by Eva Delaney
We stumbled through the door, and Polaris’s fingers flew over the control panel. The door hissed closed and clicked as it locked.
“Okay,” he said. “The walkway to docking 8A should be right over there….” He pointed and trailed off.
I followed his gaze. “Motherfucker,” I said.
“Shit fucker,” Antares said.
We stood on a narrow maintenance walkway above a chasm that delved deep into the rocky moon. There was a gap in the safety railing where a bridge or tunnel should have been.
On the far side of the canyon, a transparent tunnel retracted into the wall and a door hissed shut over it.
“Docking bay 8A is on that side,” Po said. “They went there.”
I pounded a fist on the railing. “We can’t fucking lose them! Po, can you bring the bridge back?”
“I’m working on it,” he said, his eyes fixed on the tablet. “It might not have a wireless connection. Most doors don’t….”
“We don’t have time for this!” I yelled; my voice was swallowed by the whoosh of an upward blast of warm air from deep in the chasm. Chunks of rock and metal flew upward on the blast.
It nearly lifted me off my feet even though I stood meters away from it. It must be an anti-gravity ray meant to exhaust garbage from below. I glanced up to see a waiting barge hovering above with its bottom open to swallow the rising trash.
As quickly as it had started, the blast vanished.
“Once they reach that bay, we’ll lose them. We’ll lose….” everything. My voice choked off and my eyes felt wet, but I refused to let the tears fall.
I’d lose the mission, my reputation in The Uprising, my crew. I might even be court marshaled for failing the mission and stealing the Firebrand without official leave.
The crew would look down on me, and I’d have to face that Rux was right about me all along: I wasn’t suited for this job. I’d have to see the disappointment and anger in their eyes where once there had been kindness.
The Uprising would think they were traitors too, all because of me. Because I lost the Firebrand to Castor who used it to frame us and because I lost our one chance of proving our innocence.
With the mission over, I’d lose the crew.
With The Uprising losing ground every day, it would fall and I’d lose the only meaning and place I’ve ever had in my life. The galaxy would lose its one hope of ending tyranny.
Pounding and clashing startled me from my thoughts. The door shook and bent inward as the Supremacy soldiers tried to smash it open. Once they were through, we’d be killed or hauled to a cell.
“Po!” I shouted. “We need that bridge back and that anti-grav ray off.”
“I’m trying,” he said, his voice cracking with the panic.
“We don’t have time. We’ll have to jump,” I said.
Chapter 31
“We can’t jump that!” Polaris said.
Antares laughed. “That’s why I like you, Firebrand. You fly through asteroid fields and capture princes. You steal ships with bounty hunters and smuggle weapons. And you jump across chasms.”
“Fuck yeah, I do,” I said.
“But…we…but….” Polaris said. “The other door is six stories up. We can’t jump that.”
“We time the jump to an updraft,” I explained. “The anti-grav will carry us upwards.”
“What if it carries us too high?” Polaris said.
“Then we grab the opposite railing on the way back down,” I said.
“Firebrand is right; we’re out of fucking time.” Antares scooped up Mr. Pancake. The dog wiggled as Antares tucked him into his messenger bag.
Po muttered numbers under his breath, his fingers on the tablet. “We might make it if the anti-grav is strong enough…if we can jump at the exact—”
“Perfect, let’s go,” Antares said. He stood before the gap in the safety rail and reached out a hand toward me. “We do this together. All four of us.”
I gulped and glanced across the gap. I hoped I was right about this. The future of the entire galaxy was resting on our shoulders. My future was.
I took Antares’s hand. We both squeezed hard. We needed to hold on tight so that if one of us made it, we all made it.
I reached out my other hand to Polaris. He stared at it.
The door behind us slammed and bent inward. We had only moments before it gave way and the Supremacy soldiers burst through.
Po tucked his tablet into his backpack and, closing his eyes, he grabbed my hand. I squeezed him as hard as I could.
I pressed my lips together, determined to make this work. “The anti-grav will carry us up but not across, so jump like hell,” I said.
“This is stupid,” Po said. He trembled against me.
“Three steps back,” Antares said, “then run forward, jump for your life.”
I took a deep breath to try to calm the anxiety in my chest, the weak feeling in my knees.
A whoosh of air swallowed all sound, bringing clumps of rock and metal with it. As the last debris passed the walkway on its journey to the trash hauler above, I shouted, “Go!”
We ran hand-in-hand and leaped off the edge.
The anti-grav blast stole my breath and lifted my feet. My stomach felt like it drifted in zero-G.
I had always loved flying from the very first time I sat in a cockpit and saw the world fall away below. This time, the world wasn’t falling, I was rising upward toward it, toward the sea-green swirls of Etrea’s gas giant and the sheen of the dome between it and me, toward the gaping maw of the ship waiting to gobble up the flying debris.
I was flying without a ship between me and the air, without the safety of ship walls or floor.
Just me, my two men, and a dog. We were flying joined together like the wings of a bird.
The walkway and door on the far side rushed by as we flew upwards. Antares reached for the railing, but too late.
I tried to curse, but the air flew away with my breath and words.
