“The resistance can use a skilled pilot, I reckon,” K added, his rebreather gurgling.
‘And a skilled engineer to wreak havoc on Tarvath,’ Pivek signed.
I looked at Jax. Arms crossed, he looked down at me, smiled, and nodded. Obviously, I knew I had his support. And I knew I had Yan’s too, but even so, he put a hand on my shoulder and gave me his widest grin, eyes twinkling brightly.
“Wherever you go amongst the stars, I’ll always follow.”
My eyes glistened with tears. They were all with me—all my friends, my family. They wouldn’t leave me. It would have been fine with me if some did…but no, they were going to stay with me.
I sob-laughed, my cheeks straining from the strength of my smile as tears spilled down my cheeks. “I love you guys.”
“Awww,” Rayvan sang and came and pulled me into the hug. Soon, everyone was huddled around me, all in a big group hug, even K and Beleak. I’d never felt more loved than in that moment. All the heartbreak, all the suffering, all the pain, it had led me to this moment, to these people that I called family.
I wouldn’t trade them for anything.
“All hail Queen Jinx!” Yan called with a laugh. They all echoed him and joined in with their own laughter. For just once, I didn’t mind the title, and I laughed along with them, my cheeks wet with the happiest tears I’d ever shed.
14
Jinx
I spent that night on the Sanara with my friends. We stayed up way too late, drinking and joking and playing games and just having fun, no worries for the coming war we would wage. It was one of the most joyous nights of my life. The alcohol took all my pain away, and the laughter healed every wound inside me.
When I went to bed, I did so in Yan’s arms. I felt warm and safe and loved. We kissed and kissed and kissed, until I was breathless, my body humming with desire. Then we made love, our bodies perfect with each other. Our first time together. It was magical, if not a tad painful from my injuries, but none of that mattered. All that mattered was me and him.
As he looked into my eyes, I thought that there was nothing more in this galaxy that I wanted.
“I love you,” I whispered as I gave him a soft kiss.
He stared at me, eyes widening. His mouth hung open for a moment, as if he was stunned. Then that toothy grin of his that I knew so well returned, as wide and as bright as ever.
“I love you too. I always have.”
I laughed, tears coming to my eyes. I pulled him close and embraced him, his body and limbs tangled with mine. Skin to skin, chest to chest, nose to nose. I kissed him again, light, tender, my heart swelling with warmth and love. My body, dappled in sweat and goosebumps.
It was the perfect night, one that wiped away a lifetime of suffering.
Then the morning came, and we were slammed back into a grim reality.
Alarms blared through the base. Even though we were outside the doors and in our own ship, they were deafening. I jolted awake and winced from my wound, though it felt better. The biogel was almost done with its healing. Yan stirred beside me. He was always a heavy sleeper.
He yawned, though it could have been mistaken for a groan. “Just five more minutes.”
I smiled as I detangled myself from him and stood up. “We have to go. It sounds serious.”
“Fine,” he drawled.
We got dressed, though slower than we should have because we kept stealing kisses from each other. For a whole minute, he wouldn’t let me put my shirt on as he tried to plant kisses on my shoulders and collarbone and chest. I giggled and rolled my eyes. We didn’t have time for this, though I didn’t want to stop.
Finally, we were ready and left his room. The others were in various stages of readiness, as some were still sleepy and hungover from the night before. In fact, as we came into the main room, we found El still sprawled out on the ground snoring with a bottle in her hand. The alarms had no effect on her.
Amara stumbled into the room, groggy, her clothes wrinkled. “What is that infernal noise?”
I shrugged. “The base alarm. I can’t imagine it’s anything good.”
Yan looked around. “Where’s Jax? He might know.”
Ketellin came up behind us from the cockpit. “Jax left this morning. He’s no doubt in the base somewhere.”
“Well then, we better go find him and see what’s going on.”
“Yeah,” Yan said with a nod. “The rest of you get ready and have the ship ready to leave, in case this is an emergency.”
