“Stitches?” Caeryssa asked.
He nodded. “Several.”
Great. Another patient for Surral—if we could get to her.
“Or this.” The doc pulled something from his back pocket that made my jaw drop.
A medical laser. It would heal Frank in mere minutes. And Tess, too—as long as we could get the bullet out.
The doctor’s smile was a little sad and lopsided. “I never leave home without it. I learned my lesson the day my wife died and I couldn’t do a damn thing about it.”
“Holy shit, I could kiss you right now,” Frank said.
The doctor shrugged, but his smile turned slightly more genuine.
“They let you keep it?” I asked.
“It’s not a weapon.” He adjusted the little white instrument in his hand, positioning his thumb over the On button. “And I may have given the soldier inspecting me a false prognosis for a flesh-eating skin disease to distract her.”
Frank barked a laugh. “Have at me, Doc.”
The doctor fired up the laser and began the healing process, one hand on Frank’s shoulder to steady him, and what might’ve been his first smile in a long time tugging at his mouth.
While the doctor worked and I sat there, useless, Jax evaded the dots on the monitor, trying to get away from the security hub and out into open enough space for Asher to pick us up. No windows and shitty visuals made it hard to know who we were avoiding. Dark Watch cruisers trying to block our path? Jax made a couple of abrupt moves that left people clinging to one another for balance and the doctor muttering a curse.
Watching Jax at the console set my teeth on edge. Even though my arms didn’t work, I itched to take control.
Jax hissed the second before we collided with something and dipped hard. I toppled over, crashing sideways like gravity came up to eat me. With zero control over my body, I couldn’t catch myself, and a resounding thud went through my skull. My vision swam. Blurry figures shouted and fell down. I blinked, but the chaos remained. Limbs and kids and human shit sliding all over the place. I groaned.
“Jax!” Caeryssa yelled.
“I see it!” Jax banked again hard. Everyone slid toward the far wall, screaming. I started to roll away, and the doctor reached out and grabbed me. He jerked me to a stop with one hand, finished with Frank with the other, and turned off the laser. “Everyone okay?” he asked.
Frank gaped at him. “If we live through this, will you join my crew?”
The doctor grinned. Then sobered. “You’re serious?”
“You got anywhere else to go?” Was that a hint of flirtatiousness in Frank’s voice? I was pretty sure it was—and that Jax could stop worrying about Fiona taking off with the captain of the Unholy Stench one of these days.
“I’ll think about it,” the doctor said. And I could tell he would.
My head still rang, but the shot of adrenaline from that hard hit must’ve loosened the stun blasts’ hold on my limbs. I shook out a leg. A shoulder. Parts of me moved again. I sat back up against the wall next to Frank.
The doctor moved away from us but kept Frank in view, his brow knitting. He snuck another glance.
Had the universe just made a match? It was hard to miss the stars in Frank’s eyes as he watched the man who’d just healed him. As for the doctor, he looked more confused than opposed.
Jax kept us on a steady course. The Stench moved toward us. Next to Jax, Caeryssa gripped the edge of the console for balance while she pounded her other fist against her numb leg as though trying to wake it up.
“You all right, Tess?” I asked. She’d been awfully quiet.
“For now,” she answered. “They’re mostly on you guys. You doing okay? Jax?”
Jax grunted, a snarl fixed on his face. There was a lot in his expression that he didn’t usually show people, all that blistering hate and rage. It was a good thing he wasn’t looking at the cargo. They might try to jump ship.
Jax dodged another something, but more came in fast. He was a damn good pilot, even with this piece-of-shit box. If no one shot at us, we might stand a chance.
A behemoth of a blob suddenly appeared on the radar. I wasn’t sure if the sight of it was terrifying or a relief. DW 12. The galaxy’s fucking premier warship. Because Bridgebane would be the one to mess with this escape after setting it up. And I knew he’d shoot the stuffing out of the little guy. I’d seen Tess’s ship when the Endeavor landed on my doorstep.
Caeryssa gasped, making Frank turn to the monitor.
