“No more of my crew has to die, Diamant. Promise me that.”

  “If they behave, everything will be fine,” he replied. “Despite what you might believe I have no quarrel with you. You just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. But I am going to get what I need for my people, one way or the other.” He surveyed all of them. “If we have any problems, I know where I need to come and ask. Rest assured the remainder of your crew will be waiting in your cargo areas, under heavy guard. And your elite space fighters are safely contained in your other shuttle bay. As long as we have an understanding there will be no problems.” He clasped one hand over the other fist and bowed, then turned and left with the other Bulaq. Only the one manning the control station remained.

  “Yeah and stay out!” the robot yelled.

  “Are you okay?” Cas asked, staring at Zenfor.

  “Fine. Were all your materials worth it?”

  “Stop. We’re not going to bicker in here,” Captain Diazal said. “We’re all in the same situation. We needed parts and Cas found them. It just happened that he brought back some unwanted guests at the same time.” She stared at the Bulaq who only smiled back with nothing but smarminess.

  “Great, so now what do we do?” Lieutenant Yamashita asked, slumping down on the small bench in her cell.

  “We don’t do anything,” the captain replied. “We can’t risk harming the rest of the crew. We don’t have much of a choice.”

  Zenfor turned in frustration, staring daggers at Jackson who’d sat on the small bench in their cell. He saw her and jumped up, moving aside. She slumped down on the seat in his place, crossing her arms. Nothing like this would have ever happened on a Sil ship. If it detected a person they didn’t want aboard that person was ejected into space. However, if the person required a trial they would be kept, as Caspian was. But here there were no trials. Only actions. It was so uncivilized.

  And it only made her miss home more.

  As Cas watched Zenfor sit in the other cell he couldn’t help but think about how he was the world’s worst repeat customer. All of this could have been avoided if he hadn’t been so adamant about finding the Bulaq and helping them. He still found it hard to believe Diamant was just doing this for his people. Was this really the best way to go about trying to find more resources? Had they not come upon the Bulaq would Tempest’s crew have resulted to similar tactics to get what they needed to survive? He supposed it made sense, looking out for a new planet would give them a lot of opportunity, but how many planets could there be that didn’t already have some kind of dominant species? In Cas’s experience, if a planet was habitable, it had at least one occupant. Some planets had many, many more.

  He glanced over at Evie who had the most dejected look on her face. He couldn’t even imagine what was going on inside her head. But without asking he knew it was because she blamed herself for this, for not being able to get out of it like Greene might have. He hated he’d caused her to question her ability to lead this ship. All this was his fault, not hers.

  “Hey,” he said, standing beside her. He could feel Laura’s eyes on the back of his neck, but he didn’t care. Evie didn’t say anything; only acknowledged him with a glance. “So, what’s this awesome plan you have to get us out of this?”

  Her eyes narrowed. “What?”

  “I figured you had some mastermind plan you’d come up with in the past five minutes that would save the ship. You know, something easy.” She dismissed it with a shake of her head, but there was a tiny smirk at the end of her lips. “I don’t know what to say. It was nice of you to defend me, but this really is my fault. I never should have brought them aboard without your authorization. I guess the first officer title doesn’t exactly fit anymore.”

  She eyed him. “Why, because you made a bad call? Didn’t you ever make any bad calls working on the Hartford or the Achlys? Was every decision you made the perfect one? Because that’s remarkable.”

  He shook his head. “You know that’s not the case.”

  She considered it. “Maybe. But if you hadn’t done what you did on the Achlys, you’d be dead along with the rest of the crew right now, right? And Rutledge would still be out there, experimenting. Or trying to at least.”

  “What are you saying? This is a blessing in disguise?”

  She scoffed. “No. Absolutely not. I’m just saying we need to make the best of a bad situation. Whatever that means.” It was clear she was struggling to keep it together for the crew. There had to be something they could do.

  Cas glanced around the cells, then at the guard by the door. His eyes hadn’t left them, and Cas wasn’t sure how good his hearing was, but he didn’t want to take any chances.

