Starbreaker

by Amanda Bouchet

  “Thank the Powers for that.” Heartfelt conviction punctuated his words as he scratched behind Bonk’s ears. Bonk tilted his head back, still hugging me but leaning toward Shade.

  Shade and I looked at each other over Bonk’s head, and something passed between us when our eyes met. A silent communication. A promise to reach that life at the orphanage we’d talked about.

  I nodded. He nodded back.

  “We’ve got a man with a working wand in his hands on the Unholy Stench,” Shade suddenly said.

  I looked at him, taking a second to work that out. “There’s so much wrong with that sentence, I don’t even know where to start.”

  He grinned. “How ’bout we start by getting that bullet out of your ass before the giant carnivorous spiders find us?”

  I laughed, even though the pulsing pain in my rear end was no joke. “I’m not looking forward to either, to be honest. At least once I’m healed, I can run away from them.” Although flying away was the better option. “How fast can we get off this rock?” I asked, worried about the damage to both ships.

  “The Stench can fly,” Shade said. “Asher said the hits were…well placed. She’s good to go as long as we ditch the cargo attachment. No point dragging around extra weight.”

  “They can make repairs on Mooncamp 1, which is where I think we should bring everyone. Merrick?” I asked. “How’s the Endeavor?”

  “Same,” he answered. “Two holes, but in rooms that were sealed off. Nothing that’ll ground us. We’ll move all these people into the main cargo hold and ditch the attachment.”

  I nodded. I had no problem abandoning the big cargo holds on Nickleback to become spider houses. “The people on the Stench stay there, and these people here—unless Frank doesn’t have enough room for them.” I was pretty sure he had more people than I did, but we were both empty after unloading at the DT Mooncamps.

  Jax walked up behind Shade, giving me a thorough once-over that was strictly about assessing my continued ability to walk. His scowl said a lot about how worried he’d been. A lump rose in my throat.

  I lifted Bonk from around my neck and passed him over to Jax. Jax wouldn’t take the affection Fiona wanted to offer if only he’d open himself up, but there was no way he would reject snuggles from the cat. Or me. I leaned into him, briefly laying my head on his shoulder.

  “I’m fine,” I quietly reassured him. Mostly. Whatever. I could stand up, so there was that.

  He held Bonk in the crook of one burly arm, his other hand lifting to scratch the white fluff under the tabby’s chin. Fiona caught his eye, and their gazes locked. She smiled. Jax looked away first.

  Sighing, I realized nothing had changed. I just hoped Jax would break this barrier before it was too late and Fiona moved on without him.

  I took a deep breath to brace myself. Time for surgery. “Let’s do this,” I told Shade, moving to his side again. “Can you get the doc and his wand and bring him to our room?”

  “Damn, baby. There’s so much I can do with that.” Innuendo lit his brown eyes, and I laughed.

  “This poor doctor. He’s going to be terrified of us,” I said.

  “Nah.” Shade smiled. “He’s made of sturdy stuff.”

  “Is that another joke?” I rolled my lips in, picturing things that were totally inappropriate.

  “Maybe a little.” The warmth in Shade’s eyes spread through my whole body. “But it’s also the truth.”

  Smiling, I looked around at the people who had slowly spread out into the main cargo hold of the Endeavor. The worst heist ever had turned out pretty well in the end. We had the Overseer’s new supply of A1 blood. We still had time to stop the GIN Project. No one had died, although I was fairly certain I couldn’t stand up much longer and could really use a nap—preferably with a cat taking up half the pillow.

  My gaze landed on Gabe. He stared at me like I was a stranger, and a sharp, unpleasant twist screwed up my stomach. The universe had played a cruel trick on us. Seven years of waiting and then a month too late. Regret didn’t grow inside me, though. Not like it used to, and had for so long.

  “Can you help get them settled?” I asked Gabe, nodding toward the refugees. “See what they need?” Food, for one thing. Raz was going to have to resupply us after this.

  Gabe acknowledged my request with a nod that seemed forced and mechanical. His eyes swung back and forth just once between Shade and me. A muscle bunched in his jaw. “Yeah. I got it.”

