfort and enjoyment from each other.
With the launch of their final stand imminent, all she wished for now was to be back in that cave on Tocarra, where they’d lain in each other’s arms and listened to the rain falling.
Mae desperately swallowed down the building tightness in her throat. She’d made all the wrong moves and destroyed any feelings he’d developed for her, and in whatever time she had left in this universe, she had to live with the consequences of her aching heart.
“They took the bait.” Forster returned, silencing what little subdued chatter there’d been in the common room. “We’re being escorted to the level-one hangar deck.”
Zander nodded. “Which is exactly what I would have ordered. It’s the easiest deck to defend if things go south, plus there’s the added bonus of being able to open the hatch above the deck to vent anyone causing trouble.”
“So he could space us as soon as we step foot off the ship? Comforting,” Forster muttered with a scowl.
Rian gestured at his tech analyst. “Hopefully Tannin will have hacked into the Swift Brion’s controls by then.”
“I’ve spent half my life hacking IPC computers. It should be easy as a slipstream.” Tannin leaned over to kiss Zahli. “I better get up to the bridge and get ready. You be careful, okay?”
She nodded and returned his kiss. “Don’t worry about me. Just concentrate on keeping control of the Swift Brion.”
Tannin left the common room, and silence stretched for an interminable moment.
Mae took a breath and forced her racing mind to calm. Despite all the turmoil going on within her over Zander, she needed a clear head for the coming battle. It didn’t help that her conscience kept rearing up to remind her she’d be stepping off this ship to face soldiers who considered themselves the good guys and had no idea they were taking orders from an alien.
Someone brushed close by her shoulder, and she glanced up to see Zander standing next to her.
“Would it be stupid of me to ask if you’re ready for this?” He had his attention on his hands, checking over the nucleon gun Rian had given him.
She worked to hide her surprise and relief that he was talking to her for the first time in days. “I’m as ready as I can be, considering we’re about to go up against our own people. Though I imagine it’s worse for you, since you know so many of them personally.”
He pressed his mouth into a thin line. “I’m trying not to think about that. I’m just concentrating on getting to my Reidar twin and taking him out as fast as I can. It’s going to be chaos, but we can deal with the rest later.”
She studied his grim expression, taking in the lines of his face, the thick spike of his hair that he’d cut back to military precision for this show, and the exact shade of his warm brown eyes. How could a single person have come to mean more to her than her own life?
More than anything, she wanted to kiss him one last time, feel his body against hers and know for that tiny heartbeat of time, everything was perfect. But after the impersonal distance between them for the past few days, all that would only distract and confuse him right before he went out into the most critical fight of his life.
Instead, she shifted away from temptation and returned to her calm breathing and blank mind.
The sound of the Ebony Winter’s engines changed, and Tannin commed Rian to say they were touching down on the Swift Brion’s level-one deck.
Rian and Forster walked over to the airlock. As Forster hit the hatchway release, Rian turned to look at them. “Weapons at the ready, people. We’re about to party.”
His old saying, the one he’d always uttered to his men right before going into battle, made something click and settle within her, chasing away the apprehension she’d been fighting.
The rampway lowered, and white light from the hangar deck cut into the opening. Forster went out first, hands in the air. As the rest of his crew followed, Rian glanced at Ella, Callan, and Kira standing off to the side.
“Remember, you hold this position and defend it with your life if need be. If anyone works out Tannin’s hack is coming from here, they’re going to want to take you all down. Tannin and the bridge of this ship are our last line of defense, got it?”
“I know, Cap’tin,” Callan replied in a tight voice. “But I still say I should be going out there with you.”
“You’re the best gun on my crew, Roarke, which is why I need you here.”
Callan didn’t appear the least appeased, but he stepped back as the rest of the Imojenna’s crew headed down the rampway.
“Here we go,” Zander murmured.
Mae took half a step ahead of Zander and led him out, a few steps behind Rian.
On the deck, a tense standoff had begun. A group of twenty or so armed soldiers had their weapons trained on Forster and the crew of the Ebony Winter, while other people were fanned out in the background, some of them deck maintenance staff and some of them probably there simply for the spectacle.
Mae took out her Reidar gun and stayed beside Zander, sweeping her weapon as she escorted him to the front of their group.
“Captain Admiral Graydon?” One of the armed soldiers spoke up, his tone conveying a whole lot of confusion.
Mae stopped with Zander in no-man’s-land between the two groups facing off.
“Put your weapons down. That’s an order.” Zander’s announcement echoed through the empty hangar.
Most of the soldiers complied immediately, but a couple hesitated, one in particular whose insignia pronounced him to be a commander captain, and probably the man in charge of the armed forces onboard the Swift Brion.
“No offense, sir, but didn’t I just see you on the bridge five minutes ago?” The commander asked, his gun trained on Zander’s chest.
Mae set her sights on him, not that her Reidar stunner would stop him from shooting Zander, unless he was an alien.
“Commander Captain Johnson, this is going to sound a little…” Zander’s lips lifted in a tense smile. “Actually, this is going to sound totally insane, but the Captain Admiral Zander Graydon currently in control of this ship is an impostor.”