K nodded and went to the cockpit. Rayvan showed up with Beleak, said nothing, and went over to El to wake her up.
Yan and I turned to leave, but Amara grabbed my arm and spun me back around. Her face was fraught with concern.
“How are your injuries? You never gave me an opportunity to inspect you.”
I waved her off with a smile. I appreciated her concern for me, as I always did.
“I’m fine. Still sore, still some pain, but the resistance doctors did a good job. Gave me some biogel, made me rest more than I wanted to. They have a lot of experience with gruesome wounds. Thank you, though.”
She pursed her lips. “Okay. I still want to check you out later, though.”
“I won’t mind that at all, Amara.”
She nodded, then left us to get things ready for launch if that scenario came to be. Yan and I did the same.
As we came off the Sanara and onto the landing pad, we found the base in a flurry of frantic activity. The large metal doors were open, and pilots and engineers scrambled about, prepping fighters for take-off. It was a buzz of activity, and it made me realize that something was definitely wrong.
I led Yan through the base to the comms room, where we found Jax and General Yullarin and Yecella. They turned to us as we came in. Jax’s eyes went wide.
“Jinx!” he exclaimed, as if we’d surprised him.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
It was the general who answered, his face grave. “A fleet of Torgoran cruisers just came out of jump and entered the upper atmosphere. The base has been compromised.”
I knew it was something bad, but I didn’t think it would be this bad. Yan and I both cursed.
“How did they find us?” I asked, my voice quivering with fear and uncertainty.
General Yullarin narrowed his gaze at Yan and I, but mostly at Yan. “Yes, how did they find us?”
Yan didn’t like the insinuation. He frowned and folded his arms, trying to rise a little taller. “I don’t why you’re looking at me, General.”
“I’m looking at you because this base has been off the crown’s radar for a decade but a day after you show up, the fleets of Tarvath arrive on our doorstep. It’s a bit curious, if you ask me.”
“Do we need to discuss this now, General?” I asked as I put myself between them. I’d been putting myself between a lot of people lately. It was, frankly, exhausting being a mediator. Sometimes I just wanted to punch instead of suing for peace.
“What we haven’t discussed, Your Majesty, is how your friends managed to find our base.”
I looked at Yan. “Yeah, you never actually mentioned how.”
Yan cleared his throat and looked away. “Well, we—we went to an old resistance base on Terr-Ten Station. Amara, our Zarthian gunsmith and medic, used to be involved in your early days. She had a lot of experience as a revolutionary. We honestly didn’t even know if we’d find anything there, and indeed when we arrived, we found a smoke-filled hunra den. But a former resistance fighter, Fallan, was still there. He knew Jax’s name and pointed us to this base. If you want to be mad at anyone, be mad at him.”
Jax pursed his lips and wriggled his mouth. “I…didn’t know the Tarr-Ten base was gone…”
The general nodded. “Aye, it went dark while you were away. Got hit by Tarvath. It seems like we were betrayed then and we’ve been betrayed again.”
“You think Fallan sold us out?”
“He was very much in the thick of his hu
nra addiction,” Yan noted.
“Either he sold us out, or your ship was tracked.”
Yan shook his head. “Our engineer does regular sweeps of the ship for surveillance and tracking devices. It couldn’t have been…” He paused. “Unless it was old tech, like Amok tech. We had a friend…betray us recently as well. He had us tracked with some old tracking disks that modern scans couldn’t pick up.”
“Hm, most distressing.”
Yan spoke of Rowan, and it made me flinch. We’d tried to move beyond that series of painful events, but we’d been so close for that year or so we’d crewed together. He’d come into our lives and become our best friend, yet the whole time, it was a con job. It would take time before we got over it.
With that in mind, maybe we should have been more reticent to accept and trust Rayvan and Jax and the others, but we’d have to just see how it all worked out.
As they talked about how we were found, the alarms still blaring and people running about, I was struck by a thought.
“There’s something we haven’t considered,” I said.
Their eyes went to me. “What is it, Your Majesty?”
