Chapter 13

13

Z ara's fingers danced over the Shadowbolt's controls as she plotted the quickest course she could out of the system. Her heart pounded against her ribs in a frantic tattoo. The cockpit felt claustrophobic, the air thick in her lungs. Dragging in a shaky breath, she tried to steady herself and concentrate on what she was doing. But it was no good. No matter how much she tried to put it out of her mind, the truth of her situation broke through all her defenses like a tidal wave.

She was going to die.

It hit her like a physical blow and knocked the wind out of her lungs. For a moment she couldn't breathe, couldn't think, her vision greying around the edges. She was going to die out here in the blackness of space, and there was nothing she or anyone else could do about it.

She blinked. Focused.

"Fuck this."

The growl came from nowhere, and she shoved the crippling fear away. Shoved it down into the back of her mind and locked it up in a small box. She couldn't fall apart right now. She didn't have time. She had people to save. Her pilots, her friends, her family… fuck, she had a whole freaking planet to save. The stakes just didn't get any higher than this.

They were all counting on her, and one thing was for sure… She wasn't going to let them down. No way, no how. No asshole alien and his even more assholish bomb was taking out Earth. Not on her watch.

She flicked her comm to active again and locked it down to the channel between her fighter and the station.

"Traax, Zhain, I want you to listen to me very carefully," she said. "Do not tell my pilots what's going on. That's an order. I do not want them to know what's happening. Tell them you've taken control of my fighter and you're taking me to a safe distance to disarm the device. Understand?"

Her reply was silence on the comm. Then it crackled, and Traax spoke, his deep voice low and rough. "Zara, you can't..."

"I can and I damn well will," she cut him off. "I'm not going to let them risk their lives. Not for me."

And they would. She knew they would. The best thing she could do for them right now was lie. Get them as far away from her as she could.

Another pause, and she could almost feel Traax's frustration through the comm, could almost see his amber eyes darkening with anger and frustration because the situation was out of his control. A fond smile quirked the corners of her lips as she realized that was his problem. He hated anything he couldn't control. Especially human women who hated to be controlled.

Zhain spoke, his voice calm and measured. "Understood, Major. I will relay that to your second now."

Her throat tightened, tears burning at the backs of her eyes as emotion threatened to overwhelm her.

She still wasn't sure how she felt about Traax, about the confusing tangle of attraction and antagonism that crackled between them like a live wire. But hearing his voice now, even if it was tinged with anger and pain, was a comfort. But what she really wanted was his strong arms wrapped around her and for that deep voice to tell her everything was going to be okay.

But it wasn't going to be okay. Life didn't work that way, and she had to suck it up. Swallowing hard, she told herself not to cry. Not here. Not now. She could cry when she was dead.

"Okay, when the flight gets back," she said, forcing the words past the thick lump in her throat. "I want you to tell Nova she has permanent command of the One-Ten. But make sure you tell her and the flight what's happened after they're out of their fighters. Whatever you do, don't let any of them take off to try and rescue me. They need to stay safe."

"Zara..." Traax's voice was rough and harsh, a note of pain in the deep tones. Her heart ached at the sound of it, but she kept on talking, cutting him off again. She had to get this out before her nerve failed her or the bomb went off.

"And you need to make sure my belongings and final message get to Captain Aiden Wolfe," she added, ignoring the sudden pang in her chest. She and Aiden had been through so much together—at the academy and beyond. They'd helped each other through the darkest of times. The thought of never seeing him again almost killed her.

"Who is this Aiden Wolfe?" Traax snarled, jealousy ringing in his voice.

Her temper flared.

"Oh, give it over," she snapped back. "Aiden's my oldest friend and the closest thing I have to a brother."

"I—" Traax started to speak, but Zhain cut him off. "Zara, change course. I have a plan."

Hope flared in her chest. She sat up straighter in her seat. "What plan?"

"The hunter stations," Zhain's words tumbled out in a rush. "I'm going to need you to change course for the coordinates I've just sent to you… there's a Tavkronian relay gate there."