“Holy fuck, look at that,” he said in horror. For the first time, he looked genuinely scared.
What had he gleaned from Tess’s conversation with Mwende over the coms? Not enough to know this wasn’t catastrophic. A ship like that usually spelled a guaranteed death sentence to a bunch of rebels fumbling through the Dark.
“Dark Watch 12 just showed up,” Asher said in a strangled voice. “What do I do, Boss?”
I leaned toward Frank and quietly told him, “That’ll be the uncle.”
Frank’s blue eyes widened, then narrowed. “You hear that, Ash?”
“Heard,” Asher choked out. “Belief hasn’t set in yet.”
“Don’t worry, Asher. I feel the exact same way most of the time,” Tess muttered from her cargo hold.
I kept my eyes on the monitor, watching the huge ship close in on what I thought was our cargo box next to the Unholy Stench. Everyone in here was watching the same thing, terror a new stink in the room.
“He better not blow us up,” Frank muttered. “Any of us.”
Caeryssa shushed him, her eyes darting to the people in the cargo hold.
“The warship is turning its phasers on us!” Asher hollered. “Tess!”
“Hold steady,” Mwende said.
“Keep going, but he’ll fire on you. Don’t think he won’t.” Tess’s warning came three seconds before an alarm wailed on the Stench.
“He grazed us, like a warning.” Asher silenced the alert. “Threw me off course, but we’re close. I’ve almost got you.”
“Seal off your bottom level,” Tess said. “You too, Merrick. Oh no! Bonk! Where is he?”
“I’ve got him, Tess,” Merrick said. “Don’t worry.”
“He’s on the bridge?”
“Yes.”
I squeezed my eyes shut. Tess and that cat. I might’ve been kind of attached to the tabby myself.
“DW 12’s sending out warning messages to all cargo cruisers in the area,” Asher said. “Evacuate. No attachments allowed.”
“Don’t back off. Keep coming,” Jax said. “Is that you on my doorstep?”
The door we’d come through was the only place on the cargo hold to make the seal. Asher confirmed his position. “Yeah, we swung around. Reverse thrusters. Stop now.”
Jax did as Asher directed. The abrupt slowdown jostled our human cargo again. A baby started crying. We were in the home stretch. Where was Tess?
As if I’d asked out loud, she suddenly gave an update. “I’m higher than you and going faster. DW 12 got between us and the Ewelock phasers. They can’t shoot at us now.”
Given the choice, I’d rather have Bridgebane firing on us. But I also remembered the holes in Tess’s hull. Her uncle kept up appearances almost too well.
“Don’t go too fast or you’ll pass me,” Merrick warned. “We turned and are backing toward you now.”
“Got it,” she said. “Who’s at the back door?”
“Gabe,” Merrick answered.
An image of Tess coming through the vacuum seal and jumping into Gabe’s arms was not what I needed right now. It slammed into my brain on repeat.
“He’s gonna fire!” Asher couldn’t hide his panic.
“Just go with it,” Tess said.
“Go with it?” Asher’s what-the-fuck voice almost squeaked.
/>
“I told you! Seal off your bottom level!” Tess obviously had more confidence than I did that Bridgebane wouldn’t aim for something vital that could tear apart the ship.
“Okay. I sealed off the living quarters,” Asher said. “But I’ve got Mace and Nic at the doors.”
“And we’ve got Gabe and Sanaa.” Tess hissed in pain as if she’d moved wrong and hurt herself. “Fiona, you’re on the bridge?”
“Yes,” the botanist answered. “And my plants better not be sucked into outer space, or I will personally dismantle DW 12 and make Bridgebane eat a poison mushroom.”
“I like this woman,” Mwende said. “She has fire.”
For some reason, Jax looked at me. He blinked. “Fiona.”
“Jax?” Her voice seemed less confident now.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “For yesterday. At breakfast.”
A slight pause followed his apology. “I forgive you.”
He drank down her words with a hard swallow. His eyes haunted, he turned back to the monitor.