  From his tone, I knew he understood more than just my instructions. As much as it kicked me in the heart to disappoint him, I didn’t want any gray areas. I wanted Shade.

  I turned away, a thousand memories tugging at my soul. First kiss. First heist. First plans for a future together. First pretty much everything. But things were different now. Time didn’t stand still or go backwards. Neither did people. I’d changed. Hadn’t Gabe? There was no picking up as though nearly a decade hadn’t happened.

  I’d wanted only two men in my entire life. Gabe had pursued me, and I’d pursued Shade. I had no doubt I’d still be with Gabe if we hadn’t been separated and caught. Now I was with Shade, who’d chosen me, too. My heart and my body knew that.

  Shade’s knuckles brushed mine as we moved away from the rear air lock. “You all right, starshine?”

  His softly spoken question spread through me like warm honey, sweet and concerned and just the glue I needed to keep myself together.

  I limped a few steps before answering. “I’m glad you’re with me.”

  Shade waited until we rounded the corner before sweeping me into his arms and carrying me to the bedroom.

  Chapter 18

  TESS

  We finished lunch together, this time just the crew of the Endeavor. We were a changed landscape that I was finally getting used to. We’d gone from a family of five to a solid crew of seven, and four of us were new here. It had taken a near-deadly mission, but the wariness surrounding Sanaa’s and Gabe’s arrivals felt far away now. Everyone breathed easier. The next steps seemed less…insurmountable.

  We’d spent the last few days helping to settle the escaped prisoners on the DT Mooncamps. It took some convincing to get them to stay put while we figured things out, but in the end, they’d agreed that sitting tight for the time being was better than getting recaptured and forced back into being unwilling blood donors. In most cases, parents were already with their children, having gone in for early GIN testing together. That helped, and when Raz separated and distributed the group around his Mooncamps, he kept families and friends together. Eggs went in different baskets, though, even in this case.

  Frank and his crew helped Raz more than we did, moving people around in the Unholy Stench and helping clean up unused living spaces and rustle up furniture and other necessary items. All six Mooncamps pulled together to help, and our role tapered off once everything was in motion. We dove into deep planning mode and tried to get the Endeavor up to full power and ready for some big jumps before we had to take her out again. Repeatedly leaping through hyperspace with holes in the hull might be doable, but it wasn’t intelligent, and we worked frantically on repairs when we weren’t working on a plan to break into Starbase 12.

  Luckily, I had a strong and handy crew and Raz had a huge supply of space-worthy metal. The day of the massacre, countless ships had taken off from Demeter Terre in a panic, not knowing where to go. Whole families and crews died before they decided, the blood agents already inside them, leaving thousands of ships floating in orbit around their poisoned planet. Demeter Terre still had a ring around it, but it wasn’t dust and gases. It was ghost ships. A reminder of what they’d suffered. With the Mooncampers’ blessing, Raz collected metal from it for repair projects.

  We shared a large hangar with the Stench this time, and I hadn’t been able to help observing certain interactions while we banged away at repairs on the Endeavor. The
doctor we’d found had slipped seamlessly into the Nightchaser’s life, taking responsibility for things that were spreading Frank too thin. He hadn’t decided yet if he was staying on the Mooncamps or taking up Frank’s spontaneous offer to join the crew of the Stench. It was hard to miss Frank’s hungry glances at the man. Or the way the doctor looked baffled and a little pink but kept walking by Frank, even when he didn’t need to.

  I kept hoping he’d trip and fall into Frank’s arms. And that I’d be there to see it.

  “Tess?” Shade tilted his head at me in question. I brought my eyes back into focus. Everyone around the kitchen table looked as though they were waiting for me to say something.

  “Sorry.” I scrubbed my hands over my face. It wasn’t like me to zone out on an important conversation, although in my defense, we were bordering on Frank-like repetition, even though we were leaving the Stench and her crew out of this.

  It was game day in a way, though, wasn’t it? Or at least the kickoff. We were about to find out if my uncle had left me anything useful. We had a solid plan for the Starbase 12 rescues now, but it could still be adjusted. Uncle Nate’s drop point was in Sector 10, on Galligar Prime. Sanaa had finally coughed up the coordinates, and we’d set them before sitting down to lunch.