She frowned, already punching the numbers on her comms screen into the navigation console. "What's a Tavkronian relay gate?"

"It's a jump gate that will allow you to reach a system near one of the hunter stations. It belongs to one of our allies… The big guys with the horns on the station?"

She nodded. She'd seen them but at a distance and never to talk to them. "I did wonder who they were. They own this gate?"

"They do," Zhain confirmed, his voice a little distracted. "Okay, permission just came through now. You should be able to make the relay gate with the fuel you have on board. Once there, you'll input an access key, and that will trigger the gate."

She cast an eye over the new flight path and frowned, calculations and trajectories spinning through her mind. It was a long shot, a desperate gamble, but it was theoretically possible.

The Shadowbolt was the most advanced starfighter in the Earth Alliance fleet, designed for speed and agility. But to make the jump, she'd have to fly to the very edge of her fuel capacity, pushing the ship to its absolute limits. One miscalculation, one moment of hesitation, and she'd be lost, drifting in the blackness of space until her oxygen ran out. But it was a chance, which was more than she'd had a moment ago.

"That's a long way to stretch the fuel I'm carrying, but I should be able to make it. Just. If this killer thing I'm carrying hasn't thrown the numbers off."

"Zara, the risks..." Traax began, his voice tight with concern.

But she cut him off, her resolve hardening like steel. "It's the best option we've got," she said, voice firm. "Zhain, send me the access details for the jump gate."

Zhain rattled off an alpha-numeric code, his voice clipped and efficient. She noted them down on her console with flying fingers, double-checking each digit for errors. She couldn't afford to make a mistake, not with alien technology that could fling her across the galaxy.

"Got it, heading for the jump gate now."

Hitting the thrust, she sat back as it kicked in, and the stars became streaks in her viewscreen. "Okay, talk to me… what are these hunter stations?"

"The hunter system is a network of small outposts and automated stations along the perimeter of Krin space," Zhain explained. "It was created to contain a vicious predatory species and prevent them from escaping. Single-warrior hunter ships patrol the borders, stopping at the stations to resupply when they need to."

"Okay, so say I make it to the gate and it takes me to one of the stations. What happens then?"

"The station's suppression fields will remotely disable your engines and the bomb," Zhain replied. "Once you're on board, we can rescue you from there. But?—"

He cut himself off and she frowned. "But? Come on, Zhain, don't leave me hanging here."

After a short silence, the voice who answered her was Traax's. "Zara… even if you make it to the station, there's no guarantee it'll be operational," he warned, his tone serious. "We lost contact with hunter station Zanthir months ago. For all we know it could be a derelict husk, its systems nonoperational."

Ice slid down her spine.

"So you're telling me I'm using all my fuel racing toward an alien gate that will take me to another alien station that may or may not be able to help me? Peachy."

It was madness. But what choice did she have? Stay here until she ran out of fuel and air, or take her one chance to reach safety?

"It doesn't matter," Traax reassured her quickly, his voice earnest and honest. "Just get close to the station, land, and I'll come rescue you."

"There's one more thing," Zhain broke in, his voice serious. "The reason we lost contact with the station..."

Her hands stilled on the fighter's controls. "What is it?"

"I'm afraid the station is probably infested with Krin."

"Okay, who the hell are the Krin?" she demanded.

Traax answered, his voice controlled. Too controlled. "They're the predatory species the system is designed to contain. They're an aggressive, carnivorous species."

"A human would be little more than a snack to them," Zhain said grimly, and her blood ran cold.

Seriously? Could today get any worse? She quickly nixed that thought in case the universe took it as a personal challenge.

She eyed the weapons locker beside her left thigh. "Okay, I'm not quite as helpless as you seem to think," she told them, her voice calm and sure. Way more calm and sure than she actually felt. But hey, fake it until you make it. Right?

"Zara, listen to me," Traax demanded. "Stay in your ship, no matter what. Do not leave under any circumstances. The Krin are too dangerous."