Then the anti-grav vanished.
We were falling.
Plummeting downward.
I gripped Antares and Polaris tighter in panic. A scream left my throat and a yell left Po’s. Antares, the bastard, laughed.
The far door and its narrow lip rushed toward us as we fell. My heart stopped in my chest. This was my stupidest idea ever. We were going to die unless the next updraft reached us before we smashed into the ground.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” I screamed.
What if we didn’t make it? What if I had to fall helplessly while watching the fear in the eyes of my shy man and knowing that he was going to die because of my bad decision?
What if I had to watch Antares and Mr. Pancake fall to their dooms?
Antares and Polaris each stretched out an arm and grabbed hold of the safety railing as we plummeted past.
I yelped in surprise and fear as I jerked to a stop. I was hanging between Polaris and Antares, who both hung by one hand from the railing.
“I got you,” Antares huffed. He groaned as his arm bent, pulling himself and me upward.
Polaris looked down, his eyes meeting mine for a moment. “I’ll always catch you,” he said, and a part of me believed him. After all, he was always there when I flew back to Star Keeper Base.
My heart thundered in my head, but between the two of them, I knew I wouldn’t fall.
It was strange to depend on someone else for safety. I hadn’t, not since Celene died in the mines.
But now I felt safe in their hands.
Fuck, I was going soft.
Polaris grunted as he hauled himself and me up with him. The two men got to their knees onto the landing and gripped my forearms to pull me up with after them.
I lifted my legs to get my knees onto the landing.
Antares’s arm wrapped around my waist, pulling me close against his side. I should have pushed him away. I didn’t need the support now that I was on solid ground. But I liked the feeling of having him clos
e.
I looked to Polaris, who watched me with relief flooding his face. “You always guide me home,” I said with a smile to make him feel better.
“It’s my pleasure, Commander,” he said.
“You see?” Antares said, against my hair. “I told you it would be fine.”
“Ah, fuck off,” I said, pulling from his hold. “This was all my idea.” He laughed that laugh he always got when we were about to die.
I put one hand on the bag to feel Mr. Pancake’s warm little body. He whined and wiggled inside the bag.
Antares scooped the little dog out and hugged him to his chest.
The sooner we were off this narrow landing over an endless drop the better. The sooner we found Winters the better. “We have to get moving,” I said, climbing to my feet.
Antares’s gaze flickered to the far side where we had come from and I followed it.
My breath caught. The Supremacy soldiers had smashed through the far door. They spilled out onto the landing; their faces hidden by black helmets.
They were below us, but our landing was narrow and provided no cover. They could start shooting at any moment and would hit us.
“Po,” I said in warning.
He wiped a hand over his face; probably his heart was beating a million thumps a minute too. “On it,” he said, the dear brave Po, and lunged for the control panel to hack the door’s lock.
One of the soldiers stepped toward the edge of the landing and looked up at us. I shuddered. It was as though he were staring right at me and glowering.
He holstered his gun and reached up with both hands to unclasp his helmet and pull it slowly off.
As he did, thick dark hair fell free, framing a handsome face. He lifted his chin to stare at us, and the light glinted in yellow irises.
“Shit.”
It wasn’t just any soldier who was chasing us.
It was Prince Castor.
Chapter 32
“How did Castor get to Etrea so quickly?” I said.
Antares stared at the prince with a grim, hard look on his face and didn’t answer.
Castor eyed the chasm and then us.
“Is he thinking of jumping?” I said.
“He’s definitely going to jump,” Antares said with flat certainty.
I touched the gun at my hip. I could stun him, but that would be a certain death as he fell into the chasm. Was I willing to kill someone who had chosen not to kill me? I hadn’t been able to do it on Vinera, but I didn’t need to because my crew was already safe on the Invictus.
This time, though, Castor or his guards might kill us. They might find or kill Winters.
I swallowed. I didn’t know what I would do.
“Got it,” Po said, his voice heavy with relief as the door hissed open behind us.
I sighed and followed him through, pausing to glance back. Antares crouched on the landing, staring across the chasm. Was he thinking of shooting Castor too?
Or was Antares thinking something else about the prince who had once been his…something. Friend? Employer? Captor?
“Cal,” Po said, breaking my thoughts. “We have to find Winters before she gets on a ship.”
“Right. Po, get on the cameras and find them.” I ran down the white corridor with Polaris at my side. “Antares, come on!” I shouted.
A loud whoosh of air meant that the next updraft had arrived. Castor might be on the way.
Po and I raced around a corner. A door ahead of us stood open to a bustling docking bay. I stopped in the docking bay’s doorway and turned back to let Antares go ahead, but he wasn’t there.
He stood at the corner, staring back toward the landing.
Had something happened? I raced back and peered around him to see Castor land on our side of the chasm in a neat crouch, as though it were all too easy for him.
One of his men didn’t make it and fell away behind him. Another two grabbed the safety railings and struggled to climb up, the same as we had.
Castor didn’t look back at any of them, didn’t pause to help. His yellow gaze fixed on Antares like the sight of a gun as he marched forward.
Antares nodded once, as though satisfied. He didn’t meet my gaze as he raced to the docking bay.
