by Black, Tasha
“You know how to operate a scrappy ship like this one?” Mama asked. “You know how to strategically target and electrify a ship and get out again before that thing gets hold of us?”
“I’m a pretty quick learner,” he replied.
Mama squinted her eye and gazed around the little group.
Angel tried to see them all as Mama did, three women holding three babies, two men, none of them used to piloting.
“If we do this,” Mama said slowly, “we have to trust each other. You can’t keep secrets from me. It’s one for all and all for one.”
Tchai chuckled and reached for Mama, a big gummy grin on his little face.
Mama looked down at him, surprised.
Slowly she put out her hands.
“I trust you completely,” Angel said, placing Tchai gently in her captain’s waiting arms.
Footsteps rang out in the hallway.
Angel turned in time to see Peter hurrying away.
19
Peter
Peter’s skin tingled. He was burning to shift and snatch his son away from these human scumbags.
At the same time, the agony of being betrayed by his mate cut into his very soul.
He’d been headed back to the common area, hoping he could talk some sense into Angel. Instead, he’d arrived just in time to see her handing the baby over to that pirate.
Now he was trapped, and so was his boy.
A whiff of honey and the sound of soft footsteps alerted him to Angel’s presence.
“Peter,” she said softly.
“How could you?” he demanded, spinning to her.
She stepped back and he felt a wave of shame wash over him. His mate should never be afraid of him.
“We don’t have a choice,” Angel said. “She took us in. She will do the right thing.”
“Can’t you see that she’s playing you?” he asked. “The same way she claimed to have saved you, but then put you to work on her ship.”
“Peter, I had no skills, no money and no place to go,” Angel said. “Dumping me someplace would have been a death sentence.”
“I’m sure that’s what she wants you to believe,” he said.
“If it weren’t for her, I’d be on the pleasure ships,” she retorted.
“At least then you’d know you were getting fucked,” Peter said.
His cold words hung in the empty corridor between them.
Angel’s face turned red and she turned on her heel.
He watched her stomp off, back to the mess hall, and her friends, and that horrible woman she’d handed his baby to.
Well, Angel wasn’t the only one who could storm off.
Peter turned and headed back to the dock.
20
Peter
Peter shivered as he steered the ancient shuttle toward the shadowy web that surrounded the abandoned luxury cruisers.
He’d managed to make it off the Stargazer undetected in the hot-wired shuttle.
But he had so little fuel there was only one place to go - back to the abandoned ship he’d just escaped.
The desolate scene outside suited his mood. The universe was as dark as his pain. The stars glittered like the shards of glass piercing his heart.
The Other moaned in his chest. This separation from his mate and young was unspeakable.
But Peter pushed it down.
They are all the same, these humans. They will break us both, he tried to tell it. We saw human nature stripped bare on the pleasure ships. Better to wait alone for another century than to help this human mate sell our child.
He had done what he had to do.
He had saved his son, even if he’d had to do it indirectly.
Every barbarian knew the strength of the bond between blood mates.
Their separation would tear Angel’s heart as it did his.
And, having lost him, she would not be able to part with the child.
So he would lose them both, but gain the child’s safety.
His mate was smart and fierce. She would get herself and Tchai away from the Stargazer again once she knew he was gone.
He prayed she would notice his absence after he was deep in the web, out of reach of their comms again.
The shuttle rattled and then steadied.
He was close now. The strands of the web unfurled like ribbons around the little shuttle, like the gauzy tentacles of a mother octopus welcoming her young.
“Not for long though,” Peter mused. “As soon as you get me in your clutches it’s nothing but pain and torment.”
He knew.
Gods, how he knew.
The gentlest embrace could annihilate.
The shuttle lurched and the screen at his fingertips began to flicker.
Oh, foolish boy, his grandmother sang sadly in his head.
But he wasn’t sure if she was speaking to him or just singing the tale of the lonesome cliff dweller’s son.
The shuttle shook like it was going to break apart as he finally approached the dock. He throttled down and initiated the docking sequence.
The little airbus jerked and jolted into the docking station, leaving a trail of sparks behind it.
The airlock snapped into place with a hollow sound, almost as if the seal weren’t complete.
Peter set the autopilot to return the craft, then launched himself out of the hatch and flung open the lock on the other side. He slid into the abandoned cruiser and turned back just in time to see the shuttle disengage and shoot backward into space.
He had no back-up plan now.
So be it.
Someone would find him here again eventually.
Or they wouldn’t.
He staggered down the empty corridor and found himself facing the biodome once again.
Inside, the trees towered, tall and solitary.
I want to be like you, he thought. Alone and whole.
But the trees only reached upward, their branches seeking the light. They were not aware of the soul standing below them, tiny in comparison, palms cooling against the glass of the biodome as his heart burned with need for his family.