  Dejected, he took a seat beside Laura. But his eyes landed on Vrij’s belt. And it all became clear.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Cas stood and turned his gaze to Box, who looked like he was scrawling something on the far side of his cell’s wall. Cas cleared his throat and Dr. Xax glanced up, but Box remained oblivious. Cas slid his eyes to the guard who had taken an interest in something on the station’s console. He nodded to Xax to get Box’s attention, which she did by tapping him with two of her four hands.

  “I’m drawing here.” Box scrawled with the tips of his fingers. She hit him harder. “What?” he yelled, turning around. “Can’t you see I’m trying to design a more efficient sperm delivery system? See, this here is the flagella, and this is the porstamen, and this goes into this like so—” The guard perked up at the noise, his eyes now on Box. It wasn’t what Cas had planned but it would work. He tapped his comm.

  “Ryant? Jann? Do you copy?” he whispered.

  “This is Ryant,” the reply came through. Evie perked up.

  “Remember you told me about that training run you guys did on Takar? I think it’d be a good idea to do that again.”

  There was a pause on the other end. “Are you serious? What about—”

  “Don’t worry about the details. Just be precise. Very precise.”

  Ryant coughed. “Yeah. Okay. Maybe twenty minutes. There’s something we have to do first.”

  “My freedom of speech is being suppressed!” Box yelled. “I can draw whatever I like!” Cas glanced up to see the guard had walked over to Box’s cell and was yelling something at him to which Box was yelling right back. Xax stood off to the side, her eyes sliding to Cas and a smirk on her face. He nodded in appreciation. “Call when you’re ready. Robeaux out.” He cut the comm.

  “What was that about?” Evie asked.

  “We might not be sunk quite yet,” Cas replied. “But the margins will be razor thin.” He turned to Vrij. “Hand over your skin curtains.”

  “Do I even want to know what that is?” Laura asked, leaning away.

  “They’re like our repel fields, only better,” Cas said. Vrij unhooked three from his belt and passed them to Cas, Evie and Laura. “How many more of those do you have?”

  Vrij counted. “S-seven.” Cas glanced around the brig. It wasn’t enough for everyone, even if Box and Zenfor could go without one for a short time. He only hoped Ryant was as good a shot as he thought he was.

  “Shut up or I’ll come in there and disassemble you myself,” the guard grunted at Box.

  “I’d like to see you try! I’ll break your hands in five places before you get one on me. I know the seven most deadly ways to kill a man and half of them I can do without even looking. Come on in here big boy, come on!” Box yelled. “What’s the matter, can’t back up your threats with any action? Don’t want to try your pincher thingies against some real steel?”

  “Mandibles,” Xax said.

  “Try some mandibles against real steel?” Box repeated. He’d come right up to the force barrier and his eyes were blinking in wild patterns. Cas couldn’t tell if it was all for show or if really did want to take on the guard. For all his bluster, the guard wasn’t taking the bait. He merely bared his teeth then returned to the control station.

  “Jerk,” Box said. “You put me in a confined space, I’m gonna draw in it.” He returned to his erotic drawing.

  Cas turned his attention to Xax. “How did they grab you so quickly?”

  She shook her head. “I’m not sure. A couple of them came in, threatening us just after the Captain’s announcement. This one had been prepared to needle them all in the necks.” She indicated Box. “I persuaded him it probably wasn’t the best thing for the crew.”

  Cas couldn’t disagree. If Diamant had found out he probably would have executed Evie. He turned to her, but she was watching him carefully, as was Laura and Vrij. Even Zenfor had perked up. They still had some time; so he might as well gather as much information as possible. He focused his attention on the Bulaq.

  “Hey, guard.” The man glanced up. “Aren’t you one of the ones that accompanied our shuttle back from the Hub?” The guard remained impassive. Cas took that as a yes. “So, you should have been restrained by a force barrier. How did you get free?”