A ripple of confused murmurs swelled through the hangar, but Johnson didn’t lower his weapon.
“Lieutenant Torres, call up to the bridge,” Johnson ordered the soldier standing next to him.
“I’m afraid you won’t be able to do that, Johnson.” Rian slowly pulled out his Reidar stunner, as well as a nucleon gun, and moved forward to stand next to Zander. “We’ve disabled ship-wide communications.”
“What the hell?” Johnson muttered. “Major Captain Sherron?”
Rian inclined his head. “That right, Johnson. I’m sure you’re all aware of my reputation, so when I ask for you all to put your weapons down, you might want to do it, because next time I won’t ask so politely.”
Rian leveled the Reidar stunner at Johnson, who stared back at him with a considering expression. But instead of surrendering, the man’s shoulders tensed.
Mae squeezed off a round a split second after Rian, both of them apparently firing on instinct to protect Zander. The two shots hit Johnson almost on opposite sides of his chest, sending him stumbling a step.
The other soldiers surrounding them brought their weapons up.
“Everyone stand down!” Zander roared over the split second of chaos. He stepped toward the soldiers, holding his hands out. “Stand down before I start handing out courts-martial.”
The commotion calmed as Johnson pushed to his knees and lifted his head.
Someone swore, and soldiers scrambled back, their guns now trained on the Reidar rising to his feet.
The alien reached for the rifle it’d been holding, but Rian fired with the nucleon gun. Hal
f a dozen shots took the Reidar down but didn’t kill it. Zander took a short length of metium-enforced chain from Rian and strode forward, then cautiously knelt down to secure the injured alien. The creature glared at him but didn’t put up a fight, its near black-red blood dribbling onto the floor around it.
“What in the fiery pits of Erebus is that?” Torres, the soldier who’d tried to call up to the bridge, moved beside Zander.
“That is a shape-shifting alien, and the same kind of creature currently pretending to be me. But the why and how is a conversation we’ll have to have another time. Are you with me, Torres?”
Torres nodded and glanced at the other soldiers standing nearby. “We’re all with you, Captain Admiral.”
“Good. Then you won’t take this personally.” Zander brought his Reidar stunner up and shot Torres before the man could even blink.
The pulse of energy passed through Torres with no obvious affect but left him with a confused expression. “Excuse my insubordination, sir, but what the hell?”
Zander was already turning to the soldier standing behind Torres. “I can’t explain right now, but I need you to trust me. And I need to clear the rest of your men.”
Torres nodded, a grim expression settling over his features. He turned to the armed soldiers. “Alpha foxtrot company, front and center.”
Mae kept herself glued to Zander’s side, watching his back for any surprise attack while the soldiers were vetted, and Forster led his men to round up the other Swift Brion crew standing around the hangar.
Once the deck had been organized, Mae trailed Zander as he and Rian met Forster back at the bottom of the Ebony Winter’s ramp.
“We don’t have enough rounds to clear everyone on the ship yet.” Rian put voice to Mae’s earlier thoughts, and she tried not to let the worry over that creep back in. “Where can we secure the ones we’re unsure of until we’ve taken care of fake-Zander?”
Zander glanced around the deck, considering. “On level two, we keep a secure, empty storage facility for emergency situations or unexpected cargo. It’s big enough to fit twice the number of crew on the Swift Brion.”
Rian glanced at her. “Mae, you, Lucie, and Lianna take this lot there. Jensen and the rest of Qae’s crew members will periodically escort groups down to hold as Zander and I clear the levels until we reach the bridge.”
“No offense, Rian, but I signed on to be Zander’s admiral’s assistant, and I’ve been protecting him this long. So you’re mistaken if you think I’m going to walk away now.”
Rian cut a quick look between the two of them. “This is no time to let feelings get in the way—”
“I’m not.” She’d tried not to snap the words, but by the look on Rian’s face, she hadn’t been very successful. “I’m doing my job, that’s all.”
Rian turned to Zander. “Graydon, you want to take care of this?”
Zander’s expression was hard and indifferent as he looked at her, and a chill chased under her skin. Did he really have so little regard for her? The knowledge that she’d hurt him was a constant, bone-deep ache within her, but a small spark of her hope had held out that he might not hate her, even if they couldn’t be together.
“Lieutenant Marshal Petros, I’m relieving you of your duty as my admiral’s assistant. But I am ordering you to do as Rian suggests and take these people to secure storage on level two.”
Humiliated anger washed through her. So they were going all boys club on her now? She wasn’t trying to be egotistical, but Zander wouldn’t have made it off Tocarra alive, let alone met up with Rian if it hadn’t been for her. And now they wanted to shuffle her off because they thought she was too emotionally involved? Whatever. It was their loss if they wanted to square her away somewhere else while the action went down.
She returned Zander’s glare as she tucked her Reidar stunner away. “Fine. You don’t need to pull rank on me.”
Something flashed in Zander’s gaze before he looked away. Part of her wanted to pull him back and demand to know what the hell was up, but she wasn’t going to confirm Rian’s accusation of letting her emotions get in the way.