“Tarvath’s inquisitors found us on Caelum 3. Out of the blue. He had no reason to believe I was alive, and yet he did. And he found us. Perhaps they’re tracking me.”
Silence. The general and Jax considered this. Even Yan did, though I doubted any of us knew how he could have known about this. If we could figure out how he knew about me, maybe that would lead us to how to keep him from finding me.
General Yullarin scratched his beard. “This brings up two questions about how he knew you were alive, and how he knew where to find you.”
Yan raised his hand. “I can’t answer the where, but Jinx is wanted in several systems. Perhaps he or one of his allies saw a picture of her and saw that she looked like the late queen and put two and two together.”
“You’re wanted?” he asked.
I shrugged. “I told you I was a thief. I have quite the rep, but that isn’t important right now, is it?”
The general wasn’t pleased with the info, but he dropped it for now.
“Still, it would explain how he knew you were alive. Now that just means we need to know how he tracked you down.”
Before we could ponder that question further, the base suddenly rocked violently, sending us sprawling and trying to stay upright. Once he recovered the initial shock of it, the general turned to one of the officers at the consoles.
“Status report.”
“The fleet has started orbital bombardments. We’re jamming their targeting capabilities for now so they’re simply hitting the mountainside, but it won’t be long before they hit something important.”
Yan cursed. “Our ships are just sitting out there, exposed.” He tapped on his wrist comm. It buzzed for a moment before the deep voice of K responded. “K, get the Sanara and Diego in the air and jump from the system. You’re a sitting fallag bird out there.”
“What about you?” Amara asked on the other end.
I moved in beside Yan so she could hear me. “We’ll stay with the resistance for now. We’ll send you coordinates to rendezvous when we’re safe.”
“Also, have Pivek sweep the ships for tracking devices again,” Yan added quickly. “And do a manual search for older ones too. Just to be safe.”
“Okay, understood,” K said.
“Be safe.”
“You too.”
The comm went quiet. I sighed.
Materelle, please keep them safe. I didn’t know what I’d do if I lost them.
“So, what do we do now?” Yan asked.
“We’ll continue this conversation at a later date. Now, we need to get Her Majesty to safety, and away from Tarvath’s clutches,” the general said. “It’s unclear if he wants her dead or alive, but either option is a terrible one for us.”
Jax shook his head. “It’s too bad we couldn’t get back to the Sanara. She’s faster than any ship we have.”
“We couldn’t risk it,” Yan replied. “Every second they sit out there is another moment that those bombardments could hit them.” As soon as he said that, the base shook again, this time much harder. The lights even flickered, and dust rained from the ceiling.
The general bowed to me and nodded to Yan and Jax. “I must make with battle and evacuation preparations. Lieutenant, get them to safety. That is your top priority.”
Jax saluted. “Yes, sir.” The general turned and started barking orders. Jax watched him for a moment before facing Yan and I. He jerked his head toward the door. “Come on, we’ll take some fighters.”
We followed him out of the comms center.
“But fighters don’t have jump drives,” Yan stated. “We’ll get into the atmosphere and be easy pickings for those cruisers.”
“Our other fighters will be engaged with theirs in a few moments if they aren’t already. They’re not going to notice a couple of fighters slipping away. And you needn’t worry, we have a boom tube. We’ll take it to the abandoned gas mines above Teraxious and link up with the larger transports.”
Jax took us down another hall. We were headed for his quarters. The base shook again. A soldier ahead of us stumbled.
“Why can’t we just take the transports?” I asked.
“Probably because they’ll be too slow leaving the atmosphere,” Yan guessed. “If they escape the fleet’s fire, they’ll be fine to jump, but before then, they’ll be big targets.”
“That’s exactly right,” Jax agreed. He glanced back at me. “You’re too valuable, Jinx. We can’t risk you on one of the big transports. Going in a fighter is a risk as well, but it’s the best way to slip unnoticed.”