For fuck’s sake, if he didn’t realize I forgive you was actually I love you, he needed to have his head examined. ASAP.
For the next thirty seconds, I watched the monitor along with everyone else. There wasn’t any space between us and the Stench now. Asher was just lining us up at the air lock.
“Almost there…” he said.
Our cargo unit jolted hard as we rubbed up against the Unholy Stench in a way that wouldn’t have happened if we’d had time to gently drift in. People gasped. The infant wailed now, a raw scraping in my eardrums.
“He’s firing!” Asher’s shout got lost in the rumble of an explosion, the deep roar rolling through the coms. We shook also. Metal grated as we scraped against the ship. Alarms blared on the Stench, shrieking like that kid.
“We’ve got damage! Nic? Mace?”
They both answered Asher’s frantic call. Jax did his best to steer us back into position.
“Stay focused,” Tess said. “Make the vacuum attachment.”
“We’re bleeding crap into space. It’s all over the place!”
“Crap can be replaced,” she snapped. “A hundred and fifty people and your crew and captain can’t. Make. The. Seal, Asher. Now!”
“Yeah. Yeah, I got it.” Asher quieted the alarms and got back to work. He’d have to line us up with precision again. Under pressure, that was hard.
I figured I’d see if I could drag myself a dozen feet and do something useful while our fate hung in the balance. It was a struggle, but I managed to reach the terrified mother who could barely breathe, let alone calm down her child. I sat beside her and held out my arms. She passed the infant over. I couldn’t tell if it was a boy or a girl. It was dressed in brown. I laid its bald head in the crook of my arm and stuck my little finger in the kid’s mouth. The baby looked up at me and sucked. Blessed silence.
“We’re in place,” Asher said. “Nic!”
Tension locked my shoulders. I waited.
“Done!” Nic cried in triumph.
“Go!” Tess shouted. “Don’t wait for us. We’ll meet you on Nickleback.”
The imminent reality of leaving Tess behind sent panic blasting through my chest.
“Everyone sit!” Frank bellowed.
These people didn’t need to be told twice. They sat.
Boom! Bridgebane hit the Stench again. We shook hard along with her. The baby’s eyes widened, but it kept sucking. My heart pounded against my ribs like a professional boxer with a speed bag, punch, punch, punching as fast as it could.
“We can’t take another hit like that. Gotta jump now,” Asher said.
Before I knew it, a yell ripped from my mouth. “Tess!”
“Get ready to take a bullet out of my ass, cupcake.”
“I—” Darkness folded in on me. Hyperspace wrapped her arms around us, and everything went weightless, quiet, and blank. I cradled the baby as my stomach started to writhe and tumble, words I didn’t get to utter lodged tightly behind clenched teeth.
—love you.
Once again, I was too late. The words burned in my throat, and Tess and I were light-years apart already.
Chapter 17
TESS
It was so freaking quiet all of a sudden. The Unholy Stench was gone, taking Shade, Jax, its crew, and that whole cargo hold away with it. They’d detached first from the DWALSH and had taken the brunt of the chase. I would be the focus now. And the Endeavor. We weren’t lined up yet. We still had to make the attachment, and I’d never felt so alone in my life. If it weren’t for the two big blobs near me on the radar, I’d have panicked.
The Endeavor and Dark Watch 12.
Who’d ever have thought I’d find DW 12 looming over me reassuring?
I swallowed, and it tasted like fear in my mouth. “Merrick?”
“Reverse thrusters,” he ordered.
“Brace yourselves!” I shouted. I couldn’t turn to see if anyone listened. If the yells and flops of people on metal were any indication, I didn’t give them enough warning.
My hips rammed into the edge of the console. I gasped, the jolt echoing in my injury. Who the hell gets shot in the ass?
Me, apparently.
Just before we started moving backward, I killed the power to the thrusters and waited for Merrick’s instructions.
“Stay there, Tess,” he said. “I’ll do the maneuvering.”
I lifted my hands from the console. “What’s Bridgebane doing?”
“Sending a lot of threats and warnings.”
“And?” That couldn’t be all.