  A smile appeared on the man’s face. “You think we’re so primitive,” he replied. “When actually we probably know this ship better than you do. Diamant planned for your contingency. We already had an easy way out.”

  “You disabled my program?” Zenfor asked. She’d stood and pushed through the others in her cell to come to the front.

  “Leaving you any recourse would have been sloppy,” the man replied. “And just as predicted, you tried to restrain us. I guess it didn’t work out too well for you.”

  From the look on her face Zenfor was furious. Cas wasn’t sure Sil skin turned red when they were angry, but it had gone from a light blue to a much deeper shade. He was glad she was behind the force barrier otherwise he was sure she would rip the man apart.

  “So they’ve been sneaking control this entire time,” Evie said more to herself than anyone else. “And we didn’t see it.”

  “We saw it, we just thought it was something else,” Laura said. But Evie only shook her head.

  Cas placed his hand on her shoulder. “Don’t worry,” he whispered. “I think we have a plan. But I need you to do something first.”

  “The next person who speaks will be shot,” the guard said, surveying the spacewing pilots seated in a loose cluster on the floor of Bay Two. He’d heard Ryant speaking into his comm and threatened him with the pulse rifle he’d confiscated from one of the security officers. Dorsey Ryant sat back with his hands up and mouth shut. All of his friends, his fellow pilots, his family was in this one small, confined space being held by a group of aliens who’d nearly killed him with their fucking ossak drink. Xax had ended up needing to pump his stomach. He’d had a bad reaction to the substance and could have ended up critical had he continued to drink it. But he’d known the risks when he first took the bottle and now he was ready to get some justice.

  Only…what Cas suggested was suicide. How the hell was he supposed to get to his ship and launch from the bay without the Bulaq killing everyone in sight first? Sure, there were twelve of them and only four Bulaq, but they each had those razor-sharp knives on their backs and Ryant was pretty sure those could cut through almost anything he could throw at them. He needed another way.

  He glanced over to Saturina and catching her eye made a few hand signals in their shorthand. It was a backup system they used when they were out in the field if they lost comms, which was more common than one would think. Cas just called. He wants us to re-create the run on Takar.

  She glanced at the guards, who had gone back to watching the bay instead of the individual prisoners. Her forehead creased. Is he serious? she signed back.

  He shrugged. Assuming Cas and the others were in the brig, it would mean a delicate operation at best. Ryant flipped down his goggles, bringing up an interior map of Tempest. The brig was located deep in the ship, at least three horizontal decks in from the outer hull. They’d have to be amazingly precise. Any ideas?

  Jann shook her head. He wasn’t going to give up though. He’d told Cas twenty minutes and he’d meant it, even if he hadn’t quite known how they were going to accomplish it at the time. Ryant stared at the end of the bay where the force barrier kept out the vacuum of space and an idea dawned on him. It might be their only hope, but it would mean perfect coordination between all of the spacewing pilots. Everyone needed to be aware and ready, otherwise they couldn’t take the chance.

  He caught Saturina’s eyes and nodded toward the opening. Her eyes went wide, and she shook her head.

  No other choice, he signed.

  She had a pained look on her face. Raffy’s not going to like it.

  Does she ever? Start informing everyone. Saturina shook her head again but tapped on Iavarone’s shoulder, informing him of the plan. Silently he passed it along to Coley and Blackfield, and then on to See, Squires, Utley and the rest, all of them glancing back at Ryant like he was crazy. But no one had outright opposed yet.

  Finally Wilmouth made the signs, passing the word along to Linkovich and Rafnkell. Their leader turned to him and immediately shook her head no. There seemed to be a collective breath of relief from the other pilots who had been willing but not confident about their chances with such a stunt. But Dorsey Ryant wasn’t swayed. He was doing this, one way or another. And they’d had fair warning.