21
Angel
Angel tried to concentrate on programming BFF21 in preparation for the little drone’s journey.
But all she could hear in her head was Peter’s parting insult.
He was wrong. Mama wasn’t taking advantage. And she certainly wasn’t going to let the babies fall prey to the remaining treasure hunters from the former colony of New Russia.
If only he had given her a chance to explain instead of marching off in a huff.
“He’ll cool off,” Anna said softly, not looking up from her work.
“He was so mad,” Angel breathed. “He just left.”
“Well, he can’t have gone far,” Anna laughed. “This ship isn’t that big. And when he calms down you can tell him everything. For now we need to focus on freeing that ship, so we have the funds to save more women.”
Angel bit her lip and swiped another code phrase into BFF21’s system.
Maybe it was the blood mate bond, but it felt like Peter was so far away. Angel’s heart stretched thin like a rubber band between his chest and hers, the pain as if her whole chest were on fire.
BFF21 beeped.
Angel entered the next code.
“The mate bond makes it hard when you argue,” Anna noted as she swiped in another code on her drone.
“I kind of jumped into the mate bond,” Angel said, trying not to feel resentful.
“He explained it first, didn’t he?” Anna asked, looking up for the first time, a horrified look on her face.
“Yes, of course he did,” Angel said. “It’s not that I didn’t know. I guess, I just… I didn’t realize how hard it would be to share a life with someone else.”
“You’re the most family-oriented person I’ve ever met,” Anna said. “But even Peter and Tchai can’t replace the family you had on Earth.”
Angel bit back a sob tha
t felt like a punch in her chest.
In the beginning, she had hoped the sudden waves of grief would subside. But it seemed she was endlessly able to feel that pain anew.
“I’m sorry to bring it up,” Anna said, placing BFF19 down to pat Angel’s shoulder.
Angel leaned her head down to rest it against Anna’s for a moment.
It felt good to be among friends. At least there was that. The women of the Stargazer had become a surrogate family, of sorts. Angel was grateful for it.
“I know I’m lucky to end up where I did,” Angel said. “I realize things could be so much worse. I just… I miss him.”
Anna wrapped an arm around her and nodded.
Angel closed her eyes and thought of her twin. He had always wanted this kind of adventure, romance, intrigue. Even the enormous electromagnetic pulse they were planning to send out would have had him doing back flips with excitement.
Enjoy it for both of us, she’d told him when he left for the Space Cadets ahead of her.
He’d winked and given her a thumbs up before dashing through the double glass doors to his destiny.
She would probably never find out what had happened after that. Unless it turned out that her twin had made a name for himself that survived the history books, she could only guess at what adventures he’d enjoyed.
She wondered if he had ever found love.
An image of Peter came into her mind’s eye, little Tchai tucked happily in the crook of his arm.
Enjoy it for both of us.
Her twin’s voice echoed in her head, clear as if he’d been standing in the room.
Tears sprang into Angel’s eyes and she began to sob in Anna’s arms.
“You don’t have to rush into anything,” Anna said, squeezing her tight. “Peter will understand if this is too much, too fast for you.”
“No,” Angel gasped. “No, that’s not it at all. I think - I think I do want to rush into this. I want it all.”
“Then go find him,” Anna whispered.
“Thanks,” Angel said, wiping her tears from her cheeks.
“Don’t mention it,” Anna said.
But Angel was already sprinting down the corridor, looking for her mate.
A frustrating hour later, she burst into the control room.
“Don’t launch the drones,” she called out.
Mama looked up.
“You didn’t launch them yet, did you?” Angel panted.
“We did,” Raina said, striding over with a concerned look on her face. “Is something wrong?”
“Call them back,” Angel said.
“They can’t be recalled,” Mama said. “That’s why you hand-programmed them. They’re out of range of our comms again.”
“No,” Angel breathed.
It was over. It was all over before it had begun.
She scanned the chamber in sudden horror and was relieved to see Tchai in the makeshift crèche with the other two babies.
“What’s wrong?” Anna asked, moving to her side.
“It’s Peter,” Angel said. “He… I think he went back to the ship.”
“Why would he do that?” Nick demanded.
“Because of me,” Angel moaned.
“Not because of you,” Anna said immediately.
“Why do you think he went back?” Mama demanded in her clear, firm voice.
“The shuttle is gone,” Angel said. “It doesn’t hold enough fuel to go anywhere else.”
“Son of a bitch,” Mama growled.
“Why would he do this?” Leo asked.
“He thought I was going to let Mama take Tchai,” Angel said.
“Why didn’t you tell him I wasn’t?” Mama asked.
“He didn’t want to listen to me,” Angel said. “And also, I’m an idiot. I…I thought we had time to work it out.”
They all looked out the portal at the three cruisers suspended in the shadowy web.
“He’s going to die,” she breathed.