  “You look a galaxy away,” Shade said.

  “No, maybe just a few star systems over.” I wrapped my hands around my coffee mug and drank some of Jax’s brew. He made the best coffee, somewhere between eye-popping and smooth enough to swallow without a grimace. The kitchen had turned into planning central lately, and here we were again, most of us with coffees, our empty lunch dishes piled in the middle of the table.

  “Let’s recap.” I glanced at Shade, hoping he would do the rundown of the plan for me this time. I was sick of my own voice by now.

  Shade drank, too, only his mug was filled with some kind of fruit juice Raz had come up with. My scaredy-cat boyfriend had tried to get me to taste it first, but I’d refused. Shade swallowed with difficulty then set the mug down, sliding it away from him.

  I tried not to smile. I’d told him that getting a little extra vitamin C wouldn’t be worth ingesting whatever that fruit drink was.

  He cleared his throat. “Even if Daniel Ahern’s contact shuts off the plasma shield alarm on Platform 7, most people can’t just fly onto Starbase 12, hop out, and walk around.” Shade grimaced, which had less to do with the dubious fruit juice than with the fact we all agreed that Daniel Ahern’s “help” was useless. In the end, we’d decided to avoid his upcoming window of opportunity altogether and make our move two days after it. If his plan had leaked, we’d avoid a trap and hopefully lull Dark Watch security into thinking we weren’t coming. If it hadn’t leaked… Well, ours was a better plan anyway.

  “We have the lieutenant,” Shade continued. “Mwende has high security clearance and is known, at least to some people, as a close associate of Bridgebane’s.” Shade still seemed a bit salty about never having met Sanaa while he worked for my uncle. He wouldn’t admit it, but I thought it was because he actually liked Bridgebane well enough. Or if not liked, then at least respected. With recent revelations, we were all reluctantly moving in that direction. My uncle had truly impressed me lately, even if I hated some of his actions.

  “Merrick’s cruiser is the type they use for Dark Watch fighters. It could easily be the lieutenant’s, or one she’s commandeered for herself. She flies in with me, Jax, Merrick, and Tess—all wanted criminals that she’s arrested.”

  That was the other thing Shade was irritated about: me on this mission. But if Sanaa had to stay behind on the starbase to maintain her cover, they’d need my directional capabilities on a DWALSH to get us out of there quickly.

  Gabe’s chair creaked under his weight as he leaned back in it. His mouth flattened. I had a second irritated man on board, but I refused to feel guilty. There was a reason he was being left behind again, even though I knew he wanted in on the action.

  “We can only do this,” I said, “because now we have Gabe to fly the Endeavor. There’s no way a lot of people didn’t have eyes on her outside of Ewelock. Changing the ID stickers and hoping for the best isn’t going to cut it anymore. We can’t have her anywhere near this, or it’ll tip someone off. We can’t even have her in the Sambian System. It’s too risky.” We were taking enough risks here already. I was not adding to them. “Gabe takes Fiona and the Endeavor to Earth, which is the last place anyone will look for us. None of us have any ties there. It’s not a rebel bastion. It’s barely populated. Assuming we successfully get off Starbase 12, either in Merrick’s cruiser or in something else, we’ll meet you in New Denver. That’s where we’ll regroup, hopefully with Shiori and Reena Ahern with us.”

  We’d all memorized the coordinates. I even made Fiona do it, and Shade had walked her through the navigation system. He’d left notes—numbered and color-coded. Fiona was going to have to pull her weight on the bridge this time. We needed all of Sanaa’s and Merrick’s smarts, aplomb, sangfroid, and muscle on the starbase, we needed me in case we ended up in unexpected places on the spacedock without Sanaa, and there was no way I was telling Shade to stay back while I took Gabe with me. I doubted Shade would listen, and the Endeavor needed a pilot. Possibly even a future captain.

  Gabe simply nodded when I looked at him. He knew his role. Get Fiona to safety. Use the Endeavor wisely if we never showed up in New Denver. He hadn’t liked hearing me say that, but we all knew there was a chance we wouldn’t make it to Earth. And if we didn’t, then Gabe would have the ship he’d always dreamed of. I wanted him to have something good after all those years in prison.