She swallowed hard, her throat suddenly tightening. The raw concern in his voice hit something inside her, something she'd thought long buried.

"Yeah, I got it," she said softly, her voice barely above a whisper. "Stay in the fighter."

"I will come for you," he said, his words a fierce promise. "Just stay alive until I get there."

"She's reaching the relay gate now," Zhain said, his voice muffled, and she frowned, looking around.

"There's nothing her?—"

Between one heartbeat and the next, the space in front of her shimmered and… changed. A ring of blue lights appeared, dancing around each other and heading closer. As they got nearer, they became more agitated, turning red.

"The code, Zara!" Zhain ordered. "Send the code."

She hit the transmit button, and the lights turned into a swirling vortex of light and energy that pulled her shadowbolt forward with a lurch. She forced herself to concentrate instead of just gape in wonder. She needed her wits about her, she had to be ready for whatever lay on the other side.

"Okay, here we go. See you on the other side. Traax, you'd better not let me down with that lift," she said, putting all her unspoken feelings into her words.

Then, with a deep breath and a silent prayer to whatever gods might be listening, she reached for the throttle. The Shadowbolt leapt forward, engines screaming as it hurtled toward the jump point.

Her heart raced, adrenaline slamming through her veins as the vortex field wrapped around the ship and enveloped it in a cocoon of shimmering light. Then the stars around her winked out of existence…

He wasn't going to get there in time. He had to get there in time.

The two competing thoughts battled for supremacy in Traax's mind as his hands flew over the controls, pushing his V'Pirus fighter to the limit as he raced toward the jump point. All he could think of was Zara, his delicate little mate, alone and vulnerable on that abandoned station, surrounded by Krin.

He tried to contact her for the hundredth time, his fingers stabbing at the comm button.

"Zara, this is Traax… come in. Kelarris, can you hear me? Please answer."

But there was no reply to his comm, just the empty hiss of static.

"Come on, Zara," he muttered. "Answer me, damn it."

Zhain's voice crackled over the comm, tense with concern. "Traax, I've been reviewing the specs on the human fighters. They're primitive compared to ours, more than I realized."

Traax snorted. "They still managed to keep up with us, though. Didn't they?"

"Yeah." Zhain sighed, and Traax could practically see him shoving his hands through his hair the way he always did when he was stressed. "But that's standard combat. A jump is an entirely different thing. The fighter she's in… it doesn't have the same shielding as a V'Pirus. The jump has probably knocked her out."

Traax's gut tightened, a cold fist of fear squeezing his heart. Draanth.

"Why did we not know this?" he demanded. The forces involved in an interspacial jump were brutal. If her fighter had been unsheilded, Zara would have been subjected to the full force of them. If she'd lost consciousness with her engines still active and firing…

He shook his head, dismissing the thought. No. He couldn't afford to think like that, not now. He had to concentrate on getting to her, on bringing her back safely.

The jump point loomed ahead, a swirling vortex of light and energy activated by his approach. He transmitted the access code and gritted his teeth as he braced himself for the bone-jarring transition. He'd made countless jumps in his career, using multiple species' technology, but each one was its own ordeal of skill and endurance.

The fighter shuddered as he crossed the threshold, and the forces of the jump tore at his hull. His vision blurred as his body slammed back into the seat. It felt like his organs were trying to push out between his ribs at the back, and he struggled with the controls, keeping the fighter steady and on course as it hurtled through the vortex.

And then, as suddenly as it had begun, it was over. The fighter appeared on the other side of the jump, popping into existence, and the star-studded blackness of space stretched out before him.

He activated his scanners, leaning forward to try and get eyes on his mate's ship. His heart almost stopped when he saw the human fighter drifting lifelessly to his port side. It looked dead—no lights, no energy signature, just a dark, silent hull.

He forced down the panic that threatened to choke him. He had to get to her, had to see for himself that she was all right.

With a flick of his fingers, he activated the V'Pirus's grappler. A shimmering beam of light shot from the ventral hull of his fighter and wrapped around Zara's ship. Carefully, he began to pull it toward the hunter station, his eyes fixed on the ominous structure looming in front of them.