The others gaped at her.
It was happening again. Her world was collapsing in on itself and she was powerless to stop it.
“No,” she murmured.
Anna walked toward her, arms out, sympathy on her face.
“No,” Angel yelled.
Anna froze in place, arms still extended.
“Sorry,” Angel said as she sprinted for the doors of the control room.
“Angel?” Anna asked in confusion.
“Oh, hell, no,” Mama said.
But Angel slammed her hand down on the door slide before Mama made it to the threshold.
The door sealed behind her.
Her fingers danced on the key pad on the other side, as she scrambled the door lock combination.
Then she ran.
The others would get it open again in a few minutes, but by then Angel would be gone, she hoped.
She skidded into the dock and saw there was one vehicle left.
It was an old-fashioned cabin cruiser, leftover from God knew how long ago, back when a journey of any distance required a sleeping berth, before a full Bhimani drive could be found on every skiff. It looked like an oversized DeLorean.
She dove into the open door and pulled it down. She heard the seal hiss, so that was good.
A quick look at the controls told her the fuel level was slightly below half.
It would have to do.
She shifted and swiped to indicate the dock should open.
Nothing happened and for a moment her heart was in her mouth.
Then the doors pulled apart to reveal the stars.
Angel popped the clutch and slid out into the darkness.
The thing handled well for its age, but she was going to have to blast a lot of fuel to drag it into the web deep enough to enter the abandoned cruiser where Peter presumably was.
How will I get back? A little voice screamed in the back of her head.
“I’ll worry about getting back when he’s safe,” she told herself grimly.
What if I can’t find him?
What if he won’t listen?
What if he’s not even there?
But even as these fears flashed through her mind, Angel was driving the little cabin cruiser like a bat out of hell, plowing through the distance that separated her from her blood mate.
22
Peter
Peter gazed into the treetops and let the world slip away until there was nothing but the ache of his heart.
He had no idea how long he stayed like that. Time had become meaningless.
A flicker of movement at the corner of his eye brought him back to himself.
He searched the forest through the thick glass panel that separated him from the trees.
It was senseless - nothing was alive inside the biodome except the vegetation.
But even as he scolded himself, he saw it again, movement at eye level, deep among the trunks. Leaves fluttered in its wake. Though all he could see was its shadow, it looked… human.
But that was impossible.
It moved between two trees, and he swore he caught a glimpse of a familiar head of long, dark hair.
Angel…
Peter was moving before he had time to think.
The seal on the door unlocked easily for him and he strode inside.
It was warmer in the biodome, the air dense with humidity. A rich, loamy scent filled his senses.
He moved toward the forest, searching for some sign of his mate.
Leaves fluttered deeper in the trees.
Peter followed, each step releasing the scent of pine needles and the cushiony feel of the soft soil beneath his feet.
Suddenly the air around him turned cold.
The shadowy woman moved toward him.
Peter squinted his eyes.
She was cradling something.
Angel and Tchai…
But a moment later he was close enough to see.
It was not his mate and child.
A grotesque appro
ximation of Angel, made of inky smoke, swirled in the air before him, the ends of its hair fading into the trees in misty tendrils.
In its arms it held a roundish thing.
Peter’s mouth dropped open in horror.
The smoke-Angel opened its mouth too, revealing two rows of jagged teeth. It observed him coolly.
“No,” he murmured.
It tilted its head to the side inquisitively.
Peter’s blood ran cold. How had his heart let him believe this thing to be his beloved for even a second?
He pulled back, an instant too late.
The creature reached out and grasped his wrist. Its misty form turned solid the moment it touched him, chilling him to the bone and completely blasting away the cobwebs in his brain.
Peter was ready for a fight.
He tried to wrench himself away, but it locked down on him, glittering onyx claws nearly puncturing his skin.
When it jerked him forward he was already thinking one step ahead. Instead of resisting, he pushed forward and found himself rushing through the hideous creature.
It felt like sneaking out before second dawn and walking under the sacred waterfall on Trilon-Xanth with his brothers when he was a boy. Freezing crystalline water and a sense of guilt. No one was meant to touch the falls.
And surely nothing was meant to shower in the icy wrath of this thing. He could feel its indignation, even as it loosened its grip on his wrist in surprise.
The tingling was already burning trails of fire under Peter’s skin. He had to shift into the most powerful thing he had ever known if he had any hope of surviving this fight.
For once he let go completely, allowing the Other to choose its own form.
The world slid away from his sight.
There were no smells, no colors.
Only the seedy pulse of the trees.
Not enough…
With the last of his own mind, Peter tried to understand what he had become.
But his thoughts were faceted now and hard to follow.
Tree, door, hunger, the words ricocheted in the remains of his human mind, even as he turned to his enemy.
It paused, then seemed to wobble uncertainly in mid-air.