  From where they sat on the ground he began to inch backward, keeping an eye on all four guards who were positioned around the main doors to the Bay and the adjacent doors to Bay One, which was still cut off by the force barrier. Ryant was pretty sure he’d have to make a break for it, and he had no clue how fast the Bulaq were. From what he’d seen in their city most of them were on the edge of starving, but for whatever reason these that had boarded the ship from the second shuttle seemed well-fed and healthy. Which meant he couldn’t take any unnecessary chances. With those powerful hind legs they might be able to make huge leaps; he wouldn’t know until it was probably too late.

  Rafnkell’s eyes flared as he continued to scoot back. All the pilots were watching him now, with the exception of Jann who had begun her own movement toward her spacewing. Ryant glanced behind him, the end of the bay was a good hundred meters away. He flexed his legs. He could probably do it in fifteen to twenty seconds if he pushed it. All that time in the gym hadn’t been for nothing. He nodded to the pilots, holding up his hands and extending all ten fingers twice. That’s all the time they’d have. Rafnkell mouthed no but he turned around anyway and got into a crouching position.

  “Hey, what are you—” Before the guard could finish his sentence Ryant took off like a shot, bolting down the bay toward the open end. “Hey! He’s running!” the guard yelled. There was chaos behind him—people were yelling, there were scuffles, the sounds of metal clanking against metal—but Ryant paid no attention. His entire focus was on the small panel at the end of the bay. Out of his left ear he heard one of the spacewings start up. Then another. Then a scream. He couldn’t bear to think about who it had been or the thump thump of heavy footsteps behind him, gaining. He was so close.

  He skidded to a stop right at the panel before something heavy and solid ran into him, knocking them both over as they hit the force barrier at the end of the bay. Beyond there was nothing but empty space, but Ryant’s focus was on the Bulaq who’d chased him down. His sword-like mandibles were out and already coming around to slice into him when Ryant sucker punched the Bulaq, sending his head back and a spray of maroon blood flying from the alien’s nose. He winced and the mandibles stopped, his focus on his face. Ryant punched him again before he had the chance to recover and the man fell off to the side, in serious pain.

  “A lot tougher than you thought, huh?” He stood and entered the code that would drop the force barrier, exposing the entire bay to open space.

  “You can’t!” The Bulaq said and one of his mandibles freed itself from under him, coming up and impaling Ryant through the back. He glanced down to see the mandible hadn’t gone all the way through, but he felt the warm rush of blood spill from his back. Surprisingly, there wasn’t a lot of pain. Either it was the adrenaline or getting stabbed didn’t feel much worse than being punched. It wasn’t enough to stop him, that was for sure. He hit the final sequence and a moment later everything in the bay was sucked into space.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  “He’s close,” Evie whispered, her eyes closed, and her mind focused on what was happening on the ship. Cas had told her to reach out to Sesster as he was the only one who could keep the ship out of the undercurrent now. Because once the ship jumped to faster-than-light speed, his plan wouldn’t work anymore. They needed to do everything they could to keep the ship in one place, at least for a little while.

  “How close?” Cas asked.

  She shook her head. She couldn’t “see” exactly as she could feel. She’d never been further than a few meters from Sesster when they’d gone to the mind-place. But now she was a full deck and several hundred meters away. She wasn’t even sure she was connecting with him, but she could almost feel what he was feeling.

  Evie felt a reassuring hand on her back. “You can do it, sweetheart, I know you can.” Laura. Sweet, sweet Laura. Evie had put her through so much already and yet she had stayed strong beside her. How could she have ever thought she’d get mad over something as simple as coming home late for dinner? “Just focus.” Evie nodded. She could do this.

  “Shit,” Cas whispered. “The guard is looking over here. Keep working on it.” She sensed he’d left her side while Laura continued to rub her back supportively.

  “Hey!” Cas yelled. “I have a medical condition. I need to see my doctor. He’s over there in that cell.”

  “That’s right!” Box yelled back, turning from his drawing. “I’m his doctor. I’ve got everything that ails him. I need to administer medicine.”

  “I’m not stupid,” the guard replied. “You’re just going to have to suffer.”

 

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