“Zander and I are going to use the team of the soldiers we’ve cleared to get up to the bridge.” Rian motioned Lucie and Lianna to join them. “Once you’ve secured the storage area, clear as many of the crew as you can until you run out of charges. Understood?”
He sent her a hard-ass stare, but she’d known him too long to let something like that intimidate her.
“Yes, sir,” she replied with almost no sarcasm whatsoever.
Rian’s scowl intensified, and she swallowed over the urge to add a poetic screw you.
Mae turned to Lucie and Lianna. As she went to follow them to the crowd at the far end of the hangar, Zander grabbed her arm, an intense light burning in his gaze.
“I’m sorry. I know we’ve faced every other fight together, and you can take care of yourself. But I can’t have you up there with me, putting yourself between me and danger. This one is personal, and I can’t go into it distracted. Maybe that’s a cop-out, but you understand, right?”
The hard anger in her chest loosened a little. Even with an explanation, she still didn’t like it, but he meant more to her than her own well-being, so she’d bow out of this battle like he wanted.
Her throat tightened convulsively, but she swallowed down the sensation. “Just don’t get yourself killed.”
“Believe me, that’s not part of the plan.” He leaned closer, as if maybe he wanted to kiss her, but at the last second he pulled back, leaving her heart aching. “Just watch your back, okay?”
She nodded. He sent her one last lingering look, then strode over to join Rian and Forster. They headed for the hatchway leading into the heart of the ship, followed by the armed forces contingent who’d been cleared by the Reidar stunners.
Mae’s heart fluttered. Watching him walk away, knowing what he’d be facing, was the hardest thing she’d ever done in her life. Now all she could do was pray that he came back to her again, that she got the chance to make things right between them, to let him know how much he meant to her. Though she didn’t want to face it, deep down she knew that if he died before she could make things right, it would be a destructive kind of anguish she’d never recover from.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Zander led his men deeper into the ship, flanked by Rian and Forster. So far, they hadn’t come across any resistance. They’d told people that ship-wide communications were down and they had an emergency situation that required everyone to gather in the level-two echo storage bay.
The bridge of the Swift Brion was smack-bang in the middle of the ship, supposedly to make it harder for invading parties to reach it. There were defendable blast doors at certain intervals, and Zander had no doubt his fake self would have already set up a line of defense at one or all of those points, since Tannin’s hack would have made it impossible to close them.
However, as they got farther along, a number of soldiers cleared by the Reidar stunner joined them, so by sheer numbers alone, they would hopefully end up with the advantage.
They passed through the first two blast points with no sign of trouble, but at the third, they came across a blockade made of stacks of crates, desks, and other movable furniture.
Zander kept his Reidar stunner in his hand but pointed down as he stepped forward. Most of the armed men on the opposite side of the barrier already seemed confused.
“Stand down and let us pass.” He took several slow steps toward them.
“Captain Admiral, sir, you just gave us orders a few minutes ago to defend this position with extreme prejudice,” one of the soldiers said across the sights of his rifle.
Zander held a hand out. “I know this is hard to grasp right now, but that wasn’t me.”
“Then who is up on the bridge?” another soldier put in.
“The person in control of this ship in an impostor,” Torres said. “So I suggest you all move out of the captain admir
al’s way and join us to take this ship back.”
A few of the soldiers had a quiet, murmured conversation, then lowered their weapons and came out from behind the barrier.
The sound of rifle fire exploded in the enclosed passageway, sending Zander diving for the protection of an upturned desk in front of him. A couple of the soldiers who’d moved to join their ranks went facedown in the middle of the corridor, shot in the back by someone behind them.
Shouts echoed as men took cover and started firing on one another.
Zander sliced a grim look at Rian, who’d landed next to him. Goddamn it. This was exactly what he didn’t want—his own people blindly shooting at one another because they were following orders from two different Zander Graydons.
He ducked around the side of the desk to see who had opened fire on them. A shot went off from Rian, and one of the men farther down the passageway stumbled, his face warping into something not quite human.
More confusion erupted, but Zander brought his Reidar stunner up, outing two more of the bastards. The three aliens took a concentrated volley of shots from multiple directions before going down.
After they’d hit the deck, silence fell, leaving Zander’s ears ringing. He grabbed a short breath then cautiously pushed to his feet.
Rian came up next to him, checking the power pack on his stunner. “I’ve got six shots left, what about you?”
Zander checked his own weapon. “Five. And I’m going to take a wild guess and say we’ll find the next two blast points similarly guarded.”
“Make sure you save a couple of rounds for your psycho twin.” Rian moved off to check how many rounds Forster and the rest of their men had. Torres was checking the few fallen men, calling for someone to get the medics.
“We’ve got to keep moving, Lieutenant.” Zander avoided looking at the downed soldier, not wanting to know who it was, as he gripped the younger man’s shoulder.
Torres nodded, grim resignation on his face. “This is a goddamn mess, sir.”
“I won’t argue with you there.”
As Torres rallied AF company, Zander kicked some debris out of the way and moved farther down the corridor to where Rian had gone to check whether the aliens were dead. Likely, all of that nucleon rifle fire had turned their insides to mincemeat, but when it came to the frecking resilient hell spawn, they couldn’t be too careful.
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