  “Once we’re in,” Shade continued, “the lieutenant will take us to the prison levels and an interrogation room. Because she doubts our cooperation, she’ll bring in known associates of ours—Shiori Takashi and Reena Ahern—to encourage us to talk about rebel operations.”

  He looked at Sanaa in warning, who simply lifted an eyebrow. We all knew she would do what it took to make this look real, but it had better not involve hurting Shiori.

  “But she receives fresh intel on a private channel.” Shade’s tone lowered, turning confidential. “Rebels plotting to break into Starbase 12? Coming for her prized prisoners? The lieutenant immediately decides to move us all to a different, secret location where she’ll continue her interrogation while Starbase 12 prepares for a break-in that’ll never happen.”

  “It’ll have been a break-out,” Merrick said, getting up to clear the dishes from the table. He started loading things into the machine with a clatter. “And we’ll be in New Denver before Sanaa breaks the bad news to her boss, the general. We gave her the slip. Got away.” He smirked. “We were just too smart for her. Nearly killed her.”

  Sanaa snorted.

  “We’ll be in New Denver without any dishes after you’re through with them,” I teased Merrick, getting up to help him slide the plates and mugs more carefully into the dishwasher. He could toss around the forks and knives. They were hard plastic.

  Merrick frowned, as if he hadn’t realized he was being so forceful. Super-soldier strength probably made it difficult to be delicate. Maybe that was one of the reasons why Sanaa kept looking at Merrick with undisguised interest. She wanted to get a little wild with someone she couldn’t accidentally break; that much was obvious. Also, Merrick was awesome.

  Once the kitchen was tidied up, I dropped my hands to my hips and looked around, but no excuse to put off leaving came to me. At least, not a plausible one.

  “I guess we’re ready.” I’d been avoiding thinking about our next destination. I had a feeling this location Uncle Nate was sending me to wouldn’t be dangerous—except to my emotions. I already felt all squeezed up and twisted around inside just thinking about his secret-secret place that he hadn’t really wanted me to see, and whatever information or help he might have stashed there.

  Jax moved toward
the doorway. “I’ll power up the Endeavor.”

  “Thanks, partner.” My vacant murmur made him toss me a quizzical look over his shoulder. For Jax, I pulled it together. “Check the ventilation in Fiona’s lab from your console, will you? It was glitching on mine this morning.” Jax nodded as he left the kitchen, but I stayed rooted to the spot like one of Fiona’s plants, finding it impossible to put one foot in front of the other.

  We’d said goodbye to Frank and his crew earlier. To Raz also. I’d written to Mareeka and Surral. All was well at the orphanage. Coltin had a new interest. He’d decided he needed muscles and was “working out.” I wasn’t sure what that meant for a severely asthmatic eleven-year-old, but I knew Surral would keep an eye on him.

  Exhaling slowly, I slid my hands down my thighs, rubbing jumpy fingers over the suede-like grain of the dark-gray fabric. I’d chosen my favorite pants today for moral support. I’d worn them to the beach with Shade on Albion 5. Discounting that terrifying run-in with a flerver at the edge of the water, nothing bad had ever happened to me in them.

  “Let’s go, then.” Having to mentally propel myself into motion, I headed for the bridge, scooping up Bonk first to have him with us during the jump. The rest of the crew followed. Sanaa had finally convinced me to go into the info-drop location alone with her. I didn’t like it. Shade didn’t like it. Jax didn’t like it, but hell… The way she’d looked at me, I just knew I should. It made me even more skittish about this whole thing.

  “Secret-secret,” I muttered into the top of Bonk’s head. He purred.

  The others wouldn’t be far—just on the rooftop docking platform of the building we were going to on Galligar Prime. I’d never been to the Sector 10 planet before, but it was supposed to be one of the nicest rocks around.

  Shortly after, I stood at my console and flew us out of the hangar. The Endeavor rose until Demeter Terre slid out of our clear panel and two of the DT moons were just reddish-brown dots in our periphery. I turned us toward open space and then nodded at Jax to engage the hyperdrive engine.