As they drew closer, he spotted jagged slashes and gashes etched into the station's hull. A shiver ran down his spine. Krin. And those marks had been made by more than one of the monsters. A lot more.

"Zhain, I've got her. Bringing her into the station now. Did you manage to find any hunter ships in the area?" he asked, hoping beyond hope.

Hunters were warriors specially trained to hunt and kill the Krin. Giving up their clan affiliations when they became hunters, they were loners, even among themselves, and notoriously antisocial. Occasionally, they left the zones they protected and ventured further into the empire, where they were afforded every luxury and any supplies they required before they headed back to their posts.

Having a hunter onside now could change their odds drastically.

"No, nothing." Zhain's reply was short and to the point. "I'll keep sending out requests for aid. Someone should hear it soon…"

Traax's jaw tightened as the open bay doors loomed around them. The station looked as dead as Zara's fighter, no lights or automated systems. Draanth . This did not look good.

"Keep trying. This place has definitely had Krin aboard. I don't know if they're still here," he said, looking up through his fighter's screen at the scratch marks on the ceiling above. A thread of hope wound through his chest. They looked old. Perhaps they might get through this without bloodshed after all…

They landed in the docking bay, the clang of metal on metal echoing through the huge space. He leaped out of his fighter, hand already on the blaster holstered at his hip. He'd armed himself before leaving Devan Station, knowing exactly what he might be walking into.

The bay was dark and silent, creating perfect conditions for ambush predators like the Krin. The heads-up display in his helmet scanned constantly, giving him areas of concern and firing arcs in case he had to engage the Krin, possibly more than one.

He locked that thought down. It wasn't helpful. Moving quickly, he didn't bother to stop his boots ringing on the metal grating as he hurried toward Zara's fighter. If Krin were aboard, they would have scented him the moment he cracked his fighter canopy.

Heart in his throat, he approached the human fighter and climbed up the side. Reaching the cockpit, he peered through the canopy. Zara was slumped in her seat, pale and still. Draanth , she wasn't even breathing. For a second, his lungs seized in his chest.

"Zara!"

With a surge of strength, he tore the canopy from its hinges. The metal screamed in protest, but he didn't register it over the frantic pounding of his heart. Crouching on the edge of the cockpit, he reached in and hauled his little mate out of the clutches of her pilot's chair. Holding her nestled against his chest, he pressed his hand against her chest, trying to feel for a breath… a sign of life. Anything.

Her chest moved slightly under his hand, and relief hit him hard and fast. A breath. She was breathing.

He held her nestled against his chest as he climbed down the human fighter, every instinct on high alert as he scanned the bay for any sign of danger. He had to get her out of here, back to his fighter where she'd be safe. Even with the V'Pirus onboard weaponry offline, the passive shielding should repel all but the most determined of Krin.

With his delicate little mate safely in his arms, he began to move, his steps swift and purposeful as he crossed the hangar bay back to his own fighter. His jaw clenched, his expression tightening as he looked up. Evidence of the Krin's presence was more and more apparent on the upper levels of the hangar. His gaze scanned the deep gouges in the walls, and he knew if there was air in the bay, the acrid stench of Krin secretions would be overwhelming. His skin crawled. The thought of those creatures lurking in the shadows, their hungry eyes fixed on him and his precious cargo, sent ice down his spine.

Halfway to his fighter, Zara stirred in his arms. His heart leapt in his throat as her eyes fluttered open, violet irises blurred and confused at first. She was conscious, and as he watched, her gaze sharpened and became more cognizant.

"Traax?" Her voice was a hoarse whisper, barely audible through her helmet speakers.

"It's me… I'm here," he said, his voice rough. "I've got you. You're safe now."

She blinked up at him and then struggled to sit up in his arms, looking around the dark hangar bay. "The Krin..."

"We're going to get out of here," he said, trying to reassure her. "My V'Pirus is just there. See?"

