by Elle Casey
“I’m taking exit Bay Golf-November,” I say to the guys, not that they care. I smile with satisfaction over the fact that I’m leaving out of a DS-sized bay and not a CS-sized cavern.
We’re there in ten very long seconds and slide in without incident. We’re not home free, though. Not yet. Not with those two gargantuan warships out there waiting for me. And their signals aren’t jammed; their cannons will be working just fine. This cloaking device is the only thing keeping us from being turned to dust by one of them.
My heart is hammering away. Every inch of my flightsuit is sticking to my skin. Sweat trickles from my scalp, down my neck. My head itches, but I can’t take my hands away from the array to scratch it. I’m really going to need a wash after this mission is over.
“What’re our Alliance meeting coordinates?” I ask the engineers.
“Already programmed in. Just punch up a wormhole and give us a shout. We’ll handle the rest.”
My clearpanel goes dim as we slide into the exit bay. Starlight isn’t enough to illuminate this small space we have to pass through in order to get out into the Dark.
We’re centered in the bay now, our ship with just two meters of clearance all the way around. “You guys ready?”
“Yeah. You have about ten seconds left. Not trying to rush you or anything, but …”
He doesn’t need to say anything else. I know what we need to do.
“Lock it down, boys, I’m shooting us out of here.” I crack my knuckles one time before tapping out the launch sequence.
I salute the vision of the station, knowing I’m flying away from more than half my crew. “Goodbye, my friends. Until we meet again …” I push the button to start the launch, and the DS Anarchy shoots out of the exit bay, full thrusters ahead. The warships go by in a blur of light. They make no moves to indicate they’ve seen our cloaked ship slipping past. My pulse is going so fast, I feel like I’ve just sprinted the entire circumference of the ship.
As soon as I know we’re out of range, I hit the fore thruster to slow us down. Wiping the sweat from my brow, I transmit to the engine room. “I’m ready to nightcrawl if you are, boys.”
“Call us men,” Gus says in a bold voice, “because we are no longer boys.”
I laugh at his bravado. “Okay, men. I’m ready.”
“Booyah,” he says. “Coordinates are input and we are ready. Gartan, here we come.”
My finger hesitates over the button that will send us into the dark space to travel over time. “Gartan? What the …”
A voice comes out over my speakers and an emergency red frequency starts flashing on my clearpanel. “DS Anarchy, this is the Warship Baltimore. State your position.”
I’d recognize that voice anywhere. “Drake,” I whisper, my voice laced with both fear and hatred. He’s in charge of the WS Baltimore while Overshine is indisposed, I’d bet my flightsuit on it. Dammit.
“Are we going, Captain?” This is Tam, and he sounds as worried as I am.
“Yeah buddy,” I whisper, just before pressing the button that’ll send us through the wormhole that’s opened up just in front of the ship.
“We are nightcrawling, men. We are nightcrawling.” The warships disappear from my clearpanel as we’re drawn into the hole. Relief fills me to the brim.
The familiar muffled boom comes to my ears and then the whoosh. Silence comes next as all sound is ripped away. Pricks of light bend down toward the center as our ship is pulled into the wormhole. My guts feel like they’re being gathered up by a great big hand that intends to drag me away, and then suddenly the hand of Death is gone and I’m full to bursting, like the Dark is trying to fill me and blow me up from the inside out. I sag into my chair as the ship moves into that place where time no longer exists as a perpetual, ever-moving thing, marching us toward an uncertain future.
We’ve done it. We’re safe.
And then … everything goes black.
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Drifters’ Alliance, Book 3.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Elle Casey is a prolific, New York Times and USA Today bestselling American writer who lives in Southern France with her husband, three kids, and several furry friends. She writes in several genres and publishes an average of one full-length novel per month.
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OTHER BOOKS BY ELLE CASEY
SCIENCE FICTION
Drifters’ Alliance (ongoing series)
Winner Takes All (short story prequel to Drifters’ Alliance,
Dark Beyond the Stars Anthology)
CONTEMPORARY URBAN FANTASY
War of the Fae (10-book series)
*Book 1, The Changelings, is a free ebook at most retailers*
Ten Things You Should Know About Dragons
(short story, The Dragon Chronicles)
My Vampire Summer
Aces High
DYSTOPIAN
Apocalypsis (4-book series)
ROMANCE
By Degrees
Rebel Wheels (3-book series)
Just One Night (romantic serial)
Just One Week (romantic serial)
Love in New York (3-book series)
Shine Not Burn (2-book series), also available as an Audiobook
Bourbon Street Boys (3-book series), also available as an Audiobook
Desperate Measures
Mismatched
ROMANTIC SUSPENSE
All the Glory: How Jason Bradley Went from Hero to Zero in Ten Seconds Flat
Don’t Make Me Beautiful
Wrecked (2-book series),
Book 1 also available as an Audiobook
PARANORMAL
Duality (2-book series)
Dreampath (short story, The Telepath Chronicles)
Monkey Business (short story, Blood Iris 2012: A Dark Fantasy Anthology )
Pocket Full of Sunshine (short story & screenplay)
For more of the humor, action, and writing style you’ve enjoyed so far in the Drifters’ Alliance series, check out my 10-book YA Paranormal Urban Fantasy series, War of the Fae. Start with Book 1: The Changelings, a free ebook at most retailers.