Why had he gone back to check on Castor? What had that nod meant? Were they exchanging a signal, a message?
Figures. The one time I let him out of my sight he did something suspicious.
“Captain Bellatrix,” Castor called.
I spun to flee. His footsteps echoed down the corridor as he broke into a run after me.
I already regretted not shooting him.
I pounded into the docking bay behind Antares and Polaris. Here, too, screens mounted on the walls showed the golden palace and the queen with a fresh trio of victims. These ones sobbed openly as she raised the blaster to their heads.
Po stopped, spinning away from the screens. He stared down at his tablet, his hands shaking.
“Fuck,” he said.
“What? What is it?” I said.
Polaris lifted the tablet so I could see. A video showed Winters and the three men running into a BloodClaw class ship, popular among bounty hunters and smugglers. Why did she run into the ship and not try to run away, to escape?
A second video showed that same ship taking off and flying out of the docking bay. My gaze went to the time stamp in the corner and the current time at the bottom of the tablet.
The ship had left ten minutes ago.
We had to catch them before they reached the jumpgate. Once they ship entered the gate, we wouldn’t be able to track where it went.
Whoever had caught her would take her back to the Supremacy. She’d die slowly in the mind melter. Her intel, the secrets that could end the Supremacy, would be lost while the info she knew about The Uprising would help the Supremacy conquer and kill millions.
“Hyacinth,” Castor called as he marched into the docking bay. Antares spun to face Castor.
“How did he find us?” Polaris said.
“You plebs underestimated Lady Camilla,” Castor said. “She saw right through your pathetic ploys and told me where you were traveling. On my orders, she let you go so I could follow you. I’ve been tracking you since you landed, and now you’ve led me right to Winters.”
Fuck! I knew our plan had been too easy. “Polaris, find us a ship,” I muttered. “We’ll be right behind you.” First, we had to get rid of Castor.
Po nodded once and disappeared into the crowds of the docking bay.
“Go,” Antares whispered to me. “I got Castor.”
“We leave no one behind,” I said, clenching my fists.
Antares ignored me. For some reason, he didn’t pull his gun at Castor but raised his fists instead.
Castor rolled his eyes as he marched toward us. “Really, Hyacinth, have you forgotten who taught you to fight in the first place?”
Antares didn’t answer, which wasn’t like him. He stared back at Castor with a grim determined frown. Antares never let anyone insult him without a word. He never took a fighting stance even when Orion and Rux threatened him. Usually, his violence was sudden and efficient. Not prepared like this.
It was as though he were worried.
“You should just try shooting me, Hyacinth,” Castor said, mocking.
Antares might not, but I would.
“You have the wrong person,” I said to Castor, stepping forward so I was between him and Antares. “There’s no Hyacinth here.”
Before I finished speaking, I drew my gun to catch him by surprise, but Castor was a fraction quicker than I was. His gun came up first.
Antares lunged forward and Castor fired.
For a horrible second between the crack of the blaster and when the shot landed, I imagined seeing Antares crumple and drop limp and dead to the floor. A strange sick feeling swirled in my gut.
Instead, my gun flew from my hand, sparks burning my skin as Castor shot the blaster right from my palm.
; Antares slammed into Castor, grabbing his wrist and yanking so the gun pointed at the floor. He craned his neck to look back at me.
His dark eyes were wide in horror and tinged with pain, as though he feared he’d find me dying.
I had never seen him look worried or scared. This fear was new and unsettling. He looked like a man about to see his world burn. He looked like Orion had when I had left him on Vinera. Even then, Antares had simply mouthed the words, “Go get them, Firebrand.”
But not this time.
His gaze darted over me and that worried look faded.
“You always did like to wrestle, my Hyacinth,” Castor purred.
Antares’s expression hardened to that flat, angry look. He hooked his foot under Castor’s leg and kicked, but Castor, damn him, was faster.
He grabbed Antares’s hair, dragging him down with him. They hit the ground with a sickening thud. Castor rolled on top of Antares, and the dour man gripped Castor’s throat.
Through their struggles, Antares kept his hold on Castor’s wrist and the gun pointed at the ground. Now, Mr. Pancake clamped onto Castor’s hand. The prince cursed. Mr. Pancake growled and shook as hard as his little body could.
I darted forward and grabbed hold of the gun, prying Castor’s fingers away from it. With Antares twisting his wrist, Mr. Pancake biting his hand, and my bending his fingers back, Castor finally let go.
I heard echoing footsteps and whirled to the corridor. Castor’s two guards rushed toward us, drawing their guns. I flicked the blaster to stun and fired.
Their limbs went limp and they dropped to the floor. Why did they wear armor and helmets if it didn’t protect them?
Vanity? Fashion?
I turned back to Antares and Castor. Antares had rolled on top of Castor and cracked his fist across the prince’s jaw. Castor caught his wrist and fixed his gaze on Antares’s face. His lips moved.
I couldn’t make out the words from here, but Antares’s dark eyes went wide and sad. “I know,” he said.
Castor whispered something else, his voice a low rumble. Antares shook his head.