I didn’t know much about ships or flying—I always left that sort of stuff to Ketellin and Yan—so I trusted them. “Okay.”
Yan took my hand and gave it a squeeze. “We’ll get you out, don’t you worry.”
I smiled. “You better. It would be unfortunate to die here.”
Yan
Jax led us through the base until we came to a long corridor lined with many doors. He stopped at one and put in a code, but the door was already open. We stepped inside. It was a small room, covered in some maps and charts and other things. His quarters. Only there was someone already present: a Torgoran woman about our age, maybe a bit older than Jax.
“Ah, Yecella,” he exclaimed.
The woman—Yecella—wore the same crimson uniform as everyone else, though hers had an officer’s insignia like Jax’s. She swept her hair out of her eyes and kept packing things into easily portable bags.
“Ah, good, you made it,” she said with clear relief. There was some emotion in her voice that exposed the fact that she felt a great deal for Jax. “We need to get onto the transports. It won’t be long before Tarvath’s forces send in their troops to raid the base.”
Jax shook his head. “Can’t. General gave me the order to take Jinx and Yan away in fighters. That way we’ll be less likely to be noticed.” He paused and motioned to me. “Oh, and this is Yan.”
I waved. “Hi.”
She offered me a muted smile. “I’m Yecella.” She turned her gaze back to Jax. “And if that’s the case, then we better hurry. All the fighters in Hangar One have already launched, so we’ll have to head to Hangar Two. That’s clear on the other side of the base.”
“That’s what we’ll have to do then.”
She groaned. “It would be so much faster to take a transport.”
Jax just rolled his eyes. When Yecella was finished packing and handing us bags to carry, we left Jax’s quarters. Just as we did, the mountain started to rumble above us in steady beats.
“What’s that?” Jinx asked a second before I did.
Jax glanced at the ceiling. “Anti-air guns. The same that gave Yan such a warm welcome. If they’re firing, then that means Tarvath’s fighters are in our fly zone.”
“Which means they’ll clear a path for troop transports to land.�
��
“Yes. We need to hustle.”
We took off at a jog.
A few minutes went by. The constant rumbling of the AA guns kept on, though they began to slow. There were the occasional heavy blasts from the orbital bombardment, which made the lights go out for a spell, but they came back. I didn’t know how long the base could hold up. I didn’t know their defenses, their weapons and strategies. This war was new to me, and I didn’t particularly like feeling so overwhelmed and unprepared.
As we turned down a long rocky corridor that was more mountain than base, the alarms dimmed, and a frantic voice came over the base’s intercoms.
“Enemy troops have entered the base. I repeat, enemy troops have entered the base. All personnel, please follow evacuation protocol delta.”
Jax and Yecella let out some colorful curses at the exact same moment. I couldn’t help my smirk. Yeah, they definitely had a connection.
“That just made things a lot more difficult,” he said.
Movement caught my eye ahead.
“So will they,” I said.
Soldiers in gleaming crimson armor—heavy-duty grav-armor to be exact—poured into the hall and started firing, their golden bolts zipping by us. I yelped and pulled Jinx into cover beside me against an alcove of a door. Jax and Yecella were across the way. Tarvath’s soldiers had certainly found us fast. Seemed there was a delay between the landing and the information being relayed to everyone. Not ideal.
The firing stopped. Boots pounded toward us. The soldiers were advancing. Jinx gripped my arm and dug her nails into skin. We couldn’t go out like this. Across the hall, Jax wasn’t sitting idle. He dug into his bag and pulled out a compactable blaster rifle that folded out into a gun as long as my arm. He grinned, dove into the hall, and started to fire, yelling like a madman.
As I focused on that, Yecella yelled my name.
“Yan!” I looked at her in time to catch the blaster pistol she tossed to me. That was convenient, as I’d left my own on the Sanara. Yecella joined Jax and opened fire on the soldiers. Jax jumped back into cover with her, but they kept peeking out to exchange fire.
The Torgoran Revolt (Plundering the Stars Book 3) Page 12