She nodded weakly, her eyes closing again as though she was dizzy. Draanth. Why wasn't he something useful like a healer? Tightening his grip, he sped up to get to his fighter as quickly as possible. He wasn't going to let anything happen to her, not as long as breath was left in his body.

He expected them to be attacked at any moment, and with each step, his helmet systems presented him with the best cover to dive for and firing arcs for every patch of darkness their carnivorous enemy could be hiding in. But nothing happened, and they made it back to his V'Pirus without so much as a slither behind them.

"Up first," he ordered her, his hand on her ass to half shove her up the ladder on the side of the fighter as he kept his attention on the bay around them. She managed the climb, even if she did look a little pale as she waited for him at the top. Her small hands in their gloves clung to the edge of the raised cockpit canopy. Her eyes were wide as she watched the hangar bay while he climbed up.

"Sorry, it's a little snug in here," he murmured as he settled into the pilot's seat and pulled her into his lap. The close confines of the fighter meant they had no other option. She would have to make the return journey in his arms.

"It's okay." Her voice was soft, and a little slow with exhaustion. "Sorry if I'm too heavy."

"Heavy?" he snorted, trying to ignore the sudden rush of heat pooling in his groin as her body pressed against his. He swallowed hard, trying to focus on the task at hand. Thank the gods their flight suits were thick, or she'd realize instantly what state his body was in. How he was reacting to her.

"Zhain." He opened the comm channel back to Devan Station, his voice firm. "I've got Zara. She's conscious, and we're strapped in. We're preparing for launch now."

Zhain's relieved voice filled the cockpit. "Thank the stars. Get out of there."

Traax nodded, even though Zhain couldn't see him. They'd already pushed their luck this far, and the Krin on board hadn't found them. He didn't want to tempt fate any further.

"Sorry," he murmured softly, having to move Zara slightly to reach the launch console. His fingers moved over the controls, initiating the launch sequence.

Nothing happened.

Frowning, he tried again. But the fighter remained stubbornly inert, the engines silent.

Draanth it all to hell.

"Zhain," he said, making sure to keep his voice calm. "We have a slight problem with launch. The station's not responding to my commands. It's keeping us locked down. Can you send a release code from there?"

After a moment of silence, Zhain replied, his voice tense. "I can't access the station's systems from here. You'll have to do it manually. Go to the command deck and reset the main computer."

Traax closed his eyes, dropping his head back against the seat. The command deck was right in the center of the station, which would mean they would have to run the gauntlet of any Krin between the hangar bay and their target.

He looked down. Zara had twisted in his lap, her violet gaze locked on to him. Zhain had been on the open comm channel, so she'd heard everything he'd said.

"Looks like we're not out of the woods yet," she said, offering a small smile. Even though her expression was soft, he caught a glint of the steely determination in the backs of her eyes. It humbled him.

He nodded, his jaw set. The last thing he wanted was to take his mate out there into danger. But he couldn't leave her here. Without the primary systems online, she would be easy prey for the Krin.

"We'd better get going then," she said, carefully lifting herself from his lap. A faint blush colored her cheeks.

"Weapons?" she asked, her eyebrow raised.

He reached down to open the weapons locker at the side of the cockpit, handing her a blaster. It didn't feel like enough, not nearly enough.

"Sorry, it's not much," he murmured, handing her a few extra power packs.

"It's what we've got, so we'll make it work."

He glanced up at her as she climbed down out of the fighter behind him. Even in the midst of danger, with hard eyes and a pale face, she was beautiful. A fierce, wild kind of beauty, like a flame that could not be tamed. Shaking his head, he banished the thought. He couldn't afford distractions at the moment. They had a job to do so they could get off this draanthing death trap of a station.

With a nod, he took point to lead them across the hangar bay.

"Stay close," he said in a low voice, his blaster at the ready. "And stay alert. They could be anywhere. And they're fast as draanth ."

She grinned, her own weapon drawn and held firmly in her hand in a no-nonsense grip. "Then we'll just need to be quicker."