“He shot the Stench at least twice. They’re limping through their jump right now.”
“I heard the explosions.” I sure hoped the damage wasn’t bad enough to ground them on the near-deserted Nickleback. Shade could repair a lot of things, but not without materials.
I rubbed my forehead. “Bridgebane won’t do nothing for long. He can’t risk it.” Even with Sanaa and me in the line of fire, he’d shoot. I knew that.
A jolt went through the cargo unit, throwing me away from the console so hard I fell over. We tilted, and I slid toward the mass of human passengers, slamming into someone sitting on the floor. Two knees hit the back of my rib cage like fists with iron knuckles and drove the air from my lungs. I wheezed in a breath, rolled over, and stared at the woman above me. For a second, she looked just like my mother.
I blinked. A stranger looked back at me.
Lank dark hair curtained forward as she leaned down to help me sit up. Her helpful grip turned into painful clinging when the lights went out in the cargo hold. The darkness was as dense as the Black Widow. Not a single pinpoint of brightness, not a glowing button, not a flashing control panel broke the intense blackness around us.
The woman’s nails dug into my shoulders. Her breath came in scared little shudders. People murmured in fear. The whirring of the air filters stopped abruptly. The gravity shut off, eliminating the universal standard. Up I went, my heart in my throat. Pandemonium erupted in the cargo hold.
“Merrick? Can you hear me?” The coms were independent, right? They’d still function.
“I hear you. DW 12 shot your box with some kind of electrical charge.”
“All the systems are off. No new oxygen. No gravity. Can’t see!” I tried to keep my voice down, but stress made it rise beyond the whisper I’d started with.
Someone grabbed my ankle. The woman still had one of my arms. Something smacked me in the ear, making the com ring. I tore myself free from grasping hands only to ram into the person floating above me. He grunted and clutched my hair like a lifeline, jerking me sideways and into him. I punched his wrist. He let go with a gasp, and I threw myself away from him.
“Merrick!” A shoe hit my nose. It hurt and stank. “I need you!”
We tumbled in the void, spinning, bodies colliding. I hit a wall—or the ceiling—face-first and hissed. Pain flared from my eye to my teeth, my cheekbone throbbing. At least I’d found something solid.
I fumbled for something to hold on to. A cold, smooth surface met my fingers. Children wailed like sirens.
Was it my imagination, or was the temperature in here already dropping? Cold, dark, airless. We were drowning, and there was no up or down or anywhere.
“I’ve almost got you.” Merrick’s even, virtually toneless answer didn’t satisfy me in the least or calm my rising panic. Almost didn’t get the job done. Almost was a mission that went up in smoke. Almost was a hundred people dying when you told them you were here to help.
My pulse beat savagely against my skin. I closed my eyes—it seemed better than staring without sight—and touched my hot cheek with cold fingers. I had to count on my team now. That was part of this—relying on others.
“Come on! Hurry up!” Gabe snapped. “Line us up!”
“Shut up!” Fiona snapped back.
“I concur,” Sanaa said dryly.
A rough exhale scraped across my lips. There was a smile in there somewhere, buried deep. Nothing was funny, but my people were still mine, and I could count on them to be who I thought. Gabe, impatient, his heart in the right place. Fiona not taking any shit. Merrick only speaking when necessary and always calm when he did.
Shade and Jax only freaking out when someone they cared about was in trouble, especially me. Otherwise, they were rocks, and I missed them.
I pressed a hand to my chest, trying to push back the emotion that was stabbing out.
I couldn’t say much about Sanaa yet other than that she impressed the hell out of me, and not only for putting up with my uncle. It was Bridgebane who threw me for a loop. Family. Stranger. Enemy. Friend. I didn’t dare speculate about what came next. He’d either blow my expectations out of the water—or sink them without a second thought.
We jolted hard again. People screamed. My eyes flew open, meeting total darkness. “What was that?” I asked.
“Another blast like the first.” Merrick muttered a curse. “Knocked you off course. I’ll have to readjust.”
Starbreaker Page 29
